We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
POST-SOCIALIST FARMERS' COOPERATIVES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE.
- Authors
HAGEDORN, Konrad
- Abstract
The emergence, transformation and sustainability of farmers' cooperatives in post-socialist societies of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) require complex and diverse processes of institutional change. In this paper we discuss the conditions under which cooperatives develop and sustain and also the role of local and central actors using a case study approach. Since cooperatives in the socialist system provided numerous social services and contributed to rural development, another research question concerns the survival of this tradition. Through twin case studies in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and East Germany we present the conditions and strategies for achieving sustainability of co-operatives. The results reveal important requirements for cooperatives to be sustainable: overcoming the communist legacy of mistrust against cooperative organizations, convincing members by building trust, coping with fundamental collective action problems, constructive communication that takes the problems and ideas of members seriously, finding cooperative leaders able to cope with members' opportunism and a facilitating state encouraging the development of cooperatives.
- Subjects
EUROPE; AGRICULTURAL cooperative credit associations; COLLECTIVE action; RURAL development; AGRICULTURAL industries; STATE farms; COLLECTIVE farms
- Publication
Annals of Public & Cooperative Economics, 2014, Vol 85, Issue 4, p555
- ISSN
1370-4788
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/apce.12051