AN ELUSIVE HARVEST: THE PROCESS OF A BOLIVIAN COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT (AGRICULTURE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT)

This study examines a multi-service cooperative movement in Chuquisaca, an underdeveloped agrarian region. More than a dozen local and a central-level cooperative comprise the movement. In contrast to works on cooperatives based on short-term surveys, or analyses of single cases, extended fieldwork observation has provided a comparative perspective which considers similarities and differences among these cooperatives, as well as changes over time. An indepth analysis of the central-level association, its mediating role vis-a-vis external institutions and services to its affiliates also responds to a lacuna in the development literature.; This study explores how and why these cooperatives have come to be promoted as instruments of social change and development and how they are affected by their encapsulating environment and wider economic and ideological forces. Internal organizational dimensions and external factors shape the development of the movement and both bolster and place limitations upon the realization of goals. The dynamics of this articulation are examined in a number of ways which include an analysis of the introduction of technical imputs and agricultural practices and the penetration of ideas and paradigms of social change. This study reveals, for example, how notions of both modernization and dependency have infused this movement and compete as ideological models.; The objectives of this dissertation crystallize around two analytically separate problems: (1) to eludicate internal organizational dynamics--the nature and contradictions of these cooperatives as well as processual changes and (2) to illuminate the implications of the movement's strategies to alter production and productivity among peasant smallholders. An examination of contradictory tendencies and divergent models, reflected in the cooperatives draws upon Heginbotham's conceptual approach which suggests how formal organizations, in a given cultural setting may be influenced by more than one set of ideals and principles. An articulation of mode of production perspective sheds light on problems of smallholder agriculture and the nature and limitations of technical changes promoted by this movement. Despite increments in productivity, this dissertation shows how significant economic improvements is impeded by structural constraints of smallholder production and its articulation with the larger economy. Hitherto weak linkages with the wider economic system and world capitalism become intensified while not substantially altering the economic situation of these producers.