The wine industry in Mendoza exemplifies the ways that cooperatives in Latin America cope with globalization and neoliberal economic reform. Cooperatives are economic organizations that bridge social, political and economic worlds for their members, and also escort their members from the past into the present. In the wine industry, technological advancement is necessary to compete in a global market, but many local cooperatives resist investing in this type of change. The regional cooperative faces the challenge of providing a buyer for its member cooperatives while also selling a quality product to consumers. The financial success of the regional cooperative position it to provide its members economic support and possibly to foster a restructuring of wine production in Argentina.

Tese (Magister Scientiae)--Universidade Federal de Viçosa. / Vita: leaves iii-iv. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: leaves 160-165.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1939. / Typescript. Includes abstract (last 4 leaves) and vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-198).

Thesis--Münster. / Bibliography: p. 115-125.

This thesis aims to contribute to the debate on the role and potential of worker co-operatives in a capitalist economy, and analyses the development of the co-operative sector in Britain since the mid-1970s in the context of an economy undergoing a major crisis and restructuring. Part One examines competing theoretical perspectives in economics towards co-operatives. This reviews and criticises the orthodox neoclassical and behavioural approaches, before turning to a marxist analysis and developing it in the context of co-operatives' role as small enterprises in an economy dominated by large firms. The analysis concentrates upon co-operatives' market relationships and competitive position as the mechanism through which they interact with the rest of the economy. Part Two moves from theory to the concrete, and examines the performance of workers co-operatives as commercial enterprises, in three industries (printing, clothing manufacture, and wholefood distribution) which demonstrate contrasting relationships between large and small firms. It includes an overview of the development and characteristics of the co-operative sector, before investigating the financing of co-operative and their commercial performance. This is then explained in the context of the political and economic development of the co-operative sector, of the British economy, and developments in the industries in question. It finds that whilst the performance of co-operative has improved over time, it remains worse than that of competing capitalist firms in terms of wage levels and capacity to generate a reinvestible surplus. Part Three builds upon this work to identify the important conditions and processes which have contributed to the rapid growth and development of the co-operative sector in Britain, and seeks to develop a broad understanding of the means by which the degeneration of co-operative can be avoided. It concludes that the resurgence and growth of co-operative must be located in the particular form of economic restructuring taking place in the early 1980s. The establishment and survival of co-operatives has been dependent upon support for workers' initiatives by the state, and on the nature of market processes in particular areas of the economy. However, these conditions are transient and the future development of the co-operative sector is crucially dependent upon the long term support of the state and the labour movement.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2017 / The study was about cooperatives and the empowerment of disabled people. It investigated the extent in which participation, capacitation and satisfaction with management contribute in enabling cooperatives to empower disabled people. The Capability Approach proposed that the most vital thing to deliberate when valuing well-being is what people are actually able to do. Capacitation to disadvantaged people is very important in that it ensures services and assistants directly meet their needs. Participatory planning can be regarded as an instrument for identifying the needs of all persons within a community, a way of constructing harmony, and means of empowering deprived or marginalised groups. Empowerment is a varied practices enabling people to maintain themselves by providing power that they might use in dealing with issues they declare important. Satisfaction with management is determined by the work environments that satisfy the social, economic and personal fundamentals of the individual. Benefit of membership is a combination of personal adaptive technologies and modifications in a workplace attitudes and configurations can enable even those who have very significant impairments to work effectively. The assimilation of Perceived Level of Empowerment (PERLEMP), Perceived Level of Participation (PERLEPAR), and Perceived Level of Capacitation (PERLECA) showed that Satisfaction with Management of a Cooperative (SAMACO) mediates on Perceived Benefits of Membership (PERBEME). Thus the study showed that benefit of membership in a cooperative is determined by participation, capacitation and satisfaction with management of a cooperative. The study hypothesised that perceived participation, capacitation, empowerment and satisfaction with management will determine the benefit of membership in a cooperative. Where disabled people seek empowerment they will join a cooperative. Where they seek their benefit in a cooperative, they will consider their level of participation, empowerment, capacitation and satisfaction with management will as well be considered. A survey was conducted using a Five-Level Likert scale to decipher respondents‟ perceptions of level of participation, empowerment, capacitation, satisfaction with management and perceived benefits. In the beginning of analysis, responses (N=28) were reduced using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to determine how questionnaire items contributed to variables under consideration. Afterwards, variables extracted were correlated and regressed. While bivariate correlation was used to test the simple relationship between variables. A linear regression analysis was used to describe how satisfaction with management mediates the relationship between participation, empowerment and capacitation. MANCOVA was used to test the mediation effects of independent variables PERLEPAR, PERLEMP and PERLECA. The results showed that PERLECA was the desired description for cooperatives for the empowerment of disabled people at Zamani Disabled People‟s Organization. On the basis of the results, cooperatives have a potential of empowering disabled people and that is achieved through democratic operation, where members equally participate in the daily business and inclusion in decision-making.

No description available.

No description available.

This case study analyzes the opportunities and potential for a cooperative structure in rural small water systems (SWS) located in Carroll County, Virginia. It is hypothesized that, by organizing as a cooperative, SWS in Virginia can obtain operational efficiency and meet the National Primary Drinking Water Standards (NPDWS) through economies of scale. Specifically, the research involves a market analysis of the factors which influence costs, operational efficiency, revenue, the exchange of technical information, operational capacities, and, thereby, the number of NPDWS violations in those participating SWS. The results of this research reveal ways in which a cooperative structure could result in efficiency and compliance gains. Results are used to develop guidelines for a conceptual cooperative structure that can be applied to SWS across rural Virginia and perhaps may have application on a broader economic and geographic scale. / Master of Science

Widely differing theoretical expectations exist concerning the economic performance of labor-managed firms or producer cooperatives (PCs). While a good number of theoretical studies of these firms by economists have been undertaken, there remain considerable gaps in the empirical record. This is especially true in the case of American PCs. In general, theoretical controversies have not been tempered by enough empirical analysis. While some expect good performance from PCs, others are much less sanguine. This study compares the economic performance of a group of eight worker-owned producer co-op plants with that of eight conventional mills in the Pacific Northwest softwood plywood industry. The purpose is to test the validity of several propositions that are typically maintained in the analysis of PCs suggesting that this type of organization basically lacks the incentive to utilize labor inputs efficiently, and is therefore less productive when compared to conventionally organized producing units. Using secondary data, pooled time-series cross-section equations are estimated. Results indicate that growth in annual output per employee per year is 18 percent greater in the co-ops than in their conventional counterparts. The study provides strong evidence that the two groups of plants differ significantly in their behavior. The major conclusion that emerges is that worker-owned co-ops are a viable and productive form of economic organization that utilize labor inputs efficiently and in doing so can achieve higher worker productivity than their conventional counterparts. In a public policy context, government support of employee ownership and establishment of worker-owned co-ops is viewed as a viable policy option to plant closings.