vol. 21 núm. 103 (2013)

Llegamos a nuestros lectores con este nuevo número de la revista Cooperativismo & Desarrollo. El próximo año, 2014, ha sido declarado por la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas como el “año internacional de la agricultura familiar”. Así, el mundo y diversas instituciones volverán su mirada sobre los pequeños productores agrarios. Se estima que cerca del 70% de los alimentos en el mundo es producido por agricultores familiares, que el 40% de los hogares depende de la agricultura familiar como forma de vida y que, en los países en desarrollo, 2500 millones de personas pertenecen a familias dedicadas a la agricultura.

The Colombian conflict —or in other words the leading actions of armed groups based in areas with little state presence— can largely be explained by the low level of agricultural development in the coun- try, and the inability to make agrarian reform a reality. Added to this is the impact that the country’s transformation has had on rural areas. It is clear that the restructuring of the rural economy must be a social and regional transformation that puts an end to the enormous delay which has kept Colombia’s rural population living in conditions of the late 19 th century. It is therefore critical to provide a holistic solution to these situations and formulate public policy that promotes the democratization of property, association-based production, the generation of added value to traditional rural products, production for food self-sufficiency in the country, access to markets, improvement to family income and the chance for the rural population to experience a fuller enjoyment of life.

This article is the result of research conducted in associations and cooperatives of small and medium-size agricultural producers linked to the solidarity economy in the Sinifaná and San Juan areas of southeast Antioquia, Colombia. The article examines the community factor, or C-factor, as a factor that integrates the collective goals of these organizations, which seek to satisfy the needs, aspirations and wishes of the people, families and communities where they operate. While an ethnographic qualitative approach was used as the starting point for the methodology in this research, it incorporates both qualitative and quantitative techniques, allowing an understanding of the dynamics of these organizations. The most relevant results identified the C-Factor as a socio-economic integrating objective which, in combination with other productive factors, becomes a force that unites desires and builds awareness to improve the quality of life for its participants, as well as the profitability of the organization and its environment.

Because cooperativism originated in the midst of an economic and social logic with profound inherent contradictions —the logic of the capitalist system— it is hard for it to differentiate itself in practice and rationale. The logic of the capitalist model has its own identity, as does the logic of the cooperative mod- el. To exist in practice, however, cooperativism must mimic individualistic and competitive economic practices within the capitalist system. This situation diminishes the identity and social effectiveness of cooperativism, and generates asymmetry as an innovative proposal with regard to the socio-economics of solidarity. This study concludes that to overcome this mimicking and asynchrony, cooperativism must truly be an autonomous system of sustainable development in the world.

The aim of this study is to show the importance of Spain’s credit cooperative sector, while also offering a brief view of how families’ savings patterns have evolved. The second section describes the origins of the sector in Spain, emphasizing the relationship between these entities and the primary sector, which is the main source of finance. Later, by describing the features of the credit cooperative sector, as well as offering a profile of its members and its advantages over other forms of banking, some causes are presented for the transformation of these cooperatives, a change they have undergone without losing their focus on members. Accordingly, the third section of this study presents the benefits that credit cooperatives can offer when it comes to financial exclusion, especially when they have become the only social bank in Spain due to the planned demutualization of the savings bank sector.

This article is a product of the research project “The impact of management models on the development of agricultural cooperatives in northeast Misiones”, conducted in Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Argentina, between 2010 and 2012. It was based on information from documentary and empirical sources from surveys and interviews conducted with 80% of the population under study, founding members of agricultural cooperatives, and key informants. The aim was to identify the critical factors that hindered growth and, based on these, determine the key areas for reactivating and generating sustainable develop- ment in these cooperatives. It was corroborated that 90% of the cooperatives surveyed were in a state of “invisibility”, with a high level of economic inactivity caused by the circumstances they were created in, and the absence of a common project.

The aim of this article is to present a summary of the research conducted by the author from 2010 to 2013 in her doctoral thesis, “Contributions to the integrated management of district schools in the city of Bogotá based on an impact evaluation of the Proyecto Educativo Líderes Siglo xxi”, led by uned of Madrid, Spain. The contributions are presented based on the strengths and difficulties encountered in the impact evaluation of schools that participated in the research, the needs that studies have identified in Bogotá’s official education sector, and the author’s thesis experience with ingrated management of official educational institutions. The goal is to contribute to the development of educational institutions through integrated management that is focused on integrated quality of education, talent management, and the creation of an appropriate institutional environment.

According to the United Nations, the cooperative model is a vitally important pilar of development in many communities, countries and regions around the world. Although it is common to infer that there is a direct relationship between cooperativism and socioeconomic development in the regions, there are very few studies that look at this from an economic point of view. This article therefore presents the main findings that emerged from the use of economic theory and econometric techniques to measure the relationship. The empirical analysis is conducted based on a cross-section of data for the country’s 81 cantons, and seeks to open a new line of research that will allow the cooperative sector’s contribution to Costa Rican development to be measured, and build new thinking about the development of this sector in Costa Rica.