Abstract

FERRER, Guillermo; BARRIENTOS, Mario  and  SAAL, Gabriel. Intervention and peasant organization: The case of Copacabana in the province of Cordoba (Argentina). Mundo agrar. [online]. 2013, vol.14, n.27, pp.00-00. ISSN 1515-5994.

Most of the researchers who work with rural development subjects agree that the social organizations are essential for the rural population to play a role in their own development. Therefore, the organization is a necessary condition for the rural development, and the problem lies in establishing the correct methodology to promote it. In Copacabana, a rural town in the northern mountainous province of Cordoba, we ask: How does one handle family farmers, tensions between individual strategy, and collective action to solve their problems? We conclude that for campesinos is not easy to allocate the social investments required to develop a long-lasting organization. Campesinos’ wishes to reap the benefits stemming from organization are not enough to actually develop a reliable organization. It is also required an appropriate balance between the individualistic tendencies of their members and their collective needs. To overcome the tensions arising within organizations it is necessary to create a process of constructive participation that allows (a) that the whole group becomes committed with the aims originally proposed, but at the same time to be flexible enough to modify and recreate them; and (b) to establish a set of rules allowing the access to new members, and transparent mechanisms of social control which are accepted and shared by all members. In many cases this process may be favored by the participation of external social actors

Keywords : Organization; Farmers; Intervention; Rural development.

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