engleski

Cooperatives as a social pillar of local development

Numerous examples from around the world showing us how cooperatives successfully addressing the community key issues and contribute to sustainable development of state economies. In Europe and in the World cooperative movement is shaped modern concept of social economy as a possible solution for rural area revitalization. The aim of research paper is to empirically examine how members perceived cooperatives as development actors of local communities. Members perceived the cooperatives as a carrier of rural development (66.3%, X¯= 3.92) and as an "environmental guardian" (X¯= 3.22). They recognize the importance of education about cooperative entrepreneurship as a stronghold of social development drivers (83.5%). Despite that, relatively weak vertical collaboration among cooperatives ; and with government, services, agencies and other NGO creates bonding and bridging social capital problem in Croatian cooperative movement. Long term and comprehensive research are required in this field.

agriculture; cooperatives; social perception; social cohesion; local devleopment

nije evidentirano