Rebuilding and Failing Collectivity: Specific Challenges for Collective Farmers Marketing Initiatives in Post-Socialist Countries
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Published
Jan 15, 2011
Talis Tisenkopfsa
Imre Kováchb
Michal Lošťákc
Sandra Šūmanea
Abstract
This article addresses the re-birth of co-operative and other mutual initiatives in Central and East Europe after the collapse of socialism and its centralized attempts to impose forms of co-operation on the countryside. The central theoretical question is: how is collectivity rebuilt and why does this process face great difficulties in post-communist conditions? The article refers to the social capital framework and explores specificities of rebuilding collective farmers marketing initiatives in post-socialist countries by applying five explanatory factors: the historical context of system transformation and path dependency of farmers’ cooperation; the role of social capital and trust; political support frameworks; learning, knowledge processes and the role of advice (extension); and the impact of trade liberalization and globalization. Using case-studies from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Latvia, the article shows how different historical and cultural contexts have played a role in different trajectories of collective farmers marketing initiatives in these countries and how stocks of social capital have been used differently in building farmers initiatives according to specific contexts. The article demonstrates that the success or failure of initiatives is determined by the workings of social capital in interaction with other important dimensions – organizational structures, institutional arrangements, governance of markets, local culture and traditions, access to political power, and farmers’ knowledge.
How to Cite
Tisenkopfsa, T. ., Kováchb, I., Lošťákc , M. . and Šūmanea, S. . (2011) “Rebuilding and Failing Collectivity: Specific Challenges for Collective Farmers Marketing Initiatives in Post-Socialist Countries ”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 18(1), pp. 70–88. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v18i1.259.
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References
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?echura, L. and Šobrová, L. (2008) Price transmission in pork meat agri-food chain, Agricultural Economics (Zem?d?lská ekonomika), 54(2), pp. 77–84.
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Fukuyama , F. (2002) Social capital and development: the coming agenda, SAIS Review, 22(1), pp. 23–37.
Galbreath, D. and Rose, R. (2008) Fair treatment in a divided society: a bottom-up assessment of bureaucratic encounters in Latvia, Governance, 21(1), pp. 53–73.
Galla, K. (1937) Sány – P?ísp?vek k Sociologii Družstevnictví v ?eskoslovenské Vsi, Praha: Spolek pé?e o blaho venkova.
Granovetter, M. (1985) Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness, American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), pp. 481–510.
Gunst, P. (1998) Hungarian Agrarian Society from the Emancipation of Serfs (1848) to the Emancipation of Re-Privatization of Land. Highland Lakes, NJ: Atlantic Research and Publications.
Halam ska, M. (2008) Changing property structures in Central European agriculture in the process of decollectivization: the social aspects of appropriation, Eastern European Countryside, 14, pp. 7–25.
Harcsa, I., Kovách, I. and Szelényi, I. (1998) The Hungarian agricultural ‘miracle’ and the limits of socialist reforms, in: I. Szelényi (ed.) Privatizing the Land: Rural Political Economy in Post-Communist Society, London: Routledge, pp. 21–42.
Helešic, F. (2002) První Slovník ?eského Družstevního Práva. Praha: Prospektum.
Hinrichs, C. (2000) Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market, Journal of Rural Studies, 16, pp. 295–303.
Hude?ková, H. and Loš?ák, M. (1992) Privatization in Czechoslovak agriculture: results of a 1990 sociological survey, Sociologia Ruralis, 32(2–3), pp. 287–304.
Hude?ková, H. and Loš?ák, M. (1997) Reactions to globalization and integration in the Czech agro-food complex, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 25(2), pp. 83–99.
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Kelemen, E. and Megyesi, B. (2007) The role of collective marketing initiatives in Hungarian agriculture, Eastern European Countryside, 13(1), pp. 83–97.
Kirwan, J., Slee, B., Foster, C. and Vorley, B. (2004) Macro-Level Overview of Food Supply Chain Dynamics and Diversity in Europe, SUS-CHAIN WP2 Synthesis report. Published online, accessed on 13 February, 2009.
Kovách, I. (1994) Privatization and family farms in Central and Eastern Europe, Sociologia Ruralis, 34(4), pp. 369–382.
Kovách, I. (1999) Hungary: cooperative and household plot, in: M. Meurs (ed.) Many Shades of Red: State Policy and Collective, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 125–151.
Kovách, I. and Megyesi, B. (2006) Local food production and knowledge dynamics in rural sustainable development, in: K. Gorlach and I. Kovach (eds) Local Food Production, Non–Agricultural Economies and Knowledge Dynamics in Rural Sustainable Development: The Czech, Hungarian and Polish Cases, E–books Working Papers (7) 2006/5, Budapest: HAS Institute for Political Science, pp. 24–36.
Ku?inskis, J. (2004) Kooper?cijas Att?st?ba Latvij? un Pasaul?. R?ga: Latvijas Hipot?ku un zemes banka.
Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economic s (2005) Agricultural Holdings: Results of Economic Analysis 2004. R?ga: Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economics.
Ledeneva, A. (2009) From Russia with blat: can informal networks help modernize Russia?, Social Research, 76(1), pp. 257–288.
Lin, N. (2001) Building a network theory of social capital, in: N. Lin, K. Cook and R.S. Burt (eds) Social Capital: Theory and Research, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp. 3–29.
Marsden, T. (2009) Mobilities, vulnerabilities and sustainabilities: exploring pathways from denial to sustainable rural development, Sociologia Ruralis, 49(2), pp. 113–131.
Maurel, M.C. (1998) Decollectivization paths in Central Europe: towards which new models?, Eastern European Countryside, 4, pp. 19–36.
Meurs, M. (1999) The continuing importance of collectivization, in: M. Meurs (ed.) Many Shades of Red: State Policy and Collective, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 1–35.
Ml?och, L. (1997) Zast?ená Vize Ekonomické Transformace. Praha: Karolinum.
Morga n, K., Marsden, T. and Murdoch, J. (2006) Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murray, C. (2008) Social capital and cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe: a framework for research on governance, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 36(1), pp. 3–20.
Nikula, J. (2000) Enterprises and rural community in Estonia: a basis for future development?, in: M. Taljunai te (ed.) Social Studies: Streaming Towards Social Stability, Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, pp. 109–118.
Nissinen, M. (1999) Latvia’s Transition to a Market Economy. Political Determinants of Economic Reform Policy. London: Macmillan Press.
Paldam , M. and Svendsen, G.T. (2000) An essay on social capital: looking for the fire behind the smoke, European Journal of Political Economy, 16(2), pp. 339–366.
Ploeg, J.D. van der (2008) The New Peasantries. Struggles for Authonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and Globalization. London: Earthscan.
Putnam , R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Risch, W.J. (2005) Soviet ‘flower children’: hippies and the youth counter-culture in 1970s Lviv, Journal of Contemporary History, 40(3), pp. 565–584.
Sotiropoulos, D.A. (2005) Positive and negative social capital and the uneven development of civil society in Southeastern Europe, Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 5(2), pp. 243–256.
Stryja n, Y. (1993) Czechoslovak agriculture: institutional change and cooperative solutions, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 20(2), pp. 139–165.
Svatoš, M. (2008) Selected trends forming European agriculture, Agricultural Economics (Zem?d?lská ekonomika), 54(3), pp. 93–101.
Swain, N. (1998) A framework for comparing social change in the post–socialist countryside, Eastern European Countryside, 4, pp. 5–18.
Tátrai, A. (2003) The implementation of successful industrial SCM methods into food processing and agricultural company’s practice through process (generic) benchmarking, EU Working Papers, 1/2003, pp. 30–39.
Tisenkopfs, T., L?ce, I. and Mieri?a, I. (2008) Social capital, in: J.D. van der Ploeg and T. Marsden (eds) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development, Assen: Van Gorcum, pp. 87–110.
Van Huylenbroeck, G. and Durand, G. (2003) Multifunctional Agriculture: A New Paradigm for European Agriculture, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Winter, M. (2003) Embeddedness, the new food economy and defensive localism, Journal of Rural Studies, 19, pp. 23–32.
Woolcock, M. (2001) The place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes, Isuma Canadian Journal of Policy Research, 2(1), pp. 1–17.
Alapuro, R. and Lonkila, M. (2000) Networks, identity, and (in)action, European Societies, 2(1), pp. 65–90.
Bou?ková, B. (2001) Quo vadis, zem?d?lská družstva? Perspektivy konkurenceschopnosti, in: Agrární Sektor P?ed Vstupem do EU. Sborník P?ísp?vk? z V?deckého Seminá?e a Poznatk? Ekonomické Sekce AP IX, Praha: Katedra zem?d?lské ekonomiky, Provozn? ekonomická fakulta, ?eská zem?d?lská univerzita v Praze, pp. 48–52.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital, in: J.G. Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York: Greenwood Press, pp. 241–258.
Burt, R. (2000) Questioning Geopolitics: Political Projects in a Changing World-System. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Chloupková, J. and Bjørnskov, C. (2000) Could social capital help Czech agriculture?, Agricultural Economics (Zem?d?lská ekonomika), 48(6), pp. 245–249.
Colema n, J. (1998) Social capital in the creation of human capital, American Journal of Sociology, 94, pp. 95–120.
Csurgó, B., Kelemen, E., Kovách, I. and Megyesi, B. (2008) Encouraging Collective Farmers Marketing Initiatives (COFAMI). Budapest: Institute of Political Sciences, published online
?echura, L. and Šobrová, L. (2008) Price transmission in pork meat agri-food chain, Agricultural Economics (Zem?d?lská ekonomika), 54(2), pp. 77–84.
Deiviss, S., Sl?, B. and Tisenkopfs, T. (1997) Soci?lie un Ekonomiskie Apst?k?i Latvijas Laukos. R?ga: Latvijas Zin?t?u akad?mijas Filozofijas un sociolo?ijas instit?ts.
Dorgai , L., Ham za, E., Mistó, K., Székely, E. and Tóth, E. (2006) Producer Organisations, Producer Groups in the Agriculture. Published online
Evans, P. (1996) Government action, social capital and development: reviewing the evidence on synergy, World Development, 24(6), pp. 1119–1132.
Fidrmuc, J. and Gërxani, K. (2005) Formation of Social Capital in Central and Eastern Europe: Understanding the Gap vis-à-vis Developed Countries, William Davidson Institute Working Paper 766. Published online
Fonte, M. (2008) Knowledge, food and place: a way of producing, a way of knowing, Sociologia Ruralis, 48(3), pp. 200–222.
Fukuyama , F. (2002) Social capital and development: the coming agenda, SAIS Review, 22(1), pp. 23–37.
Galbreath, D. and Rose, R. (2008) Fair treatment in a divided society: a bottom-up assessment of bureaucratic encounters in Latvia, Governance, 21(1), pp. 53–73.
Galla, K. (1937) Sány – P?ísp?vek k Sociologii Družstevnictví v ?eskoslovenské Vsi, Praha: Spolek pé?e o blaho venkova.
Granovetter, M. (1985) Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness, American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), pp. 481–510.
Gunst, P. (1998) Hungarian Agrarian Society from the Emancipation of Serfs (1848) to the Emancipation of Re-Privatization of Land. Highland Lakes, NJ: Atlantic Research and Publications.
Halam ska, M. (2008) Changing property structures in Central European agriculture in the process of decollectivization: the social aspects of appropriation, Eastern European Countryside, 14, pp. 7–25.
Harcsa, I., Kovách, I. and Szelényi, I. (1998) The Hungarian agricultural ‘miracle’ and the limits of socialist reforms, in: I. Szelényi (ed.) Privatizing the Land: Rural Political Economy in Post-Communist Society, London: Routledge, pp. 21–42.
Helešic, F. (2002) První Slovník ?eského Družstevního Práva. Praha: Prospektum.
Hinrichs, C. (2000) Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market, Journal of Rural Studies, 16, pp. 295–303.
Hude?ková, H. and Loš?ák, M. (1992) Privatization in Czechoslovak agriculture: results of a 1990 sociological survey, Sociologia Ruralis, 32(2–3), pp. 287–304.
Hude?ková, H. and Loš?ák, M. (1997) Reactions to globalization and integration in the Czech agro-food complex, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 25(2), pp. 83–99.
Kabele, J. (2005) Z Kapitalismu do Socialismu a Zp?t. Praha: Karolinum.
Kanema su, Y., Sonnino, R., Marsden, T. and Schneider, S. (2008) Testing the web: a comparative analysis, in: J.D. van der Ploeg and T. Marsden (eds) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development, Assen: Van Gorcum, pp. 175–208.
Kelemen, E. and Megyesi, B. (2007) The role of collective marketing initiatives in Hungarian agriculture, Eastern European Countryside, 13(1), pp. 83–97.
Kirwan, J., Slee, B., Foster, C. and Vorley, B. (2004) Macro-Level Overview of Food Supply Chain Dynamics and Diversity in Europe, SUS-CHAIN WP2 Synthesis report. Published online
Kovách, I. (1994) Privatization and family farms in Central and Eastern Europe, Sociologia Ruralis, 34(4), pp. 369–382.
Kovách, I. (1999) Hungary: cooperative and household plot, in: M. Meurs (ed.) Many Shades of Red: State Policy and Collective, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 125–151.
Kovách, I. and Megyesi, B. (2006) Local food production and knowledge dynamics in rural sustainable development, in: K. Gorlach and I. Kovach (eds) Local Food Production, Non–Agricultural Economies and Knowledge Dynamics in Rural Sustainable Development: The Czech, Hungarian and Polish Cases, E–books Working Papers (7) 2006/5, Budapest: HAS Institute for Political Science, pp. 24–36.
Ku?inskis, J. (2004) Kooper?cijas Att?st?ba Latvij? un Pasaul?. R?ga: Latvijas Hipot?ku un zemes banka.
Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economic s (2005) Agricultural Holdings: Results of Economic Analysis 2004. R?ga: Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economics.
Ledeneva, A. (2009) From Russia with blat: can informal networks help modernize Russia?, Social Research, 76(1), pp. 257–288.
Lin, N. (2001) Building a network theory of social capital, in: N. Lin, K. Cook and R.S. Burt (eds) Social Capital: Theory and Research, New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp. 3–29.
Marsden, T. (2009) Mobilities, vulnerabilities and sustainabilities: exploring pathways from denial to sustainable rural development, Sociologia Ruralis, 49(2), pp. 113–131.
Maurel, M.C. (1998) Decollectivization paths in Central Europe: towards which new models?, Eastern European Countryside, 4, pp. 19–36.
Meurs, M. (1999) The continuing importance of collectivization, in: M. Meurs (ed.) Many Shades of Red: State Policy and Collective, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 1–35.
Ml?och, L. (1997) Zast?ená Vize Ekonomické Transformace. Praha: Karolinum.
Morga n, K., Marsden, T. and Murdoch, J. (2006) Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murray, C. (2008) Social capital and cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe: a framework for research on governance, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 36(1), pp. 3–20.
Nikula, J. (2000) Enterprises and rural community in Estonia: a basis for future development?, in: M. Taljunai te (ed.) Social Studies: Streaming Towards Social Stability, Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, pp. 109–118.
Nissinen, M. (1999) Latvia’s Transition to a Market Economy. Political Determinants of Economic Reform Policy. London: Macmillan Press.
Paldam , M. and Svendsen, G.T. (2000) An essay on social capital: looking for the fire behind the smoke, European Journal of Political Economy, 16(2), pp. 339–366.
Ploeg, J.D. van der (2008) The New Peasantries. Struggles for Authonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and Globalization. London: Earthscan.
Putnam , R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Risch, W.J. (2005) Soviet ‘flower children’: hippies and the youth counter-culture in 1970s Lviv, Journal of Contemporary History, 40(3), pp. 565–584.
Sotiropoulos, D.A. (2005) Positive and negative social capital and the uneven development of civil society in Southeastern Europe, Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 5(2), pp. 243–256.
Stryja n, Y. (1993) Czechoslovak agriculture: institutional change and cooperative solutions, Journal of Rural Cooperation, 20(2), pp. 139–165.
Svatoš, M. (2008) Selected trends forming European agriculture, Agricultural Economics (Zem?d?lská ekonomika), 54(3), pp. 93–101.
Swain, N. (1998) A framework for comparing social change in the post–socialist countryside, Eastern European Countryside, 4, pp. 5–18.
Tátrai, A. (2003) The implementation of successful industrial SCM methods into food processing and agricultural company’s practice through process (generic) benchmarking, EU Working Papers, 1/2003, pp. 30–39.
Tisenkopfs, T., L?ce, I. and Mieri?a, I. (2008) Social capital, in: J.D. van der Ploeg and T. Marsden (eds) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development, Assen: Van Gorcum, pp. 87–110.
Van Huylenbroeck, G. and Durand, G. (2003) Multifunctional Agriculture: A New Paradigm for European Agriculture, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Winter, M. (2003) Embeddedness, the new food economy and defensive localism, Journal of Rural Studies, 19, pp. 23–32.
Woolcock, M. (2001) The place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes, Isuma Canadian Journal of Policy Research, 2(1), pp. 1–17.
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