Anthropology and Cooperatives

Abstract

This article, inspired by June Nash’s provocative vision of postmodern times in Chiapas, looks at how anthropologists have traced the changing nature of grassroots organizations to suggest that we need to see cooperatives and other local organizations in a new way, as ephemeral associations. Through the example of how the cooperative imaginary has informed different development programs in Mexico’s recent history, from the early cooperative movement in the 19th century to the 21st century, it explores the idea that the institutional arrangements of the recent past have given way to a state of constant flux. A new volatility is at the heart of both the organizations and their surrounding environment, so that local organizations now have to re-invent themselves constantly, to keep up with global and local changes. Through a case study of weavers’ cooperatives in Chiapas, the article points at their internal flexibility and fragility in the current climate of little support for the projects and activities of rural producers and the urban poor.