Cooperativism as a solution or as an obligation? The formation of cooperatives in small-scale mining in Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian state, through the 1988 Federal Constitution, the 1999 Mining Permit Law, and the 2008. Garimpeiro Statute, endorsed the cooperative organizational model as a priority for organizing mineral activity in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the country. Brazil's policymakers understood that the cooperative model could more efficiently reduce the sector's informality and promote cooperation. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to problematize whether the formalization of cooperatives alone can solve many of the governance problems associated with ASM, as well as offer useful insights into the mechanisms by which cooperatives are constituted. This discussion brought up the question of how mineral cooperatives in Brazil function and whether the way they are constituted influences their ability to organize work and how they function. In order to empirically analyze this question, the research delimited the cooperatives in the state of Minas Gerais, in the southeastern region of the country, as the universe of analysis. Fourteen mineral cooperatives were identified. Data collection was carried out by means of on-site interviews and analysis of the founding by-laws and minutes of incorporation of these organizations. Interviews were also held with agents of the local government. The results presented point out that the formation of cooperatives in Minas Gerais is more linked to external demand and to pressure from the environment than to the endogenous motivation of a group. The cooperatives that were created by the workers' initiative tend to follow the principles of cooperativism in an endogenous way. On the other hand, the cooperatives that were created due to the requirements of regulatory agencies have great difficulties assimilating the cooperative model. Finally, we conclude that the pressure for the formalization of cooperatives was not accompanied by the structuring of public policies that support social organization and collective action, thus motivating the merely formal emergence of cooperatives.