Individual, Household and Cooperative Production: The Case of Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica

Abstract

AbstractThe article examines urban employment programmes for Salvadorean refugees in Costa Rica. It compares two types of projects, individual or household workshops on the one hand, and cooperative projects on the others. It is argued that both face tremendous difficulties trying to compete with capitalist enterprises. However, a number of characteristics, including various survival strategies, make individual or household productive units more resilient. Cooperative projects may employ some of these “strategies” but their formal structures (often imposed by the agencies assisting refugees) make them inflexible and therefore less competitive. The article also draws attention to the importance of the analysis of internal aspects of production of small-scale enterprises making up the so-called “informal” sector. It suggests that the “articulation” approach, which tries to explain the viability of such small urban business in terms of their role for capital accumulation in the capitalist sector, is reductio...