Urban Cooperatives Research Articles

The Chiraiya project: a retrospective analysis of breast cancer detection gaps addressed via mobile mammography in Jammu Province, India

BackgroundBreast cancer remains a pervasive threat to women worldwide, with increasing incidence rates necessitating effective screening strategies. Timely detection with mammography has emerged as the primary tool for mass screening. This retrospective study, which is part of the Chiraiya Project, aimed to evaluate breast lesion patients identified during opportunistic mammography screening camps in Jammu Province, India.MethodsA total of 1505 women aged 40 years and older were screened using a mobile mammographic unit over a five-year period, excluding 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inclusion criterion was women in the specified age group, while the exclusion criterion was women with open breast wounds, history of breast cancer or a history of breast surgery. The screening process involved comprehensive data collection using a detailed Proforma, followed by mammographic assessments conducted within strategically stationed mobile units. Radiological interpretations utilizing the BI-RADS system were performed, accompanied by meticulous documentation of patient demographics, habits, literacy, medical history, and breastfeeding practices. Participants were recruited through collaborations with NGOs, army camps, village panchayats, and urban cooperatives. Screening camps were scheduled periodically, with each camp accommodating 90 patients or fewer.ResultsAmong the 1505 patients, most were aged 45–50 years. The number of screenings increased yearly, peaking at 441 in 2022. The BI-RADS II was the most common finding (48.77%), indicating the presence of benign lesions, while the BI-RADS 0 (32.96%) required further evaluation. Higher-risk categories (BI-RADS III, IV, V) were less common, with BI-RADS V being the rarest. Follow-up adherence was highest in the BI-RADS III, IV, and V categories, with BI-RADS V achieving 100% follow-up. However, only 320 of 496 BI-RADS 0 patients were followed up, indicating a gap in continuity of care. The overall follow-up rate was 66.89%. Compared to urban areas, rural areas demonstrated greater screening uptake but lower follow-up rates, highlighting the need for tailored interventions to improve follow-up care access, especially in rural contexts.ConclusionThis study underscores the efficacy of a mobile mammographic unit in reaching marginalized populations. Adherence to screening protocols has emerged as a linchpin for early detection, improved prognosis, and holistic public health enhancement. Addressing misconceptions surrounding mammographic screenings, especially in rural settings, is crucial. These findings call for intensified efforts in advocacy and education to promote the benefits of breast cancer screening initiatives. Future interventions should prioritize improving access to follow-up care and addressing screening to enhance breast cancer management in Jammu Province.

Urban Village Shareholding: Cooperative Economic Organization in Northeast China

AbstractSince the economic reforms of the 1970s, local Chinese urban authorities have requisitioned rural land near cities. To protect their land from these practices, many urban village collectives have established a cooperative shareholding system, but their motives remain unclear. Neoclassical economics suggests that such enterprises seek to maximize profits. Guided by the original institutional‐economics approach, I investigate this question empirically by interviewing residents of Mengke village in Chaoyang city, Liaoning Province, northeast China. These data reveal four startling findings about the motives behind the shareholding system. First, collective economic organizations do not simply seek the maximization of profit. Second, the shareholding cooperative system adopted by village collectives helps villagers resist external threats such as land loss. Third, the collective economic organization is not merely a firm or a single market; it may work as a firm and a market simultaneously. Finally, managing of common property contributes to maintaining the identity of the collective. These findings suggest that the theories of neoclassical urban economics and new institutional economics fundamentally mischaracterize urban cooperatives.

TURNOVER NAS COOPERATIVAS DE RECICLAGEM DE RESÍDUOS URBANOS – UM OLHAR SOBRE AS MULHERES DESTE SEGMENTO

Este trabalho é sobre a precarização e turnover de um conjunto de cooperativas de resíduos urbanos sitiadas no Estado de São Paulo. O método da pesquisa foi a fenomenologia hermenêutica, mitigada pelas entrevistas realizacas com as cooperadas que deixaram as cooperativas. O abandono do trabalho nestas unidades analisadas emergiram a insatisfações vivenciadas por estes agentes. Fica evidenciado no estudo os elementos que contribuem para o alinhamento da gestão organizacional para compreender tais fatores.

Factors Affecting Saving Practices of Members of Rural&Urban Saving and Credit Cooperatives: Evidence from Kucha Woreda, Gamo Gofa Zone, Snnprs, Ethiopia

The study was conducted to assess factors affecting saving practices of members of saving and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) in Gamo Gofa zone kucha woreda of SNNP region, Ethiopia. The study was achieved on selected 392 respondents. The selection of members was done using simple random sampling method based on convenient sampling method due to time and budget constraints. Semi structured questionnaire was administered by interviewing each respondent and filling the questionnaire. A response rate of 100% (392 respondents) was achieved. Data was analyzed using multiple linear regression model to test relationships between the dependent and independent variables included in the study. The dependent variable is saving practice of SACCOs members and the independent variables are annual income, training participation, credit received from the SACCOs, age of the respondent, dependency ratio, family size, education status, savings before joining the SACCO, and contribution of family members of their livelihood. The members of SACCOs save if they are provided with trainings and credit as per their need and their income level and education status also affect their saving level. Therefore, the following major recommendations were made: government, NGOs and other stakeholders should work on strengthening the capacities of SACCOs to enable them provide customized trainings for their members, appropriate credit services like increasing the amount of credit they provide through linkage with other financial institutions and arrangement of injection of outside money and activities which can increase the level and diversification of income of their members in order to mobilize savings effectively and efficiently. Keywords: Saving practices, SACCOs, Members DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-1-02

Taking a livelihood perspective to building urban water resilience: Potential and challenges in Addis Ababa

This article explores how livelihoods in two typical communities, condominium housing and urban agriculture cooperatives, in Addis Ababa manage water resources and green spaces in order to identify key challenges and potentials for building water-resilient livelihoods. Results show that livelihoods in the two communities are heavily affected by water stress. Being dependent on natural assets makes the farming community vulnerable, but also more flexible than people in condominiums who are locked into a malfunctioning water infrastructure. However, there is potential for building water-resilient livelihoods, if broader policy frameworks are bottom-linked with locally specific situations using landscape-based stormwater management.

Operational Efficiency of the Pondicherry Health Employees Co-operative Society: A Study

Activity in a Co-operative Spirit and in a commercial spirit has distinction. In Co-operative activity the purpose is not to earn profit but it is collective activity of the members for common purpose. No one is owner of the Co-operative activity but all are members of such activity. The urban credit co-operatives including Employees’ Cooperative Banks were registered under All India Co-operative Societies Act 1912. Subsequently, urban credit co-operatives/ employees’’ co-operatives were organized in various parts of the country. Among the non-agricultural credit co-operatives next to the urban co-operative banks, prominent are the employees’ co-operative credit societies, salary earners’ co-operatives and employees’’ co-operative banks. This paper will argue that cooperatives present a strong alternative for playing an important role in the health-set up of the country. On this line, health care employees play a vital role in facilitating and providing medical services to people. This service may be considered as Nobel service to humanity. Further, economic viability of those people is great factor for doing their profession effectively, in order to fulfill their credit needs and banking services, formal system take place in such a healthy way. In this way, health care employees’ cooperative credit societies are functioning to promote their involvement in doing health services indirectly by way of fulfilling their credit needs and which creates healthy attitude to perform duty well. The prime objective of the study is to examine the working performance of the PHECCS. This study is an Empirical Research in nature.

A STUDY ON LOAN PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT OF URBAN COOPERATIVE BANKS IN TAMIL NADU

Cooperative Banking System has two broad systems i.e. urban and rural cooperatives, forms an integral part of the India’s Financial System. Urban Cooperative Banks play an important role as financial intermediaries in catering to the credit requirements of both priority sector and weaker section of the communities. As on March 2015 there were 120 UCBs functioning all over Tamil Nadu and the majority is Non-Schedule UCBs. These banks are traditionally centered on communities, localities and work place groups, and they lend to agriculture and non-agriculture purpose and particularly to small farmers, small traders, business man, artisans, factory workers, salaried people and persons of small means. This paper highlights the per-stage and post-stage sanction of loan process of credit in Tamil Nadu Urban Cooperative Banks. Further, the paper makes an assessment of the extent to which Urban Cooperative Banks were following loan portfolio management and identifies the focus area of improvement in near future.

Historia y realidad jurídica de la cooperativa en Cuba. Aproximación desde la experiencia práctica a las noveles cooperativas no agropecuarias en Pinar del Río

<p>En el presente trabajo se valora el desarrollo histórico de la regulación jurídica de la cooperativa en Cuba, haciendo énfasis en la plataforma jurídico-institucional en que se sostiene el actual proceso para su expansión hacia otros sectores de la economía nacional además del agropecuario. En un inicio se caracteriza su regulación jurídica en cada una de las etapas por las que ha atravesado y a continuación el análisis se centra en la experiencia práctica de la provincia de Pinar del Río, con las recién instrumentadas Cooperativas no Agropecuarias, durante el proceso para su constitución y posterior funcionamiento.</p><p><strong>Recibido</strong>: 31.05.2015<br /><strong>Aceptado</strong>: 30.07.2015</p>

Havana’s changing urban agriculture landscape: A shift to the right?

For two decades Havana, Cuba, has served as a living laboratory for practitioners and scholars of urban agriculture, particularly in its well-docu­mented role in helping stave off food insecurity during a period of severe resource constraints. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the austere economic conditions that followed, the Cuban government enacted a series of radical agrarian reforms aimed at seeding the growth of private urban gardens—a new phenomenon in this country once dependent on trade subsidies and food rations. As a result of the reforms, close to 300 private urban agricultural cooperatives and thousands of small home gardens sprouted up across Havana. Yet in the ensuing decade and a half, Cuba’s increasing desire to integrate with the global economy, and its adoption of free-market principles, has forced the urban agriculture sector to make dramatic adjustments. Using secondary data, reports by other observers, and our own structured interviews with 11 of Havana’s urban gardeners, this study examines the challenges and opportunities that urban agriculture has experienced, and will continue to experience, in Cuba’s post-communist society. We hope to stimulate continuing inquiry into Havana’s evolving urban agriculture scene, as it continues to provide valuable lessons for other cities in the Global North and South that are increasingly likely to experience their own future resource constraints and food insecurity.

Cooperação e autonomia: desafios das cooperativas populares

A possible alternative to the exclusion from the formal work market, cooperative working in the working classes, rapidly stops at the social hierarchies (empployer-empployee relationships), but it insists on the disposition of citizenship and in the emerging solidarity through a culture that is installed. The legitimacy of a new psycho-social place is made present in the talk of members of cooperatives, in accordance with research data, in an institutional coverage, carried out in popular urban cooperatives in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The results, from interviews and observations made, point to the perception of the efficiency of collective actions, of the fruits of solidarity and of cooperation in the generation of earnings, and of the possibility of other forms of working links that do not pass necessarily through relations instituted by dependency. The change in self image, the consciousness of unknown potentialities, reposition the worker vis a vis his social group. On the other hand, being formally employed, a title of citizenship in our social organization, highlights the one element that, because of its absence in the cooperative universe, interferes with the investment that the workers make in the cooperative institution beyond the governmental bureaucratic obstacles.

After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal NicaraguaStill Fighting: The Nicaraguan Women’s Movement, 1977–2000

After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal NicaraguaStill Fighting: The Nicaraguan Women’s Movement, 1977–2000

An Empirical Study of Urban Credit Cooperatives in China

The overall objective of this study is to try and uncover to what extent the borrowing and lending pattern of Chinese urban credit cooperatives (UCCs) leads them to conform to the theoretical view of credit cooperatives and to what degree they are mainly characterized by elements which result from their regulatory environment and the status of China as an economy in transition. We provide evidence from a specially-commissioned survey on the characteristics and functioning of UCCs. Our statistical and econometric analysis points to the tentative conclusion that there are major regional differences in the performance of UCCs both in terms of the quality of loans granted and overall profitability. The latter is also influenced by the quality of the loans made, and this in turn is affected by the number of directors in the UCC and the extent to which the UCC grants loans to state-owned enterprises.

Of designs and disappointments: Some limits to participatory research in a third world context

This paper introduces issues associated with the practice of participatory research (PR) in a Third World context by describing the experience of carrying out a study of urban housing cooperatives in Zimbabwe. A contrast is presented between the PR model, derived from the literature, and the implementation of this model. Five explanations for the discrepancy are proposed, including: differences between the rural and urban context, the questionable suitability of PR for multiple and concurrent case studies, and the need for early intervention. The paper concludes that a methodology is needed for assessing whether a given research context is appropriate for application of a PR model.