Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development
本书12章探讨发展中国家和转型国家农村生产者组织对经济和社会发展的影响，包括减贫、成员包容性等，涵盖东非、西非、印度次大陆和中国案例。
This book comprises 12 chapters, including one introductory and one concluding chapter, written by the three editors. In the other chapters, various authors write about agricultural cooperatives and, especially, producer organisations in rural districts of developing and transition countries. The papers are written mainly by economists, though the approach is sometimes fairly eclectic. The authors seem to have produced their papers independently of each other. The 310 pages present producer organisation in both East Africa and West Africa but also the Indian Subcontinent and China. The chapters thus cover a large geographical span but also a wide range of approaches, such as descriptive cases in some regions, empirical studies and theoretical analyses. Most of the chapters include discussions about the impact that producer organisations have on the members' and the communities' economic and social development, for example, their role in alleviating poverty. Several chapters treat the issue of open or closed memberships, that is, inclusion or exclusion of members. To the extent that the producer organisations are commercially oriented, it may be that only the most efficient farmers are welcome, which affects the organisations' contribution to the communities.