Wedig, K and Wiegratz, J (2018) Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda. Journal of Agrarian Change, 18 (2). pp. 348-369. ISSN 1471-0358
Abstract
Agricultural cooperatives have seen a comeback in sub‐Saharan Africa. After the collapse of many weakly performing monopolist organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, strengthened cooperatives have emerged since the 2000s. Scholarly knowledge about the state–cooperative relations in which this “revival” takes place remains poor. Based on new evidence from Uganda's coffee sector, this paper discusses the political economy of Africa's cooperative revival. The authors argue that donors' and African governments' renewed support is framed in largely apolitical terms, which obscures the contested political and economic nature of the revival. In the context of neoliberal restructuring processes, state and non‐state institutional support to democratic economic organizations with substantial redistributional agendas remains insufficient. The political–economic context in Uganda—and potentially elsewhere in Africa—contributes to poor terms of trade for agricultural cooperatives while maintaining significant state control over some cooperative activities to protect the status quo interests of big capital and state elites. These conditions are unlikely to produce a conflict‐free, substantial, and sustained revival of cooperatives, which the new promoters of cooperatives suggest is under way.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wedig K, Wiegratz J. (2017) Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda. J Agrar Change, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12221. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | agricultural cooperatives, neoliberalism, coffee sector, Uganda. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Apr 2017 10:13 |
Last Modified: | 03 Sep 2019 00:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/joac.12221 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115309 |