Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Cooperation and Consciousness: Democracy and Authority in Southern African Producer Cooperatives
Author:Adato, MichelleISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa
Issue:23
Pages:23-43
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:democracy
cooperatives
management
Politics and Government
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External link:https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/226/OBJ/download
Abstract:Trade unions have sponsored cooperatives in recent years in South Africa. Through a study of 'democratic management' in cooperatives started by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Transkei and Lesotho (the first NUM coop started production in 1988 after the 1987 mineworkers' strike), this article examines how consciousness facilitates and constrains workplace democracy. The concept of 'democratic management' in cooperatives assumes that both parts of this term - democracy and managerial authority - are necessary for reproduction of the organization. However, both parts present particular tensions rooted in the society in which they operate. The article attempts to unpack these tensions and understand their bases and implications. More specifically, it considers layers of consciousness that facilitate, constrain, and shape forms of democracy and authority in the cooperatives. Historical and contemporary experience in the mines, trade unions and communities, and rural relationships of traditional and tribal authority shape competing conceptions of democracy and authority and modify in a variety of ways the ideal-typical cooperative organization introduced by the trade union. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
Views
Cover