To Be or Not to Be a Member of a Primary Co-operative in Brazil: Any Difference in Household Decision-Making and Gender Equality?

The Co‐operative as Institution for Human Development: The Case Study of Coppalj, a Primary Co‐operative in Brazil

“…Women's active participation, in addition to empowering themselves, has also helped to change men's perception of women's roles, thereby transforming family life. As shown by the author elsewhere (Burchi & Vicari, 2014), co-operative members (including women) statistically have a significantly higher capability to participate in decision-making and share decisions with their partner-in the domains of health, tasks at work and household expenditure-than participants from the control group.…”

“…Member motivations to join the Cooperativa de Pequenos Produtores Agroextrativistas de Lago do Junco. Source : Burchi and Vicari ()…”

“…Member motivations to join the Cooperativa de Pequenos Produtores Agroextrativistas de Lago do Junco. Source: Burchi and Vicari (2014) A card chosen by all groups concerned the activity of collecting and breaking babaçu nuts. All co-operators explained that with the co-operative in place, they could release themselves from the monopsonistic power of the landowner who was the only buyer of their produce.…”

“…Empowerment, deriving from economic democracy, can be transferred to different domains of people's lives, at individual, household and community levels. Gender relations at home might be an example, where democratic practices experienced at work can promote co‐operative behaviours in household decision‐making process, prompting partners to share decisions in different domains (Burchi & Vicari, ). On the basis of literature review (Vicari & De Muro, : 29–38), a possible list of capabilities that can be expanded through co‐operative membership is listed in Figure and includes education, nutrition, healthcare, shelter and sanitation, economic freedoms, decent work, participation in household decision‐making and participation in community life.…”

The Development Project as an Institution for Agency and Capability Expansion: The Case of the Njombe Milk Project

“…Finally, participatory methods were utilised to identify a tentative list of important capabilities for children (Biggeri et al, 2006), and to involve children in the evaluation of their well-being (Biggeri and Bonfanti, 2009;Anich et al, 2011). More recently, participatory techniques have been used to evaluate the impact of co-operative membership on people's agency and well-being (Vicari and De Muro, 2012) and household decision making (Burchi and Vicari, 2014).…”