Understanding rural co-operative resilience in Uganda: a pilot study

Investigators

Hazel Johnson, Linda Shaw (UK Co-operative College)

Funding

A Leverhulme Trust research grant, September 2012-August 2013.

Aims and objectives

The changes in the global economy and the financial crisis require new thinking about models of social and economic organisation and about how to promote resilience. What makes resilient social and economic organisation is the central aim of this pilot project, which will investigate the apparent resilience of the rural cooperative model in Uganda. During the past decade there has been a twenty-fold increase in the number of co-operatives in Uganda, largely independent of government support, in sectors as diverse as agricultural marketing, industry, energy, water, furniture-making, housing and finance. How do we understand this dynamism, resilience and growth in numbers? Does the co-operative model and the form of its regeneration in Uganda demonstrate resilience, and, if so, what are its characteristics? Using perspectives from co-operative, development and innovation studies, it is anticipated that the project will deliver empirical results of use to a wide range of stakeholders in the co-operative movement, governments and donors, as well as companies and other organisations building links with suppliers of food and other agricultural products.

Publications

A repository of IKD Working Papers and other research outputs can be viewed at IKD Publications.

Contact

Alexander Borda-Rodriguez (OU), alexander.borda-rodriguez@open.ac.uk
Sara Vicari (Co-operative College), sara.vicari@co-op.ac.uk