WHY REASSEMBLED SMALLHOLDER COOPERATIVES STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE: PERSPECTIVE OF ANTI-COMMONS

Qin Qi; Wenjun Li; Xiribu Puhua

Todos os Trabalhos

Trabalho

DOI

10.29327/9786527226680.1441883

Título do Trabalho

WHY REASSEMBLED SMALLHOLDER COOPERATIVES STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE: PERSPECTIVE OF ANTI-COMMONS

Autores

Qin Qi
Wenjun Li
Xiribu Puhua

Modalidade

IRSA - Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (01/10/2025 a 20/01/2026)

Área temática

IRSA 30 - Governance of natural resources in rural areas

Data de Publicação

06/08/2026

País da Publicação

Brasil

Idioma da Publicação

pt-BR

Página do Trabalho

https://www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1441883-why-reassembled-smallholder-cooperatives-struggle-to-survive--perspective-of-anti-commons

ISBN

978-65-272-2668-0

Palavras-Chave

anti-commons, smallholders, cooperatives, cooperative movement, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Resumo

Cooperation among peasants is considered one of the approaches to solve the challenges they face in today’s market economies. However, most smallholder cooperatives, which established through the reassembly of fragmented properties from an anti-commons state, end in failure. Lee Anne Fennell conceptualizes the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-commons as "common interest tragedies," using distinct production functions to describe different types of these tragedies. Based on the S-curved production function, we explain the different outcomes of two pastoralist cooperatives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. Although both cases share similar natural conditions, property arrangement and production organization, the reassembled cooperative has failed to improve the level of members' livelihoods and faces the risk of disintegration. In contrast, the other case, which has persisted since the People's Commune era, demonstrates resilience and strength as a cooperative over its 50-year evolution, with members' livelihood levels significantly surpassing the regional average. As the S-curved has depicted, reassembled smallholder cooperatives need to overcome the initial cooperative phase, which is characterized by low marginal utility, in order to generate a surplus to sustain the cooperation. In contemporary market economies, most smallholder cooperatives fail to provide adequate material incentives for members to endure this initial phase. Moreover, the lack of cooperative consciousness among smallholders hinders the development of the collective synergy needed to navigate this stage. We argue that mere assembly of property cannot rapidly yield cooperative surplus for smallholder cooperatives. Smallholder cooperation requires long-term and consistent assembling forces.

Título do Evento: 16th World Congress of Rural Sociology and 64th Congress of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics, Management and Sociology
Cidade do Evento: Porto Alegre
Título dos Anais do Evento: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA)
Nome da Editora: Even3
Meio de Divulgação: Meio Digital
DOI

Como citar

QI, Qin; LI, Wenjun; PUHUA, Xiribu. WHY REASSEMBLED SMALLHOLDER COOPERATIVES STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE: PERSPECTIVE OF ANTI-COMMONS.. In: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA). Anais...Porto Alegre(RS) UFRGS, 2026. Disponível em: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1441883-WHY-REASSEMBLED-SMALLHOLDER-COOPERATIVES-STRUGGLE-TO-SURVIVE--PERSPECTIVE-OF-ANTI-COMMONS. Acesso em: 22/09/2026