ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the failure (by their own lights) of the new cooperatives, which have either disappeared, or survived by virtue of either avoiding cooperation problems, or solving them in ways which depend neither on trust nor on overcoming free-riding problems. Based on multi-sited fieldwork conducted from 2011 to 2013, it argues that the cooperatives have neither returned to the particularistic cooperation of pre-revolutionary experiments, nor turned to the collectivistic cooperation of the international cooperative movement. Instead, their failure points to a wider breakdown of interpersonal interdependence, and a growth in marketization and individualization. The fate of cooperatives in the reform era provides an insight into changing cooperation and social structure in China more generally. It is hardly surprising that collectivism has failed to take root again in the new cooperatives, given the recent historical trauma associated with the People’s Communes and the widespread disillusionment with collectivist ideals in the reform era.
