ABSTRACT
Development NGOs induce collective action, often in rural areas, based on latent social capital in groupings that can vaguely be referred to as communities. One of these forms of collective action, often in urban settings, is producer cooperatives (PCs). This chapter draws on the model of the Mondragon producer cooperatives system in the Basque region of Spain to identify some of the relevant theories and hypotheses. The section that follows discusses the evidence regarding the success of PCs. In the final section, the successes of two South Asian PCs are reviewed.
