Social Capital as a mechanism for improvement in the performance forms of Farmers Cooperatives

Abstract

Among the possible relationships that can be drawn when studying the social capital, emphasis is given to the feasibility that this holds in the process of formation and consolidation of cooperatives, contributing to the better performance of the different actors involved. Therefore, this article aims to determine how social capital contributes to better coordination among the social, economic and institutional participants in the Cooperative of Fruit of Natuba and Region - COOPAVAN, located in the municipality of Natuba - PB. Interviews were conducted semi-structured, using a model of social capital proposed by Uphoff (2000), which is divided into structural and cognitive. In parallel, analysis criteria were created based on the literature in order to facilitate the evaluation process. The findings showed how the capital has contributed to strengthening the cooperative study, despite the bottlenecks faced the question of involvement between the partners.