Events
Seminars
Democratic member control in Chinese Cooperatives
Date: Tuesday,29th May,2.00pm
Time: 2.00 pm
Venue: Boardroom, Level 12, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus
Democratic member control in Chinese cooperatives: A case study of the Gung Ho MovementProposal presentation for full PhD registration - Parley Reynolds
Tuesday, 29th May, 2.00 pm – 3.30 pm
Cooperatives are a unique form of organization where individual members collectively own, and democratically manage, an enterprise for the members’ mutual benefit. Since the end of the Chinese civil war, the Chinese government has supported the formation of various forms of collective organizations in an effort to improve economic development and reduce poverty for those living in rural areas. The introduction of a Specialized Farmers’ Cooperative Law in 2007 has seen an upsurge in the formation and registration of rural agricultural cooperatives in China. The new law specifically states that cooperatives must be democratically managed. However, in a country where democracy is largely absent in the political sphere, and where cooperative organizations have had a long history of centralised government control, is a collectively owned and democratically operated enterprise possible? What are the policies and practices that influence member participation and democratic management in Chinese Cooperatives?
Exploring the perspective of cooperative members, the primary research question of this study is: what is meant by workplace democracy within the Gung Ho Movement? Cooperatives associated with the Gung Ho Movement in Shandan, China, will be the focus of this research. An ethnographic approach using observation and semi-structured interviews with members of the cooperatives will provide the data that will be used to conduct a discourse analysis, exploring power relationships and discussing the possibility of genuine democratic member control within cooperative enterprises in China.
For further information please contact Stephen Blumenfeld or Deborah Jones (Supervisors),
stephen.blumenfeld@vuw.ac.nz deborah.jones@vuw.ac.nz