A cooperativa agroindustrial Lar sob a ótica do território: uma relação hibrida cooperativa/empresa

Abstract

The Agroindustrial Cooperative Lar emerged as a venture of migrants in Western Paraná and became an important agroindustry throughout the decades, therefore, the research topic addresses Lar’s territorialisation. It is a matter of comprehending its territory and its networks with its logics in the use of the Paraguayan territory. The proposition is to understand the profiling of the cooperative/corporation simultaneity and the distinctive feature of the cooperative organizations. Based on the dialectic method, the objective is to perceive contradictions generated in the cooperative/corporation relation of the capitalist method of production, and it is through the case study approach that we seek to understand the logic of territorialisation of this cooperative, which is framed in the qualitative approach for data collection. The first-level methodological tools of the research are documents, records, performance magazines, annual reports from 2000 to 2015, and history books of the cooperative from 2005 to 2014, among others. We can also include results of the observant participation and semi-structured interviews carried out, both with members and managers of the cooperative – key-informants to the investigation. The cooperative under study goes through the action of the State in the construction of the Agroindustrial Complex (CA) and that implies the deterritorialisation of the Rural Complex, which instantly reflects the dynamic of the production process within the production facilities of the cooperated members. In this system, what used to be separated ─ agriculture, industry and services, that is, the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors ─, are now part of a complex productive system which encompasses the sectors of the economy in a single organizational system. Thus, Lar has gone through repeated changes in its corporate name, all of them closely related to the transformations that took place in the productive sector since its origin. The setting up of the CAs are connected to the transformations that occurred within the cooperative sector – at Lar, in this case in particular. In order to develop this system, the cooperative at issue had to expand massively, widening its territorialisation, which went from local to regional, and regional network. In this process, the Cooperative, which was hybrid (cooperative/corporation), adjusts to the precepts of the CA and ends up changing its corporate name. The performance of the Cooperative with controlled companies, in this case, Lar Paraguai, sets an environment that maximizes transformation, adaptation and the restructuring of the cooperativism, seeking, as a result, diversification and added value. The relations now vary and the new verticalized productive structures get adjusted, through the agroindustrial complex based in a system that embeds agriculture/industry/trade/finance, typical of the CA. Consequently, it is the market that determines the investments and actions to be carried out by Lar, which incorporates capital appreciation, and acting in several fronts to obtain positive results. These actions make the cooperative system even more contradictory/hybrid, as it acts as a corporation/cooperative, the former linked to the competitive market of financial/economic indicators and the latter trying to stay faithful to the principles and to the law, linked to social efficiency indicators.