Social Capital and Cooperation in the Family Farm: a Comparative Analysis Between the State of Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina

Abstract

The organization of family farmers, through cooperative action, is an alternative for achieving competitiveness. In cooperation, we assumed the union of individual skills towards the common goal of the group, allowing the overcoming individualistic behavior. Given that social capital is defined as the ability to secure benefits through association in social relation networks, the objective of this work is to analyze the importance of social capital in implanting cooperative relations between family farmers in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina, Brazil. We used field research applying a questionnaire to 50 family farmers in each state, verifying social interactions at different levels in both states. In Santa Catarina we observed further development in this sense, when compared to the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in which we verified a low level of social capital by the low percentage of participation in organizations, cooperation, trust and reciprocity observed.