278 lines
9 KiB
YAML
278 lines
9 KiB
YAML
abstract: 'Rationale and current interest in topic
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Rural areas in Andalusia present clear disadvantages as compared to
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urban areas, such as lack of infrastructure, scarcity of basic services
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or lack of economic dynamics, causing a rural exodus and thus giving
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rise to territorial imbalances in the region. This rural exodus, in
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turn, has a limiting influence on the generation of economic dynamics,
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resulting in an increasingly ageing population and reducing
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opportunities for territorial development.
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In the face of this problem, cooperatives -societies of the social
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economy- may play a significant role in terms of their capacity for
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attaching a population to its territory, due to the existence of a
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relationship with the surroundings in which they operate, as
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demonstrated by the available literature on this topic
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(Garcia-Gutierrez, 1999; Buendia and Garcia, 2003; Coque, 2005; Mozas
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and Bernal, 2006; Cunat and Coll, 2007; Puentes and Velasco, 2009; Calvo
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and Gonzalez, 2011; Demoustier, 2011; Draperi, 2014; Guzman, Santos and
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Barroso, 2016; Perez and Valiente, 2017).
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Moreover, there is significant cooperativism in this region (with 19\%
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of cooperatives and 18\% of the employment these generate nationwide
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located in Andalusia) as well as consolidated institutional recognition
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of these organisations (as evinced by the laws which regulate them, as
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well as by the Pactos Andaluces por la Economia Social {[}Andalusia
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Agreements for the Social Economy] or by the various support programs
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for cooperative organisations).This represents an opportunity for the
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creation of economic dynamics and for attaching the population to its
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territory through the promotion of social economy societies.
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Objectives
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The main objective of this work consists in determining whether
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cooperative societies in Andalusia may be contributing to the
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maintenance of the region''s population, especially in rural areas, to a
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greater extent than mercantile businesses.
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In addition to confirming whether this occurs throughout the entire
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population, we have separated out the populations of women and young
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people, due to the difficulties currently faced by these groups in
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joining the labour market (the main reason for emigration, especially in
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rural areas) and to their strategic interest in terms of consolidating
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the region''s population, passing the inter-generational torch in local
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economic activities.
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A comparison of cooperative societies with mercantile businesses is
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carried out in order to lay the foundations for the establishment of
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strategies and policies for the specific promotion of cooperativism, in
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the event that the behaviour seen in these social economy organisations
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differs from that of mercantile businesses.
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Methodology
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In working towards the stated objective, and after an exploratory
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analysis of the variables used, spatial econometrics techniques were
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applied which take into account the location of the data in a given
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geographic space for the variables under study: spatial distribution and
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autocorrelation analysis graph-sand the application of spatial
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regression. Calculation of the models was carried out with GeoDa
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software.
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With respect to the variables used, these were the following: percentage
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of total emigration, percentage of emigration of young people and
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percentage of emigration of women were considered as dependent, proxy
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variables for the attachment of population to territory; the number of
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cooperatives out of the total number of businesses was established, as
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well as the number of mercantile businesses (public limited companies
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and limited liability companies) out of the total number of businesses,
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expressed as percentages, served as explanatory variables. These
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variables were obtained for the various Andalusian municipalities (a
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total of 770) for 2015. In addition, for the purpose of determining
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whether differences exist in emigration between rural and non-rural
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municipalities, a dummy variable was added, termed rural municipality or
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territory.
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Results, practical conclusions and research limitations
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The results obtained provide indications that cooperativism may be
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contributing to an attachment of the population to its territory (as
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compared to mercantile businesses, where a significant relationship was
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not seen), since the regression analyses demonstrated that the variable
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for percentage of cooperative societies is significant in explaining the
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variability seen in emigration. Moreover, both show an inverse
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relationship. The same was obtained when the said dependent variables
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used were percentage of emigration of women and young people. In other
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words, the proportion of cooperatives inversely influence these
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emigration rates, which is not the case for mercantile businesses.
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Based on the aforementioned and given that, on the one hand,
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difficulties in attaching a population to its territory are further
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complicated in rural Andalusian municipalities, especially for women and
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young people and, on the other hand, cooperativism inversely influences
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emigration from rural municipalities, the creation of quality,
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sustainable employment through cooperatives societies of social economy-
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may represent an opportunity for reducing problems of depopulation in
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these areas.
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Another result obtained is that the cooperative business culture may be
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spread to neighbouring regions to a lesser extent than that of the
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conventional business sector. If cooperativism can contribute to an
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attachment of population to territory, the application of specific
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policies and strategies for reducing emigration from rural areas
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-promoting the development of cooperative societies for the creation of
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quality, sustainable employment and thus spreading cooperative culture
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to a greater extent-becomes at once a challenge and an opportunity for
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Andalusia. From another perspective, business synergies between
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cooperativism and conventional businesses may be encouraged, making the
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most of the opportunity offered by the latter for spreading their
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culture to neighbouring regions to a greater degree than cooperativism.
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In this way, spreading the principles and values of cooperativism in the
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Andalusian region can be achieved at the same time as contributing to an
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attachment of population to territory, through a potential business
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inter-cooperation.
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Among the conclusions drawn, one also finds the need to carry out
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specific strategies and policies for promoting cooperativism in
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Andalusia, derived from results showing more heterogeneous behaviour in
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the region than seen in the conventional business sector.
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With regard to the limitations of this work, it should be noted that, in
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the first place, the analysis carried out is static in nature, based on
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specific moment in time (the year 2015), which represents a limitation
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for analysing the evolutionary dynamic followed by both cooperatives
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societies and emigration in Andalusia. In the second place, percentage
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of emigration was taken as a proxy or indicative variable, with respect
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to the difficulty in attaching a population to its territory. However,
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the presence of other factors must be taken into account: it may be that
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the percentage of emigration is low or null as a result of considerable
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ageing in the population, such that depopulation or difficulty in
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attaching population to territory would be caused, rather, by a lack of
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demographic growth.
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This work has established a number of future lines of research stemming
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in part from the very limitations indicated above, among which are the
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analysis of the evolutionary dynamic between cooperativism and
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emigration for the purpose of identifying the relationship these have
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followed over time; as well as consideration of other factors indicating
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capacity for attaching population to territory, such as the previously
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mentioned rate of demographic growth.'
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affiliation: 'Palma, LV (Corresponding Author), Univ Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain.
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Valiente Palma, Lidia, Univ Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain.'
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author: Valiente Palma, Lidia
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author-email: lidia.valiente@uca.es
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author_list:
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- family: Valiente Palma
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given: Lidia
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da: '2023-09-28'
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doi: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.97.13046
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eissn: 1989-6816
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files: []
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issn: 0213-8093
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journal: CIRIEC-ESPANA REVISTA DE ECONOMIA PUBLICA SOCIAL Y COOPERATIVA
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keywords: 'Andalusia; cooperative societies; territory; emigration; spatial
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regression'
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language: Spanish
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month: NOV
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number-of-cited-references: '36'
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orcid-numbers: Valiente-Palma, Lidia/0000-0002-6054-3790
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pages: 49-74
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papis_id: 53b2ade41fd7f83eabe6fe24d5748176
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ref: Valientepalma2019iscooperativism
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researcherid-numbers: Valiente-Palma, Lidia/GQZ-1271-2022
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times-cited: '11'
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title: Is cooperativism helping to keep the population in Andalusia?
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type: article
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unique-id: WOS:000503419400002
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usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
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usage-count-since-2013: '16'
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volume: '97'
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web-of-science-categories: Economics
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year: '2019'
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