This article, inspired by June Nash’s provocative vision of postmodern
times in Chiapas, looks at how anthropologists have traced the changing nature of
grassroots organizations to suggest that we need to see cooperatives and other local
organizations in a new way, as ephemeral associations. Through the example of how
the cooperative imaginary has informed different development programs in
Mexico’s recent history, from the early cooperative movement in the 19th
century to the 21st century, it explores the idea that the institutional
arrangements of the recent past have given way to a state of constant flux. A new
volatility is at the heart of both the organizations and their surrounding
environment, so that local organizations now have to re-invent themselves
constantly, to keep up with global and local changes. Through a case study of
weavers’ cooperatives in Chiapas, the article points at their internal
flexibility and fragility in the current climate of little support for the projects
and activities of rural producers and the urban poor.
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