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Abstract
The main objective of this article is to build up a typology of the ideological
discourses which guide and legitimize the different, and often mutually
contradictory, reactions of Spanish farm cooperatives to the processes of ever-increasing
socio-economic globalization in which they are immersed. In
accordance with this typology, in which we have followed a criterion similar to
Max Weber's, we distinguish four ideal ideological discourse types. These go
along a continuum from those which stress a more or less egalitarian mutualism,
which has traditionally characterized cooperatives, to those which tend to look
towards efficiency and managerial competitiveness. Although it focuses on the
situation occurring in Spain, the analysis strategy adopted in the present work
could be applied to the study of the reactions of farm cooperatives in other
countries in similar socio-economic circumstances.