Economy and Ethnicity. The Recolta Agricultural Cooperative as a Driver of Local Economic and Social Resilience in the Village of Csanálos

Abstract This study examines the impact of the agricultural cooperative currently operating in Csanálos (Urziceni), a Swabian settlement in Szatmár (Satu Mare), on the local economy and society. Agricultural cooperatives played an important role at the beginning of the process of agrarian transformation after the regime change in Romania. Established on a voluntary basis, the successor organizations to the socialist agricultural collectives were able to offset the impoverishment brought about by re-peasantization or forced peasantization during the long transition period, provided a stable financial basis for communities in the difficult periods following the regime change, and, often taking over state responsibilities, represented social cooperation and trust-based social localism. On the other hand, they took advantage of their monopolistic position to hinder the emergence of individual and family farmers. The risk-averse, self-reliant economic model of the cooperatives evokes the self-sufficient organization of peasant farms. Cooperatives can thus be seen as a very specific form of post-socialist post-peasant production system.