Coopérer avec méfiance : le système coopératif des bergers entre innovation sociale et développement rural

In the current debate, social innovation is a useful policy tool to strengthen rural development and oppose marginalization in rural areas. In this context, it is necessary to enhance the social function of agriculture as a producer of values that are out of the market and rooted in the territory. The agricultural cooperative can be a vector of social innovation and rural development in marginal areas, as a hybrid organization that, while existing within a market and profit-making context, operates according to a logic of social utility, oriented towards supporting its members and local communities. However, this process is not an automatic one. How and why does agricultural cooperation emerge and endure in a territory? What is the role of trust and past cooperative arrangements (path dependency)? How does the agricultural cooperative innovate and what are its limits? This article aims to answer these questions on the basis of a case study, the cooperative system of shepherds on a rural Mediterranean island.