Paper short abstract:

In this paper I examine how occupational mobility of Japanese immigrants ─ from colonos to land owners ─ and government policies towards economic development programs were crucial to the emergence of agricultural cooperatives in Brazil.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I examine how occupational mobility of Japanese immigrants ─ from colonos to land owners ─ and government policies towards economic development programs were crucial to the emergence of agricultural cooperatives in Brazil. Using data from a 1958 Japanese population census in Brazil and bibliographical material, I suggest theoretical and empirical guidelines for a better understanding of the interplay between the market and noneconomic factors in the experience of these cooperatives. It is argued that the agricultural cooperativism represented one of the main collective organizational devices of Japanese immigrants for economic activity coordination, as well as it aggregated potential resources for the inclusion of this population in political and social processes in the host society. Cooperatives of Japanese immigrants in Brazil increased significantly from the 1930s, and especially during the Brazilian military dictatorship they have become fundamental institutions for the agriculture modernization policies. To understand the conditions that allowed these entrepreneurships emergence and its outcomes for the Japanese immigrants and their descendants over time I consider external and internal organizational factors, like the State regulation through laws and economic development plans, political regime changes, the spatial mobility of immigrants, the growth of the regional economy and cultural characteristics of immigrants. I explore relevant political processes of Brazilian society to understanding the performance structures of these cooperatives on market, as well as the orientation and influence of social forces that operated over these structures, sustaining or modifying it over time.

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