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My way of research: connecting the spirit of nineteenth century Catalan cooperatives with virtual communities My way of research: connecting the spirit of nineteenth century Catalan cooperatives with virtual communities
Posted by admin on 3/29/11 • Categorized as Introduction
When I started to explore the possibilities of rural communities as an organization of people for a particular purpose, in the context of Information Society and Knowledge, I could not have even imagined the extent to which the references of the organization of rural communities and the possible organization of communities through ICT could make sense.
Recently, reading the book edited by J. Fuguet/A.Mayayo, with contributions by several authors such as Antonio Gavaldà, I found what I consider to be some very remarkable references.
The origin of the Catalan cooperatives in Conca de Barberà and Tarragona is the first data that fills the potential connection between this study and the research performed until now around how and why rural Catalonia was organized in the late nineteenth century.
Today we associate the use of ICT as a tool to unite common interest profiles with a more or less rigid power or a traditional structure. Reviewing the process, because there is a need to generate forms of association in rural areas, finds interesting parallels:
“The process of social differentiation due to the agrarian crisis and the development of the liberal state will cause major changes in the methods and radical associations of rural communities. Owners and farmers will form their own organizations and independent projects related to social and national political projects. The vertical and interclass solidarity, often through the shelter of the parish, give way to horizontal solidarities of class. In other words, in the late nineteenth century, farmers realized that Barbara had more in common with the peasants of Pira or Cabra, than with the Barberà landwners. “(Mayayo, A., 139)*
The effect caused by the possibilities of the association spread. like wildfire. It is in this moment, when their own historical needs give value to connection between nodes: network society. It seems obviously interesting to explore how ICT can perform a similar function in our day. Not just for today, but to reinvent organizational structures and to explore new systems.
Tagged as: andreu_mayayo, catalan_cooperatives, virtual_communities
