Abstract This paper consists of a review of the literature on co-operatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It provides a synthesis of past knowledge on this topic and goes on to suggest, on the basis of this synthesis, that there is a critical knowledge gap in the current literature which consists of the fact that the importance of social movements doesn’t appear to have been considered by scholars involved in the study of co-operatives in the DRC. Given this finding, the paper calls for a re-thinking of the history of co-operatives in the DRC in order to determine whether the current DRC co-operative sector has its origins in social movements or not, and it also briefly discusses the implications of these scenarios. The importance of this paper derives from the need for solutions to the problems of widespread poverty and underdevelopment in the DRC, and from the fact that co-operatives are viewed as important vehicles for community development which can offer a solution to these problems.

中文翻译：

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刚果民主共和国的合作社：文献综述

摘要本文对刚果民主共和国（DRC）合作社的文献进行了回顾。它提供了有关该主题的过去知识的综合，并在此综合的基础上建议当前文献中存在关键的知识鸿沟，其中包括以下事实：社会运动的重要性似乎没有参与刚果民主共和国合作社研究的学者已经考虑过这一点。鉴于这一发现，本文呼吁对刚果民主共和国合作社的历史进行重新思考，以确定当前的刚果民主共和国合作社部门是否起源于社会运动，并且还简要讨论了其含义。这些方案中。