Despite growing support for agricultural cooperatives as mechanisms for rural development, relatively little is known about how innovation spreads through, or is created within, the formal structure of a cooperative. This paper provides an ‘inside’ look at the social relationships operating within two agricultural cooperatives in rural Senegal (one well-functioning and the other poorly-functioning), focusing on self-reported innovation sharing and provisioning between members. Findings indicate that for both cooperatives, innovation was predominantly spread through formal vertical linkages (i.e. between hierarchal representatives), but was significantly controlled by key actors in leadership positions, resulting in large disparities in the innovation potential of different cooperative members. Social Network Analysis can help inform the design and evaluation of agricultural cooperatives by shifting the analysis to individual actors within the formal structure, potentially enabling new opportunities for enhanced cooperation to be identified and collectively strengthened.

中文翻译：

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小农农业生产合作社中的创新网络对比：塞内加尔尼亚耶斯地区的见解

尽管越来越多地支持将农业合作社作为农村发展的机制，但对创新如何通过合作社的正式结构传播或在合作社的正式结构中创造知之甚少。本文对塞内加尔农村的两个农业合作社内部的社会关系（一个运作良好而另一个运作不佳）进行了“内部”研究，重点是成员之间自我报告的创新共享和供应。研究结果表明，对于两个合作社而言，创新主要通过正式的垂直联系（即在等级代表之间）进行传播，但主要受领导角色中关键人物的控制，从而导致不同合作社成员的创新潜力存在巨大差异。