Getting Ahead Collectively

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One Inverted Sequences

Is Security of Title a Precondition for Housing Improvements? Cali (Colombia) vs. Quilmes (Argentina)

Education in Literacy—Prerequisite or Induced? Some Experiences in Colombia

Chapter Two Other Notable Sequences

Inventing a New Linkage: A Microempresa in Santiago de los Caballeros

From Private Cooperation to the Public Arena

From Debt Pooling to Pressure Group: The Tricycle Riders of Santo Domingo

From Sewing to Advocacy: A Women's Academy in Comas (Lima)

Collective Ventures and Private Lives

What Will They Do with Their Free Time? The Dairy Plant in Durazno (Uruguay)

The Effect of Education on Family Ties: A Rural School in Alto Chelle (Chile)

Chapter Three The Emergence of Cooperative Action: outside Aggression

Aggression by Nature: Flooding in Argentina and Erosion in Uruguay

Aggression by Society

Land Swindles: Argentina and Colombia

The State as Aggressor: Argentina and Chile

Chapter Four The Emergence of Cooperative Action: Prior Mobilization

The Principle of Conservation and Mutation of Social Energy

Some Colombian Examples

Extensions of the Principle

Chapter Five Intangible Benefits and Costs of Cooperatives

Benefits (with a Story from Peru's Altiplano)

Digression: Sport and Social Change

Costs (with Stories from the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Peru)

Chapter Six Organizations Involved in Social Activism

Four Case Studies

Asociación Para la Vivienda Económica (AVE), Córdoba, Argentina

Museo de Aries y Tradiciones Populares, Bogotá, Colombia

Asociación de Promoción y Desarrollo Social (APDES), Comas (Lima), Peru

Instituto de Promoción Económico-Social del Uruguay (IPRU), Montevideo, Uruguay

National and International Aid to the Grassroots: An Interpretation

Chapter Seven What Does it All Add up to?