Technology and rural development strategies in a small farmer organization: lessons from Bolivia for rural policy and practice

At a time when public sector agricultural and rural development administration is changing quite profoundly, and when farmer organizations are being asked to assume more significant roles in rural and agricultural development, in-depth analysis of these organizations is an important input into policy and programmatic discussions. This article is an analysis of one type of small farmer organization, a regional economic organization called El Ceibo in Bolivia. It is one of the most successful cases of small farmer organization around technology generation and product transformation and marketing in the Andes. El Ceibo has been able to open new markets for its products, adapt product transformation techniques appropriate for these markets, and develop technology in support of its marketing strategy. Factors favouring Ceibo's success include long-term financial and technical support from external agencies, isolated location, and a cash/export crop specialization. The impacts of Ceibo are significant, although it is not clear how far Ceibo's activities foster a more broadly based regional development in the Alto Beni area. The article also compares the strategies and impacts of economically based organizations such as El Ceibo with those of more traditional, representative and politically oriented small farmer organizations.     

SELF-CONCEPT, NEGATIVE FAMILY AFFECT, AND DELINQUENCY: A Comparison Across Mexican Social Classes

Using a semistructured measure to minimize cross-cultural biases, we examined the relationship between negative self and family-other affect and delinquency among 135 Mexican families of varying social class. The results indicated that: (a) both processed and released delinquent youths and their parents evaluated themselves more negatively than nondelinquent youths and their parents; (b) appraisals in the families of processed and released delinquents did not differ appreciably; (c) migrant families tended to manifest the most negativity and lower-class families the least, with middle-class families in between; and (d) socioeconomic status did not predict the relationship between family hostility and delinquency. The results are seen as providing more support for the family control theory of delinquency than for processing-labeling theory.