This article examines the shifting rural social relations in Paraguay’s soybean complex, with a specific focus on the role of farmer cooperatives in the commercialization of Paraguay's agriculture. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the departments of Itapúa and southern Alto Paraná in 2021 and 2022, this paper adopts an agrarian political economy perspective to argue that cooperatives in Paraguay serve as a stabilizing force by buffering against farming risk and mitigating the rise of reproduction costs. This dynamic allows for the differential incorporation of medium and some small-scale farmers, while contributing to the consolidation of the hegemonic export-oriented agri-food system, with all its associated implications. The article also contextualizes the analysis of contemporary cooperatives by providing a historical overview of the uneven development and concomitant regional variations in Paraguay’s soybean agriculture, and engages with broader historical debates on the potential of cooperative organizations in a capitalist context.

中文翻译：

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图表观察农民和农业综合企业合作社：合作组织在巴拉圭大豆综合体中的中介作用


本文研究了巴拉圭大豆综合体中不断变化的农村社会关系，特别关注农民合作社在巴拉圭农业商业化中的作用。借鉴 2021 年和 2022 年在伊塔普阿省和南巴拉那省进行的实地调查，本文采用农业政治经济学的观点，认为巴拉圭的合作社通过缓冲农业风险和缓解繁殖成本的上升起到了稳定作用。这种动态允许中小农户分化地融入，同时有助于巩固霸权性的出口导向型农业粮食体系及其所有相关影响。本文还通过对巴拉圭大豆农业的不平衡发展和随之而来的区域差异进行历史概述，对当代合作社进行了分析，并参与了关于合作组织在资本主义背景下的潜力的更广泛的历史辩论。