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Brown University

Publication Date

Fall 2005

Program Name

Morocco: Culture and Society

Abstract

This project started out as part of a larger plan; the plan was for three students to do the background research necessary to start a women’s weaving co-operative in the rural village of Loutichina, located northeast of the city of Boujad in Morocco. The initial goal of my portion of the research was to understand the mobilization process that takes place when a co-operative is created; ethical considerations included understanding whether or not a co-operative is an organization that the community in Loutichina truly desires and ensuring that we did not create false hopes that a co-operative would form and then not follow through on plans that were made. My research brought me to the conclusion that there is no set mobilization process that occurs when a co-operative forms. Rather, I came to the understanding that each co-operative follows a different path – a path dependent upon local actors and circumstances. Furthermore, I also discovered that co-operatives are not the only way that women weavers organize themselves and sell their products. Therefore, this paper is not purely a study of co-operatives in Morocco; rather – in an attempt to understand what options are open to the women of Loutichina – it is an exploration of the economic options available to women weavers and an analysis of the benefits and challenges of each means of organization.

Disciplines

Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations

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