Cooperation and Culture. On forms of coopperation in the Gorale society

Abstract

In southern Poland, in the border region adjacent to Czechoslovakia, the people are called Gorale, which means mountain people. A study of the various forms of cooperation among the Gorals could show that cultural aspects must be included in the potentials for the development of fruitful cooperation. The various forms of cooperation are changing: some have disappeared (flax preparation), some tend to fade away (cottage herding), while some live and develop (forestry cooperative). This is an analysis of cooperative movements in a more general sense. I would like to suggest that one way to explain this is that the forms of cooperation that have the greatest chance of survival are those that are most firmly rooted in the cultural tradition of the Gorals.