FORMS OF CO-OPERATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

Investigations carried out for a monographic study of the rural settlement RADSELO have revealed many characteristic situations and forms of co-operation. Important traditional co-operative relations being still in existence alongside with modern co-operative relations, the former have been dealt with in this study in some detail. The study is supplemented by a detailed description both of the traditional co-operative relations (as regards both Yugoslav legal regulations since the liberation and the functional role of the traditional co-operative in rural communities) and of other forms of co-operation in the village. In describing the latter, and especially the most recent ones, the authors point to the interconnections and the. determinants of the position of Radselo in both space and time (which are favourable in view of the village\u27s proximity to several centres); to demographic trends; the changes emerging in the social structure; »social systems«; property structure; employment; the structure of the family and traditions; etc., and try to find in them suitable indicators. The essential idea of the monographic study on Radselo is to compare the dynamic component, which is reflected in the amount of concrete co-operative relations, with the dynamic component which is reflected in various innovations. For comparison, and »index of innovations in co-operation« is used to show what degree of intensity was necessary in concrete co-operative relations in order that each of the three main groups of rural farms of households (agricultural, part- -time, and non-agricultural) could achieve a certain number of innovations (on the farm, in the household, and in communal services) over the last ten years