Abstract

This study of a wealthy soybeancooperative in central Brazil shows howglobally ambitious institutions promotethemselves as regional organizations. Manystudies of cooperatives focus on their abilityto provide material improvements in the livesof cooperative members and to the locality inwhich they operate. Data from cooperativemembership, from promotional literature, andfrom local news article illustrate symbolicstrategies used by management to aggressivelypromote the idea that the cooperative saved theregion from underdevelopment. The claim that itrepresents regional interests is problematicbecause the cooperative has promoted frontierspeculation by its membership in the Amazon.The cooperative has also embracedexport-oriented agriculture and cattleranching, sidelining regional foodproduction