The role of agricultural co-operatives in promoting sustainable development in rural areas: A systematic literature review

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dc.contributor.authorXu, Tianen
dc.contributor.authorO'Shaughnessy, Maryen
dc.contributor.authorOlmedo, Lucasen
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-28T16:35:37Z
dc.date.available2025-10-28T16:35:37Z
dc.date.issued2025-10-01en
dc.description.abstractAgricultural co-operatives are an important vehicle for addressing a range of issues in rural areas. However, most of the existing literature only addresses the contributions of agricultural co-operatives to rural development in a single dimension - economic, environmental, or social. Comprehensive and holistic reviews of the literature on the contributions of agricultural co-operatives to rural sustainable development are notably scarce. We respond to this gap using a systematic literature review through which we analyse 43 articles published from 1995 to December 2024. Research in this area is relatively new and rapidly developing, but the trends across regions are uneven. Scholars from developed countries tend to focus on the transformation of agricultural co-operatives and how they can evolve into models for promoting social development, while scholars from developing countries are more concerned with the role of agricultural co-operatives in poverty alleviation and green production. We also found that external public policies are important for the fulfilment of the role of agricultural co-operatives. Additionally, another area that requires further research is the trade-off between economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability in agricultural co-operatives in rural areas, as well as whether these goals are compatible, complementary, or in competition with each other.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationXu, T., O'Shaugnessy, M. and Olmedo, L. (2025) 'The role of agricultural co-operatives in promoting sustainable development in rural areas: A systematic literature review', Journal of Co-operative Studies, 58(2), pp. 5-20. https://doi.org/10.61869/IWDY3717en
dc.identifier.doi10.61869/iwdy3717en
dc.identifier.endpage20en
dc.identifier.issn0961-5784en
dc.identifier.issued2en
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Co-operative Studiesen
dc.identifier.startpage5en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18121
dc.identifier.volume58en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUK Society for Co-operative Studiesen
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Co-operative Studiesen
dc.rights© 2025, the Authors. This work is made available under the CC BY-NC license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/en
dc.subjectAgricultural co-operativesen
dc.subjectRural sustainable developmenten
dc.subjectSystematic literature reviewen
dc.subject~Food Business and Development - Journal Articles~en
dc.titleThe role of agricultural co-operatives in promoting sustainable development in rural areas: A systematic literature reviewen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
dc.typejournal-articleen
oaire.citation.issue2en
oaire.citation.volume58en
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