Preface

The EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation Network

The EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation Network project is concerned with the fosteringof proactive collaborations in applied research in socio-economic and entrepreneurialinnovations through academic and entrepreneurial networking. The project is rooted in ourcommitment to human centred systems approaches in science and technology. The Projectwas set up based on the belief that the establishment of a direct relationship betweenuniversity research and the socio-economic and industrial applications is central to thefostering of proactive entrepreneurial and industrial cultures. Within the context of thisproject, the entrepreneurial dimension focuses on models of innovation andentrepreneurship, and their transferability between and across regions and cultures. Culturein this context emphasises the social and economic contexts in which technology isdesigned and applied to solve problems.

Karamjit S. Gill and Ashok Jain

Volume I: Enterprises and Cooperation Networks for Regional Development

Part One: Regional Development in India and Europe through Clusters and Networks,deals with the problems of the small entrepreneur. The importance of the small scale sectorin India can be gauged from the fact that this sector contributes over 40 percent to the grossturnover in the manufacturing sector, and 33 percent of total exports. One strategy forsurvival of these enterprises is clustering. Hence the first chapter examines three clustersfrom the State of Gujarat, India. The second chapter takes a look at the region: the regionand its enterprises can only sustain competitiveness on the basis of continuous innovationprocesses, i.e. through continuous learning. The third chapter describes the well-knownexample of successful regional development in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, withBologna as its capital town

Part Two: Village Renewal through Entrepreneurship, describes three different caseswhere the concepts of regional renewal discussed before have been put into practice indifferent village settings in India and Europe. The first chapter illustrates the process ofimproving the traditional dhokra brass-making craft as it is practised in West Bengal,India. The second chapter analyses how a small organic farm creamery is able to surviveagainst the large Cooperatives in Denmark. The third chapter deals with the cooperativemovement in the Indian dairy sector. Such cooperative movement succeeds only if it isseen as a networking of people. Hence this chapter examines the successful Anand Patternof this cooperative dairy development in Gujarat.

Part Three: Action Research in Theory and Practice: Indian-European Cross-CulturalExperiences, focuses on concepts, methodologies and examples of Action Researchutilized and developed further during the EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation Network.The first chapter outlines specifically the participatory interaction between the researchersand the other stakeholders. The next chapter demonstrates action research in practice atDudhsagar Dairy in Hehsana, Gujarat, India. The following chapters describe two actionresearch methodologies: the Search Conference, written by Francesco Garibaldo , and theScenario Workshop. The final chapter deals with the issue of women empowerment in thecontext of the Punjab Dairy Cooperative Movement supported through these actionresearch methodologies.

The considerable amount of materials contained in these two Volumes symbolises thecomplexity of the EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation Network. During the weeks ofworking through the materials of this complex inter-continental project, the editing processof these two Volumes became a fundamental and comprehensive exercise in knowledgemanagement in its own right. It meant to link knowledge and experiences of people on thetwo continents to achieve one consistent integrative representation of their concepts andactions. One aim of the editing was to include into the Volumes the tacit, experience-basedknowledge of the project actors in their different groups. This aim has been approachedthrough the Case Reports and Narratives which are the most important feature of theseVolumes.

Therefore the editing process was re-defined as a special project of knowledgemanagement beyond the time-span of the EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation Network.It was partly embedded within the large Germany-wide project Service Network forTraining and Continuing Education (SENEKA). In this sense, it may serve as anexample of how to record and organise such sharing of knowledge and experiences in aninter-continental and cross-cultural framework.

The editors would like to thank Ms Silke Offermann for her commitment to integrate thedifferent documents of 25 authors from two different continents into one document forpublishing.

Dietrich BrandtNovember 2002

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Part One: Regional Development in India and Europe through Clusters and

Networks

The first chapter Networking Industrial Clusters: A Conceptual Approach The GujaratExperience by Dhawal Mehta, Paurav Shukla and Ved Prakash Kharbanda, deals with theproblems of the small entrepreneur. The importance of the small scale sector in India can begauged from the fact that this sector contributes over 40 percent to the gross turnover in themanufacturing sector, and 33 percent of total exports. Here we are considering enterprisescomprising manpower from 25 persons to around 400 persons. One strategy for survival ofthese enterprises is clustering in order to overcome growth constraints and to compete inregional, national and international markets. Hence the objective of this chapter is to highlightthe major characteristics of industrial clusters in India and how these clusters are tackling theissues of sharing and transferring knowledge, and entrepreneurial cooperation. This chapterexamines three clusters from the State of Gujarat, India.

The second chapter Regional Networking in Germany- and the Concept of the IntegratedConsultant Intervention by Ellen Olbertz, Susanne Ihsen and Dietrich Brandt, takes a look atthe region: the region and its enterprises can only sustain competitiveness on the basis ofcontinuous innovation processes, i.e. through continuous learning. The question, however, iswhich kind of economic framework is needed to support such networked innovation andlearning processes in the region. Hence some aspects of this framework and its structuralchange processes are described leading to the concept of the Networked Learning Region.This region recognizes its own needs for change. Thus the cooperative regional networks ofenterprises, universities and public institutions put concepts of fundamental systemic changeinto practice.

The third chapter Clustering and Networking in Italy: a critical reflection on Emilia-Romagna and Bologna by Francesco Garibaldo, describes the well-known example ofsuccessful regional development: the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, with Bologna as itscapital town. The chapter talks, firstly, about the successes that have helped this region tobecome one of the top ten regions in Europe. It continues to discuss the problems and thecritical issues that a region whose economy is based upon small and medium enterprises, mustface today in a scenario of globalisation. Several theoretical concepts are used to analyse thesedevelopments which reflect the wide-spread commitment of different authors to this commoncause of concern.

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CHAPTER ONE

Networking Industrial Clusters: A Conceptual Approach

The Gujarat Experience

Dhawal Mehta and Paurav Shukla,,Ahemedabad, Gujarat, IndiaVed Prakash Kharbanda,, New Delhi, India

This chapter deals with the problems of the small entrepreneur: World over, small andmedium scale enterprises are regarded as fountainheads of entrepreneurship, innovation,nimble-footed change, major employers in terms of absolute numbers and major contributorsto society's economy. It is widely recognized today that clustering helps small businessenterprises to overcome growth constraints and compete in regional, national andinternational markets. The cluster concept has proved to be helpful in building localcapabilities, building competencies, up-gradating of skills and technological development.The objective of this chapter is to highlight the major characteristics of industrial clusters inIndia and how these clusters are tackling the issues of sharing and transferring knowledge,and entrepreneurial cooperation. This chapter examines three clusters from the State ofGujarat, India.

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1. Introduction: Clusters of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India

The importance of the small scale sector in India can be gauged from the fact that this sector

contributes over 40 percent to the gross turnover in the manufacturing sector, and 33 percent

of total exports (Mishra and Puri , 2001). Here we are considering enterprises comprising

manpower from 25 persons to around 400 persons.

Cullinane (1993) observes that these small-scale manufacturers lose out on the strengths

derived from size in terms of financial sustainability, depth and range of products, marketing

clout, brand and bargaining power.

These problems make the whole small-scale sector worldwide vulnerable to the global

competitive environment under the WTO impact. The mere problem is not that merely one

company dies but the consequences of the death of one company is much bigger than one may

expect. If these small-scale entrepreneurs are not saved we will probably lose the most

innovative, creative and collaborative business system of our society.

The problems mentioned above are all related to the physical existence of the enterprise based

on the impact of their products, prices and their competition. But one major factor needs to be

taken into consideration additionally: the information impact.

The present-day knowledge economy demands knowledge-intensive enterprises Only such

enterprises can survive in the ongoing process of globalization and increased international

competition. Knowledge as a factor for competitive advantage has replaced traditional factors

like labour and capital. As knowledge resides in the human mind, it can only be harnessed by

focusing on increasing human capabilities through the process of increased communication,

cooperation and linkages: Such linkages would need to work both within the enterprise as

well as across enterprises and knowledge-producing organizations (Kharbanda, 2001). The

tacit knowledge of the human operators is one essential component of such knowledge.

One of the most successful innovations to improve the chances of survival of SMEs is,

therefore, the concept of industrial clusters. The experiences in different countries show that

clusters of enterprises provide a better environment for knowledge sharing and transfer of

information and experiences because of the proximity, mutual trust and common goal of the

enterprises. In such industrial clusters, all partners and members are working like one big

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networked company. Clusters - similar to companies - have their own lives, their own rise and

fall but importantly they stay together for longer periods of time.

There is increasing agreement that clustering helps small enterprise to overcome growth

constraints and compete in international markets (Nadvi & Schmitz, 1999). To achieve these

objectives, knowledge sharing in enterprise units in a cluster has come to occupy a central

place. While these have been highly successful in Europe, much needs to be done in the

Indian context. What are the factors which need attention in order to make Indian clusters

more dynamic? What can we learn from other cultures? What policy measures are required at

national level? It needs a detailed analysis how SMEs in clusters can share and transfer

knowledge and information effectively to enhance innovative capabilities and cooperate in an

increasingly competitive environment.

The objective of this chapter is to highlight major characteristics of clusters in India, and how

these clusters are tackling the issues of sharing and transferring knowledge, and

entrepreneurial cooperation; how these can learn from each other in a cross-cultural context;

and how a regional cross-cultural virtual network can be built to create a constant learning

environment.

This chapter is based on studies conducted at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. They were carried

out under the EU-India Cross Cultural Innovation Network Project, initiated in 1999. The

chapter, firstly, discusses the achievements and challenges faced by Indian Small and Medium

Enterprises (SMEs) and their adoption of the cluster concept. Secondly, three case reports

illustrate the implementation of this concept of clusters in India: the Diesel Engines Cluster,

Rajkot; the Gems and Jewelry Cluster, Surat; and the Ceramic Clusters, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Finally the unique features of clusters in the Indian context are discussed and some

conclusions are drawn. Here follows the map of the region of India involved in the project

activities described.

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Figure 1: Some regions of India collaborating in the EU-India Cross-Cultural Network

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2. The Concept of Clusters

2.1 Clusters as the Key Concept

Everywhere in the world many innovative ways have been practiced by small-scale

enterprises to ward off the disadvantages of their size. One of the most successful innovations

is the concept of industry clusters. Here we are suggesting to consider clusters as the key

concept for the entrepreneurial community as a whole: how they can get more out of the

information age using the new techniques and tactics of the business world. It is not just the

computer or the Internet that will make enterprises survive.

The cluster development program started in Italy around 1970: It was meant as the counter-

strategy against the model of regional development through large investment. The model was

later followed by many developed nations. UNIDO replicated the cluster development

programme in Latin American countries in 1993. The concept came to India in 1996. Today

there are estimated 350 modern SMEs and 2,000 rural and artisan-based clusters in India

contributing up to 60 percent to the country's manufactured exports.

Compared with a decade ago, there is now more optimism concerning the growth and export

prospects of small manufacturers in developing countries. Recent research on industrial

clusters has made a major contribution to this shift in the debate. There is increasing

agreement that clustering helps small enterprises to overcome growth constraints and to

compete in distant markets. There is also the recognition, however, that industrial survival is

not an automatic outcome of clustering (Nadvi & Schmitz, 1999).

One of the main objectives of this research paper is to specify the circumstances in which

clustering boosts industrial growth and competitiveness. This introduction stresses that such

an understanding needs to distinguish between incipient and more advance stages of

clustering.

2.2 Advantages and Strengths of Clusters

When we are talking about clusters we also need to understand what it means. A simple

definition of a cluster suggests that it is a network made for information and resource sharing

between people. Clusters are defined as the concentration of activities belonging to the same

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sub-sector of industry. Such clusters are a common phenomenon in Asia (Nadvi & Schmitz,

1994). An old Indian proverb says: Two Hands together are better than One Hand. The same

is true for small entrepreneurs also.

Clusters or networks of companies have the inherent advantages of both the large and small

companies. The Network is the Company and the Company is the Network. (Birley &

Muzyka, 2000). The network has no centralized but distributed control. The network retains

the agility, inherent in a small company; yet it has competitiveness and financial and infra-

structural depth of a large company. The network style of functioning automatically allows an

efficient interlocking of enterprises. It works as a link between the meshes or within the web

of the small-scale industries of the cluster. The basis of it is the following concept: Each link

in the chain within the web structure is, on the one hand, customer for the preceding link and,

on the other hand, vendor for the succeeding link. In fact, there are countless examples where

large companies have tried to secure the advantages of networking concepts by implementing

various structures like Strategic Business Units or Internal Customer Chains to bring about

efficiencies and improved economic performance in all their processes: marketing, customer

communication and acquisition, production, procurement, packaging, delivery and after-sales

service etc..

There are many more advantages through cooperative efforts among industrial units because

of cluster development. It is possible to improve managing raw material availability in terms

of quality, price and quantity. Furthermore it is possible to organize technological

improvement as a common programme, to avail plant and machinery at affordable prices and

to adopt process modifications. It is also possible to organize quality improvement

programmes. Clusters may set up their own facilities centers for quality improvement, testing

of products, storing of raw material, managing maintenance etc.. The units can also make

joint marketing efforts through organizing trade fairs, market surveys, common publicity and

even by adopting common brand names. It is also possible to organize training programmes

for entrepreneurs, supervisors and workmen within the cluster.

There is, however, the problem of internal competition between the entrepreneurs of the

cluster. It may result in reduction of prices, cost cutting among units and sometimes

deterioration in quality of the products. These problems and disadvantages need to be

overcome through the cluster’s strategies of cooperation and communication. It is a

substantial task and responsibility for both the cluster management and all cluster members.

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Despite the diversity of experiences recorded so far, the focus on clusters has proved to be

analytically useful. The most fundamental analytical insight did not, however, come from

these recent studies but from old theory. In his Principles of Economics, Marshall (1920)

showed why clustering can help enterprises (especially SMEs) to compete with large

enterprises. He noted that the agglomeration of firms engaged in similar or related activities

generates a range of localized external economies that lowers costs for clustered producers.

Such advantages include a pool of specialized workers, easy access to suppliers of specialized

inputs and services, and the quick dissemination of new knowledge. Such external economies

help explain the growth of contemporary industrial clusters and Marshall’s nearly one century

old work is a standard reference in this new literature.

In their joint work, Nadvi (1996) and Schmitz (1995) brought together the incidental and

deliberate effects into the concept of collective efficiency. It is defined as the competitive

advantage derived from both external economies and joint action. By calling the former

passive and the latter active collective efficiency, clustering brings two advantages: those that

fall into the producer’s lap and those that require joint efforts. The authors, thus, suggested the

pairing of the passive and active components to explain certain differences in economic

performance. These aspects of clustering are followed further in the subsequent paragraph.

2.3 Developing Entrepreneurial Clusters

For those with interests in the technological and organizational underpinnings of the long-

term process of industrialization, research on industrial clusters in developing clusters has

moved into an intriguing transition phase. For several years this field of research has

concentrated on various aspects of the comparative morphology of clusters, but recently it has

become increasingly concerned with questions about the dynamism of clusters and their

longer-term competitiveness (Albu & Bell, 1999).

Not to be missed here is that the dynamics of the cluster concept requires knowledge sharing

between the partners of clusters. This sharing may become natural because the partners realize

the feeling of Sink or Swim Together generated within the cluster. Thus, learning is shared,

exchanged, copied, improved upon, implemented and thus, one big chain of innovation is

continuously supported and nurtured by the network.

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Presently the wave of IT powers every aspect of human activity on all economic fronts. It

would be worth examining how IT shapes the clusters of industries. Without much ado, we

can say that the concept of clusters or networks and the Internet based IT-world are made for

each other (Mehta, 2000). Whereas traditional industrial clusters had to be in the same

geographical proximity to take root and flourish, Internet has radically redefined the game.

With its Geography-is-History paradigm, Internet potentially enables industry clusters to span

the entire globe.

For small-scale industry anywhere in the world, collaborative effort is needed cocerning their

competing companies because in the world of competition those who collaborate may usually

win. This kind of networking will help SMEs to complement each others’ strengths and to

learn from the mistakes of others. One example is the diamond trade which is discussed as

one of the three case reports later in this chapter. Rough diamonds are traveling from the

mines of South Africa through markets of Belgium to gem-cutters-and-polishers of India and

back to Belgium markets. This example shows some existing global clusters. Presently

communication costs are plummeting to rock-bottom levels due to Internet. Hence

collaboration in sharing processes of design and production is being rendered highly feasible

in economic terms even for clusters spanning many continents (Dewan, 2001). In the

following paragraph, the concept of clusters is further discussed on the three levels of Local,

National and Global Clusters.

3. The Local, National and Global Clusters

3.1 The Local Cluster Concept: The Societal Cluster

The local cluster is developing easily in India as most of the business is handled by a group of

family members owning different companies in the same industry (Desai, 2000). In the

example to be discussed later, the Rajkot Diesel Engine Industry, most of the entrepreneurs

who are involved in the business of manufacturing these diesel engines, are from the same

caste and from about the same family background.

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Family 1 :Member 2

Family 1 :Member 1

Family 1 :Member 3

Family 4 :Member 2

Family 2 :Member 1

Family 4 :Member 3

Family 4 :Member 1

Family 3 :Member 1

The Cluster

Figure 2: The Local Cluster

Hence collaboration within the group is on the higher side, but competitiveness is lower. And

the major use of the cluster is for relationship maintenance, not for information sharing. The

sharing of information within the group is limited as the intra-cluster culture is quite strong.

One family will not easily share any new information with any other family group, even

within the same cluster.

Culture also becomes an important part as most of the entrepreneurs in the cluster belong to

the same community or class or caste. Hence they follow similar types of business policies

and overall business pattern (Phansalkar, 1999.

According to Manimala (1999), one of the advantages of a local cluster is the support from

local government. In many of the cases the government treats them as privileged group of

entrepreneurs. They are provided with special benefits concerning tax, operations and certain

other areas of business.

To sum up, there are certain characteristics of the local clusters. They are as follows:

− The creation of local cluster is based on family business.

− The state government support is higher for such clusters than for single enterprises.

− Most entrepreneurs are from the same locality or of the same caste.

− The business style or pattern followed is also very similar.

− Therefore they all have similar competitive advantages.

− Finance is generally generated within the family

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− They possess high knowledge about each other as persons but less knowledge about their

competencies as entrepreneurs

3.2 The National Cluster Concept (NCC): The Region-Based Cluster

Region 1 Region 2

Region 4Region 3

The NationalCluster

Figure 3: The National Cluster

Generally resource-rich countries like India have more than one cluster in the same industry.

They are differentiated through their locations. The national clusters are basically groups of

local clusters spread geographically. As an example, the diesel engine industry is organised in

the national cluster which consists of different local clusters based at Rajkot, Puna, Punjab,

Coimbtore etc.. National Clusters, thus, have similar kinds of advantages and characteristics

like local clusters because they are formed through the groupings of local clusters.

The major hurdle to the national cluster concept is the regionalization prevailing in India. Due

to this regionalization the State Government’s support to clusters as local clusters is available

but when it comes to national clusters the commitment of the Government is low. Even the

Central Government treats national clusters as one industry and all kinds of taxes are levied

on the entrepreneurs who in reality are small-scale manufacturers. The same problems are

faced by region-based clusters.

To sum up, some of the characteristics of national clusters are shown as below:

− The creation of national cluster is also due to the business being family business.

− The State Government support is not as high as given to local clusters. They are treated as

one large industry by the Central Government.

− Most entrepreneurs belong to the same caste or caste groups.

− The business style or pattern followed similar.

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− They all have similar competitive advantage.

− Financial support is generally generated within the family, and from other resources, but

not from banks.

− The entrepreneurs possess less knowledge about each other than in local clusters and they

tend to be unable to identify competencies of their business partners.

3.3 The Way Out - Global Clusters

As described above, in the local and national clusters knowledge sharing is mostly informal.

Information regarding the latest development and competency development are much less

common than needed for survival. Work sharing is not seen as feasible in the local and

national clusters, because it is a fight for the same customers and in the same markets. Even

though the products and technologies used by the entrepreneurs are similar; the tendency to

share experiences is small among the cluster partners. And as most clusters are made for

production-related issues, e.g. procurement of raw materials, maintenance and corrective

actions, the marketing-related issues are little dealt with.

The marketing-related issues are the real differentiators between multi-national companies

and the small-scale industry entrepreneurs. With the creation of local and national clusters,

the small-scale industry entrepreneurs can compete with the multinational company on the

issues of quality and other production aspects. But when it comes to marketing, the

multinational companies are much ahead of the small-scale entrepreneurs. With the marketing

muscle, the multinational companies take away the market share from the small-scale

entrepreneurs.

Here the issues relating to competition and competitiveness come again into the picture: in

local and national clusters, the entrepreneurs are not sufficiently aware of their competitors'

strengths and weaknesses.

If we see the above problems, we can understand that local and national clusters do not really

serve the purpose for which they are created. The local and national clusters nearly miss the

vital factor of knowledge sharing between the different partners of the cluster. Clusters,

however, are meant for sharing of information, but the non-sharing of information between

the partners of local and national clusters creates a situation where the cluster’s real impact is

lost.

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While we are discussing the way out we need to understand what is a global cluster. In this

era of mergers and acquisition, collaboration at local and national level is not sufficient. We

have seen the pros and cons of local and national clusters. A very important point that local

and national clusters both miss is the competitiveness. Brandt et al. (2002) emphasize the

importance that in industrial clusters, cooperation and competition need to go together: For

this aim, partners have to see each others as fundamentally equal. Cooperation only develops

towards long-term commitment among equals.

Perhaps only global clusters will counteract the threat of WTO for small-scale industries to

their advantage. Such global clusters are basically created between local clusters in different

countries of the world. A global cluster may overcome the hurdles which are faced by the

local and national clusters. As it is a network of clusters on a larger scale, each cluster knows

much more about the other clusters than on a local level. It helps entrepreneurs in following

manner.

There is the problem of getting the funds on a larger scale to improve production and

marketing as well research and development. It is always a specific problem for small

entrepreneurs. With the help of global clusters, the entrepreneurs can more easily contact

venture capitalists worldwide that can help in igniting their business processes. It may lead

towards easier financing and, thus, to more focused business as a whole.

Furthermore global clusters can improve knowledge sharing. As global cluster is an

international phenomenon entrepreneurs are very keen about what is happening around the

world. Due to such increased information sharing, the local clusters’ entrepreneurs understand

other entrepreneurs’ competencies in a better way which in turn may lead them to sharing

work among themselves.

Thus due to these global clusters, the small-scale industry entrepreneurs may be able to

compete with the multinational companies in a better way. It is said that now the world has

become one marketplace. Any entrepreneur who has an added advantage over others can sell

his products more easily anywhere in the world. It may contribute to the whole economy to

become more prosperous.

The following points sum up the most important characteristics of global clusters:

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− They improve the sharing of information, work, technology, product and production

processes, marketing etc. between the entrepreneurs of the clusters around the globe.

− They strengthen the mutual understanding of the the entrepreneurs.

4. Management of Cluster Knowledge Systems

As has become obvious in the previous paragraphs, knowledge sharing is on crucial issue in

clustering. Albu & Bell (1999), have given illustrative information about different types of

knowledge and sources of knowledge for clusters. They call these types knowledge systems.

Sources of increase inknowledge using capabilities

Sources of increase inknowledge changing

capabilitiesIntra-firm sources Passive experience of production

(“Learning by doing production”)Active efforts to adopt orimprove specific technologiesImproved practices derived fromtrial and error experimentation onspecific tasks

Generally applicabletechnological understandinggained from undertakinginvestment activities (“Learningby doing investment”)Generic technological insightsgained from adapting andimproving existing technology inuse (“Learning by changing”)

Intra-cluster sources Intra-cluster mobility of skilledlabourCluster mediated training inoperating skills and proceduresKnow-how diffusion betweenintracluster production and usersof machinery or production-related services

Cluster-sourced training inplanning, design and technologymanagementCreative collaboration betweenfirms and cluster-basedtechnology institutionsIntra-cluster collaboration in testsand experiments to adaptmachinery or develop productdesigns

Sources outside thecluster

Customers and tradersknowledge, specifications andproduct/process adviceMachinery and other inputsuppliers operational knowledge,advice and trainingExternally linked technical adviceand consultancy servicesExternally linked trade andmarketing information services

Externally sourced training inplanning, design and technologymanagementOn the job experience in designand engineering with machineryand other input suppliersCollaborative testing ortechnology development withtechnology institutions or firmsoutside the cluster

Table 1: Sources of increased capability in cluster knowledge systems

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With the use of the clusters, the entrepreneurs can also know what the customer in the world

market needs, and what they should produce. This helps the entrepreneurs in generating long-

term business. The clusters also provide all the product-related changes. Thus the

entrepreneurs can change or modify their current products and get an added advantage of not

spending on R & D but still earning more recognition and profits. With Kim (1997), the issues

of extra-cluster innovation and intra-cluster diffusion become important because innovations

done by others are to be spread among the cluster members, otherwise the cluster remains

backward in time and development.

After this extensive discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of

clusters, three case reports are presented in the following paragraph. The three clusters

described deal with Diesel Engines, Gems and Jewelry, and Ceramics.

5. The Indian Clusters: Three Examples

5.1 The Cluster Concept in India

In India, at present, there are about 138 major clusters which are engaged in specialized

industrial sub-sectors such as: locks at Aligarh, leather footwear at Agra and Kanpur; cotton

hosiery at Calcutta and Delhi; blankets in Panipat; power looms at Bhiwadi; diesel engines in

Rajkot, diamond polishing in Surat. Space bound "dense clusters" related to a specialized

industry are even more pronounced in the State of Punjab with woolen garments, bicycle and

bicycle parts, sewing machine parts and machine tools in Ludhiana; printing and printing

goods, water pipes and bathroom fixtures in Jallandhar; foundries in Batala, etc. Of these, the

one at Ludhiana is one of the very successful clusters, having a wide range of diverse products

building on “mechanical” skills , which include sewing machines parts, bicycle and bicycle

parts, auto parts components and machine tools.

Ludhiana is well known as the Manchester of India. It alone contributes to the production of

95% of the country’s woolen knitwear, 85% of country’s knitting machines and 60% of the

nation’s bicycles and bicycle’s parts. The Agra cluster makes 0.15 million pairs of shoes per

day with a production value of 1.3 m US$ and it is exporting shoes worth US $ 57.14 million

per year (Juneja, 1998). The knitwear cluster in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, is responsible for 85%

of Indian Market and its export earnings have expanded from US$ 25 million in 1986 to US$

636 million in 1997. It is interesting about the Tiruppur cluster that it is organized in a web of

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small work places through which the entire town works like a living industrial organization

(Chari, 2000). Here we present three detailed case studies of clusters relating to the Diesel

Engines Cluster in Rajkot, the Gems and Jewelry Cluster in Surat, and the Ceramics Cluster

near Ahmedabad, all located in the State of Gujarat in India.

5.2 The Diesel Engine Cluster, Rajkot, Gujarat (First Example)

Rajkot Diesel Engine Industry is the leader in Indian Diesel Engine market with more than

60 % of India’s total diesel engine production. It accounts for around 0.3 million diesel

engines per year valued around Rs. 2500 million with sizes from 3.5 HP to 20 HP. Majority

production is in the range from 3.5 HP to 8 HP. State wise production is given in Table 2. The

industry is made up of small-scale manufacturers and has about 400 foundry units in the city.

Their annual production is more than one hundred thousand tones of casting. It employs more

than 40,000 workers. The cluster is a network of units manufacturing different components of

the diesel engines and the units assembling the components to get finished products. Thus the

network of suppliers and buyers is within the cluster itself.

State and place of concentration Percentage of concentration of units

Gujarat - Rajkot 60 % of production consisting of highspeed and slow speed diesel engines

Maharashtra - Pune, Kohlapur 15 %

U.P. - Agra 15%

M.P. - Indore 5 %

Other states (Tamilnadu - Coimbatore,Punjab - Few pockets)

5 %

Table 2: State-wise Concentration of Diesel Engine Manufacturing Units:

Of the above State’s concentration, Rajkot in Gujarat is the major production center of slow

speed Lister type diesel engines and caters to the irrigation demands of India which constitute

75% production of Lister type diesel engines. The remaining 25 % go for other purposes like

concrete mixture crushes, sugar cane crushes, flour mills, etc. The development of the Indian

diesel engine industry after independence has passed through three distinct phases in the last

three decades.

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The Seventies, as the First Stage of cluster development, saw the demand phase wherein the

supply was short. Efforts were concentrated on indigenising and increasing production.

Investments were made in production technology developed during the Sixties. This period

also witnessed a fuel crisis which led to the sharp rise in prices of oil products. The industry

was mainly supplying goods to the commercial vehicle and the agriculture sectors.

The Eighties, as the Second Stage, saw the manufacturers’ attention focused on improving

fuel efficiency following fuel crisis of the seventies. The central government also offered some

lucrative incentive scheme for the large-scale manufacturers as well as for the small-scale

sector.

The Third Stage began in the early Nineties when the rest of the developed world was

changing towards the rotary pump and the electronically controlled engine management

systems. India, however, continued to rely on the indigenous diesel engines, and was also able

to export it to the other developing countries.

Recently interviews were conducted with fifteen selected entrepreneurs associated with this

cluster. They highlighted a number of problems faced by this industry. These are as follows:

The Rajkot Diesel Engine industry is facing severe problems of competition and product

innovation. These entrepreneurs are working without any support from outside sources. Their

knowledge loop in the network is limited to themselves as entrepreneurs, and they have to try

to find solutions to their problems from inside. Whatever improvements were done were

based on the knowledge and information available within the cluster. Thus in order to acquire

new knowledge, they created an association called Rajkot Engineering Association (REA)

which takes care of raw material supplies and bulk buying. The association also helps to keep

them updated with the latest information. But still the market share of their products is going

down. After enjoying a growth of more than 22% for more than a decade in the international

markets, the industry is now growing at a pace of 8%.

According to Pillai (2000), the clusters should be self-sufficient. To what extent has the

cluster an assured availability of key inputs like raw materials, components and parts from

within the cluster itself? Adequate availability of inputs on site substantially reduces the

transactions cost. In case of the components and machineries, the Rajkot cluster used to enjoy

nearly self-sufficiency. By the 1990s, the situation changed. The long-standing relationship

18

between traders and producers in the cluster was earlier characterized by mutual trust,

efficient timely delivery and good quality of the inputs: From then on it slowly started

disappearing mainly because of payment delays, lack of sufficient orders, inventory

accumulation, etc.. As a result, the industry is losing its market share in the international

markets and even in the domestic markets. In the international markets the industry is facing

competition from cheap Chinese products. In the domestic markets the competition is

somewhat different. It arises from the increasing availability of electricity to rural farmers

who now no longer need diesel engines to pump water for their farms. They now use electric

motors rather than diesel engines. This development is positive in terms of the protection of

the natural environment - but it is an additional burden for India’s indigenous industry today.

Hence in the year 2000, groups of entrepreneurs were sent to UK and China to grasp new

technology in the diesel engine production in order to revive their international

competitiveness.

At Rajkot, the major use of the cluster is made for the maintenance of relationships and less

for information or knowledge sharing. There is competition, conflict, rivalry and cooperation

all together in one day’s business today. The strong sense of family, caste, and linguistic and

regional identities greatly influence the determination of business objectives and focus, and

the means of achieving them for the entrepreneurs involved in the diesel engine business at

Rajkot. Due to these community-caste-linguistic groups of entrepreneurs competing with each

other, the result is an imperfect market nurturing dominant coalitions of firms by particular

communities. This is one of the main limitations of the Family Model.

5.3 The Diamond Processing Industrial Cluster, Surat, Gujarat (Second Example)

Gems & Jewelry (G&J) is another industrial cluster in Gujarat, which has displayed great

innovation at small-enterprise level. G&J industry is second largest foreign exchange earner

in India. It is concentrated in the South of Gujarat with a large number of small scale units

engaged in diamond processing to serve 80% of world’s diamond market. Gems & Jewelry

industry in India is labor intensive and employs over 1 million people, which indicates its

massive socio-economic impact on the Indian sub-continent. The industry is mainly fostered

in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala. In

this business, diamonds have lion’s share in Indian G&J exports. Export of cut & polished

diamonds is almost 81% of total gems & jewelry exports. The total export by this segment in

19

the year 1999-2000 was approx. US $ 6,500 million, which is about 16% of India’s total

exports of US $ 35 billion. The industry has been growing at 15-17% annually during the last

few years.

The G&J industry in India is structured through the market segments diamonds, jewelry and

precious/semi precious stones (Figure 4). These segments are further divided into sub-

segments. However, diamonds dominate the total G&J exports and contribute US $5.5 billion,

which means about 81% of the total exports by the industry.

Gems & Jewelry Industry

Diamonds Jewelry Precious Stones

Cut & Polished Gold Pearls

Rough Precious Metals Color Gem Stones

Costume/Fashion Synthetic Stones

Figure 4: The Structure of Gems and Jewelry Industry in India

India is considered to be the world’s leading center for cut & polished diamonds. Indian cut &

polished diamonds account for about 45% of international diamond production in value terms

& 70% in terms of carats. It is the main center for processing of diamonds, i.e., making cut &

polished diamonds from roughs, processing about 100 million Carats of rough diamonds

against the worlds total output of 117 million of rough diamonds. Out of every batch of 10

diamonds made in the world, 7.5 are made in India. It shows that India has established itself

as the world’s largest diamond processing center. In India, the diamond processing units are

mainly located in Gujarat, particularly in Surat, Navsari and some parts of Sarasota & the

Northern Gujarat region. About 80 % of the country’s diamond processing work is being done

in Gujarat, out of which more than 50 % is conducted at Surat. The diamond processing

20

industry in India, thus, is quite unique as it has developed at one location as one industrial

cluster. Surat city is, thus, also known as the Diamond City of India.

The industry developed in the 60s in Surat because of its proximity to Mumbai where most of

the export houses are located. Later, industry has developed its footing in some of the centers

of Saurashtra like Amreli, Bhavnagar, Mahuva, Palitana and some of the centers of North

Gujarat like Visnagar, Mehsana, Sidhpur, Palanpur, etc.. This industry comprises about 2000

units of cutting & polishing out of which about one third are located in Surat. It employs

about 1.5 million people directly and provides employment opportunities to more than 2.5

million people. Their wage bill comes to Rs. 15 billion per annum. An investment of Rs. 50

million in this sector creates employment for 1000 people. The industry is, thus, a major

employer. 95 per cent of active diamond exporters are based in Mumbai and Surat thus

making it possible for the trade to serve the varied requirements of the numerous foreign

buyers from different countries

The processing capacity of each unit ranges from 4 to 400 carats. While the production

capacity depends on the type, shape and size of the diamonds, it also depends on the skills of

the workers. There has been a gradual switch-over from contract processing to in-house

processing, under modern quality control and healthy working conditions. There are about

7000 different types of diamonds. The processing is done through machines which have been

ingeniously manufactured and are operated manually. The technology and skill required for

cutting and polishing of diamonds have been largely developed within the country and at the

industry’s own costs. The professional expertise and venture of some spirited young engineers

and craftsmen has resulted in the diversification of export markets. Most of the diamond

dealers are inter-connected and have developed a collective interest in achieving increasingly

higher export targets thus forming a viable network. This has helped to create large volumes

and wide varieties of G&J at economic costs.

The State gives support in terms of cutting down on export duties for capital equipment,

allowing free import of gold and other metals, freeing the movement of imported goods from

sales tax, etc. According to the survey conducted at Surat by Keyoor Purani (2000), there is a

high amount of innovation in this cluster. The innovativeness is summarized as follows.

21

Dynamic/Diverse Product-mix Innovation

The diamond industry has developed a unique Dynamic/ Diverse (D/D) product-mix to meet

worldwide demands, customer tastes and preferences. Innovations have been made in the

product-mix keeping it dynamic and diverse by non-standardizing the processing of

diamonds, mastering the craft and maintaining large raw material inventories.

Fancy cut diamonds

Product innovations have been made by improvement in its cut, carat, color and clarity.

Through unmatchable skills in cutting and polishing, the Indian industry has been able to

produce a variety of new cuts. The US market has great demand for such fancy cut diamonds

processed in India. The popular cuts are: Marquise, Pear shape, Heart shape, Step cut,

Baguettes, Tapers, etc..

Use of Indigenous machines comprising non-perfect crystals

Israel may use fully automatic diamond processing machines, computerized centering or

girdle faceting machines or other innovative automatic machinery. India uses for processing

non-perfect diamonds like polycrystalline, macles, distorted crystals, ‘near gems’ or ‘near

industrials’. Thus processing is not easily amenable to automation and India has developed

machinery to suit these applications. In this way, India has also taken advantage of cheap

skilled labor. Furthermore Indian entrepreneurs have, to their credit, indigenously developed

laser kerfing and sawing machines.

Small diamond-Export market Niche

Indian diamond industry has identified the market niche of small diamonds, and the

entrepreneurs have decided to stick to it. With this niche, India has not lost focus from

overseas export market. The domestic market is just US $ 120 million as compared to the US

$ 5,500 million export market.

Small scale ‘cottage’ business

The entrepreneurs have maintained organic growth models of their enterprises. Thus most of

the units are staffed with skilled workers directly working under the entrepreneurs personally.

The units have 2 to 50 mills, each equipped with 4-5 skilled workers. These skilled workers

22

are mostly not from the owner’s family but hired. On an average, about 30 craftsmen work in

a unit.

Roll-over skills, on-the-job training

The entrepreneurs have an unique way of acquiring skills. The skills are passed on from

generation to generation and identification of roughs, their cutting, polishing and even

marketing skills are inherited from their senior family members. Education is not emphasized,

but learning by experience is what is practiced.

Networking

World-over marketing of diamonds by cottage-scale units is a unique process and it is carried

by networking. Maintaining contacts, keeping relationships with family members and friends

abroad does the trick. As a whole, industry is clustered around a few locations, and

networking works beautifully. Bharat diamond bourse and Surat diamond bourse are the

trading centers helping this activity.

Harmonious Co-existence

The ndustrial organization is quite unique. Thousands of small units work in harmony. As

95 % of the units are clustered around Mumbai & Surat, they are more complimentary than

competitive. They collectively serve diverse and varied needs of the customers from across

the globe.

Self Finance

Still today this industry carries such values as Borrowing is Sin. It means low start-up capital

requirements, few technical installments, organized financing options, or using family

resources, etc.. These features have made diamond processing a unique model of self-

financing. Most of the units have started with the entrepreneurs’ own money and have grown

organically afterwards.

5.4 Ceramic Cluster, Ahmedabad (Third Example)

There are 950 Ceramic units in ceramic clusters in Gujarat. All of them are family-based.

Most of these clusters are poor in technical or organisational knowledge but they have high

entrepreneurial spirit. Therefore it became necessary to establish an institution to serve these

23

cluster units and to cater to the needs of the developing ceramic industries in this small-scale

sector of Gujarat and adjoining areas. Hence the Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute

(CGCRI) Naroda Centre, Ahmedabad, was established in 1977. It is one of the constituent

laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

To improve the skills in these units, training and manpower development programmes were

initiated in 1978. Since then the Institute has been conducting training-cum-demonstration

programmes and capsule courses on various topics of current interests to the ceramic

industries. The Institute has so far conducted 32 technology development programmes and it

has trained about 600 persons from the cluster. It has also conducted three entrepreneurship

development programmes to encourage the founding of new enterprises.

The clusters at Morbi, Himmat Nagar and Mehsana etc. have benefited substantially in

technology development from the Institute, in terms of improving the quality of raw materials

for the manufacture of ceramic tiles and rural pottery, and in improving process control

parameters. One of the important achievements of the Institute has been to use the fly ash (a

highly polluting waste product of thermal power plants) in the manufacture of ceramic tiles.

Ceramic tiles now contain 30% of the raw materials as fly ash. The Institute has also been

able to produce blue ceramic tiles which are free from lead. Ceramic filter candles have been

developed which also contain 20-30% of fly ash. The cotton wick of the traditional oil lamp

has been replaced by the permanent ceramic wick which need not be replaced at all. It has

developed the technology for production of bone china utilizing the china clays of Gujarat.

This technology has been transferred to 21 units in the small-scale sector including Anil

Ceramics, Mori; Hitari Ceramics, Himmat nagar; the ‘Sonya Ceramics’, Ahmedabad; and

Ideal Ceramics, Delhi..

6. Conclusions: Success Features of Clusters

The three case studies described show that the cases of Gems and Jewelry in Surat and

Ceramics in Ahmedabad, conform to the ideal picture of a cluster as discussed in the first

paragraphs of this chapter. These clusters are characterized by sharing of knowledge, skills,

materials, equipment, finance and management. Their main aim is to be innovative and

internationally competitive.

24

In the case of Diesel Engines at Rajkot, the cluster has obviously not been sufficiently active

in terms of generation and acquisition of new knowledge for constant technological change

and innovations.

Major use of the cluster is made for maintenance of relationship and not for

information/knowledge sharing. The cooperating families will not naturally share any new

information with the other family groups, even though it is a part of the same cluster

These observations may be the main reason why this cluster went out of competition after

initial success.

The development of these clusters, thus, show the following characteristics: they consist of

units that are mainly family based employing traditional skills. They are very strongly market-

oriented and use inherited skills of domestic workers. The technology & skills required are

largely available within the clusters.

In the case of the Ceramics Cluster, however, the concept of market has only been employed

to serve the local needs for traditional products. Nevertheless these clusters have over the

period of time developed a considerable export market for their products.

All three clusters have a major limitation related to the fact that they do not have sufficient

linkages with Research and Development institutions, nor with university departments

relevant to them. The clusters face severe problems on the front of competition and new

product innovation. They are making their own modifications in their products to suit the

changing market conditions but they lack a strong scientific or technological basis to radically

modify their products. The cluster units are in geographical proximity to each other, but this

advantage of geographical proximity may not suffice to develop knowledge sharing as

needed. What is needed are world-wide linkages relevant to their area of work.

As Brandt et al. (2001) mention, the basis of such successful linkages is mutual trust among

fundamentally equal partners. Only if we have this kind of trust between each of the cluster

partners, the network can create Win-Win situations to everybody’s advantage. This equality

and mutual trust have to be established despite the threats of a competitive economic

environment, and despite national and cultural borders. The challenge lying ahead is how we

can make possible a just cooperation and communication despite different underlying values.

25

The precise shape of these linkages, therefore, can only be understood by looking at the

specific conditions of each of the regions cooperating. One important issue here is the access

that different groups have to resources in their regions: natural resources, skilled workers,

cultural and experience-based traditions etc.. In facilitating this access the State can play a

crucial role in spreading industrial and entrepreneurial growth.

One major point is that a cluster of small firms in a region will not always generate flexible or

dynamic growth out of itself. Indeed the issue does often not even hinge so crucially around

the smallness of firms per se, but it rather depends on the nature of the relationship - explicit

and implicit - among firms of different kinds and sizes (Tendler, 1987). We therefore need to

look dynamically - over time and across sectors - to see how and under what conditions key

institutions need to be created in certain regions in order to produce the growth-generating

environment.

In this chapter we have considered the economic success and the innovations created by the

three groups of entrepreneurs at Rajkot, Surat and Ahmedabad. To sum up these observations

the following features appear to be very prominent to describe the success of the concept of

clusters:

− Start small and grow big in an organic way - Minimize initial investments− Use your own money for the start-up phase− Have a modest start for the first venture, with rented facilities, chartered assets, and (most

important) with monetary involvement from family and relatives− Stand on your own feet and establish credibility before seeking collaboration,

participation or assistance, public financial participation etc.− Set up your initial unit as specifically designed for your own purpose, with initial

investment at the going rate, and with specialized staff− Build credibility through quality and reliability of products, commitment, customer

service, advertisement, etc− Treat sales as long-term relationships with your customers and provide them with long-

term, prompt, and reliable after-sales services− Do not speculate, do not gamble, but collect information and take calculated risk− Test before you venture out− Start to build up linkages with the Academia and the regional R&D institutes to build up a

viable network of knowledge-sharing

These aspects have been derived from analyzing the cases of entrepreneurial clusters in the

State Gujarat, India, during recent years. They may have relevance also beyond their initial

regional importance. It may be helpful for entrepreneurs in many countries around the world

to consider these aspects when starting their new business.

26

References

Albu, M. and Bell, M. (1999), Knowledge Systems and Technological Dynamism inIndustrial Clusters in Developing Countries. World Development, 27(9) pp. 1715-1734.Also: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev

Brandt, D., Olbertz, E. and Ihsen, S. (2002), Regional Networking in Germany- and theConcept of the Integrated Consultant Intervention. (in this Volume)

Birley, S. and Muzyka, D. (2000), Mastering Enterprise. F.T. Pitman Publishing, Delhi, India

Chari, S. (2000), The Agrarian Origins of the Knitwear Industrial Cluster in Tiruppur. India.World Development, 28 (3) p 579-599.

Cullinane, J. (1993), The Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide - 101 tips for managing good timesand bad. Business One, Irwin, Illinois, USA

Desai, V. (2000), Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Development and Management. HimalayanPublishing House.

Dewan, B. (2001), IT, Boom for Small Enterprises. Indian Management. 40 (2) p 58

Kharbanda, V.P. (2001), Facilitating Innovation in Indian Small and Medium Enterprises -The Role of Clusters. Current Science, 80(3), p. 343

Kim, L. (1997), From Imitation to Innovation. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.,USA.

Manimala, M. (1999), Entrepreneurial policies and strategies - The innovator’s choice”.Sage publications, New Delhi,

Nadvi, K. and Schmitz, H. (1994), Industrial clusters in less developed countries: Review ofexperiences and research agenda. Discussion Paper 332, Institute of DevelopmentStudies, University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K.

Nadvi, K. and Schmitz, H. (1999), Clustering and Industrialization: Introduction. WorldDevelopment, 27 (9) pp. 1503-1514.

Nadvi, K. (1996), Small Firm Industrial Districts in Pakistan. Institute of DevelopmentStudies, University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K.

Phansalkar, S.J.(1999), Making Growth Happen: Learnings from first generationentrepreneurs. Response Books, New Delhi.

Pillai Mohanan, P (2000), Industrial Clusters under Duress - Coimbtore Pump Manufacturersand Liberalization. Economic and Political Weekly, November, p. 4207-4216.

Purani, K. (2000), Gujarat Model of Entrepreneurial Innovation: A Study of Surat DiamondIndustry. GLS Institute of Business Management, Ahmedabad, India

Schmitz, H. (1995), Collective Efficiency: Growth Path for Small-Scale Industry. Journal ofDevelopment Studies 31(4), pp. 529-566

Tendler, J. (1987), The remarkable convergence of small enterprises and the informal sector:what are the implications for policy. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, M.I.T.,Cambridge, MA., USA

27

CHAPTER TWO

Regional Networking in Germany - and the Concept of the

Integrated Consultant Intervention

Ellen Olbertz, Susanne Ihsen and Dietrich BrandtAachen, Germany

All economic processes are increasingly being networked across the globe. This economicglobalisation has become possible through the globalisation of information andcommunication technology networks. In view of such growing globalisation of economicprocesses, the region and its enterprises can only sustain competitiveness if the region foritself develops concepts of clustering and networking of its enterprises. It needs a neweconomic framework - established by regional or transregional politics - in order to supportinnovation and learning processes in the region. In this chapter, some aspects of thisframework and its structural change processes are described leading to the strategy toimplement the concept of a Networked Learning Region. This concept is characterized in thatit recognizes its own needs for change and to accept these challenges. Thus the cooperativeregional networks of enterprises, universities and public institutions put concepts offundamental systemic change into practice.

28

1. Introduction

We are living in a time of continuous economic and social change which is triggered and

shaped by new information and communication technology world-wide. Economies are

becoming more and more dependent from each other due to the complexity of international

trade and financial relations. This interdependence is made possible through the new

networked information technology. The technological progress constantly increases the speed

of this development. Economy utilises this technology in two ways: as a tool to create the

networking, and as a product to create economic wealth.

At the same time, the ability of politics to control and act decreases with the growing distance

between scene of action and citizens. We are facing today the trend of globalisation or

globalism (Beck, 1999). These circumstances are intensified by accelerating individualisation.

Our change society renders forecasts more and more impossible and leads to developments

that cannot be easily planned or controlled (Isenhardt, Henning and .Lorscheider, 1999).

In parallel, strong interest concentrates on the development of regions, their enterprises and

regional social-political structures. Here, the consequences of globalisation and the overall

structural changes may be experienced most lively. Hence, regionalisation marks the opposite

trend to the on-going globalisation. Both globalisation as well as regionalisation are

tendencies of one single process, the opening-up of national boundaries (Dassen-Housen,

2002).

During the last decade, considerable research activities have concentrated on the survival and

competitiveness of regions facing such structural changes (Piore and Sabel, 1985; Storper and

Scott, 1992). The emerging path of economic development leads towards dynamic economy.

This new development determines the framework for responsible action within the

competitive society. Such economic systems can only survive through structures that support

continuous structural changes.

Thus the region and its enterprises can only sustain competitiveness on the basis of

continuous innovation processes, i.e. through continuous learning. The question, however, is

which kind of economic framework - established by regional or transregional politics - is

29

needed to support such networked innovation and learning processes in the region (Olbertz,

2001). Following in this chapter, some aspects of this framework and its structural change

processes are described leading to the concept of the Networked Learning Region.

2. The Region as an Economic System - Regional Co-operation and Continuous

Learning

In order to ensure the competitiveness of regions and enterprises in the future a new systemic

view of economic systems and their development arises: it is necessary to understand

economies as complex open and living systems that are sub-systems of society as a whole -

besides, e.g., the political system and the legal system etc.(Figure 1).

Within such complex systems of economy are the participating systems like families,

enterprises or public institutions. All such participating systems are actors in the system; they

are influenced in their development by the system environment. The systems have continually

to adapt to changes of this environment in order to ensure their survival.

Environment /Nature

Society

PoliticalSystem

LegalSystem

EconomicSystem PS

PS

PS

PS PS=Participating

System ( enterprise ,institution , household )

Environment /Nature

Society

PoliticalSystem

LegalSystem

EconomicSystem PS

PS

PS

PS PS=participating

system (families,enterprises, institutions)

Figure 1: The economic system as sub-system of society

In parallel, the world-wide economic system is made up of many sub-systems that are

connected with each other, e.g. via customer-supplier chains. Here the concept of Self-

30

Similarity may be applied. It is derived from Chaos Theory. Its main question is how to

understand and analyse complex systems. Systems in biology show that each individual part

of the whole system may represent the structure of the system as a whole. But all these parts

are merely similar to each other rather than identical with each other (Warnecke, 1992;

Isenhardt, 1994). This feature characterises complex living systems as self-similar systems.

The economic system consists of many different sub-systems. In this case, the system’s ability

to survive depends on the ability of its sub-systems to survive (Figure 2). Furthermore, all

sub-systems are dependent on their participating systems for their own survival. This view

corresponds to the concept of self-similarity. Examples of self-similar systems are the national

states comprising their own regional systems which in turn consist of smaller entities of

participating systems. This interpretation of self-similar systems applies also to customer-

supplier chains: each entity within such a chain may represent in itself a customer-supplier

chain on a different scale. This view of different interwoven systems and sub-systems is also

reflected in the concept of Holons as the interdependent entities which build up the whole of

the system. It has recently been put forward within the EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation

Network by Karamjit Gill (Gill, 2002) based on the writings by Koestler and others.

Nation-wide economic systems have only recently started to co-operate with each others

through international networks. Such co-operation by global networking, however, is not

sufficient for long-term economic survival of the nations because the quality of geographic

neighbourhood relations is additionally needed for survival in economic terms. Considering

such regional economic systems, regions can only survive if their participating systems are

also able to survive - similar to considering national economic systems as a whole. This may

include that these regional sub-systems are connected with each others by customer-supplier

chains.

As a matter of principle, these different systems and their sub-entities are to be understood in

their relations as of equal weight or equal importance for their survival. This perspective is

based on the understanding of any co-operation network as being structured by close

reciprocity of the relations between the partners which need each others mutually for their

own survival. It follows that such partners need to recognise each others as fundamentally

equal entities.

31

World Economy

NationalEconomy

State Economy

Regional Economy

NationalEconomy

World Economy

NationalEconomy

State Economy

Regional Economy

NationalEconomy

Figure 2: The principle of self-similarity for economic systems

The following quotations by Linda Garcia and Saskia Sassen may show how important such

regional relations and alliances in the shape of customer-supplier chains are today. They are

particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their regional

struggle for survival and competitiveness. Both Garcia and Sassen are internationally

acknowledged researchers in this field. They refer to such regional economic systems

described so far, as an important basis of regional survival:

”One major challenge that businesses will face in an electronically networkedenvironment is how - in the absence of continued face-to-face relationships andorganisational sanctions - to establish trust. [...] Trust can only be established overtime, and through a process or repeated successful transactions. Hence, anincreasingly prevalent way of reinforcing trust in an electronic environment is toestablish closer social ties and alliances much like the merchant networks of earliertimes, or the Japanese ‘Keiretsu’ or the Italian ‘Impannatore’ of today. In contrast tothe market, which is characterised by atomistic relationships and intensecompetition; and vertically integrated firms, which are highly structured andauthoritative in nature; networks comprise indefinite, loosely coupled relationships,which exhibit strong patterns of reciprocity.”(Garcia, 2000, p.50)

”...those specialised service firms engaged in the most complex and globalisedmarkets are subject to agglomeration economies. The complexity for the servicesthey need to produce, the uncertainty for the market they are involved with eitherdirectly or through the headquarters for which they are producing the services, andthe growing importance of speed in all these transactions, is a mix of conditions that

32

constitutes a new agglomeration dynamic. The mix of firms, talents, expertise froma broad range of specialised fields makes a certain type of urban environmentfunction as an information centre, Being in a city becomes synonymous with beingin an extremely intense and dense information loop. This is a type of informationloop that as of now still cannot be replicated fully in electronic space, and has asone of its value-added features the fact of unforeseen and unplanned mixes ofinformation, expertise and talent, which can produce a higher order ofinformation.”(Sassen, 2000, p.149)

In this context, the overall aim of economic politics should be to assist regions and regional

enterprises to survive. This includes to keep alive their competitiveness within co-operation

networks between fundamentally equal partners. Recent management theories - e.g. as

suggested by Drucker - regard enterprise co-operation between such partners as central to

survival:

”[...] the Keiretsu, that is, the integration into one management system of enterprisesthat are linked economically rather than controlled legally, has [...] givendominance in the industry and in the marketplace. [...] Increasingly, however, theeconomic chain brings together genuine partners, that is, institutions in which thereis equality of power and genuine independence.”(Drucker; 1999, p. 33)

Also Linda Garcia focuses on the equality of partners in economic co-operations:

“In a highly complex and rapidly changing global economy, vertical businesses arebeing rushed to their limits. Businesses everywhere are rearranging their activitiesto carry them out in networks and teams. Some businesses, for example, areentering into highly integrated, long-term relationships with customers andsuppliers; others are setting up short-term, ad hoc alliances to address a particularproblem at hand. Many of these networks transcend national as well asorganisational boundaries.”(Garcia, 2000, p. 49)

Within these co-operations, positive results for all participants can be created continuously

leading to mutual gains for all partners. Such situations may be called Win-Win Situations.

Such co-operations may be particularly supportive to produce innovations via organisational

learning that contribute to survival and competitiveness of the enterprises. Therefore regional

politics are challenged to create political and organisational frameworks which support co-

operation between the different regional economic actors. As a result such co-operation yields

win-win situations for all actors. In this way they support regional learning processes leading

to learning by co-operating in regional networks.

Thus, a region’s ability to survive can be seen in that the region continually develops

innovation within its networks of partners where the partners are to be considered

33

fundamentally equal. This concept explains why those regions are successful in economic

terms which possess such co-operation-networks of enterprises. These regions are able to

create win-win situations for all economic actors leading to an innovative milieu across the

region. This is also true for successful networked enterprises as regional subsystems because

they realise networks as an efficient form of organisation. This co-operation integrating

competition enables the enterprises to survive and strive in a world that is continuously

growing more competitive.

The question, however, arises how such regions as systems may be able to change in order to

cope with these far-reaching challenges which they are today confronted with. This question

is the theme of the following paragraph.

3. The Region and the Issue of System Change

The main challenge which regions world-wide face today are their needs to fundamentally

change under the impact of globalisation.. Specifically the very fast changes of all markets,

the changes in the industrial production processes and the impact of information technology

networks mean more complex decision-making and economic processes within the regions.

These high requirements have been well visible for years and decades.

But although all around the world, many responsible groups in politics and within the

scientific community have been discussing about such necessary changes, many national and

regional systems have been fairly reluctant to accept these changes as a necessity for

themselves. It seems as though these systems are “blind“ not only against the actual needs of

economic and political changes, but also against requirements related to the overall

developments of their societies.

Following this conflict between change and continuity, one explanation for the behaviour of

such systems seems to be that these systems are social systems. Each system shows its

specific culture and identity which has developed out of their own mission and which is

necessary to support the system against its environment. This demarcation is necessary for

keeping the system alive, but it may make it also “blind“ against environmental

demands(Fig.4).

34

historyunderworld

members

infra-structure

economy

inno-vation

politics

system border

OutputInput

environmentfuture

Figure 4: The system, its sub-systems and its borders

This description of national and regional systems as such autopoietic systems explains to

some extent how several elements make up the specific identity of each such system (Rieck-

mann/Weissengruber 1990): As described above each system comprises many different

elements which are both actors and objects in such change processes.

Each system member, also each subsystem of the whole, exists and acts on the basis of its

own specific historical development (the history of the system). It includes dealing with more

or less concrete perspectives and planning processes (in order to master the future of the

system), also taboos, contradictions and conflicts (a certain underworld of the system).

Thus each system operates with its special identity that is based on its specific mission. This

system view describes the systemic identity of the system and applies to the system within its

environment. This specific identity includes the system’s own goals, strategies and rules, but

also its influencing power and its leadership. Values and standards are transmitted by the

typical attitudes of its actors (e.g. linguistic symbols, stories and myths, ideologies) but also

through standardised attitudes (e.g. customs, rites).

35

Such symbolic actions are, especially in traditionally grown systems, a central element of their

internal culture which is only applied by its actors because of a common understanding of the

symbols. In a regional system this communication includes religion and social customs,

specific jokes, the formation of categories and self-made borders for thinking and acting, also

the power of symbolistic interpretations. System changes are difficult to achieve because the

input filters of the system tend to prohibit the influx of change actions into the system (Fig.5).

Thus there occur points of conflicts around the input areas which trigger the system to respond

through resistance against such changes (Fig.6).

Input Output

Input filter

System border

Sub-systems

Figure 5: The system and the input filter

Input Output

Point ofconflict

System border

Sub-systems

Figure 6: Points of conflicts at the system borders

36

The way to change such a system is to integrate new elements into the system as if they were

already internal elements and components of this system. If the system “feels“, thus, disturbed

by internal impulses (“autopoietic turning“) it cannot easily reject them as conflicts from

outside any longer. It then has to react on these change components in order to get back to its

systemic harmony even if on a new level. This implantation (“mirroring“) of change

components into the system is the beginning of an accepted change process in the system’s

culture (Fig.7)

Such mirroring in the meaning of “optical reflection”, changes the self-perception of the

actors within the system, it shows the system’s own borders but also the “blind spots“ in self-

observation. This reflection obviously contributes to changes within the system

(Maturana/Varela 1987; Goorhuis 1996). Such conflict management for system change

requires integrated consultant intervention. It leads to the transformation of external demands

into specific internal structures and helps to consolidate the change process (Ihsen, 2001).

Organization

Figure 7: The mirroring of change action into the system.

37

The examples of regional change projects reported here, demonstrate the application of this

integrated consultant intervention. Each of these examples are from different change projects,

e.g. changing business structures within traditional economic structures. They were instigated

and run by committed system members in the roles of these integrated consultants. The main

institution, however, instigating and controlling these change processes is the University. It

represents the subsystem within the region which simultaneously is the internal consultant

agency bearing the responsibility for intervention within the region. These aspects of regional

change through integrated consultant intervention characterise regional development in its

global context. They will be illustrated by the following case studies. Based on recent

research in the region of Aachen.

4. The Case Study of the Aachen Region

4.1 The Region of Aachen as a Space of Economy and Living

The following report is based on a three-year research project integrating 15 different project

partners. They were enterprises and public institutions based in the economic region of

Aachen. This region may be seen as a successful model case of mastering the structural

changes needed today. This report illustrates the concept of the Learning Region. The concept

is based on creating win-win situations through co-operative customer-supplier networks

across the region. In this way, the region may yield an answer to the question of survival of

regions under the global challenge.

The Region of Aachen was once the Heart of Europe - Aix-la-Chapelle is its name in French.

For several centuries, it was the seat and capital of the German Emperor. Its proud past is

reflected in the drawing which shows some of the ancient buildings still to be found here

today (Figure 8).

38

Figure 8: Aachen - yesterday and today

The region of Aachen of today may be defined as the area which is economically co-ordinated

by its Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Figure 9). This region is characterised by its close

neighbourhood to the Netherlands and Belgium. Due to its strategic geographical location, the

region has gained a certain political importance. On the other hand, due to the same factor, the

region has to cope with extraordinary economic problems during its recent economic and

social history: the region suffered particularly during the past European wars when the

borders were closed for all business, for several decades.

Only since the last decades, the partners across the borders have remembered the past

historical alliances. Hence the region of Aachen has become integrated into the European

Region EUREGIO which includes the adjacent border regions of the Netherlands and

Belgium. Since then, the EUREGIO has become very visible as an entity in its own right

within Europe. As a result, it has considerably contributed to the European Union

development processes (IHK Aachen, 1989).

Today more than one million people live in this region, about half of them in the area of the

city of Aachen. There are about 340.000 employees, about one third of them are women.

There are, however, about 41.000 inhabitants of the region unemployed which results in a rate

of regional unemployment of about 12% (IHK Aachen, 1989). This figure is still valid today!

The main reason for this high rate of unemployment is that several traditional branches of

industry with previously very high employment figures have completely disappeared or they

39

have heavily reduced economic performance. In its wake, their employment figures, during

the recent structural changes in Europe have decreased at a frightening speed.

FRANCE

NorthSea

Germany

Figure 9: The Region of Aachen

As an example, the region has lost almost all of its former 50 textile factories. Furthermore, in

connection with the crisis in coal mining, all regional coal pits were closed. Not all employees

have been taken over by newly established enterprises. For the traditional industries, the only

way to survive has been by thorough modernisation and automation (Zinn, 1985). Another

basic strategy in the region of Aachen has been to set up regional co-operation networks. This

strategy is in the centre of discussion of this chapter.

Within this strategy, the experiences of the region of Aachen show the extreme importance of

micro-enterprises for the welfare of the region as a whole. As described by Dassen-Housen in

this issue, the development towards new working structures in enterprises today requires

increasingly self-responsibility and self-organisation on a micro level within large enterprises,

as well as establishing across the region, small enterprises with 1-5 employees, i.e. micro-

enterprises. This trend appears central to the societal changes presently induced through the

technical-political-economic forces of globalisation (Dassen-Housen, 2001, Trend I). The

Aachen Regional Council and the regional banks have, therefore, supported the successful

40

founding of hundreds of new small companies by offering cheap rent, secretarial services and

favourable bank credits as well as by building 15 different Technology Centers as incubators

for these new enterprises. In addition, the Council has invited international enterprises to

establish their business in this region in order to take advantage of this High Technology

region and their young and dynamic entrepreneurial actors: the graduates of the regional

universities.

The following paragraphs give a survey of these different regional developments. The

emphasis will be on the regional co-operation networks. They characterise the co-operative

climate within the region. They have been chosen to illustrate networking within the three

main innovative branches of economy. The case study may also serve as an example for the

joint development of the following three main sectors of economy:

− the sector of high-technology enterprises,

− craft enterprises as SMEs, and

− socially oriented projects and enterprises in the region.

In the following paragraph of this report, the role of the regional universities will be described

first because these universities are among the main economic actors of the region.

41

4.2 The Universities as Regional Network Hubs

The University of Technology Aachen

The University of Technology (RWTH) Aachen is considered to be one of the main actors of

regional networking. The university comprises about 35 000 students and 10 000 employees

including research, teaching and support staff. This means that the university is the biggest

employer in the region. In the sense of this report, the university is seen as a special kind of

enterprise in the way it is networked with other regional enterprises.

The university budget is more than 600 million USD (1999). This amount includes about 100

million USD external research funds through contracts with industry and other research

agencies in Germany and Europe. These financial figures are the highest in Germany for any

university both in absolute figures and per student. The University of Technology Aachen

(RWTH) is, thus, the leading German university of technology. It is also among the leading

universities world-wide in terms of its industry-related high-technology research. These

contracts concern a wide range of research questions which are to be solved by university

researchers in order to enable German industry to develop next-generation products,

production processes and services against world-wide competition. They concern

fundamental as well as applied research and development tasks related to both the national

and the world market. Specific outcomes of university research are directly transferred into

companies or industrial fields. Consultancy and industrial training are offered by university

staff on a large scale in order to support industrial enterprises (large enterprises as well as

SMEs) in their transition to new work patterns, e.g. group work, networking, Total Quality

Management, environmental performance improvements, etc..

With these contracts, the university is able to perform large numbers of research projects

which - seen as a whole - symbolise the full complexity of today’s questions and problems in

technological development. About all of these projects are taking place within regional,

Germany-wide or Europe-wide university-industry networks.

A similar role as the University of Technology (RWTH) play the other smaller Universities of

Applied Sciences in the region of Aachen with about 10000 additional students. These

universities follow very much the same model of university-industry co-operation as the

42

University of Technology and they perform a large variety of such contracts. Some strategies

of these contracts are described in the following paragraph.

Joint Regional Research of University and Industry: Four strategies

The strong regional co-operation of university and industry in the region of Aachen is based

on the tradition that industry in Germany tends to commission university departments to

perform research on their behalf. This tradition is one of the main success factors of German

industry. Through this strategy, industry saves money and personnel and the university

researchers get continuously challenged by new tasks which are directly linked to the markets

of today and tomorrow.

There are four components to this strategy:

− Firstly, industry gives direct commissions to university for definite research and

development tasks. These projects are fully paid by industry. The success in previous

research projects is the basis of industry to trust the university to do a good job also in the

future.

− Secondly, university departments suggest to certain industrial enterprises themes of future

research. Subsequently university and industry may jointly submit an application for

research funds to the State Government, the Federal Government, the German Research

Council or the European Commission. In such research projects the university usually

applies for 100% funding, the industrial company for 30-50%.

− Thirdly, university and industry set up joint research institutions for certain research and

development areas (e.g. the well-known Aachen Fraunhofer Institutes of production

technology, laser technology and ceramics utilization in production, which work in very

close co-operation with the University Aachen). These institutes are funded through their

own research projects which may be either genuine industry contracts or joint university-

industry projects involving public funding institutions.

− Fourthly, university graduates set up their own company but keep close co-operation with

their former supervising professors and their former research departments. Thus they

make use of certain facilities and personnel of the university for their research and

development activities, on a contractual basis.

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Joint University-Industry Contracts

Within university-industry co-operation contracts, the jointly used facilities may be expensive

technical and research equipment, including computers and multi-media equipment which in

this way gets utilized more efficiently. The personnel may be research students who are

cheaper than fully paid industrial personnel. They perform their Masters or PhD research

work within these projects under the joint supervision of university and industry staff. The

final decision on their thesis work, however, lies with the university.

The research results of joint university-industry projects are used by both the enterprise (to its

own technological advantage) and the university (in terms of research progress, publications

and prestige; to a lesser degree as a source of income for the university itself). These co-

operative strategies of mutual gains are characterised by fundamentally equal power of

decision-making of university and enterprise within their networks.

In the Aachen region, all different strategies of university-industry co-operation are

superimposed. This phenomenon is the core of the Aachen Model of Regional Development.

In the sense of the previous paragraph, the change processes within this region of Aachen are

one outcome of the university’s actions as the main integrated consultant agency in the

processes of regional change. The university understands this role as the action of mirroring

the forces of change from outside the region into the region. These interventions of the

university lead to new regional structures and new developments of system components

towards the aim of regional survival.

The Regional Council and the Chambers of the Region have jointly supported these processes

by setting-up about 15 specific technology centres (or incubators) as mentioned above. In

these centres, university graduates find favourable conditions of rent and administration

services as well as enterprise consultancy. Additional management training is offered to those

engineering graduates who later become entrepreneurs or managers. Thus they find all

assistance needed to establish their own enterprises.

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4.3 High-Technology Enterprises: University-Industry Networking

Establishing regional university-enterprise networks

Here follow some examples of enterprises which have been established within the regional

university-industry networks All these companies are now active world-wide and contribute

considerably to the economic success of Germany. Several of these companies are world-

market leaders.

− FEV is a well-known example of the close co-operation between industrial enterprises

and university. They perform fundamental research and development for next-generation

car engines on behalf of about all important German and international car manufacturers.

− AIXTRON develops and produces high-vacuum equipment for small solid-state laser

systems of all possible colours which are actually used everywhere today.

− AIXO produces software designed for production control and business communication in

industry.

− AIXONIX designs Internet platforms and portals for e-business.

− ELSA designs and produces hardware and software for multimedia components in

computer systems.

− Parsytec does research and development as well as production of parallel-processing

pattern recognition systems for industrial applications, e.g. in steel and sheet metal

production.

Establishing regional SMEs linked to the university

MA&T

The company MA&T was established in 1996 by three PhD graduates of the University of

Technology Aachen. Its starting strategy was to provide consultancy and training to

enterprises mainly in the former East German regions in order to support their transition from

socialist to market economy. Their main thrust was the introduction of semi-autonomous

groups in industry in order to enhance efficiency and flexibility of enterprises.

Today the company comprises about 10 full academic staff members, 7 of them with PhDs in

engineering and work psychology. Their areas of activities include the re-engineering of large

and medium-sized production enterprises; taylor-made software programs for communication

and business processes in industry; specific training programmes for trade union groups and

45

shopfloor stewards. The company is engaged in such projects all over Germany, in several

Eastern European countries and in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Its main source of appointing new staff is the University of Technology Aachen which is also

its main partner in projects requiring the joint commitment of a large consortium. This co-

operation includes to hire junior academic staff from the university if certain large projects of

the company need additional personnel.

AKMedia

The company AKMedia was established in 1987 by two graduates of the University of

Technology Aachen. Their aim as to make entrepreneurial use of their academic experiences

in Electrical Engineering and Multimedia as well as in business studies and project

management. Thus they designed their company to fulfill a broad range of regional needs in

multimedia:

• to offer most up-to-date multimedia equipment including professional video studios with

their own editing facilities; furthermore computer-controlled and digitized systems for

web design as well as for large-scale presentation purposes, etc.,

• to offer expert personnel for maintenance and utilization support of all such systems

wherever and whenever needed,

• to offer high-quality production studio systems including technical supervision and artistic

support for commercial video and multimedia production in their own production

facilities.

The company developed very fast into the lading enterprise within the region serving about all

large and medium-sized enterprises as well as all important public institutions and universities

of the region (and beyond). Today the company comprises more than 25 staff members. Many

of them are former graduates of the regional universities. Additionally they hire

undergraduates of the universities on a temporary basis as support staff in large multimedia

projects. Frequently these students have become the next-generation full-time staff members

of the enterprise.

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ICON

The enterprise ICON Aachen is one of five branches of the Icon Holding Cologne. Presently

it consists of three staff members who are running the enterprise as the hub of a large regional

and international network of customers and suppliers. The customers are governments and

industry world-wide which are requiring taylor-made training and education programmes for

their technical and administrative staff. The programmes are to be offered in Germany

according to German standards and qualifications (e.g. for technical teachers or technical

personnel from Libya, the Caribbean, Syria, Asia etc.). The Icon enterprise organizes such

programmes which may last for several months or up to 1 year. It designs the curriculum of

the courses; it hires all teaching staff (e.g. from the regional technical colleges and

universities etc.); it provides accomodation and subsistence for the participants.

Thus the enterprise symbolizes today’s foremost type of enterprises which act as facilitators

and organizers rather than performing these programmes within themselves.

Establishing international enterprises in the region

The Regional Council has offered large blocks of land to be used for dynamic expanding

enterprises. Several large international enterprises have taken advantage of these offers. They

have established their main research and development branches as well as production plants at

Aachen in order to draw into their companies, the young, highly skilled graduates from the

universities in the region. Therefore many graduates tend to stay within the region after

university thus contributing to both the innovative and economic welfare of the region, and its

social and cultural life. The overlapping cultures of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium

contribute to this lively climate within this 3-country corner of Europe.

Three examples may stand for these enterprises:

− Ericsson has built up its main European development laboratory here. Its task is to

develop the next-generation mobile phone systems.

− Philips has set up its main German research laboratory in the region.

− Ford runs its main research and development department at Aachen that is responsible for

developing the next generation of cars within Ford world-wide.

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4.4 The Regional Networking of Craft Enterprises and SMEs

Since the days of the guilds in the 13th Century, craft enterprises play an important role in

Aachen and contribute innovatively to the region’s development.

“After all the Aachen craft enterprises as a whole, are the biggest employer in theregion. More than 45.000 people work in about 4000 enterprises and reach aturnover of more than 5,5 billion German Marks.“ [translation of the author](Spaete, 1998, p. 8)

During the last years, several horizontal and vertical co-operation networks have been

developed that are supported by the Chamber of Craft through consultancy, marketing etc..

The following paragraph describes some examples of such networks.

Schell Gruentechnik

The Schell Gruentechnik company produces large heavy-duty lawn mowers. It was founded

about 30 years ago by the present owner, Mr. Schell, out of his lawn mower maintenance craft

enterprise. The aim of Mr Schell at that time was to create completely new types of lawn

mowers based on hydraulics rather than 2-stroke engine drive or similar systems. Today his

technological approach represents world leadership in lawn cutting systems for golf courses,

large parks and open grass areas (e.g. along the sea shores).

The main problem to be solved was the aerodynamics of high-speed grass cutting and

removing in the maelstrom inside the housing close to the ground underneath the lawn

mower. This problem was solved by the company in close co-operation with the Department

of Aerodynamics and Aircraft Design of the University of Technology, Aachen. The solution

comprises the cutting-up of the grass into sufficiently small bits which can be left on the lawn

to rot and fertilize the ground. Today about all leading lawn mower producers world-wide buy

the Schell mowing systems to attach them to their own brands of lawn mowers.

Today the company has 25 employees. It has its own network of regional suppliers as well as

subcontractors for pre-assembled system components across Europe and as far away as China.

The next step of technological development will be the remote-control and the un-manned

automated lawn mowers.

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Network for comprehensive craft services

A group of regional craft enterprises have come together in order to offer their services to

their customers in a new way. The setting-up of this network has been supported and

structured by young research staff ot the university. All SMEs in this network are involved in

building and refurbishing of houses. They have agreed to offer their services as a networked

virtual enterprise: building the houses, wall paper renovation and wall painting, renovating

tiles and floors, carpentry and furnishing etc.. Hence customers can order the building or

refurbishing of their houses to be performed through one single contractor. All craft

enterprises in this virtual enterprise are linked in a way that the different tasks are performed

as a continually flowing process. The customers do not need to contact the different craftsmen

or companies individually. One specific aim of this virtual enterprise is to offer most

advanced services related to environmental issues and optimum resource savings (energy,

water etc.).

This network set-up of independent craft SMEs is characterised by co-operation of all partners

on equal terms: one enterprise performing its tasks or services in a way that the subsequent

service provider can continue without delay or rework. Thus the enterprises understand

themselves as being linked with each other similar to customer-supplier chains which are

characterized by fundamentally equal actors.

Network of electricity craft shops for comprehensive regional customer service

A certain number of independent electricity craft and repair/maintenance enterprises have set

up a specific co-operative network in order to guarantee regional 24 hrs services for any

customers, and for any tasks of domestic maintenance and repair. The enterprises are linked

by mobile phone and email. On the basis of a flexible set of rules, the entrepreneurs decide

through direct communication who is to respond to the different demands of the customers.

These demands would otherwise over-stretch any single enterprise both in time and travel.

Network to involve SMEs in using the WWW for joint business

Several regional SMEs have agreed to set up WWW-based links in order to utilize the

possibilities of offering services and winning customers, as a joint effort. Their www pages

are developing towards a structure similar to a stock exchange. This co-operation network is

supported by the regional technical colleges to train SME managers and employees in using

49

the www. University research teams have designed specific computer interfaces for the

optimum use of the internet by the SME personnel within this network.

Network for regional professional training in information technology

The aim of this innovative network is to place young people in SMEs in a way that they

experience first-hand practical training in working with, and maintaining IT equipment (both

software and hardware). This network of enterprises comprises several leading IT companies

in the Aachen region which are highly co-operative in order to educate (and subsequently

recruit) new qualified personnel.

There are many other networks of craft enterprises in the Aachen region. They have often

developed out of informal personal relationships. Within these networks, the partners realize

continual win-win-situations by jointly offering their services to their customers. A different

kind of network is described in the following paragraph.

Networking for environmental improvements: the Environmental Technology Park

The concept of technology or industrial (business) parks is not uncommon: different

companies settle within an enclosed geographic area generally as a result of industrial and

regional government policy. Those companies which are more resource intensive (in terms of

consumption of energy, water, equipment, and waste production, etc.) are usually unwanted

on such sites. It is, however, possible to incorporate these companies by establishing parks

which allow the shared and effective use of infrastructure and resources. One example may

illustrate this concept.

The first Environmental Technology Park was established at Bielefeld as an innovative

industrial network in Germany. It was originally suggested by the Aachen University in co-

operation with an industrial company. It is centred around a large textile finishing plant which

had to give up business at that time. Today it consists of a cluster of specially selected

companies taking up residence in unused areas of the site. The basic features of re-

establishing the companies on this site are: shared use of electricity generated on site; fresh

water supply from the site’s own wells; utilizing the existing, but under-used sewage

treatment plant; shared use of maintenance as well as other facilities, etc.. Thus more than 30

companies have been relocated onto this site since 1997. Among them are two large

commercial laundries and a car-wash business, several trading, marketing and software

50

companies, etc.. They have experienced cost reductions of up to 80 through shared use and re-

use of resources.

The same concept of the environmental technology park is presently being reworked for the

whole of the Aachen region in close co-operation of the Regional Council, the Chambers,

several enterprises and the university. This project of the Environmental Technology Park, is

an example of how economic and environmental objectives can be brought together in order

to improve environmental performance in industry and service through regional networking.

It is again an example of win-win-situations of mutual gains in co-operation and networks

which are characterized by co-operation between fundamentally equal partners.

4.5 Establishing Networks of Socially oriented Enterprises and Projects

During the last two decades, new projects, institutions and small enterprises have developed

which are specifically committed to improving employment conditions in the region. They

care especially for the integration and participation of socially disadvantaged people and they

fight against unemployment of less qualified personnel. Their aim is to bring more people into

qualification processes and to raise their qualification standard in order for them to re-gain

jobs. This is mostly realised by the development of new services in the range of low-skill

jobs. Most of these enterprises and projects are co-operating with each other through their

own special regional association in order to gain more political power and to co-ordinate their

public relations strategies. Some examples follow here to illustrate the different networking

structures.

HolzCoop

The company HolzCoop (Wood Co-operative) was established by two young unemployed

carpenters about 20 years ago. The aim was at that time to offer to other young unemployed

people the opportunity to learn basic carpentry as a start experience for their own professional

careers. The project was supported by the regional church and the Regional council. The

project developed into a flourishing carpentry shop which for many years has stabilized its

size at about 15 employees. This craft enterprise derives some of its regional success and

appreciation from communication and management training courses organized for them by

some young teachers of the University of Technology Aachen.

51

Network to improve service orientation of low-qualification personnel

This network has been instigated by the Aachen Church jointly with the Chambers of Craft

and Trade, and the regional Labour Union. It aims at defining and implementing standards of

employment and qualification of unemployed personnel. Through this process, new

opportunities have been opening up for such people to find medium-qualification employment

in service tasks, e.g. office jobs, catering, maintenance, etc..

Relektra: recycling of electr(on)ical products after use

A group of entrepreneurs (graduates from the universities of the region) has set up a company

to manually disassemble and pre-sort on a large scale, computers and TV equipment etc..

Their aim is to re-gain raw materials in order to deliver them to certain production factories

for re-use and further exploitation. These materials comprise: copper wiring, glass tubes,

condensers and circuit boards, plastic materials etc.. The computers are collected region-wide.

The workers on the plant experience both a new qualification as craftsmen, and personal

satisfaction to be needed for a task which they themselves consider valuable in terms of both

environment and society. As a side-job, some of these workers create strange and beautiful

works of art out of the technology waste.

The company is part of a network of regional political administration, university, industry and

the institutions and chambers responsible for employment and qualification. Their common

aim is the lasting integration of structural economic improvements and improved labour

market policy. Figure 10 shows the basic structure of the network. The following quotation

has been taken from the official report of the review team who visited the company on behalf

of the partly funding Government institution:

”Here, new ways of removal and utilisation of electronic waste have beendeveloped in parallel which have triggered a process of structural change into agood direction.. The Aachen network of electronic waste treatment is a model of anew integrative strategy that is economically as well as ecologically viable.“ (vonWeizsaecker, 1999, p.4)

In this particular kind of network, however, the limits of such co-operative networks may

become visible if the partners do not really recognize each other as being fundamentally

equal. As an example, certain administrative bodies occasionally tend to see these socially

oriented enterprises and projects not so much as partners or suppliers on equal terms but

52

rather as applicants who are not always welcome when they negotiate about financial support

for socially oriented regional activities.

DisassemblyEntreprise

ProducerFactories

Training Centre

City Councils

Chamber of Trade and Commerce

Figure 10: Structure of co-operation network for recycling of electr(on)ical products in the

region of Aachen.

5. Some Lessons to be learned from the Aachen Experiences

This report has described examples of co-operative economic structures in the region of

Aachen. The region has been successful and competitive in its European and global context.

The core of its success are its co-operation networks which are based on the understanding

that all co-operation partners are fundamentally equal. These networks are mostly structured

through regional customer-supplier chains. The terms successful and competitive mean that

the organisations that co-operate in such networks, achieve both aims: to survive and to

ensure their profits as well as the jobs of their employees.

These processes of co-operation in the region have created win-win-situations between the

network partners in the sense of experiencing mutual gains. In parallel, they contribute to

learning processes of the whole region and instigate new regional activities of innovation.

This ability to co-operate and to learn may be seen as pre-condition to create innovations on

53

all levels. The co-operation networks innovate in products, production and services: develop

new products, establish new enterprises (e.g. high-technology craft enterprises), work out new

qualification profiles for their employees, and offer new services (e.g. comprehensive

building contracts).

Continual support and instigation of new co-operation networks, however, are necessary to

maintain such competitiveness of enterprises and to guarantee the ability to innovate, for the

whole region of Aachen. This requirement of regional development characterises the role of

regional politics. From the view of system theory, such processes and their results cannot be

controlled and directed through a central political office in the sense of top-down economic

intervention. Through political intervention, it is only possible to stimulate and coach these

processes continually while ensuring both competition on the market, and autonomy of

enterprise development.

These co-operating entities are to understand themselves as fundamentally equal across all

regional actors coming from all hierarchical levels of decision-making, and from all kinds of

institutions, e.g.:

− university and high technology enterprises;

− internationally based companies;

− craft enterprises;

− socially oriented enterprises and projects;

− the different Chambers and regional political powers, etc..

Many long-term changes of economic concepts of actions can only be developed by

integrating the different interests and opinions of these actors into one discourse. Such

processes need to take into account the importance of customer-supplier chains. It means to

search for the highest mutual gains and profits of all actors.

Such a comprehensive view of the region is illustrated in this report. Its integrated process of

development is essential for the survival and competitiveness of the region as a whole. In this

sense regional learning can be understood as enhancing the ability to act co-operatively

across the region. It includes to accept the continuous changes caused by complex economic

and political processes around the region.

54

The main characteristic feature of such networking is mutual trust as mentioned above. The

question is to be answered here how such mutual trust can develop in a competitive economic

environment even across national borders. In closer scrutiny, this question turns out to be the

question of universal ethics: How can societies and social entities be drawn into agreeing on a

set of ethical rules in dealing with each others? This question has been discussed extensively

in Germany and internationally during the last decades with the aim to define some basic

agreement between different partners of communication and co-operation on how to perform

economic actions within such communication and co-operation. This issue will be followed

up in another publication by C: Rose.

In the following paragraph, the concept of regional change described so far, is extended over

the whole of Germany. Thus Germany is considered a Region in its own right: This view

seems to be feasible with regard to the global developments which make Germany appear one

region among many other regions of similar size and importance around the world. On this

background, the all-German project SENEKA has been designed in order to support this

specific region Germany in her strive towards fundamental changes under the impact of

global forces of change.

7. The Service Network for Training and Continuing Education SENEKA

The project SENEKA is a large educational project aiming at the whole of Germany. Its

concept developed out of the experiences gained in the region of Aachen. Thus the project

represents the strategy to transfer the successful approach of regional development from the

Aachen region onto the region of Germany as a whole.

The project SENEKA is funded by the Federal Government of Germany (Ministry of

Education and Research BMBF). It started in 1999 and runs for 5 years. 24 businesses and six

research institutes from different German universities are taking part in the project. In

addition to these actors, an increasing number of national and international associated partners

(38 at the time of writing) are involved in the realisation of the project. The project is

characterised by a high financial injection from the businesses themselves. In total SENEKA

has a financial volume of around 20 million Euro.

The goal of SENEKA is the improvement of innovation competence of small and medium-

sized enterprises through co-operation and networking. This strategic approach is presently

55

becoming important as the globalisation of economy endangers the economic stability of

entire regions and countries. With this project, the experiment has been started across

Germany to improve regional economic stability by strategies of networking which focus on

exchanging knowledge and experiences among enterprises and research institutions. With this

project the concept of the Learning Region has been extended over the whole of Germany.

In the sense of the change strategy discussed in paragraph 4 of this report, the project

SENEKA symbolises the integrated consultant intervention in the regional change processes

in the following way: the SENEKA project team itself represents the integrated consultant

agency needed within the system-to-change. Thus SENEKA mirrors the external global

change forces into the system of Germany as a whole. Through its interventions it triggers the

accepted change processes as suggested by Ihsen (2001).

In SENEKA, the co-operating enterprises and research institutions are designing marketable

products in the fields of knowledge management, networking and competence development.

Some of these project results are briefly presented here. They integrate the social,

organisational and technical aspects of knowledge management and represent a cross section

of the SENEKA output which currently covers 30 of such products.

Regional networking support

With the regional networking of enterprises, the joint utilisation of resources and skills is

becoming important. The mutual learning processes and exchange of experiences between the

different enterprises need to be independent from space and time. Thus an electronic platform

has been introduced into the SENEKA framework. The platform is centred in the region of

Bremen. It supports the emerging business network across the region.. It is the prototype of

technology support for regional enterprise networking which may become essential for more

regions, in due course.

56

Best-Practice Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a quality management method which is increasingly

becoming a prerequisite for successful product development. Within SENEKA, a new tool

has been developed which has been named Best Practice QFD. It describes a systematic

approach of Preventive Quality Management to be applied in the early phases of the product

life cycle. It may prove to be an essential contribution towards improving quality of industrial

production and service in view of global competition (Pfeifer, T. et al., 2001).

Customer and Strategy Workshops

Customer orientation of business strategies is one very important issue of improving industrial

performance in Germany. Thus SENEKA aims at integrating customer orientation into

strategic planning of enterprises: For this aim SENEKA has developed and tested the concept

of specific Customer and Strategy Workshops. These workshops enable the analysis of

deficits and problems in the company, addressed by and oriented towards, the customer. Thus

this integrated approach triggers new strategies of enterprise change and improvement

Inter-company co-operation workshops

Managers of different enterprises tend to be detached in their attitude towards each other.

Usually there is little scope for co-operation and exchange of experiences on a personal level.

Hence SENEKA has developed and tested the concept of a special workshop for leading

managers promoting exchange of personal know-how between companies of different

branches. It aims at including the experiences gained through such knowledge transfer, into

the work processes of the enterprises. Thus the concept supports the networking of

independent companies through integrating the leading Managers. The joint commitment of

these managers is to instigate and promote changes within their own companies

Network analysis in customer-supplier chains

The large company DaimlerChrysler is the hub of a wide-spread network of customer and

supplier enterprises which are also partly networked among each others. As one contribution

to the SENKA aims, DaimlerChrysler is presently setting up a consultancy network of their

co-operating SMEs. The emphasis is on gaining and exchanging data about operations and

processes within and across this network. Data analysis within the network leads to

recommendations for the structure and the organisation of such networks as well as for the

57

organisation and optimisation of co-operative processes in customer-supplier chains. In this

way, SENEKA is contributing to the development of new approaches for future network

management.

These four examples may illustrate how across the whole of Germany, industry has been

drawn into networking and co-operation in order to jointly and innovately improve economic

performance. Thus the strategy suggested by the Learning Region Aachen has proved its

viability on a larger scale beyond one single region. Even in view of the present economic

difficulties in Germany, this strategy has visibly contributed to better chances of survival for

many of the enterprises affected by the global down-trend of business. Hence it is the strategy

to be followed into the future to overcome these problems.

8. Conclusions: Learning to Learn Continuously

The need to invent the concept of the Networked Learning Region has been triggered by the

changes of global economy under the impact of new information and communication

technology. The Learning Region is characterized in that it recognizes its own needs for

change and to accept these challenges leading to its own learning processes within its co-

operative networks. It also means learning to learn continuously. A regional economic system

wishing to ensure such sustainable ability of learning, innovation and competitiveness, would

need to promote co-operation in networks of fundamentally equal partners. On this

background, the described projects of the Learning Region Aachen and the follow-up project

of the Learning Region Germany (SENEKA) are presently being continued through the

submission to the EU of a comprehensive inter-regional and international project carrying the

same name.

Acknowledgement

The chapter is an extended version of the presentation of one of the authors (D.B.) during theSeminar at Delhi University and NISTADS-Delhi, on Nov. 5th and 6th, 2001. It is based on thereport The Region of Aachen as a “Learning Region“ - a Case Study by Ellen Olbertzpublished in the Journal AI&Society, Vol. 16, p 224-242, Springer, London, 2002.

58

ReferencesApel, Karl-Otto (1976): Transformation of Philosophy (Transformation der Philosophie). Vol.

I and II. Frankfurt am Main

Beck, U. (1999). Markets need new regulations (Die Maerkte brauchen neue Regulierungen).VDI-Nachrichten. 24.09.1999.

Dassen-Housen, P. (2002): Responding to the Global Challenges: Regional Entrepreneurshipwithin the Change Society. AI&Society 16, p 188-209, Springer, London, 2002

Drucker, P.F. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century. Butterworth &Heinemann, Oxford, etc..

Duggal, P.(1999). Knowledge Based Society. Proc. Int. Conf. Enterprise Cultures andInnovation in the Information Society. Brighton, U.K., Sept 17, 1999.

Garcia, L. (2000). Governing Electronic Commerce in a Global Environment. PlenaryPresentation. Proc. World Engineers‘ Convention, Professional Congress Informationand Communication. Hannover. June 19-21, 2000, 33-67

Gill, K.S. (2002). The user in the emerging space of the digital provide. Proc. of theConference: Modelli dell’Utente nelle Societa Avanzate (The User’s Models in theAdvanced Societies). Istituto Universitario di Archittetura di Venezia, Venice, Nov 18and 19, 2002

Habermas, Jürgen (1999): Theory of Communicative Action (Theorie des kommunikativenHandelns). Vol 1 and 2. Frankfurt am Main.

IHK Aachen (eds) (1989). The Aachen Region as a Changing Region (Die WirtschaftsregionAachen - Ein Grenzraum im Wandel). Aachen.

Ihsen, S.: Changing Engineering Education through Integrated Consultant Intervention. Proc.8th IFAC/IFIFP/IFORS/IEA Symposium on Analysis, Design and Evaluation ofHuman-Machine Systems, Kassel, September 18-20, 2001

Isenhardt, I. (1994). Complexity management of organisations - reorganising a large hospital(Komplexitaetsorientierte Gestaltungsprinzipien für Organisationen - dargestellt anFallstudien zu Reorganisationsprozessen in einem Großkrankenhaus). Aachener ReiheMensch und Technik (ARMT) 9. Augustinus Publ.. Aachen, 1994.

Isenhardt, I., K. Henning and B. Lorscheider (eds.) (1999). The Service Society(Dienstleistung lernen. Kompetenzen und Lernprozesse in derDienstleistungsgesellschaft). Aachener Reihe Mensch und Technik (ARMT) 30.Augustinus Publ.. Aachen, 1999.

N.N. (1999). Craft is experiencing uplift (Handwerk sieht sich im Aufwärtstrend). AachenerNachrichten. 01.01.1999.

Olbertz, E. (2001). The Learning Region - Co-operation and Learning Processes in theRegion of Aachen. Peter Lang Publ.. Bern etc.

Pfeifer, T., Heiliger, S. (2001): Best Practice QFD, SENEKA-News, 2001

Piore, M. J. and C. F. Sabel (1985). The End of Mass Production (Das Ende derMassenproduktion). Berlin.

Sassen, S. (2000). Impacts of Digitalization on Leading Economic Sectors. PlenaryPresentation, Proc. World Engineers‘ Convention, Professional Congress Informationand Communication. Hannover. June 19-21, 2000. 147-165.

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Spaete, F. (1998), Sun, craft, future (Sonne, Handwerk, Zukunft). Aachener Nachrichten.30.04.1998.

Storper, M. and A. J. Scott (1992). Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development.Boston.

von Weizsaecker, E.-U., G.I.B., ISA Consult (eds.) (1999). Electronic waste recycling in theAachen region (Kooperationsverbund Eletro(nik)schrott-Recycling in der RegionAachen). Bottrop.

Warnecke, H.-J. (1992). The fractal factory (Die Fraktale Fabrik. Revolution derUnternehmenskultur). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.

Zinn, K. G. (1985). Tradition, innovation and the political powers (Traditionen, Neuerungenund der politische Faktor in Aachens Wirtschaftsentwicklung. Eine historische Skizze).In: IG-Metall (ed.) The application of technology in the regional economy at Aachen(Rationalisierung. Die kapitalistische Anwendung der Technik am Beispiel der StadtAachen). Plambeck & Co Publ., Neuss, 1985.

60

CHAPTER THREE

Clustering and Networking in Italy:

A Critical Reflection on Emilia-Romagna and Bologna

Francesco Garibaldo,Bologna, Italy

In this chapter, a brief description of the most recent developments of regions is given takinginto account the impact of global business on regional processes. The example which is thebasis for this discussion is the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, with Bologna as its capitaltown. The chapter talks, firstly, about the successes that have helped this region to becomeone of the top ten regions in Europe. It continues to discuss the problems and the criticalissues that a region whose economy is based upon small and medium enterprises, must facetoday in a scenario of globalisation. Several theoretical concepts are used to analyse thesedevelopments which reflect the wide-spread commitment of different authors to this commoncause of concern. The chapter concludes with original report on this region by its recentvisitor, V. P. Kharbanda, NISTADS, New Delhi, India.

61

1. Introduction: The Region Emilia-Romagna

With a population of nearly four million residents (7% of the national population), the region

Emilia Romagna with its capital Bologna accounts for 8.3 percent of national employment

and nearly 9 percent of the Gross National Product, surpassed only by Lombardia and Lazio.

The region has the third highest rate of employment and the third lowest rate of

unemployment (6%, compared to the national average of over 11%) among Italy’s 20 regions,

surpassed on both counts only by Valle d’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige in the far North,

which jointly raise only 2% of GNP. Its economic dynamism is confirmed by its share of 11

percent of the nation’s exports, placing it in fourth position after Piemonte, Veneto and

Lombardia.

Emilia-Romagna in Italy is the characteristic model of innovative SMEs in Italy, and is also

known as the Third Italy. The productive system is characterized by Small and Medium-sized

Enterprises (SMEs) (employing an average of 5.48 people per enterprise), with a huge

number of artisan enterprises (126,639 out of 304,947) and co-operatives (7,923, including

2,336 farming co-operatives and 1,187 labour and manufacturing co-operatives). The major

companies of the region are Barilla and Parmalat in the food sector; Ima and Tetrapak in the

industrial machinery sector; Lamborghini and Ferrari in the motor vehicle manufacturing

sector; and Ducati Motor in the motorbike sector. In order to optimize the advantages and

reduce the limits associated with the small firms, production in Emilia-Romagna region has

taken on a particular structure over the years, giving rise to local productive systems known as

‘industrial districts’ or industrial clusters.

In sharp contrast with the trend towards services-led growth in the dynamic core regions of

the advanced economies, food and agriculture, and the manufacturing industries remain

extremely important to the Emilian economy. Although agriculture now employs under 9

percent of the region’s workforce, sectors such as cereals, fruit, vegetables, and especially

meat and dairy products, place the region squarely among Italy’s food producing regions and

earn the region a considerable volume of export earnings. Manufacturing (excluding

construction) continues to employ nearly 30 percent of the region’s workforce, and accounts

for over 10 percent of the nation’s output in the sector. The manufacturing industries account

for over a staggering 80 percent of the region’s total exports, dominated

62

by electrical and mechanical engineering (51% of total exports), ceramics and other non

metallic mineral products (13%), fashion wear (11%), furniture, chemicals, and print and

publishing.

The following two figures show the capital Bologna within the Region Emilia Romagna (Fig.

1) and the characteristic two towers of the city Bologna itself. (Fig. 2).

63

Figure 1 and 2: Bologna and part of its region

2. The Economic Development of the Region

The driving force of the Emilian manufacturing economy, as is well known, are its

decentralised networks of flexibly specialised small firms. 98 percent of the region’s firms

employ less than 100 workers, and among these, 41 percent are classified as owner-run firms

organised along craft lines and employing less than 15 workers. The manufacturing sector

also includes nearly 20 percent of the region’s 7,400 co-operatives, the majority of which are

small firms. In the main, the small firms are gathered into three types of decentralised

64

network: typical Marshallian industrial districts such as Carpi and Sassuolo, which specialise

in individual niche products such as knitwear and ceramics; artisan networks in traditional

consumer industries such as clothing, footwear, furniture and various agro-industrial products,

which are present across the region but do not dominate individual areas; and, in contrast to

other Third Italy regions, subcontracting networks centred around medium-sized leader firms,

specialising in customised or batch production of design-intensive products (e.g. agricultural

machinery, office equipment, specialist cars and motorbikes, packaging machinery). As Ash

Amin (1998) wrote: “The only exception which is a-typical of the ‘Emilian Model’ (Brusco,

1982) is the chemicals sector, located in the eastern provinces of the region through public

policy effort, and dominated by vertically integrated large firms.

Turning to institutional questions, the literature on the economics of the Emilian Model (or

for that matter industrial districts in general) has made it a point to highlight the role of

collective externalities normally denied to the self-reliant small firm (Brusco, 1982). Analysis

has tended to focus on the attributes of the business networks to which the individual firm

belongs and on targeted externally provided services and institutional supports the firms are

able to draw upon. Thus we have learnt of the decisive influence on dynamic competitiveness

of factors such as economies of task specialisation, flexibilities of vertical disintegration,

agglomeration economies, sedimented local knowledge, learning and innovation scope

offered by sharing of information and inter-firm dependence, and institutionalised access to

credit, information, and other business services.

A parallel strand of literature has focused on the role of a cohesive local political subcultures,

to emphasise the economic gains associated with state efficiency and popular civic

democracy. This strand draws on the seminal research of Arnaldo Bagnasco (1988) and Carlo

Trigilia (1986), and more recently, the work of Robert Putnam (1993) and his research

collaborators (Nanetti, 1988; Leonardi and Nanetti, 1990). It has stressed the commonality of

goals resulting from the presence of a historically sedimented local political culture that cuts

across class, gender, and institutional divides. It has also stressed the fine balance between a

responsible state and an active civil society based upon associative organisations of various

kinds - a configuration claimed to have secured collective responsibility and checks and

balances between the plural authority structures.

The impression is that as the knowledge on Emilia-Romagna and industrial districts in general

has become progressively specialised, sight has been lost of the connections between the

65

institutions which support the business systems and the local political subcultures. For

example, while in an earlier publication, Phil Cooke (1984) stresses the communalist and craft

traditions of the Emilian model, in his new agenda-setting book with Kevin Morgan (1997),

the emphasis falls decisively on the role of business support institutions such as interest group

associations and agencies supplying business services. Perhaps unwittingly the result has been

the relative neglect of the interplay between the institutions of flexible specialisation and the

subcultures of ‘associationist democracy’ (Hirst, 1994) or ‘polycentric’ politics (which Locke,

1995, distinguishes from hierarchical or polarised politics). This neglect has tended to play

down the role of this interplay in not only underwriting entrepreneurship, but also

engendering a culture of innovation and experimentation.”

3. Institutional Interplay

3.1 The regional political community

Between 1950 and 1970 Emilia witnessed the consolidation and expansion of its small firm

business systems around essentially two vectors. First, the gradual industrialisation of the

countryside saw the rise of the agro-food industries, as products of the land were transformed

into quality foods for export markets (e.g. Parma ham, parmesan cheese). This process drew

in small farms and firms, often grouped together as buyer or seller co-operatives, to reap the

benefits of scale economies and access to pooled services. At the same time, the region’s rural

areas and small towns spawned the growth of small manufacturing firms and industrial

districts typifying the features of flexible specialisation and Marshallian clusters. At the heart

of this model of entrepreneurship lay a series of embedded social practices and conventions,

which are: a reliance on extended family labour; non-standardised domestic and work-

rhythms; the reorientation of peasant values and skills; an ideology of work (over a profit

ethic); and entrepreneurial pride.

These craft values - as distinct from the jealous market-individualism of most small firms -

came to be institutionally enshrined within a broader communitarian ideology of co-operation

and consensus, through the establishment of a political community linking up a variety of

social organisations. The uniquely pro-worker and pro-small business Communist and

Socialist parties gained majority influence among both the unions and the artisan associations

and co-operatives to which the small entrepreneurs flocked. In turn, these associations became

66

important centres of economic power, serving not only to further the interests of small

entrepreneurs, but also to provide training in business formation and management. As a

consequence, a certain Communist and Socialist community was developed which integrated

people of this political opinion in charge of local and regional government, labour unions,

small artisan associations and industries, and firms organised as co-operatives.

This powerful political community saw to the business needs of the small firm, but,

importantly, at the same time it helped to inculcate an associationalist culture across the

regional elite as well as link that elite to the broader mass of the region’s population. The

mainstream political ideology encouraged a culture of participation in mass politics and

collective action through interest-group associations, while its diffusion across the

institutional spectrum provided an unusually common set of beliefs. This issue is followed

further in the subsequent paragraph.

After the mid 1970s, the level of formalised institutional support for the region’s networks of

flexible specialisation increased. Among the Third Italy regions, as is well known from the

literature, Emilia-Romagna has been unique in terms of the variety, density and efficiency of

public sector support provided for the small firm economy (Leonardi and Nanetti, 1990;

Brusco, 1982). Famously, this includes the establishment in 1974 by the Regional Authority

of ERVET (Regional Agency for the Economic Evaluation of the Territory). The success of

ERVET lay in establishing sector-specific or function-specific service centres within easy

access of small firms, providing, for example, targeted information and training in a flexible

and customer-oriented way (Brusco, 1982; Morgan, 1997).

3.2 Infrastructure and Associations

But here too, the role of progressive infrastructural and social policies, linked to the region’s

communalist political culture, should not be underestimated. The long-standing commitment

of the progressive Left to modernising the physical infrastructure to the highest European

standards helped to provide a conducive and efficient business environment. Furthermore the

region shows unique public sector commitment to high-quality public services, particular

welfare needs (e.g. of pensioners, working mothers, the handicapped), and popular cultural

projects such as concerts and festivals. These commitments have facilitated social

reproduction at the same time as enhancing quality of life and an inclusive sense of place.

67

The literature also reminds us that, in contrast to many other regions, support for Emilian

small businesses was provided by representative associations - local, provincial and regional -

and in a variety of forms. Concretely, the Co-operative League and the National Artisans’

Federation (CNA) played a vital role for their members by lobbying for favourable legislation

and policies. In this way they established sector-specific training programmes; provided

access to a range of business services (from legal advice to technical information); helped to

establish consortia for joint purchasing and sales, or in order to secure guarantee loans or

credit. Meanwhile, Labour Unions, industry associations, the association of small businesses,

the Chamber of Commerce, and research organisations and consultancies developed research

intelligence for the use of their members and sponsors. They also contributed, through widely

attended and frequent public seminars and conferences, towards constructing a public

reservoir of knowledge, opinion, debate and reputation.

Conceptually, it is important to note that the considerable institutional pluralism and overlap

that came to characterise the second vector of urban diffuse industrialisation, did not lead to

institutional fragmentation. This was owed largely to cross-institutional commonality

resulting from the region’s mainstream communalist ideology. Furthermore there prevailed a

strong culture of intermediation between the region’s political, economic and civic

organisations.

3.3 The specific role of the Communist Party

The role of the ruling Communist Party was critical in both regards. The structure of alliances

established by the Party gathered together, into a heterogeneous coalition, the urban working

class, the peasantry and agricultural workers, an urban entrepreneurial and middle class won

over by administrative efficiency and good services. Around this coalition, the Party was able

to gather consensus around a model of economic and social development based on

progressive government, social integration, and entrepreneurial success. In addition,

significantly, it was able to exercise ‘network’ influence, through the common set of beliefs

and values shared by its voters and activists, newspaper readers, recreation club members

(ARCI centres) in virtually every district, and participants at mass festivals and rallies. The

Party’s network influence also helped to secure consensus up and down the hierarchies of the

region’s powerful ‘red’ economic organisations, from shop stewards and unions, to the CNA

and the Co-operative League. In addition, cross-membership, inter-personal familiarity, and

the frequent rotation of the Party elite through senior positions across these organisations

68

served to sediment a common agenda, as well as nurture a diffuse organisational culture of

consultation and compromise.

But, as Robert Putnam reminds us, this culture of intermediation was also the product of the

democratic culture of civic regions. Such regions find themselves finely balanced between an

efficient state, and strong associationalist tendencies in civil society. Emilian society is replete

with voluntary associations displaying high levels of public participation, in all areas of public

life, from recreation, sports and culture to housing, welfare services and education. This fine

balance between state and society has served to inculcate, firstly, a tradition of associative

governance in which real authority is placed in the hands of autonomous groups (for example,

the active role of voluntary organisations and charities in welfare provision). Secondly, it has

bred a fiercely republican regional culture that defends individual and group entitlements,

rights and responsibilities, an inclusive and shared public arena, and consultative and

democratic decision making. We may speak here of an ‘Emilian Way of Life’. It draws on a

number of strands, including a strong feminist tradition; a preference for collective resolution

of problems; an appetite for cultural innovation, production and consumption; an eager sense

of difference from the rest of Italy; an openness to outsiders; and an advanced sense of

citizenship.

The Emilian economy, therefore, has drawn upon an intricate web of mutually reinforcing

formal and informal institutions, gathered around a particular way of life. It combines

entrepreneurial success, good government, and social cohesion. To neglect this aspect would

be to offer an incomplete account of the success of flexible specialisation in Emilia-Romagna.

This success story, however, needs today to be considered critically under the aspect of

maturity in regional development.

4. A Crisis of Maturity

The main problem we have to deal with today can be summarised as follows:

Regional society, and Bologna is no exception, being in the leading group of the strong and

successful European regions, finds itself going through a typical crisis of maturity (Amin,

1999). We can distinguish between different historical periods, in a given system such as a

sector, a region, etc.. These periods vary from a situation of stability to situations of changes

69

that dynamically readjust the equilibrium, and reach as far as situations of structural dis-

equilibrium among the forces at play. In these latter cases we see the crisis of the old model.

If we turn our attention to Emilia-Romagna it becomes clear that today’s situation is one of

the crisis of maturity and not merely one of adjustment.

To put it differently, there is no convergence between the strategies of the different actors, at

every level, i.e. macro, meso and micro. Such a convergence is only possible when and if

some general values are shared and a certain degree of reciprocal trust can be achieved, and

this depends both on the action of government itself and on what is commonly defined as

governance. It means a system of government which is based on the presence of many

different powers operating autonomously but within the framework of a system of rules and

institutions. Such a system allows all the actors, taken as a whole, to define step-by-step and

by means of conflicts and negotiations, a dynamic equilibrium of the forces at play.

Furthermore, such a convergence largely depends on a set of intermediate institutions and

artificially created rules allowing the system to achieve virtuous and viable conditions. This

set of intermediate institutions and rules are what I call a ‘new class of public goods’.

I have used the expression strategic convergence consciously to mean that, in my opinion, the

crisis of maturity cannot be faced by trusting the regenerative capacities of the system as it is

now. In other words, there is no spontaneous solution or, to use a kind of language that is

fashionable today, there is no market-led solution to this crisis. It means that we need to

follow a pathway of strategic readjustment which must not be dictated and planned by a Big

Brother, whether public or private. The pathway to be followed is thus born from the

interaction between strong political and cultural projects, as well as from the regional

government and the local governments. It also needs to include the social and economic

actors who, by means of struggles and breakaways, within a given framework of reference,

negotiate and realise a virtuous growth pathway.

The given reference framework is indispensable, in the first place because, as the Nobel prize-

winner Amartya Sen (1997) has well argued, there are reasons behind such developments that

cannot be traced back merely to economy. It means on the contrary that a problem will

become a priority for the simple reason that its non-resolution has the strength to break the

whole economic and social framework, thus making policies (which in themselves are rea-

sonable) totally senseless. These priority problems must dictate the economic agenda and not

70

vice-versa. This is what is happening, e.g., through unemployment and social inequality, but

this is also true for public order or transport safety.

In the second place, such reference framework is needed because the open nature of the social

systems does not imply their total indeterminacy; that is, not every course of action that can

be hypothesised is feasible. There are constraints of social and practical coherence. For

example, the possibility of great flexibility in the management of the labour resources cohabit

with the need to create a knowledge-based society; or else it may result in the non-availability

of some of its members - which thus limits the possible courses of action according to

coherence frameworks.

5. The Nature of the Problem

What does crisis of maturity concretely mean? The virtuous equilibrium which came into

being between the end of the 1960s and the early 1980s, was based upon the dual regulation

of conflicts: one social and the other economic. The social regulation of conflicts was

translated into a concomitant growth in productivity and company yields, on the one hand,

and into improving the conditions of life and work of the majority of the working class, on the

other hand. I say ‘majority’ because it should never be forgotten that the phenomena of

structural flexibility of the system rested upon a basis, even if a minority one, of under-

regulation, which had never really disappeared, not even in the Golden Years.

The economic regulation of conflicts is a well-known mixture of cooperation and competition,

typical of regions. This equilibrium could exist thanks to a reference framework given by

strong local governments, well-rooted, and, as the Americans would say, by bearers of a

vision. The model has been so successful as to bring about the following effect: The model

appeared to be self-sufficient, both in the institutional and the economic sense of the term. In

the current debate this self-sufficiency has been translated into the theory of a dynamic

transformation of an exclusively or largely endogenous kind. It thus expects institutions to

increasingly regulate the access to their resources. The believe is that if this is guaranteed, the

actors in the field would have, in their set of historically selected capacities, all the necessary

answers. From the 1980s onwards, this requirement has been increasingly married with a

cultural framework of reference of a neo-liberal kind: less State and less institutional interven-

tion.

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All of this has clashed with the processes of internationalisation and later globalisation. In

particular, then, the process of globalisation, unlike that of internalisation, is not based upon a

mere homogenisation and dislocation of the productive activities in the world. On the contrary

it tends to sum up, under global control, the existing diversities, both in the sense of what is

typical of a region, and in the sense of cost differences and resource valorisation. Hence, it is

not accidental that the middle and even the small businesses have started to be 'shopping'

targets, and so have company networks. What counts for the buyer is controlling a whole

class of varieties.

Indeed, by so doing, a value chain is controlled that is not merely longer but also broader

and, allow me to use the expression, ‘denser’. If we wish to control the value chain, and if we

want to be able to share the value produced, we cannot avoid controlling their strategic

functions. These functions are decisive today both in order to reach the market (strategic

marketing, finance, logistics), and to be able to have innovative product capacity. It also

means the need to reduce access times to their markets, e.g. reorganisation of the relationship

between planning and manufacture, according to the patterns of concurrent engineering.

These requirements imply a profound reorganisation of the manufacturing process itself,

which in turn implies a profound change of relationship with Labour.

Does this mean, as many believe, that there is no future for a territory of small and medium

enterprises?

On the contrary, as the concrete examples demonstrate, we can build different forms of

companies and enterprise networks. They may either be built around one dominant business,

or they may be based on the equal standing of all partners within the network. They create

their strategic functions as a function of integration of their previous activities. They are

based on their manufacturing know-how competencies. They can also build long networks,

i.e. networks that embrace very distant territorial realities, on the basis of cooperation

including the transfer of knowledge and technologies. The computer-based technologies can

allow this, depending upon the system of rules and the concrete planning of, e.g., telematic

networks.

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6. Policies

6.1 The company system as a network

This system is characterised by product innovation and the development of stable and well-

qualified employment. As has already been said, it is a matter of supporting the processes of

aggregation for the creation of local company systems and full-blown networks. These

networks would be capable of managing products throughout the whole value chain, and of

building long chains. The basic pattern must be that of both cooperation and competition.

Such a modification in the company relations requires a substantial modification in the

organisation and utilisation of Work. This hypothesis requires to be up to the challenge. It

concomitantly requires strong product innovation. It can be realised beginning with some of

the great themes of daily life in the urban areas and in the rural or disadvantaged areas of the

region, or of other Italian, European and extra-European regions. Here the examples of

company networks and telematic networks are discussed.

It is said that the new technologies today make possible the creation of global networks of

economic activities. Thus they make accessible the benefits of agglomeration, typical of local

economies, on a scale previously unthinkable. By saying this only part of the truth has been

said, that is, a possibility is described that is contradicted by other effects deriving from the

same technological basis. The creation of such networks, indeed, is realised through

phenomena such as the externalisation of functions and processes, previously concentrated in

the same company. Furthermore it concerns the territorial dispersion, even with long logistic

chains, of functions and processes that previously were concentrated on a local scale or at

most on a regional/national scale. These two concomitant phenomena of

externalisation/articulation and dispersion exponentially increase the coordination tasks of the

leading companies (Sassen, 1991). Thus they are increasing the transaction costs and run the

risk of creating full-blown bottlenecks.

But this not only depends on their technical capacities but also on the planning of their

architectures, as well as on the rules that govern their access and their use. In order to define

and implement such rules, and to resolve the conflicts with regard to them, some form of

governance operating at all levels is necessary. In the absence of a system of governance, the

electronic networks will not reduce the transaction costs, but will instead generate greater

73

insecurity. The result will be that the network-based markets - if they do not altogether cease

to exist - will work in a completely inefficient way.(Garcia, 2000).

What has been specific to this phase is the integral transformation of information and

knowledge into a particularly precious good. Its value consists in giving, to whoever

possesses it, a strategic advantage in the production of all the other goods. It works not only

from the distributive standpoint but also from the point of view of the very organisation of the

economic and productive cycle of those goods. Information and knowledge become an

important part of the ‘productive basis’ of wealth. So as to optimise their benefits, new

modalities are needed in conducting economic activities. In the future, co-operation will

probably prove to be more remunerative than competition, and information sharing more

fruitful than information control. The economic activities that will be successful in this

radically transformed environment are those that - like the railway owners in their days - will

gather up the opportunity to restructure their organisations and their objectives in order to get

the utmost advantage from their situation. (Mansell, 1992).

6.2 Traffic, mobility, commercial distribution

The development of fuel cell engines and the recent developments in the possibility of

producing hydrogen to drive them, using herbaceous and/or seaweed compounds, lead us to

think of a new agro-industrial model based upon producing the means of locomotion with a

zero-environmental impact. It concerns about all the mechanical companies with enough

experience in the transmission apparatus inside the car body. This is happening in Italy. We

can then close the cycle by studying the chain for producing the new engine fuel using areas

which are not suited to growing edible crops. Such a chain, which corresponds perfectly to the

definition of global niches, could be built in collaboration with non-European countries. The

cities, both the small-medium and the large ones, could constitute the ground for testing this

approach and thus, for creating the critical mass sufficient for this sector. They could co-

operate both by upgrading their public fleets, and by planning the mobility in the metropolitan

centres that encourages/discourages such changes on the basis of a catalytic-style model. Such

a hypothesis would allow for the redefinition of the distribution of goods in the city with no

more pollution problems. If this, as it already happens, is combined with the development of

telematic networks for traffic management, this would allow for the re-launching of the

neighbourhood trade in the city, to mention just one example of such changes.

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6.3 Logistics

The logistic revolution consists in a different mode of production of transport services (IpL,

1999). Segmentation by nodes has been replaced by intermodality. The traditional concept of

the transport economy, articulated into single modal markets, has been replaced by a concept

of logistic economy which comprises the whole integrated cycle of supply, production and

distribution. The performance is established inside an integrated transport chain, not in one of

its single segments. The evaluation of the cost and quality of the service of the individual

segment is related to that integrated chain. One of the most evident aspects of the change in

the mode of service is given by the substitution of the traditional tariff principles, measured

by the weight/distance ratio, by means of new tariff principles measured against the unitary

service (IpL, 1999, p11). In brief, with the service being equal, distance does not count. This

implies a different concept of economic activity: not the individual transport but the service

over a long period of time, based on a specific contract. This requires specific investments in

software and organisation.

Such an activity is increasingly becoming, as has already been said, the specific object of

dedicated companies with the consequent growth in the outsourcing of the logistic services,

i.e. not only of the transportation itself but of the whole operative organisation. Such a

tendency implies processes of capital concentration by the transport companies.

6.4 Socio-economic and telematic networks

We have to ask ourselves which infrastructure policies and services and which accessibility

can be achieved at inner-city level. Said with the language of this new telematic culture, it is a

matter of choosing between different network architectures and the availability of services.

However we have always to keep in mind the question: who are these infrastructures designed

for? What questions do they supply answers to? Indeed, it is quite evident that the kind of

telematic services available selects, among the interests at play, between the ones that are

safeguarded and those that are not. This is also true for the world of traditional commerce vis-

à-vis large-scale distribution or, even more precisely, traditional commerce together with the

supermarkets and the specialised centres vis-à-vis the hyper-markets and the shopping malls.

The dominant tendency today is to imagine services and infrastructures that fundamentally

serve the institutional actors of the global economy. It happens in such a way that the network

75

is not at the service of the city but is hosted and paid for by the city only in the interests of the

global economic actors that are present in the city.

Likewise, the individual is split off from its “social being”. From one time to the next it is

reduced to roles that are the passive functions of other activities. Today it is difficult to find a

concept of network and services architecture thought of as supporting metropolitan sociality,

as a means for communicating better, more easily and more regularly. The metaphor may be

used which, with all due caution, is tantamount to reality: networks are not built as

‘production instruments’ for ‘social creativity’.

This choice calls for a different priority in investments: fewer ‘highways’ and more relations

networks, fewer speed records for the few and more mobility for all, etc.. But let us think of

the city as an integrated telematic network, with easy and economic access for all: based on

that network we could on the one hand, construct sophisticated traffic management activities,

on the other hand, define logistic platforms supporting the purchasing groups. Thus we may

significantly reduce the costs of a distributed commercial structure.

6.5 Integrating public and private resources

Let us come back to the aspects regarding the production of social creativity. To move along

this pathway it is necessary to develop all the aspects of the economies of agglomeration at

city level. This implies a series of important consequences: the first and least evident

consequence is that it is necessary to develop the utmost integration between all the public

and private resources existing at city level. Once they are integrated it is necessary to make

them ‘operative’, even with differentiated and non-free accesses. Thus we can protect the

rights to private ownership and the privacy of the information, for everyone. Today, in most

cases this does not happen. The cities host nerve-centre nodes or points of a great variety of

networks whose integration principle is not the host city, and sometimes not even the host

country, but other realities.

But there arises another problem: what city are we talking about? Indeed, let us leave aside

the megalopolis that call for an analysis of their own, also because in most of the cases they

are part of peculiar socio-economic systems such as those of the developing countries. Then it

becomes increasingly evident that it is extremely difficult to consider only the cities as they

have been historically defined. What is needed is a specific capacity to localise - that is,

76

geographically delimit - the new ‘metropolitan complexes’, i.e. we consider those socio-

economic systems that function with the characteristics that we have historically attributed to

the cities. These characteristics are, e.g., density of the socio-economic relations, mobility

networks, shared fixed costs, including those in the public utility services, etc.. In many

European realities, following this pattern, we can speak of city-regions. This concept is

especially useful because it allows us to fully exploit the new generation of “wireless

communications” - satellites, fixed radio links, etc. - finding an equilibrium between

‘dispersion’ and ‘agglomeration’.

The creation of such systems must be based, given a technological basis, upon demand.

However it is not the demand deduced by experts but the demand constructed with the

participation of all social and cultural actors existing. That is, ‘weak demand’ will also be

taken into consideration, i.e. the one that does not have a strong stature on the market. Thus

the approach will not only be of an economic-mercantile kind because it is considered an

investment in the creativity of the regional society, and as a long-range investment.

6.6 The metropolitan territory as a complex system

The locations, then, even within globalisation, do not lose importance and among the

locations the cities are most prominent. The cities do not lose at all their historical advantages

despite globalisation and despite the development of the Information Society. They remain

strong due to their proximity, their ‘density’ of the social relations, profession skills, culture.

In short, their advantages are the economics of agglomeration that they create, and thus the

opportunities for division and specialisation of labour. As the authors of the Chicago 2020

report state: “Today, proximity counts more than ever, but for very different reasons. The

information technologies have transformed the great metropolitan areas with vital regional

centres into the favourite place for the location of the industries based on knowledge given

that they depend heavily both on the ‘intelligent’ buildings connected to the high-speed

communications networks and the other digital amenities and because of their need for a rapid

access to specialised workers, suppliers and university research centres”. As Michael Porter,

Harvard University professor, has recently observed (1997): “The cities are congruent with

the nature of modern competition, with its emphasis on the fluidity, the information and

innovation flow. The cities are the centre of knowledge and expert skills, the most precious

value of the global economy” (see Johnson, 1999).

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The space for a role of the cities in the new socio-economic context is thus growing, but there

does not follow any automatism for the single cities or for the single great metropolitan areas

with vital regional centres. On the contrary, a new hierarchy of cities is created, of great

metropolitan areas and regions, and districts or local economies. Some become global cities

(areas, regions, etc.), on the scale of the global economy; or nodal cities (areas, regions etc.)

on a lesser geographical scale, that is “points of command in the organisation of the world

economy (or in proportion to the other geographic scales); key locations and markets for the

leading industries of this phase, which are finance and specialised services for companies;

principal production sites for the same industries, including innovation production.” (Sassen,

1994)

But if some of them become vital and pivotal nodes of the new economic regime, there are

others that become peripheral, excluded from the main economic processes that are critical for

the new economic regime. This happens both in the rich countries as well as in the others.

In this hypothesis the metropolitan territory has to be redefined. Irrespective of the

administrative units that make it up, the territory is defined as a structured and complex set

that has to be maintained and developed as such. The metropolitan territory should be seen as

a network of networks (materials like gas, water, electricity, wireless and cable telematic

networks; and immaterial ones like specific services linked to the use of the networks,

engineering activities for the processing and recycling of industrial waste, etc.). This would

allow for the conversion of the ex-publicly-owned companies, into networked multi-service

companies that preside over the territory: Thus they even learn to perform planning activities

of new modalities of development and maintenance.

6.7 Disadvantaged and rural areas

Here it is a matter of stopping the flight of young people and the resulting depopulation. A

part of the Italian territory, in spite of its strong poly-centricity and high density, shows the

typical characteristics of the rural and mountainous communities: difficulties in the con-

nections both for people and for goods; a shallow institutional presence; difficulties in

accessing services and resources which are typical of the knowledge society; a low (if not

completely absent) specific weight of political and institutional influence. Furthermore there

is economic hardship because of the scarce, if not indeed absent, integration between

traditional skills (which are essentially based on the earth, food production and sometimes

78

traditional craftsmanship), and the industrial investments, (which are, when present, guided

by rationales extraneous to the regional context). Tourist development itself, when present,

has suffered from the missing virtuous co-development with the traditional activities, as far as

leading to full-blown breakdowns in the environmental equilibria.

7. Some Case Study Reports

In this paragraph, the Region Emilia Romagna is described as seen by its visiting researcher

V.P. Kharbanda, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development studies

(NISTADS), New Delhi, India (2001). These case study reports refer to three different aspects

of regional development:

− The role of regional government and administration in supporting regional development

and economic recovery (Paragraph 7.1),

− The impact of establishing a Science and Technology Park at Cesena (Paragraph 7.2),

− The setting-up of entrepreneurial clusters to improve the fruit production and marketing

(Paragraph 7.3).

7.1 The Emilia-Romagna Regional Network CAN

A very low level of vertical integration characterizes this region. It is, in fact, rare for a single

firm to undertake a complete production process. Even major firms, which supply final goods,

usually carry out only certain productive processes and leave the rest up to other firms. A

complex network of suppliers has thus developed each undertaking a single production phase

often on behalf of different firms. As a result, every supplying firm, however small, may

maximize its level of specialization, knowing that it can rely on a sufficient number of orders

to pay off the cost of technological investments. This particular form of organization of

production has moreover created room for the development of complementary businesses,

which distribute raw materials and semi-finished goods among suppliers and even larger

firms, which manufacture machine tools. There is constant exchange of information, so that

the product may easily be made to individual specifications. There is thus high degree of

flexible specialization.

One of the main features of this success has also been that, the SMEs of Emilia-Romagna

region have set up associations to promote exports and form business alliances. For example

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the Emilia-Romagna Regional Federation of the National Confederation of the Craft and the

Small and Medium Enterprises (the Emilia-Romagna CAN) represents and defends all

interests of craft firms, of small and medium enterprises and their workers in relations with

public administration, and with political, social and economic organizations. It seeks to

promote their growth in an open competitive environment, permitting the best to exploit their

full managerial and enterprise potential and skills. It works at local, regional, national and

regional level (Europe-wide) and is rooted in both Italian and European cultures. The Emilia-

Romagna CAN has set up an extraordinary range of services and benefits, which include:

− Assistance, consultancy and financing in the starting up of new businesses and for young

entrepreneurs

− Business, managerial, vocational training

− Information and consultancy in export, promotion, internationalization and marketing,

including European legislation

− Assistance in quality control certification

− IT and telematic services with analysis of system requirements and design

− Assistance and management of tax services and tax litigation, pay-roll services, personnel

administration, employment, pensions and contracts

− Assistance and consultancy in health and safety and the environment

The Emilia-Romagna CAN is made up of 10 provincial associations: Bologna, Modena,

Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Piacenza, Parma, Ravenna, Forli-Cesena, Rimini, Imola. To provide

information and to assist enterprises in every aspect of their work, there are 226 CAN local

offices spread throughout the region. The work force based in the offices totals more than

2,500 skilled and professional staff. It has also set up a Women Business Committee (Comitato

Impresa Donna) to assist women to start up enterprises and to establish themselves in

business. Furthermore it has set up the Young Entrepreneurs Committee (Comitato Giovani

Impreditori) designed to assist and encourage young people in Business.

7.2 The CENTURIA Science and Technological Park (CSTP), Cesena

Cesena is at the heart of the Emilia Romagna region, and forms a link between Northern and

Central Italy, and between Italy and Central Europe. With a population of 1,80,000, Cesena’s

economic prosperity looks promising into the future through vigorous competition with other

most developed areas in Europe. Its geographic location, acting as a pivot between Central

Italy and North-Eastern Europe, offers a wide range of opportunities for trade and exchanges.

80

Cesena’s economic prospects are based on technological innovations and on the quality of

both products and services. For this purpose linkages between the universities, research

centres, international trade fairs and science and technology parks are at the forefront.

The CENTURIA Science and Technological Park located in this region, has helped in

particular to bring together the leading companies in the food sector to foster research and

innovation. It makes use of synergies with the Bologna University and other scientific

institutions. It has brought about the most singular and effective concentration of high

technology companies, specialized in the different sectors of the agro-industry. The main

objective of this Science and Technology Park (CSTP) is to enhance the competitiveness of

SMEs in the agro-industrial district in Emilia Romagna. It has been specifically created for

agro-industrial technological innovations in this region of Cesena. Thus this district has

developed from a traditional agriculture region to an advanced high-tech agro-industrial

region

The main feature of this set-up is that immediate direct contact between the various regional

partners exists: the production, transport, technological information, technology, research,

promotion, marketing, export management and professional capacity support structures. Thus

all partners are located in the region itself which are required for the growth and consolidation

of investments in the agro-industrial sector. There exist leading experiences in the fields of

preservation, processing and transportation of fruits and vegetables and poultry products,

sugar, seeds and animal feed production.

Furthermore there are available robotics systems applied to automatic sorting and packaging,

also bio-technologies and advanced information technology. A large number of research

laboratories work in conjunction with the university. These are all specialized in the agro-

industrial sector and represent vital instruments for the innovation of enterprises. They

perform research within the field of bio-technologies, agricultural experimentation, food and

processing technologies, information technology and transportation. They also serve as a data

bank for information on patents, new technologies, and partnerships in R&D projects,

technology transfer and joint ventures. Thus they are enhancing cluster visibility towards new

investors

The Centuria Science and Technology Park benefits from the participation of major local

industrial groups. It is actively putting companies into direct contact with scientific and

81

technical expertise of research institutes and the university. With this, Cesena has become a

pool for agro-industrial expertise and experience equalling no other institution in Europe in

terms of experience concentration and achievements. For example, Poultry farming has today

become an integrated system where the industrial groups of Cesena control the entire process

from feed farming, right up to meat processing. The cultivation of sugar beet is linked to the

large sugar industry (the second in order of importance in Italy). Sugar production; fruits and

vegetables, comprise about 1,000 SMEs and 15,000 employees in total and a turnover of 4

billion US$.

Information technology is playing a crucial role of, not only to create the network for better

communications but also to upgrade the local companies technologically. It includes

automation of production processes with the use of CAD-CAM technologies. The road

transport sector has also been consolidated into a vehicle park of over three thousand specially

equipped vehicles connected by satellite and sophisticated systems of telecommunications.

7.3 The Apofruit Consortium, Cesena

This consortium was created in 1960. The focus of this group is on innovation and

development with a co-operative approach. It does business for a large number of associated

fruit growers within a modern, reward-based system. Today this agricultural consortium has

3,500 associated growers, with 5 production plants, 20 agriculture advisers, modern operating

infrastructure and an internal strategic and operative marketing unit. The agriculture advisers

update procedures and systems on a daily basis maintaining close contact with the growers

and production managers.

The Apofruit Consortium has a modern operating infrastructure with three refrigerated

loading platforms; a centralized system for weighing and checking; specialized processing

lines for quality production; and diversified and innovative packaging lines. It has internal

strategic and operative marketing unit to maintain the company’s policies in line with modern

distribution strategies, to promote new products, and for direct co-marketing support for

clients. One important feature of the Consortium is the drastic reduction in use of pesticides,

furthermore the elimination of post-harvest interventions and forced ripening. The overall

strategy shows the movement towards organic farming. Apofruit's brand name for organic

production is ALMAVERDE BIO.

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Today the consortium has 700 employees with 90% women. Thus farmers do not have to go

to the market individually. All farms are family based with no labour employees. Most of

them have 6-7 hectares of land. Each farmer needs to sustain the co-operative according to the

cultivated land holding and according to the value of the produce supplied. For example

farmers with 1-6 hectares of land contribute 1.0% of total value and farmers with less than

one hectare contribute 0.5%.

8. Conclusions: The Proactive Entrepreneurial Culture

As these case reports by the Indian visitor V.P. Kharbanda to Italy show, the characteristic

feature of the Italian innovation model of regional development is the establishment of a

proactive entrepreneurial culture. It is based on forging strong linkages and networking

between the enterprise and the universities and all other R&D institutions in the region. The

strategy includes the creation of Consortia, and Science and Technology Parks such as in

Cesena. The Emilia-Romagna Regional Federation defends the interests of SMEs to promote

their growth in an open competitive environment, permitting the best to exploit their full

potential and skills. It also helps to inculcate entrepreneurial activities. All these approaches

have been highly successful in consolidating the SMEs with infusion of high technologies and

constant learning process in collaboration with the academia. Such learning means

exploitation of all knowledge resources including international, national and local resources in

order to capture the tacit dimension of knowledge. Networking with the help of information

technologies has been recognized as the prime factor for integrating local knowledge with

globally available information in order to attain the competitive edge needed today.

If we look at what is happening in the region Emilia Romagna, from a broader point of view,

this empirical evidence leads to different considerations.

The most successful developmental pathways in such regions are those in which traditional

skills change through a process of hybridisation or, if you prefer, metabolisation of cultures,

knowledge and external techniques without breaking away from the traditional wealth of

knowledge. There is no society of services against an industrial society; there is no society of

knowledge against a traditional society. Society does not develop towards a situation where

there are different options like pre-cooked menus from which to choose. What we are to

83

expect are rather pathways of hybridisation that lead to a variety of half-breeds of societal

patterns. This variety may not turn out to be infinite, but nevertheless very large.

There are the particular half-breeds which we shall call, using an oxymoron, local pathways

for globalisation. These can find a powerful ally in the information technologies, and

particularly in ICT networks. This depends on how the information technologies are designed.

There thus emerges a very different economic configuration from the one suggested by the

concept of Information Economy. The new configuration allows us to recover the material

conditions, the places of production and the delimitation of the places that are themselves

parts of the globalisation and the Information Economy (Sassen, 1994).

We have seen what is happening to the cities and to the rural production networks in Italy.

But what do these concepts contain specifically for the more remote rural and mountainous

regions? It is evident that there are two tendencies on-going: one is the extension of the

metropolitan areas as far as encompassing large parts of the former non-city territory; the

other is the further isolation and dependency on the city, of the non-city areas that are so far

not encompassed. For the latter it is a matter of valorising the new opportunity wholly

congruous with their reality: the construction of networks based on territorial proximity. Such

networks may put into the system all the existing capacities, at least on a regional scale. Thus

it would lead to reaching a critical mass sufficient to fuel the investments necessary to enter

the knowledge and information society. It may as well lead to achieving the greater flexibility

and adaptability needed regionally. The birth of these networks can be greatly helped by the

modern networked information technologies although this depends on their specific choices.

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Part Two: Village Renewal through Entrepreneurship: Three Case Reports

This part of the Volume describes three different cases where the concepts of regionalrenewal discussed before have been put into practice in different village settings in Indiaand Europe.

The first chapter The Dhokra Artisans of Bankura and Dariapur by David Smith andRajesh Kochhar illustrates the process of craft-based technological change in progress invillages in the region of West Bengal. This Action Research project involved collaborationbetween the Indian National Institute of Science , Technology and Development Studies(NISTADS) and the School of Art, Media and Design, University of Wales College,Newport (UWCN). The project aimed at the stimulation and management of technologicalchange in the traditional cire perdue (dhokra) brass-making craft as it is practised in WestBengal, India.

The second chapter Development of Small Enterprises through Networking: A Case Studyfrom the Danish Dairy Sector by Sune Netterstrøm and Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen,describes and analyses how a small organic farm creamery is able to survive in a sector inwhich one large Cooperative controls more than 90% of the milk processing in Denmark.The historical background of the Danish dairy sector is briefly described as a frameworkfor the detailed case study of entrepreneurship and networking performed by this smallcreamery. Finally, the authors discuss the possibilities for such small enterprises to surviveand to expand in the future their market share for quality cheese products.

The third chapter Creating and Networking of Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat - TheAnand Pattern by Dhawal Mehta and Abhilash S Nair, deals with the cooperativemovement in the Indian dairy sector. Such cooperative movement succeeds only if it isseen as a networking of people. The milk cooperative movement AMUL in the KhedaDistrict of the State Gujarat in India succeeded because it was established right from itsbeginning as a network of cooperative members. This chapter examines the Anand Patternof this cooperative dairy development in Gujarat.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Dhokra Artisans of Bankura and Dariapur, West Bengal: A Case Study and

Knowledge Archive of Technological Change in Progress

David Smith, Newport, UKRajesh Kochhar, New Delhi, India

The project report describes the process of village renewal in the Bengal region of India. Itdeals with the replacing of an ancient traditional but inefficient metal-foundry technique inthe village with another which is almost as ancient but more efficient. The impact of thisapparently simple change on this dhokra practice has been both profound and rapid,leading to significant improvements in the creativity and prosperity of the dhokra artisansand their families. The project is set in the context of a wider exploration of the potentialcapability of multimedia as a tool for ethnographic research. Multimedia systems make itpossible to use a full range of modalities of description, including video, sound, still image,conventional text and technical diagrams to develop adequate representations of skilledperformance mediated by the craftsman him- or herself. It was therefore possible toproduce a mediated record of change in progress. This provides the basis of an archivalrecord which will help to correct acknowledged defects in the existing ethnographicliterature of the artisan craft industries in India. It is also likely to prove a useful teachingresource, both in the field of cultural studies and as a means of throwing light onarchaeological and other evidence of past metalworking practices.

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1. Introduction: The Ancient Craft of Dhokra

The ancient craft of dhokra (cire perdue, or lost wax) metal casting was once widespread

throughout India, but is now restricted to a small number of groups of traditional artisans in

widely dispersed locations. One significant nucleus of the craft exists among related

groups of families in Bikna Village (Bankura) and nearby Dariapur, in West Bengal, India.

These communities have been the subject of an action research project initiated and

coordinated by the National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies

NISTADS within the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR. It

involved replacing an ancient traditional but inefficient metal-foundry technique with

another which is almost as ancient but more efficient. The impact of this apparently simple

change has been both profound and rapid, not only on the dhokra practice itself, but also on

the material prosperity, self-esteem and creative confidence of the artisans.

The name ‘Dhokra’ or ‘Dokra’ was formerly used to indicate a group of nomadic

craftsmen, scattered over Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh in India, and is now

generically applied to a variety of beautifully shaped and decorated brassware products

created by the cire perdue or ‘lost wax’ process. The craft of lost-wax casting is an ancient

one in India, and appears to have existed in an unbroken tradition from the earliest days of

settled civilisation in the sub-continent. The traditional themes of these cast metal

sculptures include images of Hindu or ‘tribal’ gods and goddesses, bowls, figures of people

or deities riding elephants, musicians, horse and rider figures, elephants, cattle, and other

figures of people, animals, and birds.

The first detailed study of cire perdue work in the Bankura District was carried out in the

early 1960s by Ruth Reeves (1962) This work has been the primary source for many

subsequent reports and academic theses (see, for example, Krishnan, 1976; Pal, 1978).

However, there has never been a detailed audio-visual record of the craft, and this current

report aims to fill this gap in the record. It documents a period during which the people of

Bikna are adapting their traditional way of working to the demands and possibilities both

of a new technology and a new commercial environment. It therefore provides a unique

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contemporary record of a historic living tradition undergoing rapid and fundamental

change.

Although there is a small but increasing demand for dhokra work from urban Indian

families, as well as in the tourist trade, the craft is threatened with extinction. Most of the

remaining dhokra communities are extremely poor, and their economic condition has

caused many families to leave the craft to find wage employment in local manufacturing

centres or in metropolitan centres such as Kolkata (Calcutta).

According to Sen (1994):

„Perhaps the poorest craft group of West Bengal, the Dhokras are the mostinteresting and creative. In recent years, under the pressure of all-embracingindustrialisation and changing social values, they have been forced by the loss oftheir natural rural market to diversify their products and are now seeking, withthe help of the government and some voluntary agencies, a market among urbansophisticates, as creators of decorative ware. These efforts have met with onlylimited success“.

Sen attributes the roots of this failure to

„…Greedy dealers in handicrafts [who] took advantage of the failure of thegovernment and the voluntary organisations to provide adequate price protectionfor the producers“.

However, as we shall show, the situation is far more complex than simply being a matter of

economic exploitation.

2. The Cire Perdue Technique

The casting of finely detailed metal artefacts by means of the cire perdue, or lost wax,

technique is almost as old as settled civilisation. The technique is simple to describe (but

difficult to perfect). It involves six stages:

− Core-making: A clay core is made, slightly smaller than the final intended size of the

artefact. The core may be hardened by firing or sun-drying;

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− Modelling: A detailed wax model is built up around the core, to the thickness of metal

desired in the finished object;

− Moulding: The wax model is coated with a thin layer of very fine clay, which will

form an impression of every detail of the model. When this layer is dry and hard,

further layers of clay are added to the mould. One or more pouring channels are

provided, through which molten metal can run to fill the mould;

− De-waxing: The mould is pre-heated to melt the wax, and the molten wax is poured out

(it may be recovered for subsequent re-use). This leaves a cavity which has the exact

size, shape and surface contours of the intended artefact;

− Casting: Molten metal is poured into the cavity and the mould left to cool;

− Finishing: The artefact is broken out of the mould. Traces of baked clay are removed

and surface blemishes and defects repaired.

There are many refinements and variations, but the above outline applies to most of the

traditional styles of cire perdue work still extant. The sophistication of the process varies

considerably, with the most advanced techniques employed in South India and Bastar in

Madhya Pradesh (See Postel and Cooper, 1999 pp 81-97). The casting process used in

Bankura and in nearby Dariapur appears to be the least technologically developed of all.

3. The Origins of the Cire Perdue Craft in India

The earliest known examples of cire perdue work include the famous bronze ‘dancing girl’

found in Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley (Agrawal, 1971). Even at such an early stage,

this finely observed bronze figure already shows the highly developed creativity and

mastery of the production technique typical of cire perdue at its finest. Lost wax casting

subsequently spread, whether by communication or parallel invention, to most

civilisations. The process of cire perdue casting has been very well documented in

antiquity, and Krishnan (1976) and Pal (1978) both cite classical Sanskrit sources, such as

Manasara, Silparatna and Somesvara, which give detailed descriptions (or even

prescriptions), conceivably for the regulation of the craft. It was certainly pervasive

throughout the Indian sub-continent, as demonstrated by an ample archaeological record,

and examples exist in gold, silver, copper, bell-metal, bronze and brass.

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Our specific focus here is on the production of the range of brass artefacts, commonly

known as ‘dhokra’. Welch (1986, pp 103-113), provides illustrations of examples of fine

cire perdue dhokra work of ‘tribal’ origin dating back as far as the 18th Century, from

locations as disparate as West Bengal, Purulia, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bastar (Madhya

Pradesh), Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar. The major contemporary centres of

production are in West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala,

though the numbers of families engaged is everywhere in decline. The craft has historically

been particularly associated with the so-called ‘tribal’ peoples of India. Its heartland for

many centuries was in the metal-rich region of Central India, covering the modern regions

of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhatsigarh and parts of Andhra Pradesh. The practice was in the

hands of family groups of non-Hindu semi-nomadic artisans, called ‘Dhokras’. Some of

the Dhokra families appear to have migrated into the alluvial plains of Bengal, finally

settling around centres such as Bankura, Burdwan, Purulia and Midnapur.

Despite its antiquity and wide geographical dispersion, it appears that the work of the

dhokra makers was always marginal to the domestic economy of India, and did not achieve

the importance and consequent security of, for example, the manufacture of water

containers or cooking vessels. Dhokra making did not figure much in Birdwood’s

magisterial survey of ‘The Industrial Arts of India’ (1880), except, perhaps to be included

in the following way (p. 143):

„Beside the village and sumptuary arts there are the savage arts of the wildtribes…“

Sen (1994) describes the traditional dhokra craft in West Bengal and its typical products:

„…they [The dhokra makers] used to move from village to village in the south-western districts, repairing old and broken utensils and selling small images ofLakshmi, her mount, the owl, Lakshmi Narayan riding on an elephant, Radhaand Krishna in different attitudes, all made in a very strong and primitive folkstyle. These images were installed in the household shrines of newly marriedHindu couples to bring prosperity and happiness. They also made and solddecorative caskets in different shapes and sizes, purchased by housewives forvarious purposes. They made and sold measuring bowls in different sizes. Thesewere considered symbols of Lakshmi and were therefore highly prized by thosevillagers who could afford them. Ritual lamps in different designs were also

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popular items. Their other products included small models of animals and birdsand a variety of trinkets and bells…“

4. The Dhokra Makers of Bankura, West Bengal and their Ethnography

One of the major remaining foci for the dhokra craft is some kilometres to the north of

Bankura in West Bengal. Thirty six related families live in a close-knit clan community in

Bikna village. According to Dhiren Karmakar, interviewed in September 2001, their

forefathers were nomads who came from Chhota Nagpur. The actual caste origin of the

Bikna artisans is obscure. This may be due in part to a process of gradual ‘hinduisation’

(see, for example, K.S. Singh, 1993), though their religious practices are far from the

Hindu mainstream. Worship typically involves a simple open-air ‘altar’, at which offerings

of terracotta figures are made. The offerings depend on the seasons, and may be related to

the major Hindu festivals, such as Ganesha Chatthurti.

Any attempt to clarify the relationships and history of the dhokra makers of West Bengal

suffers from the incomplete and fragmentary nature of the records. No records of this

artisan industry survive from pre-colonial days, and the standard documentary resources,

such as Risley’s monumental ‘Tribes and Castes of Bengal’ (1891) must be seen as

reflecting both the anthropological fashions of their era and, perhaps more significantly,

the „divide et impera“ priorities of colonial administration. The colonial fascination with

caste and social taxonomies may stem more from a pragmatic need to create distinctions

than from meaningful structures in contemporary Indian society.

There is certainly a great deal of confusion in evidence when one attempts to track the

forefathers of the Bikna community through the pre-independence census data for Bengal.

Mitra (1953. p.2) shows that census reports reveal a tendency for caste designations to

increase or decrease in number according to current thinking, leading to apparently

arbitrary aggregation and subsequent disaggregation of ‘caste’ groups. Mitra (ibid. p.5)

points very succinctly to the problem when he notes wryly that:

„In the hands of a government which seeks to hold a country by force and guile,to rule by dividing the people, there can be few weapons as lethal as caste…“

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Risley (ibid.Vol. 1 p. 236) defines ‘Dhokra’ as:

„A sub-caste of Kamars or blacksmiths in Western Bengal, who make brassidols.“

Risley subsequently points out (ibid. pp. 388 - 389), regarding the sub-castes of the metal

working caste of Kamars that:

„It is impossible at the present day to determine whether all of them are reallyderived from the Kamar caste; and it seems probable that some of them may beseparate castes, which have been classed as Kamars on account of some real orsupposed resemblance in their occupations.

By the middle years of the twentieth century, the Bankura dhokra makers were being

described as ‘Mal’ or ‘Malars’, according to Risley (Vol. II p. 45-50):

„…A Dravidian cultivating caste of Western and Central Bengal…“

Which could just conceivably refer to large sections of the entire population of Bengal!

Ruth Reeves (1962) refers to the Bankura Dhokra as ‘Kainkuya Mal’ (which possibly

derives from association with the traditional measuring vessels known in Bengali as

‘kunke’). In doing so, she is following SK Ray’s contribution to A. Mitra’s ethnological

analysis of the 1951 Census of India. In his treatment of ‘The Tribal Group of Craftsmen’,

Ray asserts that:

„…We can divide the Mals readily into two groups: (i) the Sanakar Mals orpainters and (ii) the Kaikuya [NB it is possible that this variant of the name issimply a typographic error] Mals or brass workers… They have an occupationalsystem similar to that found among the Mala of South India, namely, the Loom-Mala, the Cart-Mala, the Hammer-Mala, the Doll-Mala etc. As a matter of fact,the form of caste system that prevails among the aboriginal and backward classesof West Bengal can be called the Mala-system.“

Reeves (ibid. p. 36) also refers to the Bankura dhokra makers as ‘Dheppos’ described by

Ray, (ibid. p. 302) as:

„…wandering artisans belonging to aboriginal stock [who] maintain a traditionof metal craft in a primitive manner…

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Ray, however, seems to imply that this latter group was not associated with the cire perdue

tradition. In any case, earlier attempts to locate migratory dhokra makers (whatever their

caste) in the region seem to have failed (see Reeves, ibid. p.37), perhaps indicating that the

migratory way of life had ended some time before these groups attracted the attention of

the great and good. Nevertheless, the evidence of this report will show that the essential

metal founding technology used by the people of Bikna village was more appropriate to a

migratory than a settled way of life, and the problem may be one of a confusion of

terminology.

Mitra (ibid. pp. 1-3) helps to explain much of this confusion by detailing the changing

practices in recording caste adopted by the Census of India between the 1901 Census and

the first Post-Independence census in 1951 (when caste distinctions were legally

abolished). In any case, as he points out (ibid. p. 6):

„…caste has not been so immutable… as one is too willing to imagine, but a liveand pliant force, sensitive to change, as any function of society must necessarilybe.“

The fairly recent adoption of the ‘sanskritised’ caste designation ‘Karmakar’ by the

Bankura dhokra artisans must be seen in this light, reflecting the villagers’ sense of social

progression and a degree of approximation to the mainstream of Hindu society in West

Bengal. It may, however, be analogous to the widespread adoption of surnames by English

villagers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. If this is the case, ‘Karmakar’

might be closer in sense to the surname ‘Smith’ than to the location in a traditional social

structure which a true caste designation might imply. However, the Dhokra Karmakars of

Bikna never made eating or cooking vessels, and this would imply a historic caste

limitation. Despite their apparent annexation into the Karmakar caste, the dhokra makers

are still socially and economically marginalised. On the following page, we show one of

the artefacts created by these artisans in their village.

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The Dhokra Horse

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5. The Dhokra Making Tradition as Practised in Bikna Village

5.1 The Creative Process

Despite its stability over many centuries, the dhokra craft has not remained entirely static.

As Sarkar (1998) points out from his analysis of the artisan Kansari (braziers) in Bengal:

„…technology in Indian artisanal industry did change in response to marketdemands. If such changes appear rather timid and slow, it was because a radicaltransformation of the technique of production was never a pressing andunavoidable need in India.“

The period of nearly four decades between the publication of Ruth Reeves’ study and the

initiation of this project in November 2000 witnessed a number of changes in the creative

aspects of the dhokra craft as practised in Bikna. This is part of a long process of change,

which Rajesh Kochhar (2001) characterised as falling into four phases:

„Phase I is defined by the original Dhokra repertoire, which is simple and stark,in keeping with the makers’ life style and philosophy.

Phase II came into being when the Dhokra artisans took to settled life and started making

new items consistent with the demands of a food-surplus economy. Their work now

included rather ornate icons of Hindu gods and goddesses. Interestingly, in their own

shrines, the Dhokra artisans have retained worship of their own creations (horses, elephants

etc.) in addition to Bhairon, who is a form of Shiva, and a deity consistent with non-

vegetarianism.

Phase III is characterised by two major developments: patronage extended by state and

socialites; and interaction with creative sculptors like Meera Mukherjee and Pradosh Das

Gupta. These artists successfully imbibed in their work techniques and motifs of the

Dhokra art and, once accepted as insiders, introduced the Dhokra artisans to new forms. It

was during this phase that, under state patronage, the well-known Bankura Horse, a

stylised, decorated horse with long upright neck and pointed ears, which hitherto had been

a preserve of the Khumbkars (clay artisans), was successfully adopted for casting in metal.

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Phase IV, a recent phenomenon, has been thrust upon the Dhokra artisans by the demands

of the cheap souvenir market. This phase is characterised by some „novelty“ items, such as

a Ganesh with an umbrella. Most of the work, however, is pure kitsch. Since the price paid

to the artisans is exploitatively low, they seek to indirectly enhance their wages by

compromising on the quality of the inputs as well as craftsmanship.“

Even in the course of a few months, the action research described here has now led to a

further phase:

"Phase V, in which creativity levels have risen to match the technology available. Not only

has the quality of realisation improved, but the artisans themselves have found a new

creative confidence, and have thought of and created new artefacts not seen before."

If the creative content of Bikna dhokra work changed over time, their technology, on the

other hand, stayed remarkably constant - at least until the year 2001. Beautifully adapted to

the conditions of the original nomadic lifestyle, the dhokra technology did not adapt to the

settled way of life. The failure of the Bankura Dhokra Karmakars to modify their

technology probably contributed to their creative and economic decline over the past fifty

years.

5.2 The Casting Technology prior to August 2001

Core-making

Cores were made from local clay. The fine clay-loam found around the roots of bamboo

was specially favoured. The clay was dried, sieved through sacking and then mixed with

uncrushed sand. This sand-rich clay was mixed with water to an appropriate consistency,

and used to make suitable core-figures. The cores were slowly sun-dried over three or four

days.

Modelling

The fine detail of the object to be created is built onto the core using wax or some other

suitable medium.

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Ideally, wax (‘mom’) is the best modelling medium, but the Bikna Karmakars prefer to use

‘dhuna’, which is based on a natural plant resin extracted from the Sal tree (Shorea

robusta) mixed with mustard oil. Dhuna becomes very plastic when warmed, but holds its

shape very well, even in high ambient temperatures.

As an economy measure, many of the Karmakars had taken to using hydrocarbon pitch as

an inferior substitute for mom or dhuna. This had a number of serious defects, which

contributed to the decline in both creative and metallurgical quality of the final product.

Moulding

The completed model is covered in a layer of a very fine clay which takes an impression of

all its surface details. This layer is then sun-dried. When the first layer was dry, a second

layer was built onto it. The clay used for the second mould coat was usually mixed with

sand.

Completing a mould (David Smith, 2000)

At this stage, one or more channels were created in the mould to allow the flow of molten

brass into the space which would be left when the modelling medium had gone.

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Traditionally, a split bamboo rod was used to bore through the dried first layer. A large

casting might need two or more channels.

The bamboo was held in place with clay, and the second coat of the mould then completed.

This involved building a cup-shaped structure around the „flow channel“. The clay of the

mould was built up until the cup was held firmly in place and then the bamboo rods were

removed. The cup would eventually act as a melting crucible, holding the brass for

melting. At this stage, several moulds could be combined, sharing a single crucible -

especially if the casting was a small one. This economised both on the labour of producing

the ‘crucibles’, and, eventually, on fuel through minimising the number of separate items

to be heated.

The final stage involved the completion of the ‘crucible’ part of the mould. The ‘cap’ of

the crucible was made separately and sealed in place with clay after the crucible had been

charged with brass. The metal used was scrap brass, which had been rendered brittle by

heating on the furnace and then broken up into small pieces. Recently, attempts were made

to cut costs by adulterating the brass with, for example, aluminium. The result was a very

inferior product and the practice only resulted in an even lower unit price for dhokra items.

A special panel was built into the crucible to provide an easily breakable ‘window’ to let in

air so that the brass would flow into the model space After charging the crucible and

sealing the cap, the mould was given a final coat of clay prior to firing.

De-waxing

The closed system moulding used by the Bikna Karmakars made it impossible to recover

the wax (or dhuna), which was therefore either vapourised and burnt or else absorbed into

the clay of the mould. This is vividly contrasted with the practices in Bastar and South

India, where a high level of wax recovery is achieved. The loss of the modelling medium

might not have been problematic for forest-dwelling nomads who would have harvested

natural products for themselves in the course of their travels, but became a serious cost

inefficiency in the process once the dhokra people had adopted a settled way of life.

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Casting

A crude furnace was built in a convenient open space, using loose bricks The fire was

made using cowdung and bought charcoal. Completed moulds were laid in the fire, with

the cup downwards. When the mould was judged to be ready, it was removed from the fire

using tongs or a pair of green sticks. It was inverted, so that the metal cup was at the top,

allowing molten brass to run down into the mould space. The special weak ‘panel’ in the

metal cup was broken through with a stick or other suitable implement.

The original 'nomadic' furnace (David Smith, 2000)

The traditional furnace was inefficient in two ways:

Firstly it was wasteful on fuel. Each furnace was specially built for a single batch

production.Fuel was wasted heating the furnace and the moulds to casting temperature, and

there was no gain from multiple firing in the same oven, thereby conserving heat. Again,

this would not have been a problem to forest-living nomads with ready access to free

wood, but was immediately disadvantageous once the dhokra had settled down.

Secondly, it was more or less impossible to control the firing temperature of the furnace.

This meant that metal, particularly zinc, was lost by sublimation when the moulds were

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broken open. This could be seen in the colour of the fumes after opening. The loss of metal

led to serious metallurgical degradation of the brass, as well as being another source of cost

inefficiency. Another side-effect is that many of the people of Bikna suffer from eye

problems, probably due to heavy metal irritation.

Discussions with the craftsmen showed that they were aware that metal was being wasted,

but felt powerless to prevent this.

Karmakar child making dhuna models (Smith, 2000)

5.3 Becoming an Artisan: growing up in Bikna

Like most traditional craftspeople, the dhokra artisans of Bikna have no formal system of

apprenticeship: craft training as such does not exist. The craft is, to coin a phrase, „learned

by being“. Children in Bikna grow up in an environment where the dhokra craft is

everywhere around them. Every spare corner of the village is taken up by drying moulds or

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artefacts in various stages of preparation, and the routine of the craft is part of the daily

rhythm of the village. Small children soon learn to imitate their elders, playing with clay,

making cores and eventually graduating to detailed modelling in dhuna (or pitch). The

fastest learners soon become useful additions to a family team. Indeed, 13 year-old Anant,

whose father is sick, supports his family by working as a wage-labourer for other

Karmakars.

The Karmakars agree that it is difficult to make a living at all unless the family are fully

engaged in the craft, and those with small families or who have no children are at a

disadvantage. This militates against extended education. This is not to say that the

Karmakars are completely uneducated. Most children manage to attend two or three years

of schooling, whilst young women marrying into the village often have several years of

elementary education. But the appeal of joining the adult world or work is very alluring

and the social pressures to contribute are great.

Over the years, attempts have been made to introduce elements of formal training into the

craft. The initiative in this respect has been taken by the West Bengal Crafts Commission,

who have been proactive in organising creative and technical workshops for dhokra

artisans.

5.4 Modelling Problems

The fact that the cire perdue process followed in Bikna does not permit wax recovery is a

significant factor undermining the potential profitability of the craft. The finest medium for

cire perdue modelling is, as the name itself would suggest, beeswax (Mom). The Bikna

artisans’ preferred medium is Dhuna (a mixture of the resin of the Sal tree and mustard

oil). This is almost as good as wax but rather cheaper. Risley (op. cit. p. 48) speaks of a

specific ‘sub-caste’ of „Dhunakata Mal“, who collected dhuna by tapping sal trees (and

might therefore have supplied the resin), but both wax and dhuna are natural forest

products, and would most probably have been collected by itinerant craftsmen in the

course of their travels. The lack of wax recovery was therefore acceptable whilst the

„Kainkuya Mal“ were still living as nomads.

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Modelling in 'dhuna' (David Smith, 2000)

The situation changed when the dhokra artisans settled down. Whereas artisans in other

parts of India (notably in Bastar and Tamil Nadu) developed efficient means of wax

recovery, the Bankura artisans did not. This added to the uncontrolled costs due to the

metallurgical problems associated with the traditional furnace. Some of the more

prosperous Bikna artisans continued to use dhuna, but others tried to cut costs by replacing

the dhuna with ‘pitch’ (coal tar). This was not a good move. Not only is ‘pitch’ a coarser

modelling medium than either wax or dhuna, but it appears to cause „gassing“ of the

molten brass in the mould, leading to pitting and erosion of the cast surface. The false

economy of using pitch simply resulted in a further degradation of quality.

6. The Impact of a New Technology on the Dhokra Craft

6.1 The new furnace

The story of the Bikna dhokra craftspeople took a different turn, when NISTADS became

involved on their behalf. NISTADS funded Bengal Engineering College to design and

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develop a fuel-efficient permanent furnace under the management of Dr. A.K.

Mukopadhyay, NISTADS Resident Scientist in Bankura. The new technology was adopted

by Netai, a brazier from Petrasayer in Bankura District, West Bengal. In 1997, NISTADS

helped Netai to obtain a bank loan to modernise his facilities. He was subsequently able to

obtain substantial production orders for dhokra items: a fact which was well known to the

Bikna artisans. However, despite this knowledge, and despite Netai’s obvious prosperity,

the Bikna families made no move to adopt the new technology. It would have been all too

easy to attribute this to a kind of laggard conservatism, but a field visit to Bikna and

Petrasayer in November 2000 by Rajesh Kochhar of NISTADS and David Smith of

University of Wales College, Newport (UWCN) revealed a different, more interesting and

more complex picture.

Designed in collaboration between NISTADS and the Bengal Engineering College, the

improved process effects substantial reduction in fuel consumption for melting brass in a

low cost furnace, of capacity 8-12 kg /batch. The furnace lining is made with locally

available burnt rice husk and clay. The rated coal/metal ratio is 1.7 in case of single heat

and 0.6 with 4 successive heats as against 2.9 in the process traditionally used by the

artisans. The clay mould is also modified to facilitate open pouring from the furnace.

Alternatively, the traditional clay moulding process can be substituted by green sand

moulding. A variety of specialised tools were also introduced to facilitate effective and

safe use of the furnace.

6.2 Netai Karmakar’s ‘Factory’

In comparison with the primitive working conditions at Bikna village, Netai’s set-up was

effectively a „micro-factory“. At the time of the first field visit, the workshop was given

over to batch production of brass drinking beakers, using a modern oil-sand investment

moulding technique and using scrap water pots as the source of metal. A small electric

grinder had been installed for finishing the products, and the business appeared to be

flourishing, supporting three families in Petrasayer.

Netai still makes dhokra to order. These are mainly relatively large objects, with less fine

detail than the Bikna work. Netai arranged a demonstration of dhokra casting, using an

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open mould rather than the traditional closed mould used in Bikna. This was an extremely

interesting experience, because the clay mould was clearly too weak and ‘leaked’ molten

brass as the metal was poured.It seems possible that there is a real problem with the

suitability of locally available clay for the construction of moulds for open casting of

dhokra articles. It is worth noting that artisans in South India and Bastar reinforce their

moulds with iron wire, as well as firing (‘biscuiting’) them before moulding (Krishnan,

1976).

6.3 Art, craft or industry?

The reasons for the reluctance of the Bikna artisans to adopt the furnace technology with

which Netai Karmakar had been so successful may be far more complex than simple

conservatism or entrenched caste tradition.

Firstly there is the issue of poverty. No detailed study has been carried out of the micro-

economics of dhokra production at Bikna, but such evidence as there is points to the fact

that the nett money earnings of the artisans are very low indeed. They could not raise the

finance to pay for a permanent furnace except by borrowing from a local moneylender at

interest rates of around 2% per day.

Secondly is the question of the sociodynamics of the craft (See Rogers & Kincaid, 1981).

Despite his evident prosperity, Netai was not regarded by the bulk of the craft community

as a good role-model. His craftmanship was not admired in any case, but his location in

Petrasayer, many hours’ journey from Bikna, put him outside a tight-knit circle of closely

related families. In fact, the Bikna people regard him not as a true 'Dhokra Kamar' like

themselves, but as an inferior outsider. Netai’s family certainly appear more completely

‘hinduised’ than the people of Bikna.

A third factor concerns the extent to which the Bikna Karmakars’ sense of identity is

invested in the integrity and status of their craft. Netai’s success ultimately rests on the

abandonment of the dhokra craft as such. Although Netai still makes dhokra items to order,

the bulk of his income comes from the mass-production of low craft-content industrial

items. The identity and self-esteem of the artisans of Bikna is deeply invested in their craft.

105

Over the years, of course, an increasing number of individuals and their families have

ceased to be dhokra artisans and have moved into Bankura and other towns to work as

wage labourers. Nevertheless, the core group of families at Bikna remained committed to

dhokra making. Any change which effectively meant the death of the craft was almost

unthinkable.

Finally, and perhaps decisively, there was an ingrained suspicion of „initiatives“. It

emerged that the Bikna artisans were owed the (for them) huge sum of 1.75 Lakh Rupees

(1 Lakh = 100,000) for goods previously supplied to official Crafts Emporia.

6.4 The introduction of the new furnace into Bikna

After a field visit in November 2000, Rajesh Kochhar of NISTADS initiated a project to

develop an efficient furnace for Bikna village. Accompanied by Dr. Mukopadhyay, he met

Juddha and Mahdav Karmakar, two of the most senior and highly respected artisans in the

village, and also arranged meetings with Netai. The object was to collaborate with the

craftsmen in achieving a design which would not only be technically appropriate, but

where there would be a sense of ownership. An experimental furnace, based on Netai’s,

was built in Bikna during December 2000. NISTADS agreed to finance the development,

but Rajesh Kochhar made it a condition that the furnace should be a community resource,

rather than the property of a single artisan or his immediate family.

A permanent furnace needs to be protected from the weather. Fortunately, protection was

available in the form of three large shelters build some years previously under a West

Bengal regional development. The new furnace was built in one of these shelters.

Experience showed that the first prototype was too large and would be too expensive to

operate in the long run. The design was therefore modified to create a smaller furnace. This

proved to be a complete success, and over the next three months, a further five were built,

so that there were two in each of the three village shelters. All of them were used as

communal resources. It is interesting that this development has its parallels in the historic

development of metal working in India. Sarkar (1996) argues that, irrespective of their

origins, traditional blacksmiths were nomads, using a form of open-air furnace (Sal) which

was very similar to the old Bikna furnace. As these smiths settled and adopted permanent

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furnaces, they also developed well-built workshop structures (Kot-Sal). Those smiths who

remained itinerant were accorded very low caste status.

6.5 How the craft has changed (August 2001 and subsequently)

It was expected that the introduction of a new furnace technology would catalyse major

changes in the dhokra craft at Bikna. What was not anticipated, however, was the speed

and extent of this change. The advantages of the new furnace were so apparent to the

Bikna artisans that the old traditional way of doing things was changed within the space of

a few months. Whereas it had been anticipated that take-up of the new furnace would

follow a classic technology transfer profile , with 'early adopters', 'laggards' etc., the new

furnace was adopted almost immediately by all of the families. Completely unexpectedly,

the inefficient ‘nomad’ furnace was relegated to the secondary role of pre-firing charcoal

for charging the new furnace heating scrap brass (this makes it brittle and easier to break

up), and, interestingly, for baking the moulds.

Other changes were significant, but relatively minor. For example, the practice of making a

flow channel using a split bamboo has been replaced by the partial firing of the first mould

layer, and then using a simple hand drill to bore through the clay. The ‘crucible is then

built up around the channel, and melted pitch or dhuna poured in to make a full connection

with the inner mould. One change in practice was particularly striking. Parts of Bikna had

been wired for electricity supply at the same time as the shelters had been built. One

ingenious ‘bricoleur’ discovered that it was now possible to run a (rather ramshackle) lead

from a mains point to drive an electric fan which could be used to speed up firing of the

furnace. The effect has to be seen to be believed!

As the location of the furnace has moved from the open air to the cover of the shelters, the

production process has followed suit. Most of the work is clustered around the furnaces.

This allows for fuel efficiency, since as soon as the furnace is finished with one batch of

moulds, it is cleared and re-charged, making use of the heat stored in the body of the

furnace and reducing fuel requirements. The furnace can also be used for secondary

purposes, such as baking moulds or pre-heating scrap brass.

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In collaboration with Dr. Mukopadhyay, the Bikna artisans have developed a range of new

tools appropriate to the improved processes. However, they have not followed the example

of Netai and changed over to open crucible casting. They acknowledge that this would

probably be more efficient, but they feel cautious about the safety aspects of handling

molten brass. Also, as Raneswar Karmakar pointed out, they are not sure whether the

moulds would be suitable. Our observation in Netai’s workshop suggests that this caution

is probably well justified.

6.6 A new creative confidence

The introduction of the new furnaces has had an immediate beneficial impact on the output

of the better artisans. It is now possible to maintain effective control over the casting of

artefacts containing relatively large amounts of brass. New products have been created,

such as the „polybonga“ (based on a popular terracotta form). This has encouraged a

renewal of creative confidence, and craftsmen like Dhiren have begun to develop quite

stunning works of original artistry. Equally importantly, however, they are able to

concentrate once more on the quality of their products. They see this as more important

than developing new products. Dhiren Karmakar is happy making the traditional dhokra

repertoire, and believes there is a market for it if high quality can be maintained. He

remembers that training courses were held some years ago [by the West Bengal Crafts

Commission] to help develop new products, but there was never very much demand for

these. He will make them from time to time if there is an order.

6.7 New Opportunities

In parallel with the development of the new furnace technologies, NISTADS actively

catalysed a range of developments intended to move the artisans’ business methods in line

with their new commercial opportunities. In a series of village meetings, Professor

Kochhar persuaded the senior craftsmen to reactivate a defunct village Cooperative

Society. This would give them access to ‘soft’ loans through the formal banking system,

rather than high-interest ‘hard’ loans from local moneylenders.

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In addition, a variety of commercial opportunities were opened up. NISTADS Director

Professor Kochhar took advantage of the Indian CSIR (Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research) Foundation Day, 26th September 2001, to raise the profile of the

Bankura dhokra industry. Artisans from Bikna were invited to travel to Delhi (no minor

undertaking in itself) and showcase their products. The event was extremely successful.

Substantial sales were achieved and some good orders were taken. In addition, the artisans

were invited to present their wares at an event to be held at the ‘Dilli Haat’ craft market. It

remains to be seen if this is the hoped-for breakthrough, but the omens appear to be very

good.

7. The Future of the Dhokra Craft in West Bengal

7.1 The dhokra trade in Dhiren and Raneswar

Interviewed in September 2001, Dhiren Karmakar and his relative Raneswar Karmakar

were ambivalent. They felt that they themselves were better off than their fathers. The

market for their products is good, and they are able to have two square meals a day, so

there is no hunger any more. They do not save - they do not think in that way at all. Any

money that is accumulated is spent on social events or medical treatment. Both Dhiren and

Raneswar saw a reasonably secure future for themselves in the dhokra trade. If they can get

capital, they felt they could cope with changing market conditions. But they cannot

accumulate capital, and rising costs cause problems, because they have to finance

production by borrowing at high interest rates, which just leaves them with bare

subsistence.

All the same, they felt that they are better placed than those who have left the craft to take

up wage labour in cities and towns such as Bankura. Although wage labourers have more

secure incomes, they do not have the prestige of the independent craft artisans, and this is

important They also saw themselves as better off than the braziers (Kansari) who

traditionally made household utensils, since these articles are becoming too expensive for

the market, and there is now no money at all in that trade, though previously braziers were

quite prosperous. In the end, however, they were quite clear that there was no long-term

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future in the dhokra trade, either, and they would prefer it if the young people of the village

had some other alternatives - other than becoming wage-labourers.

7.2 Education and the way forward

Dhiren and Raneswar were agreed on the importance of education. They felt that their

fathers had no power as a result of having received no education. They believed that even

with just a little education, their generation was more empowered than their parents.

Dhiren has four sons and a daughter. He has not been able to afford to give them a good

education, and they chose to leave school and join the dhokra trade after class four. Dhiren

said that so far, no child from the village has gone for a job [meaning high status ‘office’

employment]. He thought that it would be better if future generations were able to become

educated, even if that meant they wouldl leave the craft. Apart from opening up a way out

of the dhokra trade, he thought that educated young people would be able to keep proper

accounts and be more businesslike. He saw education very much in terms of

empowerment.

7.3 Anant Karmakar: the new generation

When interviewed in 2001, Anant was about 13 years old. He was identified by the elder

craftsmen of Bikna as the most gifted of the younger generation. His father was ill, and

unable to work regularly, so Anant supported his family by working as a wage labourer for

other artisans in Bikna. Anant had attended two years of primary school. He could read and

write Bangla (Bengali), but he did not read books, and he spoke little or no Hindi. If he had

a choice between working and continuing his education, he would prefer to go to school.

He would like “a job“ [meaning office work] rather than continuing as a dhokra artisan.

Since the above interviews were carried out in September 2001, the Bankura artisans have

become financially better off and socially more assured. Their art and craft can now

provide them with security and status greater than they might expect outside of the dhokra

craft. It remains to be seen how this new-found prosperity will impact on the attitudes and

opinions of the artisans - and especially on young people of Anant's generation.

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7.4 Dariapur: Extending the Experiment

The success of the action research in Bikna led to the extension of the intervention to

Dariapur village, some two hours by road from Bankura, where about 20 dhokra families

live and work. Dariapur is not only sociologically more complex than Bikna, in the sense

that the better connected members of the community have been exploiting the others, but

also artistically poorer - a sad decline from the days when the sculptor Meera Mukherjee

was involved with the dhokra artisans of Dariapur.

To date, NISTADS has built two furnaces at Dariapur. Other actions have included

repairing both the large community shed and the village tube-well and obtaining medical

treatment for a young girl suffering from tuberculosis. These social actions have helped to

enlist the enthusiasm of the villagers, winning their confidence and making technical

initiatives more acceptable. NISTADS was also able to have the Dariapur initiative

formally inaugurated by an influential West Bengal State Government minister. This high

level patronage has brought local government officials into the village to extend

educational and other forms of support to the community.

7.5 A Multimedia Knowledge Archive

As Smith and Hall (2001) demonstrated, multimedia technologies make it possible to

develop adequate representations of skilled performance mediated by the craftsman him-

or herself. Particularly valuable in this respect is the capacity of multimedia systems to use

a full range of modalities of description, including video, sound, still image, conventional

text and technical diagrams. This technology makes it possible to present very complex

information in a variety of formats and contexts.

As part of a wider exploration of the potential capability of multimedia as a tool for

ethnographic research, it has been possible not only to track and record the processes of

change in Bikna but also to develop an active archive of aspects of the artisans' changing

knowledge base. A detailed photographic and digital video record was made of the dhokra

craft processes. In addition, individual and group interviews and discussions were

recorded. These were carried out and translated by Rajesh Kochhar, and Pradosh Nath of

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NISTADS and by Mr. Adip Dutta of Kolkata. All multimedia resources were edited and

authored at UWCN. A preliminary record was published on the Internet as

'bankurahorse.com' and a more comprehensive multimedia program is under development.

The research has provided valuable raw material for development of the theory and

practice of the use of new interactive media in the archiving and management of tacit

knowledge. This is significant in our understanding of ways in which tacit knowledge can

be represented and transmitted when traditional channels of communication are lost or

disrupted (Smith 2002). Its particular value lies in providing a concurrent account of a craft

response to rapid technological change. It also provides the basis of an archival record

which will help to correct acknowledged defects in the existing ethnographic literature of

the artisan craft industries in India. It is likely to prove a useful teaching resource, both in

the field of cultural studies and as a means of throwing light on archaeological and other

evidence of past metalworking practices.

8. Conclusions: Passing the Tradition on

The ancient craft of the dhokra artisans of West Bengal is in the balance. The new furnace

technology developed under the auspices of NISTADS has eliminated a major source of

inefficiency from their work, which should therefore become more profitable. There is now

a better market and better margins for dhokra artefacts from Bankura and Dariapur. In

addition, a new professionalism is beginning to be apparent in the artisans’ trading

practices, thanks largely to the advice, support and guidance of NISTADS. None of this

could have been achieved without the power of intervention and patronage which

NISTADS was able to deploy as a high status state agency. Given effective leverage,

relatively small financial investments have brought about enormous changes which may

eventually guarantee the creative and economic survival of the dhokra communities. It is

difficult to see this being achieved by other agencies. NISTADS is now setting up a dhokra

museum in its premises at Delhi, and it is hoped that this will draw informed interest in this

ancient yet living craft.

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All this, coupled with the creative confidence and attention to quality documented here,

means that the immediate future for the dhokra craft is reasonably assured. In the long

term, however, the artisans face serious decisions about the craft. On one hand, they may

choose to follow the route to industrialisation, illustrated here by the case of Netai

Karmakar. On the other hand, and this is what they appear to prefer, they can develop

towards a consumer market based on high quality high aesthetic value artefacts. This could

possibly be found supplying high craft content artefacts to a growing tourist and

indigenous middle class market. The continuation and development of the dhokra industry

depends on the artisans finding a stable market niche for themselves and their products.

Whatever it proves to be, this market needs to be developed and supply chains established.

It is easy to demonise the middle-men, but if the economic conditions of the Karmakars

become less marginal and their terms of trade can be improved, then there is no reason at

all why existing middle-men may not have a major role to play in this market development,

though equally well, the further development of bankurahorse.com could eliminate the

middleman by providing direct access to new markets.

In the end, this is not simply a matter of marginal economics. Kocchar (2001) wrote:

"Financial support to the dhokra craftsmen, not as charity but as a good price fortheir artefacts, will ensure that quality of work improves, creativity is encouragedand the tradition is cheerfully passed on to the next generation for continuationand enhancement."

It is a measure of the success of the project that this hope appears to have been realised in

an unimaginably short timescale.

The dhokra artisans of West Bengal represent an ancient craft which has been in

continuous production for thousands of years. These artisans are not ‘primitive’: they are

twenty first century people who happen to have been trapped in a cycle of poverty. Neither

are they exhibits in a cultural theme park. They must be free to determine their own future.

At the same time, they embody countless generations of knowledge, and this knowledge is

part of the cultural heritage not only of India but of humankind. Whatever direction the

craft takes in the future, it would be tragic if all this knowledge and the accumulated

wisdom of millennia were to be lost.

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To finish the chapter we print here another artefact of our artisan friends.

Acknowledgements

Part of the work carried out by David Smith was supported by a grant from the UK Arts

and Humanities Research Board (AHRB).

References

Birdwood, GCM (1880) The Industrial Arts of India. Chapman and Hall, London.

Kochhar, R (2001). Dhokra brass artefacts from Bankura. Pamphlet published for CSIRFoundation Day, 2001. NISTADS, New Delhi.

Krishnan, MV (1976). Cire Perdue Casting in India. Kanak Publications, New Delhi

114

Mitra, A (1953). The Tribes and Castes of West Bengal. Census of India 1951: WestBengal. West Bengal Government Press, Alipore.

Pal, MK (1978) Crafts and Craftsmen in Traditional India. Kanak Publications, NewDelhi.

Postel, M and Cooper, Z (1999). Bastar Folk Art: Shrines, figurines and memorials. Projectfor Indian Cultural Studies Publication VIII, Mumbai. ISBN 81-900184-5-0

Ray, SK (1953). The Artisan Castes of West Bengal and their Crafts. In Mitra A (1953)The Tribes and Castes of West Bengal. Census of India 1951: West Bengal. WestBengal Government Press, Alipore, pp. 296-306.

Reeves, R (1962). Cire Perdue Casting in India. Crafts Museum, New Delhi.

Risley, HH (1891) The Tribes and Castes of Bengal. Government of Bengal, Calcutta

Rogers, EM and Kincaid, DL (1981) Communication Networks: towards a new paradigmfor research. Free Press, New York, ISBN 0-02-926740-4

Sarkar, S (1996) The changing face of the craftsman: Blacksmith in colonial Jharkand.Calcutta Historical Journal 18 (2) pp. 67-85.

Sarkar, S (1998) Indian craft-technology: static or changing - a case study of the Kansari’scraft in Bengal, 16th to 18th Centuries. Indian Journal of History of Science, 33 (2)pp. 131-142.

Sen, P. (1994) Crafts of West Bengal. Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad

Singh, K.S. (1993) Hinduism and tribal religion: an anthropological perspective. Man inIndia 73, 1, pp. 1-16

Smith, DJ and Hall, J (2001) Multimedia know-how archiving in aviation industry training.In Proceedings of the 7th IFAC Symposium on Automation Based on Human Skill:Joint Design of Technology and Organisation, ed. Brandt, D. and Cerenetic, J.,Elesevier, Oxford.

Smith, DJ (2002) Communicating Tacit Knowledge across cultures: a multimedia archiveof the Bankura Dhokra craft industry of West Bengal as a case of the artificial. InNegrotti M (ed.), The First Yearbook of the Artificial. Peter Lang, Berne.

Welch, SC (1986) India, Art and Culture. Mapin Publishing, New Delhi

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CHAPTER FIVE

Development of Small Enterprises through Networking

A Case Study from the Danish Dairy Sector

Sune Netterstrøm and Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen, Lyngby, Denmark

In this chapter, we describe and discuss if and how small village-based enterprises can surviveand even expand to a certain extend within sectors in which large, multinational enterprisesdominate the majority of the markets. The Danish dairy sector is well suited for this purpose,because one, large cooperative, Arla Foods, controls more than 90% of the Danish milkprocessing. Nevertheless, small, organic dairies producing quality products of cheese, seemsto be able to create their own niche-markets. The question is, how they do it, and which rolenetworking is playing in their strategic thinking and behaviour. In order to grasp the contextof our specific case study of a Danish farm dairy, named ‘Hinge Creamery’, some main,historical traits of the Danish dairy sector are briefly outlined, before we analyse thecompetitive strategies of the Hinge Creamery.

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1. Introduction: Networking for Survival

The term ‘network’ has become a buzzword in describing relationships within and between

contemporary organisations. (Nohria, 1992, Castells, 2000). From small entrepreneurial firms

to large enterprises, from emerging new configurations of clusters to traditional industries,

from regional districts such as Prato in Italy to Silicon Valley in California, from virtual

multinationals like Cisco to small farm dairies like Hinge Creamery in Denmark, networking

seems to be a vital part of the analysis. Sometimes, the network analysis describes the

observed task interdependencies, information sharing and power relations between different

organisations or between various members within an organisation. But just as often ‘network’

has normative connotations: to advocate how organisations must develop, if they are to be

competitive and sustainable in the existing or future business environment. (Rasmussen,

1996). In this chapter we are using ‚network’ as a descriptive as well as a normative term. In

the following paragraph, we are briefly describing the historical development of the Danish

dairy sector, as the background of the formation of the small entrepreneurs in this industry.

2. The Rise of the Danish Dairy Co-operatives

2.1 The Cooperative Movement

The reasons for the emergence of the industrialised dairy sector in the in Demark in the

1880’s and 1890’s are the growing market for butter and cheese as well as the invention of the

continuous cream separator in the 1870’s. In Denmark the cooperative form of dairies gained

its dominant position already at the beginning of the 1900’s. A survey conducted in 1903

showed that 81% of all the cows belonged to farmers who sold their milk to cooperative

dairies (Bager, 1996). Why did the cooperatives get such a strong position in the dairy sector

just a few decades after the first co-operative dairy was establish in 1882? And why is that

still the case compared to other agro-food sectors? One of the reasons is, that the dairy sector

is characterized by more frequent transactions between farmer and dairy than other

agricultural sectors. Daily delivery of milk is the norm and the farmer cannot hold back if the

prices are low. The farmer and the dairy need to trust each other and to establish institutional

relationships that sustain that need for trust, One way to do that is the creation of co-

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operatives based on co-ownership and long term contracting. According to Bager (1996) the

financial institutional patterns varied widely between countries at that time (1880-1920)

In some countries private man-to-man credit dominated, while in others commercial banks

and ‘farmer friendly’ credit institutions had been set up. In Denmark, the financial credit,

needed by the early cooperatives, were predominantly met by local saving banks in which

farmers often had a certain amount of influence (Bjoern, 1982). The dairy cooperatives had

another impulse too in the Danish communities at that time. For decades, the Danish farmers

at that time had gained organisational experiences through the establishment of Folk High

Schools, political parties, farmers’ associations and saving banks. Besides, many, local

pastors, teachers and other higher educated people participated actively in establishing the

financial and organisational basis as well as the knowledge networks necessary to make the

cooperative movement strong and expanding. During the 1880’s and 1890’s in Denmark, the

cooperative movement increasingly became the focus of debate in the Danish rural

communities with agitators dividing rural communities to such an extend that middle

positions became increasingly difficult. Gradually a Danish model for dairy cooperatives

emerged:

“…characterized by being sector-based and single purpose (rather than multipurpose and locally-based as in Germany), and by being built on tight controlmeasures and mutual obligations to two parties. Long term contracts meant thatfarmers had to sell all their produce to cooperative, and the cooperative, and thecooperative had to buy it all.” (Bager, 1996: 64/65)

2.2 The structural development of the Danish agriculture since 1960.

The Danish agriculture has undergone dramatic structural developments towards

concentration and rationalisation of the farms. This means that today only about 1,5% of the

Danish population is occupied in agriculture.

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Side 2 / 12/1/00/ Pre-DDI

Structural development (1965 - 2010)

Number of herds 135,700 63,352 31,773 14,300 9,900 5,000

Number of cows 1,349,200 1,094,248 896,358 683,000 661,000 570,000

Number of cows per herd 10 17 28 48 63 114

Average yield per cow 3,800 4,300 5,600 6,800 7,154 7,800

* 1 April 2000

1965 1975 1985 1995 2010

Prognosis

1999

*

Table 1: Structural development of the Danish agricultural sector between 1965 and 2010

As shown in Table 1, the number of herds has decreased from 135.700 in 1965 to 9.900 in

1999. The number o cows has more than halved in the period, while the average number of

cows per herd has increased from 10 to 114. Finally, the average yield per cow has nearly

doubled in the period of 35 years. The structural development of Danish dairies has followed

similar tendencies.

From 1955 to 2000 the number of cooperative dairies has decreased very dramatically from

1.256 to 14. (Table 2). The fall of the number of private dairy companies from 224 to 31 in

the same period is also substantial, though not quite as dramatically as in the cooperative

dairy sector. Finally, the size of the raw milk input has decreased from 5.084 million kg in

1955 to 4.414 million kg in 1972. Since 1972 the size of raw milk input in Denmark has

moved a little up and down, but is of nearly the same size in the year 2000 as in 1972.

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Side 3 / 12/1/00/ Pre-DDI

Structural development

Number 1955 1972 1982 1992 2000

Cooperative companies 1,256 261 127 25 14

Private companies 224 87 60 38 31

Total number of companies 1,480 348 187 63 45

Million kg

Raw milk input 5,084 4,414 5,017 4,405 4,456

* 53 weeks, 1999

Dairies

*

Table 2: Structural development in the Danish dairy sector between 1955 and 2000

The concentration of the milk processing in Denmark becomes even more obvious from the

figures of Table 3:

Side 2 / 12/1/00/ Pre-DDI

Dairy Milk deliveries,October 98/99, million kg

Arla Foods 4,095.7Hellevad Omegns Andelsmejeri 66.3Tholstrup Cheese A/S 46.5Bornholms Andelsmejeri 37.7Ingstrup Andelsmejeri 32.9Mammen Mejeri A/S 28.4Them Andelsmejeri 26.8Hirtshals Andelsmejeri 26.4Rørbæk Andelsmejeri 18.3Endrup Andelsmejeri 18.3Others 131.7

In total 4,529.0

Dairies

Table 3: The milk deliveries to Danish Dairies

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More than 90% of the Danish milk processing is controlled by one, large cooperative, the

Danish / Swedish Arla Foods. Nevertheless, some small, organic dairies still seem to be able

not only to survive, but also to expand their markets. In the next section we will analyse how

one of these dairies, Hinge Creamery, became established and developed their strategies.

3. The Case Study of the Hinge Creamery (Hinge Osteri)

3.1 Brief description of the Hinge Creamery

Hinge Cheese Dairy is situated in the middle of Jutland close to Silkeborg (see Figure 1). It is

a small farm dairy producing between 85-90 tons of cheese per year and with a capacity to

produce up to about 180 ton cheese per year. Apart from the cheeses, which are the main

production, the dairy produces also: fresh milk, sour cream, cream, junket, and butter. Despite

the small size the dairy is producing 8 different cheeses and within these are also variants with

different fat-contents and period of ripening summing up to 15 different cheese products.

KobenhavnLyngby

Figure 1: Geographical position of Hinge Creamery

The dairy was established during the summer 2000 and started to produce its first cheeses and

other products in the autumn 2000. However in the first year only with a small production

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from 20% of the milk from the farm, as the rest of milk by contract with the ARLA-food

concern was obliged to be sold to ARLA-foods.

The dairy is only getting milk from the farm, and is build on the farm site just next to the

stable, so that the milk from the milking can run directly in tubes from the stable into the milk

vats where the milk processing begins with the natural separation of the milk into cream and

skimmed milk.

Hinge Dairy is owned by the farmer, Evald Vestergaard, the dairy engineer, Henrik Kanstrup

and the dairy technician, Mogens Jensen. Evald runs the farm while Henrik and Mogens are

working in the dairy with the help of one assistant.

3.2 Formation of Hinge Creamery

The idea to establish a farm dairy was first fostered by Evald and Henrik in 1999. Being from

the same local community they knew each other and have met now and then for different

occasions such as annual festivals, events connected with the school or sports events. During

a discussion, suddenly Henrik suggested that they should build a farm dairy together. At that

time Henrik worked as manager at Rødkærsbro Dairy, a large dairy, which is part of the

ARLA concern with 375 employed producing feta, cheese, mozzarella and shredded cheese.

His work was administrative. Henrik had several reasons to start a new dairy. He had become

weary of all the paper work and of working in a large organization with little freedom. He

wanted to work directly with the handcraft of making cheese. He expresses the unsatisfactory

for a craftsman about working with computer controlled cheese production, in which one does

not come close to the milk. Besides, he was convinced that the artisan cheese-making leads to

better and more tasteful products.

Evald has a traditional farmer education. Afterwards he began working for some years as a

teacher on an agricultural technical school, teaching in subjects like ‘milk and hygiene’, ‘farm

management’ and 'agriculture and environment'. Later he continued as a teacher but on a

freelance basis driving to a lot of different schools which needed substitution or which wanted

to have input from entrepreneurs. In this period Evald created a lot of contacts and networks,

which proved to be helpful later on, when Hinge Creamery was going to be established. In

year 1986 Evald bought his farm with 27 hectares of land. He started out with 27 dairy cows

and some pigs. When he bought the farm it was important for him to have something with

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open possibilities to create something personal. After some years, however, things became

routine for Evald, and he began to seek new challenges. Seeking new challenges is a very

characteristic part of Evald’s personality. But this goes together with the urge also to

challenge other people, or rather their established views of what is possible and what is not

possible:

”It has always provoked me, when somebody claimed that things could only be oneway,... and that it would only a utopia to think that it could be otherwise... You seethis curiousity to put action behind... I have always had the greatest respect forthose who dared to challenge and to prove by their actions, that it could bedifferent” (interview with Evald, 2001)

In 1991 Evald began to consider conversion to organic farming. However, at that time he

considered such a change as to risky. He needed four years more to think about it, and finally

in 1995 he decided to convert to organic farming, still selling his milk to Arla Foods.

When the idea of a farm dairy was first born in 1999, things began to move very quickly.

Evald tells that many meetings where hold and many coffees consumed at the long table in

their kitchen, when they began to concretizise the idea. But they did also in an early phase

involve an external reference group. This group was supposed to ask all the unpleasant

questions that could possibly shoot down the project to counteract ‘the euforia’ of the

entrepreneurs like Evald and Henrik. Having discussed already the difficult questions, they

felt well prepared, when they had to present their ideas to the finance institutions. First of all

the strategy and the economy were clarified. They were well prepared for the questions made

by the finance institutions and they had also identified their own vital demands, which were

considered by them to be fundamental and therfore not suitable for negotiations. They ended

up with an agreement with a small danish bank, which is known for and experienced in

investments on projects of social and environmental sustainability. As Evald says, it was very

important for them to have somebody who could understand the project that they were doing,

and not only looked at it from an economical perspective.

Hinge Creamery became officially established in september 2000. A half year before Evald

and henrik had applied for a permission to produce raw milk cheeses. In this way they hoped

to have the permission in time for Evald to cancel his agreement with Arla Foods. However

the regulative authorities did not work so fast.Therefore Evald was forced to to stay with Arla

Foods for another year, and not before October 2001 he was liberated from the agreement.

Possibly the delay was not so unfortunate after all, because it allowed Hinge Creamery to

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experiment in small scale with the 20% of the milk, and to prepare a market for the products,

while the last 80% of the milk was still sold to Arla Foods. Of course among the drawbacks

was that they had to pay off on the dairy for one year with only 20% of the production. In the

beginning, one of the difficult things was to make cheese with low fat content, because it

becomes too dry very easily. In order to produce cheeses of high quality they had to

experiment for some period. Another surprise during the first year was the popularity of their

butter. Normally butter is considered partly a by-product, but in this case there was a

tremendous demand on the butter, because it has a better taste. .

3.3 Strategic choices of Hinge Creamery

As described in the previous section, Hinge Creamery had decided to produce artisan

products, which were not easily copied by other dairies, or at least could not be produced in a

large-scale industrial process. An important part of this strategy was the focus on the

production of raw-milk cheeses. It was a difficult and risky strategy, since it is not legal in

Denmark to produce raw-milk cheeses of hygiene reasons. On the other hand when they

succeeded to get an exemption, the law provided also a significant barrier to other dairies,

which might like to copy the strategy. The marketing strategy of Hinge Creamery consists of

various elements. First, and probably most important, they preferred to sell to restaurants and

delicatessen shops. This strategy was rooted in various considerations. The small production

volume made it difficult to enter into the supermarket and retailer chains, because the

strategies of most supermarkets focus on a central and huge volume purchasing policy.

Besides, the dominance of Arla Foods on the markets has in several cases forced

supermarkets not to buy products from other dairies. A larger quantum of cheeses from

industrial productions would pull down the prices, and when a cheese is sold in the

supermarket packed in plastic along with the other industrial cheeses, it is also difficult for the

consumer to sense the difference of quality and price. However, in the case of Hinge

Creamery, it was not only a question of economic calculations, but also a matter of values:

“And I have been dead tired of hearing time after time, what lousy products theDanish agriculture makes, when you have taken great pains to make a fantasticproduct... and you deliver a product that you can vouch for, and then afterwards youcan not recognize it, when somebody tells about the product or if you go by yourselfinto a shop to have a look. This I will not accept anymore” (Interview with Evald,2001)

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The Cheeses from Hinge Creamery are more expensive than most of the industrial produced

cheeses. But the taste of the cheese is considered by the customers to be much better too.

Hinge Creamery sells also locally, about 10-12% from the farm shop and from another local

shop in the village nearby. This is a second and important part of the strategy. By selling

locally, they have created a close relationship and space of communication with the

consumer, which they consider of key importance. When Evald tells about the experiences

with consumers, he does that with great enthusiasm and many stories. First of all, one can

sense his satisfaction to listen to the opinions of the local people and also explaining them

about the production, and why this cheese might be different from the week before:

“It is, you see, them [the local consumers], who are helping to send signals back tous about, where we are in relation to our customers, because so far they are not intheir expectations and taste from those who buy cheese in Copenhagen. It can forinstance be their experience with the cheese to red wine or the lunchbox. ‘Why doesit not taste like the previous week, have you done something else?’...or it is maybe alittle more solid, and then you have the possibility of explaining, that it is because,that it is one week older, or that this production 5-6 weeks ago, well, it went a littletoo dry. Then we are back to the craftsmanship again, to make people understandthat the cheese is not the same each time.”

“It was simply so funny in this weekend at the harvest market with tastesamples...’wauw this is pretty strong this cheese, this one.. yes.. pretty strong, tastesquite different from the one we are used to’ Then they stand a while wrincklingtheir nose, then automatically they take another taste. ‘You know’ says the one tothe other ‘ This is just like cheese tasted before... hey taste another piece’ And thenthey are already on their third piece, ‘ That is just like when we where young orchildren’ Then they begin to wind back in time and suddenly: Njaiii !!! this reallytastes good...” (Interview with Evald, 2001)

3.4 Visions and values of Hinge Creamery

In a small leaflet the basic values of Hinge Creamery is pointed out as:

− The natural

− The near

− The simple

The ‘Natural’ refers to a range of positive values:

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“At our place ecology is a natural basis to be able to produce quality products. ...so therefore our milk tastes much closer to the natural” (leaflet, Hinge Creamery,2000)

‘Natural’ is also related to virtues of good craftsmanship: “The care with crops andlife stock is crucial for the organic milk from the dairy” and “The craftsmanship andexperience of the dairyman - accumulated over generations - is the basis of theprocess, and transforms the fresh milk into cheeses, butter and various dairyproducts” (leaflet, Hinge Creamery, 2000)

The value of nearness is also a value deeply rooted in culture. At the surface one can

understand it in a practical sense, as a good communication between consumer and producer,

or as a technical matter of reducing transport distance and thus environmental impact and so

on. But the communication between producer and consumer is not just a matter of giving the

producer more knowledge about consumer preferences. The face-to-face communication

between producer and consumer is to be viewed as a more profound level than marketing and

commerce. It counteracts alienation and builds up collective identities. It is to be viewed as a

resistance to the alienation between producers and consumers as well as the alienation

between consumers and food.

The value of the simple is also an important dimension for Hinge Creamery. It signals

simplicity of and coherence of life. The specialisation of people is closely related to the more

and more complex structure of the society. The individual in the complex society has only

knowledge and competence to understand and operate in a microscopic piece of that society.

Evald is talking very much about the complexity and the need to consider any action in a

holistic perspective:

“ I think that it is often too easy to pretend, when you have bought something, theneverything is ok. You need to put it into a larger context. You see, I have oftenmade these small jokes by saying: ‘You all support ecology and you have allexpressed very positive things about ecology... I am really happy about this... Butwhy are there so many cars parked outside. Almost one per person... Most of youcould easily have used a bicycle in stead... then there is suddenly silence...”

For Evald, it is the holistic way of thinking, which brings coherence in life. When Evald

explains his understanding of holism, he often mentions examples of very practical

experiences, such as the children who looks at a cow and try to get milk out of its teats and

then understands where the milk comes from. In this way the simple is connected to the value

of nearness. It is not through abstract knowledge that we understand things, but rather through

practical experiences using our senses, getting involved and so on.

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3.5 Network relations

In the case of Hinge creamery the farm and the dairy are practically organised as two

interdependent sections of the same unit. However, it is networking with a number of social

actors in the environment.

Evald is born in a family of farmers and his identification is very much oriented towards the

farmers and the rural culture. He is a member of the political party, ‘Venstre’, which is the

traditional party for the more wealthy farmers in Denmark. He is also a member of the local

municipality council. Besides, he is elected as the president for the ecological committee in

the agricultural trade association. In many ways he is an active participant of the conventional

and established farmer culture in Denmark. However, he deviates from it too, for instance as

organic farmer. Evald is not easy to place in one social category, an aspect he seems to enjoy

also when he participates in public arranged meetings and workshops:

"You make contact with persons who in their knowledge and opinions are differentfrom where you normally operate, and if you want to broaden your horizon andyour knowledge, then you need to make contacts, make you inspire and let other useyou" (Interview with Evald, 2001)

Hinge Creamery has relatively little contact with other dairies. Henrik points out the barriers

against cooperation with larger dairies, because their economy and market situation are so

different from that of Hinge Creamery. However, he expressed interest to collaborate with

other small farm dairies. For instance, Hinge Dairy received a copy of the exemption

application to make raw milk cheeses from another raw milk creamery in Denmark,

Smidstrupgaard, which has achieved such an exemption already. But they have not yet

created a formal network with the other dairies. It seems, that they occasionally meet or

contact each other, if they have a specific problem to discuss and exchange experiences about.

Henrik think that it could be a very good idea to create a more established network to share

experiences and maybe also to develop common strategies. The trust between the small

dairies is good, but the problem is, according to Henrik, that all the farm dairies now have so

much success with the demand, that they are working all the time to keep up with it, and

therefore do not have the time for much networking.

The vertical business networks are of course essential for any firm as a trade downwards and

up-wards in the business-chain. In the case of Hinge Creamery, the chain has already been

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made shorter by having the farmer and the dairy practically merged together in one unit

without any transport or transaction costs. The farm shop, in which they sell 12% of their

products directly, is another example a close, vertical network between producer and

consumer. The rest of their products is sold to "Årstidens Grøntsager", an entirely organic

firm that brings the products directly to the consumer, Grand Fromage, an engross firm selling

to Delicatessen shops and restaurants and the local shop keeper in the village, Kjellerup,

nearby.

The downstream networks are created in such a manner that they satisfy various needs and

goals for the dairy. With only five persons working at the dairy and the farm, Henrik and two

others in the dairy and Evald and his wife at the farm, they have limited time for marketing.

Therefore it is practical not to have too many different sales outlets, but instead let institutions

like ‘Årstidens Grøntsager’ and ‘Grand Fromage’, take over some of the quantitatively larger

sales. They sell to markets where quality is appreciated, and therefore they can get a higher

price than it is possible in the supermarkets. By having ensured a large part of the sales

through these channels, without using too much time, they have got more time to

communicate with the local consumers. They do not feel a threat of being too dependent on

for instance ‘Grand Fromage’. If the wholesaler drops out, then people would know where

they can buy these raw milk cheeses. Besides, they are very satisfied to have a relationship

with professional wholesalers, who keep assured that customers get the right amounts in the

right time.

4. Conclusions: Increasing the Niche Market

The values of the natural, the near and the simple play a core role for the enthusiasm of Evald

and Henrik at Hinge Creamery. It is clearly a matter of personal satisfaction. So is the

communication with the consumers. School classes and other groups are invited to come and

see and hear about the creamery. In this way Hinge Creamery has become a meeting place for

communication and discussions of certain life style values and how the people at Hinge

Creamery have tried to realise these values. It functions as a social catalyst for development

and shaping of identity and meaning and is at the same time a kind of social experiment.

Besides, it is of course also a way of making the consumer aware of the qualities of the

product, and to convince them to buy these products.

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Farm creameries, like Hinge, contribute to revitalize the spirit and entrepreneurship from the

period of the origin of the Danish dairy cooperatives in the 1880’s and 1890’s. These small

farm creameries, focusing on cheese recipes not suitable for mass-production, do not compete

directly with the large, multinational cooperatives, like Arla Foods, because they create their

own niche markets consisting of consumers, who would not buy mass-produced cheese at all.

Their real competitors are the small quality producing creameries for instance in Italy, France

and The Netherlands. However, as long as these farm creameries primarily focus on the local

markets, there exists no serious competition across the European borders so far. But it may

develop in the future, if the networking between the farm creameries are going to be more

international than today. Such a tendency would contradict the value of ‘the near’, as for

instance Hinge Creamery prefer to follow.

Another possibility to increase their niche markets is to convince a larger part of the

consumers to buy their quality cheeses to a higher price than the mass-produced cheeses.

Though some tendencies in that direction are observable in Denmark and Europe, it is still not

clear to which extend such a development will occur in the future.

References:

Bager, T. (1992): Cooperative organisation (Da.) South Jutland University press, DK

Bager, T. (1996): Organisations in sectors. South Jutland University press, DK

Bjoern, C. (1982): Danish Daries 1882-2000 (da.) De danske Mejeriers Fælleorganisation,DK

Castells, M. (2000): The rise of the network society, second edition. Blackwell Publishers Ltd,Oxford, UK

Nohria, N. (1992): Is a Network perspective a Useful Way of Studying Organisations? In:Nohria, N and Eccles, B.G: Networks and organisations - structure, form, and actions.Harward Business School press, US, p. 1-22

Rasmussen, L. (1996): Industrial Cultures - theory and methods of cross nationalcomparisons. In: Lauge Rasmussen and Felix Rauner (eds.): Industrial Cultures andProduction. p. 18 - 39. Springer Verlag, UK

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CHAPTER SIX

Creating and Networking of Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat -

The Anand Pattern

Dhawal Mehta and Abhilash S Nair, Ahmedabad, IndiaRajinder Kaur Kalra, Ludhiana, India

Any cooperative movement succeeds only if it is seen as a networking of people - itsmembers - and similar cooperative institutions. The milk cooperative movement AMUL in theKheda District of the State Gujarat in India succeeded because it was established right fromits beginning as a network of cooperative members. This chapter examines the Anand Patternof this cooperative dairy development in Gujarat. The institutions based on the Anand Patternshow the following characteristics:

They are based on the concept of Village Cooperatives. The village producers elect their ownleaders from among themselves. These Village Cooperatives organize themselves in a Unionof Cooperatives through which they hire professional managers and technologists to run theirdairies. This structure serves as a vehicle to bring modern technology to the service of eventhe poorest rural milk producers.

The chapter also emphasizes the catalytic role of the National Dairy Development Board(NDDB) in replicating the Anand Pattern across the country through its Operations Flood I,II & III. Thus the Indian dairy industry has seen an extraordinary expansion in milkproduction and distribution which is now known as the 'White Revolution' in India. Thischapter shows how it was done following the Anand Pattern.

As an illustration of how these concepts are mirrored in the daily life of an Indian farmer, theCase Report by Rajinder Kaur Kalra, Ludhiana, on the dairy farmer Piara Singh has beenintegrated into this chapter.

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1. Introduction: The Kheda District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union (AMUL)

The AMUL movement in the State Gujarat in India (shown above) began with two village

cooperatives and 250 litres of milk per day - anything but a trickle compared to the flood it

has become today. Today AMUL collects, processes and distributes over 900,000 litres of

milk per day during the peak on behalf of 962 village co-operatives owned by 5.42,000farmer

members. An attempt has been made to study this mammoth movement in the light of

networking established by Kheda District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union (AMUL).

Over four decades ago, the life of a farmer in Kheda District was very much like that of his

counterpart anywhere else in India. His income was derived almost entirely from seasonal

crops. The income from milk buffaloes was undependable. Private traders and middlemen

controlled the milk marketing system. As milk is perishable, farmers were compelled to sell

milk for whatever they were offered. Often, they had to sell cream and ghee (fat) at

throwaway prices. The only one who gained was the private trader.

Gradually, the realisation dawned on the farmers that the exploitation by the traders could be

checked only if they marketed their milk through their own organisation. This realisation is

what led to the establishment of the Kheda District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd

(popularly known as AMUL), which was formally registered on December 14, 1946.

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The Kheda Union began pasteurising milk for the Bombay Milk Scheme in June 1948. An

assured market proved a great incentive to the milk producers of the district. By the end of

1948, more than 400 farmers joined in more village societies, and the quantity of milk

handled by the Union increased from 250 to 5000 litres a day. In the early years, AMUL had

to face a number of problems. The response to these provided stimulus for further growth. For

example, as the movement spread in the district, it was found that the Bombay Milk Scheme

could not absorb the extra milk collected by the Kheda Union in winter, when the production

on average was 2.5 times more than in the summer. Therefore by 1953, the farmer-members

had no assured market for the extra milk produced in winter. They were again forced to sell a

large surplus at low rates to the middlemen. The remedy was to set up a plant to process milk

into products like butter and milk powder. The first plant to manufacture milk powder and

butter was completed in 1955.

In 1958, the factory was expanded to manufacture sweetened condensed milk. Two years

later, a new wing was added for the manufacture of 2500 tons of roller-dried baby food and

600 tons of cheese per year, the former based on a formula developed with the assistance of

Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore. It was the first time

anywhere in the world that cheese or baby food was made from buffalo milk on a large,

commercial scale.

Another milestone was the completion of a project to manufacture balanced cattle feed. The

plant was donated by OXFAM under the Freedom From Hunger Campaign of the FAO

(Food and Agriculture Organisation).

To meet the requirement of milk powder for the Defence, the Kheda Union was asked by the

Government in 1963 to set-up additional milk drying capacity. Hence a new dairy capable of

producing 40 tons of milk powder and 20 tons of butter a day, was speedily completed. It was

declared open in 1965.

The Mogar Complex was built to provide high protein weaning food, chocolate and malted

food. It was another initiative by AMUL to ensure that while it fulfilled the social

responsibility to meet the demand for liquid milk, its members were not deprived of the

benefits to be had from the sale of high value-added products. The Mogar Complex also

started manufacturing Amullite, a substitute for butter, in 1994. AMUL has also set up a new

Dairy Plant to handle 6.5 lakh litres per day with facilities to produce 60 tons of powder and

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70 tons of butter in a highly automated plant. It has recently set up a further 20 MT Cheese

plant at Khatraj near Mehemdabad.

Impressive though its growth, the unique feature of the AMUL saga did not lie in the

extensive use of modern technology, nor the range of its products, nor even the rapid inroads

it made into the market for dairy products. The essence of the AMUL story lies in the

breakthrough it achieved in modernising the subsistence economy of a region by organising

the rural producers in the area.

2. The Basic Strategies on whose Foundation Amul is Built

Here we are describing in brief the basic strategies which have been the main factors ofsuccess for AMUL:

− Providing work for farmers.

− Believing in Co-operation and the added benefits that come from being part of a team.

− Always be the best in whatever is being done.

− Back relentless innovation with the willingness to put in good solid hard work.

− Recruit, support and retain people who will contribute their best in whatever they do, no

matter how small or how great the task might be.

− Always face adversity with courage, knowing that every challenge is really an opportunity

3. Growth of Cooperatives

3.1 The Kheda Union

Through, traditionally dairying was a subsidiary occupation of the farmers of Kheda.

However, the contribution to the farmer's income was not as prominent as his attachment to

dairying as a tradition handed down from one generation to the next. Dairy showed low milk

yield of animals maintained on the by-products of the farm, together with lack of facilities to

market even the little produced. These experiences made look irrational any decision to invest

in scientific practice of animal husbandry and nutrition. The return on the investment as well

as the prospects of being able to market the product looked very bleak indeed.

Since its inception, the Kheda Union, therefore, believed that the responsibility to collect the

marketable surplus of milk should be coupled with making the production enhancement

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inputs reach the members. The Kheda Union has thus a full-fledged machinery to provide

animal health care and breeding facilities. As early as the late fifties, the Union started making

high quality buffalo semen and the artificial insemination service became available to the

rural animal population through the village Union workers. The Union also started its mobile

veterinary services to render animal health care at the doorsteps of the farmers. Probably for

the first time in the country, the veterinary first-aid service was made available in the villages

through trained workers.

The system succeeded mainly because it provides an assured market at remunerative prices

for producers' milk, besides acting as a channel to market the production enhancement

packages; and it does not disturb the agro-system of the farmers. It also enables the consumer

to access high quality milk and milk products. Thus it is contrary to the traditional system

when the middlemen cornered the future of the business. The system ensured that the

revenues go to the participants for their socio-economic up-lifting and common good.

In parallel to the Union activities, Village Societies have been established to support

collaborative action in the villages. The Village Societies also facilitate the implementation of

various production enhancement, and educational extension programmes undertaken by the

Union. The staff of the village societies have been trained to undertake the veterinary first-aid

support and artificial insemination on their own.

3.2 The significance of the Kheda experiment

A system, which involves participation of people on such a large magnitude, does not confine

itself to an isolated sector. The ripples of Operation Flood and its turbulences have affected

other areas of society as well. The co-operatives in the villages of Kheda are contributing to

various desirable social changes such as:

− The yearly elections to the management committee and its chairman by the members are

making the participants aware of their rights and the process to elect the right men for the

jobs.

− Part of the Village Societies’ tasks is perpetuating the voluntary mix of the various ethnic

and social groups twice-a-day for the common cause and mutual betterment. It has

resulted in eroding many social inequalities, e.g. high-low, rich-poor, the elites-the

marginalised: all seem to co-operate for the common cause.

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− Exposure to various modern technologies and their applications in day-to-day life has not

only made them aware of these developments but also made it easier for them to adopt

them for their betterment. One might wonder whether the population that knows almost

everything about impregnating a cow or buffalo through their knowledge of artificial

insemination, is also equally aware of the similar process in humans and work towards

planning it.

− More than 900 village co-operatives have created jobs for nearly 5000 people in their own

villages - without disturbing the socio-agro system - and thereby the exodus from the rural

areas has been arrested to a great extent.

− The income from milk has contributed to the farmers’ household economy. Besides,

women who are the major participants, now have a say in the home economy - as further

discussed in the subsequent chapter by Mehra and Kalra

Independent studies by various individuals and institutions have shown that as high as 48

percent of the income of the rural household in Kheda District are being derived from

dairying. Since dairying is a subsidiary occupation for the majority of the rural population,

such incomes are helping these people not only to free themselves from the strangleholds of

poverty but also to elevate their social status.

4. Creating the Network of Dairies

AMUL's success has led to the creation of similar structures of milk producers in other

districts of Gujarat. They drew on Amul's experience in project planning and execution. Thus

the 'Anand Pattern' was repeated in Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Baroda and Surat

districts, where even before the Dairy Board Operation Flood India was born, farmers and

their leaders carried out empirical tests of the hypotheses that explained AMUL's success. In

these districts, milk producers and their leaders experienced significant commonalties and

found easy and effortless ways to replicate AMUL's success in their areas. This has led to the

creation of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) with the clear mandate of

replicating the 'Anand pattern' in other parts of the country, initially in the dairy sector, but at

a later stage, in oilseeds, fruit and vegetables, salt, and trees

Looking back on the path traversed by AMUL, the following features make it a pattern and

model for emulation elsewhere. AMUL has been able to:

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− Produce an appropriate blend of the policy makers, farmers, boards of management and

professionals: each group appreciating its roles and limitations.

− Bring the best technology at the command of the rural milk producers and harness its fruit

for further improvements.

− Provide a support system to the milk producers without disturbing their agro-economic

systems.

− Plough back the Operation Flood, by prudent use of men, material and machines, in the

rural sector for the common good and improvement of the member producers.

− Even though growing with time and scale, the Cooperative movement has remained

concerned with the smallest producer members.

In that sense, AMUL is an example par excellence, of an intervention for rural change.

The success of the replication of the Anand Pattern is evident from the following statistics.

Over the last 25 years or so, the Indian dairy industry has progressed from a situation of

scarcity to that of plenty. Dairy farmers today are informed about technologies of more

efficient milk production and their economics. Even the landless and marginal farmers now

own highly productive cows and buffaloes in many areas. Along with high increase in the

production of both cereals and cash crops, dairying has expanded rapidly with a compound

growth rate of over 5 percent per annum over the last two decades.

Application of modern technology and advance management systems in milk processing and

marketing has brought about a marked change in the market place. Consumers now have a

wide range of choice of products and packages. The availability of dairy products has become

regular. It would only be proper to state that the country has achieved a great degree of self-

reliance in the dairy sector: This has happened essentially because of the sound basis that has

been created by the dairy co-operatives. How did these changes take place? Many factors

contributed, but the key role in bringing about this transformation has been played by the

National Dairy Development Board NDDB. Its role is described in more detail in the

following paragraph.

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5. Strategy, Management and Organisation of Dairying in India

5.1 Genesis of Operation Flood I, II & III

Recognising the problems faced by Indian dairy farmers in the late sixties, the National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB) in India drew up the project Operation Flood (OF), It was

meant to create a flood of milk in India's villages, with funds mobilised from foreign food

donations. Producers' co-operatives were the central plank of the project, which sought to link

dairy development with milk marketing.

NDDB underwent a structural change in 1988. The Board, registered as a Society, and the

Indian Dairy Corporation, a Company formed and registered under the Companies Act 1956,

were merged by an Act of Parliament, in1987. The resulting corporate body bears the old

name: National Dairy Development Board. The Act has declared the Board to be an

institution of national importance. The greatest contribution of NDDB has been the initiation

and fostering of the process of modernisation India's dairy industry. The co-operative

movement has become a model for other developing countries and international agencies that

are concerned with dairy development.

The Operation Flood programme is a unique approach to dairy development. During the

1970's, dairy commodity surpluses were building up in Europe and Dr Kurien, the founder

Chairman of NDDB, saw in those surpluses both a threat and an opportunity.

The threat was the massive export of low-cost dairy products to India which, had it occurred,

would have tolled the death knell for India's struggling dairy industry. The large quantities

that India was already importing had eroded domestic markets to the point where dairying

was not viable.

The opportunity was built into the Operation Flood strategy. Designed basically as a

marketing project, Operation Flood recognised the potential of the European surpluses as an

investment in building India's dairy industry. With the assistance of the World Food

Programme, food aid in the form of milk powder and butter oil, was obtained from the EEC

countries to finance the programme. It was for the first time in the history of economic

development that food aid was seen as an important investment resource. Use of food aid in

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this way is anti-inflationary: it provides a buffer stock to stabilise markets, and it can be used

to prime the pump of markets that will later be supplied by domestic production.

Operation Flood I was launched in 1970 with the assistance from the World Food

Programme in the form of food aid of 126,000 mt. of skimmed milk powder and 42,000 mt. of

butter oil. Funds generated through sale of these commodities were used in the development

of 27 rural milk-sheds in 10 states and for setting up dairies in the rural hinterlands and in four

metropolitan cities of the country. There was a 60 percent increase in milk production, which

rose from an estimated 20 million tons in 1970 to 32 million tons in 1978. A year-round

remunerative market for the milk producers was created and the sale of milk in the major

urban demand centres rose by 140 per cent.

Prompted by the success of the Operation Flood I, the Government decided to continue with

dairy development through co-operatives but on a greatly expanded scale.

The Operation Flood II, which began in 1981, aimed at building a National Milk Grid

linking 136 rural milk-sheds in 22 States and Union territories with the urban demand centres

in the country and creating infrastructure required to support a viable dairy industry. The

Operation Flood II programme was implemented with a World Bank Credit of US $150

million and commodity assistance from EEC (216,584 mt. of SMP, 62,402 mt. of butter oil

and 16577 mt. of butter) during 1981 to 1985. Since the external assistance became available

from 1987-88 onwards only, the NDDB had to implement the project during the periods

1985-86 to 1986-87, out of the funds available.

Operation Flood III (1987-96), the current phase, aims at consolidation of the earlier gains.

The main focus of the programme is on achieving financial viability of the Milk Unions and

State Federations, and on adopting the salient institutional characteristics of the Anand Model

Co-operatives. The Operation Flood III Programme is being funded partly by a substantial

World Bank credit.

The investment and achievements in modernising the Indian dairy industry have had a major

impact on milk production. Annual milk production, which had stagnated at 20-22 million

tons during the 1960s, has steadily increased to over 60 million tons. Per-capita availability of

milk, which had declined consistently during the two decades between 1951 and 1970,

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dropping to 107 grams at the start of Operation Flood, is now 192 grams per day -- despite a

substantial increase in population.

The network of co-operative institutions now encompasses 70,000 Dairy Co-operative

Societies in 170 milk-sheds, covering 9 million milk producer families. The average milk

procurement by these co-operatives has now reached some 10.2 million litres per day, of

which 9.4 million litres is marketed as liquid milk while the remainder is converted into

products like milk powder, butter, cheese, ghee(fat) and a wide range of traditional milk

products. Milk processing capacity of around 17.2 million litres per day, chilling capacity of

6.9 million litres per day, and milk powder production capacity of 839 tones per day have

been established.

One of the challenging aspects of dairy development in a tropical or sub-tropical country is

the movement of milk over long distances. In Operation Flood, this has been made possible

through the operation of around 140 insulated rail milk tankers, each with 40,000 litres

capacity, supplemented by another 25 rail tankers of 21,000 litres capacity each. In addition,

around 1,100 insulated road milk tankers operate throughout the country. This has enabled the

operation of a National Milk Grid, balancing regional fluctuations in milk procurement, and

demand-and-supply gaps arising due to concentrated production of liquid milk in selected

milk sheds. To balance seasonal variations in milk supply, and demands arising due to low

milk production during the summer months, a large milk powder storage capacity has been

created for buffer stocking.

5.2 The Transition due to Operation Flood

The Indian Dairy Industry went through extraordinary expansion under Operation Flood II.

This totalled 25 apex organisations, 125 milk producers unions and over 32,000 new Dairy

Co-operative Societies. Operation Flood III added 20 milk producers Unions and 27,000

Dairy Co-operative Societies.

Operation Flood III has seen a further 30,000 District Co-operative Societies organised in 170

milk producers Unions. Thus Operation Flood has continued to expand. There are now 20,000

more active District Co-operative Societies than there were at the completion of Operation

Flood II. Average procurement has also risen but less quickly.

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State MilkProcurement (VOLin '000s)(Kg/day)

Releaseof funds

byNDDB(Rs. in

Million)

Rs./Kg.Procureme

nt

MilkProduction in 1990 (

Vol. In000s)a

(Kg./ day)

Rs./KgProductio

n

Producer

Members of Co

operatives

(000s)b

Rs./Mem-ber

Gujarat 3,313 3,843 1.16 9,657.5 0.40 1,847 2.08

UttarPradesh

819 806 0.98 26,553.4 0.03 478 1.69

Karnataka 1,098 860 0.78 6,542.2 0.13 1,294 0.66

TamilNadu

1,203 602 0.50 9,246.6 0.07 1,884 0.32

Maharashtra

1,908 391 .20 10,235.6 0.04 1,069 0.37

848 628 0.74 8,246.6 0.08 701 0.90

Otherstates

2,091 2,472 1.18 77,290.4 0.03 1,719 1.44

All India 11,280 9,602 0.85 1,47,775.3 0.06 8,992 1.07

Basic data from Dairy India 1997, p 160, p. 185.

Source: World Bank Operations Evaluation Department , India : The Dairy Revolution

Table 1: Milk Production under Operation Flood

5.3 The 'E-Comm' Road Ahead

People, today, talk of e-commerce as a tool of the future. The Internet, they say, will change

everything - the freedom of choice, the way markets function, the nature of work, the meaning

of leisure, the empowerment of consumers. The information explosion rapidly expands the

choices available to the consumers. Past objectives will be shaped by future solutions. The

quickest, as also the best interaction, will take place in Cyberspace. All these activities are

geared towards matching and satisfying the perceived as well as latent needs of consumers,

through the effective use of information technology. In this Information-Communication-

Entertainment (ICE) Era, the barriers between the business organization and consumers,

between manufacturers and end-users are all breaking down. This is what the Co operative

movement already started some fifty years ago: eliminating the 'middlemen' thereby bringing

the 'producers' closer to the 'consumers'.

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Today, we have what the entpreneurs refer to as the 'first-mover advantage' in the net

business. Net Brands will matter. Net Brands will persevere. Net Brands will deliver results.

And, Net Brands will be savvy. How you do it, what you do: it will be the acid test of

fulfilment of Consumer expectations. When E-tailing becomes supplementary to Re-tailing,

by closing in on one transaction - Selling by offering the Consumer the benefits of becoming

an 'E-Consumer' and consequently, an 'M-Consumer'. The day is not far when every farmer,

in each village society, will walk in with his Smart Card. This movement of co-operatives

from Co-ops to e-Co-ops will make co-operatives much stronger by bringing members

together and closer to customers like ever before.

6. Marketing & Sales

The seeds of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation were sown in November

1973 with the simple intention:

− To establish a marketing and distribution system that would reach every corner of the

country with their products

− To ensure a fair profit return to the producers.

− To help Member Unions develop adequate production and processing facilities.

− To develop a product-mix that would promote sustained growth.

− To offer consumers quality products at fair prices

− To create and expand a milk grid to maximise the availability of liquid milk.

− To play an ever increasing role in the rural economy, providing gainful employment to

large numbers of producers.

− To raise producer awareness that they could manage their own affairs through Co-

operatives that they controlled.

− To create a structure, owned by farmers, that would, with time, be the farmers' best friend.

The marketing of milk and milk products began from April 1, 1974. In August 1976, the

Federation began the supply of liquid milk to the Mother Dairy, Delhi, by insulated rail

tankers, carrying fresh milk over a distance of 1,000 km, an important step in establishing a

National Milk Grid. When products with common brand names are manufactured at more

than one location, a shared commitment to quality standards is essential. The Federation

adopted standards and specifications that conform to the most stringent standards the world

over. And the Member Unions showed that these could be met.

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The Federation grew rapidly. Milk collections grew, turnovers soared and surplus increased.

− Amul Cheese Spread and Amul Shrikhand were introduced in 1983 with all-new flavours.

− Amulya, a dairy whitener, made its appearance in 1986 and emerged as the leading brand

in this market segment.

− Dhara, launched in August 1988, quickly captured the market as a pure, wholesome edible

oil marketed at a fair price.

In 1996, the country got Amul Mithai Mate along with the one-million litre-per-day capacity

of the Gandhinagar Mother Dairy. Subseqently Amul Lite, a low-fat, low-cholesterol spread

entered the calorie-conscious market. Amul Butter, Amul Ghee, Amul Cheese, Amulspray,

Amulya, Amul Milk Powder and Sagar Skimmed Milk Powder: all achieved and sustained

brand-leader status in their respective categories. All this while, at the grass roots, Operation

Flood III extended and strengthened the co-operative base.

As an illustration of how these concepts are mirrored in the daily life of an Indian farmer, the

Case Report by Rajinder Kaur Kalra, Ludhiana, on the dairy farmer Piara Singh has been

integrated here.

7. Dairy Farming - A Boon to Boost Agribusiness: The Success Story of Piara Singh

In this paragraph, the life of the dairy farmer Piara Singh is described as an illustration how

dairy farmers can become entrepreneurs and move toward some wealth due to diligence,

dedication - and due to approaches of regional networking and cooperation. This report has

been contributed by Rajinder Kaur Kalra, Punjab Agricultural University P.A.U., Ludhiana.

Miles to go before I sleep and Miles to go before I sleep.

This is the Motto of Piara Singh a progressive dairy farmer. He is 62 years old and a retired

headmaster from the Government School of Chownkimaan, a village in the Ludhiana District

of Punjab. He had started his career as a mathematics teacher and taught Maths for 32 years.

He is known for his diligence. He established his farm during 1975-76 with 10 buffaloes only.

In those days he started it as a subsidiary occupation. After his retirement it became his main

source of income. In this step he has been pioneer in his village. Today he holds 20 acres of

which 10 acres are allocated for cultivation of fodder to dairy animals; on 10 acres he is

growing other crops. It is a type of diversification of the farm and risk sharing between two

enterprises. He opted for dairy farming with the aim that it provides regular income different

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from crop production which only offers seasonal income. If there is a cut down of prices for

farm products it can be compensated through dairy or vice-versa.

He earned and saved the money bit by bit and, thus, established a large dairy farm with

around 50 buffaloes of which 31 are under milching, and 14 cows out of which 13 cows are

under milching. He has signed an agreement with the multinational company De Laval of

Sweden under the Technology Vision 2020 Mission Project which has given 40% subsidy in

providing milching machines and storage room. A system for the cleaning of milching

machines has also been installed.

Piara Singh has constructed the sheds on the principle of having the animals inside with both

head to head and tail to tail housing Fans are put up in the animal shed for protecting the

animals during summer. The cows are fed with balanced diet according to the

recommendations of Animal Husbandry Department, PAU. The farmer himself prepares the

feed and adds all ingredients in proportion as recommended. Most of the ingredients are

cultivated on his own farm. This approach is economic on feed since feed contributes more

than 50 percent of costs of milk production. On an average each buffalo gives 10 liters milk

and each cow gives 15 liters milk. The farmer is transporting the milk to the milk producers

Cooperative Union Verka.

The Punjab Milk Co-operative Federation MILKFED has recognised this farm as a model of

a dairy farm and conducts demonstrations at the farm. The farm is maintained properly and

disinfected daily in order to have a hygienic environment. Piara Singh believes that healthy

animals should have small ears, robust and glittering bodies and the utmost distance between

the udders of the cows. He would like to purchase more cows, because cows give more milk

than buffaloes and for longer periods. In his talks about his work he adds the most important

point which should be taken into consideration in dairy of cows: not to let the cows sit for half

an hour after milching in order to protect them from infection of teats. Although Piara Singh

does not keep any written records, he makes mental calculations about costs and benefits.

Piara Singh says that dairy not only improved his economic status but also his social status.

The main hindrance in his dairy faced by him was lack of man power. He suggests that

Ludhiana is the best place to find supporting labour. He also generated interest among the

people in his village to get involved in dairy farming. He advises his fellow farm workers that

effective supervision, hard work and collective support of the family are paramount for

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successful work. His secrets of success are dedication, diligence, positive thinking and family

support. His own pillar of support is his wife who always gives him a constant energetic tonic

of support and encouragement besides her own career as a teacher. We all say: “There is a

women behind every man in his success and deals.” Piara Singh admits that his wife’s helping

hand has made him to achieve his goals. His son is also actively involved in various activities

of the farm.

These efforts have given Piara Singh and his family a wonderful fruit for their retirement in

the form of the dairy farm. They are very happy and have proved that God escorts them and is

the constant companion to those who are inspired to work hard: he constantly showers the

Joys of his Blessings on them.

8. Cooperatives - Problems and Perspectives

8.1 Government and Cooperatives

The Government, which until yesterday said it was committed to protecting co-operatives -

and which on this pretext continued to interfere in their affairs - has recently introduced

reforms which permit a free-for-all fight for ownership and control of scarce national

resources. While the pretence of ‘protecting’ co-operatives has been dropped, widespread

interference continues. Surveys of the impact of liberalisation on industry reveal that it has

accelerated movement toward capital-intensive technologies as firms search for more efficient

and profitable methods of production: mass production, not production by the masses, has

become the by-word of industries. The odds are therefore increasingly loaded in favour of the

resource-rich enterprises.

It is our firm conviction that in these circumstances, only genuine co-operatives can provide a

platform for the small farmers, artisans, unorganised labourers and others who are rich in

talent, energy and commitment, but poor in resources. Only genuine co-operatives will allow

the silent two-thirds of our society to rise from anonymity to become ‘a force to be reckoned

with’.

But is the legal and political environment in India conducive to co-operatives? Can co-

operatives survive, or even thrive? Are we giving the silent Indian even the slightest chance to

raise a voice against policies which are inimical to his welfare?

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It is therefore critical for us to look periodically at the state of co-operation and the prospects

for co-operatives because the future of our small producers and consumers hangs on the fate

of co-operation.

8.2 Positive Steps by the Government

The Standing Committee on Agriculture of the Government has recently recognized the need

for a new co-operative policy orientation. The main features are as follows.

− A higher degree of democratisation and professionalisation of Co-operatives.

− Treatment of Co-operatives as equals with industry.

− Liberalisation of Co-operative law to enable Co-operatives to plan and formulate their

own activities.

− The willingness expressed by the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya

Pradesh and Karnataka, to amend their State Co-operative laws in line with the Model

Act, recommended by the Choudhary Brahm Perkash Committee.

− The Union Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Balram Jakhar's public commitment to amend the

Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act on the lines of the Model Act and his promise to

support amendment of the Companies Act to enable incorporation of Multi-State Co-

operative Companies.

The nation's 170 million co-operators still find but a precarious place at the bottom of the

national agenda. Government has emphatically placed the corporate sector at the top of its

priorities. Nothing makes this more evident than the Government’s Union Budget for 1995-96

which completely disregarded the Co-operative movement’s request for modest tax relief. The

same Union Budget offered the corporate sector substantial tax exemptions

Obviously the liberalisation process has brought changes in the laws and regulations

governing the corporate sector: But Co-operatives remain the victims of archaic and colonial

laws. The future of our nation's Co-operative movement requires a new law which is

consistent with the Constitution of India, which enshrines the ‘Principles of Co-operation’. It

respects the rights and abilities of our people to make responsible choices about the resources

they create; and it would ensure the relevance of the Co-operative sector as the Third

Alternative into the next Millennium.

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8.3 The Benefits derived by Cooperative Members

It is found that some people had started milk collection very recently while others had been

doing it for about 30 to 35 years. The latter group certainly seemed to have progressed during

these years of dairying. Many have bought more cattle, others have started new business like

opening a provision store.

One reason for the popularity of the Co operative movement is because the members get paid

every day if they so desire or else they could also ask for payment at the end of a fixed time

period. The money so received is used to run their household , purchase fertilizer, seeds,

fodder for cattle, insecticides etc. Many of them have started affording luxuries like television

sets, fridges etc. which they otherwise would not have dreamt about. The benefits they derive

are more than purely economic, they have been able to increase their contacts, gain

knowledge and broaden their perspectives. They are breaking the barriers of caste and class as

they have understood that it is only by uniting that they can uplift their position in society.

Hence the Co operative movement has contributed not only to economic development but also

to the social development of its members. Some examples may illustrate these developments.

The members may use bicycles as a mode of transportation but nowadays even scooters are

being used. The awareness regarding hygiene has increased.

Women have been assigned the roles of feeding cattle and making dung cakes. Washing of

the cattle, however, is frequently done by labourers. Thus the money from dairying has helped

them to afford not only luxurious items but also to hire labourers to do menial jobs.

But all is not well with them, the dairy farmers have got some complaints which should be

brought to the notice of the officials of the Co operative movement. These problems are :

− The waiting time at the collection centre is very high, since milk is graded only after

taking samples.

− The medical care facilities for the cattle is not proper. The farmers want doctors to visit

Health Care Centres more frequently and fast when needed.

− For the future, increased automation is needed for the process of milking-

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9. The Cooperative Entrepreneur

9.1 Evolution of the Concept of Co-operative Entrepreneur

The Co-operative Entrepreneurship had its birth in England and in the early nineteenth

century. On a trial and error basis, various types of Co-operative ventures have been

undertaken in many countries. This type of entrepreneur has generally demonstrated great

flexibility in adjusting to different changing economic, social and political conditions

throughout the world. Indian Co-operative entrepreneurs are indebted to Co-operatives of

many other countries for the contributions that they have made to the Cooperative movement

in this country.

Co-operative entrepreneurship in India is visible in a few areas such as: Credit Systems,

Agriculture Systems, Marketing Systems, Consumer Systems.

In this report an attempt has been made to study the success of the Co-operative

Entrepreneurship Model in the Dairy Industry, widely known as the Anand Pattern.

When our nation became free it was the wisdom of our founding fathers that India would be

strong if our villages became strong. They believed that the strength of a village should rest

on three basis:

− A Panchayat

− A school

− A Co-operative

Today,

− We have Panchayats - Village Panchayats, and Mandals and Zilla Parishads.

− We have schools - If not in every village, at least in many of them.

− We have Co-operatives - more than 300,000 primary agricultural Co-operatives - enough

to allow us to call our movement the Largest Co-operative Movement in the world.

It all started even before independence, when a group of farmers were angered with the way

they were being exploited by local traders and by a dairy known as Polson’s. Polson’s had

been given a monopoly to supply milk to Bombay and both they, and the traders they

employed to collect the milk, had used that monopoly to buy cheap and sell dear. The farmers

147

struck and refused to supply milk and they met with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who advised

them to set up their own Co-operative to collect and sell what they produce. He, in turn, chose

Shri Tribhuvandas Patel to work with the Co-operative which, when it began, collected only

two hundred litres of milk a day. The movement continued from there on successfully.

9.2 Remuneration and Government Subsidies for the Cooperatives

Twice a day after each milking, raw milk was brought to the Co-operative. Usually the

women from the village brought the milk to the Co-operative where it was graded by smell as

good or sour milk. The milk was measured and a sample drawn for testing to determine the

fat and non-fat content. The sample was identified solely on the basis of a serial number so as

to avoid any discrimination against or in favour of any member. The percentage of fat was

tested using the fat testing apparatus supplied free of cost by the Kaira Co-operative.

The Kaira Co-operative paid the village Co-operatives twice a month, but the village Co-

operatives paid their members twice a day, in the evening for the morning milk, and next

morning for the evening milk. After being processed in Anand the milk was send to Bombay.

The purchase price paid to farmers and channelled through the Kaira Co-operative, was fixed

by the milk commissioner.

One reason why the Kaira Cooperative succeeded while all milk colonies around them failed,

was that the farmers of the Kaira district elected their leaders and entrusted them with

responsibility for the affairs of the Co-operatives, and those leaders in turn appointed a

professional as a manager and entrusted him and his officers with the responsibility for the

management of the Co-operative.

A continuing problem for Operation Flood is the rejection by politicians and bureaucrats of

the full Anand Principles of Farmer Control. Even in Gujarat, where the existing system is

farmer controlled at all three levels, politicians continue to harass the Co-operative system in

the hope of forcing it to accept Government assistance and hence political appointees on their

Board of Directors. This is a continuing war of attrition, with the public sector giving ground

reluctantly to the increased control by the NDDB and farmers. They withdraw only when the

costs of supporting Government-dominated Co-operatives becomes too high, while they

attempt to regain control once financial equilibrium is restored.

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The question that arises for the Co-operative is whether to treat payment by Government to

cover excess operating costs, as a subsidy or not. Hence a clear distinction needs to be made

between Government subsidies to

− An Anand Pattern Co-operative in which all tiers are owned and controlled by the

farmers.

− Co-operatives with mixed ownership and control.

Typically, mixed control of Co-operatives have higher costs or lower revenues owing to

Government interventions including the inability to dispense with redundant staff, or

inappropriate appointments; salaries being inadequate to retain key staff; and prices that are

fixed too high for farmers or too low for consumers. There is a more subtle and corrosive

effect of State Government intervention. If management knows that at the end of the day the

government will bail out the organisation, the incentive to efficient management is

fundamentally undermined. This is the key reason to insist on independence of Cooperatives:

the Anand Principles. Nothing focuses the mind of a manager or a Board director like the

prospect of the organization going bankrupt. A clear conceptual distinction needs to be made

between payments to compensateGovernmental managerial interventions, and a genuine

subsidy to an Anand Pattern Co-operative that has full discretion to manage its affairs.

Operation Flood officials were adamant that no subsidies, in this narrow sense, had been

received by (fully) Anand pattern Co-operatives. There may have been a subsidy element in

the first two phases of Operation Flood, but in Operation Flood III all funding was provided

by loans from banks.

10. Conclusions: The Economic and Social Impact of the Cooperative Movement

The institutions based on the Anand pattern have four characteristics that are relevant to us:

− They are based on a painstakingly put-together set of village Co-operatives.

− There may be in any district, anything from 20 to almost 1,000 village Co-operatives; all

of them commit themselves to the collective membership in a Union of Co-operatives.

− Thus, this institutional structure serves as the vehicle to bring modern technology to the

poorest rural producer.

− They are managed by the chosen representatives of the people who own them, the

producers.

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The Village Milk Co-operatives have, thus, become dynamic institutions which act as centres

of various other economic and social welfare activities, and which stimulate new services or

multipurpose Co-operatives and educational and health committees. Milk Co-operatives offer

opportunities for employment especially to unskilled labour. The Co-operative itself employs

between three and ten villagers. As soon as a district Milk Co-operative Union has been

established, it employs a few hundred persons. As its business expands, the District Union

takes on some more staff.

Small and marginal farmers earn as much as 25 to 30 percent of their income from milk, and

they have become able over the years, to augment this income by 50 to 100 per cent. Landless

labourers gain 65 to 70 per cent of their total income from milk. Farm income, however, is

seasonal. Moreover it is not unusual for a large portion of the farmer’s crop to be earmarked

for settlement of a debt even before the harvest. The advantage of receiving cash twice daily

is definitely one attraction of membership in the Co-operative. About half the milk money

buys cattle-feed and pays for maintenance of the milk cow or buffalo. The remainder is

usually sufficient to buy two square meals a day for the family. In some villages, the very

poor that really cannot afford to save, nevertheless insist on weekly payments, intending to

save milk money in order to buy another buffalo, or even a small piece of land.

Normally by the end of each year, the Co-operative has made some profit from handling the

milk; to this is added the share of profit received from the Kaira Co-operative. Out of this

sum, producers receive an annual bonus in proportion to the value of the milk they have

supplied during the year. With his bonus, a male farmer may purchase some farm equipment

or a gold ornament for his wife. A woman may save for another buffalo.

Initially the only food for the cattle was grazing by the roadside, now they get cattle feed at

cost prices. Poverty remains, but the poor are less poor. Shareholders also receive a dividend,

and the paid staff gets an annual bonus. Out of the profits, allocations are made to various

funds: a saving fund, furthermore funds for education, charity, cattle development and co-

operative propaganda among others.

The economic development brought about by the dairy revolution was not in isolation but it

also brought along with it social and institutional developments. One of the greatest

beneficiaries are the Vankar community, once the Untouchables. They have become the

largest producers of milk, because they realised that the economic advantages they gained

150

could be converted into social acceptance. Some women with careless husbands have been

known to educate a child or collect dowry for a daughter with milk money and bonuses that

have been wisely invested. The Central Social Welfare Board gives loans to widows and

deserted wives to buy buffaloes. A widow with a small family and no cultivatable land can yet

maintain herself and her family on the income from two buffaloes. 48 per cent of the milk

collected by most Co-operatives is sold by widows, landless labourers and marginal farmers.

All take better care of their animals than do the better off, undoubtedly because the creatures

are their sole property and only hope for future

Some of these developments are further described in the subsequent chapter by Mehra and

Kalra.

References

Heredia, R. (1997), The Amul India Story. Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd., NewDelhi.

Kurien, V. (1997), An Unfinished Dream. Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd., NewDelhi.

Candler, W. and Kumar, N. (1998), India: The Dairy Revolution. The World Bank OperationsEvaluation Department, Washington D.C., USA

Sing, L. P. (2000), Co Operative Marketing in India and Abroad. Himalaya PublishingHouse, Mumbai, India

Annual Report (1999), Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, Anand, 1998/99.National Dairy Development Board, Anand, 1999, India

151

Part Three: Action Research in Theory and Practice: Indian-European Cross-

Cultural Experiences

The following five chapters focus on concepts, methodologies and examples of ActionResearch utilized and developed further during the EU-India Cross-Cultural InnovationNetwork.

The chapter Action Research: Some Basic Issues, written by Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen,outlines specifically the participatory interaction between the researchers and the otherstakeholders, furthermore the change perspective, and examples of methodologies. Theparadigm of action research is contrasted to the positivistic paradigm. The essential aspects ofaction research are stressed. Different approaches of action research are presented. Finally,some ethical dilemmas of action research are reflected and conceptualised.

The next chapter Research in Action: The Dudhsagar Dairy Cooperative in Gujarat waswritten by Dhaval Mehta, Jatin Pancholi and Paurav Shukla. It examines the basiccharacteristics as well as the five-step process of action research. It also demonstrates theaction research in practice at Dudhsagar Dairy in Hehsana, which is a district of the GujaratState in India. The objective of this preliminary action research has been to improve theeffectiveness and efficiency of the overall supply chain system at Dudhsagar dairy.

The two following chapters describe the framework, objectives, processes and possibleoutput of two action research methodologies: the Search Conference, written by FrancescoGaribaldo, and the Scenario Workshop, written by Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen. Bothcontributions put the aspects of tools for action research into the centre of discussion.Furthermore, the different roles of the facilitators are described and discussed in bothchapters. Finally, methodologies are discussed for enhancing networking andentrepreneurship in regional based developments.

The final chapter Applying the Action Research Toolkits: Women Empowerment throughDairy Entrepreneurship was written by Kavita Mehra and Rajinder Kaur Kalra. The chapterdeals with the issue of women empowerment in the context of the Punjab Dairy CooperativeMovement. This study of Womens’ Dairy Cooperative Societies in Punjab reveals how theparticipation of women has provided them with the opportunity to express their latentqualities of being entrepreneurs. The report then describes and reflects the exercise ofcombining the Action Research toolkits of Search Conference and Scenario Workshop in oneintegrated International Workshop at Delhi, February, 2002. This workshop focused on thetheme: How can empowerment of women contribute to community building in the dairysector? The innovative aspects of this workshop are outlined and the output is evaluated fromthe perspective of the future possibilities to share action research experiences between Europeand India.

Lauge Baumgaard Rasmussen

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Action Research: Some Basic Issues

Lauge Baungaard RasmussenLyngby, Denmark

The fundamental principle of Action Research is that the seeds of change are implicit in thevery first questions we ask. The things people think and talk about are the points of departurefor asking questions that allow the participants to discover and multiply the alignment ofstrengths. The questions we ask set the stage for the knowledge out of which the futureopportunities are conceived and constructed. Thus, from an action research perspective,inquiry and change are simultaneous rather than separate moments of a development process.On this background, the chapter discusses the different aspects and features of actionresearch: e.g. the question of power and empowerment, the issue of ethics and therelationships between university and community: Finally the chapter deals with applyingaction research to educating engineering students.

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1. Introduction: Characterising Action Research

In general, action research has been defined as an approach to research that is based on

collaborative problem-solving relationship between researcher and client. The purpose is to

generate new knowledge as well as solving a problem by bringing together theory and

practice, reflection and action in collaboration between action researchers and practical

oriented actors. An action researcher studies the social issues together with those who

experience these issues directly. The outcome is both an action and an increased knowledge.

Within the action research paradigm there are multiple methodologies, each of which has their

own distinctive emphasis. However, they are all characterised by three features.

Firstly, the action research approaches are participatory whereby research subjects are

themselves active in collaboration with the researchers. Human persons are not research

objects, but social actors who act in their working or everyday life on the basis of their own

experiences and sense making. Ideally action research involves all stakeholders in the

questioning as well as in the evaluation of the research results and suggested actions.

Secondly, the action researcher views himself as a change agent. Earlier action research

approaches (Freire, 1970) were seen as means of knowledge development which could

strengthen the voice, organisation and action of the oppressed groups in the society. However

the use of action research methods has broadened considerably in recent years. The approach

is no longer limited to be a means to strengthen the power of the oppressed groups only. It has

also been adopted by managers in large organisations to facilitate planning and

implementation of organisational development and change. The acceptance of action research

methods in new social contexts raises a critical question: Does it mean new space for change

of power inequities, or is it just another example of co-optation?

Thirdly, the empirical materials are not limited to data collected according to strictly

formalised rules, but include as well recorded dialogues and observed actions taking place as

part of the action process. Action research is different from conventional academic research -

it is based on different relationships, has different purposes, and has different ways of

conceiving knowledge.

There are at least three conditions for doing action research:

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− There must be a minimum of empathy between the participants. It is important to take in

what others say, not only trying to bring about changes in others.

− There must be a theme of mutual interest. It is an approach of interdependency, not an act

of one-way penetration. The process has to be rewarding in itself.

− There needs to be something the participants believe is worth changing in a certain

direction, although it may not always be completely clear before the action research is

initiated.

2. Paradigms and Epistemological Features of Action Research

2.1 The origins of action research

The origins of action research are often traced back to Kurt Lewin and his associates in the

1940s. (Marrow, 1969; Greenwood and Levin, 1998; Gustavsen, 2001). According to Lewin,

an action researcher is doing experiments in the field rather than in the laboratory. He

required that an experiment in the field must express theory in such a way that the results of

the experiment can be fed directly back to the theory (Lewin et.al., 1939). As Marrow states:

“Theory was always an intrinsic part of Lewin’s search for understanding, but theory often

evolved and became refined as the data unfolded, rather than being systematically detailed in

advance. Lewin was led by both data and theory, each feeding the other, each guiding the

research process” (Marrow, 1969: 128). Most researchers of recent times do not believe at

such a direct one-to-one relation between theory and practice, but do nevertheless consider

Kurt Lewin as one of the main pioneers of action research.

However, other researchers may deserve acknowledgement as well. The epistemological

concerns of action research can be traced back to Aristotle’s concepts of praxis and phronésis.

Praxis is the Greek word for ‘action’, and phronésis means practical wisdom. According to

Aristotle, people with phronésis in the field of practice do not just ‘know how’ but they also

‘know why’. In Aristotle’s ethics it is the complete excellence of the practical intellect

comprising a true conception of the good life and the necessary competencies to realise it in

practice by the means of making the correct choices.

In modern times, we can trace the tradition of action research additionally to other roots than

Lewin. For instance, the educational work of Paulo Freire and some of the practices of

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psychotherapy and experimental learning have similar characteristics as the methods used in

action research.

2.2 The paradigms of action research and positivistic sciences

Since Thomas Kuhn published ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ (Kuhn, 1962), the

concept of paradigm has become well-known as an overarching framework which structures

different scientific approaches. Since then it is being widely discussed among scientists

engaged in epistemological questions. Kuhn argued that all scientific research is based on a

paradigmatic framework which determines the ways of thinking and doing research. From

time to time the paradigm itself shifts if a new framework is accepted to make better sense of

new or traditional knowledge.

Following Kuhn’s concept, the mainstreams of social and natural science in the West have

been relying on the positivistic paradigm. According to this paradigm, the researcher is

seeking objective truth within a world of separate objects. The researcher can come to know

the objective world by identifying the causal laws which governs the objects. He does it by

analysing the operations of these separated objects of the real world. The researcher is

supposed to have the idea, to plan the investigation, and to study other people by asking them

questions or by observing them. Research is conducted on people rather than with people.

The action research paradigm is rather different from this perspective. According to that

paradigm, our world is not made of separate things, but consists of relationships which may

be changed: “..Whenever scientists look and whatever they look at, they see nature acting and

evolving not as a collection of independent parts, but as an integrated, interacting, self-

consistent, and self-creative whole” (Laszlo, cited from Reason and Bradbury, 2001:7) The

paradigm of action research places human beings as embodied in their world, and shaping

their world as well as being shaped by participating in the dynamic environment of their

everyday context. As participatory social actors, we are not only culturally framed, but also

framing the culture. Mind and matter are not distinct entities, but phases in a process of

continuous interaction. Therefore, the action research paradigm asks the researcher to be

explicit about the conditions from which knowledge is developed. The researcher is, thus, to

be reflexive about the relationship between knowledge and praxis. Since Aristotle developed

his knowledge distinctions, other philosophers in modern times have contributed. For

instance, Polanyi, (1962) has described his concept of tacit knowledge as a type of ‘embodied

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know-how’, that he considers the foundation of all cognitive recognition. Another example is

Shotter (1993) who argues that there is a

“….kind of knowledge one has only from within a social situation, a group, or aninstitution, and thus takes into account …the others in the social situation.“ (Shotter,1993 : 7).

Heron (1996) argue that a knower articulates the world in at least four independent ways:

− Experimental knowing is knowing through empathy, through direct face-to-face encounter

with another person.

− Presentational knowledge develops from experimental knowledge and provides forms of

expression for instance by the means of pictures, dance, sculptures, stories.

− Proportional knowing draws on concepts and ideas.

− Practical knowing consummates the other forms of knowing through action in the world.

In action research, these four ways of knowing should be congruent with each other. For

instance, the development of knowledge in action research approaches is supposed to be more

valid if it is grounded in the co-inquirers’ experiences, expressed through images and stories,

interpreted through theoretical frameworks and transformed and expressed into actions in the

co-inquirers’ everyday life. ( Heron and Reason, 2001)

While these definitions of knowing differ from each other, they all go beyond the positivistic

paradigm. Thus they assert that knowing is not just an academic prerogative, but also an

activity based on praxis of everyday life.

2.3 Different criteria of action research

Traditional science is based on a criterion of replication. If the same or other scientists repeat

the research process, they should get the same outcomes of the process. From this positivistic

perspective action research is not science, because it does not fulfil the positivistic criterion of

reliability through replication. As Galtung has pointed out: “…if the dialogue is really good

the participants are no longer the same persons after they have been through the process, so

how could they replicate the process - particular if both the social scientists and others have

undergone changes?” (Galtung, 1988, p 82) However, is replication in the positivistic sense

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of meaning a ‘sine qua non’ for the scientific approach? Or is it a ‘shadow’ of so-called

‘objectivity’ transferred from the natural sciences into the social sciences?

The paradigm of action research does not aim for objectivity because the research process and

its results can not meaningfully be separated from the participants’ attitudes and behaviour.

But the same statement could be made about political actions performed without any research

intentions. In what way then does action research differ from ordinary politics?

Hence we suggest the following criteria to be fulfilled if a given approach of action research

should be accepted as a scientific approach:

Firstly, the researchers and participants must be able to verbalise and visualise what has

happened during the action research process, and why the collaboration process has been

carried out that way. Thus the decision-making and the choices of methods must be made

explicit and transparent for the non-participants of the project. In particular the action

researcher must be able to make explicit how he entered the action research spiral of

diagnosing, planning, taking action and evaluating the process. In such a way, the processes

and choices are made transparent for outsiders to criticise and to learn. Persons who have not

been involved in the approach, should be able to follow the action research process, step by

step, based on verbal and/or visual descriptions and interpretations.

Secondly, the action research project should be methodologically consistent. There must be a

logical and explicitly explained relationship between the problem setting, the methods used to

gather and analyse empirical materials. In order to have confidence in the worth of the data,

outsiders may consider the following questions for each recorded source of the project: a)

who collected the data? b) when was it collected? c) what was collected? d) why was it

collected? (Coghlan and Brannick, 2001).

Thirdly, the action research approach should make explicit some criteria of validity through

transparency and consistency. They must be stated explicitly at the beginning of the action

research process, and used afterwards to evaluate the results. The criteria of transparency and

consistency are perhaps easy to agree upon, but not always so easy to fulfil in practice,

because practice-oriented participants may be more interested in implementing the results

rather than participating in the sometimes boring and time-consuming process of

documentation. Often this work is supposed to be done by the action researchers, but they

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may experience that arguments may often be after-rationalised or forgotten after the process is

over. In order to counteract such tendencies, different kinds of methods can be used, for

instance video-tapes or posters of the dialogues and actions that have taken place during the

action research process. Thus, the criteria of transparency and consistency are matters of

education and training of the action researchers to behave emphatically, reflectively and

systematically while they are collaborating with the other participants.

The third criterion, validity, is not only a technical or methodological matter, but also an

ethical matter. What does validity mean for action researchers? Galtung suggest the following

general criteria of validity for using dialogue methods in action research:

“..First, there is a dynamic, a dialectic to the discussion which seems to unearthwhat normally is dormant, deeper, even hidden. Second, dialogues serve to createattitudes and insights in the way such things are created in social reality: they areless artificial. Third, it is a group process, not a lonely reflection. And fourth, it canbe tied to a project so that the approach would be a part of an action researchprogram, insights immediately or relatively quick being translated into practice andvice versa.” (Galtung, 1988, p. 83)

However, Galtung’s suggestions of what aspects should be included as validity in action

research do not clarify the question about the difference between politics and science. Of

course, his concept of validity is political, but is it scientific too? His statement that: “ …it is a

different kind of research (than the survey method, LBR) and hence a different kind of

politics” (Galtung, 1988, p. 83) is obviously correct, but does it answer the question: when is

action research scientific from a validity point of view? Is the political result of an action

research approach also part of the validity criterion for the scientific character of the approach,

or could an action research project be totally ineffective regarding political actions, but still be

a fruitful scientific approach? Even if the enhanced capabilities as an effect of the action

research project are successfully transformed into changes of routines and procedures, is that

a sufficient validity criterion of good science?

Perhaps Galtung goes too far. Just as the positivists pretend to be able to make a total

separation between politics and science, action researchers like Galtung go too far in the

opposite direction and argue for a total integration of politics and science. In our opinion, a

more difficult but also a scientifically more confident position is as follows: The dialogue

process is political if it intends to make changes of praxis. But it is scientific if it produces

new knowledge that can be recognised as such by other action researchers than those directly

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participating in this particular action research project. The new knowledge may be deeply

related to the particular situation of the involved participants. If so, the possibilities of

generalisation may be limited, but generalisation is not a criterion for a scientific approach

within the action research paradigm for reasons explained above. However, the process may

contribute to increasing methodological knowledge which may be relevant for other action

research approaches.

Action research is related to the uniqueness of that group in that situation. Of course,

comparisons can be made between different action research projects, but the features inherent

in each project may vary which makes it difficult to arrive at an overall image of the cases as

such. But features may be distinctive, and one group in one situation may look similar to

another group in another situation. Such groups could get to know each other through the

medium of an AR, feeding the synthesis of one dialogue into the dialogue process of another

group, and vice versa.

2.4 Summing-up the essential aspects of action research

The essential aspects of action research can be summed up as follows:

Action research is context-bound to real-life problems

An action research approach is based on questions emerging from real-life situations rather

than questions arising within the academic professions. Primacy is given to inquiries that

involve action, where people are to change their ways of doing things according to their

consciousness and knowing which develop through this action research process.

Action research is a co-generative approach of knowledge development

Practice-oriented actors and researchers generate knowledge together through a

communicative and interactive process, in which academic knowledge emerges together with

practical knowledge in a process of collaborative sense-making. Action research consists of a

wide range of methods that integrate experiental knowing through meetings and dialogues,

presentational knowing through the use of different expressive and interactive methods,

proportional knowing through conceptual frameworks, and practical knowing in the

transformation of knowledge to actions (Heron and Reason, 2001).

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Action research contains a spiral of relations between actions and reflections

The inquiry process is supposed to lead to social action and the reflections on these social

actions may lead to new meanings as well as new actions. However it does not necessarily

take place in a one-to-one relation between theory and practice. By using inquiry cycles it is

possible to move several times between action and reflection. Examples of such cycles will be

described later.

Action research is based on criteria of transparency, consistency and production of new

knowledge and action.

Action research can not be used to falsify or verify some general hypothesis in the

conventional sense of positivistic science. However, the criteria of transparency and

consistency, applied to the production of new knowledge and action, may result in a deeper

understanding of the issues at stake as well as contribute to social change, because the

participants are involved as active subjects rather than being analysed or paralysed objects.

2.5 The different phases of action research

Action research is an ideographic approach related to the uniqueness of a certain issue in that

particular group and/or situation. All participants are expected to be prepared to change: the

researchers as well as their research subjects.

For this aim the action research process runs through several cycles or phases of action and

reflection. The following example is just one illustration of how such phases may be

approached:

Phase I: A group of people meet and agree to make together an inquiry on a certain issue.

They may be members of the same organisation, or from different organisations but with

similar interests. At the introductory meeting it is important that the co-inquirers have the

opportunity to express their own interests and problems and thus contribute actively to the

definition of the inquiry objectives and methods. The following steps exemplify a possible

agenda for such a participatory meeting.

− Introduction by the initiators. A topic is suggested and the relevance of this topic is

argued and exemplified.

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− Discussion among the participant: Depending on the number of participants attending the

workshop, the discussion can continue in small subgroups or in a plenary meeting. The

purpose is to give the participants the opportunity to suggest changes or modifications of

the inquiry topic suggested.

When they have agreed on the focal idea of the inquiry, the next step is to agree about the

kinds of methods they want to use and how they are to be used. It is not only a question of

finding the ‘best way’ of doing the inquiry, but also to develop emotional and interpersonal

empathy of the co-inquirers. It is important to shape an emotional ‘climate’ that makes it

acceptable for the participants to express distress and tensions. When the methods have been

agreed upon, an experimental stage should be created in order to make the methods accessible

to all the co-inquirers. They also need to agree a certain set of meta-rules about who should be

given what kind of power and responsibility. Furthermore it needs to be agreed on how

possible conflicts are to be handled during the further phases.

Phase II: Now the people become co-inquirers. They are all involved in the activities they

have agreed on, in Phase I. The concrete activities may take different routes depending on the

methods and meta-rules they have decided to use. However, it is important that they hold on

to the agreed focal ideas and conceptual framework from Phase I.

Phase III: This phase is the stage in which the co-inquirers of the action research team

become fully engaged in their approach. Some may experience psychological or practical

crises because the participants are becoming defensive; counter reacting mechanisms may

come up; the actual outputs from the planned activities turn out to be disappointing, or they

are quite different from the expected outputs. Often it becomes necessary to change the

original plans and to go into new areas, or perhaps to follow creative insights created by

unpredicted outputs of certain actions. Thus, an action research approach may turn out to be a

deep experience fostering new understandings as well as changes of practical habits.

Phase IV: In this phase the group of co-inquirers share their experiences and outcomes from

Phase II and Phase III in order to reflect their original focal ideas in the light of their new

experiences. A possible result of this collaborative reflection is that they agree to continue

with a new cycle focusing on some aspects not yet handled sufficiently in the previous phases.

Another possibility is that they may reject or reframe their original ideas and pose new

questions. Moreover, they may decide to improve or change the methods and meta-rules to be

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used in the next cycle. Thus the cycles or phases may be repeated several times within a given

amount of time. This time span may reach from several days or weeks to several years.

2.6 The roles of the different actors in action research events

Action researchers may take several different roles during the collaboration with the co-

inquirers. Sometimes they are behaving as sparring partners in order to facilitate the co-

enquirers reflections and definitions of the situation they want to change, how they want to

change it, or how certain barriers could be dealt with in order to initiate or continue the

change process. Along with a role as a sparring partner, action researchers may also function

as knowledge generators, co-ordinators, method developers, and teachers. The priority of

these roles may change during the different phases of collaboration with the co-enquirers

within a given project as well as from project to project. Thus action researchers must be able

to shift from one role to another and some times to manage two or more roles in parallel

sessions. Co-inquirers, on the other hand, must agree upon and accept these roles and role

shifts, which means that it is necessary to agree upon them beforehand as well as during the

different phases of the action research process. The reflections of these roles and role shifts

should be part of the meta-communication and guided by the meta-rules agreed upon before

the action research process is initiated.

3. The Question of Power and Empowerment

As stated above, action research approaches are participatory whereby research subjects are

themselves active in collaboration with the researchers. Human are the social actors and

action research involves all stakeholders of a certain issue. Thus action research raises the

question of Power. Power is not necessarily limited to repression or reactions against

repression. It can also be seen as an attribute shaped by one’s identity and growing from

within oneself. (Kabeer,1994; Nelson and Wright, 1995; Rowlands, 1995; Gavanta and

Cornwall, 2001). Based on this understanding, action research contributes to empowerment.

The process of empowerment is the process of reducing unequal power relations by an

integrated approach of interactive development of knowledge, consciousness and action. The

knowledge dimension in action research involves the development of communication and

decision-making procedures which correspond to ideas and experiences from all positions in

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the organisation or in the community, rather than imposing such ideas and strategies from the

top level.

Empowerment through counter-experts

The question of power is particularly obvious if we consider issues of politics in society.

Action research is in this view conceived as the approach to mobilise counter-experts in order

to influence the political decision-making and the public debate. The assumption is that power

inequities may be counteracted by the production of more and better knowledge. The strategy

is to counteract the conventional expertise of established ‘conventional’ experts, with another

expertise grown out of action research. It often takes the form of criticism of the conventional

knowledge or it represents the advocacy of the interests of the ‘oppressed’ groups. The

counter-expert creates and presents knowledge that raises doubts about the data or evaluations

made by the conventional experts. Thus he(or she) represents the voices of people who

normally are silent in the public debate or have low degree of influence on the political

decision-making processes.

Empowerment through expanding participation

The counter-expert approach has been challenged by several scientists, for instance Bachrack

and Baratz, (1970); Bråten, (1983), Galtung, (1988). Therefore a second approach is

suggested to expand the range of participants involved into the knowledge-creating process. It

means to mobilise the voices of the of the silent groups in society to participate directly in the

decision-making processes, instead of being represented by counter-experts only. Thus this

strategy is to influence the agenda for decision-making as well as the result of the decision-

making.

Capacity-building of the powerless

The expansion strategy maintains the assumption that empowerment involves conflicts

between the powerful and the powerless over clearly recognised issues. However, among

others, Steven Lukes has pointed out that perhaps : „...The most effective and insidious use of

power is to prevent such conflict from arising in the first place“ (Lukes, 1974: 24). The

powerful may do so not only by influencing who is going to participate in the debate, but also

through controlling the knowledge and thereby the awareness, of conflicts. Therefore from

this perspective, empowerment becomes the approach of capacity-building of the powerless.

It means overcoming internalised oppressions and rigid mindsets; it aims at the development

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of collective identities; and it suggests methods to increase awareness and competencies of the

people who are not usually involved in decision-making within their organisation or

community (Gaventa and Cornwall, 2001).

Each of the three approaches to achieve empowerment are characterised by particular

conceptions of the relationship between knowledge and power. In the counter-expert

perspective, knowledge is supposed to be possessed by experts, while the knowledge of the

oppressed groups is less important. In the perspective of expanding participation, the numbers

of voices are increased by creating an agenda that makes it possible for (some of) the

powerless to articulate themselves by words or actions. In the capacity-building perspective,

the focus is on the ways in which different kinds of knowledge shape the awareness among

the powerless groups of society. Thus participation in knowledge-building becomes a way to

increase the consciousness of the powerless groups about the mechanisms of decision-making

and to improve their capacities for action.

4. Ethics and Action Research

4.1 The relationships between university and community

The ethics of universities are changing, and so are the expectations of the community.

Collaboration between university researchers and actors in the respective communities is not a

new phenomenon, but the extent and ways to form such a collaboration are changing, though

it still varies from region to region. At universities influenced by the traditional academic

ideals, the researcher is first and foremost devoted to the scientific community of his own

profession:

“Universities have been regarded as the home of the highest and best form ofscholarship and science, so rare and even spiritual that they require protection fromthe commercial and vulgar tendencies of modern society” (Rothblatt, 1997:22).

If knowledge is disseminated to the community, it is supposed to be a top-down transfer of

scientific knowledge from the university to the community, and not a two-way relationship.

The university researcher of that mindset is supposed to do his research in his ‘ivory tower’

independent of the problems faced by the surrounding community. A mindset like this of

academic arrogance is still accepted or even supported at some universities, but new

tendencies show a more open attitude towards the community. One example is the

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construction of science parks or technology parks. Huge amounts of money have been

invested in these parks. The university, the local municipality and the regional council jointly

own most of these parks. In some instances the big national or international companies

dominate the parks, though some of their activities are reserved to small-scale entrepreneurial

activities, as a kind of ‘incubator’ until the new company has got sufficient knowledge and

financial resources to be independent.

Due to the networks that have been developed in some regions, even action research

approaches have begun to be more and more visible. The reason for that is, that the research

and development of knowledge has increasingly to be done jointly with the practitioners,

rather than isolated from them, if the produced knowledge is to be of practical relevance. But

from a community perspective, it is not necessarily sufficient merely to establish a science or

technology park.

If big national and international companies dominate the parks in order to get closer to

research facilities and to recruit ‘bright’ students, the parks do not help to improve the service

of the university to the surrounding community very much. What is needed, are personal

relationships and a sense of common interests between researchers and actors in the

community. Long-term interactive and collaborative relationships have to be sustained

between researchers and different actors of the community - for instance, enterprises,

municipalities, unions, and grassroot movements. Different actors have to be linked in on-

going interactive relationships building on common interests and mutual respect for each

others’ competencies and experiences:

“The learning from action research means that universities become part of, insteadof staying unrelated to, the context in which they are located. By taking part in thebuilding of overlapping dynamic networks, action research support the shaping ofthe social glue that gives universities a role in local and regional developmentprocesses.“ (Brulin, 2001:445)

4.2 Ethical dilemmas of doing Action Research

Ethical dilemmas are occupational hazards of action research. An ethical dilemma arises when

action researchers experience a conflict, which cannot easily be handled by means of an

established ethical code. Ethical dilemmas arise in situations in which there are contradictory

ethical reasons to take conflicting and incompatible courses of action. If action researchers are

confronted with an ethical dilemma, they need more than a code of ethics for guidance (Hill et

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al., 1995). An ethical code tends to objectify the dilemma looking at the conflict from an

intellectual distance (de Laine, 2000).

But in action research ethical dilemmas must often be handled immediately and with personal

involvement that draws on intuition and empathy. Sieber (1996) has suggested several ways

in which ethical dilemmas may arise in research on social life. For instance, a participant in an

action research project may be influenced so much that it has negative consequences for

his/her private life. In another situation, there may be no apparent way to avoid the ethical

dilemma. Where action researchers and co-inquirers participate in activities together, both

parts need to understand why the other part acts or responds as they do. Each social situation

in the action research process poses its own contingencies, and the research must respond to it

with corresponding methodological and ethical behaviour.

During the negotiations, which are an ongoing part of the action research process, the roles of

action researchers can vary depending on the power and powerlessness of the co-inquirers.

Action researcher may find themselves in the position of being caught in cross-cutting ties of

loyalty. Ethical dilemmas can be an outcome of balancing interests of the various parties in

the action research process. A conflict of interests can arise between action researchers and

one or more of the co-inquiry groups or between different co-inquirers themselves. When

action researchers experience a conflict of interests from dual roles, their personal and

professional loyalties are likely to be drawn together. The decision about what is ‘more right’

to do might be found not only by means of professional ethical codes, but it might also be

based on personal values and intuition. Groups of interacting persons create their own

emotional and social standard.

Negotiations between action researchers and co-inquirers regarding the choice of roles,

methods, and actions taken, occur throughout the action research process and can evolve a

powerful ethical pressure on the researchers to perform in certain ways. Action researchers

may manage to avoid ‘taking sides’, but they may have been placed in an ethical dilemma by

virtue of materials used by others for purposes other than intended or desired.

Another potential ethical dilemma in action research is ‘going nature’. Those who participate

fully in the world might become so attached to the members of the group that they cease to

consider their own professional group as the reference group. In such a situation they could

loose sight of the scientific perspective and uncritically accept the views of the members, or of

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one group over another (Adler and Adler, 1987). Therefore it is important to be reflective as

well as action oriented. Reflection in action research is a process of stepping back from

actions taken, to considerations of what the action means, with a view of planning further

action. Furthermore it means to analyse and evaluate the actions taken in relation to the

purposes of the research approach. Such reflections should not be limited to action researchers

themselves, but they should include the co-inquirers, too. Both parties may recognise that the

situation they are jointly reflecting on, has a life of its own distinct form their initial

intentions. Thus reflection may reveal new meanings or views of ethical dilemmas which they

must try to handle.

5. Action Research in Education

The educational traditions of action research started with the Tavistock Institute of Human

Relations. This institute was established in 1947 based on the experiences during the Second

World War. The founders were psychologists who had trained officers and resettle prisoners.

This institute was built on similar ideas as the Research Centre for Group Dynamics set up by

Lewin in the USA (Wallace, 1987). The Teacher As Researcher movement in the UK in the

1960s arose in response to large-scale student disaffection in the British secondary schools.

Hence in some secondary schools, the teachers re-conceptualised the curriculum being

inspired by the ideas of teaching as reflective practice, and teaching as a form of inquiry.

(Elliott, 1991, 1997; Zeichner, 2001). The curriculum reforms initiated by British teachers

were to make the curriculum more open for tackling real-life problems as teaching issues.

Additionally, the traditional one-way teaching was transformed into a more interactive and

discussion-based mode. Elliott, Stenhouse and others developed further the idea of action

research as curriculum development. These included the ‘Humanities Curriculum Project’,

which dealt with the teaching of controversial issues. (Stenhouse, 1968), the ‘Ford Teaching

Project’, which dealt with implementing an inquiry / discovery approach to teaching (Elliott,

1976 and 1977), and the ‘Teacher-Student Interaction and Quality of Learning Project’. It

focused on the problems of teaching for understanding within the context of a system of

public examinations. (Elliott and Eburt, 1986). Based on these activities an international

network, CARN, the Collaborative Action Research Network, was established. This network

has arranged conferences, and published action research studies, for instance in the journal

‘Educational Action Research’ (Zeichner, 2001).

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A new teacher research movement emerged in USA in the 1980s. Anderson, Herr and Niklen

(1994) have pointed out different reasons for this renaissance of educational action research in

USA:

− the growing acceptance of case study research in education;

− the highly visible work of a number of teachers who conducted case studies on the

teaching of writing;

− the increased focus on action research in the programmes of university education;

− the reflective practitioner movement in teaching and research (Schoen, 1983; Zeichner,

1994, 2001).

This new American teacher research movement comprised in some instances collaborative

projects between teachers and university academics controlled by the academics. In other

instances the teachers themselves formed teacher research communities controlled by

themselves. (Gallas, 1998; Zeichner, 2001)

Action research has been used in, e.g., Namibia since independence in 1990 as a strategy to

transform teaching and teacher education from autocratic to more learner-centred forms.

Throughout Namibia, student teachers, teachers and teacher educators have conducted action

research that has focused on how to increase the learners’ involvement in classroom teaching.

(Dahlstrom, Swats and Zeichner, 1998). situation and self-awareness

6. Conclusions: Applying Action Research to Educating Engineering Students

Since the early 1980s, our team of colleagues at the Technical University of Denmark have

worked with graduate and post-graduate engineering student within the action research

paradigm. Our approach has been the process-oriented supervision of these students. As

supervisors and teachers of these students we have identified some key themes which we

believe can be viewed as developments in the unfolding of deeper understanding and using of

action research methods. This unfolding is a complex process involving changes of students

personalities, Furthermore it means developing the social and intellectual capabilities of all of

us as teachers to use action research methods in collaboration with practitioners from different

social contexts. Action research is a personal as well as a scientific process. Supervision of

research students in their learning implies to train how to use and develop further action

research methodologies. It is not limited for teachers to give expert advice, but it includes to

169

facilitate the transformation of the students personality through our process-oriented

supervision.

To do collaborative research is usually more demanding than using a questionnaire or to

interview someone. The students must learn to engage themselves with the research issues

authentically dealing with their own values, opinions and experiences. Hence they need to be

able to make these values explicit to the other participants of the project. As pointed out by

Peter Reason and Judi Marshall:

“..The step of moving from conception to active engagement is sometimes quitedifficult. Students need to be bold enough to take this step and clear enough abouttheir own purposes to express these to possible collaborators, and yet to be openenough to other people’s interests to enter into dialogue.” (Reason and Marshall,2001: 417).

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Research in Action:

The Dudhsagar Dairy Cooperative in Gujarat

Dhawal Mehta, Jatin Pancholi and Paurav ShuklaAhmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Of all types of village Cooperatives, the movement of Cooperatives in the Dairy sector inGujarat, is considered to be the most successful in serving its members as well as society atlarge. This movement is called the Anand Pattern of Dairy Co-operatives. In this report, theDushsagar dairy is described. The Dushsagar dairy is in the Northern region of Gujarat in thedistrict of Mehsana. This dairy comprises 1,092 village societies with chilling units, and withapproximately 400,000 members. This Dudhsagar dairy is producing more milk and milkbased products than the large Cooperaive AMUL. An attempt has been made here to studysome peculiarities of the Dudhsagar dairy business and how it has become successful. Themain objective of the study was to understand the importance of the main support functionswithin the dairy cooperative, and especially the veterinary services function at the Dudhsagardairy. The focus of our attempt was to understand the evolution of these veterinary services,how the services are contributing to the performance of the dairy, and to suggest actions toimprove the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall supply chain system of the Dudhsagardairy.

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1. Introduction: The Concept of Action Research

Action research yields both change and new knowledge. Change is the result of the actions

taken. New knowledge comes from examining the results of the action Action research treats

organization as an open system interacting with the environment and usually focuses on

improving the total organization or large parts of it.

Kurt Lewin is widely regarded as the father of action research. However, Warmington (1979)

traces two important sources of what seems to be a parallel development in action research.

First, the work done at the Center for Social Research in Michigan University in the late

1940s and 1950s and second, the work done at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in

the UK. Nevertheless, the term ‘action research’ was introduced by Lewin in 1946 denoting

an approach to social research which combined generation of theory and changing the social

system through action research. The action research mode has come a long way from its

origin in 1940s till date as it is being used as a research approach in various fields of social

sciences (Elden and Chisholm, 1993; Peters and Robinson, 1984). Action research has been

used in organizations dealing with commerce and industry, public health, education and so on.

The work by the Tavistock Institute researchers has made a remarkable contribution to the

organization theory. It has changed the way we tend to think about behaviour in

organizations. Budhwar and Budwar (1999) observes that the same research helped in

advancing our thinking about the methods of investigation into organizational problems.

The most widely referred definition of action research is by Rapoport (1970). He defines

action research as the research, which aims to contribute both to practical concerns of people

(including people in organizations) and the goals of social science via collaboration within a

mutually acceptable ethical framework. This definition of action research is characterized by:

− The immediacy of researcher’s involvement in action

− The intention of both parties (researcher or consultant and the client organization) to be

involved in charge.

Further aspects have been introduced by Rasmussen in describing the process in 5 steps as

follows.

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2. The Five Steps of Action Research

Figure 1 : The Action Research Cycle (http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/actionrsch.html)

Here follow the main steps of putting Action Research into practice.

Step 1: Identifying the problem and developing a research question

The first step of action research is all about identifying the right issue and developing the right

questions. It is basically a planning stage of the research wherein the right cause and effect

analysis is done. As stated by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) Action researcher has to be

very careful in identifying the problem because it may lead him to a wrong conclusion if he

does not identify the problem properly.

Step 2: Gathering secondary data to learn more about the issue: What does research show?

Once the topic is decided, the need arises for looking in particular at other studies that might

guide the research strategy. This search for articles in turn increases the knowledge of the

topic for the researcher and helps in refining the research question and identify new strategies

and interventions.

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Figure 2 : The process for developing a research question.

The process clearly shows how from issues and ideas a valid and reliable research question is

generated. For action research generally this revision is a better approach because if the

researcher starts working on a problem, which is ill defined than the results would not reveal

what they are supposed to.

Step 3: Interpret the data and develop a strategy for your study

Once the researcher decides on the research question, the need emerges to decide how to go

about the action research study. Whatever the researcher decides becomes his intervention or

strategy. It is the "what" or "how" of the study.

Step 4: Act on evidences and evaluate the results

Once the researcher identifies the intervention strategy, he will need to think about what

overt, observable behaviors he can measure to determine if his intervention has to have an

impact. Before the researcher begins his intervention, however, he will need to gather baseline

data. Knowing some reliable and valid secondary data sources may help researcher in taking a

better decision.

The major point also here is the timeline for implementing the strategy, to see if there is an

observable change in behavior.

Step 5: Taking action and sharing the study results

Once the project has been completed, researcher returns to the questions he asked at the

beginning. Were they answered? Were the results what he expected? If the results are not

what the researcher expected, was it due to errors in data collection or other unforeseen

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situations. What would he do differently next time? As action Research is an ongoing process,

it opens many new avenues as the researcher studies research questions.

3. The Process of Action Research in Brief

Action Research is not only a tool for developing activity but also a collective learning

process. It consists of the following repetitive cycle:

− The action of the group as it is regularly executed, is the starting point. Action research is

not possible on theoretical assumptions only.

− Evaluation of the results. What is the original purpose of the action? Is it now being

fulfilled? Are there any drawbacks or disturbing side effects?

− Reflection. The goal is to understand why the process now is as it is, and if there are other

possible methods of work.

− Abstraction. The goal is to construct a theoretical model of the original activity, including

its essential functions, strengths, and weaknesses.

− Planning changes to the original mode of action, trying to retain the essential functions

while changing the weak points. The theoretical model should provide foundations for

new action.

−

− The factors to be avoided while doing action research, are as follows.

Successful organizational change requires knowledge, skill, a little bit of luck, and the ability

to avoid mistakes. John Kotter (1995), a professor at Harvard Business School, studied more

than 100 companies engaged in planned change programs and identified eight mistakes that

caused many programs to falter and/or to fail. Fortunately, his studies also revealed how to

avoid these pitfalls. He lists the following mistakes:

− Not establishing a great sense of urgency

− Not creating a powerful guiding coalition

− Lacking a vision

− Under communicating the vision

− Not removing obstacles to the new vision

− Not systematically planning for and creating short−term wins

− Declaring victory too soon

− Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture

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4. Action Research in Practice: the Case of the Dairy Co-operative in Gujarat

This paragraph refers to the Success Story of the Dairy Cooperative Movement in Guajarat.

While it is true that dairy co-operatives deal in milk, milk comes from udders; udders are

attached to milch animals and these animals are owned by the people. A study of village co-

operatives that follows this sequence of connections will be rather lecto-centric. People have

other characteristics apart from owing and tending milchstock and extracting milk from their

stock. They belong to households, genders, age groups, and social classes, and are involved in

relationships within and across these groupings. These positions and relationships affect their

ability to engage in dairying, and even more crucial to their participation in milk co-

operatives, since ‘co-operation’ is based on network of human interaction.

The study of village dairy co-operatives, then, should start with the human relationships,

which are the basis for co-operative institutions.

Ironically, such an apparently lacto-centric dehumanized picture of village dairy co-operatives

is actually quite heavily charged with human beliefs, values and interests - not those of village

populations, but of the people who are trying to ‘manage’ rural development through

establishing dairy co-operatives in villages.

Several studies have attempted to analyze how a dairy co-operative affects milk production,

marketing and consumption among the village’s different socio-economic groups, and their

wider role in rural development.

One such report is contained in this Volume: Chapter Eleven. Its authors are Kavita Mehra

and Rajinder Kaur Kalra. This study shows that the milk co-operatives have been quite

successful in enhancing production and procurement of milk in Gujarat. The milk producers

including the weaker sections of society who have become the members of the milk co-

operatives, earn substantial additional income from the sale of milk to milk co-operatives than

from the sale of milk to private vendors in the villages. Hence, the hypothesis that the

organization of milk co-operatives can go a long way in enhancing milk production and in

improving economic and social conditions of the rural population, especially the weaker

sections, is acceptable.

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Shanti (1994) observes that many other studies have been done by the National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB) and other institutes which treat rural people as objects of dairy

development rather than as subjects of action. Their words are rarely quoted, their perceptions

are never presented, their world and worldviews are hardly depicted. They are of interest only

through their relationships to animals, commodities and agencies. Their salient characteristics

are whether they own milch animals, whether they feed compounded cattle feed or green

fodder to their stock, whether they supply milk to the dairy co-operative. In contrast to these

studies, the chapters contained in this Volume are discussing the human and social aspects as

the centre of their concerns. This view corresponds to the fundamental concept of Action

Research. Therefore the following paragraph concentrates on one specific group of actors in

the Indian dairy movement: the Veterinary Services as the Staff Function of the Dairy

Cooperatives. The different roles of this group are discussed in their context of the village

dairies.

5. A Field Study on Staff Function in Context

5.1 The Dairy Supply Chain

In the first part of this paragraph the village dairy and its networked activities are described as

the context of Staff Function, specifically the Veterinary Services.

The Dushsagar dairy is in the Northern region of Gujarat in the district of Mehsana. This

dairy comprises 1,092 village societies with chilling units, with approximately 400,000

members.

Thus the research was performed in two phases:

Phase 1: Study of the Dairy Supply Chain as a network.

Phase 2: Study of the Staff Function of the Veterinary Services.

The authors of this research paper undertook a research study focusing on the people,

especially those involved in veterinary services, i.e. the staff function. Here we will elaborate

the term Staff Function for better understanding. Stoner et.al. (2000) state that people working

as a part of Staff Function provide managers with varied types of expert help and advice. Staff

function is the authority of those groups of individuals who are working inside the

organization or as change agents for the organization, and who provide the Line Managers

with advice and services. The line managers are the people who are directly responsible,

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throughout the organization’s chain of command, for achieving organizational goals. The

concept of staff includes all elements of the organization that are not classified as line. The

Staff function authority is based primarily on expert power.

The objective of the study was to understand the importance of this staff function at

Dudhsagar dairy and suggest actions to the staff function to improve the effectiveness and

efficiency of the overall supply chain system of the Dudhsagar dairy.

Supply chains link buyers and sellers of goods. The work of completing transactions, of

liquidating inventories, managing transaction risk and bringing buyers and sellers together is

done through and with the supply chain. According to Gupta (1999) the major functions of the

supply chain are purchasing, production-scheduling and inventory control, distribution,

transportation and traffic, custom clearance, international freight forwarding etc..

Chanda and Pathak (2001) observe that supply chains are very product specific; supply chain

management of perishable commodities has its own challenges. The common challenges with

these types of commodities are:

− Limited storage space (capacity constraints)

− Limited storage time (varies from one day for milk to two months in some chemicals)

− Constant supply with stochastic demand (in case when one has promised to take a specific

amount of every day for a specified period time bound by a predetermined contract)

− Stochastic supply with constant demand (For a manufacturer, this situation will arise

when he has promised a constant supply to a nodal agency but the supply of raw material

is stochastic). In case of Dudhsagar dairy, this happens for civil supplies, where there is a

priori planning for material but the supply of milk is stochastic.

− Stochastic demand and stochastic supply (This is the most widely prevalent scenario,

common in both perishable and non-perishable commodities)

Among these, the Supply Chain of the Dudhsagar Dairy deserves special mention for its

necessary and successful adjustments to the variable demands, and its seasonal fluctuations in

supply. Dudhsagar has a supply chain that has been developed from a cooperative association.

It has developed the technology and methods to store surplus stocks of milk and dairy

products in the form of powered milk and to reconstitute and distribute products made from

the powdered milk during seasons of the year when dairy farm yields fall below demand

levels (Fig. 3).

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Farmers

VillageCooperativeSociety with

Chilling Units

VillageCooperative

Society withoutChilling Units

Local Restaurant/ Other Milk

Products

Milk sold toVillage and local

Residents

Chilling Plants

Milk ProcessingUnion and

Warehouses

Point ofIntervention

Dudhsagar Dairy & GCMMFWarehouses

Wholesalers / C & S

Retailers Home Delivery /Contractors

NetworkServices

Figure 3: The Supply Chain of Dudhsagar Dairy (Milk Cooperative Co-operative Model

of Synchronization)

5.2 The Staff Function of the Veterinary Services in the Dairy Supply Chain

The statement of Dudhsagar operations as described in the previous paragraph has turned out

to be too simplistic. It hides more than what it provides. The above model shows the normal

procedure of milk distribution. Many people have studied this supply chain and have given

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suggestions, which have made a definite impact on making the whole chain more efficient

and effective. In describing this supply chain system, however, the people involved have been

missed who are making this supply chain work.

The line function of the supply chain has been studied extensively but when the question of

the staff function (Stoner et al. 2000) has come into picture it has been left behind, as it did

not look very important to any researcher. One reason could be that the staff function helps

the system so silently that an outside researcher will not be able to see their work most of the

time. The other reason could be that the roles of the Staff function members are a parallel

activity which is not in the mainline of business. Here the attempt has been made to

understand in some depth the staff function of the Dudhsagar dairy, because without it the

supply chain would perform the way it is today.

The staff function involves the main support functions, and especially the veterinary services

function at the Dudhsagar dairy. The focus of our attempt was to understand the evolution of

these veterinary services, how the services are helping the line function to perform

successfully, and in what ways there can be an improvement in the processes of the support

function so that the line function can become more efficient and effective.

Thus the veterinary services as the most important staff function have defined the leading

question of our Action Research project. Once this objective was defined the exploratory

study was started. In-depth interviews were carried out with the members of staff function at

the Dudhsagar dairy. They were performed on the basis of hierarchy, and representatives from

Management, the Veterinary Division and the Veterinary Doctors were interviewed

accordingly. The process analysis was done by going to the site and observing the

phenomenon happening in real. In total four people concerned were interviewed in-depth for

understanding the systems at Dudhsagar dairy in a better way. Many farmers and ground

workers were also observed and interviewed to capture the ground reality. The researchers

became part of the Action itself. For the in-depth interviews dictaphones were used to record

and collect the data. Some officials were reluctant to give information on dictaphone. In those

cases the researchers kept notes of the interviews.

Figure 4 presents the staff function of the Dudhsagar dairy and how it works to make the

supply chain more efficient and effective.

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ProductMILK

Support SystemVeterinary Services

Cooperative InstitutionDairy

ConsumerHousehold

Staff Function

Figure 4: The overall Dairy Supply Chain including the Staff Function

Here the attempt follows to clarify how the staff function at Dudhsagar dairy works. There are

around 84 veterinary doctors involved in the same function with some additional

administrative staff working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Our research starts from the

occurrence that one animal is falling ill. In the region of the Dudhsagar dairy it is said that

sick animals get faster, better and cheaper treatment than human beings and through this

Action Research project, an attempt has been made to understand more deeply these

experiences of the farmers in this region.

The farmer has four options available when an animal is ill.

− Trying to treat the animal with his limited knowledge

− Going to the village cooperative for the First Aid Kit (FAK) that is been given to every

village co-operative free of charge by the Dudhsagar dairy. Also drugs costing Rs. 250 are

given free to the village co-operative annually

− Calling at the Dudhsagar dairy

− Visiting the Dudhsagar dairy with the animal.

In the third and the fourth option the support function of Dudhsagar dairy becomes prominent.

The services of the staff function are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. When the

farmer calls the Dudhsagar dairy, the administrative person gives the information to the

veterinary doctor. By the time the veterinary doctor reaches the village, the farmer gets a

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coupon of Rs. 40 from the village co-operative bought in bulk in advance by the co-operative.

Dudhsagar dairy veterinary doctor visits the ill animal and gives medication and collects the

coupon of Rs. 40 from the farmer. Anybody who wants to use the facility of the veterinary

doctor of Dudhsagar has to surrender that coupon. If the animal is not cured by the treatment

given by the veterinary doctor, any doctor of Dudhsagar dairy who visits that village gives

medication for free. So the total cost involved in treating an ill animal for a farmer is just Rs.

40. It was observed here was that many villages in the Mehsana catchment area of Dudhsagar

dairy do not have a physician available in the village and for taking a treatment, one has to go

to any taluka place or city nearby which costs a lot to a farmer.

In the fourth situation, the farmer visits the Dudhsagar dairy if there is a crisis situation. The

doctor available at Dudhsagar dairy treats the animal. If the cost of transportation is not

considered the cost to the farmer is only Rs. 10.

From our observations and study, an attempt has been made to create a model, which is

named ‘MPS Model of Staff Function Synergy’. This model gives a clear picture of how

important the role of staff function is in any dairy co-operative to improve the efficiency and

effectiveness.

6. The MPS Model of Staff Function Synergy

This model has been developed to understand the importance of the overall staff function for

Dudhsagar dairy. We have taken two factors into consideration. The different roles of

veterinary doctors, and the people who benefit by these different roles of the veterinary

doctors.

The roles of veterinary doctors are indicated as:

− Educator

− Resource Provider

− Trouble Shooter

The people benefited by these roles of the veterinary doctors on field level are:

− Individual farmers

− Village co-operative

− Administrative staff of dairy

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There are nine basic roles of the staff function which have been identified in our study:

Role 1: Individual Farmer - Educator

Whenever the veterinary doctor visits the farmer he also advises him about how to take care

of the animal. How to improve the situation in the shed so that the animal feels better and

gives more milk in return. One of the very examples of this education is related to delivery for

the cow or buffalo.

For every farmer each of his animals is an important asset. It was observed by the veterinary

doctors that the farmer panicked at the perceived delay in actual delievery after the first

symptoms of delivery of his animal. Though 99 percent of time the delivery of an animal is

normal. But as the facility is available, the farmers used to call the veterinary doctor so early

that it became a waste of time for the doctor. So, doctors started educating the farmers that it

takes not less than 5-6 hours for an animal to deliver a baby. Over a period of decade now the

farmers are not calling the doctors every time but if it takes more than 5 hours for an animal

to deliver than only they call the veterinary doctor for service.

Role 2 : Individual Farmer - Resource Provider

The basic role of staff function is to provide resources. In the case of Dudhsagar dairy the

services of Artificial Insemination and medicine supply at Rs. 40 are the activities related to a

veterinary doctor as a resource provider. These services when seen in the large spectrum of

400,000 members of the society becomes too large of a figure.

Role 3: Individual Farmer - Trouble Shooter

There are many activities that are managed by the Dudhsagar dairy like vaccination camps

wherein veterinary doctors work as troubleshooters. 400,000 animals were vaccinated in the

year 2000-2001 out of approximately total 1.1 million animals, living in the Mehsana

catchment area. The animals are vaccinated for nominal fees for the diseases like Foot and

Mouth Disease (FMD) and other major diseases. The government of Gujarat helps by

providing free vaccines to the Dudhsagar dairy. Other than that they provide the services on

24/7 basis. The troubleshooting is one activity by which the veterinary doctors get recognition

in the farmer community as it is seen as an extra effort made by the doctor for them.

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Role 4: Village Co-operative - Educator

The veterinary doctor does not only help the individual farmer but he also helps the village

co-operative in many ways. While we see the veterinary doctor as an educator in terms of

village co-operatives he is into the process of educating masses through awareness camps.

The veterinary doctors have also helped the dairy in educating the village co-operatives

regarding the milk testing facility and other such activities.

Role 5: Village Co-operative - Resource Provider

As a resource provider to the village co-operative the staff function of the dairy works well.

They provide first aid kit for animals to the village co-operative and also provide Rs. 250

worth of free medicine annually. The same way the dairy provides other resources to farmers

like Trevis, which are supplied free to each village co-operative and are supplied on cost

basis. This cost is 15-20 percent less than the market price as they are bought in bulk and sold

to the farmer in pieces. In case of chaff cutter which is costly item for an individual farmer,

the dairy provides it to the village co-operatives. On the manual chaff cutter 50 percent

subsidy is provided while on electricity driven chaff cutter 30 percent subsidy is provided.

Role 6: Village Co-operative - Trouble Shooter

The staff function again comes into picture as trouble shooting is required. Veterniary

doctors’ services are available to any village co-operative 24/7 which becomes one of the

greatest advantages for the individual farmers as well as the village co-operatives. The staff

function people organize the cattle camp for the village co-operatives and individual farmers.

In the year 2000 - 2001 more than 240 cattle camps were organized by Dudhsagar dairy.

These camps deal with infertility and other issues. These camps are organized for free. With

these camps the veterinary doctors also provide services with mobile disease diagnostic

laboratory. The tests are done free of cost for the animal. The same tests cost not less than Rs.

500 if the farmer goes to the market. In addition to mobile disease diagnostic lab equipped

with the latest equipments, they are also two stationary laboratories which provide similar

services to the village co-operative and individual farmers.

Role 7: Administrative Staff of Dairy - Educator

The staff function helps the administrative staff in understanding the farmer and village

cooperatives’ requirements. The veterinary doctor while visiting the village observes the

working of this village co-operative and the status of these specific farmers. The veterinary

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doctor informs the administrative staff about their status. This information in turn helps the

administrative staff to understand the farmers and village co-operatives and their needs. The

doctor helps the administrative staff of the dairy to understand the grass root problems of the

farmers and village co-operatives.

Role 8: Administrative staff of Dairy - Resource Provider

In the Dudhsagar dairy the cash cycle is fortnightly. The farmer is paid money every 15th day.

The administrative staff provides money to the village co-operative and then it is distributed

to the farmers. Sometimes the veterinary doctors also help them in cash receipts and

collections. This makes the process faster and easier for everybody and creates a win-win

situation.

Under the banner of Dudhsagar Research and Development Activity (DURA), the activities

of artificial insemination and progeny testing programs are run. The veterinary doctors who

are a part of staff function helps in the same. Under the artificial insemination program

improved quality proven bull’s semen is distributed to village co-operatives at Rs. 1 per dose.

Role 9: Administrative Staff of Dairy - Trouble Shooter

This is probably one of the most critical roles of the overall staff function. The staff function

people mainly consisting veterinary doctors work as intermediaries between Dudhsagar dairy

and the farmer community. There are many conflict situations wherein due to the intervention

of the staff function many disputes have been resolved without any grudge.

The prosperity of the Dudhsagar dairy cannot only be attributed to the line function. Without

staff function, the Dudhsagar model would not have been a success.

7. Implementation of the Action Research Outcomes and Further Research

The management of the Dudhsagar dairy has decided to implement our recommendations

flowing from our action research in the following direction.

Improvements of the front of individual farmer as a resource provider

The management has decided that a general practitioner will be sent with the veterinary

doctor while he is visiting the village farmer to treat his animals. At that point of time, the

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general practitioner will treat the farmer and his family if they have any medical problems.

The management has decided to employ about 80 general practitioners for this purpose.

This situation will improve the health conditions of the people in the catchment area of the

Dudhsagar dairy. Once it was said that the cattle in this region was getting better and quicker

medical attention than people. With such implementation of our recommendation the situation

will improve.

Improvements in the role of veterinary doctor as troubleshooter for individual farmer

We recommended many new training programs for doctors and also suggested that the

doctors may be sent to seminars and conferences to improve their knowledge. The dairy

management has now agreed to initiate many new training programs for its doctors. Also they

will have more access to professional seminars and conferences. In addition, mobile phones

will be given by the dairy management to the doctors and they will be used for the improved

communication with the individual farmers in their catchment area.

Improvement in the role of staff function as trouble shooter for village co−operative

The mobile phone facility given to the doctors will help the village level co−operatives to

contact the doctors in case of emergency as well as for regular check ups by the doctors. The

dairy management also proposes that 50 outgoing calls would be free of charge for the

veterinary doctor. This will help in solving the routing problem for the doctor. The

management has also agreed upon continuous improvement in the disease diagnostic

laboratory. This will be done by installing the latest diagnostic apparatus and improving the

skills of the veterinary doctors.

From the research above we propose further research studies as follows.

− Dudhsagar dairy already is running some training programs for female members of the

society which can be increased because it was again seen from an observation that the

societies, which are run by female members, are more successful than societies run by

male members. We propose that further action research should be carried out in this field

too.

− During the discussion with the veterinarians the issue of bacterial count emerged.

According to the global standards bacterial count in milk per milliliter is accepted to be

around 50,000. When milk comes out from the udder of the cow in the Mehsana region

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the bacterial count per milliliter is around 5000 only. But when it reaches the dairy the

count grows to a huge number like 300,000 to 400,000 per milliliter. Some indigenous

technology should be innovated to take care of this problem area.

− There seems to be a need to create a web enabled network in this region to increase the

efficiency and effectiveness of both the staff and line functions. If farmers panick at

delivery of animal, Internet can help. Video conferencing can be done even at that point of

time. The cyber dhabas are becoming a reality in Indian villages. When the doctor is

facing some problem in curing the animal he can contact specialist or senior doctors at the

Dudhsagar dairy through Internet and can also do a live video conferencing so the doctor

sitting at the dairy can understand the problem and can give proper advice. This

phenomenon is applicable worldwide and an area for action research.

8. Conclusions: Action Research and Politics

Nowhere is the challenge of decision-making process more important than in the field of

social policy. An implicit assumption of the work done in universities is that research findings

will help in social improvement. Much notable work, such as the various poverty studies, is

clearly geared to this end. Yet there is no certain link to be found between evidence of need

and ensuring effective political or administrative action to remedy the situation. One of the

critical tasks in social policy, therefore, remains the effective communication of research

findings to the policy-maker and the discovery of ways and means to assure their absorption

into public decision-making. This does not mean that social scientists should ‘dictate’ to

policy-makers any particular line of action, but rather that they should be sensitive to decision

making processes in their efforts to influence policy formulation. The researcher has the

possibility of developing this awareness through the concept of action research. By being a

participant observer, he can gain a special perspective on some of the key factors and

limitations that control decision-making. Being on the inside allows him a close if limited

view, of the crucial power relations and the circumstantial contexts that affect critical

decisions.

Finally there are the obligations incumbent on the social scientist who aspires to observe and

influence decision making in this way. He must deal with questions that are relevant to policy.

He must produce findings that reach policy-makers in time. He must set forth his findings in

an easily understood manner.

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References

Budhwar, P. and Budhwar, L. (1999), Research Methods for Business Studies. New Delhi,Global Business Press, 69-79.

Chanda, N. and Pathak, K. (2001), Study of supply chain of AMUL through a simulationbased approach. IIMA 2001

Elden, M. and Chisholm, R.F. (1993), Emerging Varieties of Action Research. HumanRelations, 46, 121-142.

Gupta S. L. (1999), Sales and Distribution Management. Excel Books, New Delhi

Kemmis, S., and McTaggart, R. (1988), The action research planner. Geelong: DeakinUniversity, Australia (3rd ed.).

Kotter, J. (1995), Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard BusinessReview, March−April, p.61

Peters, M. and Robinson, V. (1984), The Origins and Status of Action Research. The Journalof Applied Behavioral Science, 20 (2), 113-124.

Rapoport, R. (1970), Three Dilemmas in Action Research. Human Relations, 23, 488-513.

Shanti, G. (1994), A matter of people- Co-operative Dairying in India and Zimbabwe. OxfordUniversity Press, New Delhi,pp 39-55.

Stoner, J., Freeman, R. and Gilbert D. (2000), Management. Prentice Hall of India Ltd. pp.353-54, 6th ed.

Warmington, A. (1979), Action research: its methods and implications. Working Paper, 48,Manchester Business School, England.

Internet Resources

http://ousd.k12.ca.us/netday/links/Action_Research/begin_guide_action_researchThis site gives a clear outline and summary of the steps involved in action research. Inaddition, this site highlights the benefits of the action research process.http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/actionrsch.htmlThis site gives descriptions and diagrams of action research cycles.http://elmo.scu.edu.au/schools/sawd/arr/arr-home.htmlThis site provides a brief summary of the methodologies used in action research, abibliography with a substantial list of authors, titles and links to various action research sites.http://educ.queensu.ca/~ar/This site has various informational and personal essays on action research. It also provideslinks to other action research sites.http://www.tiac.net/users/dfleming/resource/arwhatis.htmlThis site describes many different forms of action research and how each one is unique anduseful.

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CHAPTER NINE

Action Research Toolkit I:

The Search Conference

Francesco GaribaldoBologna, Italy

In the following sequence of three chapters, Toolkits are presented to put Action Researchinto practice through two different tools: the Search Conference and the Scenario Workshop.The tools have mainly been developed independently from each other. The Department ofManufacturing Engineering and Management, Technical University of Denmark, togetherwith IPL in Bologna, Italy, have combined the two methods of Search Conference andScenario Workshop within the context of the EU-India Cross Cultural Innovation Network. Inthis project, the two tools have been applied in India as one integrated entity. Hence, in thefirst contribution, the Toolkit of the Search Conference is described by FrancescoGaribaldo. In the second chapter, Lauge Rasmussen presents the Toolkit of the ScenarioWorkshop. The subsequent third chapter follows up these two Toolkits by utilising them forthe Empowerment of Women in the Dairy sector in India. Hence the sequence of these threechapters - two of them more conceptual, the third more practical - illustrates the scope ofAction Research in the context of EU-India Co-operation.

The fundamental principle of Action Research is that the seeds of change are implicit in thevery first questions we ask. Inquiry and change are simultaneous rather than separatemoments. Following the tradition of Action Research, Search Conferences and ScenarioWorkshops are participatory. Human persons are not objects, but social actors, who act intheir everyday life on the basis of their own experiences and sense making. Therefore, theyare treated not as research objects, but as co-inquirers, who examine their own experiencesand design possible routes of development. Based on this participatory mode of combiningresearch and action, the methodology of Search Conferences and Scenario Workshopscombine a mixture of heuristic, analytical and action oriented processes as will be describedhere. Therefore, the leaders of the scenario workshop have different roles to fulfil, such asprocess-planners, facilitators, organisers and co-ordinators, conflict managers, researchers andchange agents. Search Conferences and Scenario Workshops are relevant to practice indifferent settings, for instance communities, enterprises, research and educational institutionsas well as organisations and groups in the civic society.

In the first contribution, Search Conferences are defined as part of the Action Researchtradition. Based on practical experiences in Italian and Indian, this toolkit describes the aims,rules, phases, requirements, possible outputs and evaluation procedures of the SearchConference. Finally, it reflects the prospective use of this Search Conference as the vehiclefor enhancing communication and competencies of people in co-operating through this SearchConference.

Lauge Rasmussen and Francesco Garibaldo

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1. Introduction: the Original Hypothesis of the Search Conference

The so-called Search Conferences originate from a 1970s article by Fred and Evelyn Emery,

later revised several times, for instance by David Morley and Eric Trist in 1981.

According to the original hypothesis, future can largely be influenced by human intervention;

there is no one future, but there are rather several possible futures. The performance of the

Search Conferences is, thus, future-oriented, it is generally not aiming at the immediate

future. The scenarios of the original Search Conferences are in the 10-15 year range in order

to build up action plans beginning from the present.

All parties interested in the problem need to be identified as stakeholders; it has to be

ascertained whether the minimum conditions of reciprocal trust exist in order to begin the

conference. All the interested parties must participate as individuals or as representatives. The

role of the organisers is as facilitators; they must not interfere in any way with the discussion

contents. Within the conference, each participant is considered equal to all others. Although

the conferences are very long - at least two and a half days - the participants must be present

the whole time without interference from the working activity.

The Conference is organised in stages or phases:

− Introduction: The participants are introduced to each others in such a way that each one

singles out the interests of the others and can identify the subsequent interventions. The

moderators explain the envisaged programme and the resources at the disposal of the

conference.

− Prospects session: The participants are asked for their opinion on events of the present

time which may have significant impact on the future. Each opinion is recorded on

flipcharts by the organisers. The charts are then stuck to the walls, where they are visible

to everyone.

− Identifying trends: Five or six of the most important trends are identified as indicated by

the data.

− Comparison of trends: In the plenary session, the groups present and compare their

analyses. The aim is to get the participants to accept that they are all in the same “open

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objectively orderly world”. If it turns out that they are not, they can try to identify what it

is that divides them and whether it is actually worth pressing ahead.

− Likely and desirable future: in the context that they have created for themselves, the

participants are asked what would happen to their common goal if they allowed thing to

proceed as they are (likely future) and, if everything should go well in the current

situation, what could be accomplished (desirable future).

− Identifying the challenge: In the plenary session the two action plans of the likely and the

desirable future are presented. If the difference is negligible, that is, if the desirable future

is also the most likely future, there is no need to plan ahead. In this infrequent case, the

conference could repeat the preceding phase, with groups set up differently. If the results

are confirmed then the conference would be dissolved. Someone should then wonder

which misunderstandings had led to this useless conference. Obviously the divergence

between the likely scenario and the desirable one usually lies at the basis of the agenda for

the rest of the conference.

− Constraints: At this point, a research conference temporarily sets aside the question of the

future and considers where the organisation started from and where it finds itself at the

moment. The strong and weak points inherited amount to a starting point for future

changes.

− Idealised projects for the future: Working in parallel, different groups formed at random,

define an organisational project that can realise the desirable future scenario. They are

called idealised projects because the participants are asked to design these projects and

the necessary skills without considering where they may come from. Since this phase

follows from phase g, absolutely unreal expectations do not usually enter these design

projects.

− Harmonisation of projects: This is done in plenary session, and this process continues

until agreement on one single project is reached. The stages of the project action are

formulated in terms of long-term general strategies rather than short-term courses of

action, but short-term action is not excluded when it seems necessary.

2. The Search Conference Revisited by Ipl

Today all Action Research activities start from these assumptions:

Both the researcher and those who are researched, are social actors; they are capable of

owning all knowledge related to their society. These actors are both the products and the

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producers of history. The recognition of the empirical objects of research before and above

all as subjects has both ethical consequences and epistemological implications.

Most of the members of IPL have had experiences in research projects based on this

assumption. This assumption was, however, merely considered as a way to reach a better and

richer understanding of the problems at stake in a specific situation: for instance, to

understand the way in which a group of employees cope with some breakthrough in

technological innovation. It was difficult for most of us to envisage a tool for transforming

this assumption into practical action. Hence we were not at ease with the original design of

the Search Conference. Actually, we were in need of a methodology for this original Search

Conference to fill the gap between its diagnosis phase and the action phase in order to

transform people into producers of history. The methodology should be oriented more to the

immediate future: 5 years rather than the future of 10-15 years ahead. These thoughts have led

us to the development of the present Search Conference concept described here.

The Search Conference is used to determine through diagnosis, the conditions that allow the

members of multiple groups to co-operatively deal with a complex problem more

exhaustively than usual. The aim of the Search Conference is, thus, to obtain a new

perspective on a problem in such a way as to generate new options for action. Specifically

groups often have very divergent interests. The Search Conference creates new possibilities

for a more cohesive relationship between those people who had not until then been able to co-

operate owing to their evident incompatibilities. Therefore in the IPL perspective, the Search

Conference is a complex Action Research Scheme based upon two pillars: group discussions

- the diagnostic phase - and conference discussions - the deliberative phase to prepare the

creation of action plans.

As an example, the suppliers of a focal firm in an industrial process have had different

interests from the focal firm itself about how to distribute the value generated in the supply

chain and how to remunerate the investments made by the suppliers. Therefore we organised

a Search Conference in order to analyse the situation and to design alternative scenarios of co-

operation: Thus it was possible to find an agreement on strategic options for long term co-

operation and win-win situations.

The concept of the Search Conference is based upon several hypotheses which have

developed through stages and rules, aiming at a certain kind of outcome.

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3. The New Features of the Search Conference

As quoted above, the main hypothesis of the Search Conference is as follows.

The future can largely be influenced by human intervention.

Thus there does not exist one single future but there do exist several possible futures. The

unfolding of the newly designed Search Conference, however, is oriented to the immediate

future of 3-5 years ahead. Moreover, it is hypothesised that the results to be achieved should

be a shared set of concepts of a generative kind; that is, concepts capable of generating a

short-term course of action.

As an example, in starting an action research project at a hospital the first diagnostic phase

took place through group discussion. Thus it was possible to identify the following general

theme, agreed upon by all the participants: how to integrate the different activities of the

hospital departments into a flow process. This general theme was discussed in the subsequent

Search Conferences as the starting point of a common evaluation of the specific

organisational reality in the hospital.

What consequences are there on the operative level? From our observations two basic effects

can be observed:

− The Search Conference requires sufficient time, unless highly directive yet impracticable

models are applied. The participants tend to use the first diagnostic phase in a way that is

more similar to a discussion meeting. In fact, any pressure by lack of time exerted in this

first phase leads to compromises that sometimes make all conference work unproductive.

The setting has to be of a more flowing nature, and random elements may be allowed to

intervene frequently, such as the leaders' sensitive activities of process structuring; the

group members’ interferences (e.g. due to the absence of overly-strong personalities); the

level of 'risk' of the issue to be dealt with by the group, etc..

− It is more difficult to focus the discussion as it cannot be based on pre-existing analyses or

discussion group results. (It is known that such pre-existing results can be evaluated by all

participants more easily, even if not everyone has taken part in the fore-going discussion

groups.)

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4. Rules and Phases of the Search Conference

4.1 The rules

− All parties affected by the problem have to be identified as stakeholders; it has to be

ascertained whether the minimum conditions of reciprocal trust exist in order to start the

conference.

− All interested parties must participate, and they can participate as individuals or as

representatives.

− The group is co-ordinated by two organisers.

− Each participant is considered equal to all others within the conference.

− The work is conducted only in plenary session, therefore the group should normally not

exceed 20, in exceptional cases 25 members.

− The conferences take place over two days, and the participants must be present throughout

and with no interference from their work activities.

− The conference results must be written down, delivered, between the second and the third

phase, to all the participants who may amend them. The texts can be disseminated only on

the condition that all participants agree to them, otherwise the conference is inconclusive.

4.2 The three main phases of the Conference

− The first meeting lasts 3 hours. It is needed by the participants, to begin with the diagnosis

through discussion groups, and to define the starting point on how to influence the future

on the selected themes. Everything is reported on the flipcharts stuck to the walls and

visible to all the participants. The main pictorial representation is the classical herring-

bone pattern. On the herring’s dorsal spine the actions are recorded, on the left side of it

the determinants and on the right side the consequences. All this is little formalised and

deliberately left ‘thread-bare’.

If we consider the example of the hospital mentioned before, the discussion started with

the agreement upon the theme of how to integrate in one flow the activities of the different

departments in the hospital. The participants selected in each group the main topics related

to this problem of process integration: e.g. the constraints coming from the physical lay-

out of the hospital etc.. All these topics were listed on the dorsal spine. Then, topic by

topic, the participants analysed which organisational or cultural issues of their specific

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situation can be considered a determinant of the specific topic at stake, e.g. a technical

way of re-designing the lay-out without additional inter-departmental assessment. They

were recorded on the left side. The specific consequences of each determinant were then

recorded on the right side of the dorsal spine.

− The second meeting lasts 2 hours and is needed to reorganise the flipcharts of Phase a

going deeper into the problems and trying to get everyone to voice their opinions. It

means that the meeting will end with an agreed framework of topics to be addressed, and

of actions to be developed. In our example of the hospital, different groups listed different

topics to be addressed but it was possible to combine all the different listings into a

common list and to integrate also the different suggestions on better ways to tackle them.

− The third meeting lasts 2 hours, and is based upon the text drafted by the two co-

ordinators. It is essential that the text should faithfully sum up, even by conceptualising,

what had been said by the participants. It is necessary also to report what had been said by

the co-ordinators but clearly stressing that these statements had been made by them rather

than by participants. The text needs to be very concise, no more than 4-5 pages. If the

time appears insufficient, a further 2-hour catch-up phase can be added, allocated to a

subsequent day. What normally happens is that people amend the written text with special

care of certain wordings that they fear may create misunderstandings of what they are

really aiming at.

5. Procedures

5.1 Agreements

First of all it must be ascertained that trust, not necessarily without conflicts, can be

developed among the participants. It can be checked through a preliminary discussion or

through short interviews. The former is more reliable because the discussion group allows

directly in itself the assessment on the dynamics of human relationship among the

participants; the latter is less direct but it also works to assess how trustworthy the

participants’ relationships are.

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All participants and other stakeholders of the search conference have to be very precise on the

general goal and the specific tasks of the conference. They have to agree on their mutual

commitment to implement the outcomes of the conference..

5.2 Tasks of the co-ordinators

The co-ordinators or organisers in charge of the conference and the discussions, have different

tasks. The first organiser has the task of being the ‘custodian of the rules’, i.e. he or she must

guarantee the absolute equality of the participants in the discussion, and their freedom to

decide whether to agree to the prevalent points of view. The second organiser co-ordinates the

discussion with the task of intervening vis-à-vis the merits of the points, above all in the

second phase of the process according to the rigidly defined rules. The modes of intervention

are more the kind of technical support, by means of concept ‘tool boxes’ that help the

participants to conceptualise the hypotheses, on the grounds of their cultural and technical and

scientific knowledge.

The co-ordinators have to be fair without exemption. In case one of them does not sufficiently

take care of the participants’ right of speech, it must be stated publicly and the de-facto

situation amended. The co-ordinator must avoid any confrontation with participants. It is the

basic rule that all participants are equal. Therefore he or she must avoid to disregard

suggestions because they do not fit to his or her personal view of the problem. He or she must

pay attention to people not participating in the discussion, e.g. by encouraging them to

comment on a specific statement of someone else.

5.3 Introduction of the Conference

The co-ordinator introduces the Search Conference. The introduction has to deal with the two

main questions:

− The rules to be followed and the roles of the two co-ordinators; it must be stressed that the

final texts can be disseminated only on condition that all participants agree to it, otherwise

the conference is deemed to be inconclusive.

− The possibility that the co-ordinators can supplement the discussion with short

contributions in order to deliver specific knowledge on the topics at stake. This

intervention must be short, infrequent, and as much matter-of-fact as possible. The

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possibility for the co-ordinators to utilise this modality of interaction with the group can

be explained through the metaphor of the tool box: the co-ordinators are there to help the

group to develop a fair and productive discussion through two modalities: a) the setting

and b) the tool box, containing positive knowledge on certain topics, depending on the

general knowledge.

5.4 Selection criteria of the participants

The most productive configuration of participants is the representation of all stakeholders,

irrespective of hierarchical roles. These stakeholders may be directly and functionally related

to the specific tasks that the group is intending to deal with. It is very difficult to find the

perfect “blending” of people but basically there are two main patterns: functional and cross

sectional.

The functional pattern stresses the importance of the existing and the desired state to be

achieved, on a functional basis. It means to apply organisational criteria or goals. The risk is

here to loose the overall picture of the project and to underestimate specific systemic

interactions. The positive side is to have a simple, natural process of focussing the discussion.

The cross-sectional pattern stresses the importance of the systemic interactions inside the

organisation or among different and parallel goals to be achieved. Thus it helps to mix people

from different fields of the project. The risk is here to loose the focus of the action, and to

have only a superficial view of the problems. The positive side of this approach is its holistic

features.

The recommended solution is here to utilise the two patterns simultaneously in order to

integrate the different effects. For instance, in the hospital example mentioned before, there

were several different Search Conferences based on a cross-section of the hospital personnel,

another one on some desired new functional unity, or on the re-grouping of existing

departments.

5.5 Requirements

The main requirements for the Search Conference are: flipcharts, scissors and large sheets of

paper of different colours, a room possibly with a round table, comfortable and without

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outside noise, no thoroughfare , etc.. The scissors and the sheets of paper are useful in order to

organise each flipchart according to the pictorial representation of the herring-bone pattern.

Different colours can represent the left and the right side of the spine,etc..

5.6 Output and Assessments

The output is a written text which expresses what the participants have agreed on. It contains

particularly those generative concepts that can be instantly implemented by the participants.

The emphasis is on the action to be initiated as soon as possible. Thus the text must the stress

this instant action. The generative concepts actually allow the Search Conference participants

and the actors of the process to tentatively organise the process of implementation of what has

been decided. It is then translated into the action plan by project groups which have been set

up by the participants. They draft these action plans together with the time-scales and the

methods of implementation.

Due to the rules for delivery of the final text, it is not necessary to organise a specific

assessment of the conference. Conference feedback can be focused on the management of the

discussion and normally this can be presented as contribution of the participants to improve

the setting for other conferences.

6. Conclusions: Knowledge and Action between Evaluation and Deliberation

In our opinion, the transfer of positive knowledge - in the modern sense of the term - by

researchers to the people involved in any action research project, must be reduced “to

interpretative moments sustaining the setting” (Brion, 1948). For this reason we stress the

distinction between two different moments in starting a practical action by a group of people:

the evaluation or diagnostic process, and the deliberative process. Indeed, at the root of this

attitude lies the Socratic idea of knowledge, also present in Aristotle, in particular in his

Nicomachean Ethics: the root of each deliberation and evaluation process lies in the

individual who can be helped towards reflection by means of the creation of a socialised

knowledge process, the Socratic Dialogue.

This is why IpL would maintain a methodological distinction - which is actually

epistemological - between two moments of action: the diagnostic moment which is cognitive

and socialised through dialogue; and the project-based moment which is deliberative. They

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are formally, openly and functionally linked yet kept separate, so as to maintain freedom. It is

not rigidly functional but allows for a broader, holistic and more profound analytical

examination. Therefore the project moment would be 'reduced' for the deliberation process. It,

thus, becomes evaluative, with the chance to reduce the complexity of reality without losing it

- along with the breadth and the depth acquired.

The knowledge acquired is a personal as well as collective asset of the people who take part.

It happens at least in two ways: directly as a collective memory, and indirectly, through the

written report, the assembly discussion and the communication with the organisers of the

specific action research project: These organisers are at the same time the representatives of

research as well as the body commissioning the research. The organisers are the owner of that

knowledge in two ways: directly through the questions submitted to the group, and indirectly

in a similar way as the participants. In this way, the organisers and the people taking part in

the action research are developing the sense of community needed to overcome the

distinctions of those who own the knowledge, and those who are to act on what they are

experiencing.

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CHAPTER TEN

Action Research Toolkit II: The Scenario Workshop

Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen, Lyngby. Denmark

This chapter is the second in the sequence of contributions on Action Research Toolkitsand their application. It deals with the concept of Scenarios.

A scenario is a picture of a possible future. This is the starting point for the Toolkit of theScenario Workshop which is described here. The Scenario Workshop is a method toinvolve participants (citizens, organisation members, planners, students, business people,practitioners, politicians etc.) in imagination, reflection and action planning in relation topossible futures. The methodology of Scenario Workshops originates from the ActionResearch tradition. The significance of the Scenario Workshop is the combination ofcreativity, reflection and action helping the participants to imaging and realise desirablefutures. It can contribute to fill the gaps between visions of the future and the presentsituation, giving the participants knowledge and power to act for themselves instead ofmerely adjusting passively to the ongoing changes of their organisation or community.

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1. Introduction: The Concept of the Scenario Workshop

Scenario Workshops are relevant when the future is relatively open and unpredictable. Few

people believe that the future can be determined as a linear development. Strictly linear

prognoses have often proven to be wrong in particular in long-term perspectives. Scenarios

can include ‘unlikely’ events, because they do not pretend to predict the future, but they

are possible images of it. Scenario Workshops contribute to engaging participants to

imagine, reflect and act along directions which may lead to realisation of their

imaginations, towards what they believe to be desirable futures.

From a research point of view the Scenario Workshop is an excellent opportunity to

acquire new knowledge about how people can use their combined individual and collective

resources to shape, plan and create their own futures. From an entrepreneurial point of

view scenario workshops have proved to be a powerful method to initiate long-term

transformations of networks, organisations, groups and individuals. From an educational

point of view, Scenario Workshops help the participants to develop their capabilities of

imagination, reflection and action planning.

However, the Scenario Workshop should not be considered as a new ‘fix’ that may solve

every problem and be relevant in all settings. It is important to learn the methodology

systematically, before guiding the workshop. It is not an easy method to use, because there

are many possible pitfalls. The following toolkit intends to warn against these pitfalls as

well as giving a detailed instruction of how a Scenario Workshop may be planned and

exercised. As a general toolkit it is illustrated by examples from our own practice. We

believe that it can help other people to decide if the method could be useful for them. The

toolkit presented in the following sections is not like a ‘cook book’, but more like a ‘guide’

with the purpose to help other people to use the method and make specific adjustments in

accordance with the specific settings of the participants.

2. The Aims of the Scenario Workshop

The aims of the Scenario Workshop depend on the settings, the participants and the

resources. In general terms the aims are:

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− To identify and clarify the problems of the present situation relevant for the involved

participants.

− To generate new visions and ideas for action and initiatives

− To identify and discuss the barriers and the possibilities of change

− To suggest strategies and action plans to realise one or more of the elaborated scenarios

on the local, regional, national and / or international levels.

The following examples illustrate how aims have been formulated in different Scenario

Workshops.

One important Scenario Workshop was carried out in the context of the EU-India Cross

Cultural Innovation Network. It is described in detail in the subsequent chapter. In this

workshop, the participants identified the following general problem: How can

empowerment of women contribute to community building with special focus on the dairy

sector in India? Based on this general question, the participants generated new visions and

ideas and they identified barriers to be overcome as well as action plans to be undertaken at

different levels.

Other examples of aims from different Scenario Workshops are:

− How can the participants of a particular project group increase the quality of their work

with special focus on dialogue processes with customers and users of the products?

− How can doctors, nurses, etc. at a public hospital increase their services towards the

patients with special focus on change of the daily routines and use of new technology

equipment?

− How can the top managers develop strategies for their company to meet the challenges

of the natural environment during the next 15-20 years with special focus on entering

new markets or changing organisation and technology?

The formulation of aims is an act of balance between too diverse and too restricted

wordings. As a thumb-rule, the knowledge development as well as the action perspectives

should be visible in the stated aims.

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3. The Rules of the Scenario Workshop

− Selection of participants: The parties affected by the problem must be identified and

participants are to be selected from these parties. Minimum conditions of mutual trust

must be ensured beforehand.

− Participation: The representatives from all identified interest groups should participate

in the workshop. None should be allowed to follow the workshop as visitors or

observers because it may disturb the interaction processes.

− Role relationships: A Scenario Workshop needs some kind of facilitation. The

facilitators may be chosen by and among the participants themselves, or they may be

external persons (consultants, researchers ) selected by somebody else. Functions and

roles of the facilitators should be made clear from the beginning and agreed upon by all

the participants of the workshop. Typical roles of the facilitator are:

− Catalyst: It describes the role of helping the participants of the workshop to be active

and co-operative. The facilitators should also control the time schedule and any

changes of it.

− Synthesizer: When the scenarios have been described and discussed among the

participants of the workshop, there is a need to synthesize and/or oppose them. This job

could be the responsibility of the group co-ordinators and/or the facilitators, or it could

be elaborated by the participants themselves, guided by the facilitators.

− Scenario scribe: Though all participants are obliged to contribute actively to the

scenario building process during the workshop, somebody may be selected to create

cohesion among the different vignettes coming up during the creative phase of scenario

development. The facilitator may take this integrative function, but it could also be

executed by the different subgroups of the workshop.

How exactly the roles of the facilitators are defined, depends on the settings, the

participants and the resources. For instance, if some or all the participants have tried the

Scenario Workshop before, the roles of the facilitator may be less directing than if it is first

time for the majority of the participants.

− Means and tools of expression. The participants may have different experiences and

educational background, and prefer different tools of expression. Some may be used to

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write, others to speak and still others to build physical models or to draw diagrams and

pictures. The workshop facilitators may include opportunities to use all the preferred

means of expression at different stages of the workshop. For instance, in one workshop

physical models were used in the scenario-building phase. The models stimulated the

creative imagination of the participants. In another workshop we used drama and

theatre as a mean of expression. In all workshops, large pieces of paper are taped to the

walls of the room helping the group to generate ideas, relationships, criticisms and

suggestions of action plans. Video and computer simulation may also be used. Such a

methodological pluralism is not without potential communication problems. But it can

also be a kind of ‘eye-opening’ if it is used creatively and reflected in a proper manner.

− Alternation between creation and reflection. The alternation between creation and

reflection is an important element of scenario building. Stages of reflection and

interpretations must be integrated steps of the overall process. Otherwise, the workshop

process risks evaporation into very general ‘blue prints’ without any relevance for the

specific interests and perspectives of the participants. For instance, the participants may

get a feeling of frustration, if the created scenarios are without relationships to the

present situation. Therefore, it is important to plan the workshop in such a way that

time for reflection is approximately of the same duration as the time for creative

activities.

− Management of conflicts: Conflicts and disagreements may turn up everywhere during

the different phases of the workshop. Sometimes they can be foreseen and it can be

discussed how to avoid them. However. how to handle unforeseen conflicts? Rules

cannot guarantee that a conflict can be transformed into an innovative or constructive

activity, but the chance is much better if procedures of handling conflicts have been

agreed upon beforehand. Normally the facilitators of the workshop will act as conflict-

mediators, if the conflict cannot be handled otherwise. If the conflict is too severe to be

handled by negotiation, the rule is, that the facilitators must decide either to restructure

the subgroups or to ask one or more participants to leave the workshop. However, such

an extreme situation occurs relatively seldom in Scenario Workshops. Nevertheless, it

is necessary to know how to handle it, should it occur.

− Discipline: Scenario workshops take place over at least three days. The participants

must be present throughout and with no interference from other scheduled activities. If

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anybody breaks that rule, they should be told beforehand, that they are excluded from

the rest of the scenario workshop. Such a strict rule is necessary in order to ensure the

spirit and the continuity of the workshop.

− Output: All results whether written, recorded, drawn or constructed should be kept and

collected by the group co-ordinators. The co-ordinators should be responsible to write a

report covering the group work results as well as their evaluation of the processes of

the workshop. The written reports can be disseminated only if all participants agree

upon it.

4. The Moments (or stages) of the Scenario Workshop

We have divided the Scenario Workshop into five separate moments: .

− The constitutive moment which consists of planning, selection of participants, and

stating the rules.

− The problem focusing moment, identifying and agreeing on the common problem

setting of the scenario workshop.

− The vision creating moment of scenario building, imagining desirable futures

− The backcasting moment of moving from the developed scenarios to the present

− The action plan moment, formulating the strategies for change in accordance to

desirable futures of the scenario

These five moments will be described and exemplified as follows.

4.1 The constitutive moment

The constitutive moment includes planning, selection of participants and stating of the

rules. It is very decisive for the following phases.

The participants may be selected from different groups according to explicitly stated

criteria, or they may have an established identity as a group. If all the participants are

members of the same, well-established group and know each other very well, they may

have a feeling of confidence to say and do things, they would never dare to do among

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strangers. But the opposite could also occur: the participants may be aware of internal

conflicts due to past experiences. These may create barriers for creative activities taking

place during the following phases of the workshop. If the participants represent different

groups with somewhat opposing interests, conflicts may get into the process before the

workshop has been started. In order to avoid severe conflicts or hierarchical power

relationships among the participants, some kind of social equality must be ensured. Too

polar interest constellation among the participants should also be avoided.

The number of participants may vary, but experiences from our own practice suggest that

two facilitators are needed for each group of about 12 or less participants. Participant

numbers between 12 and 25 are the most promising approach, because they allow the

functional division into three or four subgroups. If the number of participants become

larger, for instance 40-100, it is possible to handle that situation too. In this case, six or

eight facilitators are needed. There should never be less than two facilitators, even if the

group of participants are less than 12.

Furthermore, all sub-groups should appoint a group co-ordinator, who is the direct link to

the facilitators, but who still participate in the group activities like all other sub-group

members.

Regarding the settings of the scenario workshop, it is an advantage to move to physically

aesthetic environments with plenty of space and possibilities to be physically active in one

way or the other. Such environment stimulates creativity. It is important not to plan the

time schedule too rigidly, though a certain level of time pressure may stimulate some

participants to be productive. Finally, tools and technologies to be used in the workshop

should be decided in this phase. In order to stimulate the creativity, it is a good idea to

‘warm up’ the participants for instance by creating a social atmosphere of joy and fun.

Perhaps a special social event like a common dinner, feast, role-play and the like can be

part of the preparation of the workshop.

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4.2 The problem-focusing moment

The next phase is the problem-focusing moment. A common problem is to be identified

and agreed upon by the participants of the workshop. Most often the general problem has

been agreed beforehand.

However, it is not always possible to use much time for the problem-focusing activities

without reducing the time for scenario building or back-casting. If time is short, most of

the problem setting has to be prepared beforehand by the planners of the workshop. A

general thumb-rule is as follows: if the workshop covers four or more full days, the

problem-focusing phase should be planned as a separate activity taking place at the

workshop. If the scenario workshop is scheduled for three days only, the problem setting

should be decided by the planners in collaboration with selected participants before the

workshop is starting. The quality of the problem-focusing moment of the workshop may be

improved, if methods like heuristic brainstorming, SWOT analysis or Search Conference is

included. However, it can also be performed as a structured dialogue and discussion

carefully guided by the facilitators and group co-ordinators.

4.3 The vision-creating moment

The vision-creating moment consists of creative elaboration of the scenarios. But how is it

possible to be creative as a participant of a Scenario Workshop? Often it is not so difficult

for most of the participants to suggest some ‘catchwords’ of possible, prospective visions.

A collective brainstorming may be a useful start of the vision-creating phase, for instance

15 or 20 minutes.

However, such a scenario skeleton needs to be filled with ‘flesh and skin’. Therefore, the

next and often more difficult challenge is the enrichment of the scenario skeleton. The

scenario is most convincing, if it is as concrete as possible. For instance, some persons

may be talking or doing something together pretending to be a snapshot from everyday life

of the future. Or a ‘stranger’ describes what he/she experiences through observation and

talks with the people there. The medium could for instance be a ‘diary’ or an ‘article’ to a

newspaper. A model of the future workplace or local community could be made by

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physical materials or simulated on the computer. The sequence of images should be

cohesive and consistent and clearly different from the present situation. But it should also

be relevant for people to discuss. When participants of the workshop try to elaborate a

scenario, they should not just describe it as a distant place far away from their own

immediate situation. To make it vivid and appealing for the target group, they should

imagine themselves to be actors or direct observers of the future place which they describe.

This is a very important point! The scenario should not be formed as abstract statements or

guidelines, but it should describe concrete actions and reflections of the people living in

the utopian situation of the scenario.

The participants should be encouraged to step for themselves into the images of the future

they are describing. For instance, Gulliver in Jonathan Swifts’ utopian novel, visits one of

the utopian societies. He is a participant observer and uses his senses and feelings as well

as his intellectual abilities of curiosity and reflections. Sometimes he also reflects the

difference between the utopian society and his own present society. But he does it from a

fictional position of being in the utopian society and looking back at the historical world of

his contemporaries and their ways of thinking and acting. In a similar way the participants

of the Scenario Workshop should be encouraged to ‘take off’ from their present life and to

imagine themselves in the future world they are describing in the scenario. Only in this

way, creativity may flourish and transcend the present experiences and conventional habits

of thinking and acting.

For some people it is very easy to ‘take off’ and just pretend to be in a future place, for

others not. It depends on the ability of inner visualising. Just like some designers are able

to create an inner visual picture of the product, which they want to design, scenario

builders should be able to create an inner visual picture of the actors and activities taking

place in the scenario. But even if some participants may feel it difficult, most of them will

be able to learn this capability of inner visualizing, if the facilitator guides them, and give

them some advices how to do it.

The vision-creating phase of the scenario should alternate between work in subgroups and

plenary sessions. In the subgroups the scenarios are supposed to be enriched with still

more concrete details and descriptions. In the plenary session special invited experts may

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deliver brief presentations on issues considered crucial for the selected themes and the

participants of the workshop.

4.4 The back-casting moment

Back-casting is a process of moving from the developed scenarios backwards to the

present situation of the participants. The difference from scenario building can be

metaphorically stated as follows: The scenario building is a typical ‘take off’ process,

while the back-casting is a typical ‘come down’ process. Back-casting is a concept first

employed in community actions on futures of energy in Sweden. The major distinguishing

characteristic of back-casting is: “…a concern, not with: what futures are likely to happen,

but with: how desirable futures can be attained” (Robinson, 1990:822).

Back-casting is thus an explicitly normative approach: It explores alternative development

paths and their ethical, economic, social, environmental and technological implications. In

contrast to the forecast study, which is predictive, convergent and deterministic oriented,

the back-casting approach is non-predictive, divergent and design oriented. It is non-

predictive, because the likelihood depends on whether the policy proposals and action

plans resulting from the back-casting are implemented or not. It is divergent in order to

reveal the relatively freedom of choices between different action plans with respect to

desirable futures. It is design oriented in the meaning that several ways or routes are

designed to illustrate how to move towards the desirable future.

Back-casting is applied on long-term issues of relatively complex structure where the

dominant trends are part of the problem (Dreborg, 1996). The process of back-casting can

be undertaken in different ways, depending on the capabilities and time resources of the

co-inquirers involved, the complexity of the issue, the material and non-material resources

available, and the enrichment of the elaborated scenarios. The construction of the back-

casting skeleton is like developing some possible ‘paths’ connecting the scenario with the

present. However, so far only the skeleton of the back-casting has been developed. It needs

to be enriched in order to provide a sufficient basis for the action plan.

The enrichment of the back-casting skeleton consists of the following steps.

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Firstly, the participants are asked to consider possible constraints to realise their back-

casting skeleton. Possible constraints are to be listed for each of the stakeholders. For

instance one of the groups at the Women Empowerment Workshop mentioned above,

listed the following constraints: ‘(1) It may be difficult for the educated women farmers to

acquire sufficient funding to initiate or develop their enterprise. (2) There is a lack of

technical knowledge about breeding, feeding and management. (3) There is irregular

supply of water.’

Secondly, the participants are asked how to overcome these constraints? For instance, the

group mentioned before, suggested that financial resources should be applied for from

nationalised banks. Furthermore, extension education could improve the technical and

organisational knowledge. Finally the irregular supply of water should be changed by

creating pressure on politicians and corporations to provide the necessary infrastructure.

Thirdly, the participants should consider possible, positive and negative by-effects of their

proposals. By-effects are effects that are not intended but could occur as part of the

process. For instance, at the Workshop mentioned above, one of the groups identified the

following by-effects: (1) village rivalry and threats from the competitors; (2) village

inequalities between the rich and the poor.

4.5 The action plan moment

The action plan moment is based on the acquired results from the scenario building and the

back-casting processes. Such an action plan can be structured as follows:

− Concept for action: what is the overall frame of taking action?

− Precisely defined goals.

− Milestones to reach the defined goals, for instance achieved changes after 3, 5 and 10

years.

− Goals for whom and with whom?

− A list of resources needed to reach the goals, e.g. money, technology, training, capacity

for networking etc..

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− How to obtain the resources needed and from whom? E.g. computers sponsored by co-

operatives and installed in the villages.

− Expected results and the innovative aspects of these results?

− A list of people or institutions that may resist the planned actions.

− Strategies how to overcome their resistance or opposition: e.g. using bargaining,

creating more powerful coalitions etc..

5. Procedures

5.1 Agreements

− It must be ascertained that all the participants understand and agree upon the aims and

rules of the Scenario Workshop. In particular the roles of the facilitators and the group

co-ordinators should be made clear and acceptable to all participants.

− Therefore, the facilitators should already in the constitutive moment of the workshop

initiate the formulation of the general aims; the workshop rules; the roles of the

facilitators and the sub group co-ordinators, and the roles of the participants.

− The time schedule needs to be agreed upon. It may be changed during the process

according to what seems to be most convenient at the present stage. However, it should

still include all the main moments or stages as described here.

5.2 Tasks and functions of the facilitators and group co-ordinators.

The facilitators are persons who make it easier for the participants of the workshop to do

their work. They play a key role in its success. Their chief tasks are to help the

participants:

− To feel comfortable

− To understand the scenario method

− To agree upon the themes of the workshop

− To use their creative abilities in a constructive manner

− To solve any internal conflicts among the participants, should they occur

− To reflect on their scenarios

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− To make concrete action plans

− To combine the action plans with ethical, political, economic, social and technological

considerations.

To be facilitators is an art of balance. Facilitators should be aware that progress occurs

during the workshop without them being dominant. To facilitate a Scenario Workshop is

not always an easy task. Often the time is limited and some of the moments may take more

time than anticipated. It is primarily the responsibility of the facilitators to ensure that all

the moments of the workshop are fulfilled as planned.

Furthermore group co-ordinators are appointed beforehand or chosen by the groups during

the constitutive moment of the workshop. The roles of the group co-ordinators are to be the

links between facilitators and sub groups while participating in the group processes. Thus it

is important to include specific meetings between facilitators and group co-ordinators at

least between each of the five moments.

5.3 Selection criteria of the participants

The following criteria could be used as a guideline:

− Representatives from all the parties should be selected as a principle. However, if this

is not possible, participants may be selected who ensure the diversity of experiences

and knowledge among the group. The Workshop described before (and in the

subsequent paper), included managers from the co-operatives in the dairy sector,

farmers, research students, professors and administrators. This mixture of experiences

and mind-sets created a dynamic atmosphere.

− It should be avoided to invite persons who are in personal conflicts with each other or

possess strongly opposing values or opinions. Such polarity may destroy the process of

scenario building, back-casting and action planning.

− Each participant should be able and willing to spend the necessary time in the

workshop. All participants should follow the agreed time schedule and be present all

the time, not leaving for parts of the scenario workshop in order to carry out other

obligations.

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5.4 Requirements

First of all it is very important to find a place with sufficient rooms and space to work. As a

minimum there should be a special room for plenary sessions, large enough to gather all

participants at the same time. Furthermore each sub group should have their own room

with possibilities to use the walls to tape flipcharts and to write on these flipcharts during

the different phases of the workshop. It is also recommended to relax during the breaks

outside or inside the building. Besides flipcharts, pencils, scissors, transparent tape should

be available, also materials to build physical models or to be used in role-playing or

computer simulation.

5.5 Output and Assessment

The workshop output should be a synthesis report including the results from each sub

group regarding problem definition, scenarios, back-casting and action plans. It could also

be a play or a physical model, for instance of the prospective organisation, village or dairy

co-operative. It should be decided by whom and when the report should be elaborated,

before the workshop is closed.

At the final session of the workshop the assessment or evaluation should be carried out,

including the general aims and processes; the performance of the facilitators, group co-

ordinators and the other participants; the different stages of the workshop as well as the

output and further actions planned.

6. Conclusions: The Power of the Scenario Workshop as Vehicle for Creating

Knowledge and Change

As part of the action research tradition, the aims of the Scenario Workshop are to gain new

knowledge as well as to support the participants in initiating changes of the present

situation towards a more desirable future. The examples from the EU-India Cross Cultural

Scenario Workshop at New Delhi are viable illustrations presented in the subsequent

paper. They show how this powerful methodology can support creativity, reflection and

action of the participants from many different backgrounds. But the facilitation and co-

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ordination of Scenario Workshops should be trained systematically in specific courses at a

broad variety of educational institutions.

Scenario Workshops have been used in the settings of private and public enterprises and

institutions too and have proved its value in these settings. The methodology may provide

an enterprise or a network of enterprises with tools and methods that extend more

conventional prognostic techniques. More precisely, the Scenario Workshop can support

the improvement of :

− The human relations of the organisation by improving the participants’ capabilities to

collaborate, communicate and solve conflicts.

− The reflexive-creative abilities of the organisation through problem stating, vision-

creating, back-casting and action planning processes.

− The plurality of knowledge because the workshops are not restricted to oral or written

communication, but may use photography, video, theatre or dance. The development of

knowledge may, thus, be expressed through images, models, role play or physical

models.

− The engagement into significant work through the deep feeling of both release and

empowerment and through changing mindsets and behaviour both individually or as a

group.

− The development of long-term perspectives by considering desirable futures and by

dealing with constraints against action plans.

The methodology itself has been improved during the last ten years. However, there are

still possibilities to improve further the workshop phases, tools and facilitation techniques.

Such improvements may occur during the Scenario Workshop through Learning by Doing.

But they may also be results of research and development. For instance, the creative

possibilities of using drama and role-playing during the different moments of the workshop

should be investigated and experimented on, together with professional actors or

instructors. Another possibility is to develop computer simulation as a workshop tool

together with software and multimedia specialists.

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Finally, the scenario workshop has proven to be an excellent method to stimulate and

strengthen cross cultural collaboration and networking between people from different

cultures, universities, businesses and other professions. The diversity of background and

experiences can be valuable as an extra asset in the workshops and we believe that much

more can be achieved in that direction in the future.

References

Dreborg, K.H. (1996): Essence of Backcasting. Futures, vol 28 (9), 813-828

Robinson, J. (1990): Futures under Glass: a recipe for people who hate to predict. Futures,Oct. 1990.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Applying the Action Research Tookits:

Women Empowerment through Dairy Entrepreneurship

Kavita Mehra, New Delhi, IndiaRajinder Kaur Kalra, Ludhiana, India

This chapter continues the discussions of Action Research and its toolkits described in theprevious two chapters. These two toolkits of Search Conference and Scenario Workshop havebeen applied to instigate changes in Punjab, in the framework of the EU-India Cross-CulturalInnovation Network. Accordingly, the chapter deals with the issue of women empowermentthrough entrepreneurship in the context of the Punjab Dairy Cooperative Movement. This studyof Womens’ Dairy Cooperative Societies in Punjab reveals how the participation of women hasmade them empowered. It has provided them with the opportunity to express their latent qualitiesof being entrepreneurs. The report highlights the influence of regional culture on shaping theentrepreneurial skills and exploiting the capabilities of women. Furthermore it emphasizes theneed to move beyond the Punjab region in order to strengthen regional village renewal andwomen empowerment across larger areas of India. For this process, the concept of ActionResearch has been implemented through workshop activities in European-Indian co-operation.

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1. Introduction: Empowerment of Women through Entrepreneurship

Development and democracy are associated with equality of opportunity. It means equal access

to economic, social political and cultural opportunities to all citizens and the right of every citizen

to participate in public decisions. For equal opportunity to be effective, needs and interests of all

members of society have to be respected and represented. Indian women are, however, often

marginalized in public decision-making and leadership by a variety of processes that in fact begin

in infancy: Hence women tend to lack the self-confidence and skills needed to function

effectively in the public sphere. The nature and intensity of such discrimination depends upon the

socio-economic and cultural structures of the region to which they belong.

The focus of this chapter is on empowerment of women through their participation in dairy

cooperatives and consequently, the development of their entrepreneurial skills. The Indian Dairy

Cooperative Movement began in the State of Gujarat. Its success has led to the diffusion of

cooperative structures in dairy production to other States through the National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB). NDDB recognized the close links of women with the rearing of

cattle and hence with dairy. Therefore they aimed at expanding the participation of women dairy

farmers and strengthening their capacity With this objective, NDDB initiated special programmes

for women by establishing women cooperatives and giving them leadership training. This process

has served the regional development in two ways: it has meant to re-organize the dairy sector

both for its growth and as the basis of women empowerment. As a result women now run over

7,000 village dairy cooperatives and almost 2 million women belong to dairy cooperatives in the

country (NDDB, 1999-2000). Although the same programmes and opportunities might have been

provided by the State across many other regions, the differences related to the new emerging

structures remain between the regions, and fundamental socio-economic improvements are so far

taking place only in that one region considered here. Thus it becomes obvious that the process of

women empowerment experiences the cultural influence of that region. Furthermore the need for

dissemination and new Action Plans can be derived from these experiences. Therefore the

concept of Action Research has been followed in this process as described in the final paragraphs

of this chapter.

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2. Women in India: Status and Roles

Human development is about expanding people's choices, enhancing their capabilities, and

promoting their freedom. Development therefore requires the removal of major sources of non-

freedom: freedom from discrimination, freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom from

injustice. It also requires that citizens be assured the freedom to develop and realize their

potential, freedom of thought and speech, freedom to participate in decision making and freedom

to work without exploitation (Menon et al., 2001).

Nowhere in the world, women are placed as equals with men, whether socially or in terms of

economics. The nature and intensity of discrimination depends upon the socio-economic and

cultural structure of the region to which the women belong. Practices continue to deny women

their rights, entitlements and opportunities for development including their physical, intellectual

and social improvement. Following Menon et al. (2001), a few aspects are listed here to illustrate

how women in India fare on this account:

A vast majority of Indian women work throughout their lives. Only a small number of Indian

women workers are officially recognized as workers and wage earners. Of these, the majority is

concentrated in the primary sector of agriculture and animal husbandry, mainly as wage workers

Women engaged in home-based work earn close to nothing. Home based workers do not have

access to social security benefits such as child care, health insurance or old age pensions (Menon

et al., 2001).

In contrast to boys, girls are encouraged to play passive roles and they are given little opportunity

to make decisions or develop leadership skills outside the family context.

Women are rarely employed in the formal sector labor force. They are usually kept at lower level

positions or mostly employed in the informal sector as unskilled, low-paid labour, unaccounted

for in national statistics.

Women lack access to markets, they lack the skills to meet changing market demands and to

master financial management.

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Women are usually unable to make use of professional opportunities because of lack of time due

to their double work burdens.

3. The Concept of Entrepreneurship toward Women Empowerment

3.1 Empowerment through Collectives

Empowerment may be attained by reducing the constraints which impede equal participation

(Deshmukh, 2002). Policies, schemes and programmes play an important role in reducing

structural constraints. The most important condition for empowerment to take place is the

expansion of the person's mental space.

It has been found that when women operate through Collectives, it leads more likely to

empowerment (Deshmukh, 2002). The point of entry could be to create a Micro Credit Facility or

to form a Dairy Cooperative. The womens’ membership in such a Collective means that all are

addressing a similar problem, facilitates the release of their mental spaces and prepares them for

action. Furthermore they gain new scientific knowledge on daring and thus improve their dairy

activities. Obviously information is a very important source of power and an instrument of

empowerment. Information can be diffused or perceived at individual level or through

Collectives.

Here the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) needs to be described in brief. It has

succeeded in founding a nation-wide network of dairy cooperatives that serve more than 10

million farmers over eighty thousand villages (NDDB, 2001). The small milk producers carry

containers of milk to their local cooperatives. Over 157 lakh kg milk per day travels from remote

villages to town and cities around India. These millions of farmers collectively get benefits from

one of the country’s largest economic enterprises.

3.2 Th Role of the National Dairy Development Board

The approach of the NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) towards the empowerment of

women through dairy cooperatives is based on the understanding that women cooperatives

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provide women with direct access to money. This process enhances their leadership qualities,

decision making power and rational use of inputs in the dairy business for optimizing their

returns. This process awakens in them the characteristics of being an entrepreneur. The term

entrepreneur in literature refers to anyone who can face up to decision making. Entrepreneurship

is a behaviour rather than a personality (Drucker, 1985). It is not only confined to organised or

industrial settings but one comes across these characteristics even in un-organised sector. Studies

show similar characteristics amongst traditional farmers around Delhi in adopting floriculture as

their primary profession. These farmers have been identified as entrepreneurs (Mehra, 2002). We

wish to show that in Punjab, a significant contribution of dairy has been to make women such

entrepreneurs.

The empowerment of women has many constraints to be overcome to make women empowered

towards ‘equality’ with their gender counterparts. The nature and intensity of such constraints

vary across regions within India under the influence of the culture of the region. Hence in Punjab

the problems of women are of particular nature and women empowerment is different from, e.g.,

Gujarat or elsewhere in the country. The following paragraph traces how the development of the

dairy sector has improved the empowerment of women through Women Dairy Cooperative

Societies (WDCS) in Punjab. It shows how participation in the local economy has transformed

women into entrepreneurs and helped them gaining economic empowerment. Reference will be

made to cultural manifestations specific to the regional culture of Punjab.

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4. Dairy in Punjab: Milk Production and Marketing

4.1 The Structure of Dairies

Since the introduction of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice, Punjab agriculture has

witnessed a tremendous increase in the production and productivity levels on the farm front: the

Green Revolution. The growth of dairying is linked to this growth of agriculture in Punjab.

Punjab has made major contributions in achieving the Green Revolution as well as the White

Revolution (the strong milk and dairy developments) in the country. Dairy can compete

favourably with the main crop enterprises provided prudent management practices are adopted.

Most of the farmers practise dairy as well as agriculture to ensure their earnings in case of failure

of crops due to natural calamities. The main actors playing significant roles in the dairy sector are

farmers, milk cooperative societies, the enterprise MILKFED, State departments, retailers, milk

vendors, dairy agents and private agencies. Various departments and organizations are playing

further significant roles in providing knowledge to the dairy farmers. Although there is not a very

strong regulation network in the dairy sector, some of the State departments have been entrusted

with the regulatory responsibilities to ensure better quality of animals and milk etc..

The major portion of milk is consumed as drinks. Surplus milk is converted into butter,

buttermilk, curd, butter oil etc.. A large quantity of milk is also used for making traditional

sweets. With the promotion of dairy as a business enterprise, efforts have been made to introduce

new products through modern processing plants. The main agencies processing milk in their

modern processing plants, are MILKFED (the Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’

Federation Ltd) and Nestle. Some of the new products introduced with long shelf life are

flavoured milk, butter milk, curd, processed cheese, butter, milk cake, ice-cream etc..

Multinational companies have introduced their international brand products through their

processing plants.

The annual milk production of the State Punjab has increased from 2.1 million tons in 1973-74 to

7.4 million tons in 1998-99 (Kalra et al, 2001). The State is contributing about 10% towards the

milk grid of the country. Punjab is the only State in the country which has produced large

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numbers of cross-bred cattle: about 70% of the total cattle population is of cross-bred type in

comparison to about 10-15% at the national level.

The dairies in Punjab are functioning in organised (35%) as well as un-organized sectors (65%).

In the organized fraction, 60 % are in the cooperative structure under MILKFED,and 40% are

handled by the private sector, e.g. multinational companies as Nestle and others (Kalra et al.,

2001). Cooperatives have been recognized as an instrument of planned economic change in

democracy. The milk cooperatives in Punjab are being developed on the AMUL (Anand Pattern)

Model under the umbrella of MILKFED.

4.2 Milk Cooperatives in Punjab

The dairy Cooperatives work as a three-tier system:

− Milk Producers Cooperative Societies at village level,

− Milk Unions at regional level, and

− The Federation at State level (Kalra et. al., 2001).

The Village Level: Milk Producers Cooperative Societies

The organisation of the Milk Producers Cooperative Society in any village is based on a detailed

survey of the village with the following criteria :

− The proximity of the village to milk plant and chilling centre: the village should be on the

milk route already working or proposed.

− The accessibility of the village via roads: the area should be accessible by roads. Thus the

minimum distance is covered for lifting the milk from villages to plant and the maximum

numbers of villages are covered.

− Normally, a new society is organized in a village with the availability of at least 100 litres of

milk even during lean season, and with a membership of at least 35 milk producers.

Despite the activities of the societies, milk vendors are still prevailing in many villages. These

vendors collect milk from small producers and supply it to urban consumers and sweets shops.

They neither give remunerative prices to the milk producers nor do they supply good quality milk

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to the consumers. Normally they procure milk on a flat-rate basis without any kind of testing.

Some of them offer advance payment to the milk producers and then reap the profits earned from

milk business without sharing the profit with the milk producers.

The other group of actors besides the societies in the villages are the dairy agents. They do not

procure milk for themselves but are paid employees of the big traders who collect milk from

different collection points. They also do not pay any attention to the quality of the milk or the

needs of milk producers. Some of them even run away without payment to the producers and

indulge in maximum exploitation.

The Regional Level: Milk Unions

Milk Unions function at regional or district level through village cooperative societies with the

following tasks: they motivate milk producers to form the Cooperative Society and help this

Society in finding a building and a secretary. It includes to arrange management committee

meetings and to conduct General Assemblies, to offer bonuses and prizes to milk producers etc..

They provide testing equipment and organize stationary milk collection from each society.

Furthermore they provide extension education services to the members of the society; organize

village training camps and orientation events for milk producers; offer supervision of milk

quality in the form of animal health coverage, Artificial Insemination (AI) services, supply of

balanced cattle feed and fodder seed, vaccination etc.

The State level: MILKFED

The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd, popularly known as MILKFED,

came into existence in 1973 with two objectives: to provide remunerative milk prices to the milk

producers in the State through value addition, and to provide technical inputs to the milk

producers for enhancement of milk production. MILKFED has a network of over 5000 village

milk producers’ cooperative societies and over 300 thousand milk producers. MILKFED and its

units have a work force of about 5000 employees. Every morning and evening milk is collected

from the villages through private transport vehicles. This transportation system has provided

regular employment to about 600 transport personnel. Most of them are self-employed. Similarly,

lay seminators and first-aid workers are finding employment. More than 5000 village cooperative

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societies are employing 10,000 workers for their milk procurement and technical input provision

etc.

4.3 Private Companies

The milk operations through private companies have no special programmes to involve women

or to strengthen their roles in the dairy sector. Private companies have only a business

perspective. Nevertheless they need to be briefly described here because of their importance for

dairy production in India.

Private Dairy Units

Many small milk processing plants have been established in the private sector. These units also

have their milk collecting centres and collect the milk through their agents. They offer slightly

higher prizes for milk to the producers than the milk vendors and the dairy agents but they do not

provide any technical inputs nor do they offer any shares of their profits. Some of the private

dairies are: Pure Food Ltd, Abhi, Supermilk, Milk Time, Modern Dairy etc..

Multinational firms

Two multinational companies, Nestle and Smith Biclin, have their processing plants in Punjab.

They are not only providing better prices than cooperatives but also extension education services

to the milk producers. But they do not compete with the cooperatives in marketing as they

convert all their milk into milk products.

5. Women Dairy Cooperative Societies (WDCS): Moving Towards Empowering Women

In the culture of Punjab, the role of women is fairly confined to household activities. Women do

not go into the agricultural fields to participate in the crop cultivation except for taking meals to

their farmers. At home, along with taking care of children, women take care of the milk animals

while the men work in the fields. Animals are largely fed on the by-products of the main

cultivation or on the fodder grown in the fields. So dairy remains a subsidiary occupation without

being managed professionally. The introduction of cooperative dairies in the village has brought

a change in the mindsets of these people by proving that dairy could be the primary occupation

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thus offering new opportunities to women. Therefore the movement of Women Dairy

Cooperative Societies has started in Punjab.

The mechanism of operation of these Women Dairy Cooperative Societies is as follows: The

women of the village manage their Society on their own. Only women members are accepted,

and thus, the management committees are composed exclusively of women (eight in number).

Only the Secretary and the Artificial Insemination worker may be a man. The members of the

Society send their milk twice (morning and evening ) to the Society - the Milk Collection Centre.

The milk weighing and testing system is mostly manual but it is computerized in a few societies.

The fat content and the weight of the milk are measured by the secretary at the Milk Collection

Centre and the readings are entered into the Pass Books of the members. Collected milk is taken

away by the vehicles of the Verka Dairy Plant, which is a Union plant. In case the milk collection

center is far off from the milk plant, the milk first goes to the chilling center and from there to the

Dairy Plant. After ten days, the payment of the milk is sent to the Society to be distributed among

the members on the basis of the amount of milk contributed by each member, as written in their

pass books. Profits of the dairy business and annual price difference variations go to the Society.

The Milk Union organizes an annual programme to announce the best performing society and to

disburse bonuses to the societies. It is a big event for the members to meet with farmers of other

societies.

In Punjab, the number of these WDCS is slowly on the increase. There were 64 WDCS during

1995-96, today the number has become more than 72. The Case Reports of three different Women

Dairy Cooperative Societies following here, show the development of entrepreneurial qualities in

the women of the Societies leading to women empowerment.

6. Women as Entrepreneurs in Dairy Business - Three Case Reports

6.1 Women Milk Producer Coop. Society Ltd., Jogi Majra, Ludhiana (Case Report 1)

Description of the village:

About 200 families with about 200 Dairy farms, each between 1 and 20 cattleSchools: one English Middle SchoolOne dispensary, one Community Centre

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The Women Dairy Cooperative started 1989Total number of members: 135

There was already a Dairy Society in the village during 1980s that was being run by the male

members. Due to some disputes among the members, the Society was dissolved. After a few

years, in the late 1980s, a group of active women came forward and succeeded in activating this

Society as a WDCS. Since then, the Society has continuously been growing. During 1988-89,

there were 69 members with 220 litres milk collection per day. The membership number became

135 with daily collection of 940 litres per day, during 1999-2000.The society was able to sell

500,000 kg Verka feed (Union cattle feed), 600 kg mineral mixture and 800 kg green fodder

seeds obtained from the Union under extension service activities of the Union for the

improvement of dairy. It shows that women farmers are accepting the recommended feed and

other farm inputs provided to them and thus, they are adopting the change in the practices.

Similarly, farmers purchased nearly 1664 kg of Verka ghee (fat). It means instead of making ghee

by themselves, which had been the traditional practice of Punjab village women, they have sold

their milk to the Cooperative and bought the value added product, the ghee from the Milk plant.

This is what is being conveyed by extension workers to the farmers: to sell the maximum milk

and obtain the value added products from the milk plant (Union). The sale of ghee shows the

success of extension workers in disseminating the information.

In the village, substantial numbers of animals are cross-bred with the help of Artificial

Insemination (AI) services of the Union. All these developments reveal that there has been a

change in the mindsets of women farmers. They are no more bound to their routine dairy

practices, they are rather accepting the changes as advised in the dairy practices. These adoptions

with time have improved the earnings of women farmers.

During the last years, the Society has gained substantial bonuses and price differences etc. with

about 10 percent increase p.a.. On May 5, 2000, the Society was honoured for the best

performance of any Cooperative Society during 1999-2000, in a public function organized by the

district Union plant. These developments led to the construction of the Society’s own building,

setting up a generator set and computerized milk testing/weighing facilities at the milk collection

center. To attract memberships to the society, WDCS is giving higher prices for the milk

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collected than the recommended price. In fact, that additional price is adjusted against the price

difference and the bonus of individuals which every member receives at the end of year.

Thus, it is a successful WDCS as the profits are growing and the infrastructure of the Society is

being gradually strengthened. The success has been basically due to the dedication of the women

members, good and honest management, and the members are following the practices advised by

the extension workers.

6.2 Bhumadi Women Dairy Cooperative Society, District Ludhiana (Case Report 2)

Description of the village:

Nearly 800 families with about 6000 milk animals (average 5 animals, maximum 15 animals perfamily)

Schools: two KG level, one Primary and one Higher Secondary Schools

One Dispensary, two Community Centres, one Veterinary Dispensary about to be opened

The Women Dairy Cooperative started 1991

During 1989-90, the milk producers could not withstand the exploitation by the private milk

vendors (dhudhiyas) who were collecting milk at a very low rate from them. One of the women

among the producers, Harpal Kaur, decided to get rid of those milk vendors and started looking

for alternatives. Harpal Kaur had heard about the Dairy Cooperative Societies and was aware of

an operational WDCS at Khanna, a village a few kilometers distant from her own village. She is

probably the highest qualified woman of her village with schooling up to the tenth class. She

recalled some discussions about Dairy Cooperatives in Anand during her school days. Thus she

set out to form a Women Dairy Cooperative of her own village.

Along with 4-5 other women of her village, she visited Khanna during 1990 so as to learn about

the operations of WDCS. Subsequently, in the end of December 1990, she contacted the Milk

Procurement Officer of the Union (Verka) Plant to ask them for help in setting up the Society in

her village. He advised to arrange a minimum supply of 50 kg milk each time (morning/evening)

in the beginning so that the Union transport vehicles could start milk collection from their village.

Harpal Kaur initially faced enormous difficulties in motivating the women to set up the

Cooperative and to bring their milk to the milk collection center. Somehow, she succeeded in

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convincing a few women. Harpal Kaur made the beginning of milk collection from her own

premises and it commenced from January 1, 1991.

Private vendors, however, tried to persuade the villagers not to go to the Cooperative. They were

paying in advance. Gradually women realized the benefits of their own Society in terms of

overall prices for the milk and the other inputs for improving the dairy. Thus they remained

determined to be members of the Society. They also persuaded other women to join the

Cooperative. The Society that once started from Harpal Kaur’s premises shifted to the Gurudwara

county yard. In 2001-02, it constructed their own building. During the last years, profit of the

Society increased 10-15 percent p.a..

The case report shows how the role of an educated women farmer is exemplary for setting up

athe WDCS. Harpal Kaur is the member of the village Panchayat (council) as well. Her brother is

Nambardar (mayor). She managed to escape the exploitation by the private milk collectors. She

also fought through the political pressures exerted once the Society started functioning. At one

time the relative of a certain political leader wished to become the President of the Society. The

women of the village, however, supported Harpal Kaur. Thus, a woman became leader in the

village, this experience motivated many other women. Her dedication and determination has been

the basis of the success of the Society.

6.3 Jhande Women Dairy Cooperative Society, District Ludhiana (Case Report 3)

Description of the village:

One Dispensary and one Middle School. Presently this Society has 45 members.

This Society is very old, one of the first Women Cooperative Societies. Compared to other

villages in Punjab, the people of this village are better educated. Many young people are doing

even postgraduate education in the most demanded disciplines such as information technology

and business management. This society has a lady secretary, Satnam Kaur, compared to most of

the other WDCS that have male secretaries. Thus Satnam Kaur calculates fat & SNF contents

after the weighing of the milk. Furthermore she maintains the records and accounts of the

Society.

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This society was set up due to the courage and determination of the women. In the late 1970s,

Ms. Balvinder Kaur, an extension worker, visited the village to suggest to the women to start a

dairy cooperative. In 1978, it started with a membership of 125, at a Dharamshala in the village.

A senior woman in the village, Bibi Basant Kaur who is now more than 100 years old, provided

support to the cause. She is a widow and had one son, who died in the war as a soldier; since then

she devoted her whole life to the Society. Basant Kaur offered her courtyard to run the society.

The private milk vendors opposed this drive as they were loosing their customers. They tried to

stop the women in transporting the milk to the milk plant. Again, Basant Kaur came to the rescue

of the Society. She herself along with a few others, took the milk to the milk plant. She

challenged that no man can dare to stop their way. It led to the women’ success in continuing the

Society. In a similar way, there are many more significant contributions Basant Kaur had made to

the Society. She has donated land to the Society and set up the village’s Mahila Mandal (Women

Center) to deal with women issues. However, it could not be sustained once she became sick and

old.

Gradually the membership grew up to a number of 160. Women were greatly benefited by the

extension services of the Union. They realized the importance of Artificial Insemination (AI) and

cross-bred cattle, to give good nutrition to the cattle, to offer milk of good quality taking into

account the quality-price relationships etc.. Thus they adopted the improvements and expanded

their dairy work by increasing farm cattle numbers.

Education of the young and migration of people from the village to other places have had some

adverse effect on the size of the dairy Cooperative. In the past, the membership was larger. But

now, some of the families have moved away as their children have got educated and moved to

cities for jobs; others have even gone abroad. However, the existing members have confidence in

the WDCS. The present President of the Society has the ambition to make the Society

computerized before leaving for England where her son is working. She feels committed to the

Cooperative. The computerizing of the Societies may increase the faith of the members in the

system, in terms of milk weighing and fat content analysis.

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7. The Impact of Dairy Cooperatives

7.1 The Roles of Women in Dairying

The main roles of women emerging out of these three case reports, show the features of

leadership, dedication and entrepreneurial skills. The leading roles played by one or two women

make the whole system work. Others follow and benefit by the managerial skills of these women.

The knowledge and services provided by extension workers are appreciated by women and

incorporated in their practices. The new roles are the reflection of change in the mindsets of

people and they show that suggested changes do help the women in getting better remuneration

for the practice of dairy farming.

Women are successful as dairy farmers because they are well aware of the behaviour of each

animal and its production characteristics. They have knowledge and experiences about local feed

resources and are able to identify beneficial grasses, weeds and fodder trees for feeding the dairy

animals. Since they know the feeding behaviour of each animal they prepare feed mixtures

accordingly. The preferences of women for animals are based on the temperaments of the

animals, their adaptability and the quantity and quality of the milk produced.

Outside the Cooperatives, the management of animals is still widely taken as a traditional

responsibility, there is still lack of awareness about the potential of this production system to

become a major source of income. As dairying is the only commercial activity of women, once

they are enlightened, they prove more adapt to the utilization of improved dairy methods than

their husbands. At home all day, they are better able to identify when an animal comes into heat,

for instance, and thus to get it to the AI worker in time. This kind of problems shows that it is a

Must in Punjab to change policies in order to have women extension workers and other female

professionals acting in the villages.

The impact of Women Cooperative Societies on these developments is very significant. Today

women are, thus, authorized to meet collectively outside the home with a purpose. As an

example, animal health care knowledge through Union extension workers brings enlightenment

in their lives to practice that knowledge wherever applicable: in their daily life hygiene, health

care, nutrition etc.. Thus it is a source of education to them.

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Women in the Cooperative receive the payments and thus have achieved some increased financial

independence. They can plan and are able to meet household requirements by themselves. The

payments have supplemented their farm income and improved their standards of living.

Furthermore the quality of leadership is emerging among them. On getting the opportunities,

latent leadership talents emerge, and self-confidence is built and reinforced, even among the

followers.

Hence the women are becoming entrepreneurs. Their financial gains have encouraged them to

increase their farm sizes. They have learned to take decisions regarding managing the dairies and

the cooperatives. The dairy as a subsidiary occupation is transforming into a commercial activity.

Their daily life has also become more organized. Regular visit to the milk collection centre gives

them an opportunity to organize their household work, and to take their time to meet others while

pouring out the milk at the milk collection centre. It helps them in sharing their knowledge about

the dairy as well on other issues of social awareness. It includes developments such as installing

telephone connections, electricity generators and many other gadgets at their homes and at dairy

farms.

Dairy has become a matter of pride to the women through their feelings of achievement and

contentment. Such women empowerment through economic empowerment and vice-versa, is a

two-way process. It is the women’s work that leads to significant earnings and self-esteem, and to

exercising control over their income, hence work can enable the women to increase autonomy

and bargaining power within the family. Thus it is a process of economic empowerment leading

to more general empowerment (Menon et al., 2001). In villages where women turned out to be

dairy entrepreneurs, these women have become more and more economically independent.

Gradually their participation and decision-making roles have been increasing regarding education

of children, building households. organizing savings or increasing the dairy farm size etc.

7.2 Societal Impact of Dairy Cooperatives

Some of the benefits of the cooperative society to its members remain common irrespective of the

gender. As an example, organised dairy activities promote the subsidiary occupation toward a

business activity which is also interesting for the male farmers. These economic benefits to

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individuals improve the societal status of the region. This development is apparent from the

following observations-

It was found that children of the members of the Women Dairy Society are having higher

education in various fields such as Masters in English, Information Technology and Business

Management, in India and even from USA. It is primarily due to the additional earnings through

dairying that the expenditure of higher education is met. Furthermore, the Society office or the

milk collection center serve as the source of exchanging information. If one woman’s child is

doing particular new courses, the other women also feel excited and wish that their children

should do the same or something similar. They realize the need of education among themselves.

Since they themselves are not educated, they wish their children to be better qualified.

This may be one reason why in the village Jhande (Case Report 3), people are more qualified but

with time their Society’s membership has decreased! There seems to be an inverse relationship of

education with the number of dairy farms because of the educated farmers and their children

moving out of this area or business. However, the positive effect of improved dairy can also be

observed: for those who are continuing in dairy, farms sizes are increasing. In case of the Jogi

Majra Society (Case Report 1), it has been noticed that the educated sons are helping their

parents in the purchase of selected, cross-bred cattle or in arranging better facilities for cattle

rearing. They are modernizing their dairy farms and thus considering dairy as primary business

activity.

The power of cooperation is one important feature of societal development. As shown above,

cooperation and its lesson have helped to transform the women’s lives. In some areas it has led to

setting-up Mahila Mandals (Women Centers) for imparting training on household requirements

but such examples are not many yet. Taking these lessons of cooperation further, another regions

women have started a Thrift Society where their collective savings provide loans to the members.

7.3 The Women’s Dairy Cooperative Leadership Programme (WDCLP)

Empowerment means changes in attitudes and skills and enhanced self-confidence supported by

expanded knowledge. The Women’s Dairy Cooperative Leadership Programme (WDCLP),

focuses on both. It equips women with leadership skills enabling them to act as catalysts for

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change. Simultaneously, the promotion of Women’s Thrift and Credit Groups, income generation

activities and other developmental programmes have made a positive impact on the lives of rural

women. In all villages where the WDCLP is active, women manage the dairy societies. Where

there is no WDCLP, the women are less interested in the financial affairs of the society - their

husbands look into these things.

The culture of the Punjab is such that the level of suppression of the women in the society is not

as strong as compared to many other States in India. Women in Punjab villages have rather been

leading a life of being neglected in terms of education or nutrition Their needs and their

dedication to their homes as well as their potentialities have remained unnoticed. It is only due to

the availability of opportunity as provided by the WDCS, that women have come forward and

shown their qualities in terms of leadership, decision taking and managerial skills. Their latent

talents have got the chance to be expressed. They have been able to realize the worth of dairy as a

commercial activity by bringing in the changes needed. Thus they behave no less than as

entrepreneurs as Drucker (1985) also says: the entrepreneur always searches for the change,

responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.

Here one could discuss Nussbaum’s version of the capability approach (Nussbaum, 2000) which

has been well supported by Garibaldo (2002). The basic idea in this approach is for a woman not

only to know the satisfaction with what she does, but about what she is in the position to do: what

her opportunities and liberties are. One does not ask about the resources that are sitting around,

but about how those do or do not enable the woman to function in a fully human way.

Capabilities are what make different kinds of functioning possible; capabilities should be a

universal value, but they are frequently restricted to culture-bound concrete functioning. What a

woman can do at one place she should be able to do anywhere else in case the constraints of

culture from around her are removed. Thus through WDCS, women are expressing their

capabilities. The next issue which needs to be dealt with is the best utilisation of their potential.

In Punjab, the Women Cooperatives or other dairy cooperatives have become active under the

State-guided framework. The people in Punjab tend to adopt and practice new developments at

individual level rather than at community level. It appears that once some State created

mechanism is there, people have faith in it and tend to follow that. Apart from innovative

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approaches, the culture in Punjab does not permit people to be followers of one of them as their

leader unless some government intervention is there. They tend to lack in community approach.

Things happen when the government or any outside source guide them, define the roles and set

the rules for them.

8. Towards Knowledge Management in the Village

8.1 Identifying Women Knowledge

This part deals with the recognition of experience-based knowledge and tacit knowledge in the

dairy business residing with the dairy women farmers and also reflecting the use of the

knowledge or services provided by extension workers of the Milk Union.

Women have been found to be receptive of new knowledge: They are practicing dairying by

blending their tacit knowledge with new knowledge. As an example, to know and use the modern

methods of cross-breeding of cattle (e.g. Artificial Insemination), they are conversant with male

extension workers. They practise identification of superior bulls (Murra variety) for breeding

being aware of their features but not necessarily of the name of the breed. They are experienced

in diagnosing diseases and treating animals by home remedies, e.g. for fever, protose salivation;

identification of foot-and-mouth disease and the need to consult the doctor. It includes the

particular diet of animals at particular stages, e.g cattle diet at the time of delivery when the cow

cannot consume green fodder, or the need of cattle to be fed calcium during pregnancy.

The following table shows the women knowledge about cattle feed and the relationship of type of

food and its effects (Rangnekar, 2002).

No. Feed material Type of animal Benefits Claimed

1. Cotton Seed and Cottonseed cake

Cows and buffaloes Improvement in fat percentage andmilk yield

2. Pods and Seeds ofAcacia & ProsopisSpecies of trees

Cows, buffaloes, goats Improvement in milk yield fatpercentage and induce heat.

3. Tinospora Cordifolia(creeper)

Cows, buffaloes, goats Improvement in milk production.

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4. Leaves of Alangium,Bassia lastifolia, Buteamonosperma trees.

Cows, buffaloes, goats Improvement in milk production.

5. Aaadiracta indica (atree)

Mainly goat Improvement in milk productionand deworming.

6. Flower of Bassialastifolia (a tree)

Cows, buffaloes andparticularly bullocks

Improvement in milk productionand maintains body condition.

8.2 Managing the Knowledge: Video-Recording of Tacit Knowledge

In villages, the knowledge is based on the practice of dairying and is inherited in the families

This knowledge is the tacit or experience-based knowledge. As one example, farmers are using

domestic remedies for curing their animals and improving the quality of milk. However, the same

formula for an ailment or feeding the animal is not used across all other villages, not within one

State or across regions. It implies that there is the need to capture this tacit knowledge through

modern means so as to give that knowledge a place in the institutional structure. These days the

fear is that the usage of more and more modern scientific knowledge may replace traditional tacit

knowledge and this tacit knowledge may vanish without being recorded. Tacit knowledge could

be audio-recorded or website-launched for codification. This is one way of creating knowledge

repositories which can be used for conservation of knowledge. Today it can be disseminated

across regions; due to the progress of information technology; this task is becoming easier.

To test this concept, a video recording was made of the women dairy farmers of the village Jogi

Majra in Punjab (Case Report 1). The attempt of the video recording is to capture, in a natural

way, the traditional knowledge being practiced by dairy women and their mechanisms of sharing

and acquiring knowledge within the culture of Punjab. It reveals the family structures, dairy

operations, sources of knowledge and the ways they manage their knowledge. The visual shows

the entrepreneurial characteristics of the women in the dairy and, through dairy cooperatives, how

they started feeling empowered. The dialogues in the local dialect reveal the involvement of

women in taking care of their cattle; their relationship is somewhat motherly with a touch of a

woman’s feeling towards a child. The women are aware of the behavior and requirement of each

of their animals. The video reflects their knowledge on the following dairy practices:

− disease diagnosis and treatment, and the feeding of animals at particular stages,

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− acquisition and acceptance of modern knowledge, by extension programs of milk Unions,

agriculture universities and State departments, and its blending with the traditional knowledge

and practices,

− the impact of dairy cooperatives structure on women milk producers and on their socio-

economic status.

This project has been one attempt of recording the knowledge carried by the women farmers of

one village and showing it at other villages across the regions to facilitate the diffusion of

information.

8.3 Setting up Knowledge Service Centres and Kiosks

Knowledge Service Centres may be considered another approach for knowledge integration and

dissemination in the dairy sector. They need to be linked with every Milk Union in each district.

The Centre can provide general information on dairy farming- like heat symptoms, insemination

of animals, care of pregnant animals, care of young calves (bedding, dis-budding, de-worming,

de-horning); also record-keeping, prevention and control of diseases (diarrhoea, foot-and-mouth,

haemorragic septicemia, brucellosis); vaccination, milking of animals; feeding, mineral mixture;

prevention and control of ticks, flies and mites; protection of young calves from hot and cold

weather etc. It should emphasize integrating the tacit knowledge with new scientific knowledge

and diffusing it across villages. It could make use of information technology in the form of

internet access or through website for solving problems of farmers. One model of such use of

information technology is the Internet Kiosk: it can be established in villages so that the farmers

can send their queries through e-mail and get immediate reply. If the regional language fonts are

available, the farmers even with little knowledge can use this facility.

9. Achievements and Future Actions of the Women’s Movement Toward Empowerment

The movement of Dairy Cooperatives has been an important step to organize the dairy sector for

assured market and remunerative prices for milk. It has created a mechanism and a platform for

the collective approach in dairying. However, it has not yet led to its utilization for any other

purpose because perhaps the State intervention is not there. Seeing the devotion and success of

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women in dairying, it appears that the capabilities of women have not been fully explored and

utilized. For such appropriate utilization of the strengths of cooperative structures, activities other

than dairy need to be pursued through the same platform: e.g. vegetable cultivation, especially of

the new types like broccoli which are highly demanded in urban areas. The same cooperatives

can manage the cooperative sale of those vegetables. These cooperatives can cooperate in fodder

growing on community basis by using recommended fodder seeds. As it happens in cases of Self

Help Groups, credit facilities could be created. Cooperatives need to attend to community

development in terms of pursuance of opening Higher Schools, medical facilities, tree plantation

and environment protection etc.

The Punjab agriculture has to diversify from cereal production to other crops and enterprises in

order to provide remunerative returns to the farmers and also to save health of the soil and water

resources at the same time reducing pollution. Dairy is one of the alternatives in this direction.

There is the need to educate people regarding the use of milk in processed form. Emphasis should

be given to reduce overhead charges. Presently there are still gaps between field and table which

are most essential to overcome in order to maintain the freshness of the milk. The Women Dairy

Cooperative sector plays a significant role in the dairy development and is frequently found more

successful than the male dominated Cooperative Societies. Therefore women need to be

empowered by inspiring them to form more such Societies. To empower them fully, professional

training need to be given for the multiple use of cooperative structures and by setting up

Knowledge Service Centres and Internet Kiosks. To achieve this, cooperatives, Multinationals,

NGOs and other organizations can play important roles.

Many national and international funded programmes are named ‘Women Empowerment’, but

they are of the routine type imparting routine training or encouraging ‘employment-creating’

opportunities for women without considering the market of the produce or the economy of work.

Sometimes, such efforts turn out to be ‘time-spending’ ventures and on the contrary, such women

do not have spare time for new activities; they rather have 'time crunches’ unless these activities

becomes economically beneficial.

Therefore we need to consider the following aspects:

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− Women should not be 'object' but 'subject’ of extension education programmes and

consultancy

− The special perception of rural women needs to come into it.

− Women employment opportunities need to be targeted as ‘transforming women into

entrepreneurs’

− The value systems and social fabric of society should not be disrupted but enriched.

− Elderly women and men need to be made aware of these developments because their support

is needed for success.

− Rural families should be convinced that empowerment of women will have overall beneficial

effect that will lead to community building.

These issues have been taken up by the concept of Action Research with the aid of the european

experts involved in the EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation Network. The proposal for action on

these issues has led to the project From Field to Table which is in the centre of the following

paragraphs.

10. The Collaborative Action Research Project 'From Field to Table'

10.1 The Workshop Concept and the Search Conference

The experiences reported in the previous paragraphs show that Women Empowerment plays the

crucial role in the process to improve village life in India through increased efficiency in dairy

production. The project 'From Field to Table' had given itself this aim to contribute to such

fundamental changes in the Indian villages. This project was a collaborative endeavour among

European and Indian Partners. As its first step during May 2001, a 'Dairy Workshop' was held in

Bologna (Italy) where all Indian and European partners participated. In its centre were

presentations on the Indian dairy sector in Punjab, and the case studies of Women Dairy

Cooperatives were also presented as described in the previous paragraphs. On this occasion, the

Video recording of the 'Women Dairy Cooperatives' was also shown in public

The use of Action Research as the new approach of knowledge management and change was

instigated with the aid of several European experts. It was started in order to strengthen existing

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strategies of regional renewal and women empowerment and to disseminate these approaches

across larger areas of India. The main activity was to run a new kind of workshop based on the

concept of Action Research. This workshop aimed to use Action Research as a tool for

innovation within the framework of sustainable development. The Action Research Workshop in

the dairy sector was a comprehensive approach for the application of two different methodologies

within the Indian context of dairy development: the Search Conference, and the Scenario

Building. It utilized the experiences of these methodologies as practiced in Europe and

transferred as tools into India. Its application to the Dairy sector was to provide insight into the

process of women empowerment and community building and to trigger new actions on these

issues.

Thus the workshop was to serve the following purposes:

− To plan the overall growth of the dairy sector in India by identifying its stakeholders, and the

means to achieve these goals through this participatory approach.

− To mobilise the community (dairy farmers and other stakeholders) through knowledge-

building , awareness-raising and specifically through women empowerment leading to action

− To explore the European methodology of Action Research in the Indian context thus building

a new tradition of Action Research in India.

With the above background, a four-day Action Research Workshop 'Women Empowerment for

Community Building: A Case of the Dairy Sector' was organised in NISTADS, New Delhi, 19-22

February 2002. In the workshop were 22 participants from the three States in the country: Punjab,

Gujarat and Delhi. They were representing various stakeholders of the dairy sector: farmers,

women co-operative members, Milk Union member, agriculture researchers, policy researchers,

NGOs, entrepreneurs in milk processing, and representatives from policy bodies (National Dairy

Development Board and Mother Dairy etc.). It was a participatory workshop with plenary

sessions and group activities conducted with the help of two facilitators: Francesco Garibaldo

(Italy) and Lauge B. Rasmussen (Denmark). For the group activities, the participants were split

into three groups according to their home States Punjab, Gujarat, and Delhi. The group activities

were managed by three co-ordinators: Rajindr K. Kalra (Punjab), Jatin Pancholi (Gujarat) and

Kavita Mehra (Delhi).

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The workshop was based on some cooperation rules as follows:

− All participants are to be present during the whole workshop, from morning till evening.

− All participants are to be given equal chance to participate

− The participants are to show non-aggressive attitudes during all discussions.

As an example, the women farmers participating from Punjab Women Dairy Cooperatives, were

specifically given the chance to speak in Punjabi, and care was taken for their full participation

and expression in the discussion meetings.

The main theme of the Workshop was:

How can empowerment of women contribute to community building in dairy sector?

This theme was agreed on by all participants of the Workshop.

The Programme of the Workshop comprised the following two methodologies of Action

Research: the Search Conference was held on the first day, followed by the Scenario Building

Workshop on the second day.

The Search Conference was used here to allow the participants to co-operatively deal with the

many different dimensions of the complex problem more exhaustively than is usual on such

workshops. The aim was to obtain a new perspective of the problem in such a way to generate

new options and action plans (Garibaldo, 2002). By such means, the Search Conference also

created new possibilities for a more cohesive and collaborative relationship between all

participants.

In the next step, the Scenario Workshop was used here as the method to involve participants in

development, reflection and action planning for community building in the dairy sector. Thus the

Scenario Workshop was held in three main phases:

− To generate new visions of the future through Fore-casting (Scenario Building).

− To design development paths between today and these visions through Back-casting.

− To design Action Plans on how to get from today to the scenario of the future.

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This Scenario Workshop is described in the following paragraph in some detail.

10.2 The Scenario Workshop

Phase I: Fore-casting - The Phase of Scenario Building

Through this Group Activity, each group developed a Scenario Skeleton based on Brainstorming.

The task was set as: Select the main Features of Indian Dairy business in the year 2012 - ten

years from now

In their results of this exercise, all three groups agreed on dairy as the primary activity managed

by educated women. Information technology is to play a significant role in making the dairy an

efficient business. The three groups agreed that of all stakeholders, woman farmers are the most

crucial stakeholders. The main features which influence woman in their process towards the

desired development of dairy business, are education, access to micro-credit, and all kinds of

inputs to the dairy farms. The Gujarat group pointed towards the role of Government and politics

as the macro-factors and listed some relationships as the micro-factors to influence the

development of the dairy sector: male and female, rich and poor, caste, and professional and non-

professional roles in dairy business. The Delhi group identified awareness about the quality of

milk amongst milk producers as another important feature.

During the subsequent phase of Scenario Enrichment, participants were asked to develop a story

line on the envisioned scenario around identified stakeholders and features of the dairy sector. All

the three groups developed such a story line based on their scenario skeleton. To narrate their

stories, interviews, story telling methods, role play modes and singing were used.

The basic story line of each group was around educated women as the milk producers. Further

points of discussion were: awareness of the roles of new technology and knowledge management

in the modernisation of dairy industry. The stories of the Punjab and Delhi groups particularly

emphasized the roles of inputs in fulfilling their visions for the dairies. Presentations illustrated

the ways of achieving their goals and the roles of women in the process of development. All

stories depicted the confidence and courage of women in dairy.

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Phase II: Back-casting - developing paths between today and vision

This exercise was to link the present situation to the envisioned scenario in 2012, concerning the

dairy sector. For that purpose, it was done in the following steps-

− Identifying the main change agents and their strategies (Back-casting Skeleton)

− Creating the sequence of changes to implement these strategies (Back-casting Enrichment)

Here the three groups drafted three different approaches of changes and the roles of their actors.

Change Agents: The Delhi group considered educated women as the main change agents and the

strategy suggested was to adopt dairy as the primary profession for these women - as described

in the previous paragraphs. Further change agents identified were Innovative Opinion Leaders

for information technology, R&D Departments, innovative families for producing a larger variety

of milk products, Government agencies, Women's Union, and support staff for modern resource

management, NGOs, schools, media etc.

The suggested sequences of changes were to make the villagers (especially women) literate; to

make available to them modern inputs and micro-financing, and to change the mind sets of

people. The Punjab group presented that the projected scenario should focus on the assured

market of the milk produced. The suggested strategy was for Women Dairy Cooperatives to

recruit larger numbers of members. The Gujarat group suggested for the present system of dairy

production to move ahead with new technologies: from manually operated dairy, with its few

producers, primitive resource management and male dominated sector, to become information

technology-based, from procurement of milk to transportation, involving several producers of

certain products, modern resource management, and gender-balanced dairy production.

A number of constraints are to be overcome in order to achieve the envisioned scenario starting

from today.

Constraints of change: The three groups identified the following issues as the main constraints in

realising the envisioned scenarios: lack of education; lack of technical knowledge, and financial,

social and family support; no sufficient infrastructure such as water, roads, electricity and

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transportation, problems of village politics. The Gujarat group pointed at the casteism as an

important constraint.

Side effects of change: The Punjab group highlighted side effects as follows: information

technology reduces social interaction, mechanization leads to unemployment, milching machines

affect teats of animals and lack the human touch as affection is widely appreciated by animals.

The cross-breeding has many disadvantages like reproductive disorders in animals; animals

become prone to various diseases; more money and attention is required to handle unsuitable

conditions. With the emergence of private companies, more exploitation of poor or marginal

farmers may take place as these companies are profit oriented rather than sensitive to human

needs. Over-ambitiousness may induce malpractice and adulteration of milk by producers. The

Delhi group pointed at following issues: Village rivalry and threats from competitors; success of

Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) will usher politicians to use DCS as spring boards for

political careers, and fear of agriculture imbalance.

Phase III: Designing Action Plans

The participants were asked to prepare the Local and Regional Action Plans to realise the

scenarios. They were advised to consider the following steps:

− Derive the Concept for Action;

− Define the Goals precisely

− Suggest Milestones to reach the defined goals (for whom, with whom etc.)

Further aspects to be considered are: the resources needed; how to obtain them and from whom;

expected results and their innovative aspects; people opposing or resisting the planned actions;

plans how to overcome their resistance or opposition; etc.

Three local and regional Action Plans - for the Regions of Gujarat, Punjab and Delhi - were

prepared by the three groups. The focus of each action plan remained towards dairy as the

primary occupation of women (and men too), as described in the previous paragraphs. Gujarat

and Punjab in their action plans, presented schemes at field level including resources needed. Not

many dairies, however, are existing in the region of Delhi. Hence the Delhi action plan was on

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networking of dairy cooperatives. The aim of this plan was to coordinate the developments at

regional levels and to provide information on current developments at national and global level

through information technology.

It was finally agreed to set up a virtual network for the participants of the Workshop to exchange

experiences and knowledge in the dairy sector, during the next years.

11. Conclusions: Reflections on Action Research and Empowerment

The workshop described here, was one step to explore a new tradition of Action Research in the

Indian context. It was performed by using the experience of two methodologies which are

considered independent in Europe: Search Conference and Scenario Building.

According to our methodological reflections, the Search Conference was a consensus-building

exercise done together with various representatives of the stakeholders in the Dairy Sector. The

wisdom and experience of all stakeholders, on all levels, was shared to identify goals, discuss the

problems and define ways to overcome those problems. Towards the end of the workshop, the

final document is the expression of consensus of all participants as the stakeholders.

In the Scenario Building Workshop, stakeholders visualised 'the Dairy-Sector-to-be' ten years

from now. They visualised the scenarios of the dairy sector, defined the goals to achieve the

scenarios, identified the constraints and looked for solutions, finally they designed the action

plans. Since all exercises were done along with the stakeholders, each participant knew who is

responsible for what action. Participants felt responsible for their parts of actions and got

educated about their specific roles and how the role of other actors may influence the

development process of the dairy sector. The Scenario Building Workshop further helped the

groups to draw local action plans so that once the participants go back, they can take initiatives

through these action plans in their local regions.

Reflections on the group activities of this action research event have yielded the following

aspects: Different groups of participants made scenarios for the dairy sector as it might be in

2012. All the groups visualised that dairy needs to be adopted as primary profession. Dairy Co-

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operatives managed by women will be leading to socio-economic development of the villages.

However, there were some different views among the three groups on the magnitude of

modernity of the dairy farms and co-operatives, and on the life style of people. The Punjab and

Delhi groups visualized the role of computers etc. mainly at the level of managing co-operatives.

The Gujarat group, however, emphasised the role of information technology in the dairy

business: in the future, all operations in dairy farms from milk production to transportation of

products will be computerised. This difference in thinking may be due to the configuration of the

groups comprising different stakeholders, or due to the influences of the region to which the

participants belonged. Some examples may illustrate this impression.

In the Gujarat group, there were several participants from Schools of Business Management, and

no genuine dairy farmers took part. Furthermore, the participants from Gujarat were

professionally more qualified in writing down details on their plans, several were NGO members.

The same group, time and again during discussions and in the action plans, brought up the issue

of caste. It was felt that the other two groups from Delhi and Punjab do not suffer that much from

this problem of casteism.

While identifying the stakeholders of the dairy sector, the Punjab group specifically identified

spark plugs as the change agents. In the villages of Punjab, the role of the spark plug is very

much experienced: any person doing well in his profession plays a very significant role in

motivating many other farmers in the village to go for the desired change.

As another example of cultural influences, the Delhi group participants were mainly from

research institutes, or from planning and executing institutions. Their action plan followed the co-

ordinating approach on the national level through networking of different institution and actors.

Thus inter-group differences were noticed, as it was expected, but the overall approach was

consistent among the groups.

The important experiences of all participants were the sharing of the Action Research

perspectives by European and Indian partners in India. Both the European and the Indian groups

gained the experience of building new traditions of Action Research in India in the dairy sector. It

was cross-cultural exchange between two continents on the global level which may in the future

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contribute to changing patterns of life and work in Indian villages through women empowerment

and dairy entrepreneurship.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation Network Project, funded by

the European Union, for providing an opportunity to NISTADS and PAU to jointly take up this

study in the dairy sector. We are thankful to Prof. Karamjit S.Gill, Project Director and Dr.

Ashok Jain, Indian Network Coordinator of project, for taking keen interest in the project and

guiding us throughout the study. Stimulating discussions with them and with European project

partners, Dr. Lauge Rasmussen (Denmark) and Dr. Francesco Garibaldo (Italy) have helped us in

concluding the study and their inputs are duly acknowledged. Sincere thanks are there for the

support of Prof. Rajesh Kochhar, Director, NISTADS, and Prof. K.S. Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor,

PAU, in taking up the joint study.

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References:

NDDB (2001), National Dairy Development Board, http://www.nddb.org (2002)

Deshmukh, R J (2002), Negotiating Spaces for Women Empowerment. Paper presented in theSeminar Economic Empowerment of Women. NISTADS (CSIR), New Delhi, 18-19February 2002.

Drucker, P.F (1985) Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Practice and Principles. Heinmann,London.

Garibaldo, F (2002) The Capability Approach and the Experience of Working. Paper presented inthe Seminar on Economic Empowerment of Women, NISTADS (CSIR), New Delhi, 18-19February 2002, and: Toolkit: the Search Conference. in this Volume

Kalra, R.K, Mehra, K, and Singh, R. (2001) Studies and Strategies for Organization of DairySector in Agro-industry. Paper presented in the Dairy Workshop, EU-India Cross CulturalInnovation Network Project, Bologna, May, 2001.

Mehra K (2002) Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Indian farmers. AI & Society, 16:112-118.

Menon, S., Kumar, K. and Shiva, A K. (2001) Women in India. How free? How equal? Researchreport commissioned by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator, New Delhi,India, 2001

Nussbaum, M C (2000) Women and Human Development-The Capabilities Approach.Cambridge University Press, USA.

Rangnekar, S (2002) Empowerment of Women through Dairying. Unpublished Paper. Seminaron Economic Empowerment of Women, NISTADS (CSIR), New Delhi, 18-19 February2002,

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List of Authors for Volumes I and II

Dr. Dietrich BrandtDep of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA)University of Technology (RWTH)52056 Aachen, Germanye-mail: brandt@zlw-ima.rwth-aachen.de

Suchindran ChakravarthiimagicL I/211 A, Alaknanda, KalkajiNew Delhi 110 019, Indiae-mail: imagic@india.com

Dr. Jon DronSchool of Computing, Mathematical and Information SciencesUniversity of BrightonBrighton BN2 4GJ, UKe-mail: jon.dron@bton.ac.uk

Dr. Francesco GaribaldoFondazione “Istituto per Il Lavoro” (IPL)Via Marconi 840122 Bologna, Italye-mail: f.garibaldo@ipielle.emr.it

Prof. Karamjit S Gill

Fac of Management and Information SciencesUniversity of BrightonBrighton BN2 4GJ, UKe-mail: k.s.gill@bton.ac.uk

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus HenningDepartment of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA)University of Technology (RWTH)52056 Aachen, Germanye-mail: henning@zlw-ima.rwth-aachen.de

Dr. Susanne IhsenVDI The Association of EngineersPostbox 10 11 3940002 Düsseldorf, Germany

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Formerly:Dep of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA)University of Technology (RWTH)52056 Aachen, Germanye-mail: ihsen@vdi.de

Dr. Ashok JainCSIR Emeritus ScientistInstitute of Informatics and CommunicationUniversity of Delhi South CampusNew Delhi 110 021, Indiae-mail: ashok@iic.ac.in

Rajinder Kaur KalraAssociate Professor Extension EducationDep of Agro-EngineeringPunjab Agriculture University PAULudhiana 141 004, Indiae-mail: rajinderkaurkalra@yahoo.com

Dr. Ved Prakash KharbandaNational Institute of Science, Technology & Development StudiesNISTADSDr.K.S.Krishnan MargNew Delhi-110012, Indiaemail: kharbandavpk@yahoo.com

Prof. Rajesh KochharNational Institute of Science, Technology & Development StudiesNISTADSDr.K.S.Krishnan MargNew Delhi-110012, Indiae-mail: rkk@nistads.res.in

Prof. Abhai MansinghInstitute of Informatics & CommunicationUniversity of Delhi South CampusNew Delhi 110 021, Indiae-mail: abhaymansingh@yahoo.com; smansingh@home.com

Dr. Kavita MehraNational Institute of Science, Technology & Development StudiesNISTADSDr.K.S.Krishnan MargNew Delhi-110012, Indiae-mail: kavitamehra@yahoo.com

Prof. Dhawal Mehta

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GLS Institute of Business ManagementGujarat Law Society Campus EllisbridgeAhmedabad - 380013Gujarat, Indiae-mail: glsibm@wilnetonline.net

Abhilash S NairGLS Institute of Business ManagementGujarat Law Society Campus EllisbridgeAhmedabad - 380013Gujarat, Indiae-mail: glsibm@wilnetonline.net

Sune NetterstrømDoctoral Researcher, EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation NetworkDepartment of Manufacturing Engineering and ManagementTechnical University of DenmarkLyngby, Denmarke-mail: netters@worldonline.dk

Dr. Ellen OlbertzSercon GmbHHeinrich-von-Brentano-Str.455129 Mainz, Germanye-mail: eolbertz@de.ibm.comFormerly:Dep of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA)University of Technology (RWTH)52056 Aachen, Germanye-mail: e.olbertz@web.de

Jatin PancholiGLS Institute of Business ManagementGujarat Law Society Campus EllisbridgeAhmedabad - 380013Gujarat, Indiae-mail: glsibm@wilnetonline.net

Vydhehi RajapillaiDoctoral Researcher, EU-INDIA Cross-Cultural Innovation NetworkSchool of Computing, Mathematical and Information SciencesUniversity of BrightonBrighton BN2 4GJ, UKe-mail: Vy@care4free.net

Dr. Lauge Baungaard RasmussenDep of Manufacturing Engineering and ManagementTechnical University of Denmark

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Lyngby, Denmarke-mail: lbr@its.dtu.dk

Christina Rose, M.A.Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme on Global Challenges (GK Global)University of TuebingenKoestlinsche VillaRuemelinstrasse 2772074 TuebingenFormerly:Dep of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA)University of Technology (RWTH)52056 Aachen, Germanye-mail: theodortuetchen@gmx.de

Dr Harjinder. S. SekhonDep of Agro-EngineeringPunjab Agriculture University PAULudhiana, Indiae-mail: hssekhon1@yahoo.com

Paurav ShuklaDoctoral ResearcherGLS Institute of Business ManagementGujarat Law Society Campus EllisbridgeAhmedabad - 380013Gujarat, Indiae-mail: pauravshukla@yahoo.com

Dr. Sanjeev SinghInstitute of Informatics & CommunicationUniversity of Delhi South CampusNew Delhi 110 021, Indiae-mail: sanjeev@iic.ac.in

David SmithSchool of Art, Media and DesignUniversity of Wales College Newport (UWCN)PO Box 179, Newport NP18 3YG , UKe-mail: david.smith@newport.ac.uk