Abstract
Abstract : The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the extent to which the agricultural worker cooperatives’ socio-economic variables or attributes (wages, bonus/dividends, benefits, assets, savings, work, skills training, and cooperative’s participation in community activities, environmental effects and health) influence the wellbeing (overall life satisfaction) of the participants at the Greater Giyani Municipal Areas. The study was done through a mixed methods approach. From the qualitative findings, the study confirms that indeed there has been a moderate change or improvement in the agricultural worker cooperative participants’ wellbeing as seen through the satisfaction levels before and after cooperatives were established in the Greater Giyani Areas. The quantitative findings of the study revealed that there is a moderate influence on the dependent variable (overall life satisfaction) since the beta weights of the independent variables (satisfaction with wages, bonus/dividends, benefits, assets, savings, work, skills training, cooperative’s participation in community activities, negative environmental effects and health) fell between the values of 0 - 0.5. One can conclude that agricultural worker cooperatives moderately influence the participants’ wellbeing. In addition, both male and female participants have similar satisfaction levels in wages, bonus/dividend, savings and investment, productive assets, training and environmental effects. This means that agricultural worker cooperatives do uplift rural women since their wellbeing does not differ from that of their male counterparts.
D.Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)