This study is about the Fonte Nova enterprise, which is an associative organization linked to a local development project instituted from a cooperative work involving the local government, strategic leadership of the city of Criciumal-RS and the productive forces of this local. The objective of this study is to analyze and understand the process of creation and development of this enterprise and the relationships between this project and the local and regional process of development. The analysis was based on a methodological research guideline - the longitudinal, historical and contextual approach - which seeks to understand the evolutionary process of structuration and change of an organization, considering three fundamental elements: the contents of change, its context and its implementation process. Thus, this is a qualitative study. The results reveal that the Fonte Nova agreement was an interesting initiative of local development, since it instituted a process of articulation between the leaderships and the economical and political forces of a city that was economically stagnant and inert, concerning alternatives that could reverse the incredulity and prostration that was commonplace among the population. However, this agreement, which was an important project to revitalize local development and which allowed a new dynamic of agreement between the political and economical agents of the city, also presented a number of problems and obstacles that prevented an even more expressive result of this initiative of development, conceived from an action centered on the purpose of cooperation, solidarity and association.
Local development; Collective strategies; Cooperation; Agribusiness enterprises
