Role of women in rural areas in formation of social cooperatives: examination of Afşar Bala'm women cooperative

Role of women in rural areas in formation of social cooperatives: examination of Afşar Bala'm women cooperative Social cooperation is a social enterprise model established to complement inadequate government services meant for fragile and disadvantaged groups such as elder, handicapped, addicted, unemployed, youth, immigrant, women, and convict individuals living within the community. Social Cooperatives employ disadvantaged groups at the same time they deliver social rehabilitation. The women partners of Afşar Bala'm Women Cooperative utilize the resources of the rural area they live; besides, they provide economic, social, and cultural gains to the local people by founding an organized operating model. These social cooperatives that symbolize unity, solidarity, democratic management are also harmonized with rural women's endeavour. This research aims to analyze women's roles in the Afşar rural area in daily life, their communication network, push factors that led them to founding cooperatives, their level of education, and the effects of the cooperative in their economic and social lives. It additionally aims to evaluate rural women's role in creating social cooperatives within these patterns. An open-ended interview form was prepared within the phenomenological research scope that consists of 29 structured and semi-structured questions through the participant observation method for the cooperative founder and their partners. The answers provided by the participants were recorded, transcribed and deciphered letter by letter during these interviews. The roles of rural women within their organization, a cooperative, were understood in line with their definitions and experiences through qualitative research methods. The processing of data in the research was carried out by the coding method. As a result of the research, it was determined that cooperative partners employed in the Afşar Bala'm Cooperative have produced a social value in their living space. They have accomplished this through leading the hierarchical transformation in their traditional family structures, their ability to process local products, the way they work, and their educational and vocational qualifications. Afşar Bala'm Cooperative is a non-profit organization that unites women living in the region and gains potential power from this togetherness. Consequently, the cooperative obtains new social meaning through the rural women. Keywords; Social Cooperative, Social Enterprise, Women Enterprise, Women Cooperative.