Social Mechanisms of the Counterpublic Sphere: A Case of a Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative in LAO PDR

Abstract

This chapter aims to examine the mechanisms and conditions of the emergence of the counterpublic sphere through describing the features of the connections possessed by a coffee farmers’ cooperative in two different but interrelated dimensions: the transformation of connections inside the cooperative and the construction of connections outside the cooperative. Through this case study in Lao PDR, the finding is that distrust among the farmers has affected the mechanism of the exclusion of the members on the one hand, and on the other the cooperatives have acquired political power in order to use such mechanisms through the connection to external organisations. In this process, the exclusion of members might occur, in contrast to the openness of the members which is often referred as an ideal of the counterpublic sphere.