On October 19, 2011, as part of the International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy, The Canadian Social Economy Hub, in collaboration with Margie Mendell, Chair of the FIESS Scientific Committee, convened a panel on collaborative and partnership research for the social and solidarity economy. The focus of the panel was on the collaborative experience within the Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships (BC/Alberta, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and a broader national perspective) as well as the international example of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco in Brazil. Speakers highlighted the succeses and challenges of conducting research within a collaborative/partnership framework, particularly within the context of advancing our understanding of the social and solidarity economy.
The panel was moderated by Marc Renaud, former President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and included presentations from the following speakers:
Mike Lewis
Mike Lewis is well known in Canada and internationally as a practitioner, author, educator, having played a leading role in community economic development and the social economy for over 30 years. Mike has played a key role in building several CED organizations and social enterprises and has provided technical assistance to many more, including as an active member of the Canadian CED Network. He is the Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal, as well as Director and Lead Investigator of the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance.
Benoit Lévesque and Margie Mendell
Benoît Lévesque est professeur associé à l’École nationale d’administration publique du Québec et professeur émérite à l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a été cofondateur du Centre sur les innovations sociales (CRISES) et de l’Alliance de recherche Universités/Communautés en économie sociale (ARUC-ÉS), organismes qu’il a dirigés jusqu’en 2003, et il a ensuite présidé le Conseil scientifique international du CIRIEC international. Au cours des dernières années, il a mené des recherches et réalisé de nombreuses publications sur la sociologie économique, le modèle québécois de développement, l’économie sociale et le développement régional et local.
Marguerite Mendell is an economist and Professor, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University. as well as also Director of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy at Concordia University. She has published widely on the social economy in Quebec, local development, social finance, economic democracy and on the work of Karl Polanyi, especially as it relates to contemporary democratic economic development strategies. Professor Mendell collaborated recently with practitioners to establish CAP Finance in 2009, a network of solidarity finance and development capital, following several years of partnership research (ARUC en économie sociale). She is a member of the Board of Directors, Chantier de l'économie sociale and the Advisory Committee of the Social Economy Partnership for Community-based Sustainable Development for the City of Montreal. She co-directed the CURA-SE partnership research on finance and on the Montreal region.
Leslie Brown
Dr. Leslie Brown is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Mount Saint Vincent University. Dr. Brown was the Director of the SSHRC-funded Social Economy and Sustainability Research Network (2010-2011), a collaborative partnership of over 80 community and university based individuals and organizations that came together to study the Social Economy of Atlantic Canada. In 2003 the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council awarded the Distinguished Co-operator Award to Dr. Brown in recognition of her volunteer and professional work with co-operatives, and in 2009 the Canadian Association of Co-operative Studies recognized her contributions to co-operative research by presenting her with their Merit Award.
Ian MacPherson
Ian MacPherson, Professor Emeritus of History, is a former Department Chair, Dean of Humanities, and director of the British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies at the University of Victoria. He has written, edited and co-edited twenty books and some 150 articles, mostly concerned with the Canadian and international co-operative movements and Co-operative Studies as a distinct field of enquiry. An elected co-operative official for forty years, he chaired the process and wrote the documents whereby the International Co-operative Alliance developed an Identity Statement for the Twenty-First Century at its Manchester Congress, 1995. He is also Co-Director and Principal Investigator for the Canadian Social Economy Hub.
Ana Dubeux
Ana Dubeux est professeure au Departement de Sciences de l’Education à l'Université Fédérale Rurale de Pernambouc (UFPRE) au Brésil. Elle est membre de l'Incubateur Technologique de Coopératives Populaires de l’UFPRE, et membre de la co-ordination nationale du Réseau d’Incubateurs composé de 43 universités bresiliennes. Actuellement elle coordonne le Centre regional de formation de formateurs en économie solidaire du Nord-Est du Brésil, qui travaille avec 9 états de cette région au Brésil. Elle est aussi coordinatrice du Laboratoire de recherche-action « Nucleo de Agroecology et paysannerie" de l’UFRPE, et membre de la coordination nationale du Forum Bresilien d'Economie Solidaire. Spécialisée dans le domaine de l'anthropologie économique et de la sociologie du développement, ses travaux sont principalement liés à l’étude des modalités de développement par l'économie solidaire et le développement durable et à la place de la formation et l’éducation dans ce processus.
Staff and researchers associated with the Canadian Social Economy Hub
have presented numerous lectures on the social economy, the Hub, and
related topics. Below are the contents of presentations that have taken
place in the past: