“Separate from the private sector and government, the social economy includes co-operatives, foundations, credit unions, non-profit organizations, the voluntary sector, charities and social economy enterprises. Social economy enterprises are a component of the social economy that are run like businesses, producing goods and services for the market economy, but manage their operations and redirect their surpluses in pursuit of social and environmental goals.”
The practicioner group, Le Chantier de l'économie sociale - the Quebec Task Force on Social Economy - works with the following definition, characterized by the enterprises that make up the social economy:
“Social Economy enterprises are association-based economic initiatives founded on the values of solidarity, autonomy and citizenship, embodied in the following principles:
1. a primary goal of service to members or the community rather than accumulating profit;
2. autonomous management, as distinguished from public programs;
3. democratic decision-making process;
4. primacy of people and work over capital and redistribution of profit; and
5. operations based on the principles of participation, empowerment, and individual and collective accountability.”
I can’t help but see how the values of the co-operative movement fit obviously within these definitions of the Social Economy. Figuring out what other types of organizations fit within these definitions is what the research nodes of the Canadian Social Economy Suite are examining now.
The Canadian Social Economy Suite is a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). SSHRC funds many university-based research and training projects. The Suite project is comprised of 6 regional research nodes from across Canada and one national node. The regional nodes include the Northern Canada node, the BC/Alberta node; the Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northern Ontario node, the Southern Ontario node, the Quebec node, and the Atlantic node. The national node is the Canadian Social Economy Hub and is located within the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies here on campus. Annie McKitrick is the Hub Project Coordinator and has been very busy getting the project up and running and in planning a myriad of conferences and projects to ensure its success.
An example of some of the questions that we asked Annie McKitrick, project coordinator for the Canadian Social Economy Hub, are as follows:
1. So Annie, we just read two definitions of the Social Economy, when you’re asked by someone “What’s the Social Economy?” What do you tell them?
2a. Do you know when researchers and others started to focus on the Social Economy?
2b. Why do you think this shift in focus started then?
3. I really liked when I heard the term “Triple Bottom Line” or “People, Planet, Profits”. It’s very catchy and seems to sum up the values of the social enterprises participating in the Social Economy. This method of doing business seems quite sustainable in a community if not a society. How do you think the Social Economy is currently influencing communities and society now?
How do you see it influencing us in the future?
4. What got you into studying the Social Economy?
5. Could you tell us about the Canadian Social Economy Suite project and what role the Hub plays?
6. How does this research differ from other academic projects?
7. Can you tell us about community economic development as a practice?
8. Could you tell us about the upcoming conferences the Hub has planned? I hear you just came back from Turkey, how was that?
9. Could you tell us about the tele-learning sessions you have planned for the Hub?
10. Could you tell us about any other upcoming opportunities to learn about the Social Economy?
Sign up on the website to receive the CSEHub E-Bulletin and emails about the upcoming tele-learning sessions starting this September.
The CSEHub website is a bilingual, soon to be trilingual, website that has information on the Canadian Social Economy Suite project and the research being done. The Hub also has some interesting documents to read on the social economy and links to Canadian and International websites on the Social Economy. Check it out at www.socialeconomyhub.ca or emailinfo@socialeconomyhub.ca