The Canadian Social Economy Hub seeks to answer the question: How can the approaches of the Social Economy be better understood and effectively applied so that community organizations, civil society, community developers and researchers can collaborate to empower groups and communities to meet their social and economic needs?

The Hub's vision is to promote collaboration between researchers and practitioners in order to encourage initiatives at the local, provincial and national levels so the Social Economy and its related approaches are more widely understood and applied in Canada.

The Canadian Social Economy Hub (CSEHub) acts as a facilitator promoting collaboration among six regional research centres across Canada, and creating opportunities and exchanges within international networks. CSEHub reaches out to practitioners, to researchers and to civil society through the regional research centres and their community partners. It undertakes research as needed in order to understand and promote the Social Economy tradition within Canada, and as a subject of academic enquiry within universities.

CSEHub is developing a database and communication system to promote awareness and understanding of the Canadian Social Economy and to advance research and teaching programs. It will address public policy issues through research papers aimed at public servants, politicians and civil society.

CSEHub is funded via a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and is supported by the University of Victoria and Canadian Community Economic Development Network.

The BC Institute for Co-operative Studies (BCICS) is the host organization for CSEHub. Ian MacPherson, of the University of Victoria, and Rupert Downing, of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CEDNet), are co-directors of the Canadian Social Economy Hub. Board members include representatives from each regional centre as well as from the following organizations:

Annie McKitrick

The Social Economy Hub welcomes Annie McKitrick as Project Officer. Annie joins Robin Puga (Communications/Information Technology) and Vivian McCormick (Administration) in providing support for the Social Economy Hub. Annie was born in France and came to Canada to study at McGill University. Annie has worked in community development in Asia and in Canada. For the past eight years she provided leadership to community and social planning initiatives in Surrey, BC. Annie has had an enduring interest in the collaboration between university researchers and practitioners and is delighted to be working for the Social Economy Hub. She looks forward to meeting researchers and practitioners from all the research regions, as well as facilitating the diffusion of information about the social economy across Canada.

Annie welcomes you to contact her at:

Project Officer - Canadian Social Economy Hub
secoord@uvic.ca
Phone: (250) 472-5338 Fax: (250) 472-4541

Canadian Practitioner definition:

"The Social Economy consists of association-based economic initiatives founded on values of:

- The CCEDNet National Policy Council, Social Economy Roundtable Consultation Briefing Notes, 2005

Canadian Government definition:

"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."

- Western Economic Diversification Canada

International definition:

"Private companies created to meet their members' needs through the market by producing goods and providing services, insurance and finance, where profit distribution and decision-making are not directly linked to the capital contributed by each member, each of whom has one vote. The Social Economy also includes non-profit organizations that are private non-market producers, not controlled by government, produce not-for-sale services for specific groups of households and whose main resources come from voluntary contributions by the households as consumers, payments from the government and income from property."

- International Center of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC), Monzón Campos, 1997

On March 15th, the CSEHub bilingual website was launched. The site is a central repository for results from the Canadian Social Economy Suite project and provides access to the findings of the project's research. The site also provides tools for those wishing to learn more about the Social Economy in Canada, including a prototype for an online Social Economy Encyclopedia modeled after the popular Wikipedia website.
The site features include: