News & events
At the Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy, there's always something exciting happening. Whether it's a guest speaker, a lunch-time discussion, or new a research project, we strive to connect the university with the greater community.
Recent news
- Film Screening "Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work"
Film Screening "Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work": Worker Owned Enterprises, excerpt from Mondragon. Directors Melissa Young, Mark Dworkin, Tony Harrah and Carl Davidson. May 5th, 2012, 12:30 - 1:30pm in the McLauren Bldg, Room A144.
The film will be screened at the Global Studies Association North American Conference: Dystopia and Global Rebellion. For conference details and registration click here.
To help raise much needed funds to finish the documentary and to preview the film visit the Kickstarter campaign
- Central 1 Credit Union $1 Million in funding
CENTRAL 1 CREDIT UNION $1 MILLION GIFT FUNDS CO-OPERATIVE OUTREACH
APRIL 3, 2012Central 1 Credit Union is donating almost $1 million over the next five years to the University of Victoria’s Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy (CCCBE)—a gift that could increase if the province’s 1.7 million credit union membership expands as well. The financial contribution is based on a unique funding arrangement of nine cents per British Columbia credit union member.
“This is an extraordinary gift, especially given that Central 1 Credit Union has already been extremely generous to the centre with previous contributions of over $1.24 million over the past 12 years,” says UVic Vice President External Relations Valerie Kuehne. “This generous gift will permit the centre to continue its focus on enhancing UVic’s connections to the credit union and cooperative sectors while increasing integration with the academic community, both at the university and beyond.” Press Release
- Call for Submissions
Critical Management Studies - Professional Development Workshop at UMASS-Boston
Description: As part of the Critical Management Studies Professional Development Workshop programme for 2012 the division is sponsoring a one-day paper development workshop to be held at the University of Massachusetts Boston Campus (Boston Harbour).
Timetable: The workshop will run from 10.30am to 5.30am on Friday August 3 and includes six paper streams with a strict limit of six accepted papers per stream.
Aim: The aim of the workshop, as with previous events (the two day events that CMS has sponsored in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Montreal) is to maximise discussion around, and development of, full length papers in preparation for publication. In order to maximize discussion, authors will not present their own papers, but rather participants will be asked to present and discuss each others' papers. Please note also that this is a powerpoint free event!).
Location: The workshop will be held in the Campus Centre at the UMass Boston whom is sponsoring the event (details on how to travel to the location from AoM hotels/conference centre will be circulated closer to the time).
Streams:
1. Ethics and embodiment (Alison Pullen and Carl Rhodes)
2. Sex and organization (Albert Mills and Torkild Thamen)
3. Worker cooperatives as an organizational alternative (Ana Maria Peredo and George Cheney)
4. Critical perspectives on the globally mobile professional and managerial class (Steve McKenna and David Weir)
5. Organizing revolutions in everyday life (Sarah Stookey and Jonathan Murphy)
6. CMS and Business Journalism: Exploring a Difficult Relationship (Richard Hull and Todd Bridgman)
Abstracts: Abstract should be no less than 500 words in length (1 full A4 page in 12 point) and include full author details.
Deadlines: Abstract should be submitted by May 1 to the stream convenors. Stream convenors will endeavour to return abstract decisions by May 15. Full papers should be submitted to the stream convenors by July 1 for distribution to stream participants.
Paper Presentation: In order to maximize discussion, authors will not present their own papers, but rather participants will be asked to present and discuss other presenters‚ papers.
AoM papers: It is expected that papers submitted for inclusion in the workshop stream will not be scheduled for presentation in the main AoM Conference Programme.
Organizer: Craig Prichard (Massey University, Aotearoa-New Zealand)
Email: c.prichard@massey.ac.nz - Call for Papers – Special Issue of Organization
Worker Cooperatives as an Organizational Alternative: Challenges, Achievements and Promise in Organizational Governance and Ownership
Coordinators
- Iñaki Santa Cruz, Faculty of Economics and Business Studies. Autonomous University of Barcelona. (Spain)
- Elías Nazareno, Faculty of History. Universidade Federal de Goiás. (Brazil)
- George Cheney, School of Communication Studies, Associate Investigator, Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Kent State University (United States)
- Ana Maria Peredo, Gustavson School of Business, Centre for Co-operative and Community Based Economy and University of Victoria (Canada)
The current financial crisis has revealed structural problems as well as perturbations in the global financial and market systems. Within the context of crisis, there is great interest in experimentation with alternative organizational forms that can both respond to the challenges of today’s economy and restore equilibrium through a renewed emphasis on social values. In particular, worker ownership and governance are gaining attention in a variety of forms and regions. Worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives typically pursue both economic viability and strong forms of participation; further, they are closely tied to community economic and social development. Seeing these multiple objectives as intertwined and in fact necessary is central to the call for the 2012 United Nations’ International Year of the Cooperative, which seeks to highlight the contribution of cooperatives to social and economic development through generating employment, reducing poverty, and fostering social integration.
Perhaps the most famous contemporary case of worker cooperative organization that achieves the multiple goals described above is the Mondragon Cooperative Group (MCG), one of the largest, long-lived, and successful examples of workers’ owned organizations in the entire world. Mondragon has a remarkable record of financial success and the provision of sound and stable labour conditions. Founded in 1956, the Basque cooperatives now employ almost 100,000 members, are represented in more than a dozen countries, and are the focus of ongoing scrutiny, praise, and critique. While the well-known wage differential has grown somewhat over the years within the system, it remains quite narrow by almost any comparison, even when a number of top-level salaries that are pegged to the market are taken into account. Amidst the current economic downturn that began in 2007 that has resulted in over 20% unemployment in Spain and approximately half that in the Basque Country, the Mondragon co-ops have relied on their historic principles of democracy, equality, solidarity, and participation as fundamental parts of their management strategy. While 24% of Spanish companies have closed down during this recession, the MCG only had to close down one of the 120 cooperatives that form the group, and relocate the 35 workers into other companies. In fact, there is significant evidence of increased democratization in the FAGOR Group, the original industrial cooperatives and the heart of the system. For all these reasons, now is an important moment for attention to the distinctive characteristics of these cooperatives as well as their lessons for other socially inspired management, organizational, and market models. The MCG represents but one case; however, given its rich history, diverse characteristics, encounters with globalization, and experimentation in new forms of participation now underway, it provides an extremely important point of reference in any comprehensive or forward-looking examination of worker cooperatives today.
This call for papers is open to research contributions and critical-theoretical analyses of alternative organizations and especially worker cooperatives. We are especially interested in nuanced assessments of the methodological, philosophical, socio-political and organizational principles and challenges of workers cooperatives within the broader context of so-called alternative organizations. This means that sound empirical and interpretive investigations in the pursuit of important critical questions are encouraged. Such assessments may include attention to the activities, performance, and extensions of this kind of alternative organizations. We welcome multidisciplinary contributions and those that take on different perspectives that seek to bridge case-level detail with broader socio-economic trends. In addition, papers presenting theoretical reflections and analyses of specific worker owned cooperatives worldwide (such as Mondragon) should manifest a comparative perspective even if they do not fully examine each of two or multiple cases. Analyses that seek to apply recent developments in democratic theory and in alternative economics are certainly appropriate. Overall, the set of papers in the special issue will illuminate the complexities and changes in worker cooperatives, as they weather an extremely challenging period yet one ripe with opportunity.
The special issue will reflect the international scope of Organization, advancing its mission as an open, reflective, imaginative, and critical journal about what is happening worldwide that contributes to these reflections. Further, we aim to help to expand the field of organization studies by interrogating the diversity and comparative viability and authenticity of organizational forms and practices, including those grounded in deep forms of democracy and solidarity. By closely examining cooperative organizations, and comparing them with other forms of worker ownership and governance, the special issue will encourage further exploration of diverse forms of organization, managerial practice, and the social economy from all around the globe, widening research on the Mondragon Cooperative Experience (MCE) and other significant examples. Therefore, the call welcomes international collaborations, be they ongoing or ad hoc.
Examples of key themes for investigation allowing for further international comparisons include:
1. The organizational resources, structures, and dynamics allowing for social as well as economic resilience in worker cooperatives;
2. The changing roles of leadership in worker cooperatives: considering for example the interplay of various forms of leadership from charismatic to collaborative or group-based;
3. The capacity of and obstacles to the reinvention of democracy within cooperatives, including means to manage and solve conflicts between different goals, sectors, and constituencies (for example, concerning the relationship between worker-member-owners and temporary workers);
4. The relationships between cooperatives and organized labour, the state, the community, and the larger financial system;
5. Maintaining cooperative values while facing crises of participation, identity, and shared ownership and decision making within a system undergoing international expansion.
Papers should be no more than 8,000 words, excluding references, and will be blind reviewed following the journal’s standard procedures. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the guidelines published in Organization and on the journal's website
For further information, please contact one of the guest editors:
Iñaki Santa Cruz inaki.santacruz@uab.cat
Elias Nazareno eliasna@hotmail.com
George Cheney gcheney@kent.edu
Ana Maria Peredo aperedo@uvic.ca
- BC introduces act allowing social enterprise companies
B.C. introduces act allowing social enterprise companies, March 5, 2012
Changes to the Business Corporations Act would allow for a new hybrid type of company – the community contribution company – that combines socially beneficial purposes with a restricted ability to distribute profits to shareholders.
This new type of hybrid corporation responds to an emerging demand for socially focused investment options and can help foster social enterprise investments.
The changes were introduced in the legislature today as part of Bill 23, Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2012.
Community contribution companies would be structured to combine both benefits to the community and limited investor returns within the context of a traditional for-profit company. They would be incorporated with the flexibility and certainty of regular companies, but under legislation that ensures they primarily benefit the community. These companies would allow an alternative business model not currently available through a regular business, whose primary focus is making money for shareholders or a non-profit society.
These companies would be subject to a higher degree of accountability than an ordinary company and required to publish an annual report detailing their social spending. Restrictions on corporate reorganizations would ensure that payout restrictions cannot be circumvented. On dissolution, the company would be subject to an “asset lock” — capping dividends on the company shares to ensure that profits are either retained by the company or directed to the community benefit.
Subject to passage of the legislation, government will continue to work in the coming months to develop the regulations necessary to implement the legislation.
The Finance Statutes Amendment Act also provides for changes to the following statutes:
Cooperative Association Act – changes will strengthen the procedural safeguards that protect co-op members on termination. Housing cooperatives will benefit from new, streamlined procedures for terminating membership if the member fails to pay rent or other occupancy charges.
Financial Institutions Act and Pensions Benefits Standards Act – Currently, the statutory responsibilities of the public servant who runs the Financial Institutions Commission are assigned by multiple processes. Amendments to these acts would streamline the processes, enhance accountability and ensure consistency with other commissions.
The Finance Statutes Amendment Act also revises the enabling statutes of a number of government organizations to expressly recognize and clarify the authority of the auditor general as laid out in the Auditor General Act and remove any conflicting language.
As well, it amends the Business Corporations Act, the Cooperative Association Act and the Partnership Act to ensure the continued effectiveness of each statute and support the expansion of online filing for partnerships. Amendments will increase consistency across the statutes, remove impediments to business and increase administrative efficiencies for Corporate Registry filings.
Media Contact:
Jamie Edwardson
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance
250 356-2821
Connect with the Province of B.C. at: www.gov.bc.ca/connect - CDF Launches Campaign to "Build a Better World"
CDF Launches Campaign to "Build a Better World"Ottawa, March 5, 2012
The Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF) has today announced the launch of a campaign to raise 12 million dollars for global co-operative development over the next four years. To date, more than $1 million has already been pledged to the Build a Better World campaign by co-operatives and individuals. According to CDF Board Chair Michael Barrett, the campaign was inspired, in part, by the theme of the UN's International Year of Co-operatives - Co-operative Enterprises Build a Better World.
"Co-operatives are among the most effective tools in reducing and eliminating poverty, and our long association with the international development program of the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) has proven that time and time again through hundreds of projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We believe that 2012, the International Year of Co-operatives, is the perfect time to take our support for poverty reduction to a new level." The Build a Better World campaign will seek support from co-operatives, credit unions, businesses associated with the co-operative movement, and individuals.
The Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF)is a registered charitable organization. It raises money, mostly from Canadian co-operatives and co-op members, to help alleviate poverty by building and strengthening financial and non-financial co-ops in developing countries. Working with the Canadian Co-operative Association and other partners, CDF helps poor communities fight poverty and create more secure lives through community-owned co-ops. For further information please contact: Julie Breuer Director, Co-operative Development Foundation (613) 238-6711 ext 215 Julie.breuer@coopscanada.coop
Click here to donate and for additional information.
- Imagine A Community Without Food Banks
After 30 years of charitable food giving, is food security for vulnerable Canadians getting better or worse?
Over coffee, and in small groups, we’ll talk about hunger in Canada as we – Imagine a Community Without Food Banks.
Guest Presenters include:
Elly Carlson, Former CCCBE Graduate Student Fellow and Researcher
Prof. Emeritus Graham Riches, UBC School of Social Work
Eleitha Bocskei, Researcher and Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist
Food Bank/Soup Kitchen Mangers
Food Bank clients from the CRDWhen: Sunday, February 19th, 2-4:30pm
Where: Grace Lutheran Church, 1273 Fort Street, Victoria, BC
- Crystal Tremblay receives teaching excellence award
Congratulations to Crystal Tremblay, CCCBE Graduate Student Fellow, who has been selected for a 2011 Andy Farquharson Teaching Excellence Award for Graduate students. Crystal is a dynamic, enthusiastic and engaging teacher, whom the students find stimulating and inspiring who is very deserving of this award nomination.
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