Collaborative Research: Perspectives from the National Hub of Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships

1
Collaborative Research Perspectives from the
National Hub of Canadian Social Economy Research
Partnerships

• By
• Ian MacPherson
• C-director, Principal Investigator
• The National Hub
• cluny1_at_uvic.ca

2
Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships

• 2005-2011
• Winding down
• Joy Emmanuel and Matthew Thompson, Assembling
  Understandings Perspective of the Canadian
  Social Economy Research Partnerships, 2005-2011
• Peter Hall and Ian MacPherson (eds.),
  Community-University Research Partnerhips
  Reflections on the Canadian Social Economy
• Rupert Downing (Ed.), Canadian Public Policy and
  the Social Economy

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Structure

• 6 nodes North Atlantic Canada Québec Southern
  Ontario Saskatchewan, Manitoba Northern
  Ontario British Columbia/Alberta
• National Hub Co-directors me (UVic) and Rupert
  Downing (2005-2009) Mike Toye (2009-present)
  CCEDNet)

4
Who? What?

• 350 researchers (60 university, 40 SE
  organisations)
• Over 100 projects
• Over 400 products
• Students
• Some continuing partnerships
• Changes in SSHRC CCA CURA

5
Canadian perspective questions? afterthoughts?

• This is Canada
• Shortage of discretionary funds
• Differences and competition among nodes
• Uncertain roles of Hub
• Range of organisational forms
• Abiding interests of national organisations
• Competition individuals and organisations
• Crediting issues
• Egos

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Main themes

• From Emmanuel and Thompson
• Mapping
• Public policy
• Financing the SE
• SE and Indigenous peoples
• SE and co-op studies
• Governance and Capacity

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Some specific issues

• Payment of non-academics
• Complexities of accounting systems
• Language
• Challenges of interdisciplinarity
• Developing a genuinely shared approach
• Different paces of research
• Immediate vs long-term perspectives
• Complexities of engagement nature breadth
  altering of university and SE priorities
  structure power-sharing.

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Peter Halls Summary (from Community-University
Research Partnerships)

• Governance (e.g., who decides which research
  projects?)
• Networking (e.g., are they building on and/or
  building new networks?)
• Definition of the sector (e.g., was the sector
  pre-defined?)
• Content of research (e.g., what topics, how do
  new topics get included?)
• Process (methods) of research (e.g.,
  participatory content of actual research?)
• Capacity-building (e.g., university capacity to
  reach out, student and community training)
• Evaluation (e.g., who evaluates, when, to what
  effect?)

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Concluding.

• Edward Jackson, Afterword in Peter Hall and
  Ian MacPherson (eds.), Community-University
  Research Partnerships

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A final word.

• A clear and distinct commitment
• Effective collaboration on developing a knowledge
  base
• Developing a funding base that is as independent
  as possible
• Expanded teaching
• Fostering genuinely collaborative leadership
  styles

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• Thank you!!!!
• cluny1_at_uvic.ce