Abstract
The social economy has had a long and varied history in Canada. Historically, the state has seldom led the way to supporting the growth and greater entrenchment of the social economy in Canadian society. In fact, it has been largely in response to limited government efforts to address challenging social issues that the social economy has risen. Over time social economy activities have been associated with government-supported social programs, and has been strongly linked with the welfare state, in particular those activities aimed at supporting vulnerable populations. In this chapter my objective is to demonstrate how the social economy in Canada has changed by virtue of the adoption of the social enterprise model and the reduced prominence of the cooperative model, and the changing role of nonprofit organizations. I problematize these changes as a movement from a communal or collectivist orientation towards individualistic efforts that is informing new enterprises with a social purpose shaping the restructuring of the social economy.
In this chapter, the term new social economy is used as a heuristic to explain the restructuring of the traditional pillars of the social economy, and the increasingly supportive policy environment of the social enterprise model, which has become part of funding of social innovation. One explanation as to why this dismantling has occurred is related to the reduction of the welfare state, which has been an integral part of the social economy. Furthermore, there seems to have been a stronger desire to participate in the market-based activities as the path towards social change. I conclude the chapter with some reflections and suggestions on what to consider as this new path becomes more entrenched in Canadian society.
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Notes
- 1.
The territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut were established as an act of parliament and are governed by the federal government, whereas the governing power of the provinces is outlined in the Canadian Constitution. Municipal level governments are creatures of the provinces.
- 2.
Articles 91 to 95 of the Canadian Constitution clearly lay out the different responsibilities and jurisdictions of the two levels of government (Government of Canada, 2019).
- 3.
This description of the social economy is paraphrased from the Mike Lewis (August 2006) discussion paper “Mapping the Social Economy in B.C. and Alberta: Towards a Strategic Approach.” (Lewis, 2006)
- 4.
These research centers were funded with federal dollars for 5 years. Unfortunately, the funding was significantly reduced with the election of a conservative government in 2008. The newly elected government decided to withdraw the development finance fund, but the research funding remained (Hall, 2011).
- 5.
In 2017 the Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) directed credit unions to not use the term “bank” in any medium, including referring to the services provided as a form of “banking.” See http://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/Eng/fi-if/app/rla-prl/Pages/adv-2017-01.aspx.
- 6.
The third sector is often used as a synonym for the social economy (Fontan & Shragge, 2000).
- 7.
Fontan and Shragge (2000) make a reference to the new social economy in their chapter, which very much resonates with how the idea is used in this book.
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Sousa, J. (2021). The Restructuring of the Social Economy in Canada. In: Gidron, B., Domaradzka, A. (eds) The New Social and Impact Economy. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68295-8_3
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