Public policy for the social economy

The Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships has supported efforts by actors in the Social Economy to dialogue on how to build a more people-centred economy in Canada; learning from our own experiences, those of other places around the world, and the research and evidence that has been produced by the Social Economy Research Partnership program funded by the Social Science and Humanities Rese [...] The influence of neoliberalism is evident in the privatization of public services (Evans & Shields, 2002; Goode & Maskovsky, 2001), the removal of the universality standard from social policy initiatives, the efforts to shrink the role of the state in providing for citizens (Rice & Prince, 2000), the increased deregulation of the private sector (Evans & Shields, 2002), and the downloading of respo [...] In addition, ample research points to the importance of the Social Economy in producing other important public goods: in the form of social capital and sustainable livelihoods, the democratization of the economy and governance, social innovation, and by working in partnership with other movements for justice. [...] One of its unique strengths is the ability to contribute to public policy objectives and other important public goods in the form of social capital and sustainable livelihoods, the democratization of the economy and governance, social innovation, and by working in partnership with other movements for justice. [...] The report, entitled The Social Economy and CED in Canada: Next Steps for Public Policy, commissioned by the federal government in 2005 came to the conclusion that “Social Economy enterprises … share the objective of contributing to the economic and social development of the communities in which they are located.