Government Data within reach of our investigations

Hi all,

this is an article from the Spanish newspaper that I think it can be interesting for carrying some of our research. In this piece of news they tell Goverments around the world are opening databases for the use of individuals and enterprises.

It is possible that they are also useful to create new ideas for new researches or for improving your current research.

You can find the piece of news clicking here.

It is in Spanish, but you can use the Google translator for reading it in other language without huge information´s looses.

Bulletin de veille sur la recherche en économie sociale, vol. 5, nº 7

The July 2010 ECO-SOC INFO bulletin of The Canada Research Chair on Social Economy is now available on its website!

To read it, click here!

There you will find up to date references on the research on the social economy as well as a review of related events (new research centres and projects, events, call for papers)

Towards a Global History of the Consumer Co-operative Movement

Revue Internationale de l´economie sociale


Towards a Global History of the Consumer Co-operative Movement
(until 1st September)

The aim of the project is to produce a comparative survey of the history of the consumer co-operative movement, from the nineteenth century onwards, in all regions of the world. This will take the form of an anthology, to be written in English and edited by the project leaders, which will include chapter-length surveys of co-operative history in as many regions and countries as possible, together with thematic analyses of the transnational connections, processes and entanglements which have shaped co-operative history throughout the world. Combined with statistical information and bibliographies, the anthology is intended above all to create a resource for future studies on the co-operative movement.

The work will be produced to the highest scholarly standards by professional historians, but we will also use other forms to disseminate the results of the project to a wider audience, including co-operative activists. The project builds upon important earlier studies in this field, including for example the work of Johnstone Birchall, and the anthologies edited by Brazda and Schediwy (1989) and Furlough and Strikwerda (1999) but it is nonetheless still the case that consumer co-operation has been surprisingly neglected by economic and social historians.

The project is concerned primarily with consumer co-operatives, many of which though by no means all state their adherence to the principles of the so-called Rochdale model (based on the eponymous co-operative society founded in northern England in 1844). Many consumer co-operatives are concerned with retailing, but it will also be necessary to consider consumer co-operation in other fields, e.g. energy, healthcare, social services including care for the elderly etc. Other forms of co-operative organisation will be considered where necessary in relation to consumer co-operation, including for example producer co-operation (especially where co-operative production was run as part of co-operative wholesale federations serving consumer societies), agricultural co-operation and credit co-operation.

By presenting a global perspective on a truly global movement, the project also attempts to move beyond the Euro-centric perspectives that continue to dominate much trans-national historical research, and thus contribute to the growing interest in globalised history. The aim of the project is to understand consumer co-operatives as a global phenomenon, and it thus requires a careful consideration of methodology. We seek to understand why consumer co-operation existed all over the world, but at the same time it is important to avoid over-emphasising entanglements, and adopting a euro-centrist or neo-colonialist view. It is thus important to pay attention not just to Rochdale but also to different models of co-operation and their diffusion. Further, although the framework for the nation state was often the main context for the historical development of co-operatives, similarities and differences will have to be treated very carefully in order to avoid generalisations that hide local and regional developments.

All info: http://www.recma.org/node/1042

Dear Member, dear Friend

Some of our colleagues, European members of the academic world, have taken the initiative of sending an Open Letter to the European Commission claiming for a larger recognition of the role Social Economy can play in the development of Europe. This letter is headed by Carlo Borzaga, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Trento (Italy). He contacted us to solicit CIRIEC's support to the open letter, notably the European members of its scientific network and its European national sections.

We think that this initiative is very opportune and pertinent and we therefore ask for your support. If you are a scientist and you agree with the contents of the attached open letter, we invite you to send at ciriec@uv.es your professional data before August 4 (name, department, university or research center). Please feel free to distribute this message. Thanks!

Yours Cordially,

José Luis Monzón
Catedrático de Economía Aplicada de la Universidad de Valencia
Presidente de CIRIEC-España

Pictures from Roskilde

Hi everyone,
As we all went back from the summer school each to its own local ivory tower, I extended my semi-summer vacation in a different outdoor setting: a whole month in the middle of the Israeli Negev desert. But now (thanks to a wireless cellular router borrowed form Bar-Ilan's student union) I'm beck into (Virtual) civility again, so I was able to uploaded most of my pictures from Roskilde to picasa

Naturally, the pictures reflect my group and personal experience, so I hope some of you will fill in the gaps, and share with us all their visual impressions form the summer school.
Asaf.

Call of Proposals for the 3th international CIRIEC Conference

First Call of Papers for 3th International CIRIEC Conference on Social Economy
Valladolid, Spain. 6 - 8 of April, 2010

The conference is organized by Spanish-section CIRIEC, CIRIEC-Internacional, ENUIES Network of Institutes and Centers of Research on Social Economy and the Universidad de Valladolid. The slogan of the Conference is "Social Economy, basis for a new model of sustainable economic development".

There are four main themes:
1) Social Economy as a socio-economic agent in North and South countries,
2) Social Economy as vector of social and economic change,
3) Allies of Social Economy in a new model of sustainable economic development,
4) Role of States and international institutions related to Social Economy.

The deadline for presenting proposals of communications is October, 15th. On December, 20th the notification of approval of such proposals will be provided. And January, 31th is the deadline for conference with registration discount.

At this moment, two international conferences has been carried out, firth one was in 2007 in Victoria (Canada) and the second one was in 2009 in Östersund (Sweden).

For call of papers, click here.

Welcome

Welcome. This is the blog of EMES PhD Students Network. We hope that this blog is useful to be updated in the research on Social and Solidarity Economy, Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneur. In it, you can find a calendar with the call of papers for conferences in the next months as well as the papers that young researches of this network are writting in order to know our progression and research lines.

Thanks for your interest and for helping us to create a great community of research.

Please, let us know your suggestions and ideas. Let´s give any comment before leaving.