People across Canada’s North have created vibrant community institutions to serve a wide range of social and economic needs. Neither state-driven nor profit-oriented, these organizations form a relatively under-studied third sector of the economy. Researchers from the Social Economy Research Network of Northern Canada explore this sector through fifteen case studies, encompassing artistic, recreational, cultural, political, business, and economic development organizations that are crucial to the health and vitality of their communities. Care, Cooperation and Activism in Canada’s Northern Social Economy shows the innovative diversity and utter necessity of home-grown institutions in communities across Labrador, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. Readers, researchers, and students interested in social economy, Aboriginal studies, and northern communities will find much to enjoy and value in this book.

Contributors: Frances Abele, Jennifer Alsop, Matthew A. Beaudoin, Jean-Sébastien Boutet, Julia Christensen, Cédric Drouin, Moses Hernandez, Noor Johnson, Sheena Kennedy Dalseg, Frédéric Moisan, Joseph Moise, Rajiv Rawat, Jerald Sabin, Chris Southcott, Kiri Staples, Lucille Villaseñor-Caron, Valoree Walker

Frances Abele is Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration and Academic Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, both at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Frances Abele's profile page

Chris Southcott has been involved in community-based research in the circumpolar north for over 26 years. He has published over 100 scientific reports, books, chapters, and articles dealing with social and economic change in Northern Canada and the rest of the circumpolar world.

Chris Southcott's profile page

"The book contains 15 case studies, each devoted to a particular social economy organization. The cases are drawn from organizations based in Canada's northern territories, as well as Arctic Quebec and Labrador. Each chapter includes a history of the organization, an overview of its programming, and an examination of its contributions to northern society. Most include some discussion of the challenges these organizations have faced through changing political, economic, and social climates.... This book will prove valuable to a variety of audiences, both within and outside of academia."

The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, Vol. 37 No. 1

"...the book’s chapters are accessibly written and attentive to the nuances of real communities... Together, they hold real value for those who work inside the social economy, those who care about the resilience of communities, and those who make policy.... This book, in short, is a valuable intervention – one that invites North-to-North learning. It also raises a further set of practical and policy questions.... [A] book that deserves a wide reading." [Full post at http://bit.ly/2graCI9]

Northern Public Affairs

"Examining a continuum of northern organizations from a social purpose business to an entirely volunteer organization, this collection makes an important contribution to our understanding of the nature and scope of the social economy within Canada’s North. In doing so, it identifies a range of activities and diversity of approaches used by northern organizations.... The contribution of this collection is strengthened by the diversity of its 15 case studies.... [T]he power of the collection derives from the reader being able to draw conclusions that extend across organizational type, community type, region, and primary focus. Abele and Southcott’s concluding chapter draws out many of these linkages."

Arctic