About CASC
CASC is:
- A multidisciplinary network of researchers whose work involves co-operatives
- Developed to promote research on co-operatives in Canada
- Facilitates linkages with CIRIEC, with the U.S.A., and with international agencies
General concentrations of current research:
- Agricultural economics and agri-business (marketing; policy and institutions)
- Sociology (community development; member participation; rural; gender)
- Other disciplines: management, history, political science, adult education
- Interdisciplinary themes: role of state, women in co-ops, membership and organizational democracy, international development
- Co-operative Education
- Civil Society
- Social Cohesion
- Community Building
- Credit Union Movement
- Aboriginal Communities
- Co-operative Leadership
- Agribusiness
- Healthcare
- Social Economy
- Research Methodology
- Community Economic Empowerment
- Worker Co-ops
- Solidarity Co-ops
Developments of CASC:
- Created to address lack of research and of networks
- St Francis Xavier U., Antigonish N.S. 1984 Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, U. of Sask.; 1990s several new co-operative chairs
- Operated as a Learned Society until 1997
- Transition: retirements, new graduate students
- Currently re-assessing role
What CASC members value about CASC:
- “In the 1970s there were few scholars in Canada who focused on co-operatives. It has improved with the development of CASC which has raised the profile of this research.”
- Linkage of co-operative research with co-operative education/ development
- Importance of interdisciplinary and action research
- Appreciated by American scholars who find nothing like it in the U.S. ; attracted to the breadth and interdisciplinarity of CASC
Challenges that CASC members see:
- “Lack of funding for individual scholars and for meetings that bring them together.”
- Too few places to publish research
- “Develop a virtual undergraduate and graduate set of courses that students in any university could take… Backed by a sound research program.”
- Networking around funding needs and funding sources
- “raise the profile of co-operative institutions in Canada”
- “To increase co-op members’ participation in the democratic decision-making process”