BALTA Project E3 – Mapping the Social Economy from the Ground Up: Urban Neighbourhood/Rural Community Case Study

The objectives of the research would be: 1. To identify the social economy actors in the community based on a broad characterization of social economy. The precedent for the broad characterization is work currently being done by the United Way of Calgary and Area. The spectrum of potential enterprises would be from not-for-profit, non-income generating NGOs to private businesses that philosophically and functionally exhibit characteristics of a social enterprise. The full BALTA Case Study Framework would be used to profile the individual social enterprises. We anticipate four or five full case studies as one output of this research 2. Map the inter-relationships of these enterprises to understand how tightly woven is the social economy network. Indicators of inter-relationship would be established (for example common memberships and common board membership, size of financial transactions between enterprises) 3. Map the extensions of the network into the conventional economy to understand the dependencies/synergies between the social economy and the conventional economy. 4. Map the external linkages of the local social economy. 1. Understand the relationship of the urban social economy to the rural social economy of the Calgary Region. 2.) Understand how far, and how densely does the social economy extend into the greater city, the region and even globally (e.g. fair trade networks and solidarity and advocacy networks).The social economy has begun to attract a lot of interest in Alberta, Canada. This research proposal is to map, through a sustainability lens, the social economy at a neighbourhood level in one Calgary, Alberta, community. This project would twin with a mapping project in Athabasca being undertaken by Mike Gismondi, using this same methodology. The twin projects, one in Calgary and one in Athabasca, will provide comparative research into the rural-urban linkages of the social economy. Neither urban nor rural exist in isolation of each other. The Calgary urban economy will be the starting point for mapping the urban–rural connection. The Athabasca rural economy will be the starting point for mapping the rural-urban connection