The 9th Annual MacPherson Talk featuring Morris Altman
Democratic Organizations as the Engine of Equitable Economic Growth featuring Dr. Morris Altman
Conventional theory argues that organizations that embed democratic decision-making – such as co-operatives – are inefficient relative to other corporate forms because of associated governance costs such as slow and cumbersome decision-making. In this year’s MacPherson Talk, Dr. Morris Altman challenges this conventional view by arguing that democratic governance actually increase productivity through improved working conditions and wellbeing. Dr. Morris Altman will present recent research to support his argument and provide examples of the importance of embedding democratic principles within an organization.
About our Speaker
Morris Altman is the Dean of the University of Dundee School of Business and Chair Professor of Behavioral and Institutional Economics and Co-operatives at the University of Dundee. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and a research fellow at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.
Event Details
When: Monday, December 4, 2023
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: This is a hybrid event and will take place at the Diefenbaker Canada Centre and on Zoom
File: Download Event Poster
The 8th Annual MacPherson Talk (ft. Josh Campbell)
Fomenting a Different Kind of Green Revolution: Distributism, Co-operatives, Permaculture and Renewing Peter Maurin's dream of the Agronomic University featuring Josh Campbell
“Given what you’ve learned so far about the challenges currently facing humanity and the need to build community resilience, how would you have liked your childhood education to be different?” That was the question that Josh Campbell asked a group of his Grade 10 science students after leading them through several classes devoted to climate change and ecosystems. Their responses inspired him to envision a school that would give students the tools they need to meet the greatest challenges of our times. In this year’s MacPherson lecture, Campbell explores how the little-known past of one of Canada’s pre-eminent hockey schools, Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Saskatchewan, could be marshalled to imagine a new agronomic university built around permaculture, distributism and co-operative values and principles, and hope for an uncertain future.
Presented by Josh Campbell
Josh Campbell is an educator and freelance journalist based in Regina on Treaty 4 territory. He holds science and education degrees, along with a Master of Journalism and a permaculture design certificate. Prior to his vision to create an agronomic university, Josh previously made an award-winning documentary and co-founded Wascana Solar Co-operative.
The 7th Annual MacPherson Talk (ft. Carol Henry)
The Pluses of Pulses: Scaling up pulses varieties in Southern Ethiopia for sustainability, and improved food security
Ethiopia suffers from one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the world, which has had a profound effect on health and mortality rates, particularly for women and children. For twenty years, a partnership of the University of Saskatchewan and Hawassa University has worked to help address food and nutrition security in Ethiopian communities through improved pulse crop innovations and nutrition educational programming to promote high yield pulse crops like chickpeas and haricot beans. A significant thrust of the project’s work was its efforts and success in empowering women through training in marketing, finance, and the setting up of cooperatives to sell nutritious pulse foods as well as high-yielding seeds. This talk shares the story of these cooperatives and how they created markets for low-income and unemployed women to improve their income capacity and nutrition within their household.
Presented by Dr. Carol Henry, Professor, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan
Dr. Carol Henry is a recognized international scholar-pracitioner in community-engaged research, international development, and teaching and learning. Over the past 15 years, her team has worked on nutrition-related research, teaching, and development projects at home and abroad, including but not limited to Africa, the Carribean, and Southeast Asia. Her research interestes include school and community health, child nutrition, children’s and consumer literacy and health, food security, and food systems.
The 6th Annual MacPherson Talk (ft. Brendan Reimer)
Beyond Co-operation: The Power of Business as a Force for Good
Co-operatives are guided by their principles and values to balance purpose and profits, while serving their members and communities. Our future requires significant action on climate resilience, meaningful engagement in reconciliation, eliminating racism and discrimination, and ending poverty and homelessness. Will the co-operative principles achieve those outcomes, or do co-operatives need to do more? Using Assiniboine Credit Union as an example, Brendan’s talk looks at how the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) designation can strengthen co-operatives and advance a vision of a sustainable future of belonging and dignity for all.
Presented by: Brendan Reimer Strategic Partner of Valuebased Banking, Assiniboine Credit Union
Brendan Reimer is Assiniboine Credit Union’s Strategic Partner of Values-Based Banking. Brendan is also the co-chair of the Canadian Credit Union Association’s Community Impact Committee, and volunteers as a board member with both SEED Winnipeg and the Manitoba Real Estate Foundation Shelter Foundation. Brendan is a passionate educator and organizer dedicated to creating inclusive, fairer, and more sustainable economies and communities and has worked effectively with academia, governments, private sector, and community organizations in advancing that vision.
About The MacPherson Talks
The MacPherson Talks honour the late Dr. Ian MacPherson, one of the leading lights of the international cooperative movement. Historian, educator, author, and passionate co-operator, Ian personified the relationship between Canadian co-operative academics and co-op practitioners.
When: Time: 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM CST
Location: This talk was delivered by Zoom.
The 5th Annual MacPherson Talk (ft. Tim Waring)
The Role of Cooperation in the Evolution of Co-operatives
It seems obvious that co-operatives rely on cooperation, and manage it daily. However, co-operative research and management have yet to truly take advantage of the behavioral science of human cooperation and the findings of evolutionary biology and the social sciences. In this presentation, Dr. Waring gives a guided tour of the factors that drive cooperation and describes a research program to leverage the science of cooperation for the benefit of co-operatives anywhere.
Presented by: Dr. Tim Waring
Dr. Tim Waring is associate professor of social-ecological systems modeling in the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions and the School of Economics at the University of Maine. Dr. Waring studies how cooperation and culture determine social and environmental outcomes. Using economic experiments and agent-based simulations, he builds and tests evolutionary models of social and economic change to learn how sustainable behaviors and durable institutions arise and persist. He has led national working groups to develop and refine an evolutionary theory of sustainability and apply it to case studies around the world. Waring is also the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER grant on the evolution of cooperation in local food organizations, and he leads an international working group on evolutionary approaches to sustainability. His current work also explores the evolution of co-operative organizations.
About The MacPherson Talks
The MacPherson Talks honour the late Dr. Ian MacPherson, one of the leading lights of the international cooperative movement. Historian, educator, author, and passionate co-operator, Ian personified the relationship between Canadian co-operative academics and co-op practitioners. The MacPherson Talks are held annually by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.