Co-op Conversations
The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives' (CCSC) Co-op Conversations is a monthly online gathering for co-operative sector professionals to learn from others in the field and exchange information in a casual setting. The CCSC believes that the best learning is peer-to-peer, and casual conversations across different organizations are what break old thinking patterns, make new connections, and generate fresh perspectives. Each Co-op Conversation will be held during lunch hours (Saskatchewan time) on the first Wednesday of the month.
The Dissolution and Evolution of Agricultural Co-operatives: Historic reflections and future projections featuring Dr. Murray Fulton
A recent trip to New Zealand, along with some reading of economic history, has caused me to reflect on the origins and ongoing role of agricultural co-operatives. As events today in New Zealand illustrate, the economic reasons for co-ops remain as relevant as ever, as do the financial, behavioural, and governance challenges that they face. Yet, consideration of these economic factors does not offer a full explanation for the dramatic development of agricultural co-ops in the latter part of the 19th century and the beginning part of the 20th century. What else was happening then that would help explain the development of agricultural co-ops?
About our speaker
Murray Fulton is a professor emeritus in the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and a Research Fellow at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. His research interests are focused in a number of areas, including industrial organization, agricultural and rural policy, and public sector and co-operative governance. Dr. Fulton has written many articles and papers on industrial organization, agricultural policy, and co-operatives.
Event Details
Date: May 7, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: on Zoom
File: Download Event Poster
Past talks can be found here: Past Co-op Conversations.
MacPherson Talk
The 10th Annual MacPherson Talk featuring Joseph Heath
Are Co-operatives More Virtuous than Corporations? featuring Dr. Joseph Heath
There are several sectors of the economy in which cooperatives have flourished, competing successfully against standard business corporations. The best explanation for their success is that they provide superior benefits to their members. The question that will be the focus of this talk is whether co-operatives also provide important benefits to society, such that non-members should prefer a co-operative economy to one dominated by business corporations. It has often been suggested that co-operatives are more virtuous, because they are more democratic, less hierarchical, less anti-social, and less apt to produce economic inequality. In this talk, Dr. Joseph Heath will evaluate these claims, while questioning whether co-operatives are all that different from corporations.
About our Speaker
Dr. Joseph Heath is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Dr. Heath is a renowned and award-winning philosopher and author. He is the author of several books, both popular and academic, including Filthy Lucre and The Rebel Sell. His most recent book is titled, Cooperation and Social Justice.
Event Details
Date: December 5, 2024
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: This is a hybrid event and will take place in Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Building (101 Diefenbaker Place, University of Saskatchewan) and on Zoom
File: Download Event Poster
Fredeen Lecture
The Fredeen Lecture is hosted annually and features the research of the most recent recipient of the Hartley and Margaret Fredeen Scholarship in Co-operative Studies. This scholarship is offered annually to a student who is conducting research on co-operatives, either entering or continuing studies in a master's or doctoral program at the University of Saskatchewan.
The 2024 Fredeen Lecture (featuring Eylin Jorge Coto)
Analysis of the Government Relations between Credit Unions and Farm Credit Canada featuring Eylin Jorge Coto
Despite playing a pivotal role in the Canadian economy – credit unions serve more than 10 million people– their participation in policy advocacy (outside-in lobbying) and policymaking (inside co-design) remains understudied. Building on early scholarship suggesting that co-operatives are ill-suited to either role because of the often-divergent needs and interests of their membership, this research explores a case where credit unions have had to engage in advocacy and policymaking to protect their business and purpose against intrusions from Farm Credit Canada (FCC), a government-owned agricultural lender that, unlike other government lenders, operates in competition with the private sector and without a ‘complementarity’ mandate. This presentation will describe the evolving relationship between credit unions and FCC over the past 50 years, identify the lessons learned, and suggest its implications for future policy advocacy and policymaking efforts by the Canadian credit union sector.
Presented by Eylin Jorge Coto, Recipient of the 2023 Hartley and Margaret Fredeen Scholarship in Co-operative Studies
Eylin Jorge Coto is currently completing her Master of Public Policy degree at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, while serving as a research assistant at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. Eylin has further held roles such as an intern for the Mayor's Office in Saskatoon, where she helped to coordinate the "Women Leading Civic Engagement Forum".
Event Details
Date: November 27, 2024
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: On Zoom
File: Download Event Poster
Past lectures can be found here: Past Fredeen Lecture.
Special Talks
The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives hosts additional periodical public lectures featuring topical research and visiting scholars. Below you can find our most recent special talk and an archive of special talks we have hosted in the past.
Preparing for the Singularity: Building a Systemically Resilient and Fair Economy for a World of Artificial Super Intelligence (AI) featuring Dr. Kirsten Wright
The idea that computers might one day be able to outsmart humans has been around for as long as the computer age. Mostly, it seemed fanciful. Computers could crunch numbers, sure, but could they really think, reason, decide, and get smarter? With the advent of large-language models (LLMs) and tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, what was once science fiction is increasingly looking like here and now.
In this talk, Dr. Kirsten Wright, Managing Director of the University of Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) will discuss the idea of artificial super-intelligence and explore how it could disrupt the labor/capital relationships that have long structured the way we organize ourselves. With this potential outcome in mind, she will set out a bold set of idea for building a resilient society anchored around strategic policy interventions that could help tip us into a society with more shared ownership (e.g., co-operatives) and a re-centering of place-based rural and urban economies.
About our speaker
Kirsten Wright is Managing Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI). Her work sits at the intersection of systems finance, governance, and innovation, with a focus on complex systems, economic resilience, and systemic transformation. Drawing on urban scaling theory, rent dynamics, she models how financialization shapes urban systems and explores pathways for resilient and equitable cities. Dr. Wright is a Visiting Scholar hosted by the USask Communities and Sustainability Signature Area.
Event Details
Date: April 8, 2025
Time: 3:00 – 5:00 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: Either in person at the Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Building, (101 Diefenbaker Place, Saskatoon) or on Zoom
File: Download Event Poster
Advance registration is required, as seating is limited. The lecture is free to attend and open to all.
How Co-operatives Can Help Solve Canada's Housing Crisis
Cities generate immense wealth through their economic activity, yet much of this value is captured by financial actors, reshaping home ownership patterns, redistributing wealth, and destabilizing urban systems. Drawing on experience with a Waterloo start-up housing co-operative called Union Co-op and her research into models of urban dynamics, Dr. Kirsten Wright from the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) will share her thoughts on how co-operatives can serve as a central solution to our pressing urban challenges by stabilizing tenure, preventing displacement, and preserving the productivity gains of urban agglomeration. By reinvesting urban rents into community-driven initiatives—such as affordable housing, renewable energy, and public infrastructure—co-operatives align urban growth with long-term equity and resilience.
This talk is hosted in partnership with Quint Development and supported by the University of Saskatchewan Communities and Sustainability Signature Area of Research.
About our speaker
Dr. Kirsten Wright is the managing director of the University of Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation. She is a leading thinker on scaling social change set in the
context of environmental sustainability.
Event Details
Date: April 11, 2025
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: Mutli-purpose Room, First Floor, Station 20 West, 1120 20th Street West, Saskatoon
File: Download Event Poster
Advance registration is required, as seating is limited. The lecture is free to attend and open to all.
Past talks can be found here: Past Special Talks.
Co-operatives in a Time of Crisis
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Centre for the Study Co-operatives launched the "Co-operatives in Times of Crisis Conversation Series", which asked leaders in co-operatives, big and small, how they were making use of their co-operative structure to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.
Jen Budney, Professional Research Associate, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives and former Chair, the Spadina Early Learning and Childcare Co-operative
Past talks can be found here: Full Series Conversation.