Date: Tuesday 3rd September 2019
Time: 5.00pm – 7.30pm
Location: Deeprose Lecture Theatre, Govan Mbeki Building, Glasgow Caledonian University

The Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) would like to invite you to the annual John Pearce Memorial Lecture which takes place on Tuesday 3rd September at GCU. The lecture sponsored by CEiS will host Béatrice Alain, Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale. The title for this year’s lecture is: “Building an ecosystem for the creation and development of community-owned enterprises – The Quebec experience”. Béatrice will provide an overview of the comprehensive social economy ecosystem in Quebec and reflect on points of comparison with the Scottish system.

This year’s event will also feature ‘A History of Social Enterprise in Scotland’ exhibition which is part of a Scottish Government funded project to develop the Social Enterprise Collection (Scotland). The exhibition provides an introduction to the history and showcases the images and documents held within the archival collection. By taking these materials on tour, the project team hope to show that consigning material to the archive does not mark the end point of a project or organisation but can be the spark for a whole range of new beginnings.

Programme

5.00pm
Reception and registration

5.30pm
Welcome and Introduction: Prof Cam Donaldson, Pro Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal (Research) and Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health, Glasgow Caledonian University

5.45pm
John Pearce Memorial Lecture
Béatrice Alain, Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale
Building an ecosystem for the creation and development of community-owned enterprises – The Quebec experience

6.30pm
A History of Social Enterprise in Scotland exhibition and refreshments

7.30pm
Close

John Pearce (1942-2011)
John Pearce, who died from cancer aged just 69, was a major and influential force in community development and in particular was a pioneer in community enterprise - the precursor to social enterprise. For nearly fifty years, John‘s ideas, inspiration and talent for clear thinking were a driving force behind people-centred development and especially around the principles and practice of collective and community enterprise. He wrote extensively throughout his working life with an insight well-illustrated in his seminal work: Social Enterprise in Anytown (2003). He was a thinker who managed to turn theories into practice and directly helped the development of communities in Scotland, the UK and wider afield.

Béatrice Alain, Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale
The Chantier de l’économie sociale is an independent organisation that brings together actors and partners of the social economy in order to promote collective entrepreneurship and develop new sectors and tools able to support the emergence of this model of development based on values of solidarity, equity and accountability. A privileged representative of the Quebec government in matters of social economy, the Chantier is also recognized internationally for the ecosystem enabling the development of the social economy that it has contributed to create. Mrs. Alain has a background in economics and political science and has worked at the Chantier since 2010, particularly on regional development and international affairs.

Mrs. Alain is also co-president of the TIESS, an organisation that enables the liaison and transfer of social economy innovations for the development of territories in Quebec, secretary of the board of the Chantier de l’économie Trust, a patient-capital fund for social economy enterprises, president of C.I.T.I.E.S., an international organisation for the sharing and transfer of best practices of the social economy at an international level, and a member of the Global Social Economy Forum Steering committee.

Further information
Email: karen.mcdairmant@gcu.ac.uk or visit the website