Marguerite Mendell. Distinguished Professor Emerita, School of Community and Public Affairs and Director, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy, Concordia University. Member, Advisory Board, Global Social Economy Forum GSEF.
I am especially pleased to contribute to this issue of Social Economy News as a former student of Professor Arthur Lermer at Sir George Williams University, now Concordia University, in Montreal. Professor Lermer founded CIRIEC -Canada, a national section of CIRIEC International in 1966 with George Davidovic, Director of Research, Canadian Cooperative Union at the time and co-founder of CIRIEC International in 1947.
This 10th CIRIEC International Research Conference on Social Economy, “SSE’s Role in the Socio-Ecological Transition” to be held at Sciences Po Bordeaux, France, October 27-29, 2025 marks a milestone, as it will be the occasion to sign a partnership agreement between CIRIEC and GSEF during the Bordeaux GSEF Global SSE Forum, October 29-31.
Formalizing collaboration between CIRIEC and GSEF will expand opportunities for dialogue across academic disciplines with SSE actors and networks, social movements, local governments, international organizations. Developing joint action plans, formalizing commitment to exchange ideas and design research partnerships will increase the capacity of CIRIEC International and GSEF to document the realities of SSE, identify challenges and nurture conceptual research on SSE.
This partnership will provide access to both formal and tacit knowledge of a large and growing international SSE community as the foundation for a new generative epistemology based on academic research, evolving experience and experimentation. Adding to knowledge of how to design and democratize local and regional economies in the public interest and how SSE is contributing to socio-ecological transition, are among the many issues to be addressed by this partnership at a critical time in our history when social, economic and planetary justice, open dialogue and critical thinking are threatened by authoritarian regimes committed to the destruction of fundamental democratic values embedded in SSE.
Defending these values is, of course, necessary, but it is insufficient. Strategies for action are urgently needed. What we will discuss over several days in the many sessions at CIRIEC and GSEF is whether SSE can resist these forces and if so, how.
As the social contract and its underlying values that defined many democracies around the world in the post war period is undermined and vilified by politics and actions of the authoritarian right, counter-movements have emerged at the local level, in many cases, driven by the SSE. SSE is territorially rooted; its commitment to place is the backbone of SSE enterprises, organizations, associations and networks. While the capacity and autonomy of local and regional governments vary considerably across regions, often constrained by juridical, cultural and institutional limitations, what is common to many is the growing responsibility to meet social, economic and environmental challenges, previously assumed by higher levels of government. In some cases, local governments already undertake some of these responsibilities, but they are constrained by intransigent systems of siloed program delivery. In almost all cases, insufficient resources reduce the ability of local governments to effectively carry out increasing and complex responsibilities.
That said, recent studies in several cities and regions in the North and in the Global South document collaboration between the SSE and local authorities that is able to resist the disengagement of higher levels of government by forming innovative partnerships. This is not to suggest that the withdrawal of the nation State is acceptable, on the contrary. Rather, it marks an important inflection point as many local governments now need to look both inward and outward.
What do we mean by this? The ability of local governments to effectively address challenges of a socio-ecological transition requires more open, flexible and agile public administration. Although collaboration and partnerships with SSE organizations, enterprises, associations and networks exist in many cases and processes of co-construction and co-design of policy enabling the SSE are on the rise in many parts of the world, so that they are not ad hoc, one-off responses to crisis or situational opportunities that present themselves, these processes must be institutionalized, formalized by local governments.
Working across boundaries, breaking down administrative silos is the work that must be done on the inside by municipal government. Institutionalizing collaboration and innovative processes of co-construction with SSE actors means bringing the outside in. Inviting the outside in, SSE actors and networks, is an important step and is occurring in many cities and regions, but innovating on the inside has yet to be realized.
And, of course, there is the great challenge of coherence, of assuring coordination or recombinant linkages between all levels of government and the SSE so that the work at the local level is not undermined by conflicting priorities or policies adopted by higher levels of government, including continental or supra-national government and its determinant role in supporting the SSE locally, regionally and nationally across several countries.
The United Nations predicts that the year 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban areas. The urgency to adapt local public institutions cannot be overemphasized. Partnerships with SSE, committed to the objectives now imposed on all cities, regions, and nations of the world, is the hope for the future. This cannot be done without addressing the limitations imposed by heavy institutional barriers and the need for coordination with higher levels of government. There is already a great deal of evidence and acquired knowledge to confirm this; of course, we need more.
