Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northern Ontario

Canadian Social Economy Suite - Regional Node

Linking, Learning, Leveraging: Social Enterprises, Knowledgeable Economies and Sustainable Communities

Director Lou Hammond Ketilson
Co-ordinator Heather Acton - Research Officer/Librarian
Contact Telephone: (306) 966-7917 Fax: (306) 966-8517 E-mail: heather dot acton at usask dot ca Mail: 101 Diefenbaker Place University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B8

Website: www.usaskstudies.coop/socialeconomy

lhammondLou Hammond Ketilson Lou holds an appointment in Management and Marketing in the College of Commerce, University of Saskatchewan, and is also director of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, an interdisciplinary teaching and research unit on campus with which she has been associated since 1985. She served five years as associate dean in the College of Commerce (1998–2003), which, in addition to general administrative duties, included responsibility for the graduate and Aboriginal Business Education programs and the directorship of the Centre for International Business Studies and the MBA program. Lou returned to the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives in January 2004 and became acting director in June of that year, a position that was formalized into the directorship in April 2005. During that time she was also acting co-director of the Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR). Lou’s research interests include management in co-ops and other democratic organizations, women in co-operatives, Aboriginal co-op development, and diversity on co-op boards and governance bodies. Significant publications include A Report on Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada: Current Situation and Potential for Growth (with Ian MacPherson) and The Social and Economic Importance of the Co-operative Sector in Saskatchewan (with M. Fulton, M. Gertler, L. Polson, and R. Dobson). Lou is the principal investigator of the Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northern Ontario Regional Node of the Social Economy Suite, titled “Linking, Learning, Leveraging: Social Enterprises, Knowledgeable Economies, and Sustainable Communities.” The award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada that will support this project ($1.75 million) is the largest SSHRC grant ever received on the University of Saskatchewan campus. In partnership with CUISR, Lou’s research team, comprised of 23 academics from 10 disciplines and 12 universities and more than 40 community organizations, will investigate how social economy enterprises help build more respectful relationships within communities, with the environment, and among stakeholders. In addition to her responsibilities as director of the centre, Lou is currently a member of the university’s Advisory Committee on Areas of Research, Scholarly, and Artistic Pre-eminence, the Task Force on the Management of Centres, and vice-chair of the International Co-operative Alliance’s Research Committee.

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