Social Purpose Enterprises: Case Studies for Social Change presents case studies of twelve organizations that operate in a growing niche within the Canadian social economy: market-based entities supported by a nonprofit organization and operated for the benefit of a workforce who lives on the margins of society.Using a variety of research methods, the contributors examine the work of social purpose enterprises in a range of businesses including food services, child care, f...

Market-based social economy firms such as social enterprises, social purpose businesses, co-operatives, credit unions, and community economic development corporations aim to meet distinct social needs while making money. Do these types of businesses have the potential for growth in the modern economy? Are they destined to function only in areas where conventional firms cannot achieve a sufficient rate of return? Or will the role of social economy organizations change as businesses begin pl...

Pension funds have come to play an increasingly important role within the new economy. According to Statistics Canada, in 2006, trusteed pension funds in Canada had $836 billion of assets and represented the savings of 4.6 million Canadian workers. Pensions at Work is a unique collection of papers that uses a labour perspective to deal with the socially responsible investment of pension funds. Featuring leading Canadian and international scholars, it builds on existing scholarship...

In an increasingly interconnected environment, shocks, crises, cascading failures, and surprising breakthroughs are features of our age. The ability to anticipate, intervene, innovate, and adapt is now seen as essential for governments. Public officials serve in an expanded public space that is being reshaped by the rise of social networking and modern information and communication technologies. The desired results on many public issues exceed the reach and resources of government....

Often described as a public policy “bible,” Weimer and Vining remains the essential primer it ever was. Now in its sixth edition, Policy Analysis provides a strong conceptual foundation of the rationales for and the limitations to public policy. It offers practical advice about how to do policy analysis, but goes a bit deeper to demonstrate the application of advanced analytical techniques through the use of case studies. Updates to this edition include:A chapter ded...

How public affairs are run depends upon the degree of authority and control central government decides to relinquish to regional and local governments, and the extent to which it favors citizen involvement in the governing process. Public administrators do not operate in a vacuum. The context within which decision-making takes place greatly influences public administrators approach to public issues. Consequently, what government decides to do and how it decides to carry it out affects the ...

The Tools of Government is the first professional guide to the principles and practices of public administration in an age when governments no longer provide many services--but arrange for others to do so. Characterized by extensive collaboration among levels of government and between government and the private sector, this new approach to solving public problems presents many new important issues. Comprehensive in scope, this new book offers a first hand look at the challenges fa...

Actors and institutions in localities and regions across the world are seeking prosperity and well-being amidst tumultuous and disruptive shifts and transitions generated by: an increasingly globalised, knowledge-intensive capitalism; global financial instability, volatility and crisis; concerns about economic, social and ecological sustainability, climate change and resource shortages; new multi-actor and multi-level systems of government and governance and a re-ordering of the i...

When low-income city dwellers lack access to mainstream banking services, many end up turning to ‘fringe banks,’ such as cheque-cashers and pawnshops, for some or all of their financial transactions. This predicament of ‘financial exclusion’ – faced by those underserved by conventional financial institutions – is comprehensively examined in Jerry Buckland's powerful study, Hard Choices.The first account of the nature and causes of financial exclusion in Canada, Hard Ch...

From schools to hospitals, from utilities to food banks, over the past thirty years corporatization has transformed the public sector in Canada. Economic elites take control of public institutions and use business metrics to evaluate their performance, transforming public programs into corporate revenue streams.Senior managers use corporate methodology to set priorities in social services and create “market-friendly” public sector cultures. Even social activist organizations increa...

New legislation concerning corporate governance - notably the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, and the UK's Companies Act - means new duties and benchmarks for directors and senior managers, particularly those with cross-jurisdictional responsibilities.  With commentary from the World Bank, BP, 3i, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Watson Wyatt, The Handbook of International Corporate Governance looks at shareholders' rights, directors' responsibilities, issues relating to control and disclosure, and t...

The business of business is business. So why should corporations be involved in development? This groundbreaking new book makes the case that governments and their international agencies, grouped under the umbrella of the United Nations, have failed in their attempts to rid the planet of underdevelopment and poverty. If development is the objective then it seems that the solution and the responsibility lies with the private sector - particularly through the Corporate Social Responsibility ...