top of page

novel by Jack Quarter (2014)  (Click image to view on Amazon)

1550283863.jpg
CANADA'S SOCIAL ECONOMY: Co-Operatives, Non-Profits, and other Community Enterprises

Jack Quarter 1992

ABOUT

The Canadian economy is generally characterized by private enterprise with a small degree of government ownership. But what about organisations like Children's Aid or the Canadian Red Cross? Where do educational and religious organisations, arts groups, social housing, and non-profit daycare fit in?


This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive description of this important and growing "third sector" of the Canadian economy. Jack Quarter describes the key components of this sector, focusing on new approaches to ownership and management that go beyond traditional ideas about how businesses should be owned and run. He discusses new ways of managing social services like childcare and healthcare and looks at new forms of ownership that depart from the traditional public, private, and co-operative structures.

Canada's Social Economy offers a refreshing re-examination of the changing nature of the Canadian economy.

41zTKPPHBBL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY: A Canadian Perspective

Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook,

Ann Armstrong   2009

ABOUT

In Understanding the Social Economy, Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook, and Ann Armstrong integrate a wide array of organizations founded upon a social mission - social enterprises, nonprofits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development associations - under the rubric of the 'social economy.' This framework facilitates a comprehensive study of Canada's social sector, an area often neglected in the business curricula despite the important role that these organizations play in Canada's economy.

 

Invaluable for business programs that address issues such as community economic development, co-operatives, and nonprofit studies and management, Understanding the Social Economy presents a unique set of case studies as well as chapters on organizational design and governance, social finance and social accounting, and accountability. The examples provide much needed context for students and allow for an original and in-depth examination of the relationships between Canada's social infrastructure and the public and private sectors. With this work, Quarter, Mook, and Armstrong illuminate a neglected facet of business studies to further our understanding of the Canadian economy.

1487520336.jpg
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY: A Canadian Perspective, Second Edition

Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook,

Ann Armstrong   2017

ABOUT

Suitable for courses addressing community economic development, non-profit organizations, co-operatives and the social economy more broadly, the second edition of Understanding the Social Economy expands on the authors’ ground-breaking examination of organizations founded on a social mission – social enterprises, non-profits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development organizations.

 

While the role of the private and public sectors are very much in the public light, the social economy is often taken for granted. However, try to imagine a society without the many forms of organizations that form the social economy: social service organizations, arts and recreation organizations, ethno-cultural associations, social clubs, self-help groups, universities and colleges, hospitals and other healthcare providers, foundations, housing co-operatives, or credit unions. Not only do these organizations provide valuable services, but they employ many people, and purchase goods and services. They are both social and economic entities. Understanding the Social Economy illustrates how organizations in the social economy interact with the other sectors of the economy and highlights the important social infrastructure that these organizations create. 

 

The second edition contains six new case studies as well three new chapters addressing leadership and strategic management, and human resources management. A much-needed work on an important but neglected facet of organizational studies, Understanding the Social Economy continues to be an invaluable resource for the classroom and for participants working in the social sector.

Picture1.png

This book is fiction written in an autobiographical style, of someone born in Toronto in 1935, a Jew in a very WASP city, or Toronto the Good, as it was called. The lead character, Sammy Speer, is not just a Jew, but an unusual one in that his parents are atheists and passionate Zionists. Sammy embraces his parent’s values and the book is about how he navigates his way through life and the tensions he experiences both with gentiles and with other Jews, as he doesn’t fit comfortably within either category. The book is written within the historical backdrop of Toronto in which every mayor until the mid-1950s was a member of the Orange Order and in which Blue Laws were strictly enforced, and its evolution to a city that is very cosmopolitan and multicultural, or Toronto the Better. Part of the book is set in Israel, primarily on a kibbutz (a fictional community called Kibbutz Korczak in the Galilee) and the same tensions are played out as in Toronto. The book traces Sammy Speer’s life – his loves and rejections, his marriage to an Arab and rejection by parts of his family – from his early days growing in downtown Toronto until his death and even afterlife. The book is uncompromisingly critical of religious orthodoxy. 

1550283863.jpg
CANADA'S SOCIAL ECONOMY: Co-Operatives, Non-Profits, and other Community Enterprises

ABOUT

The Canadian economy is generally characterized by private enterprise with a small degree of government ownership. But what about organisations like Children's Aid or the Canadian Red Cross? Where do educational and religious organisations, arts groups, social housing, and non-profit daycare fit in?


This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive description of this important and growing "third sector" of the Canadian economy. Jack Quarter describes the key components of this sector, focusing on new approaches to ownership and management that go beyond traditional ideas about how businesses should be owned and run. He discusses new ways of managing social services like childcare and healthcare and looks at new forms of ownership that depart from the traditional public, private, and co-operative structures.

Canada's Social Economy offers a refreshing re-examination of the changing nature of the Canadian economy.

41zTKPPHBBL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY:
A Canadian Perspective

ABOUT

In Understanding the Social Economy, Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook, and Ann Armstrong integrate a wide array of organizations founded upon a social mission - social enterprises, nonprofits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development associations - under the rubric of the 'social economy.' This framework facilitates a comprehensive study of Canada's social sector, an area often neglected in the business curricula despite the important role that these organizations play in Canada's economy.

 

Invaluable for business programs that address issues such as community economic development, co-operatives, and nonprofit studies and management, Understanding the Social Economy presents a unique set of case studies as well as chapters on organizational design and governance, social finance and social accounting, and accountability. The examples provide much needed context for students and allow for an original and in-depth examination of the relationships between Canada's social infrastructure and the public and private sectors. With this work, Quarter, Mook, and Armstrong illuminate a neglected facet of business studies to further our understanding of the Canadian economy.

CANADA'S SOCIAL ECONOMY: Co-Operatives, Non-Profits, and other Community Enterprises

ABOUT

Suitable for courses addressing community economic development, non-profit organizations, co-operatives and the social economy more broadly, the second edition of Understanding the Social Economy expands on the authors’ ground-breaking examination of organizations founded on a social mission – social enterprises, non-profits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development organizations.

 

While the role of the private and public sectors are very much in the public light, the social economy is often taken for granted. However, try to imagine a society without the many forms of organizations that form the social economy: social service organizations, arts and recreation organizations, ethno-cultural associations, social clubs, self-help groups, universities and colleges, hospitals and other healthcare providers, foundations, housing co-operatives, or credit unions. Not only do these organizations provide valuable services, but they employ many people, and purchase goods and services. They are both social and economic entities. Understanding the Social Economy illustrates how organizations in the social economy interact with the other sectors of the economy and highlights the important social infrastructure that these organizations create. 

 

The second edition contains six new case studies as well three new chapters addressing leadership and strategic management, and human resources management. A much-needed work on an important but neglected facet of organizational studies, Understanding the Social Economy continues to be an invaluable resource for the classroom and for participants working in the social sector.

1487520336.jpg
41zTKPPHBBL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY:
A Canadian Perspective

ABOUT

In Understanding the Social Economy, Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook, and Ann Armstrong integrate a wide array of organizations founded upon a social mission - social enterprises, nonprofits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development associations - under the rubric of the 'social economy.' This framework facilitates a comprehensive study of Canada's social sector, an area often neglected in the business curricula despite the important role that these organizations play in Canada's economy.

 

Invaluable for business programs that address issues such as community economic development, co-operatives, and nonprofit studies and management, Understanding the Social Economy presents a unique set of case studies as well as chapters on organizational design and governance, social finance and social accounting, and accountability. The examples provide much needed context for students and allow for an original and in-depth examination of the relationships between Canada's social infrastructure and the public and private sectors. With this work, Quarter, Mook, and Armstrong illuminate a neglected facet of business studies to further our understanding of the Canadian economy.


This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive description of this important and growing "third sector" of the Canadian economy. Jack Quarter describes the key components of this sector, focusing on new approaches to ownership and management that go beyond traditional ideas about how businesses should be owned and run. He discusses new ways of managing social services like childcare and healthcare and looks at new forms of ownership that depart from the traditional public, private, and co-operative structures.

Canada's Social Economy offers a refreshing re-examination of the changing nature of the Canadian economy.

bottom of page