The Nourishing Communities research group is conducting community-based research investigating food initiatives that operate within the social or informal economy, intended to address food security and community development; benefit marginalized communities, including low-income groups, Aboriginal people, youth and women; and provide important environmental stewardship services. We are presenting initial reflections and case studies from regions across Canada in three 90-minute webinars:
March 1, 2017 – Eastern Ontario [recorded webinar now available!]
March 14, 2017 – Northwestern Ontario
March 15, 2017 – Atlantic Canada and the Northwest Territories
By ‘social and informal economy’, we mean a range of activities that are on the margins, loosely organized, and sometimes not even recognized as economic activities. Within the food sector, such informal, undervalued activities include self-provisioning, barter, food sharing, unpaid labour, environmental remediation and rehabilitation.
Capturing Outcomes
Specifically, the research asks whether and how a social economy of food:
- increases prosperity for marginalized groups;
- builds adaptive capacity to increase community resilience;
- bridges divides between elite consumers of alternative food products and more marginalized groups;
- increases social capital; and,
- fosters social innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic diversification.
The webinars will present examples of initiatives that share foodways and/or re-introducing traditional practices; offer an alternative practice that challenges accepted values (e.g. therapeutic horticulture, seed saving, responsible community investment); share knowledge and networking to maximize impacts; and enable collective provision of basic needs.
For registration and webinar details, please contact pmount@wlu.ca
