The Alliance

•3 Manitoba universities

•16 Academics

•21 Community & Gov’t Partners

•Principal Investigator – Dr. John Loxley

•Lead Organization – CCPA Manitoba

Project Details

•3 ½ year project ending April 2006•Total grant $895,000•42 research projects•37 undergraduate researchers•14 graduate researchers• 5 doctoral researchers•37 community researchers

The New Economy

•High tech, knowledge based

•Globalization, corporate concentration

Research Goals

•Assessing the impacts of the NE

•Evaluating the potential of CED in NE

•Evaluating the role of policy

•Theorizing CED in the NE

Governance/Decision Making

•Proposal stage – consensual•Full Alliance involved•Research themes established•Research interests expressed

•Levels of involvement•Research Committee•Alliance member•Partner/Researcher •Project Manager

•Funds allocation stage•Requests for proposals•Research Committee decision

Issues in Governance

•Funds allocation

•Timeliness of research project completion

•Quality control

•Synthesis of results

•Maintaining a sense of “team”

•Administrative workload

“Collateral” Achievements

•Research as a tool for community empowerment

•Building alliances between community, academia, funders and government

•Student formation

•Academic research grounded in practice – more concrete, implement able

•Stimulated practitioners to bring a systemic, theoretical reflection to their work

Design Features

•Community members on proposal team

•Community members on Research Cte.

•Large promotional outreach to CBO’s

•Organized research planning forum with practitioners in early months

•13 community research projects funded

•37 community researchers•About half of research topics from CBO’s

Design Features

•Special grants to help develop proposals

•Regular dissemination at national and local practitioner gatherings

•Paired community researchers with academics where help needed

•Embedded some academic researchers within CBO’s

Part Two

Research Conclusions

Impact of the New Economy

•NE not essentially a “good news” story•Inner city lacks capacity to take full advantage•Rural communities investing heavily in infrastructure – but depopulation continuing•Great promise for northern communities, but

•Lack of availability of broadband•Internet playing very limited role in lives of northern First Nations

•Technology has been a boon to CED networks

Impact on Specific Industries

•Agricultural – assisted agri-business trend

•Airlines – increased employment barriers

•Banking – increased employment barriers

•Call Centers – big growth, some connection to CED goals

•Garment industry – production shifted overseas

CED Opportunities

•Incorporating CED into welfare to work

•Workforce Intermediaries & employment development best practices

•Increasing uptake on potential provided by rural broadband

•CED lens for business attraction policies

•Social housing as a CED tool

CED Opportunities

•Agricultural land trusts

•CED models for business revitalization

•Access to broadband, need for training in north

•Range of opportunities for young women

Policy Implications

•Role of government is crucial

•Each opportunity has a policy application e.g.

•Welfare to work•Business attraction•Employment best practice•Social housing•Etc.

•Most CED work requires subsidization

An Aboriginal Construct for CED

•Life stories of 26 aboriginal leaders in CD

•“Organic intellectuals”

•Holistic means:•Starts with individual – need to heal – decolonization

•Process of rebuilding selves requires strong sense of community – in which aboriginal culture flourishes

•Requires creation of aboriginal organizations to reclaim collective identity

•All of which requires development of an ideology – rooted in historical impacts of colonization – based on aboriginal cultural values and traditions