Social and Solidarity Economy Research: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

The annual MacPherson Talk honours the late Dr. Ian MacPherson, one of the leading lights of the international cooperative movement. Historian, educator, author, and passionate co-operator, Ian personified the relationship between Canadian co-operative academics and co-op practitioners. 

The 11th Annual MacPherson Talk featured Dr. Marie J. Bouchard—whose distinguished career has significantly shaped the fields of social and solidarity economy (SSE) research and social innovation and co-operative studies—sharing observations concerning the state of scientific research on the SSE and suggesting how research could contribute to consolidating and shoring up the SSE field. Bouchard’s timely talk comes on the eve of publishing A Modern Guide to the Social and Solidarity Economy (Edward Elgar, January 2026) with co-editor Damien Rousselière (Institut Agro, France), which demonstrates the SSE is more than just another sector of the economy, but a challenge to the dominant economic paradigm by fostering equitable patterns of resource and surplus distribution while promoting democratic, empowering, and emancipatory power relations. 

About our Speaker 
Marie J. Bouchard is Professor Emerita at the Université du Québec à Montréal, emeritus member of the Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES), and consultant to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Task Force on the Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE). She held the Canada Research Chair on Social Economy (2003-2013) and CIRIEC International Presidency of the Scientific Commission on the Social and Cooperative Economy (2015-2025) and has been recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 Canadian Association for Studies on Cooperatives (CASC) Merit Award, 2022 Université du Québec à Montréal Career in Research Merit Award and 2023 European Committee on Cooperative Research of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her recent work focuses on the conceptual definition and statistical marking of cooperatives and social economy, as well as on impact measurement.