Membership Category
- Regular
Institution
- HEC Montréal
Discipline(s)
- Economy
- Management
- Philosophy
Expertises
- Environmental philosophy
- Cooperatives and circular economy
Biography
Rafael Ziegler is a professor at HEC Montréal and Director of the Institut international des coopératives Alphonse-et-Dorimène-Desjardins. He holds a B.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from McGill University. He is associate editor of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities and the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, and a member of the Réseau québécois de recherche en économie circulaire (RQREC). His books include Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation (Oxford 2019, with Alex Nicholls) and Innovation, Ethics and Our Common Futures (Edward Elgar 2020). When he was a schoolboy in Germany, the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred. A group of parents responded by creating an energy cooperative that took over the local grid and, in so doing, made a significant contribution to the region's energy transition. Thus inspired from an early age, Rafael is interested in innovations and ideas that contribute to transformations towards sustainability. As Director of the International Cooperative Institute, he is particularly interested in understanding the role, potential and limits of the cooperative movement for a circular economy and society. He speaks French, German and English (and, with patient interlocutors, a little Russian and Italian).
Affiliated research axes
Change and Transition Management
Planning Optimization
Resource and Product Maximization
Policy levers
Projects funded by the RRECQ
Circular economy and cooperation – exploring three related approaches (cooperatives, commons and the tree of cooperation) for a just and sustainable economy
Description
The project aims to study different ways of thinking about cooperation in Québec and Canada (which are far from being circular but still have a strong tradition of social economy) in an effort to shed new light on the challenge.
Three variants of cooperation that are similar and different in their own ways and important in the Québec context will be explored: cooperatives and the cooperative movement, the tree of cooperation and First Nations, common goods and degrowth.
Themes
- Comparative methods
- Cooperation
- First Nations
- Social and solidarity economy
Democratic and participatory governance models in social economy and sustainability in circular economy
Description
The project aims to identify and acknowledge the democratic and participatory governance models and mechanisms of social economy enterprises (SEEs) that are conducive to sustainability in a circular economy.
Very few empirical studies have focused on the contributions, conditions and modalities of democratic, participatory and inclusive governance as a lever for the implementation of circular systems. Yet, the research conducted over the past few years by Territoires innnovants en économie sociale et solidaire (TIESS) on circular business models in a social economy has increasingly emphasized the need to better understand the democratic and participatory governance models that are at work.
The project is part of an initiative led by TIESS for the past five years and aims to position and deploy the social economy as a partner in a sustainable circular economy. The four team members are also contributing to an international research network on the social economy and circular economy that is currently under development at the initiative of two of the team’s researchers.
Themes
- Action research
- Governance
- Participatory research
- Social and solidarity economy
