Rupert Downing is the Director of the Canadian Social Economy Research Program (http://www.social... more

Rupert Downing is the Director of the Canadian Social Economy Research Program (http://www.socialeconomyhub.ca/hub/), a partnership between universities and civil society in Canada working to strengthen the social economy as a vehicle to transform social, economic and environmental conditions. He is also the Coordinator of Community Based Research Canada and the Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research at the University of Victoria (www.communityresearchcanada.ca) working to strengthen community university partnerships in meeting the need for sustainable just futures for the people of the world. He is the past Executive Director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (www.ccednet-rcdec.ca), a large civil society network of community non profit and cooperative grass roots organizations, and has worked at all levels of government and in civil society organizations in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean on sustainable development for the last 30 years. He has been active in facilitating global discussions at the World Social Forum and other settings on building the solidarity economy as a response to the economic, social and environmental crises facing the planet and its citizens. less