Jean-Marc Fontan

Systèmes locaux et réseaux productifs dans la reconversion économique : le cas de Montréal

Resume Ce texte s’interesse a la reconversion de la metropole montrealaise a l’economie du savoir. Cette transition est marquee par l’importance croissante des entreprises de haute technologie, notamment dans les filieres de la bio-pharmaceutique, de l’aeronautique et des telecommunications. A partir d’une enquete aupres de 80 entreprises, l’article analyse la place de la proximite et du local dans cette reconversion. L’analyse est faite a partir de certains indicateurs tels les facteurs de localisation, l’integration productive, l’effet de la proximite sur le potentiel innovateur, le marche local et le partenariat avec des organisations locales. Le texte montre que l’echelle pertinente pour comprendre la dimension territoriale de la reconversion qui a lieu a Montreal est l’echelle metropolitaine. Montreal apparait comme une combinaison de reseaux productifs localises imbriques a une echelle metropolitaine.

Community Organizations and Local Governance in a Metropolitan Region

In a context of globalization, municipalities and metropolitan regions are involved in international competition to support economic growth. This leads to new forms of collaboration between public authorities and businesses, giving birth to new forms of urban and metropolitan governances. Moreover, many old neighborhoods of the central city and some districts of the old suburbs face growth in unemployment and poverty. In these local territories, community organizations put forward local development practices that aim to improve living conditions. These organizations cooperate with other community organizations, public institutions and private agencies. Thus, they are embedded in a kind of governance: a local governance. This article, based on the case of the metropolitan region of Montreal, highlights the conception of local development of these community organizations, the local governance in which they participate, and the link between this local governance with the urban and metropolitan ones.

Foundations in Canada: A Comparative Perspective

From a Canadian perspective, this article provides a comparative historical and contemporary overview of foundations in Canada, in relation to the United States and Germany. For the purposes of this analysis, the study was limited to public or private foundations in Canada, as defined by the Income Tax Act. As the Canadian foundation milieu straddles the welfare partnership model that characterizes German civil society and the Anglo-Saxon model of the United States, Canadian foundations as a whole have much in common with the foundation sector in both countries. Similarities include the number of foundations per capita, a similar range in size and influence, a comparable diversity of foundation types, and an explosion in the number of foundations in recent decades (although the United States has a much longer history of large foundations making high-impact interventions). This analysis also highlights some key differences among larger foundations in the three jurisdictions: German foundations are generally more apt to have a change-orientation and are more vigorous in their disbursement of income and assets. U.S. foundations are more likely to play a welfare-replacement role in lieu of inaction by the state. Canadian foundations play a complementary role, particularly in the areas of education and research, health, and social services. At the same time, there is a segment of Canadian foundations that are fostering innovation, social and policy change, and are embarking on meaningful partnerships and acts of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Les fondations philanthropiques:de nouveaux acteurs politiques?

Plusieurs thèmes centraux sont abordés : survol historique et comparatif du rôle des fondations, au Québec, au Canada et ailleurs ; proposition de classification théorique et empirique des fondations ; caractérisation des relations entre les différents acteurs de l’écosystème philanthropique ; identification des stratégies mobilisées par ces différents acteurs ; réflexions sur le rôle des fondations dans la création de politiques publiques... Ce livre propose une vue d’ensemble éclairante du secteur de la philanthropie subventionnaire qui, malgré son champ d’action restreint, demeure fondamental dans les reconfigurations sociales en cours. Sous la direction de Jean-Marc Fontan, Peter R. Elson et Sylvain Lefèvre

Economic Interventions in Communities: The Québec Case

To discuss the Quebec experience from an economy-dominant, community action perspective, we proceed in four phases. In the first phase, we present an historical outline of community action in Quebec. In the second section, we analyze the impact of modernization on contemporary Quebec’s community movement. We then highlight, in a third section, two faces of Quebec’s community economic development, namely, socioeconomic integration initiatives and the social economy sector. The fourth section puts forward an analysis of these two strategies and proposes a critical outlook on community action as it unfolds in a context marked by turbulence on the global, continental, national and local scenes. In the conclusion, we discuss how clinical sociology contributed to the field of socioeconomic interventions and mention the recent emergence of the incubators, a socio-economic alternative of Latin American inspiration, which is beginning to appear in Quebec.