In his lecture, A Culture of Sustainability: Re-embedding the Economy in Social Life and The Ecosphere, Dr. Noel Keough will discuss Community Economic Development and more recently, the notion of a Social Economy enjoying a resurgence in Western Canada. For the past three years, Dr. Keough has collaborated with a group of Western Canadian social economy academics and practitioners with an interesting in understanding, mapping and advancing the social economy. Dr. Keough's work has focused on mapping of local social economy clusters, new approaches to sustaining the cooperative housing model and opportunities for social economy participation in the emerging green economy. A common theme of this work is the relationship between sustainability and social economy. A key question in all of this work is: How do we move the social economy from the margins to the centre?

Dr. Keough is Assistant Professor of Sustainable Design at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Environmental Design; co-founder and Senior Researcher for Sustainable Calgary Society and Member of the Board of Directors for PLAN:NET Ltd Development Consultants and a co-researcher with the BC Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance. Noel has over 15 years working in community sustainability planning, sustainability indicator design and adult and environmental education. He has worked as a professional engineer, environmental consultant and community development specialist. Noel has worked with communities in Asia, Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Central and South America and across Canada using Participatory Action Research, Adult Education and Popular Theatre Methods to facilitate community action and research. Noel is also a member of the Atkinson Foundation's National Working Group of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. For more information visit: http://www.ucalgary.ca/evds/keough