BACKGROUND

"Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups."

You may have seen or heard this quote before. It comes from David Sloan Wilson and E. O. Wilson’s paper, "Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology".

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist and has been outspoken in arguing the merits of group selection, the evolutionary theory that groups can be viewed to have functional organization in much the same way as individuals do. In other words, that evolution is not based merely on selfish survival but includes co-operation among individuals within a group context.

This insight has profound implications for community development strategies. Working with Elinor Ostrom, Nobel prize winner in economics, and her colleagues, David helped generalize the design principles of co-operation in successful groups and has now been looking at how they can inform a wide range of community initiatives. 

Through experiments with new approaches to sustainable community development including the Binghamton Neighbourhood Project and the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition, David is part of a team that has recently developed PROSOCIAL — a free online platform that helps groups apply the core design principles to improve their efficacy in working together towards common goals.

SPEAKER

David Sloan Wilson, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Departments of Biology and Anthropology, Binghamton University

David is an evolutionist who studies all aspects of humanity in addition to the biological world. He manages a number of programs designed to expand the influence of evolutionary theory in higher education (EvoS), public policy (The Evolution Institute), community-based research (The Binghamton Neighborhood Project), and religion (Evolutionary Religious Studies). David communicates to the general public through his ScienceBlogs site and his trade books, including Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve my City, One Block at a Time, and most recently Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others.

Additional Resources

ProSocial –– The Evolution Institute from Alan Honick on Vimeo.

• "Generalizing the core design principles for the efficacy of groups" by David Sloan Wilson, Elinor Ostrom, and Michael E. Cox. This was featured in a special supplement of the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization on June 2013 entitled Evolution as a General Theoretical Framework for Economics and Public Policy
• Binghamton Neighborhood Project
• Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives by David Sloan Wilson (2007)
• The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve my City, One Block at a Time by David Sloan Wilson (2011)
• Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others by David Sloan Wilson (2015)
• Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action by Elinor Ostrom (1990)
• "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems" by Elinor Ostrom. This was published in the American Economic Review in 2010.

Noon to 1pm Mountain Time

This year Albertans will put billions of dollars into RRSPs. The majority of this money will be invested outside of the province.  However, several Albertan community are bucking this trend. They are investing directly in their local economy. This has led to the revitalization of businesses districts, created jobs, and increased vibrancy. By investing locally, community members receive both a financial and social return. One only has to look to the communities of Sangudo and Crowsnest Pass to see the impact.

This webinar will teach participants about raising local capital, to finance local business development. Unleashing Local Capital is a new and innovative local financing program that supports communities in establishing Opportunity Development Co-operatives (ODCs) that pool capital within a designated community using RRSP eligible shares.

This lunchtime webinar will teach you everything you need to get started, as well as provide an opportunity to ask questions and discuss your local business development project. It will include: The webinar will include

• An overview of the project, drawing from successful examples in Alberta
• The process of raising capital in your community
• Rules and regulations related to local financing, and how to raise capital in accordance to the current rules

At the end of this session you will be prepared to get started on a local financing project in your community! If you are involved in local business, community economic development, or are an entrepreneur this webinar will provide you with some excellent new information and insight into how local financing can be used to build strong and vibrant communities. Opportunity Development Co-operatives can be used to finance:

• Expansion, renovation, and upgrading of existing businesses
• Revitalization projects of a once-bustling main-street
• Succession planning that will keep an important business in the community
• New businesses

Opportunity Development Co-operatives also:

• Keep wealth in communities
• Let you invest in your community
• Connects you to a local business and the local economy in a meaningful way

Register for Introduction to Unleashing Local Capital

For more information please contact Paul Cabaj, Director of Co-operative Development at pcabaj at acca.coop

10:00-11:00am PST

The economy wants to change.

The Local Economy Solution is an entrepreneurial approach to economic development that focuses on local business, creates an ecosystem that supports them, and invites grassroots participation. The goal of this approach is to ensure that economic power resides locally to the greatest extent possible, sustaining vibrant, livable communities and healthy ecosystems in the process.

Do you want to learn how to accelerate the transition to local living economies?

If you are considering enrolling in the SFU Certificate Program for Community Economic Development, this webinar series is a unique opportunity to meet four of our instructors. If you participate in all 4 webinars of this series, we'll mail you a copy of Michael Shuman's most recent book The Local Economy Solution (will be published in June 2015).

Register for the Local Economy Solution webinar

12:00 pm Central Time

About one third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste. That amounts to more than one billion tonnes of waste around the world every year from production to consumption. Despite a growing attention from the academic world, civil society and policy makers, the debate on food waste is affected by a lack of a consensus over its definition and scope, the conditions that lead to its creation and the (lack of) quantification along the food supply chain. Analysis of food loss and waste in Canada, the U.S., and other developed countries shows that most of the food loss and waste occurs in households and in the food retail and service sectors. The quantifiable and unquantifiable costs of food loss and waste are huge and account for 30 percent of what the Canadian agriculture and agri-food system (AAFS) generated in 2012.

This webinar will discuss the need for an analysis of policy strategies and measures of food waste.

Audience

Members of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Waste Management Canada, and Food Secure Canada, staff of government departments, including MAFRD, staffs of food waste management organizations, civil society organizations and individual citizens, students, faculties, and everyone interested in food sector policies and the management of food waste.

For more information and to register

Please contact:

Sarah Woods
woodss at brandonu.ca
204-571-8585

RSVP by Monday, June 1, 2015

Presenters

Matteo Vittuari, PhD in International Cooperation and Sustainable Development Policies is a senior researcher and lecturer in agricultural and food policy and agricultural policy evaluation at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Bologna, Italy. His research interests include food policy with particular attention in food waste and losses, economic and social aspects of agro-food and bioenergy systems, rural development policy. He is currently coordinating the Policy WP within the FP7 FUSIONS: Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies.

Abdel Felfel is a Policy Analyst with the Strategic Policy Branch at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Ottawa. At AAFC, Abdel has worked on analysing several agricultural policy issues including international trade, competitiveness, productivity and food processing. He also participated in developing Canada's agricultural and agri-food sector policy framework Growing Forward 2. Abdel has also worked at the University of Guelph and the Value Chain Management Center where he co-authored the first report on food waste in Canada in 2010.

10:00-11:00am PST

The economy wants to change.

Indigenomics examines the historical and current Canadian context of Indigenous relations in regards to economic thought. It highlights the shifting influence and position of First Nations people in the emerging new economy. This webinar will examine place-based values while honouring the powerful thinking of Indigenous wisdom in the context of local economics, relationship building and humanity.

Do you want to learn how to accelerate the transition to local living economies?

If you are considering enrolling in the SFU Certificate Program for Community Economic Development, this webinar series is a unique opportunity to meet four of our instructors. If you participate in all 4 webinars of this series, we'll mail you a copy of Michael Shuman's most recent book The Local Economy Solution (will be published in June 2015).

Register for the Indigenomics