The Canadian Social Economy and Values: Insights from Bernard Lonergan's Theological Ethics

Abstract

This thesis project endeavours to meet the calls from scholars and theologians for theoretical foundations and theological engagement with the Canadian social economy. As introduced in Chapter 1, drawing on the work of Canadian philosopher-theologian, Bernard J. F. Lonergan S.J., I address the ambiguous, and therefore ultimately inadequate, understanding of values that is prevalent within both the practice of and the scholarly literature about what is now termed the “new” social economy in Canada. My hypothesis is that Lonergan’s theological ethics, specifically his threefold structure of the human good and his scale of values supplemented by his cognitional theory, provide explanatory resources to clarify and add precision to the definition of values, how they are created, and how they interrelate within social economy practice. Lonergan’s resources help overcome the predominant use of a relativist “bag of values” approach found in practice and the literature, by explaining how value can be understood as an intelligible structure. As the goals of the social economy are aligned with the Christian mission to care for the poor, the community, and the public good, these resources will also provide an explanatory understanding of how religious values can animate and motivate Christian engagement in social economy activities. To address the question of values, I use a dialectic methodology to establish a conversation between the research conducted by the Canadian Social Economy Research Partnership (and other cognate studies), and Lonergan’s theological ethics. In contrast to social economy scholars who tend to use case studies as both methodology and genre, I integrate a case study into this thesis for illustration purposes only. In Chapter 2, I present an overview of the Canadian social economy with a discussion of values. I point out the important differentiation made within the literature between standard neoclassical economics and social economy theory, according to which the inclusion of values helps to both define the “new” social economy and to expand economic practice. The next three chapters unfold progressively as I introduce Lonergan’s theoretical work in Chapter 3 and further develop these in Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 3 is foundational to this thesis as it introduces Lonergan’s works by providing an historical reading of his early academic life. I recount his interest in economics and the Antigonish movement, underlining how the ethical component found there corresponds to that within the “new” social economy. I introduce Lonergan’s method of self-appropriation, his cognitional theory, and his theological ethics. Collectively, they provide a distinctive way of understanding “value.” Chapter 4 explains how neoclassical economic theory maintains that economic activities are “values-free;” a legacy of eighteenth and nineteenth century thinking. I contrast this with the “new” social economy approach that maintains its activities are participatory such that they generate and merge social and economic values. The chapter then draws on and further develops Lonergan’s resources as introduced in Chapter 3. Firstly, I apply his cognitional theory to a number of examples to illustrate how social economy practitioners innovate strategies by deliberating on what is valuable and worth pursuing in their actions. Secondly, I draw on Lonergan’s threefold structure of the human good to clarify what is meant by the “social” component of the social economy, and to explain how social economy practitioners satisfy their community’s needs, wants, and desires through the transcendence of self-interest, thus establishing patterns of cooperation constituted by meeting the patterns’ intrinsic ethical obligations on a recurring basis. I further explain how these cooperative patterns can be judged as “value structures” when they yield and ground values concretely. Thirdly, using social economy examples, I employ Lonergan’s ascending scale of values to differentiate the meaning of values and their interrelation at the vital, social, cultural, personal, and religious levels. Chapter 5 applies Lonergan’s resources to the case study of the Social Purchasing Portal (SPP), a social enterprise that was developed in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside district beginning in 2001. To highlight how Lonergan’s cognitional theory provides a precise and detailed account of the steps involved in innovative process, I describe how a working group developed the SPP model. My application of Lonergan’s threefold structure of the human good to the Vancouver SPP case study uncovers the clear differentiation of social and economic values and their interrelation through value structures. My appeal to Lonergan’s scale of values provides further precision to the definition of value, its creation, and how values interrelate to positively impact concrete social and economic living conditions. It also explains how the Canadian social economy is worthy of support and participation by Christians of all faith traditions. Chapter 6 provides a concise summary of this thesis project concluding with suggested lines of inquiry for further study. I propose that as Lonergan’s macroeconomic theory aligns more closely with an understanding of the “new” social economy than neoclassical economy theory, social economy scholars stand to benefit from a detailed analysis of his theory as resource for developing a more robust theory of the “new” social economy as practiced in Canada. Stimulated by Lonergan’s claim that Quebec’s educational system was, at least at one time, well-suited to teach cooperation as a means towards economic self-determination, I also propose investigation into whether historically education in that province facilitated early development of social economy activities. Finally, as innovation is so central to social economy activities, I propose that Lonergan’s cognitional theory could be explored more fully by social economy scholars in their efforts to explain the innovation process. They might also help social economy practitioners understand it as a normative process in their activities.