Ushnish Sengupta

There is an increased role Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plays in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper focuses specifically on SDG-11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and how cities are increasingly incorporating ICT toward this goal. The public discourse on Smart Cities suggests economic, social and environmental benefits are possible through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). However, the increased deployment and use of digital infrastructure and processes in the name of sustainability and optimization itself is the focus of a growing body of critical literature on Smart Cities. This mini-review collates critical literature on digital infrastructures and processes related to SDG-11 and Smart Cities to identify areas of significance for further research. Although many Smart City projects discuss sustainability benefits, the distribution of benefits and risks across...

This paper utilizes concepts from a critical social justice discourse on smart cities to identify factors behind resistance to new smart city initiatives from equity-seeking groups. The broader critical discourse is examined based on relevance to the eventual failure of the initiatives selected as case studies. It highlights institutional failure within government-supported initiatives due to the lack of consideration given to equitable distribution of risks and formal accountability mechanisms. It describes outcomes surrounding smart cities in which the benefits accrue to some groups within the city while risks increase for other groups. Finally, we examine the integration of “risk” as an adaptation to the existing practical mechanism of Community Benefit Agreements, for use of this framework to support value sensitive design approaches in future smart city initiatives.

Information technology has become an essential part of social economy organizations, but many social economy organizations have not been able to realize the full potential of benefits that have been achieved in other sectors through successful adoption of information technology. Research on successful technology adoption strongly indicates support for a broad participatory end user involvement approach throughout the technology development, selection and implementation process. The values of social economy organizations are also reflected in the development, selection, and use of information technology. Without careful consideration, technology selected and used by social economy organizations may not always be harmonious with the values of the organization, leading often to an inability to achieve desired outcomes. This paper presents a review of best practices in information technology adoption by social economy organizations, highlighting participatory and value based approaches.

This article seeks to understand Indigenous social enterprise in a “current state snapshot” and in a complex historical context. Specifically, the authors begin by placing into theoretical context social enterprises serving Indigenous communities. The framework for Indigenous social enterprise is related to theories of Indigenous entrepreneurship and “quadruple bottom line” organizations. The authors explain the role of culture as an under-researched element and as a critical component of Indigenous social enterprise. The article also highlights gender leadership of social enterprise in Indigenous communities. Finally, the article provides three case studies that exemplify Indigenous social enterprise in Canada. Dans cet article, les auteurs cherchent à comprendre les entreprises sociales autochtones dans leur état actuel ainsi que dans la complexité de leur contexte historique. Plus précisément, les auteurs commencent leur article en situant dans un contexte théorique particulier l...

This paper utilizes concepts from a critical social justice discourse on smart cities to identify factors behind resistance to new smart city initiatives from equity-seeking groups. The broader critical discourse is examined based on relevance to the eventual failure of the initiatives selected as case studies. It highlights institutional failure within government-supported initiatives due to the lack of consideration given to equitable distribution of risks and formal accountability mechanisms. It describes outcomes surrounding smart cities in which the benefits accrue to some groups within the city while risks increase for other groups. Finally, we examine the integration of "risk" as an adaptation to the existing practical mechanism of Community Benefit Agreements, for use of this framework to support value sensitive design approaches in future smart city initiatives.

This paper describes the intersection of class, gender and race in the leadership of cooperatives in North America. Movement of labour across North American borders changes the membership of cooperatives as well as the leadership and formation of cooperatives. The socioeconomic shifts that affect cooperatives are also accompanied by marginalisation of particular populations. Although women and racial minorities have made some advances in equity in cooperatives , racialized women in particular are not represented in leadership positions in cooperatives in proportion to membership in the broader population. In this context, international cooperative principles remain ideals to aspire to rather than a reality in practice. On an optimistic note, cooperatives continue to be more egalitarian organisations than other types of organisations and therefore have the potential for leading as positive role models, addressing the intersection of gender and race for other organisations to follow.

Worldwide, there are many Indigenous communities who distrust the Natural Resources Industry due to historical economic, environmental, social, and cultural practices. These communities also often distrust National and Sub-National governments that regulate these industries. At the same time, long-term support and a license to operate from local Indigenous communities has become a critical and necessary requirement for Natural Resource Development. Blockchain constitutes an emerging technology that can be applied to mitigate trust issues, in contexts where there is distrust between decentralized stakeholders. In this chapter, we posit that those business processes that require participation by Indigenous communities, Natural Resources companies, and different levels of governments who lack trust in each other can be performed more effectively using blockchain technologies. The research method included interviews with Natural Resource industry and Indigenous entrepreneurship subject matter experts and a case study using an enterprise analysis tool, the Business Model Canvas. Ultimately, our research indicates that governance level control by Indigenous communities over the development and operation of blockchain platforms can be pivotal in rebuilding trust between stakeholders in Natural Resources development. In our findings, control of development and operation by Indigenous communities does not necessarily mean hands on end to end solution deployment, but involves continuous and genuine input into the requirements and direction of blockchain technology development.  Blockchain technology additionally provides the prospective benefits of Smart Contract implementation, which provides an additional layer of assurance that agreements made by all stakeholders involved will be honored through an additional mechanism of software code.

This document summarizes research supporting the implementation of blockchain technology in the food and agriculture industry in Ontario. First, our research indicates that blockchain technology based solutions are an existing and proven set of technologies, where it has already been proven that the source of food items can be identified in seconds where previous processes required days and weeks of effort. Second, we also describe how blockchain based supply chain provenance information has many more benefits than its current use for food safety and product recalls. Consumers are willing to pay premium prices for food based on reliable supply chain information that matches the consumers expectations and values.  Costs related to blockchain technology based solution development and implementation will be relatively small in comparison to revenues generated through increased market share by organizations providing useful information to consumers, and other stakeholders in the food supply chain.  Third, we recommend that costs for development of blockchain based solutions should also be distributed across stakeholders, and apportioned by the relevant industry associations. Implementation of smart contracts can be used to guarantee a pre-arranged distribution of revenues and costs across stakeholders across the food supply chain. A consortium approach will reduce individual organization related risks, and will ensure that complete end to end supply chains participate in blockchain based technology solutions. Our research indicates that adoption of blockchain technology in agriculture will be achieve critical mass earlier when the industry applies a consortium approach, in a regulatory environment that is supported by government. Finally, this report also makes recommendations relevant to the integration of blockchain technology with per item labelling, one of the core competencies and strengths of the project partner, Accu-Label Inc.

Instead of each organization attempting to navigate their own path through the different choices in technologies, we recommend a consortium approach where a blockchain technology based solution is selected and implemented through existing industry associations. Industry associations by design address the needs of their members, and therefore have a built-in relationship of trust with their members. This preexisting trust between industry associations and their members will enable pre-arranged distribution of costs and revenues related to implementation of blockchain technology between different stakeholders. Industry associations can pilot simpler low cost blockchain based solutions to reduce the risks developing more complex and expensive solutions.  Blockchain based smart contracts provide an additional layer of assurance by pre-defining conditions of revenue/cost distribution, and automating the process.

Summary of Recommendations
1. Pilot different blockchain technologies to determine the best fit for the industry and organization.
2. Determine information that is of value to stakeholders in the supply chain, such as end consumers, and that they are willing to pay for.
3. Distribute the costs of blockchain technology development across different stakeholders in a consortium approach through industry associations.
4. Ensure that a robust mechanism exists to bridge information flows with physical food product flows.

This paper describes the necessary and inevitable changes in the leadership of the Social Economy in Canada due to socio-economic and demographic trends. The first macroeconomic trend affecting the growing size of the social economy in Canada is growing income inequality. The second macroeconomic trend is a long-term period of fiscal restraint by different levels of government in Canada. Another trend is the changing demographics in Canada, which has two components, population growth from immigration and population growth in Indigenous communities. The trends are accompanied by critiques of the direction of the trend with respect to the social economy, arguing that the social economy is a contested space. One of the key conclusions is that the agency and leadership opportunities of marginalized and equity seeking groups in starting and maintaining social economy organizations is limited by current system structures. Bourdieu’s framework of capital, habitus and field are used as theoretical frameworks for analysis to argue that the existing support systems for starting and developing social economy organizations are designed to maintain existing power structures.

We describe and discuss three types of cases studies – teaching, research, and service learning – that are used in higher education in a variety of disciplines. The three types are compared to highlight when each type of case is appropriately used. We then examine the issue of the importance of accuracy of the three types. We conclude that we need focus less on the issue of factual accuracy but more on the purpose of each case type and how each captures an element of reality.

From Seva to Cyberspace: The Many Faces of Volunteering in India by Femida Handy, Meenaz Kassam, Sharjah Jillian Ingold, and Bhagyashree Ranade is a useful addition to the literature on local volunteerism in different countries. The text is authored by scholars who have a deep understanding of volunteering in countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, and India. They provide a deep analysis of the religious basis of volunteering in India, report on surveys about volunteering conducted across multiple countries (including India), and discuss case studies that highlight the theories and analysis presented in different chapters by Femida Handy, Meenaz Kassam, Sharjah Jillian Ingold, and Bhagyashree Ranade is a useful addition to the literature on local volunteerism in different countries. The text is authored by scholars who have a deep understanding of volunteering in countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, and India. They provide a deep analysis of the religious basis of volunteering in India, report on surveys about volunteering conducted across multiple countries (including India), and discuss case studies that highlight the theories and analysis presented in different chapters

This paper describes the intersection of the cooperative movement and Indigenous communities in Canada. The paper brings a lens of nation, ethnicity and race to an analysis of the cooperative movement in Canada, a perspective which has received limited attention in published literature. Cooperatives have had a dual role in Indigenous communities. In a historical context, Indigenous cooperative development in Canada is inseparable from government colonization policies. Cooperatives were utilized by successive British, Canadian, and provincial governments as a policy tool to increase European settler control over land, permanent settlement of Indigenous communities to limit their use of land, and to secure Arctic Sovereignty. The extraordinary growth of Indigenous cooperatives is Canada, particularly in Inuit communities in the North, has been primarily supported by government policy implementation including financial and technical management support. In the contemporary context, cooperatives have been utilized by Indigenous communities as a tool for economic and social development. Indigenous cooperatives demonstrate innovative combinations of Quadruple Bottom Line goals, including financial, social, environmental and cultural goals. Cooperatives are explained as an organizational form that can be co-opted for colonization or decolonization, capitalism or socialism, settler or Indigenous communities for their own specific purposes.

This paper describes a unique seven-year program involving a business school, the Rotman School of Management and the development of entrepreneurs in a low-income community, Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. The success of the program was a result of the breadth of involvement by a number of constituents of the business school including administration, faculty, and alumni. There is a diverse set of approaches to partnerships between business schools and local communities across the world.  The Rotman School of Management Small Business Program for Regent Park and surrounding areas was offered in the form of ten weeks of classroom lectures by business school faculty, combined with coaching support by business school alumni. The program ran for seven years, with an average of 25 students per class, on a total estimated budget of CDN $45,000. Based on breadth of participation by the business school; and the seven year iterative and continuous improvement process implemented for the program; the Rotman Small Business Program for Regent Park was successfully able to provide a high level of educational value for participants on a minimal total budget. Describing lessons learned from the seven years of the program enables business schools and communities with existing or potential partnership projects to optimize program decisions instead of repeating lessons learned in similar contexts. The primary lessons learned from the program include: first the need to modify business school course content to a small business context, and second the need to expand the metrics of success to include additional educational outcomes. The ultimate objective of this paper is to provide sufficient information for potential replication of all or part of the partnership program, for academics and practitioners interested in the interaction of business schools and local communities.

The algorithm development industry typically views itself as “acultural”, independent of culture, or often “post-cultural”, transcending cultural differences in developing the future.  This chapter argues that algorithm development and particularly algorithm development is deeply rooted in narrow cultural practices. Moreover, current cultural practices of algorithm development exclude genuine input from a broader variety of stakeholders, while simultaneously the negative impacts of algorithm development, such as algorithmic bias, are experienced primarily by communities and individuals who are not meaningfully involved in the development of the algorithms that affect them. A deliberate and significant effort towards increasing cultural diversity in the design and development of algorithms is required to enable genuine input from a broader group of stakeholders. Input from a broader group of stakeholders will in turn enable the development of solutions that address issues for a broader group of communities, and greater variety of innovative solutions that cannot be developed from a narrow cultural base.  In this chapter the term “algorithm development” refers to the design and development of algorithms in the context of software applications.

This paper provides a critical discussion of the historical development of AI in Canada. Like many other counties, Canada is positioning itself as a leader in AI development, with government investments in AI entrepreneurship as well as academic centers. The Canadian governmental discourse on AI describes the implementation of one of the first national Algorithmic Impact Assessment Tools, and the Montreal Declaration for Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, as well as immigrant friendly multicultural policies. The governmental discourse takes an ahistorical approach to the development and implementation of AI. This paper traces the development of AI in Canada historically, firmly situating AI in a continuum of economic development and trade imperatives. A historical analysis of the development of AI also necessarily incorporates the process of settler colonialism and subsequent immigration patterns. One of the advantages of AI development in Canada, promoted primarily by governmental discourse, is Canadas relatively open immigration system, which enables hiring of AI developers, Data Scientists and related human resources. A critical historical analysis of AI development situates the immigration of AI developers in the long-term changing requirements of immigration policies in Canada, as a nation building project. A critical historical analysis of AI also situates development of AI and information technology in general, as a material project, involving extraction of minerals and energy required for the physical components of computing infrastructure. Canada has historically been a center of extractive industries, with many global mining companies being headquartered in Canada. Finally, a historical analysis of AI identifies counternarratives and alternative pathways for development, through AI related projects developed and influenced by Indigenous and immigrant communities. Therefore this paper identifies multiple strands of historical AI development in Canada and firmly situates AI development in a historical context, in opposition to a more prevalent ahistorical discourse.

This paper provides a critical discussion of the historical development of AI in Canada. Like many other counties, Canada is positioning itself as a leader in AI development, with government investments in AI entrepreneurship as well as academic centers. The Canadian governmental discourse on AI describes the implementation of one of the first national Algorithmic Impact Assessment Tools, and the Montreal Declaration for Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, as well as immigrant friendly multicultural policies. The governmental discourse takes an ahistorical approach to the development and implementation of AI. This paper traces the development of AI in Canada historically, firmly situating AI in a continuum of economic development and trade imperatives. A historical analysis of the development of AI also necessarily incorporates the process of settler colonialism and subsequent immigration patterns. One of the advantages of AI development in Canada, promoted primarily by governmental discourse, is Canadas relatively open immigration system, which enables hiring of AI developers, Data Scientists and related human resources. A critical historical analysis of AI development situates the immigration of AI developers in the long-term changing requirements of immigration policies in Canada, as a nation building project. A critical historical analysis of AI also situates development of AI and information technology in general, as a material project, involving extraction of minerals and energy required for the physical components of computing infrastructure. Canada has historically been a center of extractive industries, with many global mining companies being headquartered in Canada. Finally, a historical analysis of AI identifies counternarratives and alternative pathways for development, through AI related projects developed and influenced by Indigenous and immigrant communities. Therefore this paper identifies multiple strands of historical AI development in Canada and firmly situates AI development in a historical context, in opposition to a more prevalent ahistorical discourse.