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This paper discusses the social dimension of microinsurance, a new financial arrangement that has emerged following the success of microcredit in the 90’s. Microinsurance protects low-income people, specifically against the everyday shocks of life, thus breaking the infernal cycle of poverty. The author hypothesizes that microinsurance reduces poverty through social performance and that business models with higher social performance were likely to reach the poorest stratum of the population. The research, focusing on four dimensions of social performance, posits that organization objectives rely heavily on business models, which otherwise each have their own interpretation of poverty.

AbstractWith the dawn of a new century, the British Empire faced the world with a new monarch as the Dominion of Canada braced for one of the largest immigration movements in its brief history. These currents of change also mirrored broader societal transformations marked by dramatic industrial expansion and exploding urban growth. In this period of great transition, many well-to-do Britons found a powerful antidote to their fears and insecurities in the far-away province of British Columbia. Aggressively promoted by private land developers, immigrants found affinity with a radically-altered landscape defined by the agricultural practice of fruit farming. Representing a wealth of finance, culture, and refinement, notions of the land animated and perpetuated the values and identity of the new community. Although these settlers were eager to exclude difference and achieve a “natural” balance with nature, the intertwining of landscape and Empire could not preclude change, nor exorcise its own profound flaws.

AbstractThis paper shows that the most remarkable aspect of the far-reaching industrial development of Hamilton, Ontario by the early 1870s was that it was achieved largely through the adaptation and expansion of pre-existing structures of production firmly rooted in the traditional crafts world. The early industrialization of Hamilton was combined and uneven, but handicraft production stood in distinction to the enlarged manufactory. “Modern Industry,” in what limited form it may have existed at all, had yet to establish itself as a typical form of industrial enterprise. All this is not surprising, since almost all those men leading the industrialization of the city were themselves former artisans and craftsworkers intimately familiar with the techniques and possibilities of craft production. This paper delineates the structures of early industrialization to suggest the pressing need for historians to reconsider the potential for continuity of craftsworker experience during early industrialization.

In the midst of dynamic socio-economic and cultural conditions, the Glengarry Highland Games were revived in a rural community of Eastern Ontario in 1948. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, this festival became the lifeblood of a movement perpetuating Scottish Highland cultural practices and (re)producing "Scottishness" as the dominant cultural currency in an ethnically diverse county. Using primary evidence in the forms of oral histories, newspapers, and archives, this paper examines how the expansion of spaces and opportunities to celebrate Scottish cultural practices has influenced the social construction of regional and cultural identities in Glengarry County from 1948 to the 21st century.

Our research attempts to shed light on a specific set of practices of owner-manager within microfirms (less than five employees) in the area of information systems (IS). In these very small-sized companies, as we know, resources are scarce and IS very little formalized. Also, the owner-manager has a prominent role in setting the IT policy as well as in implementing it. In this respect, recent studies underline the relevance of the concept of bricolage as a pertinent tool for analyzing this kind of environment. Our research tackles these issues by exploring further how owner-managers implement and use information technology through the prism of organizational bricolage. Based on 56 semi-directive interviews with owner-managers, our qualitative analysis shows two types of bricolage : the « necessity bricolage » and the « strategic bricolage ». These categories differ in the way owner-managers perceive the technology, their personal aspirations and strategic goals, and the mode of IT skills acquisition (in-house or outsourced).

Keywords: Microfirmes, Bricolage organisationnel, Systèmes d'information, Dirigeant, Bricolage de nécessité, Bricolage stratégique, Microfirms, Organizational bricolage, Information systems, Manager, Necessity bricolage, Strategic bricolage, Micro-empresas, Bricolaje organizacional, Sistema de información, Dirigente, Bricolaje por necesidad, Bricolaje estratégico

The Montreal biopharmaceutical cluster is now internationally well-known. To describe its organization, four strategic territorial dynamics are conceptualized and analyzed : the knowledge capitalization, costs optimization, competition-cooperation and governance dynamics. A survey of 45 firms reveals that those territorial dynamics result from five strategic drivers activated by four types of enterprises (pharmaceutical enterprises, contract research organization, “networked” biotechnology firms and “start-up” biotechnology firms) whose organizational anchorages take part into the performing Montreal biopharmaceutical territorial construction.

Keywords: Grappe industrielle, Dynamiques territoriales, Système industriel de création de valeur, Ressources, Bio-industrie, Biotechnologie, Biopharmaceutique