Ideas

Co-Creating Knowledge

“Big ideas” have been synonymous with the name Atkinson for more than a century. Joseph Atkinson called unemployment insurance “the fight of my life.” Old age pensions, family allowances, labour standards and minimum wages, universal medicare and more, featured in his bold program for social reform.

Today, we’re fighting to protect core public services while pursuing promising ideas to tackle inequality.

We believe in co-creating knowledge with people who stay close to the realities of life on a low income. They are policy advocates and organizers, journalists and other media workers, and academics and practitioners alike. As part of larger strategies, we commission or support research to inform public education, policy advocacy and practice. Here’s a sample of the knowledge created for this purpose over the years.

Decent Work

Decent work is about more than a job or wages. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines it as “productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace, social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in decisions that affect their lives, and equality of opportunity and treatment for all.” Since 2014, we’ve collaborated to reflect on what decent work looks like in our Canadian context — to spark dialogue and action.

Reforming EI for the 21st Century

A memorandum to the Government of Canada by Armine Yalnizyan, Mary Gellatly and Laurell Ritchie on how to reform the Employment Insurance program.

Valuing Decent Work in Your Investments

A Guide for Investors

A guide by the Shareholders Association for Research and Education's Shannon Rohan for institutional investment funds interested in integrating decent work considerations.

Change Work

Valuing Decent Work in the Nonprofit Sector

A report by Mowat NFP's Lisa Lalande, Jamie Van Ymeren and Alexa Greig that explores the concept of decent work and its application to the nonprofit sector.

Community Wealth Building

For more than a decade, Atkinson has collaborated with leaders in different sectors to make economic development processes more inclusive of low income communities. We’ve partnered to bring global voices into Canadian conversations about the economy, like UK economist Mariana Mazzucato on public investment in innovation.

Community Benefits Agreements

A report from the Mowat Centre's Andrew Galley about community benefits as a tool for community wealth building.

Anchor Institutions

A report from the Mowat Centre's Nevena Dragicevic about anchor institutions, social procurement and community wealth building.

The Co-operative Opportunity

A Strategy for Small Business Succession in Ontario

A report by Dr. Sean Geobey and Meg Ronson on small business conversions into employee co-operatives.

Public Interest Journalism

The Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy demonstrated the power of journalism to serve the public good from 1988 to 2021. It gave outstanding journalists the chance to investigate a story that had real potential to change public policy.

What COVID Reveals

The Faces of Inequality in Canada

A year in the life of working women, migrant workers and asylum seekers, and those who could not “just stay home” during lockdowns by Stephanie Nolen.

Building Smart Smart Cities

Privacy, Equity and Democracy in a Digital Age

A deep dive into the politics and governance of smart city technology by John Lorinc.

Education Without Oppression

Liberating Our Public Schools

An investigation into how Canada’s public education system has failed to deliver equitable outcomes for Black and Indigenous students by Shree Paradkar.

Movement Voices

Occasionally, Atkinson publishes essays exploring issues and amplifying voices from the decent work movement. We also supported Powershare, a Centre for Future Work multi-year research program led by Dr. Jim Stanford that included a foundational paper on the theory and practice of worker voice.