Adapting to changing systems: Moving between Theory and Practice at JAED

Penelope (Penny) Sanz, managing editor of the Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development, spoke with Mary Beth Doucette regarding her insights from editing and curating the journal’s special issue on Two-Eyed Seeing. Mary Beth has Mi’kmaw and settler Canadian heritage. She currently holds the position of the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies within the Shannon School of Business (SSOB) at Cape Breton University (CBU) in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Originally an industrial engineer, she later earned a Master of Business Administration in Community Economic Development and a Ph.D. in Management from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I decided to pursue an MBA because I am curious about the nature of community economic development. I am also a band member of Membertou. They supported me in my undergraduate education and also in my MBA. I knew that Membertou was making significant progress in economic development in Sydney, despite the common belief that there are no opportunities in Cape Breton. So, how do you reconcile the fact that the most “historically” impoverished part of the community is doing all of these amazing things, and nobody else in the region seems to think that it’s possible? So, I ended up spending a lot of time doing research in Membertou and then studying and working there. That’s how I landed back here at CBU. One of the SSOB advisory members said it was the most ridiculous administrative process he’d ever encountered after a lifetime in business. But these are the strategies the government use[s]. The Elders Advisory Group visited a variety “heritage spaces” to consider what they wanted theirs to look like — a museum, a heritage park, or a community centre. They got Membertou to fund them to go to Ottawa and look at some of the national and local museums and heritage centres. Here they went to the Fortress of Louisburg, and the Bell Museum. At the time, the Elders had expressed concerns that Membertou [was] doing too much development but without community involvement. My research aimed to understand how they balanced the socio-cultural expectations for the Heritage Park with the economic expectations of the heritage product. So, how do you balance the two worlds? They said what they wanted to be in it, how they wanted it to look, and what they wanted [it] to look like. The main thing that the Elders said was they didn’t want it to cost Membertou anything. They wanted culture. They wanted it to be a community space. They wanted it to be a place where we talk about Membertou’s history and to be like a gathering space. But they didn’t want it to end up costing a lot of money. They wanted to break even at the very least. And so that was the first project that I was involved in. When I started working at Membertou full time, I was first working at the Trade and Convention Centre, which was one of these situations where we were losing money. It wasn’t really making money. As a result, there was significant turnover among the administration staff. The chief and council were often there criticizing the management. I came in to help clean the house a little bit and get things back on track. Thereafter, I started working as the director of quality assurance for Membertou. They have an ISO quality assurance program that the majority of the departments use. I was part of a team with two other people, working to ensure that we maintained the ISO certification for the quality assurance program. It was Elder Murdena Marshall, who was working here …