Over the past few decades, there has been renewed interest in the social economy, especially in relation to the employment crisis and the reshaping of State's interventions. The social economy plays an important role in solving new social problems with pioneering solutions, especially in the field of public services. It is important to better understand its innovative function. This article discusses the notion of social innovation and explains how it can be used as an analytical framework for understanding the social economy. The case of Québec's social economy housing serves to illustrate this proposition.

The mechanical response of a semisolid body to an applied, uniaxial strain rate has been expressed as a function of strain by modifying an existing analysis based on an idealized representation of the microstructure. An existing mechanical criterion for hot tearing of the semisolid body has been adapted to the deformation mechanisms. The resulting hot tearing model shows that the strength of the body depends on the strain, the viscosity of the intergranular fluid, the solid fraction, the isothermal compressibility of the fluid, the surface tension of the liquid, the limiting liquid-film thickness for viscous flow and a parameter m, which describes microstructure. The effect of each parameter on the mechanical response and the onset of hot tearing has been examined for ranges of values relevant to aluminum alloys and the direct-chill (DC) casting process. The parameter testing has shown that the mechanical response predicted by the model agrees well with some experimental data for both the mechanisms of fracture and the parameters that govern the process. An adjustment of unknown model parameters to experimental data would permit use of the model as a constitutive law and a fracture criterion for numerical modeling of hot tearing during the solidification of Al alloys by DC casting.

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in this paper we define stratotypes for glacial and associated sediments in southern and western Finland. The Kauhajoki Formation in southern Ostrobothnia (Pohjanmaa) and the Kela Formation in western Uusimaa, comprise a complex sequence of sediments deposited during the Weichselian glaciation. Following the entrainment of debris by the first advancing ice, the deposition was initiated by lodgement of the Kauhajoki and Siuntio Tills. The ice was flowing towards the south. Later, during the deglaciation, deposition was largely by basal melt-out leaving the Espoo Till in western Uusimaa. The Pikkala Sands, sandwiched between the underlying till and overlying Espoo Till were deposited by subglacial meltwater. A comparable facies change, from lodgement to melt-out, is also recorded in the uppermost 1 metre of the Kauhajoki Till. Other lithostratotypes are proposed for sediments underlying till (the so-called 'old' glaciofluvial and associated sediments) in southern Ostrobothnia. These include the Harrinkangas Formation. The approach of using formal lithostratigraphical units is recommended because of the complexity and wide extent of the Pleistocene deposits of Finland. As a consequence of the present lack of bio-or chronostratigraphical data in southernmost Finland, the classification and subdivisions of stratigraphic units based on cold stage sediments requires detailed sedimentological analysis.