Sean Geobey

Associate Professor, MEDI Academic Director
Sean Geobey headshot

Contact Information
sean.geobey@uwaterloo.ca
EV3 4259

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Sean Geobey brings applied expertise in social innovation theory, sustainable finance, planning, governance, and decision-theory to his research and teaching. As Director of the À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI - /complexity-innovation/) and Co-Director of the À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR - /waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/) his teaching includes cutting edge work in social entrepreneurship and social innovation, with a pedagogical approach that uses problem-based, community-engaged learning. His work uses complex adaptive systems theory and community-based research to explore governance and design issues in collective action, often using large-scale co-design processes such as social innovation labs. Much of this work has been in the social finance sector, where he has led the Legacy Leadership Lab (/legacy-leadership-lab/legacy-leadership-lab-cultivating-social-acquisition) and the systems mapping and principles focused evaluation of the Investment Readiness Program (/waterloo-institute-for-social-innovation-and-resilience/projects/investment-readiness-program-20). He has been a Fellow at the Filene Research Institute and is currently Social Capital Partners Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.

Courses Taught

  • ENBUS 612 – Social Entrepreneurship and Scaling Social Innovation
  • ECDEV 605 – Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Small Business Development

Selected Publications

  • Campbell, T., Geobey, S., & Ronson, M. (2021). The Legacy Leadership Lab: Cultivating the social acquisition movement. À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. /legacy-leadership-lab/legacy-leadership-lab-cultivating-social-acquisition
  • Geobey, S., Campbell, S., & Kearney, N. (2023). Testing participatory budgeting voting design: Two cases from the city of Kitchener.ÌýLocal Development & Society, 1-20.
  • Piscitelli, A., & Geobey, S. (2020). Representative Board Governance: What Role Do Nonprofit Board Directors Have in Representing the Interest of Their Constituents?.ÌýCanadian Journal of Nonprofit & Social Economy Research/Revue canadienne de recherche sur les OSBL et l'économie sociale,Ìý11(1).Ìý
  • Geobey, S., and K. A. McGowan. 2019. Panarchy, ontological and epistemological phenomena, and the Plague.ÌýEcology and SocietyÌý24(4):23.
  • Geobey, S., & Callahan, J. (2017).ÌýÌýACRN Oxford Journal of Finance and Risk Perspectives, 6(4), 17-36.

Degrees

  • Ph.D - Environment and Resource Studies, University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ, 2014
  • M.A. - Economics, Queen’s University, 2005
  • BA (Hons.) - Economics & Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2003