Fellowship Hall

Work Research Foundation becomes Cardus

Hamilton-based Cardus is now North America’s newest non-partisan think tank, specializing in examining the interactions of economic, social, cultural, intellectual and religious spheres of public life. Cardus will expand upon the work of its precursor, the Work Research Foundation, said President Michael Van Pelt.

“We have grown as an organization by 30 percent per year over the last five years,” said Van Pelt. “It had become clear that the old structure was no longer capable of sustaining either our growth or our aspirations.”

The Cardus mandate is to rethink, research and contribute to rebuilding an integrated vision of North American social architecture. “We are an ideas-driven organization with a core belief in the possibility of meaningful change through applied research,” said Van Pelt, adding that in the past year the organization has made some significant and diverse additions to its list of Senior Fellows.

Van Pelt explained that the “cardus” was an ancient north-south road that connected the people of Roman cities to their major public spaces. On the Cardus Maximus governments, markets, temples and other cultural institutions lived and worked to build a common life for the common good.

Today’s North American cities, said Van Pelt, are connected by rails, airports, highways and complex digital networks. Global culture generates a huge amount of data, but research is needed to understand how this influences politics, law, work, art, media and education, Van Pelt said, noting that these are the areas in which Cardus specializes. This is particularly necessary, he added, given the transformation of modern societies from an industrial to a technological era.

Ray Pennings, Director of Research, said filling this gap is essential to ensure that public life is sustained not just by social or political effort, but by informed institutional cooperation. Cardus has contributed original research through projects such as the Stained Glass Urbanism which explores the role that traditional faith institutions play in local neighbourhoods and communities.

“Whatever policy makers or politicians might think of churches at a personal level, as part of the social fabric of healthy communities, faith-groups are absolutely vital,” says Van Pelt.

The Cardus team of researchers and Senior Fellows is committed to building the public conversation on social architecture in the 21st Century based on sound research and intellectual rigour, said Pennings.      ■