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Hello!

Dear Colleague,

Welcome to the June 2010 edition of the Building Global Democracy programme newsletter. In this issue you will find the latest updates on BGD work as well as feature pieces on the Sistren Theatre Collective and StreetNet's FIFA World Cup inclusion initative.

About us
Latest news
Forthcoming events
Featured initiative
Publications
Resources

The Building Global Democracy programme brings together academics and practitioners from around the world to advance knowledge and practice for greater public participation and control in global affairs. BGD explores how expanded 'rule by and for the people' can be achieved in respect of global issues such as climate change, financial crises, health concerns, internet links, migration flows, security problems, and trade. The premise is that more democratic governance can encourage more effective and more legitimate responses to vital global challenges.

The BGD programme is facilitated and coordinated through a convening group of ten persons based in ten world regions, with diverse academic backgrounds and political outlooks. Our administrative office is located in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick in Britain. Core funding is provided through a generous grant from the Ford Foundation, with co-funding from other sources.

More details about BGD can be obtained on our website, www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org or email us at info@buildingglobaldemocracy.org

Discussants Confirmed for CLGD Workshop

Putting ideas into practice

Discussants have now been confirmed for BGD's workshop on Citizen Learning for Global Democracy, which will be held in New Delhi, India on 1-3 September 2010. The role of the discussants is to critically assess BGD's commissioned studies and to consider their implications for concrete action. Coming from official, civil society and business sectors, the discussants will add fresh perspectives and encourage lively debate.

Meet the discussants

CLGD Author Videos Online

If you would like to learn more about the work of authors in the Citizen Learning for Global Democracy project, we have posted recent video clips of them on our website.

Watch now!

CGD Paper Summaries to be Published Online

Summaries of papers prepared for the Conceptualising Global Democracy project will shortly be published on our website in English. Translations into seven other languages will follow. The summaries are indicative of the final CGD papers which will be published in book form in 2011.

BGD on Facebook

Ever wanted to know more about what we do? Want to ask us a question? If so, the Building Global Democracy programme will shortly launch its Facebook page for this purpose. We will send a general announcement once the page has been launched. Feel free to add us and ask your questions to our team!

CLGD Workshop in New Delhi

1-3 September 2010

The Citizen Learning for Global Democracy workshop is fast approaching. Regular updates will be published live from the workshop each day. We will also post pictures of workshop proceedings on Flickr. A summary of workshop findings and suggestions will be published online shortly afterwards. An action-orientated policy brief will follow subsequently.

Do you have any questions to ask the workshop participants? We will put them to the workshop group in September and post the responses online. Please do get in touch!

Send us your questions

Public Event in Delhi

Get involved!

Following the Citizen Learning for Global Democracy workshop, a public event will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru University on 4 September 2010 at 17:30-20:00. Based on the findings of the 3-day workshop, the public event provides an opportunity for local interested persons to engage with the issues.

Panellists include CLGD authors: •Sam Ata (Solomon Islands) •Elena Vartanova (Russia) •Honor Ford-Smith (Jamaica) •Owen Sichone (South Africa) •Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada) •Zhu Jiangang (China) • Members of the BGD convening group.

Everyone is welcome to attend! A light dinner reception will also be served.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Find out more

IEGP Workshop in Rio de Janeiro

13-15 April 2011

BGD will hold a workshop on Including the Excluded in Global Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 13-15 April 2011. The meeting will explore ways that groups who often lack participation and control in global affairs have gained recognition, voice and influence in decision-taking processes. As ever in BGD activities, the workshop will centre on practitioner-researcher exchange. Details regarding cases and authors will be forthcoming in the next newsletter.

Among the objectives of the BGD programme is to raise awareness of efforts throughout the world to bring greater democracy to the governance of global concerns. To this end each BGD newsletter highlights several academic and/or practitioner initiatives in this area. This time we feature StreetNet International and the Sistren Theatre Collective. Please feel free to send suggestions of other features for future newsletters.

StreetNet International

StreetNet Logo

Street vendors, hawkers, unions and social movements join forces to demand inclusion in plans for FIFA World Cup

Under the banner of the World Class Cities for ALL (WCCA) Campaign, organisations representing street vendors, sex workers and other constituencies of the urban poor joined forces to call for consultative processes in the lead up the 2010 FIFA World Cup to ensure that street traders, and other groups of the urban poor, are not unilaterally evicted without alternatives, or unnecessarily disadvantaged by urban renewal plans. Spearheaded by the Durban-based StreetNet International, the WCCA Campaign was launched on 28 November 2006 to challenge traditional elitist First-World approaches to building 'World Class Cities'. The WCCA Campaign has run in South Africa from 2007 leading up to the FIFA World Cup in June-July 2010. In August 2010 it will move to Brazil where the next World Cup Games will be held. Organising under the slogan “Nothing for us without us !!” the following key commitment has been sought from the World Cup LOC (Local Organising Committee), municipalities and other relevant institutions:

To undertake to engage in participatory consultative processes with any persons or interest groups who may be affected in any substantive or material manner by any aspect of urban improvement or urban renewal initiatives envisaged in the creation of World Class Cities.

Negotiations have been requested by the WCCA Campaign with the municipalities in the host cities to open a process of dialogue and negotiations on the inclusion of the urban poor in plans leading up to the 2010 World Cup. Two host cities that have refused to meet with the WCCA Campaign are Durban and Pretoria.

Learn more

Sistren Theatre Collective

Sistren Logo

Celebrating 32 years of activism in Jamaica and across the Caribbean Region

Using popular theatre and the performing arts (dance, drumming, music and drama) to incite social change, Sistren Theatre Collective (Sistren) has for thirty-two years confronted key socio-economic issues facing inner-city communities of Kingston, Jamaica. Over the years Sistren has creatively responded to the changing needs within its partner communities, which are often plagued by violence, high unemployment and low occupational skills in order to help empower residents to become active participants in changing and reshaping their life situations.

Sistren uses the arts as a means of confronting the public on taboo and seldom discussed social issues such as community and gender-based violence, sexual abuse and abortion. One of the main tools used to engage in this work at the community level has been the Street Theatre, in which Sistren, in collaboration with community animators and drama groups, stages dramatic and musical productions within public community spaces. The methodology is highly participatory, as the street theatre productions are coupled with interactive discussions in which community animators engage the audience/community members in deconstructing stereotypes and envisioning new and community-focussed ways forward. The flexibility of Sistren’s methodology has allowed the organization to adapt to its environment and implement a wide range of solutions to meet the needs of communities. Today, Sistren serves children, youth and adults in communities across Jamaica.

Amongst Sistren’s recent activities is a three-year project funded by the United Nations Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence Against Women (UNTF) which tackles the issues of gender-based and community violence. In 2008, Sistren was one of ten organisations worldwide to receive the UN HABITAT “Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Urban Safety, Crime Prevention and Youth.”

Learn more

The Building Global Democracy Programme seeks, amongst other things, to identify new publications on the subject which may interest our readership. If you would like us to feature a publication in future newsletters, please email the office.

Special Edition of Globalizations Journal on "Globalization and Crisis"

This double issue (330 pp) resulted from a consensus decision of the Editorial Board meeting held in February 2009 in New York city. It represents a strategic intervention by the journal into the ongoing global debates over the origins and consequences of the present global crisis, and over the appropriate responses to it.

Read this edition of the Globalizations Journal

A Revolution is a Way of Life, by Gabrielle Jamela Hosein

Drawing on a history of Caribbean struggles, this TEDx talk by Conceptualising Global Democracy project participant Gabrielle Hosein, seeks to inspire those who think that change is not possible, that they have no role to play, that activism takes place in limited and ideologically clear forms, and that men cannot be committed to feminist movements. It speaks to those who think that revolutions happened only in the past, in other places, and with people unlike them. It explains why revolutions must be understood not only in terms of the momentous and mass actions, but also in terms of the mundane and everyday. Caribbean women's movements have taught us that transformation of injustice must be for all, not just some, and it must take place across both public and private spheres. This is why a feminist revolution must be a way of life.

Watch it now!

The Building Global Democracy Programme has identified, and made links with, approximately 300 other groups and organisations around the world with related concerns. Developing such a network is one of the primary goals of the BGD programme.

If you are working on similar issues to the BGD programme and would like to build links with us, please email the office.

Explore our links page

The BGD website also includes a Library area with access to online publications on subjects related to building global democracy.

Visit the Library

Website: www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org | Email: info@buildingglobaldemocracy.org | Tel: +44 (0)24 7657 2532
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