Background

The project on Citizen Learning for Global Democracy was launched in 2009 as one of five main endeavours in the Building Global Democracy programme.

The Citizen Learning for Global Democracy (CLGD) project starts from the premise that, to be democratically empowered, ‘the people’ must be conscious of, informed about, and able to act upon the issues and processes at hand. Citizens who are not actively learning about their political situation cannot pursue meaningful self-determination. At present publics across the world are generally poorly aware of global conditions and how they are governed. The question thus arises what kinds of learning could provide citizen empowerment for more democratic governance of global affairs.

Aims

The CLGD project will explore a variety of innovations in citizen learning on global affairs. Case studies will examine experiences such as school curricula on global issues; global relations degrees in tertiary education; ‘popular universities’ for citizen activists in global politics; initiatives in mass media (both mainstream and alternative) to foster global awareness; the development of public resource centres (both concrete and virtual) on global politics; global learning via the arts; and instances of effective public information outreach by relevant governance agencies themselves. 

Activities

Like other initiatives in the Building Global Democracy programme, the CLGD project will bring together ten leading world researchers on the subject in dialogue both with each other and with a range of civil society and official actors who work on questions of public information and learning. The participants will be drawn from diverse regions, cultures, disciplines and political visions. 

The workshop for the CLGD project will be held in New Delhi on 1-3 September 2010. Various presentations and publications will follow. It is hoped to launch the eventual book in Canada.