Shortfalls of democracy in the governance of global affairs run deep in the hierarchies of social structure. Even relatively casual observations of processes of global public policy reveals a systematic marginalization of various subordinated social circles, including informal workers, peasants, people of colour, women, sexual minorities, disabled persons, and outcastes. In geographical terms, too, existing governance arrangements for global relations usually arbitrarily favour countries of the global north and major urban centres across the world.

 

To emphasize these issues and creative ways that they can be addressed, this project will bring together leading researchers and social movement activists who have documented and pursued struggles for inclusion in the governance of global affairs on the part of, for example, Dalit women, landless cultivators, indigenous peoples, AIDS patients, and so on. The resulting papers, policy brief and book will seek to identify any common elements as well as distinctive steps in successful efforts to gain hearings for those who are normally unheard in policymaking processes regarding global affairs.

 

It is intended that the workshop for this project be held in Rio de Janeiro in May 2010 and the book launch in the Pacific.