Proceedings

The CGD workshop has at its heart a dialogue between academics and practitioners from official and civil society circles on what ‘rule by and for the people’ could mean in relation to global issues.

Ten authors have confirmed their attendance and are in the process of drafting papers for the workshop. (For list of the authors, please click here). The authors herald from ten world regions and bring highly diverse perspectives to the issue of conceptualising global democracy. These approaches include Austronesian culture, Confucian philosophy, feminism, Gandhian views, Islam, post-communist socialism and western liberalism. The Cairo dialogue will therefore be a highly intercultural conversation.

Respondents to the papers will be policy practitioners who can relate the proposed ideas to concrete global issues. Each paper will be addressed at the workshop by a discussant from official circles and a discussant from civil society circles. Like the authors, the discussants herald from ten world regions and adopt highly diverse perspectives. Confirmed discussants include an official of the Chinese Government and a youth and women’s activist from Trinidad.

Local participants from Cairo and surroundings will act as chairs for the workshop sessions, enlightening the matter in hand from a local perspective. The workshop is co-convened by Heba Raouf Ezzat and Jan Aart Scholte, with help from other BGD Convenors. (For more information about our Convenors, please see the About Us section)

Publications

After the workshop we will publish a policy brief on our website in 7 languages. This policy brief will consolidate the findings and recommendations of the workshop. Also after the workshop final abstracts of the papers will be published on the website, again in 7 languages.

Within four months after the meeting, authors will rewrite their papers in the light of the workshop discussions for submission. The book manuscript will be edited by Heba Raouf Ezzat and Jan Aart Scholte for submission publishers around October 2010. It is hoped to celebrate the book launch in Beijing in mid-2011.