Invitation: DRS 2016 dialogue on “Transformative democracy & citizenship – what role for external actors?” (English)
1 February, 4:15 pm
ISS Aula A
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague
(http://www.iss.nl/news_events/iss_news/detail/article/78891-drs-2016-transformative-local-democracypolitics-of-citizenship/)
What is the current state and future of democracy? And what is or should
be the role of aid agencies and NGOs engaged in democracy promotion?
These are the questions that this ISS Dialogue on Civic Innovation
Research will deal with. The dialogue will bring Kristian Stokke
http://www.sv.uio.no/iss/personer/vit/stokke/>, professor in Political
Geography at the University of Oslo in Norway together with Will Derks
http://nimd.org/profile/will-derks/>at the Netherlands Institute for
Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).
Stokke argues that ‘weak popular influence on public affairs means that
it is necessary to ‘bring politics back in’ – to politicise democracy –
both in academic analyses and through political struggles and broad
alliances.’ (have a look at his blog post on What do we mean by
“transformative democratic politics of citizenship?”
http://blog.eur.nl/iss/ciri/2016/01/26/what-do-we-mean-by-transformative-democratic-politics-of-citizenship-and-why-does-it-matter/>).
Will Derks, on the other hand, sees more potential in new technology
than in formal democratic institutions. He argues that ‘[t]he technology
that today is changing the world so profoundly and quickly is coming to
democracy’s aid” (read his full blog post on “Democracy &
technology” here
http://blog.eur.nl/iss/ciri/2016/01/20/democracy-technology/>).
Start: 1 February, at 4:15 pm