General news 2007
John Gaventa contributes to ESRC publication on public policy John Gaventa, Director of the Citizenship DRC contributed to an Economic and Social Research Council Seminar Series called 'Mapping the public policy landscape'. John discussed recent work relating the changing nature of power: spanning the local, national and global. See the recent publication on the series here: ESRC Seminar Series: Mapping the public policy landscape - link Interactive workshop at CIVICUS At the CIVICUS meeting in Glasgow, May 2007, the Citizenship DRC hosted a stall with DRC publications and held an interactive workshop to discuss Zed Volume 3, Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability. The main theme for CIVICUS was accountability and much of the debate focused on technical and sector specific accountability initiatives, so the DRC’s work on citizen strategies for accountability made an important contribution. A right to be heard? Do people's opinions make a difference to local and national policies? On UK election day (3 May), a packed audience heard speakers John Gaventa (Citizenship DRC) and Marion Barnes ( Brighton University) compare citizen participation in the UK and around the world. The event was the first in a series of lectures at the Brighton Festival Fringe titled 'Global Development: Small World, Same Difference?'. Listen to the podcast (10 minutes, Windows Media Format, 10mb) Book launch - Rights, resources and the politics of accountability The Citizenship DRC and the One World Trust coordinated a seminar and book launch ‘Making accountability count: citizens, NGOs and the state’ on March 20th in London at Portcullis House, London . The event launched two books: the third book in the Zed Claiming Citizenship series, ‘Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability’ edited by Peter Newell and Joanna Wheeler ; and a Ford Foundation publication, NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations’ edited by Lisa Jordan and Peter van Tuijl. Peter Newell and Simeen Mahmud both presented their research on accountability. Final report of the event
Steering committee meeting The Citizenship DRC Steering Committee met at Lewes, East Sussex on 22-23 March, to discuss the overall functioning of the research network, forthcoming events and future publications.
Deepening democracy workshop The ‘ Deepening Democracy in States and Localities’ research group met at Dunford House, West Sussex on 26-28 March. Researchers from Nigeria , Kenya , Brazil , Angola, India , Bangladesh and the UK discussed their preliminary research findings following their field work. |