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DE sign:
(Deconstructing in-order to find new meanings)

A blogging space about my personal interests; was made during training in Stockholm #Young Leaders Visitors Program #Ylvp08 it developed into a social bookmarking blog.

I studied #Architecture; interested in #Design #Art #Education #Urban Design #Digital-media #social-media #Inhabited-Environments #Contemporary-Cultures #experimentation #networking #sustainability & more =)


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p.s. sharing is usually out of interest not Blind praise.
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Showing posts with label #Conflicts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Conflicts. Show all posts

Sunday, October 4

Athens Democracy Forum 2015

Athens Democracy Forum 2015 http://athensdemocracyforum.com/ ENHANCING SOCIETY THROUGH BETTER GOVERNANCE

As the world lurches from crisis to crisis, democracy is under extreme pressure. From the rise of Islamist extremism and regimes in states that reject liberal democracy, to growing inequality and the rapid expansion of new technologies, democratic foundations are being threatened in a world where profound changes happen almost overnight. In this era of global uncertainty, these issues and more will frame the debate at the third, expanded Athens Democracy Forum (September 13-15). The event, hosted by the International New York Times and the United Nations Democracy Fund, takes place in Athens, Greece - a living showcase of democracy under extreme challenge as the nation once again goes to the polls on September 20.
Greece may be the birthplace of democracy but, in recent years, the nation has had its foundations shaken by a political, economic and social crisis that has threatened, at times, to tear Europe apart. And in other parts of the world, the Arab Spring, the Maidan protests in Ukraine, the political paralysis in the U.S. Congress, are testament to democracy under threat. 
Held to coincide with the UN International Day of Democracy, our annual forum brings together diplomats, scholars, corporate executives, politicians, thought-leaders, and journalists from around the world to discuss at the foot of the Acropolis the state of liberal democracies and the major challenges they face in the world today. 
In addition to the main conference on September 15, a rich program of affiliated events - including an international student debate at the Old Parliament; a Google Hangout featuring political activists under house arrest; and a symphonic visual concert by Rufus Wainwright at the awe-inspiring Odeon of Herodes Atticus - will also take place throughout the city.






Democracy Under Pressure

"Signs of democratic dysfunction are everywhere, from Athens to Ankara, Brussels to Brasília. In the United States, the federal government has shut down 12 times in the last 35 years. According to the political scientists Christopher Hare and Keith T. Poole, the two main American political parties are more polarized now than they have been at any time since the Civil War. Meanwhile, a Gallup tracking poll shows that trust in the presidency and in the Supreme Court stands at historic lows — while faith in Congress has plummeted so far that it is now in the single digits.
Some citizens of democracies have become so unhappy with their institutions that — according to disturbing new studies of public opinion around the world — they may be tempted to dispense with partisan politics altogether. Would it not be better to let the president make decisions without having to worry about Congress — or to entrust key decisions to unelected experts like the Federal Reserve and the Pentagon?

According to a growing share of Americans, the answer is yes. Back in 1995, the well-respected World Values Survey, which studies representative samples of citizens in almost 100 countries, asked Americans for the first time whether they approved of the idea of “having the army rule.” One in 15 agreed. Since then, that number has steadily grown, to one in six.
To be sure, that still leaves five out of six Americans who would rather not have a military coup. And of course, not every American who tells a pollster that he would rather have the army in charge would actually support a coup. But the willingness to countenance alternative forms of government, if only by a small minority, reveals a deep disillusionment with democracy, one that should concern everyone living in an advanced democracy, including those in Europe and Asia.
The generational differences are striking. When the World Values Survey asked Americans how important it was for them to live in a democracy, citizens born before World War II were the most adamant. On a scale of one to ten, 72 percent assigned living in a democracy a ten, the highest possible value. Among many of their children and grandchildren, however, democracy no longer commands the same devotion. A little over half of Americans born in the postwar boom gave maximum importance to living in a democracy. Among those born since the 1980s, less than 30 percent did.
Political scientists are well aware that poll after poll shows citizens to be more dissatisfied than in the past. Yet they resist the most straightforward conclusion: that people may be less supportive of democracy than they once were.
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, for example, argue that expectations of citizens have grown rapidly in recent decades, leading to disappointment with the performance of individual politicians and particular governments. But while government legitimacy may have taken a hit, regime legitimacy — that is to say, faith in democracy as such — is as strong as ever, they say.
Worryingly, though, questions in the World Values Survey that directly speak to regime legitimacy no longer support that optimistic interpretation. In countries from the United States to Sweden, and from the Netherlands to Japan, citizens over the last three decades have become less likely to endorse the importance of democracy; less likely to express trust in democratic institutions; and less likely to reject nondemocratic alternatives.
This raises a question that would have seemed strange, even preposterous, to us until we started to embark on our current research: Could the political system in seemingly stable democracies like the United States be less imperturbable than meets the eye?
Scholars have long believed that democracies are stable once they have, in the words of Juan J. Linz and Alfred C. Stepan, become “the only game in town.” In such “consolidated” democracies, where an alternative system of government no longer seems like a possibility, an overwhelming majority of the citizens believes that the only legitimate form of government is democratic. Mainstream political actors refrain from subverting the rules of the democratic game for partisan advantage. And political forces that seek to dismantle the main aspects of the democratic system, like an independent judiciary, are weak or nonexistent.
Until recently, all of these statements described countries like the United States. Today, it is far from obvious that they still do.
It is not just that citizens like democracy less than they once did: Respect for the rules of the democratic game is also eroding. While most Americans still have a deep emotional attachment to the Constitution, the informal norms that have kept the system stable in the past are increasingly disregarded in political practice. Parliamentary procedures long reserved for extraordinary circumstances, for example, are used with stunning regularity. It is not uncommon to threaten impeachment, or to use the filibuster to block legislation — not because the bill is especially transformative, but simply because a legislative minority disagrees with it.
The rise of parties that are critical of key aspects of liberal democracy, like freedom of the press or minority rights, is even more disconcerting. Since the early 1990s, votes for populists have soared in most major Western democracies, whether the National Front in France or the People’s Party in Denmark.
It is no foregone conclusion that such parties will one day take over the government, nor that they would dismantle liberal democracy if they did. And most citizens say they still want to live in a democracy. But the democratic consensus is more brittle than it was. Scholars who long ago concluded that postwar Western democracies have “consolidated” must reckon with the possibility that a process of what we call “democratic deconsolidation” may be underway.
In our view, there are three main explanations for this development."
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/opinion/across-the-globe-a-growing-disillusionment-with-democracy.html

http://athensdemocracyforum.com/gallery/athens-democracy-forum-0/2014-videos/1006



















https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi-CMaS2NmYsEgpnfKNETb0DeJtXYx564




Published on Jul 20, 2015
(ITA subtitles.) After months of negotiations Greece reaches a bad agreement with Eurozone partners. What will happen now? Can Greece be a catalyst for a wider European mobilisation? With Costas Douzinas, Margarita Tsomou, Srecko Horvat, Jerome Roos. Hosts Lorenzo Marsili, artistic direction Berardo Carboni.




Uploaded on Nov 20, 2008
Introduction to Ancient Greek History (CLCV 205)

In this lecture, Professor Kagan describes the mechanics of the Delian League and its transformation into the Athenian empire. This transformation caused Athens to rival Sparta as an equal in power and prestige. He also argues that this process took place rather smoothly due to the good relations between Sparta and Athens. Professor Kagan argues that Cimon the Athenian generally played an important part in this development. Finally, Professor Kagan begins to describe the workings of Athenian democracy by comparing it with modern American democracy.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Rise of the Athenian Empire (Cont.)
10:25 - Chapter 2. Competition for Power between Sparta and Athens
15:51 - Chapter 3. Cimon, His Popularity and Rise to Power
30:29 - Chapter 4. The Thasian Rebellion and the Eventual Removal of Cimon
42:59 - Chapter 5. A Fuller Athenian Democracy
55:12 - Chapter 6. Organization of Athenian Democracy: The Legislative
01:04:42 - Chapter 7. Organization of Athenian Democracy: The Executive

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.



Published on Nov 28, 2014
The government of the United States borrowed ideals from democratic rule in ancient Athens, Greece.



Published on Oct 3, 2014
Athenian democracy developed around the fifth century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Athens is one of the first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, most following the Athenian model, but none are as well-documented as Athens.
It was a system of direct democracy, in which participating citizens voted directly on legislation and executive bills. Participation was not open to all residents: to vote one had to be an adult, male citizen, and the number of these "varied between 30,000 and 50,000 out of a total population of around 250,000 to 300,000." At times, the opinion of voters could be strongly influenced by the political satire of the comic poets at the theatres.


This video is targeted to blind users.

Attribution:
Article text available under CC-BY-SA
Creative Commons image source in video

Saturday, January 17

Want Democratic Change in 2015? Try More Empathy and Creativity

Want Democratic Change in 2015? Try More Empathy and Creativity

By Julia Roig, President, Partners for Democratic Change 

As we begin the New Year, my Facebook feed, Linkedin, and email inbox have been full of hopeful predictions for 2015. For example, Carl Gershman from the National Endowment for Democracy gives us reasons to feel optimistic about the triumph of democracy in the world. I’m also sure that many of us received the checklist on how we can contribute to peace from thePeace and Collaborative Development Network. And then we were all shocked by the horrible terrorist attack in Paris. In my community of professionals working in international development, we seem to share a deep sense of optimism that positive change is possible. But in the face of senseless and tragic violence and such horrific strikes against fundamental freedoms, how do we stay motivated and keep going on with our work? As I reflect on my year ahead at Partners, I find myself focusing on what I believe is the essence of our work as change agents: to find and promote more empathy.



For the past several months I keep bringing up empathy in different contexts and conversations, and more and more I am convinced that it is the fundamental catalyst for both interpersonal and societal change. One popular definitionby Dr. Brené Brown describes empathy as the ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings. This idea is what fuels genuine connections that recognize and acknowledge diverse perspectives and emotions and is a fundamental concept underlying so much of Partners’ work in peace-building and democracy building:

  • Conflict Resolution requires empathy. All mediators and facilitators know that you must negotiate based on interests and not on positions.  We are called upon as neutrals to help parties in conflict understand each other to satisfy each other’s needs and reach an agreement that works for everyone.
  • Advocacy requires empathy. As an advocate for a cause, if you have a blind spot and don’t understand those who disagree with you, how will you ever address their concerns sufficiently to minimize dissent and move forward with your agenda? When training in cooperative advocacy, Partners often leads activists through an exercise of putting themselves in the shoes of the “other side” to make their arguments for them and identify the facts that support those arguments.
  • Leadership requires empathy. Effective leaders in open, transparent, and democratic institutionspractice empathy. They build broad teams by understanding different talents and identifying everyone needed to get a job done. But more than that, empathetic leaders do a lot of listening and seek ways to be the most helpful to those they manage to be successful.
  • Authentic partnerships require empathy. As an international NGO, we work in partnership with our local affiliates in all our programming. We obviously come from different perspectives, but to work together effectively we have to understand each other’s realities. Some of us are sitting at desks in DC, and some are working in the field in Aden, Yemen. Empathy allows our partnerships to be flexible and respectful.
If empathy is a distinctly human capability, why is it so difficult in practice? Power, ego, insecurities, and trauma all get in the way of experiencing empathy. This inability to practice empathy affects us personally, professionally, and as a nation, and we get stuck in conflictive, vicious cycles as human beings. In the U.S., how do we find empathy for Russians?  For Iranians?  For Central Americans?  And how should that empathy inform our public policies?
Empathy through Creativity.  So, one of the most important tasks in front of us in 2015 is to work to build more empathy in ourselves and in the world. And I am particularly inspired by the power of developing empathy through creativity. One of the most popular Ted Talks (ever) is by Sir Ken Robinson discussing how our educational systemis beating creativity out of us and teaching kids how to be “right” and “wrong.”  We learn to develop an internal voice that makes us judgmental of others and ourselves.   He cites studies of musicians, dancers, and other artists that show that the parts of our brains that are triggered when we are creative are also actively suppressing judgment and self-criticism. We hold ourselves open to all possibilities when we are in a creative flow, and are more open to empathy.

This rings true to me, as we know as peace-builders that using the arts is an important tool for building understanding, tolerance, and reconciliation. For example, in Iraq, Partners has a program working with youth in high-conflict areas that not only incorporates the arts and sports to establish relationships, teamwork, and leadership skills, but also lessons of empathy for those of different religious and ethnic affiliations.

Building Bridges for more Creativity. One of the ways for us to use more creativity in our work in the international development field is to seek out new partnerships with artists whose profession is to entertain and inspire through powerful narratives that touch us emotionally. The Alliance for Peacebuilding is spearheading just such an exciting initiative together with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. The Media and Peacebuilding Roundtable held its first gathering in Los Angeles last fall with representatives from the movie industry, gamers, world-builders, and other creative leaders to discuss potential for collaboration with peace-builders. What struck me the most after spending the day with these artists was how differently they think about the world and their work, and how their mediums don’t restrict them to pre-existing paradigms. They can literally create new worlds and construct new stories; the only limitation is their imaginations and their inspiration to touch an audience in meaningful ways. Reflecting with some of my colleagues from DC afterwards, one of our common refrains was “my mind is blown.” I guess that is what happens when you see the possibilities of making the world you want, while viewing different mediums to share that hopeful, better world with others.
One of the fruits of these new relationships was that Partners was able to participate at the end of last year in a creative new Peace Portals initiative sponsored by Shared Studios in Manhattan. One of our staff members entered into a shipping container that was outfitted as a studio and was able to see and hear the full body image of an Iranian citizen that walked into a similar shipping container on the streets of Tehran. They had an informal conversation for 20 minutes about life, his love of motorcycles, their jobs, and the weather, (a powerful experience straight out of Star Trek). Hundreds of ordinary people participated in the Portals and one by one they are building empathy for the citizens living in a country far away from their own reality.
Using these kinds of amazing technologies, and sharing each other’s stories in new creative ways will help us be successful in working for more peaceful democratic change in 2015. There is a lot of solidarity right now throughout the world for writers and cartoonists in particular. For the New Year, I wish for all Partners’ colleagues and friends to find a creative flow that allows you to find and promote more empathy.




http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blog/list?user=0ziriq5b0t0vb