Greetings

Dear [fullname,fallback=Colleague],

Welcome to the first newsletter of the Building Global Democracy programme. You are receiving this mailing as someone who is known by one or more of the BGD programme conveners to have interests in this area. We hope that you will find these occasional short updates helpful in your research and/or activism on global issues.

About us
Latest news
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The Building Global Democracy programme brings together academics, activists and officials from around the world to advance knowledge and practice for greater public participation and control in global affairs. BGD explores how expanded 'rule by and for the people' can be achieved in respect of global issues such as climate change, financial crises, health concerns, internet links, migration flows, security problems, and trade. The premise is that more democratic governance can encourage more effective and more legitimate governance of vital global challenges.

The thematic projects that make up the BGD programme cover issues such as: rethinking democracy for a global age; citizen learning for global democracy; including the excluded in global policymaking; resource redistribution for global democracy; and intercultural constructions of global democracy.

The BGD programme is facilitated and coordinated through a convening group of ten persons based in ten world regions, with diverse academic backgrounds and political outlooks. Our administrative office is located in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick in Britain. Core funding is provided through a generous grant from the Ford Foundation.

More details about BGD can be obtained on our website, www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org or from info@buildingglobaldemocracy.org.

BGD at the WSF

Building Global Democracy participated in the World Social Forum in Belém Brazilian Amazonia in January. BGD conveners facilitated several workshops on the theme of 'How to Build Global Democracy?' In addition to 8 conveners these events drew 180 other participants from across continents, cultures, sectors, generations, classes, genders and races. Attendees included everyone from a former official at the United Nations to a local school pupil. Discussions lasted for more than 10 hours.

BGD at the UN

Results of the BGD pilot project on Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance were recently presented at United Nations headquarters in New York.

BGD at the Bretton Woods institutions

Results of the BGD pilot project on Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance were recently presented in a seminar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC.

Workshop on 'Conceptualising Global Democracy'

6-8 December 09

Path-breaking thinkers from 10 world regions, various academic disciplines and diverse political views will come together with civil society actors and officials from across the planet in a BGD workshop to debate the meaning of 'global democracy'.

The authors include Ma Ben (Tsinghua University, Beijing, Political Science), Eva Erman (Stockholm University, Stockholm), Sitiveni Halapua (East-West Center, Honolulu), Boris Kagarlitsky (Institute for Globalization and Social Movements, Moscow), Regina Karega (Kenyatta University, Nairobi), Edgardo Lander (Central University of Venezuela, Caracas), Patricia Mohammed (University of the West Indies, St. Augustine), Nadia Mostafa (Cairo University, Cairo), Ramjee Singh (Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi), Melissa Williams (University of Toronto, Toronto)

Among the objectives of the BGD programme is to raise awareness of efforts throughout the world to bring greater democracy to the governance of global concerns. To this end each BGD newsletter highlights an academic and/or practitioner initiative in this area. This time we look at the Global Civil Society Yearbook. Please send suggestions of other features for future newsletters.

Global Civil Society Yearbook

Established in 2001, the Global Civil Society Yearbook is the leading annual publication on the topic, a reference point in policy debates, and recommended reading on university courses around the world. With an editorial base in the Centre for the Study of Global Governance (CSGG) at the London School of Economics (LSE), the seven editions of the yearbook published to date have involved scholars and activists from all continents. The seventh issue (2007/8) focused on relationships between civil society activity, communications and democratic change. The forthcoming eighth issue (2009) - in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and the Centre for Social Investment at Heidelberg University - examines relationships between global civil society and poverty.

For more information about the Yearbook, click here. To order copies from Sage Publications, go to www.sagepub.co.uk/gcs.
To be added to CSGG's email list contact Fiona Holland, f.c.holland@lse.ac.uk.

Democratizing Global Governance

This book has just been released: Democratizing Global Governance: Ten Years of Case Studies and Reflections by Civil Society Activists (edited by Heather MacKenzie). New Delhi: Mosaic Books, 2009, ISBN 81-90776-9-3. The book compiles 13 studies, written by practitioners, of civil society engagement of multilateral institutions.

The results of the BGD pilot project will be published in book form as Global Citizenship in Action? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance by Cambridge University Press in early 2010. Several chapters have been published in draft form as working papers of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at Warwick University, the Global Policy Forum Europe, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

The BGD website includes a Links area with connections to other projects concerned with building global democracy and a Library area with access to online publications on subjects related to building global democracy. Please send your suggested additions for these catalogues to info@buildingglobaldemocracy.org.

Website: www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org | Email: info@buildingglobaldemocracy.org | Tel: +44 (0)24 7657 2532
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