summits of the world: all articles

Do international summits work for people at the sharp end of globalisation? Simon Maxwell argues poverty measurement, picks a hair from James Wolfensohn’s jacket, and gazes longingly at the barricades…while dressed in a suit. Barry Coates of the World Development Movemen returns from a WTO summit with defiant pessimism. Maria Adebowale of Capacity Global spars with the conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. Key actors and observers of the global summit caravan unpack its contents.
Wednesday 24th September

The anti-poverty relay: a progress report

Andrew Shepherd, 24 September 2008
To reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the world must learn to think on the run
Tuesday 21st June

Auchterarder: a G8 summit visitor's guide

Carolyn Tan, 21 June 2005
How to get there? Where to stay? When to break cover? Whether you are protestor or journalist, tourist or secret policeman going to the G8 summit, Carolyn Tan’s local guide tells you what you need to know about its Scottish location: Auchterarder.
Monday 20th June

The Battle of Auchterarder

Dominic Hilton, 20 June 2005
From teashops to the tourist information centre, Dominic Hilton scopes out the site of the G8 summit.

Selling Africa short

Alex Wilks, 20 June 2005
The G8 debt relief plan is far less generous than it looks, says Alex Wilks of the European Network on Debt and Development.
Tuesday 31st May

The NPT review conference: no bargains in the UN basement

Patricia Lewis, 31 May 2005
The United States joined with other states to wreck the nuclear non-proliferation treaty’s 2005 review conference. Patricia Lewis of the United Nations Institute of Disarmament Research examines what went wrong.
Wednesday 23rd February

openDavos: Simon Zadek's blog

Simon Zadek, 23 February 2005
Loose yet organic, exclusive yet open, competitive yet dialogic, religious yet cross-cultural. Lula, Sharon Stone, Bill Gates, and Bono. Simon Zadek tracks the World Economic Forum’s reinvention as “tomorrow’s model of global governance”.
Wednesday 23rd June

Who 'sees' who? An American summit photo in an Iraqi gaze

Haider Saeed, 23 June 2004
From Baghdad, Haider Saeed reflects on how the image of Arab / Islamic leaders in “traditional” dress at the G8 summit in Sea Island symbolises the subordinate integration of non–western polities into America’s universalist but also imperial understanding of democracy.
Thursday 5th February

'It's the system, stupid!'

John Elkington, 5 February 2004
A third visit to the World Economic Forum left the sustainability campaigner John Elkington enthusiastic about a gathering force which can connect pro- and anti-globalisers: social entrepreneurs.
Thursday 29th January

A space of freedom: the World Women's Forum

America Vera-Zavala, 29 January 2004
This Swedish activist combines observation of everyday Indian experience with her own political commitment to draw a lesson from Mumbai’s World Social Forum: women in the global justice movement are taking possession of space and voice.

Making history: the future of the World Social Forum

Kamal Mitra Chenoy, 29 January 2004
The World Social Forum in Mumbai was democracy in action in search of a fairer, people-centred world, says one of its Indian organisers. But to advance its global ambitions, must it look beyond Brazil as the site of future forums?
Thursday 15th January

The Ford Foundation and the World Social Forum

Lisa Jordan, 15 January 2004
The Ford Foundation, a large United States philanthropy, supported the World Social Forum’s first three meetings in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and will participate in the latest gathering in Mumbai, India. Lisa Jordan of Ford – one of openDemocracy.net’s backers – talks to Caspar Henderson about the foundation’s engagement with global civil society.
Friday 9th January

Six billion voices

Edward Cherlin, 9 January 2004
When poor people can speak, the world will change – and mobile communications technology is giving them the tools for transformation.

Dateline Mumbai: the 2004 World Social Forum

Kamal Mitra Chenoy, 9 January 2004
Three years on from the first World Social Forum in Brazil’s Porto Alegre, an organiser of the latest WSF in India presents his vision of the purpose of this global gathering of activists, popular movements and NGOs.
Friday 19th December

The internet's future in an aircraft hangar

James Cowling, 19 December 2003
The World Summit on the Information Society venue was bland, the rhetoric cloudy, the chocolates consoling – but ideas and energy flowed around the fringes.
Thursday 11th December

Communication: the missing link in sustainable development

James Goodman, 11 December 2003
The appropriate use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) could make a vast contribution to solving the problems of development and democracy. But to realise this potential, a global conversation is needed to match the global nature of economic, social and environmental challenges.
Tuesday 9th December

The WSIS: whose freedom, whose information?

Solana Larsen, 9 December 2003
The UN’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva is intended to create ways of bridging the global ‘digital divide’. But will its political tensions and complex agenda make it less of an “internet-Kyoto” and more of an arid talk shop?
Thursday 20th November

'Another Europe': the second European Social Forum

Florent Schaeffer and Bernard Dreano, 20 November 2003
The energy and scale, the international and human presence of the second European Social Forum in Paris reveal its already strong foundations. But its real tests are still to come.
Thursday 13th November

Is modern Germany lying to itself?

Daniel Mittler, 13 November 2003
Many Germans continue to believe that their country is the vanguard of environmental and social progress in Europe. The latest European Social Forum is an opportunity to puncture this illusion.
Tuesday 19th August

Pressing on: environmental campaigners and UN summits

Daniel Mittler, 19 August 2003
The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg delivered disappointment to NGO activists – and this leading environmental campaigner says that things have got worse since then. But, he argues, it is too early to give up on UN summits altogether.
Thursday 16th January

Why I'm going to Davos

John Elkington, 16 January 2003
A veteran green activist, allergic to summits, looks at the past and future of the World Economic Forum.
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