Inspired by the attention given to Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin's shaking of hands on American news networks our Sunday Comics author digs into the cultural archaeology of the handshake
“Quem define o conceito de direitos humanos?” Stephen Hopgood pergunta. A resposta virá de um novo diálogo Norte-Sul que, partindo dos fundamentos de história eurocêntrica dominante, poderia recuperar o potencial emancipatório de tradiçāo dos direitos humanos.
In the United Kingdom a tendency that reached its nadir with the concept of ‘The Big Society’, can be seen in the extent to which ‘participation’, whether in the affairs of the community, the city or the nation, has come to be considered a responsibility of citizens.
Coming together can make it possible to live more and work less. Doing things collectively is the only way we can be free from the obligation to work so hard as self-exploiting individuals. This is not primarily a question of politics or protest.
Perhaps it is impossible to create a participatory democracy through participatory means. The solution developed here, in any case, was to draw on the external authority of a famous urban planner.
A good life, in this context, is not immortalised in either great poetry or grand monuments to heroic men, but is defined by how we go about our daily lives, our unremarkable habits and routines of life.
With our Indian collaborators we embarked on a creative campaign to defend the integrity of a process that had provided a platform for the informed views of some of the most marginalised rural people in India. It was not a comfortable experience for either of us.
True names have existed for millennia and can be traced through many cultural histories. What is the relevance of this process of correctly naming to practices of empowerment?
Authority is a capacity to inspire trust. This is what marks a participative inquiry apart from the liberal models which consult others, but never fully recognise, nor invite, their intelligence.
The discussion that follows will highlight the distinction between power and authority, and how power which privileges cooperation rather than domination might generate new forms of authority commensurable to a society that must work together.
Recent positive legislative change will hopefully encourage more Irish women into political life, but the laddish, sexist political culture which remains in the Dail must change if gender parity is to be fully achieved, argues Louise Hogan.
