CIVIC DRIVEN CHANGE: CITIZENS IMAGINATION IN ACTION

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CIVIC DRIVEN CHANGECITIZENS IMAGINATION IN
ACTION

• Alan Fowler

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THE CDC INITIATIVE

• To identify, debate and advance a story of change
  in societies stemming from peoples actions as
  citizens.

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MOTIVATIONS

• Globalizing world problems call for new
  approaches to finding solutions.
• Enduring limitations of aided change require
  alternative remedies.
• States and markets are proving inadequate for
  this task.

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THE CDC INITIATIVE

• Ten people academics, practitioners, activists.
• Multi-region, multi-disciplinary, multi-ideology,
  gender balance.
• Open agenda, no log-framed deliverable.
• Consensus not required differences matter.
• Remit beyond aided change.
• www.iss.nl/cdc

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MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

• ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP MATTERS
• CIVIC VALUES AND ACTIONS ARE VITAL
• LANGUAGE IS CRITICAL

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REAFFIRMING CITIZENSHIP

• Citizenship varies by time and place. There is
  no universal standard. Context matters.
• Citizenship is but one element of a persons
  identity. It may not be very significant.
• State formation means that, often, citizenship is
  more a case of becoming than of being.

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CIVIC AGENCY 1

• Is citizen action towards society as a
  political project.
• Is about changing the way society works and to
  what image.
• Is about people exerting control over those who
  have the power to influence their lives.

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CIVIC AGENCY 2

• Requires the right to have rights.
• It is a pro-social normative concept.
• Is driven by imagination of a preferred future
  society the political project.
• It is a self-empowering political capability to
  critically understand power, navigate risk and
  change the conditions of society.

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CIVIC AGENCY 3

• Civic agency does not inhabit a (third) sector.
  It is a fundamental feature of relational
  identity towards a state and other citizens.
• This characteristic calls for a fundamental shift
  in current thinking and strategy.

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TAKE CARE WITH LANGUAGE

• COMPARE
• Participant, Participation, Partnership, Project
• with
• Citizen, Civic agency, Collaboration, Public Work

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IMPLICATIONS 1

• CDC is where multi-institutional civic
  citizenship and the politics of society meet.
• A central task is to advance peoples
  capabilities to make deep democracy real
  citizen control over public authority.
• A strategic challenge is to gain civic agency
  from within all of a societys institutions - to
  address many points of societys compass.

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IMPLICATIONS 2

• CDC engages with five active debates
• effective states and empowered citizens
• the global commons
• public and private spheres of life
• pro and anti-social values
• voters, political systems and parties

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IMPLICATIONS 3
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CDC PRACTICE - 1001 STORIES

• 22nd June, case presentations and debates around
• New civic actors
• Civic action and markets
• Civil disobedience or uncivic action?
• The local and global CDC connection
• CDC and peace building
• Children as civic actors
• CDC and fragile states
• Civic action and party politics
• CDC around the corner
• Entrepreneurs as civic actors
• Aided and non-aided change
• Media and civic-driven change

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AN ENDING AS A BEGINNING

• It is time to self-define and live a full story
  of citizenship and civic agency.
• So. Join the CDC Ripple!
• www.iss.nl/cdc
• www.thebrokeronline.eu