Members might be interested in the following FREE seminar. See end
for details of how to attend. Apologies for cross posting.
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ESRC Seminar Series:
Capacity Building: Learning for Community Economic Development.
Organised by Irene Bruegel and Peter North, Local Economy Policy Unit,
South Bank University, London.
Capacity Building after Seattle and Prague:
Lessons from the Developing World.
Friday 24th November 2000, 11am - 4.30pm
South Bank University, 202 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2JZ. Nearest
Tube, Stockwell.
This seminar will examine lessons for capacity building from the South
of the globe and post socialist Eastern Europe. For many, community
development originated in those colonial strategies, which attempted
to justify domination and economic exploitation in the name of
'development'. While the form of domination has changed, events in
Seattle and Prague show that the extent that the new 'social
development' and 'poverty reduction' strategies which claim to have
capacity building and social capital at their core suggest that
development now has a human face is disputed.
Conventional approaches to 'development' too often assume knowledge
transfer from North to South, West to East. Aid and know-how is given
by Western 'donors', to facilitate 'development' and the transition
to market economies. Critics have stressed the inherent values of the
communities displaced by large-scale developments and mass
privatisation, and critiqued the effects of structural adjustment
programmes on livelihoods. Far less attention has been paid to the
extent that in the North we can learn from approaches developed by
development agencies, or strategies of resistance by communities
themselves.
This is particularly surprising as in many ways the longer-term track
record of development in the South involving a wide range of
development organisations working in diverse cultures and
environments, means that both concepts and practice are more developed
than in the North. This seminar therefore aims to discuss a range of
approaches to capacity building developed in the South and Eastern
Europe that have applicability for policy or inform critique in the
North.
The programme:
11.0 Welcome and introduction:
Chair, Michal Lyons South Bank University.
11.15 'Building policy from the grassroots':
Nabeel Hamdi, Oxford Brookes University.
12.15 Lunch
13.15 'Participation in private sector development'
Elisabeth Smith, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
14.15 'If social capital is the answer, are we asking the right
question?' Ben Fine, School for Oriental and African Studies,
University of London.
15.15 Tea and Coffee
15.30 Summing up: what lessons can we learn from the South?
Michal Lyons, South Bank University
16.00 Next steps in the Seminar Programme:
Irene Bruegel, South Bank University.
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The Seminar is free, although places are limited. If you would like
to attend, please contact the seminar organisers who will advise on
place availability:
Pete North [log in to unmask]
Michal Lyons [log in to unmask]
Irene Bruegel [log in to unmask]
_________________________________________
Peter North
Local Economy Policy Unit
South Bank University, London
Tel: 020 7815-7706
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.sbu.ac.uk/lepu/
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