GRASSROOTS: Growing Local democracy
I believe people have a right to be meaningfully involved in the decisions that affect them and the local level is an obvious place to apply this. GRASSROOTS: Growing Local democracy was a public forum I organised (September 2011) where a panel of speakers presented their ideas about engagement and deliberative democracy before the 110 participants at the forum deliberated on those ideas in a world cafe format.
This forum took place as I was close to finalising the manuscript for BEYOND FEAR AND LOATHING. The format of the forum was in keeping with a better way of doing local democracy that I explored in the last chapter of my book, called “Love and respect.” It’s an example of where the personal and the professional interlock, which I find to be a common occurrence.
Background information to the forum along with media coverage is at:
http://www.graeme-gibson.blogspot.com.au
A 17 minute DVD of the forum is at: