Democracy Cookbook

Dates: Sunday, June 27 - Saturday, July 10, 2010
Price: to be announced (incl. participation, accommodation and meals)
Working Language: English

What ingredients, techniques, sequences of action and timing does a democratic process entail? When can you compromise and when do you need to strictly follow the procedure? How flexible are democracy ‘recipes’ in different ‘kitchens’? Who are the ‘chefs’ and what kind of training do they require?

The Democracy Cookbook course aims to examine the everyday real life tools that each citizen has to deal with questions and concerns of public relevance. It is based on the concern often voiced by individual citizens – they don’t know how to use the tools that are available for them and often are not even aware of their existence. Culture, history, education, media, civil society, and other key factors will be examined and shared by participants whose life experience will be our departure point.

At the start of the two-week course we’ll focus on establishing a functioning democratic mechanism within the group of participants – we’ll define what elements and factors are a precondition for each person to participate to the fullest of their potential and for the group to run smoothly as a whole. Issues such as language, temperament, self-awareness, social skills, assertiveness, handling of facts and assertions, perception of time and space etc. will be examined.

As the course progresses, we’ll move on from the smaller settings to the larger ones, looking at the relevant features at organizational, local, national, regional, developmental, transnational and global levels; always identifying the (a) key challenges that we face (and need to deal with) at a particular level (= ingredients), the (b) institutions and actors who can become our allies or targets of our actions (= pots and pans, equipment), and the (c) type of tools and forms of participation leading to the best results (= method, directions).

The methods used will vary but will all be based on participatory approach and will include group work, individual and group presentations, role plays, workshops, games, performances etc.

The participants will be selected so that they form a balanced and diverse group in terms of background, age, gender and experience. In the application form they are asked the following three questions:
• What is your past experience relevant for the course?
• How do you want to contribute to the course?
• How do you plan to use your experience from the course after you get back home?

Furthermore, participants will be asked to prepare one or more case studies illustrating a democratic struggle or challenge that they’ve encountered recently. They will also have to be ready to share their personal life story, underlying aspects of their culture and a song.

The aim of the course is twofold. First, we want to develop a set of guidelines (the cookbook) that will make it easier for individuals and groups to engage in matters of public relevance. Ingredients (= challenges), pots & pans, necessary equipment (= institutions and relevant actors) and directions or method (= tools for and forms of participation) will be described here.
Second, we want to reflect on the kind of competencies that are needed in order to use the cookbook efficiently and to describe them. Contributing to the clearer definition of the concept of “global competencies” is a goal.

Democracy Cookbook is considered to be a pilot project, or part I of a series of projects whereby we want to develop the concepts of global citizenship and global competencies together with guidelines and methodologies for teaching those. A commitment to close contact, reporting, feedback and mutual support is a precondition for the course’s success.