“The Governance Innovation Week is an innovation laboratory that intends to generate new thinking about governance processes and attract innovators from all over the world,” explains Prof Lorenzo Fioramonti, Director of the new Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at UP. The centre – the first research institution in Africa dedicated entirely to governance innovation – will be launched as a kick-off to the programme on 20 May 2013, with a key note address of ATTAC president Susan George. (See www.governanceinnovation.org for more information on the centre)

“The week has been designed to promote an open debate on the new frontiers of governance in a fast-changing world faced with financial, climate, social and accountability crises,” says Prof Fioramonti. “We need to look at how governance evolves and how current crises can become opportunities to re-think our social, political and economic governance. We will also look at how citizens can make their voices heard in a world in which democratic institutions are weakened.”
The Governance Innovation Week will include:

· A keynote speech by acclaimed political scientist and social activist Susan George;

· An international conference entitled Building Regions from Below: Civil Society and Supranational Governance in Times of Crisis, which will bring together well-known scholars, civic activists and practitioners and stimulate a worldwide debate on how regional governance is and can be shaped by active citizens in order promote more social cohesion, sustainable development and participation.

· A roundtable on The Local in the Global: The Roles of Sub-national Regions and Cities in Global Governance, with an opening speech by the Executive Mayor of Tshwane.

· A one-day international seminar on BRICS at the Crossroads: Prospects for Green Economy and Sustainable Progress.

Members of the media are very welcome to attend any of the sessions on the programme below. All events to take place on UP’s Hatfield campus.

Please note that seating is limited and it would be appreciated if the media would RSVP with Mr Juan Miranda at [email protected] before each event.

 

Programme

Monday, 20 May 2013

16:00 – 16:30 Registration and coffee

16:30 – 19:00 Launch of the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation

Venue: Senate Hall

Keynote address: Their crises, our solutions

Susan George, author of Whose Crisis? Whose Future?

The event will be followed by a reception

 

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

 

International conference – Building Regions from Below: Civil Society and Supranational Governance in Times of Crisis

9:00 – 9:30 Registration and coffee

9:30 – 10:00 Welcoming remarks

Norman Duncan, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, UP

Maxi Schoeman, Department of Political Sciences, UP

10:00 – 12:00 Keynote speech: Civil society and regions within polycentric governance

Jan Aart Scholte, Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, University of Warwick (UK)

Debate

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 – 15:30 Roundtable: Building alternative regions

Chair: Gerrit Olivier, Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, UP

Another Europe: Building neoliberal regionalism from above and options for resistance from below

Andy Storey, University College Dublin (Ireland)

 

Regionalization ‘from below’ in Southern Africa: civil society, trade and HIV/AIDS

Andreas Godsater, University of Gothenburg (Sweden)

 

New dilemmas for civil society participation in South American regional integration

Gonzalo Berron, Transnational Institute (Brazil)

Building a people-oriented community in Southeast Asia: lessons from ASEAN’s engagement with civil society

Alan Collins, Swansea University (UK)

 

Debate

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 – 18:00 Roundtable: The local in the global: the role of sub-national regions and cities in international governance

Chair: Norman Duncan, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, UP

Opening speech by: Kgosientso Ramokgopa, Executive Mayor of the city of Tshwane (Pretoria)

Participants:

David Maenaut, Representative of the Flemish government

Luk Van Langenhove, United Nations University

Andries Bezuidenhout, University of Pretoria

Geoff Pigman, US analyst

Debate

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

 

International conference – Building Regions from Below: Civil Society and Supranational Governance in Times of Crisis

 

8.30 – 9:00 Coffee

9:00 – 11:00 Keynote speech: Reflections on participatory regionalism

Amitav Acharya, American University (US)

Debate

 

11:00 – 13:00 Roundtable: Civil society’s involvement in regional governance

Chair: Prince Mashele, Centre for Politics and Research

 

EU-level civil society in a time of crisis

Carlo Ruzza, University of Leicester (UK) and University of Trento (Italy)

 

The World Food Crisis and the ASEAN Response: What role for civil society in shaping the regional governance of food security? Helen Nesadurai, Monash University (Malaysia)

 

Civil society and regional integration in West Africa

Okey Iheduru, Arizona State University (US) and National Defence College (Nigeria)

 

Regional Governance and Civil Society in East Asia

Sunhyuk Kim (Korea University, Korea)

Debate

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 16:00 Roundtable: Regions in transition: people, change and civil society

Chair: Prof Bob Deacon, UNESCO Chair in Regional Integration, Migration and Free Movement of People

 

Transnational civil society and regionalism in the Middle East: Between Arabism and Islam

Marco Pinfari, American University in Cairo (Egypt)

 

Civil society and regional integration in South America. From MERCOSUR to UNASUR: A step forward or backward? Mercedes Botto, Facultad Latinoamericana de Sciencias Sociales, FLACSO (Argentina)

 

Informal networks in regional integration: the role of social capital in Southern Africa and South East Asia

Chris Nshimbi, Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, University of Pretoria

Debate

16:00 – 16:15 Closing remarks

 

 

 

 

Thursday, 23 May 2013

International seminar on BRICS at the Crossroads: Prospects for Green Economy and Sustainable Progress

8:45 – 9:15 Registration

9:15 – 9:30 Welcome

Layla Al-Zubaidi, Heinrich Böll Foundation

Introduction

Mzukisi Qobo, GovInn, University of Pretoria

9:15 – 9:45 Keynote Address

Simon Zadek, Senior Fellow, Global Green Growth Institute

10:00 – 11:15 Gross Domestic ‘Problem’? Rethinking economic performance and progress

Chair: Claudius Van Wyk, Schumacher College, UK

Presenters: Lew Daly, DEMOS, New York

Lorenzo Fioramonti, GovInn, University of Pretoria

Debate

11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 – 13:00 Focus on South Africa in the BRICS and beyond

Chair: Peter Draper, SAIIA

Presenters: Mark Swilling, University of Stellenbosch

Thokozani Simelane, Africa Institute of South Africa

Debate

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 Focus on India and China

Chair: Mzuqisi Qobo, GovInn, University of Pretoria

Presenters: Lydia Powell, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, India

Xinguan Tu, China Institute for WTO Studies, Beijing, China

Debate

15:30 – 15:45 Coffee break

15:45 – 17:15 Focus on Brazil and Russia

Chair: Lorenzo Fioramonti, GovInn, University of Pretoria

Presenters: Olga Ponizova, Director: Globalisation, WTO and Sustainable Development, Eco Accord, Moscow, Russia

Sandra Rios, CINDES, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Debate

17:15 – 17:30 Closing remarks