10/22/2001
Deliberative Forum Featured as Part of International Week at the University of Pittsburgh
Globalization forum at the University of Pittsburgh
On Wednesday, October 3rd, 2001, a two-hour deliberative forum on the issue of globalization (http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/internationalweek/html/globalization.html) was held as one of the featured events during the University of Pittsburgh’s (http://www.pitt.edu) International Week. The forum, using the issue book: Globalization: Fear or Promise?, was co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) (http://www.gspia.pitt.edu) and Global Connections Pittsburgh.
Seventeen people attended the forum that was held at the GSPIA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A number of the forum participants were graduate students in the GSPIA and some were students and professors here from other countries including Brazil, Russia, Romania and India. Forum participants used the issue book Globalization: Fear or Promise? that frames the issue in three choices: 1. "Strengthen Local Communities", 2. "Compete Globally", and 3. "Build a Collaborative Global Economy." The issue book was adapted from "A World in Common", an issue book that was prepared and published by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) (http://fly.web.net/ccic). The adaptation was made for use in the United States by Interaction (http://www.interaction.org). Interaction is the largest membership alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations.
Global Connections was a three-year, five-city project of Interaction. The initiative in Atlanta, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Sacramento and Seattle, began with the goal of "creating an active and vocal network of supporters of engagement with the developing world and promoting a dialogue about global issues and their impact on local concerns."
Since the end of the three-year Interaction project, Global Connections Pittsburgh is moving forward in its planning to "actively involve the public, members of Congress and the media in an ongoing dialogue about Pittsburgh’s links to the developing world and the importance of strengthening our global-local connections." Among other plans and activities, Global Connections Pittsburgh is producing the first ever Pittsburgh Area International Resources Directory (PAIRD)–a guide to international goods, services and connections in the Pittsburgh area.
For more information about Global Connections Pittsburgh, call 412-241-2542 or e-mail at gloconpgh@stargate.net.
