Seeing Like a
Citizen:
International Perspectives on Deepening Democracy
John Gaventa
Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
Chair of Oxfam Great Britain
Vera Coelho
Visiting Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
Moderated by Archon Fung
Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Ash Institute
for
Democratic Governance and Innovation
Thursday, April 30, 2009
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Light refreshments served
Fainsod Room, L324, Harvard Kennedy School
Free and open to the public
Co-sponsored by the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and
The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation
John Gaventa is a
political sociologist, educator and civil society practitioner with
over 30
years experience of research, training and organisational leadership in
North
and South. Currently he is a Professor and Research Fellow at the
Institute of
Development Studies (IDS) at University of Sussex, where he is a member
of the
Participation, Power and Social Change team and Director of the
Development
Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability. He
has
written widely on issues of power, participatory development and
governance,
civil society and social change. Before coming to IDS in 1996, John was
the
co-director of research and Director of the Highlander Centre, an NGO
with over
seven decades of experience in working on poverty and social justice
issues in
poor regions of the United States. John also serves as Chair of Oxfam
Great
Britain.
Vera P. Coelho is a Visiting Research Fellow at
the Hauser
Center for Nonprofit Organizations. She has a PhD in social sciences
from
UNICAMP (Campinas State University), Brazil. She is a Senior Researcher
and
coordinator of the Citizenship and Development Group at the Brazilian
Centre
for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). Prof. Coelho co-coordinates with
Bettina Von
Liers, the Comparative Research Program, Deepening Democracy in States
and
Localities at the Citizenship Development Research Centre (IDS) at
Sussex
University. Other research interests include public policy, political
participation, accountability, democracy and development. She has
written
various articles on health, social security, social policies and
citizen
participation. Prof. Coelho edited, Social
Security Reform in Latin America (fgv,
2003); Participation and Deliberation in
Contemporary
Brazil (with Marcos Nobre, 34 Letras,
2004) and New Democratic Spaces: The Politics
of Citizen
Participation In New Democratic Arenas (with Andrea Cornwall, Zed Books,
2006). She works with both qualitative
and quantitative research methods and has extensive experience in
evaluating
policies and coordinating research projects at local, national and
international level, having led various comparative studies in her
area.