Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World

may 7 through 11, 1999
FIRST FORA OF VILLAGES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS OF THE WORLD
IN THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CITY OF PARIS - FRANCE

The Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World is a global project. It aims to propagate meetings and collaboration between diverse geographical or social communities who are creating ways for humanity to exist and develop different from those imposed by the globalized market economy and its war-like ideologies.

On the initiative of the magazine
LES PÉRIPHÉRIQUES VOUS PARLENT
in partnership with
France Libertés - Foundation Danielle Mitterrand

	Fora Home Page
	What do we mean by village and neighbourhood ?
	Why the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World ?
	What are the objectives of the Fora ?

What do we mean by village and neighbourhood ?

We use the terms village and neighbourhood to refer both to geographical communities (urban or rural) such as cities, districts, suburbs or villages, and to all social and cultural communities like social movements, associations, universities, enterprises, unions, research groups, collectives for those in precarious situations, the excluded, and any other organisation of citizens who, through their specific struggles, represent new human possibilities, new forms of citizenship and democracy.

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	What do we mean by village and neighbourhood ?
	Why the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World ?
	What are the objectives of the Fora ?

Why the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World ?

When it comes to studying international and world problems and trying to find solutions, power and a voice are given systematically and exclusively to the economic and financial forces who decide the world's political orientations according to their own conceptions, interests and aims based on ultra- or neo-liberal ideologies.

Considering the media coverage devoted to the annual Davos forum, called the “summit of summits”, where for the space of one week the “great” and “powerful” of this world meet (directors of major banks and senior executives of financial organisations, corporate chiefs, ministers and politicians, mayors of major cities, joined by a few Nobel Prize-winners and internationally-renowned scientists), it would seem to be becoming a more important and prestigious event than the Annual General Assembly of the United Nations. Originally intended as an opportunity to exchange points of view, the Davos forum has become a place where negotiations are carried out and decisions taken, a place where “experts” are entrusted with the task of announcing, before and after global and international events, the official decisions adopted at each forum. More often than not these “experts” are civil servants or “consultants”, or representatives of the world of finance or industry with absolutely no democratically justified political legitimacy.

As the increasing globalisation of the economy and the human condition continues against a backdrop of sharp acceleration in technical, scientific, political and social change, a huge surge in favour of liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation, and the creation of global mega-systems, we see the emergence all over the world of pockets of resistance and existence opposing neo- and ultra-liberal ideologies.

And yet, in different and varied ways, citizens throughout the world are trying to envisage new definitions of solidarity and dignity, new ways of existing, new forms of democracy, new ways of thinking, of producing and redistributing wealth. These projects are so many ways of standing against the ideals promoted and inspired by the economic powers and the “great” of this world, which submit the individual (considered as a human resource) to the continuous transformation of their tools (absolute priority given to the development of technological resources).

The Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods project was set up to create contact between these rich and diverse initiatives and make them better known in the hope that a world-wide citizens' alternative can emerge. It was created to multiply the places where these practices, experiences and rhetoric can find expression, giving human and social development priority over an economy that only makes the rich richer. The project takes the form of a series of meetings organised on different continents, each one called Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World. After the founding meeting in summer 1997 the first Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World in Paris is the starting point of an initiative that is intended to last.

	top of page
	What do we mean by village and neighbourhood ?
	Why the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World ?
	What are the objectives of the Fora ?

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF THE FORA OF VILLAGES AND NEIGHBOURHOODS OF THE WORLD ?

In addition to the general aims described on the previous section, three more specific objectives characterize the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World :

• firstly, reflection and social action. The participants meet to make progress in defining and instituting models of organisation of citizenship where each individual strives to be, to live and to build in a spirit of “cum petere” or “seeking together”, which is the Latin root of the word compete. The idea is for participants, by expressing their differences, practices and suggestions, to open themselves to an alternative way forward through hearing about other experiences. Each meeting could thus constitute a step forward for citizens in developing the capacity for exchange and common research and action.
• secondly, cultural innovation. On the one hand, to discover and pass on each participant's activities and vision of the world through concrete personal accounts. On the other, to take note of new cultural practices emerging in the various communities in order to give form and content to a culture based on the citizen's future development.
• lastly, educational output. To produce educational methods and material on various media, designed by the participants and destined for circulation through each village's own networks as well as in secondary schools, universities, cultural centres and any other place of learning. This output must present an alternative way of narrating the world to that imposed by neo-liberalism.

The Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World is not intended to produce declarations, petitions or actions aimed at the “great” of this world to make them “become better”, “make better decisions”, “adopt more socially valid policies”, “take more interest in the weakest”. Experience has shown that the “powerful” of this world are delighted to be the object of such petitions and motions, which merely serve to confirm them in their position, but that in real terms their choices are rarely influenced by citizens' proposals.

	top of page
	What do we mean by village and neighbourhood ?
	Why the Fora of Villages and Neighbourhoods of the World ?
	What are the objectives of the Fora ?
	background of the Fora
	the founding villages
	the participants

Les périphériques vous parlent, last updated on october 5, 03 by TMTM
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