Scholars from across the globe will gather in Victoria Friday to discuss the future of democracy.
The forum titled “Democracy and its Futures” will revolve around a series of questions that read as follows: what are the major problems facing the democracies; what are the connections between those problems; what are the democratic ways to resolve these problems and reconcile all affected by them?
The forum featuring scholars from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands runs Friday from 1:45 to 6 p.m. in the Ceremonial Hall in the First Peoples House at the University of Victoria.
“Democracies are in crises and in the event we will explore these through difficult dialogue that will welcome participants from the community,” said Pablo Ouziel, a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Political Science and Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, as well as project manager of the Canada-Europe Dialogues on Democracy putting on the forum.
RELATED: In Canada, the term ‘nationalism’ doesn’t seem to have a bad rap. Here’s why
RELATED: RON Talks addresses the politics of anger and the rescue of a television station
RELATED: Protesters delay debate involving ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon
“Dialogue is not the solution per se, in the sense of a packaged answer, but it is the way to perhaps thinking creatively, broadly and collectively in a manner that can generate new knowledge,” he said.
Academics have realized the limits of their own theories, as well as the need to enter into broad dialogues with each other in dealing with the multiple challenges societies are facing.
The event takes place against the backdrop of rising populism around the world, including in the United States, Brazil and parts of eastern Europe; the pending exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit); the fraying of the West in face of revisionist Russia and the emergence of China as a global, strategic power; mass migration; and digitization.
Friday’s forum is part of a larger series of events that explore various crises in democracy, their causes as well as various responses to them.
Seating is limited. For seating, RSVP to ctiresearchgroup@uvic.ca with PUBLIC in the subject line.