The Global Community
The inaugural Munk + Evergreen session culminated in a definitional exercise. One of the concepts up for grabs over the next few weeks is that of community. While the class grappled with its own definitions — considering features such as locality(see my colleague Ibrahim Sagheer’s work) or common interest — Gabriel Eidelman asked if it makes any sense to consider the idea of the “global community.” If communities are made up of people and processes (not humans — see my colleague Melissa Nichol’s work) that share relevant commonalities, is talk of the “global community” oxymoronic or a truism? Or, more to the point, is there any use in the “global community” for a course on community-based policy making?
I’d like to make a case for answering “yes” to the second question, mostly for two reasons, both of which are heuristic. I’ll call one the advocacy reason and the other the reflection reason.
- The advocacy reason: community-based policy making sometimes has an advocacy component wherein one mobilizes for increased interest or intervention in a particular issue. This component occasionally makes great argumentative use of the “global community” when it appeals, for example, to human rights. The homeless deserve help not strictly or even mostly because they are Torontonians, Ontarians or Canadians but because they are humans. Human dignity is shared dignity.
- The reflection reason: as revealed by the classroom exercise, community-based policy making is not just policy making for communities. It also aspires to empower communities in wrestling policy making power from exclusionary institutions (see my colleague Samantha Lee’s work). For those of us who will find ourselves operating within or even among those institutions, the concept of the “global community” offers a reminder to reflect on the question: “do our institutions and their values reflect the global community?”
To be sure, the kinds of solutions that ease tensions in international diplomacy or global trade markets are not those of Munk + Evergreen. Nevertheless, we would be remiss to do away with a lens that offers so much perspective, even if our reach does not extend beyond our own neighbourhood.
