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committee press room proposal for the institute timeline of global citizenship
History of the Institute's Development Proposed Organizational Structure The Transition to the New Structure Operational Principles/Guidelines Possible New Programs and Activities Rationale and Anticipated Benefits to the College
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Definitions Throughout this report, we understand the terms “global”, “citizenship”, and “leadership” to have the following meanings: Global – This term explicitly encompasses the local/urban, national and inter- or trans-national levels of analysis and action. Citizenship – We use this term to refer, not to legal or juridical membership in a specific national polity, but more broadly to the phenomenon of active engagement in the public life of the local, national or transnational communities within which people live. It is worth noting that there are many modalities of citizenship. A partial list of such modalities would include: public intellectual, advocate, dissident, activist, voter, neighbor, public office holder, and community organizer. Leadership – This is the ability (a) to envision a desirable future state or condition that reflects widely shared values and aspirations, and (b) to catalyze collective action to realize that state or condition. Effective and ethical leadership is necessarily rooted in an ethos of service to society and an ethic of concern for others. Conceptually, then, a “global citizen-leader” is a person who has the knowledge, attitudes, intellectual skills, moral faculties and practical competencies to be an effective and ethical agent of social change within his or her local, national and transnational communities. This is a form of identity based not on affiliation with a national or other particularistic group, but on membership in a community that encompasses all of humanity. Global citizenship involves a respect for human dignity, a willingness to regard all human beings as fellow citizens, a recognition of the obligations that flow from membership in a global community, and a commitment to active participation in the (democratic) public life of that community. Global citizenship, of course, does not entail abandoning more local and particularistic identities, which are often a powerful and valuable source of meaning, social change and social solidarity. Rather, it involves placing those identities – and the associated privileges, rights and responsibilities – in the context of a broader (i.e. global) set of ethical affiliations and obligations. In other words, it involves adopting a conception of citizenship that encompasses and integrates the local, national and transnational dimensions of public life and agency – and that does so in a way that guards against the twin dangers of parochialism and utopianism.
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