FLEXIBLE CITIZENSHIP
the project “Water and active citizenship in the
Cochabamba region”
IP Borders, Mobilities, Identities: European
educational action
Madrid 17th July 2005 – 30th July 2005
Flavia Virgilio
University of Udine
Where?
Why Bolivia ?
How are educational systems and
decentralized cooperation involved?
The project could be a laboratory to promote
neighbourhood trough shared issues as
water. It aims to establish connessions
among different educational fields
(intercultural, environmental, EAS) and
different agents involved in educational
processes (schools, local authorities,
associations,…) in different territories
What about comparative attitude?
I am working on a comparative approach,
which deals with education as a dimension
articulated across local and global
interwoven dimensions.
Water is the common issue on which
educational actions are organized.
“…all learning in society, not only that witch
takes place in formal institutions, is worthy of
study.” (Watson, 2001)
The context: decentralized
cooperation
“Decentralized cooperation is at first and
foremost a different way of doing things
which seeks to put stakeholders (of every
kind) at the centre of the cooperation process
and involve them throughout the activity
cycle, setting out each party’s role and
responsibilities, in accordance with the
principle of subsidiarity” (EC 2000).
The context: southern countries
point of view
“From the point of view of southern
countries, decentralized cooperation gives a
new and enriched idea of participatory
development and makes local powers more
relevant in local development
processes”.(Clong, 2000)
The context: northern countries
point of view
“From the European point of view,
decentralised cooperation is a tool for
public and private social agents
(Associations, local communities, trade
unions, etc.) to build a partnership which
can work in a non hierarchical way.”
(Clong, 2000)
The goals
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Participation
Active involvement of the people
capacity building and institutional
development.
Sustainable and equitable development
Methodologies
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Active involvement of all the various groups
of stakeholders/partners;
The bottom up approach
Priority given to capacity building and
institutional development
Decentralised cooperation as a
laboratory of identities in the global age
Communication, negotiation, facilitation
processes are the arenas where northern and
southern agents are presented as subjects or
objects of aid.
Research hypothesis
The hypothesis my work is based on is that
the type of educational patterns and anything
that facilitates communication, both
fundamentally important in decentralized
cooperation, are themselves an influence on
the meaning that results.
The points in question
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Cooperation
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Citizenship
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Participation
Identity
The theoretical framework
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Anthropology of development
Actors oriented approach
Interdisciplinary elements regarding
education, training, development
Theoretical problems
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«How the meanings, purposes and powers
associated with differential modes of
human agency intersect to shape the
outcomes of emergent social forms ?»
(Long 2001)
“Can subaltern speak?” (Spivak 1988).
Methodological approach
Globalization, migration and the media, have
inevitable consequences on methodologies of field
research.
Above all it’s necessary to overcome the idea of local
community as the place of field research in favour
of more fragmented phenomena.
The model of reference which I will use, in
particular, is the ethnographical experimentalism,
which aims to allow the Other to speak (with all
theoretical, ethical and practical problems this might
include).
Sources
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Projects and laws, useful to piece together
discursive formal framework of the
analyzed activities
Interviews and focus groups with key
actors involved
Visual sources used to promote the project
Field diary
Partners involved
Cevi Centre for International Voluntary work
(Udine)
I have also been in contact with:
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World Water Contract
Cipsi (Coordination of people’s initiatives for
international solidarity)
Clong (Liason Committee of NGO’s at the EC)
Direction for European Affairs of Friuli Venezia
Giulia Region Unit for International Affairs and
territorial partnership.
The project
The project, “Water and active citizenship in
the Cochabamba region”, promoted by CeVI
and funded by the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia
, began in October 2004.
It is part of a wider programme to ensure
water access to the Cochabamba region.
The project: goals
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Improve quality and quantity of water
available
Ensure greater participation of citizens in
the public management of the territory
Promote basic health education
Promote synergy between local
communities in the Cochabamba and Friuli
Venezia Giulia regions
The project: fields of work
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To build municipal waterworks in Tapacarì.
To promote training in Tapacarì and south
Cochabamba on: active citizenship;
methodologies of shared management of
territory at local and national level; water laws
in Bolivia.
To support the local network involved in the
management of “servicios basicos”.
To promote decentralized cooperation between
local communities, Italian and Bolivian ones.
The project: levels of
partnership
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Local partnership, in Italy and Bolivia, of
actors involved at the different levels of the
project
International partnership between agents
of similar institutions (homologues)
involved on water issues
The project: innovative aspects
This project, and decentralized cooperation in
general, inverts the traditional flow from
northern countries to southern countries, in
which the relationship between actors favours
northern ones because of the greater
knowledge of the latter
Research plan
First stage:
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finding and
cataloguing laws on
decentralized
cooperation
finding project source
materials
finding references
analysing sources
getting hold of
northern and southern
key partners
participating in special
events
Second stage:
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getting hold of partners
negotiating research
plan
finding case studies and
organizing work groups
participating in project
activities
finding material for
participatory research
updating references
participating in special
events
field research in Bolivia
Third stage:
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research assessment
to confirm hypothesis
writing research
report
feedback of results to
agents involved and
final revision of the
report.
Organization of the contents:
first part
Theoretical framework
• Cooperation and otherness: from aid to
partnership. A historical reconstruction
• Anthropology of the project: cooperation as a way
to build a world vision
• The role of training and educational processes in
decentralized cooperation: building possible
worlds?
• Decentralised cooperation and construction of
identity and citizenship between the north and the
south of the world.
Organisation of the contents:
second part
Ethnography of cooperation: the project “Water and
active citizenship in the Cochabamba region”
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Genesis of the project: key words and critical points.
Participation and citizenship: the “Water table” in the
Friuli Venezia Giulia region
Participation and citizenship: Bolivian law for popular
participation and the role of “Asica SUR” in the
Cochabamba region.
Education and citizenship: ethnography of training of
policy makers
Education and citizenship: ethnography of
transnational exchanges.
Opportunities
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The innovative element in my research lies in the
fact that the reciprocal and horizontal nature of
decentralized cooperation processes give new
meaning not only to the concepts (partnership,
identity, citizenship, participation) which tend to
result problematic , but also to the identities and
roles of the actors involved
To work on training processes in decentralized
cooperation means to underline the role of
educational systems in reconfiguration of identity
as “new ethical model of citizenship” (Ong, 2003).
Interesting links
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www.contrattoacqua.it
www.cevi.coop
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/it/lvb/r1200
4.htm