Podcast: Carmen Malena with Civicus, Editor of New Book "From Political Won't to Political Will"

C2D2 is honoured to showcase the work of the Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation. For the next three years, Civicus will be holding its World Assembly in Montreal. C2D2 community members will be joining many others from August 20th to 23rd this year.

A few months ago, C2D2 director Arjun Singh had the good fortune of creating this podcast with Carmen Malena, the director of the Civicus Participatory Governance unit. Carmen had edited this amazing anthology, From Political Won't to Political Will, which highlights many of the best examples of participatory governance worldwide. Click the play button below to listen.

Audio Map

00:30  - how the book "From Political Won't to Political Will" came to be. Built from proceedings at conference hosted by the Participatory Governance program at Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation. 

 01:50 - vast majority of book contributors are practitioners

02:27 -  book timely as participatory governance attracting much interest.

03:15 - book shows positive examples of participatory governance and also addresses ways to build support for participatory governance initiatives.

 03:40 - I am indebted to Toby Fyfe, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Government Executive, for questions to ask Carmen.

04:26 - what, in your view, are the limits of citizen and organizational involvement in the governmental process?

06:06 - in the book, you talk about "political can, want, and must" as government drivers for engagement. What can citizens and government officials do if one of these qualities are missing?

09:38 - how do robust public engagement processes benefit elected officials?

14:20 - what might be some skills and attitudes that contribute to responsible citizenship?

17:15 - what types of differences do you see in how participatory governance is playing out in the global north and the global south?

19:16 - if there is to be really robust citizen participation, what roles are left for government officials?

21:33 - what advice would you give government officials who are moving in the direction of organizing and managing robust citizen engagement processes?

25:44 : reaction to book at various events

27:20 - information on Civicus World Assembly in Montreal in August.

28:52 - info on user friendly participatory governance exchange - now available at pgexchange.org

30:13 - how to purchase "From Political Won't to Political Will"