Leading Between the Lines: What can citizens do (beyond casting a vote) to ensure that they are well governed? | DwD September 10, 2014
Date and time
Location
OCAD University
100 McCaul St Toronto, ON M5T 1W1 CanadaRefund Policy
Description
Leading Between the Lines: What can citizens do (beyond casting a vote) to ensure that they are well governed?
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Join us for September's DwD as we delve into ways to build leadership in governance and citizen decision-making. In an Open Space session, we'll be inviting you to bring your most burning civic issues and bright ideas as we engage in generative dialogue about this city's future and the role citizens can play in shaping it.
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As citizens of Toronto we are responsible for the governments we elect to represent us. How can we inspire leadership for a shared, sustainable future? The rapid changes and growth that Toronto is undergoing has both local and broader consequences. As we look towards some of the city’s pressing issues, such as public transit, infrastructure development, child poverty and voting reform, what conversations can we hold now that will shape equitable, desirable civic action?
As we find ourselves at another political juncture with the mayoral election in October, we invite you to explore how we might further democratic dialogue on issues that matter to Toronto citizens. This September DwD will host an Open Space session to discuss ideas and themes related to city governance and the upcoming mayoral election. The purpose of the dialogue is discuss issues that are most important to us as Torontonians.
Urban scholar Richard Florida has noted that city governance has more direct impact than national governments on the lives and well-being of people, and that large cities have significant global influence ( What If Mayors Ruled the World? Atlantic CityLab, June 2012):
“It is of course vital that mayors and their staffs understand not just what they share with other cities, but the challenges they face from a distinctive global environment that include pandemics, climate change, global financial markets, immigration and terrorism.”
Recent initiatives such as Turnout Toronto and Move the GTHA have created more activist venues for civic engagement. DwD sister group Unify Toronto Dialogues has held nearly two years of ongoing inquiry and experiential dialogues. And over its 6 year history, Design with Dialogue has hosted several sessions for civic conversation – Citizen’s response to the G20 policing, the Occupy movement, the mayoral elections, planning Change Camps, and Arab-Jewish community dialogues.
Join us September 10 for a back-to-school DwD with an Open Space led by the DwD team to share your ideas, build out your social design concepts and, if motivated, kick off your response to shaping this city’s near and long-term future.