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Need | Goals | Activities | Administration | Benefits to Pacific Oaks | Initial Grants
Housed within the College and reporting to the Provost, the Center will: (1) create and disseminate models for democracy that are intercultural and "participatory" (in contrast with "representative") and (2) teach youth and families the skills in collaboration and interdependence they will need to be directly engaged in the governance of a diverse, civil society.
Need. The American public has demonstrated dissatisfaction with its large social institutions evidenced in recent years by citizen apathy and disenfranchisement, alarm over structural problems in the current "representative democracy," protests against globalization and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), loss of confidence in the media, and shock over the global violence visited upon the US. Having been trained in voting and representation, US citizens currently lack skills in direct participation for a civil society. The timing is right for new models that are positive and reconstitutive.
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Goals. Acknowledging an obligation to model something better, the Center will create a "think tank" atmosphere to explore and disseminate practices for participatory democracy and civil society that are embodied, aesthetic, non-oppositional, collaborative and bridge across multiple forms of diversity. In teaching such "direct participation skills" as collaborative decision-making, interdependence, complementarity, intercultural storytelling and performance, and autonomous community building - within schools, communities, and teacher and art education programs - we expect the youth involved to apply these skills in their own civic engagements and go on to teach others. In effect, the transition to a new democracy will be "youth led."
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Activities will include participatory action research and grant writing, exploring models for participatory democracy, intersubjective storytelling and performance, studies of youth-led social movements, disseminating research through publications and symposia, creating new theoretical frameworks, sponsoring visiting scholars and artists, publishing a scholarly arts journal, youth-led conferences, writing retreats, experiments with e-democracy, and other related projects.
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Administration. Greg Tanaka (626-397-1354), Cindy Cruz, Olga Winbush, Tim Sundeen, ReGena Booze, and William Franklin are the initial "clerks" for the Center and students will be project co-facilitators. Kris Gutierrez, Laila Aaen and Peter McLaren are senior advisors. All grants must present a net gain to the College budget. Faculty time will be "bought out" by grants only as grants are received. Unless building College infrastructure, a grant goes with the principal investigator if s/he leaves Pacific Oaks.
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Benefits to Pacific Oaks College will include nationwide leadership in creating new models for democracy and social change, dissemination of research on the participation of youth in democratic processes, and the generation of new knowledge for courses and academic programs.
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Initial Grants will be sought to fund community-based research and development in the areas of "youth led social movements," "rural, urban and suburban models of participatory democracy," and "a teacher education model for participatory democracy."
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Center for Democracy and Social Change