ORIGINS
AND GOALS
The TRANSREGIONAL CENTER FOR DEMOCRATIC STUDIES (TCDS) of the Graduate Faculty, New School University, was officially established in the spring of 1997 to accommodate the expanding activities of the Graduate Faculty's EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE PROGRAM (ECEP). Launched in the spring of 1990, ECEP's original goal was to assist regional efforts to revitalize scholarly life in the social sciences.
In
the course of its first seven years, through a variety of joint projects in
which scholars from the region collaborated with their American counterparts,
ECEP became a vital, multifaceted forum for on-going discussion, study, and
research on the critical issues of democracy and democratization. And along
with our colleagues from the region, we became increasingly convinced that many
of the challenges we were addressing in the democratizing societies of post-Communist
Europe are not fundamentally different from those still faced by the older democracies.
We
also realized that the end of communism, the Cold War, and apartheid,
as well as the changes taking place in Latin America, have not only made possible
an unprecedented and massive experiment in the building of a democratic order,
but have opened up an extraordinary intellectual opportunity to grasp and to
compare what had previously been neither graspable nor comparable. For the processes
of democratic institutional design at the local, national, and regional level
that are now occurring in so many different geographic locations throughout
the world give rise to issues which, though colored by the seemingly local concerns
of each native realm, are no longer so hard to communicate to outsiders as they
once were.
And
so this is one of the objectives of TCDS: to illuminate the relationships among
regional processes of democratization by providing channels of communication
between the internal discussions and practices that are taking place within
different countries or within the broader regions.
CONCERNS
AND THEMES
Our
point of departure is a conviction that democratization - or, rather, the effort
to build and sustain democracy - offers a way to analyze the political, social,
and cultural experiences of distinctive regions (or groups of countries).
We
focus on four areas which are important for democratization in a range of national
contexts: civic life; the public sphere; national and cultural diversity; globalization
- development - equity. In each case we are concerned with ways of expanding
the prospects for sustaining democratization. Our interest has both a cognitive
and a policy implication, as it seeks to understand how efforts to develop and
sustain democracy are enhanced or impeded by choices concerning institutional
design.
For
TCDS the status of women is an important concern and is therefore an element
in all its training and research projects. Our associated faculty include four
members whose research and teaching activities are closely related to the social,
political, and cultural ramifications of gender, the cultural development of
local women's movements, and the politics of inclusion/exclusion.
TCDS
addresses both the special needs that have arisen -- and the opportunities that
have opened up -- during this decade of social and political transformation.
Building upon our previous work, TCDS initiatives have already resulted in the
emergence and cultivation of several diverse scholarly networks in six broad
regions: Central and Eastern Europe, the Trans-Caucasus, Central Asia, Southern
Africa, Western Europe and Latin America.
These
are regions in which, thanks to the long-term interest of the Graduate Faculty
members from several disciplines, we have been able to establish networks of
scholarly contacts and collaborative projects.
While
bridging the regions in order to facilitate a deeper and more textured understanding
of the challenges of democracy in the contemporary world, we are also concerned
with building bridges between academia and the "real" world of actual
democratic practice, where policies and local strategies are designed, and where
civic innovation comes to life.
Our
faculty, our partners, and our students consist of people committed to the idea
of a civil society and actively involved in a variety of civic initiatives.
We believe that in this way we can contribute both to the spreading ethos of
active citizenship and to a new model of scholarship in the social sciences.
DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY GRADUATE INSTITUTES: CRACOW (Poland) and CAPE
TOWN
(South Africa) New
Social Science Training (small teams from the region to the New School)
Balkans
Project :
Towards an Architecture of Peace
Visiting
Professorship in Democracy
Reading
America:
Fulbright American Studies Institute on the U.S. through Literature
The
American Experience, intensive 6-week Institute on U.S. Society for scholars from
all over the world
Social
Science Curriculum Centers and Curriculum Workshops in Central
Asia
Women
in NGOs and Beyond, Women's Leadership Training Workshop
TCDS
Lecture Series presenting public intellectuals from the regions
Works-in-Progress
seminars/panel discussions, involving students of the social sciences at New
School University
Electronic
Workshops
conducted via e-mail and Internet
Committee
for the Study of Democracy
Grappling
with Democracy: Deliberations on Post-Communist Societies (1990-1995),
ed. Elzbieta Matynia
Policy
As Democracy: Public Policy Workbook, edited by Elaine Zimmerman
Democracy
Seminar Working Paper Series
Internet
Research Resource Handbook
PAST TCDS INITIATIVES
East
& Central Europe Program (all activities related to this region and conducted
after 1997 are included under TCDS)
TCDS
is directed by New School University Graduate Faculty member Dr. Elzbieta Matynia.
The International Steering Committee of TCDS is comprised of distinguished scholars
and prominent public intellectuals from the regions and the U.S., and is chaired
by the President of the New School University.
TCDS
Special International Advisors are:
Adam Michnik, Poland
Galina
Starovoitova,
Russia
Janos Kis,
Hungary
Shireen Hassim,
South Africa
Sonja Licht,
Former Yugoslavia
Shlomo Avineri,
Israel
Stephen Gelb,
Southern Africa
Martin Butora, Slovakia
Guilermo de la Peņa, Mexico