THE AGE OF GLOBAL DIALOGUE

Those scholars who earlier in the twentieth century with a great show of scholarship and historical/sociological analysis predicted the impending demise of Western Civilization were "dead wrong." After World War I, in 1922, Oswald Spengler wrote his widely acclaimed book, The Decline of the West 2 . After the beginning of World War II Pitirim A. Sorokin published in 1941 his likewise popular book, The Crisis of Our Age 3 . Given the massive, world-wide scale of the unprecedented destruction and horror of the world's first global war, 1914-18, and the even vastly greater of the second global conflict, 1939-45, the pessimistic predictions of these scholars and the great following they found are not ununderstandable

EL CLUB DE LA MODERNIDAD. PARA PERSONAS REACIAS A LA RELIGIÓN Y, ESPECIALMENTE, PARA LOS REACIOS AL CRISTIANISMO

The author questions the meaning of religion in our world, in Modernity. Our world —modern— is characterized by freedom at the core of being human, critical-thinking reason as the arbiter of what to affirm or not, and history, process, dynamism seen at the heart of human life and society. But, more than anything, globalized Modernity feels an increasing need to be in dialogue with those who think differently from us. This need for dialogue sharply compels us when, as in the case of religion, dialogue has to deal with crucial questions in the understanding that the human being has of herself and her surroundings.El autor se pregunta por el sentido de la religión en nuestro mundo, en la Modernidad. Nuestro mundo —el moderno— se caracteriza por la libertad en el núcleo del ser humano, la razón crítica como el árbitro de lo que hay que afirmar o no, y la historia, el proceso, el dinamismo visto en el corazón de la vida humana y la sociedad. Pero, más que nada, la Modernidad mundializada siente una creciente necesidad de estar en diálogo con quienes piensan de modo diferente a nosotros. Esta necesidad de diálogo nos interpela agudamente cuando, como en el caso de la religión, el diálogo debe versar sobre cuestiones cruciales en la comprensión que el ser humano tiene de sí mismo y de su entorno

Cosmic Dance of Dialogue!

Autor polazi od očiglednog iskaza da niko ne zna sve o svemu i da možemo imati samo djelomično znanje o bilo kojem ograničenom proučavanju stvarnosti, premda, kada je u pitanju religija, mnogi i dalje tvrde da znaju sve što trebaju znati. Pošto ljudi ne mogu sve znati, dijalog je neophodan, jer kroz razgovor s drugim čovjek uči ono što ne može opaziti iz svog mjesta i sa svojim ličnim sočivima znanja. Dijalog nije samo način da se dobije više informacija: Dijalog je potpuno novi način razmišljanja! Dijalog u njegovom najširem značenju u samom je srcu kosmosa, odnosno sama suština kosmosa i naše čovječnosti je dijaloška a ispunjeni ljudski život je najviši izraz Kosmičkog plesa dijaloga. Stoga, autor naglašava, mi ljudi danas imamo očigledan izbor: dijalog ili smrt! U tekstu se ističe da postoje tri glavne dimenzije dijaloga, koje odgovaraju strukturi ljudskosti: Dijalog glave, ruku i srca u holističkoj harmoniji svetog čovjeka. U dijalogu glave dopiremo do onih koji misle drukčije od nas da bismo razumjeli kako oni vide svijet i razlog za njihovo ponašanje. Svijet je prekompliciran da bi ga iko mogao shvatiti sam. U dijalogu ruku udružujemo se s drugima kako bismo učinili svijet boljim mjestom u kojem svi moramo živjeti zajedno. U dijalogu srca otvaramo se da sagledamo/primimo ljepotu drugog. Autor zaključuje da ljudi ne mogu živjeti podijeljeno. Ako žele preživjeti, pa još i procvjetati, moraju ne samo plesati pojedinačno dijaloge glave, ruke i srca već i okupiti različite dijelove u harmoniji.The author starts from the obvious statement that no one knows everything about everything and that we can have only partial knowledge of any limited study of reality, although, when it comes to religion, many still claim to know everything they need to know. Since people cannot know everything, dialogue is necessary, because through a conversation with another, a person learns what he cannot notice from his place and with his personal lenses of knowledge.  Dialogue is not just a way to get more information: Dialogue is a whole new way of thinking! Dialogue in its broadest sense is at the very heart of the cosmos, that is, the very essence of the cosmos and our humanity is dialogical, and fulfilled human life is the highest expression of the Cosmic Dance of Dialogue. Therefore, the author emphasizes, we humans today have an obvious choice: dialogue or death! The text points out that there are three main dimensions of dialogue, which correspond to the structure of humanity: The dialogue of the head, hands and heart in the holistic harmony of the holy man. In the dialogue of the head we reach out to those who think differently from us to understand how they see the world and the reason for their behavior. The world is too complicated for anyone to figure it out on their own. In hand dialogue, we team up with others to make the world a better place where we all need to live together. In the dialogue of the heart we open ourselves to perceive/receive the beauty of the other. The author concludes that people cannot live divided. If they want to survive, and even flourish, they must not only dance individually the dialogues of head, hand, and heart but also bring together the various parts in harmony

Towards a Theory of Local Governance and Public Goods Provision

Under?provision of essential public goods is making development in Africa slower and more inequitable than it needs to be. A good part of this problem concerns the governance of provision at sub?national levels. This article provides a mid?term report on a multi?country research effort to shed light on the institutional sources of variation in local public goods provision. The particular focus is on key bottlenecks to improvement in maternal mortality, water and sanitation, facilitation of markets and enterprise, and public order and security. Drawing on fieldwork evidence and secondary literature, it identifies three clusters of issues and associated explanatory variables which seem to account for much of the variation in intermediate outcomes. They concern the extent of policy?driven incoherence in the institutional framework, the strength of corporate disciplines in provider organisations and the degree to which self?help is able to be ‘locally anchored’ in two particular senses

Introduction: Working with the Grain? The Africa Power and Politics Programme

At the heart of current policy thinking about Africa there is a significant knowledge gap concerning governance and development. This IDS Bulletin is concerned with what can be done about that, drawing on the initial experience of a new research venture, the Africa Power and Politics Programme. The APPP is committed to discovering forms of governance that work better for development than those prescribed by the current ‘good governance’ orthodoxy. It aims to do so chiefly by examining the range of post?colonial experience in sub?Saharan Africa focusing especially on under?appreciated patterns of difference in institutions and outcomes. This article explains the rationale of this approach and outlines the options which have shaped the programme's methods and concepts. A central challenge has been operationalising the working hypothesis that institutions function better when they ‘work with the grain’ of the society which hosts them