I appreciate the opportunity to address the question of the role of civil society in creating social capital. By that I understand the Planning Council to mean What kind of community we create when we work together? How can we develop and sustain bonds that bind us to one another? How is it that we create a "common good" through various public goods that are often considered externalities to our current way of calculating the economic costs and benefits?
Economic globalization is not new. In the later 19th century, trade comprised a larger percentage of economic activity for the colonial powers than it does today in many rich countries. They too imposed an economic structure on the peoples they exploited in the south. What was called laissez-faire capitalism persisted well into the first half of the previous century (1900s). What is different is the impact of technology and communication systems and the emergence of an "information economy" which has amplified both global awareness and the impact on communities.
In early 1980s, "Globalization" came into our public vocabulary. Initially it was used "descriptively" (positive economics to use Milton Friedman's term). By the early 1990s, it was being used prescriptively (normative in Friedman's terms) to describe the way the economy ought to be. It has become the dominant "ideology" fashioning life in communities.
Our society is in the midst of changes that are profoundly affecting our communities, national identity, and place in the global family.
Globalization as an ideology is failing. In richer communities it is failing to provide meaning and purpose for peoples lives. In poorer communities it has created tremendous suffering for people, particularly women and children. Increasingly there is a lack of confidence by people in the north (which has been true for some time in the south) that the globalization of economies cannot deliver what has been promised. The failure of globalization was recognized in 1995 at the World Summit on Social Development when 117 heads of state agreed that poverty, unemployment and social exclusion were "market failures" and committed their governments to the eradication of poverty as " an ethical, social, political and economic imperative." Even proponents are talking about "Globaphobia" (Brookings Institution, Progressive Policy Institute book in 1998).
Every Society needs to address five basic questions. In part these comprise the focus for social investment and what we are referring to here as "social capital."
Each of these questions results from contradictions - paradoxes - that arise when the customary answers no longer work and societies are forced to answer them in new ways. Responding to each of these forms the basis for the role of civil society in building community.
The following paradoxes need to be addressed. In this presentation I will explore how the answers inform our understanding of the role for civil society.
Our society has answered these questions in a number of ways in the past. A conservative approach saw civil society as playing a mediating role between the Private and Public Sectors. A socialist approach at the other extreme, saw civil society subsumed along with the economic sector within the public sector. Our conventional approach has seen civil society as charities outside the realm of interaction between the public and private sectors. Globalization has led to an imbalance with our current social experience due to the dominance of market decisions in all realms of our common life.
In recognizing that globalization is a failing prescriptive ideology that does not have public confidence, that fails to acknowledge important aspects of social life, that has exacerbated the problems of poverty, employment and social exclusion and that is not helping people have a meaningful vocation in the world, what is the role of civil society in creating or reforming our current path? What is required is a re-balancing and reclaiming a community centred ethic.
Civil society is making an important contribution to building greater solidarity and empowering communities. In 1956 it is estimated that there were some 985 civil society organizations. By 1996, CIVICUS estimates that this number has grown to over 28,000 (Centre for Civil Society Studies - John Hopkins University). The failure of globalization is also an opportunity for helping people pursue those things that matter most, that give them a sense of purpose, and remind them of who they are as members of the global human family.
Currently David serves as Director of the Lutheran Office for Public Policy which was established in 1982 to assist the church to address important social issues. David is also the coordinator of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's Global Hunger and Development Appeal, in support of international development projects and programmes to address hunger and poverty in Canada. He serves as the Director of the Institute of Christian Ethics, a research and resource centre at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary at Wilfrid Laurier University. David continues to represent the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in a wide range of ecumenical and community organizations that address issues of human rights, corporate social responsibility, international trade and development, social policy, welfare reform, and economic and social justice.
David is currently a member of the Executive of the Canadian Council of Churches and is chairperson of the Council's Commission for Justice and Peace. He is a member of the Society for Christian Ethics. He has served as President of the Ontario Social Development Council. Member of the 1995 delegation to the United Nation's World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has also been a member of the Ontario Multi-faith Council on Religious and Spiritual Care (Chaplaincy).
In 1994 David was awarded the Gamaliel Chair in Peace and Justice by Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Wisconsin. He has written numerous articles and editorials and regularly is invited as a speaker to church and community groups. Recently David completed a Doctor of Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. His work focused on church-state relations in Canada and the perceptions of public policy makers regarding the contribution of churches in determining economic policies, particularly in the context of economic globalization.