The conference, “Entwicklungspolitik To Go”, is a yearly event that focuses on prevalent social and developmental challenges and takes place primarily in East German states. On September 4th and September 5th, Eine Welt Netzwerk Thüringen organised the conference, ‘Development Policy To Go 2018- Role of development policy in establishing a transcultural society’ in cooperation with Stiftung Nord-Süd Brücken and Snapshot from the Borders in Neudientendorf. The conference stressed upon the importance of development policy in enhancing the readiness and understanding to accept, assess and shape a transcultural society as well as a fair globalisation process.
The conference provided a stage to numerous participants from different sectors and backgrounds, for example municipal representatives, civil society actors, development practitioners and academicians, to reflect upon globalisation and apply a critical perspective to assess its positive and negative effects. The aim was to develop a narrative for a fair globalisation process and trans-culturalism, and thus be able to provide answers to the increasing division in societies along with growing nationalism and populism. Migration was embedded as a cross-cutting issue in the conference and was addressed at various levels, in workshops, during discussions etc. The conference offered a wide range of workshops on topics such as identity, education, campaigns and media to equip the participants with new tools, methods and approaches to further their work. Some examples are listed here below:
- Glokale Partnerschaften: Lokal handeln mit globaler Wirkung (Glocal partnerships: Local problems, global solutions)
- Stadt und ländlicher Raum: Gegensatz oder gemeinsamer Motor für neue Visionen? (Cities and rural areas: Antithesis or motors for charting new visions?)
- Medien und die globale, transkulturelle Gesellschaft (Media and the global, transcultural society)
- Globale Bürger*innen: Welche Bildung benötigen wir dafür? (Global Citizens: Can education play a key role?)
- Occupy Öffentlicher Raum (Occupy public space)
Summing up, the conference stressed upon the importance of grassroots initiatives and the key role they can play in enriching as well as strengthening local engagement based upon global and transcultural perspectives. Therefore, to achieve the same, it is our collective responsibility to make them and their work more visible.
