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Emeritus Professor Jim Ife Curtin University

Emeritus Professor Jim Ife Curtin University. Liberalisation and Community Empowerment from a Human Rights Perspective: Challenges for ASEAN Countries. The Global Crisis. Decline of the USA and the shift in power to Asia Challenging Western assumptions The ecological crisis.

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Emeritus Professor Jim Ife Curtin University

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  1. Emeritus Professor Jim Ife Curtin University Liberalisation and Community Empowerment from a Human Rights Perspective: Challenges for ASEAN Countries

  2. The Global Crisis • Decline of the USA and the shift in power to Asia • Challenging Western assumptions • The ecological crisis

  3. Retreating to extremes • Extreme individualism • Denial of the collective • Xenophobia and racism

  4. Neo-liberal assumptions of humanity • Individual • Workers/consumers OR investors/entrepreneurs • Independent • Motivated by self-interest • Citizenship not important • Inequality is both natural and desirable

  5. Human rights and ethical duties • Conventional western discourse starts with rights and implies duties • Other cultural and religious traditions start with the ethical duty to the other, and imply rights • ‘Human rights’ became important when ethical obligations were weakened by the breakdown of community • ‘My rights’ not ‘my duties to others’

  6. The decline of the welfare state • Lack of obligation to others • Incompatible with selfish individualism • State spending seen as wasting resources and eroding productive economy

  7. Community versus development • ‘Development’ seen in terms of investment, and so has destroyed community in many places • ‘The community’ is seen as standing in the way of development • So community and development are opposed: each undermines the other • ‘Community Development’ becomes a contradiction

  8. Focusing on the HUMAN • The idea of ‘human’ and ‘humanity’ is constructed differently at different times and in different contexts

  9. The Enlightenment view of Humanity • Individual rather than collective • Secular rather than spiritual • Man rather than men and women • Young and vigorous rather than valuing elders • Rational rather than emotional • Healthy and able-bodied • Distinct from the natural world

  10. The Humanities All cultures have: • Stories • Art • Literature • Songs • Drama • History • Philosophy

  11. Community Development needs Human Rights • Human Rights need Community Development

  12. Both Human Rights and Community Development stand against the dominant individualism of the neo-liberal discourse • The shift in global power represents an opportunity to articulate both ideas more collectively and vigorously

  13. Exploring and reaffirming our humanity • Reconnecting to the natural world • i.e a creative and holistic community development approach to policy and practice

  14. A Culture of Human Rights • From rule-based human rights to relationship-based human rights.

  15. Beyond simple binaries • individual AND collective • rational AND emotional • sacred AND secular • human AND non-human

  16. Times of Crisis are Times of Opportunity

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