Emeritus Professor Jim Ife Curtin University

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

Retreating to extremes  Extreme individualism  Denial of the collective  Xenophobia and racism

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

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’

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

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

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

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

The Humanities All cultures have:  Stories  Art  Literature  Songs  Drama  History  Philosophy

 Community Development needs Human Rights  Human Rights need Community Development

 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

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

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

Beyond simple binaries  individual AND collective  rational AND emotional  sacred AND secular  human AND non-human

Times of Crisis are Times of Opportunity