The Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality

By Walter Castro (*)

The first Berlin Roundtable organized on Transnationality consisted of a ten-day (from 2 to 10 January, 2004) workshop and a subsequent conference on Transnational risks – challenges for a new politics. 76 young and senior researchers, and journalists from natural, social and political sciences, coming from 40 northern, southern, eastern and western countries, were selected to discuss political and social challenges that governments can not solve at the national level and the role of the global civil society and the media to address these problems. The colloquium on Transnational Risk analysed this development, using case studies which provided insights to the discussion.

HORIZON International’s work on environmental risk communication, linking global and local action, was presented as case study. This study focused on the Peruvian Network of Volunteers as an innovative experience.

HORIZON's Walter Castro presents a case study at the Berlin Roundtable

We discussed the concept of "globalization," which refers mainly to an economic trend, and the concept of "Transnationality," which is political aspect of the same process. We set out to answer the following questions: how transnational risks arise and play out in the context of the relationship between the developed and the developing world, how can a global civil society respond to challenges that don't stop at national borders, and who could shoulder that responsibility? Potential actors include the International non-governmental organizations or the loose network of the so-called anti-globalization protesters, multinational corporations, banks and insurance companies, the international media, and the scientific community. The central question is whether these international institutions can provide the basis for a global civil society that meets the challenges posed by transnational risks and replicates the time-tested mechanisms of nation states on a global level.

National and international politics are increasingly dominated by risks that transcend national borders and trigger reactions that are equally widespread. The causes of such risks are miscellaneous, and include natural calamities (e.g. floods), industrial accidents (e.g. Chernobyl), corporate meltdowns (e.g. dot-com crashes), macroeconomic crises (e.g. Argentina) as well as expeditions (e.g. space missions), the exploitation of natural resources, U.N. peace missions or drug launches. Do all these extremely diverse phenomena have something in common? Risks surface whenever the consequences of events and developments cannot be calculated precisely. The fall-out from transnational risks occurs in many countries and prompts reactions that frequently involve international organizations.

Currently the concept of risk increasingly dominates public debates about politics and society. Risks carry dangers and opportunities that shape the way politicians, corporations, non-governmental organizations and other political players function. They tend to have negative and positive consequences that are disproportionately great. They pose the question of responsibility and necessitate action.

This development of transnationality has been amplified and accelerated by globalization. Health risks or financial crises transcend borders and can no longer be contained and handled by national governments. In this context, the term transnationality refers not only to the powerlessness of national governments but also to the increasing power of institutions that are truly international.

In an increasingly insecure and complex globalized world, knowledge about risks can more easily be monopolized by certain powerful players such as multinationals, international organizations, media or armies. As a result, important information can be withheld from critical journalists, NGOs or even the people who are directly affected by those risks. In that case, the dangers and opportunities that arise from transnational risks are spread unevenly.

The conclusions are mainly related to attempts to further influence decision makers, bridge theory and action, recognize the need for self-reflection and self-criticism within civil society, engage the local people and access local knowledge, and promote localized work as the best strategy to deal with transnational risks.

HORIZON Peru Staff with other delegates

The Case Study: Transnational Environmental Risk Communication, Building Preventive Action Communities

The case study, presented in the event Transnational Risks - the Responsibility of the Media and the Social Sciences organized by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), the Humboldt University and the Irmgard Coninx Foundation, explores the interaction between the local and global civil society and the building of a Network of Volunteers in Peru as a preventive strategy to tackle the Transnational Environmental Risks and attempts to share my insights derived from my personal experience in the environmental field in Peru and from the programs HORIZON International, a non-profit think tank of global reach, is currently undertaking.

Natural or man-made transnational environmental risks are those which are related to human health risk to wildlife and precious ecosystems that sustain life, occupational risks in the working environment, nuclear hazards, transport of dangerous goods or wastes, ozone layer depletion, acid rain and global warming. It is important to point out that there are risks that rise from industrialized countries and from non-industrialized countries. In any case they can spread overall the world and the environmental effect is global.

Strengthening a global civil society that is able to tackle those environmental global threats is needed. This implies tailored preventive strategies according the specific local conditions and developing productive transnational cooperation among actors. Moreover, search for new organizational models and empowerment of the civil society based on knowledge and information management will help global society recognize opportunities for cooperation and partnerships to narrow the economic distances between north and south countries.

The HORIZON International’s work is involved in three communication stages: the generation, evaluation, and distribution of knowledge linking the local and the global society using media. The knowledge is stored as a data base of successful case studies on environment and development from throughout the world (Further information at: www.solutions-site.org).

In Peru an innovative seeding experience is being led by young people, the so call HORIZON’s Peruvian Network of Volunteers whose aim is to both prevent environmental risks and strengthen community participation at local and national level. This experience involves universities and NGOs as local support for the network. This initiative intends to answer the following question: how external intervention, like those of the international organizations, can promote processes of change that must be lead by the local people themselves rather than create dependency in the long term? Based on the lesson learned during the ongoing experience, HORIZON will be developing an Organizational and Communicational System Model “The Solutions Network Model.”

Further information about the Berlin roundtables at:
http://www.irmgard-coninx-stiftung.de/en/roundtables/roundtables.htm

Further information about the case study, email to:
Walter.Castro@wur.nl

(*) Walter Castro
MSc Environmental Management
HORIZON’s Associate