Conversation

Democratize Public Services: A conversation between Ashley Dawson, Anne Le Strat & Michael Menser

Mon, Apr 11, 2022

7:00 PM–8:30 PM

This event will take place online via Zoom. Please register below.

Watch the video recording of this conversation here:

NOW IS THE TIME TO DEMOCRATIZE PUBLIC GOODS, BUT WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE? A CONVERSATION WITH ASHLEY DAWSON, ANNE LE STRAT AND MICHAEL MENSER

As the world once again faces a global energy crisis, communities across the planet also continue to grapple with underinvestment and mismanagement of water systems and other critical infrastructure. While many focus on the promise of new technologies, the question of governance is evaded. We praise “democracy” especially in the face of authoritarianism, but what do democratic public services actually look like? This is the aim of the new publication, Democratizing Public Services (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2022) by Anne Le Strat and Michael Menser. As Deputy Mayor of Paris, Le Strat led the deprivatization of the Paris Water utility that made it not only public but democratic. Menser, professor and co-founder of the Participatory Budgeting Project is working with public power campaigns in NY to adapt the innovations of Paris to the electricity system in the US. Both co-authors will be interviewed by professor and climate scholar/activist Ashley Dawson about this work and the present and future of public goods amidst the green transition.

Click here to register for this event.

This event is co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center Departments of Earth and Environmental Science, Political Science, Anthropology, the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics; the Center for Humanities, and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Read the new publication, “Democratizing Public Services” here (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2022) by Anne Le Strat and Michael Menser.