Regional Working Groups
The Regional Working Groups are the central working structures within the Global Consortium. They are thematic work groups conceived as clusters of practitioners, researchers, and activists who have a common interest in a given topic and engage in new, cross-regional and comparative research projects. The groups convene to share new knowledge, take advantage of practical experiences in the field, foster new agendas, and strengthen existing networks.
Each of the Working Groups will develop specific thematic workshops, which allow for cross–regional collaboration and comparison. The comparative nature of the Working Groups will allow sharing experiences of policy reform and conceptual cross-fertilization. Combining practical experiences with a more conceptual debate on security trends will be one of the key features of such workshops.
As Working Groups engage in new cross-regional and comparative research projects, developing a common research methodology would be key to ensuring the comparability of findings across regions. In order to broaden participation and ensure alternative voices are heard, the Working Groups could ensure the use of participatory research methodologies if and when appropriate. One technique that has already been successfully deployed in similar circumstances is Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR involves the people and communities researched as genuine, active and reflective participants in the research process, and the research itself aims to be transformative in terms of addressing a particular problem and creating spaces and opportunities for positive transformation. This research technique can still be rigorous and produce recommendations and analysis that are firmly backed up by empirical evidence, but it also allows for genuine participation, encourages new voices and creates opportunities for change.
Events
Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 12-13, 2011.
This workshop, sponsored by the governments of Chile and Switzerland, is being organized by the GCST and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The event will bring together 40 experts from the academic world and ONGs, as well as government officials from Latin-American and the Caribbean.
Download the workshop program from: http://www.securitytransformation.org/images/Montreux workshop.pdf
More information on the Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies at: http://www.securitytransformation.org/images/Montreux background.pdf
Download the Montreux Document from http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0996.pdf
ISDP Initiates Project on Organized Crime (Transnational Organized Crime )
11.03.10
ISDP Initiates a Project on Organized Crime and the Financial Crisis in the Baltic Sea Region.
Read the announcement on the ISDP website.
2nd Meeting of the Working Group on Transnational Organized Crime (Transnational Organized Crime )
09.15.10
The Working Group on Transnational Organized Crime of the GCST will hold on September 15-17 its second meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, co-hosted by UN-HABITAT. The aim is to present the working papers produced by the members of the WG within the GCST. Furthermore, there will be a round table to discuss public policies on organized crime with the aim of obtaining tangible results.
2nd meeting of the Working Group on Regional Security (Regional Security)
08.15.10
The Working Group on Regional Security from Above and Below will hold its second meeting on 15 August 2010 at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in order to present and disseminate the papers from the mapping exercise of perspectives on regional security and to plan the second year of the research project.
International Summit on Violence Prevention in Latin America (Crime Prevention)
04.15.10
With the aim of exchanging experiences in the field of insecurity reduction in the cities, the city of Bogotá and the IDB hold the international summit titled “Ideas, leadership and innovation on violence prevention in Latin America and the Caribbean
More information here (in Spanish)
Book Understanding Political Violence now available in Spanish (Transnational Organized Crime )
12.31.09
Vincenzo Ruggiero’s “Understanding Political Violence” (published in English by Open University Press in 2006) is now available in Spanish, with the title: “La violencia política: un análisis criminológico”, published by Anthropos (Barcelona).
This book analyses institutional and anti-institutional political violence, the former as violence from above, the latter as violence from below. An excursus in sociological and criminological thought highlights how the different theoretical schools have discussed this particular form of collective behaviour. From classicism to positivism, from functionalism to conflict theory, through to most recent theoretical contribution, the book also analyses the two extreme forms of political violence, namely terrorism and war.
Publisher's website
Groups
FACULTAD LATINOAMERICANA DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES (FLACSO- CHILE)
Av. Dag Hammarskjold 3269, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile.
Phones : (56 2) 2900200 - (56 2) 2900212
Email: securitytransformation@flacso.cl