Mobilizing for a Better Alberta: Strong Communities, Public Solutions

PIA's 5th Annual Conference: Edmonton, March 31 - April 2, 2011

The full conference guide: including the conference agenda, all speakers' bios, and more, is available here in PDF

You can also view the conference agenda on this page (below)

(for the main conference event page, including a description of the conference, sponsors, etc., click here)

Keynote and Plenary Speakers:

Dr. Dennis Shirley - The Inspiring Future of Public Interest Organizing

Shirley is an internationally renowned speaker, author of numerous books and professor at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. His research on organizing has involved establishing multi-issue, multi-class, and multi-racial coalitions around social justice issues. His latest book, The Fourth Way, illustrates how the old ways for effecting social and educational change are no longer suited to the fast, flexible, and vulnerable new world of the 21st century.

In many jurisdictions around the globe the economic recession of recent years has led to curtailed public services as a result of cut-backs. In other contexts, however, activists and leaders have responded imaginatively with strategies to promote transparency, to conserve the environment, to uplift democracy and to promote the public good. In this provocative presentation Dennis Shirley will draw upon his many years as an activist and scholar working with civic groups around the world to describe new openings in civic engagement. He will outline ways in which ordinary people are using new technologies to advance their struggles for social justice with special relevance for the future of the public interest in Alberta.

(Shirley's Keynote address is included in the conference registration. Alternatively, separate tickets are available for $15. Also delivering keynote address in Calgary, Wed, March 30)

Rob Hopkins (via live video feed) - Mobilizing to Meet the Challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change

Hopkins is the originator of the Transition Town concept, which promotes community-driven responses to peak oil that focus on cooperative effort to meet basic needs as sustainably and close to home as possible. In just a few years, his work has inspired an international movement of hundreds of communities and thousands of people pursuing Transition initiatives. A teacher of permaculture and natural building techniques, Rob is co-founder of the Transition Network and author of The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience (2008). Rob is a Trustee of the Soil Association (U.K.), the winner of the 2008 Schumacher Award, and a Fellow of Ashoka International.

Dr. Ritika Goel - Students for Medicare: Building a Movement

Goel is a family physician working primarily in the inner city of Toronto. She is one of the founders of Students for Medicare and is a strong advocate for a publicly funded health care system in Canada believing that its principles are deeply rooted in equity and social justice. She also advocates for migrant justice and has a strong interest in the health of marginalized communities worldwide.

Students for Medicare advocates for maintaining and strengthening a publicly-funded, not-for-profit health care system. They focus on educating colleagues and the general public on the issues Canada's health care system faces. They are students and practitioners of nursing, midwifery, medicine, public policy, other disciplines, and allies, with a strong commitment to equity and addressing the social determinants of health, operating on the principles that health care is a right, it is not and should not be treated as a market good, that a focus on the social determinants of health is essential and that we have a responsibility to advocate for equity within health care.

Dr. Trevor Harrison - Tea Party Populism: Lessons for Alberta?

Harrison was born and raised in Edmonton, and earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Alberta. His areas of specialty include political sociology, political economy, and public policy. He is currently Professor and Chair of the department of sociology at the University of Lethbridge and Associate Director of the university’s Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economics. Previously, Dr. Harrison was a visiting professor at the University of Alberta where he also co-founded the Parkland Institute and was its first Research Director.

He is best known for his studies of populist politics in Canada and the political culture of Alberta and the Canadian west in particular. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books dealing with politics, economics, and sociology, including most recently, Twenty-First Century Japan: A New Sun Rising (Black Rose, 2008). His op-ed columns frequently appear in national newspapers.

Walter Davis - Tools for Change in these Times: Buliding Strong Communities

Davis is the executive director and co-founder of the National Organizers Alliance. He was the Director of the Southern Empowerment Project (Maryville, Tennessee) from 2004 to 2007 and since 1988 trained hundreds of community organizers in SEP programs. He was a Windcall resident in 1999. Davis has coordinated a wide range of trainings in community organizing, fundraising and overcoming oppression. Among his varied work experiences: U.S. Peace Corps in Colombia in community development, recruiter/trainer with Canadian peace corps CUSO, Vietnam antiwar organizer in the 70s in Ontario, and ten years as popular educator at Saskatchewan's One Sky Center training in international and domestic development issues. Davis is a native of Louisville, Kentucky where he first became involved for racial justice over forty-five years ago as a teenager.

Agenda - March 31 - April 2, 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

6:00 pm Registration

7:00 pm Welcome & Introductory Remarks
Keynote Presentation – Dr. Dennis Shirley, Professor
“The Inspiring Future of Public Interest Organizing”
Lynch School of Education, Boston College

8:30 pm Reception

Friday, April 1, 2011

8:30 am Registration

9:00 am Welcome & Overview of the Day
Plenary – Rob Hopkins, Founder, Transition Town Movement
“Transition Towns: Communities Mobilizing to Meet the Challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change”
Panel Reaction - Bob Hawksworth, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Gil McGowan
"Making the Alberta Connection"

10:30 am Lifestyle Break

10:50 am Mobilizing for Public Solutions
Concurrent Breakout Session One
Childcare
Human Services & Poverty
Democracy
Education
Environment
Healthcare
Post‐Secondary Education
Seniors

12:00 Noon Organized Lunch

1:00 pm Plenary – Dr. Ritika Goel
“Students for Medicare: Building a Movement”

2:00pm Mobilizing for Public Solutions
Concurrent Breakout Session Two
Childcare
Human Services & Poverty
Democracy
Education
Environment
Healthcare
Post‐Secondary Education
Seniors

3:10 pm Lifestyle Break

3:30 pm Plenary – Dr. Trevor Harrison
“Tea Party Populism: Lessons for Alberta?”

4:30 pm Adjournment

Saturday, April 2, 2011

9:00 am Overview of the Day

Plenary – Walter Davis
“Tools for Change in These Times: Building Strong Communities through Public Solutions”

10:10 am Lifestyle Break

10:30 am Mobilizing for Action
Concurrent Breakout Session Three
Our Cities, Our Schools
Delivering the Message
Art in Action
Mobilizing in Rural/Aboriginal Communities
Fair Revenues for Public Services
Countering Privatization
Localizing Our Economy

12:00 Noon Organized Lunch

1:00 pm Mobilizing for Action
Concurrent Breakout Session Four
Our Cities, Our Schools
Delivering the Message
Art in Action
Mobilizing in Rural/Aboriginal Communities
Fair Revenues for Public Services
Countering Privatization
Localizing Our Economy

2:30 pm Lifestyle Break

2:50 pm Mobilizing Activity
"Hope Within the Movement"

3:50 pm Wrap Up & Closing

4:00 pm Adjournment