Written by Hannah Christensen and Melany Bennett
March 2, 2023, Professor Anthony Chase co-hosted with Sofia Gruskin (Director, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California) and Gaea Morales (USC Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science and International Relations, and Oxy ‘18) Global Change on a Local Stage: Lessons Learned and Paths Forward for City-Academic Partnerships at Occidental College. The workshop involved faculty from universities across the country, officials from the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, and representatives from various civil society and city network organizations, including The U.S. Human Rights Cities Alliance.
Global Change on a Local Stage marked the celebration of five years of collaboration with the Los Angeles Mayors' Office, which was officially launched by former Mayor Eric Garcetti at Oxy in February 2018. To date, the partnership has resulted in 27 Task Forces in which hundreds of students have provided hands-on research support to the L.A. Mayor’s Office across a range of issue areas, from Menstrual Equity to Just Transitions to Truth and Accountability and many more. While the issues varied, each Task Force shared the approach that global norms can inform innovative solutions to stubborn local problems.
The workshop also celebrated the publication of Human Rights at the Intersections, co-edited by Anthony Chase, Sofia Gruskin, Hussein Banai, and Pardis Mahdavi, which emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to human rights and includes a section edited by Professor Chase on “Human Rights, the City, and “Local” Actors.” This section lays the groundwork for those interested in the theory and practice of how human rights can be implemented at local levels, rather than the traditional emphasis on the nation-state. The Global Change on a Local Stage workshop built off contributions to Human Rights at the Intersections. It was also meant, crucially, to lead into a planned mid-May 2023 Atlanta Human Rights Summit. The Summit, co-sponsored by The U.S. Human Rights Cities Alliance along with the Atlanta City Council and Atlanta’s Southern Human Rights Law Center will develop specific policy proposals to make impactful Atlanta’s recent City Council Resolution declaring itself a Human Rights City.
The workshop opened with welcoming remarks from Occidental President Harry Elam and Professor Chase. Outcomes set for the day included policy-oriented goals that looked for new ways to address persisting problems and envisioning policy that encompasses local, national, and international experiences. Broader goals involved the reimagination of urban political spaces while engaging with the transnational dynamics of metropolitan areas. The first round table discussed the lessons learned from efforts by cities to link international laws and norms to local policy-making, either in support of or despite, what is occurring at the national level. This included discussions of the ways the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have shaped local political, government, and activist spaces. Key takeaways from this round table included the acknowledgment that unless global norms and laws truly speak to people and give power to communities, these frameworks are essentially meaningless.
The lunchtime keynote featured Anthony Pipa of the Brookings Institute, Erin Bromaghim, Deputy Mayor for the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, and Mandeep Dhaliwal from the United Nations Development Programme. All three speakers discussed the role of the SDGs at the city level, beyond just SDG11, which calls for sustainable development of cities. The conversation also involved looking at where international organizations can interact on the local level with cities. The second and final round table discussed the nature of the interactions between international organizations and cities, and what can be done to make these partnerships more effective. Key takeaways from this conversation included the potential for international organizations in helping cities facilitate local work, city networks functioning as a target of advocacy for international organizations, and the opportunities for international organizations to help bring information to smaller and mid-size cities.
When asked about the motivation behind a focus on change specifically at the city level in this workshop, Dr. Everard Meade, Director of the Proceso Pacífico (an organization that focuses on peace and justice at the city level across Mexico) stated, “I think cities have enormous potential and practicality. It's much easier to change policy and law at the local level. I like municipal politics because coalitions tend to be more diverse and more practical. There are cities all over the place where you can have people from the Chamber of Commerce, religious organizations, civic organizations, local foundations, and government get together and work things out that would never happen… Cities are created by balancing spaces such as universities, hospitals, and research centers, which often function as intellectual hubs, bringing people together in unique ways”
Concluding remarks from the workshop addressed the question “Where do we go from here?” Emphasis was placed on the need for coalition building and “cross-sectoral” work in order to bring international norms to the local stage, as well as the importance of this work transcending beyond mayoral terms, ensuring continuity and working towards community and city-wide buy-in of the Sustainable Development Goals.
