Grass Roots: The Impact and Influence of 'People's' Movements
Bridget Kendal explores different grass roots movements in South Africa, the United States and Latin America with S'bu Zikode, Prof Joe Foweraker and Gene Sherman.
How have grass movements have evolved and how are they responding to a world where there is increased democracy but increased challenge too. Looking at a shack dwellers movement in South Africa, rights organisations in Latin America and the Maker Movement in the United States, Bridget Kendall and guests explore how grass roots groups are working today and how they may develop in the future with S'bu Zikode, Professor Joe Foweraker and Gene Sherman.
Photo: Grass Roots (credit: Shan Pillay).
Last on
Joe Foweraker
Joe Foweraker is an Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony鈥檚 College,
University of Oxford, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter. He
was Oxford鈥檚 first Professor of Latin and American Politics.
In a past life he spent many years of fieldwork in Brazil,
Spain and Mexico. More recent years have been dedicated mainly to comparative
research on democracy. Joe Foweraker seeks to 鈥渁ssess the impact of grassroots
pressure on policy formation and institutional reform that can improve the
quality of life for the poor and socially deprived peoples of Latin America.鈥�
Gene Sherman
Entrepreneur Gene Sherman is Founder and CEO of Vocademy.
In 2012, he decided to set up Vocademy - a project which
came to fruition when the first Vocademy opened in 2013. Vocademy is part of a
wider Makers鈥� movement which is gaining popularity in the USA.
Gene has more than 30 years鈥� experience in machining,
manufacturing and 3D design. Gene says聽
鈥淎fter 25 years in industry, helping/training hundreds of manufacturing
companies and聽
designing/machining/fabricating dozens of products, I have decided to
share my knowledge and experience鈥�, and ultimately describes himself as 鈥淢aker
of Things鈥�.
S鈥檅u Zikode
S鈥檅u Zikode was born in the village of Loskop in 1975 and
grew up in the town of Estcourt in the midlands of KwaZulu Natal in South
Africa. He was raised by a single mother working as a domestic worker.
He is a founding member of the of Abahlali baseMjondolo
movement 鈥� an organisation defending the rights and interests of South Africa鈥檚
poor and marginalised shack-dwelling population. S鈥檅u aims to make the South
African government understand what S鈥檅u sees as the real issues for
shack-dwellers and South Africa鈥檚 urban poor.
Broadcast
- Sat 20 Aug 2016 11:00蜜芽传媒 Radio 4