Global Citizenship

John Wayne V. Jacinto

November 7, 2018
Learning Outcomes

 Articulate a personal definition of global citizenship;

 Appreciate the ethical obligations of global citizenship.
 Cited in Abuso (2018)
 Who do we usually help first? (family, neighbor or
alien?)
 Why do we help other people?
 Why are we even concerned with issues confronting
them?
 The increasing social differentiation made us realize of our
humanity (Durkheim as cited in Chirico 2013).
 According to Confucius, a higher man knows his line of duty
for himself, parents and neighborhoods and is proficient in
doing it.
 Global Interconnected Challenge

 Sustainability
 Climate Change
 Global Terrorism
 Nuclear War Threat
 Incurable Diseases
 Refugee Crisis
 Global Structural Injustices
Some Situations which Have Penetrating
Effects to Individuals
 A Middle East war raises the price of oil for everyone; an
atomic bomb exploding in the South Pacific can mean
leukemia for a baby born in Dayton, Ohio; dumping radio-
active waste off the coast of Florida can mean radio-active
fish caught by fishermen off the coast of Iceland, Great
Britain, France or Spain; (World Service Authority, 2015).
 “If everything is happening directly to everyone, then
every individual should be outputting directly to
everything. ”
 Are these problems part of the responsibility of a national
citizen? What is then a citizen?
 A citizen of a state with political frontiers is expected to pay
allegiance to the government of the state to which he or she
belongs and is expected to take arms against aliens who
might invade the territory of the state (Yati as cited in Lechner
& Boli, 2015).
 “The nation-centered way of “solving” problems is the major
problem! The nation-state, by insisting on its absolute
sovereignty, has become literally suicidal for the entire human
species.” (World Service Authority, 2015).
Do we need to be a Global Citizen?

 World citizenship, is the only dynamic and imperative

political identity capable of relinking the conceptual or
moral value of the human being with the social and
economic organization of his/her now planetary
community. It expresses both the innate and inalienable
sovereignty of each human as well as the overall sovereignty
of the human species to which he/she belongs, also innately
and inalienably (World Service Authority).
What is Global Citizenship?

 Global citizenship is not a membership to a global polity.

There is no global state.
 United Nations is not a global state; it is an organization of
nations. Its members are nation-states and not individuals.
 A global citizen therefore is not a citizen, legally speaking.
(Mazo 2018)
What is Global Citizenship?

 Global citizenship is a metaphor which refers to a

membership to a moral community of individuals who
are conscious of the global challenges, who recognize
themselves as having common destiny, and who actively
participate in responding to these challenges (World
Service Authority as cited by Mazo 2018).
 According to UNESCO as cited by Abuso (2018), Global
Citizenship Education (GCED) aims to empower learners to
assume active roles to face and resolve global challenges
and to become proactive contributors to a more peaceful,
tolerant, inclusive and secure world.
 University of College London discussed that global citizenship
involves understanding of the challenges our world faces
and contributing to the solutions (Abuso 2018).
What does a global citizen possess?

 Consciousness of the global interconnected challenges;

 Sense of common destiny;
 Responsibility in addressing global interconnected
challenges.
 The first two requires education in global citizenship. The last requires
the existence of global civil society. (Mazo 2018).
The Case on Climate Change

 “Climate change is a change in the usual weather found

in a place.
 This could be a change in how much rain a place
usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a
place's usual temperature for a month or season.
 “Climate change is also a change in Earth's climate.
This could be a change in Earth's usual temperature. Or
it could be a change in where rain and snow usually fall
on Earth” (NASA as cited in Mazo 2018).
Evidences of Climate Change
 Sea level rise (6.7 inches rise of global sea)
 Global temperature rise
 Warming oceans (“About 2,300 feet of ocean showing
warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969”
 Shrinking ice sheets “Data from NASA's Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost
150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice
per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost
about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice
between 2002 and 2005.” (NASA B)
Evidences of Climate Change
 Declining Arctic sea ice
 Glacial retreat
 Extreme events
 Ocean acidification
 Decreased snow cover
 Causes of Climate Change
 Water Vapor: feedback mechanism
 CO2: respiration, volcano eruptions, deforestation, land use
changes, and burning fossil fuels.
 Methane: decomposition of wastes, digestion and manure
management associated with domestic livestock.
 Nitrous oxide: soil cultivation practices, especially the use of
commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric
acid production, and
 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): synthetic compound of industrial
origin (NASA B as cited in Mazo 2018)
How to address climate change?

 Forego Fossil Fuels

 Infrastructure Upgrade
 Move Closer to Work
 Consume Less
 Be Efficient
 Eat Smart, Go Vegetarian?
 Stop Cutting Down Trees
 Unplug
 One Child
 Future Fuels (Biello as cited in Mazo 2018)
 Civil Society
 Everything governmental is excluded;
 It is limited to voluntary associations;
 Not particularistic as is kinship;
 It emphasizes the importance of rational discourse and
communication to solve problems.
 “Civil society is the network of voluntary ties that differentiate a
community from the state, the family and the economy.”(Chirico
2013).
 “Civil society, simply stated, is people organizing outside of
government channels to meet social objectives.” (Chirico 2013).
 Global Civil Society
 It is a vast, interconnected and multilayered non-governmental space
that comprises many hundreds of thousands of self directing
institutions and ways of life that generate global effects (Keane as
cited in Chirico 2013).
 It shares common characteristics with civil society except for the fifth:
 Composed of non-governmental, non-economic, non-familial local and global
groups and organizations;
 Conducted through interlinked social processes;
 Civil, encouraging non-violence, mutual respect and compromise;
 Pluralistic with strong conflict potential; and
 Global, not confined to state boundaries or the interest of any particular nation
(Keane as cited in Chirico 2013).
 Global Civil Society
 It is an active watchdog monitoring, investigating and
publicizing the following:
 extent of problems from pollution to human trafficking;
 progress of states toward fulfilling their obligations with
respect to issues such as human rights;
 Progress of states in living up to global norms regarding state
functions such as health care, education, and democratic
elections.
Thank you!
References

 Abuso, M.G. (2018). Global Citizenship (PowerPoint Presentation)

 Chirico, J. (2013). Globalization: prospects and problems. Sage Publications.
 Giles, L. trans. (1910). The Sayings of Confucius. New York: E.P. Dutton and
Company.
 Mazo, R. (2018). Global Citizenship (PowerPoint Presentation).
 The Globalization Reader, (5th ed.) (2015). UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.