| Russell Guerrero | 210-999-8406 | rguerrer@trinity.edu |
| Writer / Activist Looks at the Dark Side of the Global Economy |
| March 16, 2000 - David Korten, professor, author, and president of The People-Centered Development Forum will examine how the expansion of corporations in the new global economy is coming at the expense of democracy and the environment. Korten will present "When Corporations Rule the World! What are our Options?" on Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapman Center Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
After earning a Ph.D. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Korten spent the early part of his career setting up business schools in low income countries, such as Ethiopia, in the hope that creating a new class of professional business entrepreneurs would be the key to ending poverty. Later Korten became a faculty member of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and taught in Harvard's middle management and M.B.A. programs. In the late 1970s, Korten left the United States and moved to Southeast Asia, serving first as a Ford Foundation project specialist, and later as Asia Regional Advisor on Development Management to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Korten's work won international recognition for his contributions to pioneering strategies for transforming public bureaucracies into responsive support systems dedicated to strengthening community management of land, water, and forestry resources. Disillusioned by the evident inability of USAID and other large official aid donors to apply the approaches that had been proven effective by the nongovernmental Ford Foundation, Korten broke with the official aid system. His last five years in Asia were devoted to working with leaders of Asian nongovernmental organizations on identifying the causes of development failure in the region and building the capacity of civil society organizations to function as strategic catalysts for change. Korten came to believe the deepening poverty, growing inequality, environmental devastation, and social disintegration he found in Asia was also being experienced in nearly every country in the world, including the United States. He concluded that the United States was actively promoting policies that were deepening the resulting global crisis. Korten has authored or edited numerous books, including When Corporations Rule the World, and Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda. His most recent book is titled The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism (1999). Korten's lecture is sponsored by Trinity University department of sociology and anthropology and the department of economics. For more information call the department of sociology and anthropology at (210) 999-8506. |
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Last updated on November 8, 2000 by the Office of Public Relations |