4th Alumni Stammtisch - Foundation Office Brazil
Event Reports
The foundations‘ fellows from Rio de Janeiro spent an informal night out in Rios’ famous neighborhood Ipanema and got updated about the newest activities and training measures of KAS. Christian Matthäus, former fellow and now trainee of the local representation, informed the attendees about the series of workshop on “Virtual Democracy” which took place in its first 2015 edition at the end of May in Campo Grande, capital of the federal state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazils' Central-West region.
During this series of workshops that take place quarterly and are now already happening for the third year in a row, experts present the newest developments, platforms and fora where inherent political discussions regarding Brazilian national politics are being debated. What impacts had the digital revolution on the democratic process of Brazil on the local, federal and national level? Do these levels still matter at all or did the internet overcome geographical distances? Answers to these complex questions were tried to be found by the speakers during the workshops which all took place in cooperation with universities. Brazilians rate of internet users is quite high, even in international comparison: especially the urban centers on the coast are “online”. Even though, there is quite a substantial gap of internet accessibility between rural and urban Brazil.
During the following discussion, political arguments were debated. The emergence of the European Pirate Parties at the beginning of this decade can be associated also to the growing awareness for the digital agenda among young people. There has been a controversial debate on how German parties, especially the CDU, by now find substantive answers to the challenges of the Web 2.0 or rather 4.0.
Finally everyone signed, as in tradition, the groups' book which serves as a collective memory and archive of the meetings.
