An Interview with Benjamin Barber: The Qatar Conference
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales , New Mexico 88130

1) What is the importance of this conference in Qatar ?

The role of education in the context of knowledge and technology has become a central concern for every society -- above all for democratic and democratizing societies; holding a major international conference on this subject in Doha signals the vital importance of Qatar and the Gulf states in providing leadership in this vital sector for the region and beyond.

2) What will you be discussing?

My own focus will be the intersection of education, new digital  technologies (including the internet) and democracy; many observers see obvious links between the democratic architecture of the net and open societies, and see in the new technologies important pedagogical tools, but in fact the empirical reality is that the net can also be used in purely commercial ways, or can even be used as a tool of surveillance and repression.  

3) What do you see as the main educational issues to be addressed? 

Although the "digital divide" is lessening in the United States and other developed countries it is obviously a huge problem in a world where several billion live on less that two dollars a day, and where billions remain functionally illiterate, and thus not even ready for technological literacy. Technology can facilitate education, but using technology requires education -- creating a vicious circle.

4) How will this conference help address these issues?

By raising such issues in the context of a genuinely international meeting where theory meets practice. this conference offers an opportunity to make progress.

5) What do you personally hope to accomplish?

I hope both to contribute based on my forty years of experience as an educator, a student of democracy and a scholar interested in the new technologies; I hope also to learn from the experience and wisdom of others, especially those on the "front lines" in the Gulf region, thinking about how to strengthen education and democracy.

Benjamin R. Barber is the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and a principal of the Democracy Collaborative, with offices in New York , and Maryland .

An internationally renowned political theorist, Dr. Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture and education in America and abroad. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and Europe, including Governor Howard Dean, Governor Jim McGreevey of New Jersey , former President Bill Clinton, former Senator Bill Bradley, and former President Roman Herzog of Germany . He has also consulted with the Corporation for National Service, the United States Information Agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities; and in Europe , UNESCO, the European Parliament, the Swedish Parliamentary Commission on Democracy and "Mission 2000" (the French Millennial Commission).

Benjamin Barber's 17 books include the classic STRONG DEMOCRACY (1984) reissued in 2004 in a twentieth anniversary edition; the recent international best-seller JIHAD VS. MCWORLD (1995 with a Post 9/11 Edition in 2001, translated into twenty languages) and FEAR'S EMPIRE: WAR, TERRORISM AND DEMOCRACY (2003), also published in eight foreign editions. His collected American essays, A PASSION FOR DEMOCRACY, were published by Princeton University Press in 1999, and his book THE TRUTH OF POWER: INTELLECTUAL AFFAIRS IN THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE was published in 2001 by W.W. Norton & Company. He is currently working on THE DECLINE OF CAPITALISM AND THE INFANTALIST ETHOS, to be published next year.

Barber's honors include a knighthood (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) from the French Government (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy of Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College , Monmouth University and Connecticut College , and has held the chair of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 1991-92. He writes frequently for HARPER'S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE ATLANTIC, THE NATION, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, DIE ZEIT, LA REPUBBLICA, EL PAIS and many other scholarly and popular publications in America and Europe . He was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly POLITICAL THEORY. He holds a certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.A. and Doctorate from Harvard University .

For television, Barber co-wrote with Patrick Watson the prize-winning CBS/PBS ten-part series THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY (1988, re-released in 2000) and the companion book; he also contributed to the Channel Four (U.K.) series GREEK FIRE, as well as to the American series THE AMERICAN PROMISE and other educational documentaries. His work for the theater includes the libretto for George Quincy's opera HOME AND THE RIVER (produced in New York ), the performance piece KASPAR (produced at Café La Mama in New York ) created with his wife, the choreographer and performer Leah Kreutzer, and other dramatic musical works off-Broadway and in regional theaters. His novel MARRIAGE VOICES was published by Simon & Schuster in 1981.