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Global Citizenship in the 21st Century

Guest post by: Hugo Pereira

Article Overview: A perspective from a young person about global citizenship and how it will affect leadership at a global level. Having in mind that many entrepreneurs are coming together locally to build global products/businesses, it's important to understand where the world is moving.

Global Citizenship in the 21st Century

Global citizenship in the 21st century



During a public lecture, Michael Byers, a professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, claimed that the concept of global citizenship remains undefined. He questions if global citizenship has real meaning, or it's simply a buzzword, attempting to capture the increased mobility of today’s world.

Having the opportunity to lead a global network of 60,000 young people from more than 110 countries has allowed me to think about the meaning of global citizenship. I have asked many people in this network what global citizenship represents for them. The most common answers reflect a belief that global citizenship means having values of, cross-cultural understanding, respect for different beliefs and seeking for a common purpose, and those similar values should be part of the daily education of young people.

As the world has moved more towards globalisation over the last two decades, this idea of global citizenship has become increasingly popular. Many professors and experts, such as Parekh, criticize the concept of being a citizen of the world due to its lack of practicality or feasibility. Parekh, author of "Cosmopolitanism and Global Citizenship", defines global citizenship, as an actual membership of a type of worldwide government system. He finds that this would be impractical and would dislocate people from their immediate community. He also notes that such a world state would inevitably be bureaucratic, oppressive, and culturally bland. Understanding his point of view, I would challenge Perekh’s idea of global citizenship and its feasibility. Being a global citizen does not mean you lose your heritage, but rather that you accept other cultures and beliefs within yours. It is about adapting our systems and behaviours to respect and accept difference cultures, because only by doing that we can understand other’s perspectives and the logic of it, find commonalities and what would connect with your own world perspective.

For the past 2 years I have worked with 37 people of 19 different nationalities, during this time of being a member of and leading AIESEC International, the global office of AIESEC, I have realised the importance of how being part of a multi-cultural environment and learning to adapt, daily to different situation can make you a better citizen or more than that, a better leader. A good example is how I lead weekly performance meetings. Two years ago I had only one way to approach such a meeting. That was to come to such a meeting with the topics I wanted to discuss, and my team to come with theirs, and we would discuss them for 2 to 4 hours. Entering a diverse environment, I realised that the same system wouldn’t work as some people needed a consistent structure for the meeting, some needed a logical flow and some needed data and information to discuss. This led me to adapt my style, by having a logical structure and flow, while still having an open space where I could facilitate, drawing on that strength which I had from my past. Today I am able to ponder and think about my actions and behaviours to enable people to be at their best depending on their personality, triggers and culture.

The 21st century calls for people with a global mindset and ready to face the challenges that our planet and humankind has. Independently of the city or country from where we come, we have to take positive actions towards creating a more peaceful world.

Being a global citizen in the 21st century means to leading yourself to become a better leader, a better person and accept people as they are and learn from them.

This means that you have a global mindset and you care about the world or community around you.

It means that you respect and embrace other’s perspectives, even though you might challenge parts of them.

It means that you genuinely take care of the whole, by role-modelling behaviours and actions.

It means to be yourself, and choose to live an extraordinary path and tell a great story to those that matter to you.

Global citizenship is too complex to simply equate with national citizenship. It is about adopting values and using them to form questions and to search for answers which can help improve humankind as a whole.

Global citizenship is something real, but it challenges our concept of citizenship. This perspective is built from my experience, but how would you characterise global citizenship?

Hugo

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Article Tags: 21st century, global citizenship, global level, leadership, young person



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