Needless to say, the first day was rather inundating, at least for me. Having said that, I found this class to be rather interesting and I believe that Joanna delivered a lot of information in an organized fashion in a very short period of time. It was interesting to learn the difference between Public vs Urban Policy and the various stages in a Policy Cycle. I didn't realize how much effort is required before policy can go live. Its ironic in our society that policies seem to become more relevant to us at election time, and somewhat disheartening that many policies never make it to the implementation and evaluation stage.
I don't have any personal experience with the different ways of viewing policies, and hence have not formed an opinion either way as to my favoritism, however, given the nature of this class, I'm quite sure, I'll be well versed by the time we are done with this semester. From what I've seen so far, I'm leaning toward a Decentralist way of looking at policies, more so than a Communitarian, Individualistic or Regionalist way. But that could change as we progress through the semester.
I found the discussion on Group Theory, Elite Theory, Public Choice Theory and Regime Theory to be most engaging and it also appeared to bring out a lot of opinions from the class. I do believe that a person or a group of people can make a huge impact in the world. Look at Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), for instance, who practiced and advocated non-violence and truthfulness in all situations. He led India to Independence with single minded determination, and inspired movements of civil rights and freedom across the world. He is not the only isolated incident in the world displaying the power of human conviction and passion in order to bring about a change in the way things are done. I do believe that we can move mountains in the betterment of our communities, even if at a very small scale, if we believe that change can happen. And yes, a single person can be a catalyst for that change.
I don't have any personal experience with the different ways of viewing policies, and hence have not formed an opinion either way as to my favoritism, however, given the nature of this class, I'm quite sure, I'll be well versed by the time we are done with this semester. From what I've seen so far, I'm leaning toward a Decentralist way of looking at policies, more so than a Communitarian, Individualistic or Regionalist way. But that could change as we progress through the semester.
I found the discussion on Group Theory, Elite Theory, Public Choice Theory and Regime Theory to be most engaging and it also appeared to bring out a lot of opinions from the class. I do believe that a person or a group of people can make a huge impact in the world. Look at Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), for instance, who practiced and advocated non-violence and truthfulness in all situations. He led India to Independence with single minded determination, and inspired movements of civil rights and freedom across the world. He is not the only isolated incident in the world displaying the power of human conviction and passion in order to bring about a change in the way things are done. I do believe that we can move mountains in the betterment of our communities, even if at a very small scale, if we believe that change can happen. And yes, a single person can be a catalyst for that change.
That was a great summarization of the class topic and participation. I think that we have similar thought processes about how impactful a single person or group can be in influencing the world as a whole. As we continue through the class hopeful we will gain the tools needed for us to influence the world when that moment comes.
ReplyDeleteHello Heena, My name is Kent Lane and I like what wrote about Gandi. I also beleive that one person can change the world and people who have the passion in fighting for the Civil Rights of others, always projects positive change. I hope to meet you sometime and have a great eight weeks. Or should I say 7 weeks now! :-)
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