This workshop on “Globalization and Societal Change in the Mediterranean
Region” was organized by the Near East Regional Office of the Konrad
Adenauer Foundation and the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.
The workshop brought together researchers, experts and decision makers
from the Mediterranean region, Germany and Europe to outline and discuss
diverse aspects and dimensions of societal change in the Mediterranean
countries under the impact of global change and the opening up related
to international agreements, regimes and partnerships.
The particular focus on societal change allowed the discussing of topics
such as the changing social stratification, the state of the private
sector, the education systems, the new media, youth culture, the legal
systems, and civil society organizations and the extant to which they
have been affected by global change and new partnerships.
The Beirut workshop was
the first of a series of seminars, sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation, and the Center for European Integration Studies at Bonn
University. The seminars, scheduled for the years 2002 – 2005,
will assess what has been achieved in the context of the Barcelona
Process, launched in 1995 and aiming at enhancing political, economic
and cultural ties between the European Union and countries of the
Southern Mediterranean.
The Beirut
workshop was meant as a dialogue arena, where areas of common regional
interests as well as presentations of social change in individual
countries were discussed. The relative success of those countries
in coping with the effects of globalization reveals itself to be crucial
to the future of European – Mediterranean relations.
