Addressing Economic Inequalities to Strengthen Democracies

As part of the AIA Fellow Colloquium, John Austin gave insights into the work of his Heartlands Transformation Network. At its core, John and his colleagues are grappling with two questions: What is behind the rise of polarizing anti-system and ethno-nationalist movements that threaten our democracies? What can be done to tackle the root causes?

The aim is to share experiences from different countries and to learn from each other. At the AIA Colloquium, John discussed the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, France, Poland and Ukraine. The aim of the Heartland Network is to raise awareness among national, regional and local decision-makers of the urgent challenge of bridging the economic divide. Effective strategies and measures will be developed to help decision-makers connect with their constituents. The reciprocal exchange of insights, experiences, strategies and program models at the international level should enable leaders and practitioners to shape economic and political change well. The Fellows contributed complementary observations from their home countries on this topic. For the first time, future fellows of the current AIA cohort were also able to participate in the colloquium digitally – an offer that now applies to all future colloquia.