Third Annual Thessaloniki Think Tanks and Civil Society Forum
“Now More Than Ever: Post-crisis civil societies in action”
Third Annual Thessaloniki Think Tanks and Civil Society Forum
Monday, February 8, 2021
7-8:30 PM
Co-hosted by the Dukakis Center at ACT and Transparency International Greece
With AddArt
In September 1999, a few short months away from a new millenium, Michael Dukakis, former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, inaugurated an academic center bearing his good name with a speech entitled “Surprise! Now is a Great Time for Public Service.” This might well have been 1979, or 2019, moments in history globally at which government by the people seemed besieged by implacable foes and irreversible decline. What better time to involve oneself in civil society, Dukakis asserted, to take ownership of our common woes and step up to meet the challenge of a healthy, democratic future.
We find ourselves at a rather different sort of symbolic moment in time, when the challenge has seemingly been met, the crisis less acute. But this is not a time to relax one’s guard, to sit back and wait for the next calamity before shaking off a collective slumber and returning to the fray. Now more than ever, Governor Dukakis might riposte, this is the time to follow through on the promise of our recent triumphs, to remain on the vanguard of civic vigilance, to follow through on the promise of better times.
To mark the Third Annual Thessaloniki Think Tanks and Civil Society Forum, the Dukakis Center and Transparency International Greece will host friends and colleagues for a special discussion on the merits of and continued challenges facing adherents of the public service ethos which animates all effective civil society. The event will be organized in collaboration with the Think Tank and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, part of the annual series of "Why Think Tanks Matter" forums worldwide.
The gathering will coincide with the premiere of a new short documentary on the Dukakis Center produced by a local non-profit, AddArt, aptly entitled “Now More Than Ever.”
