News/Events
Fountain leads private government session at World Economic Forum
faculty news
2012-07-06
Political science and public policy professor Jane Fountain was at the World Economic Forum Summit on the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasis in Istanbul to lead a private session on the future of government bringing together heads of state and government, senior ministers, business leaders and key academic experts for productive debate and discussion on how governments can build capacity to more effectively meet the increasing challenges of global and national macroeconomic inequalities and transnational political conflicts in an increasingly inter-connected world. The session took place on June 5, 2012. Fountain is Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. She led the Forum working session with Lord Peter Mandelson, the 2012 chair of the Council. Fountain chaired the Council last year and has been a Council member for the past four years.
The Summit’s theme, bridging regions in transformation, focused on jobs, youth education and employment, education, and range of policies, vehicles and incentives to promote economic development in the region.
During the trip, Fountain also met with key government, media, business and academic leaders including Ms. Nursuna Memecan, one of a handful of women Members of Parliament in Turkey and delegate to the Council of Europe. Among other issues, they spoke of the need for greater appreciation for diversity in European politics. Fountain was interviewed on aHBR, one of the Turkey’s largest national television networks, on social media and digital government in Turkey and the region. Among the academics she met was Professor Zuhre Aksoy of Bogazici University. Prof Aksoy, an expert on international environmental politics, received her doctorate in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Fountain directs the National Center for Digital Government, established in 2001 and based at UMass Amherst in CSBS and CPPA, and directs the SBS Science, Technology and Society Initiative. The National Center for Digital Government, a research center, regularly hosts international visiting fellows as part of its mission to build a global network of scholars focused on technology and governance.
To watch an interview with Professor Fountain on the Turkish television station ATV, click here [in Turkish]. A copy of the Future of Government report is available through the World Economic Forum website, as is more information about the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.
