- ATD Fourth World

Campus 2007 took place from 28 to 31 August at the International Centre of ATD Fourth World at Pierrelaye, just outside of Paris, and welcomed sixty-one participants of thirteen different nationalities (Belgium, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Rwanda, Spain, Switzerland and the United States).

Being an international seminar, Campus 2007 was held in three languages (English, French and Spanish) and was based on the presentations and contributions of the participants themselves.

The three main themes of this year’s seminar were:

• Human Rights and extreme poverty
• Thinking about democracy with those who are excluded: a presentation of different works and studies on the the thinking of Joseph Wresinski
• Ethical and methodological questions posed by the issue of research on themes linked to extreme poverty and social exclusion

Eighteen workshops were proposed to the participants:

• Exile: Trauma Or Sublimation?
• Extreme Poverty And Human Rights
• Ethical And Methodological Questions Posed By Research On Themes Linked To Social Exclusion
• Abolishing Extreme Poverty
• Taking Advice On The Use Of Energy To The Most Vulnerable Clients
• The Work Of Civil Society In The Fight Against Poverty And Exclusion In The Dominican Republic
• The Political Representation Of The People Of The Fourth World: From Ethics To Action
• Do The Poorest Have A Place In The Shelter System In France?
• Recognising The Right Not To Be Poor As A Human Right
• Thinking About Democracy With The Excluded
• The Republican Life And Values Of Joseph Wresinski
• Extreme Poverty And The Knowledge Born Of Experience
• Carrying The Voices Of The Most Vulnerable Citizens
• For Gypsies, The World Belongs To The Poor
• Accompaniment: A Condition For The Putting In Place Of Human Rights
• The Rights And Responsibilities Of Man In The Thinking Of Simone Weil And Joseph Wresinski

Three major presentations were also given:

• Joseph Wresinski And The History Of Poverty In France by André Gueslin, Professor of History of Civilisations at the University of Paris-VII
• Slums: Places Of Exclusion And Maginalisation In France During The 1950s, ’60s And ’70s by Yvan Gastaut, Professor of History at the University of Nice
• The Wresinskian Approach To Poverty And Society by Serge Paugam, Director Of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Director of Research at CNRS

A number of the presentations given at Campus 2007 can be found in Revue Quart Monde, no. 204, Héritages: L’actualité de Joseph Wresinski.

Bernard Jarhling

a Fourth World activist and author of the book Pierre d’homme

“I have been fortunate enough to have participated in a number of Campus seminars over the last few years, and this has allowed me to meet people from all over the world. These meetings have been an amazing gift for me; they have been a chance to discover people, to speak to them, to hear different ideas, all done with simplicity and trust. I think this makes a difference in the fight against extreme poverty. If I’ve been able to make progress myself, in my own life, one of the reasons for that has been the kinds of meetings that can allow those living in poverty to see a way forward for the future and for their own children.”

For further information on Campus, write to:
Institute for Research and Training
International Movement ATD Fourth World
107 avenue du Général Leclerc,
95480 Pierrelaye
France.
Email: campus@atd-quartmonde.org