In this podcast Francis Sealey of GlobalNet21 looks at how the 21st century world has made the sense of community more complex and how the digital age can both add to that complexity as well as provide new ways of facilitating cohesion and co existence.
Francis Sealey was a Producer and Executive Producer for many years working for both the BBC Open University and the Community Programmes Unit. He has been active in politics and community action for most of his life, being a Parliamentary Candidate in 1974 and founder of and activist in a number of social & community networks. Since 1993 he has been a freelance producer working with a number of training, public and voluntary organisations. In 2007 he founded 21st Century Network (now GlobalNet21) to help recreate public space and bring genuine debate back to public life. In four years, GlobalNet21 has grown significantly and now hosts many meetings, webinars and podcasts and uses social networks as an important way to publically engage. Francis Sealey is now Chairman of GlobalNet21 and with others is now responsible for its activities and development. He has also published a book, “Global Public Square; Identity and Action in the 21st Century” that looks at personal and social change and the relationship between them in the age of social networks.