Based at the University of Sydney, SDN is a new initiative preoccupied with the new, exciting and dangerous political trends of our times. The researchers, lecturers, activists, journalists and policy makers associated with SDN come from different walks of life and have a diverse range of interests, but they all see themselves as concerned citizens sharing the same goal: to rethink, strengthen and transform the ideals and practices of democracy. Guided by a strong sense of context and history, they see democracy as both a form of government and a way of life committed to greater equality and the practical refusal of publicly unaccountable power.