Handbook on World Social Forum Activism

Scott Byrd, Jackie Smith, Ellen Reese, Elizabeth Smythe

"Recommended" —CHOICE “As the WSF slogan proclaims: another world is possible. Anyone who wants this other world would do well to read this book and to think about the leads that it gives. It should certainly be on the shelves of all college and public libraries, and the paperback edition promised by the publishers would be very welcome.” —Leslie Sklair in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research "Those engaged in World Social Forum process all over the planet hope it will continue its way inside the United States, to make possible the building of a new world of justice, peace, and love. I am sure this book will play an important role in this walk." —Chico Whitaker, from the Foreword "As the global political order reels from bank failures, rising energy and food prices, and increasingly urgent fiscal crises, activists and critical intellectuals are proposing sustainable alternatives to globalized capitalism. A major site for these debates has been the World Social Forum process, which began in 2001 and has since then mobilized people around the world at the global, regional, and local levels. This book documents this process, informs activists and scholars about the lessons it offers, and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Forum process as it has moved from Latin America, to Africa and Asia and even--in the form of the U.S. Social Forum--to 'the belly of the hegemon.'" —Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University, author of The New Transnational Activism "A superb collection, documenting the importance of the World Social Forum in creating a new vision for our movement and our world." —Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, cofounder of the Blue Planet Project, and 2005 recipient of the Right Livelihood Award.

• Introduction; I: Background and Context; 1: Social Forums as Public Stage and Infrastructure of Global Justice Movements; 2: (In)Fertile Ground?; 3: The Political and its Absence in the World Social Forum:; 4: Surveys of World Social Forum Participants Show Influence of Place and Base in the Global Public Sphere; II: Campaigns and Movements in the Social Forum Process; 5: More Than a Shadow of a Difference?; 6: Indigenous Peoples and Social Forums; 7: Building National Labor Solidarity:; 8: The World Social Forum as a Bounded Open Space:; 9: Our World Is Not for Sale!; 10: Global Environmentalists and Their Movements at the World Social Forums; 11: The Road to the World Social Forum:; III: Local Places and Global Spaces; 12: African Voices and Activists at the WSF in Nairobi:; 13: Global Movements in Local Struggles:; 14: Diverging Visions of Another World in the Making of the Quebec Social Forum; 15: In the Belly of Empire:; IV: Democratic Innovations; 16: Youth Camps and the Bolivarian Revolution; 17: Deliberative Discussion and Languages in the World Social Forum Process; 18: Democratic Innovation in the U.S. and European Social Forums; 19: Transnational Movement Innovation and Collaboration:; The Space as Actor