The World and US Social Forums

by Blau, Judith; Karides, Marina

• ISBN13: 9789004167698
• ISBN10: 9004167692
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

The WSF/USSF is an expression of the peoples struggles to advance alternatives to the world-as-we-know-it. Since its first convening in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, it has captured the imagination of all who have come within its orbit and caught up by its vast and growing networks. It provides a large space for groups to mobilize, voice their oppression, exchange ideas, and express their desire for hope and another world. Central in the founding principles of the World Social Forum are: the advance of peoples rights (including womens rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, the rights of minorities, the rights of peasant farmers, and, generally, the rights and dignity of all peoples now oppressed), participatory democracy, social and cultural pluralism, and the end of market tyranny. This volume captures the full range of topics dealing with the WSF/USSF. It is a fresh treatment of materials for the insider" and provides ample background for someone who would like to attend."

Author Biography

Judith Blau, PhD (1972) in Sociology, Northwestern University, is Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and president of the US chapter of Sociologists without Borders. She has published extensively in the area of human rights and is co-author of Human Rights: Beyond the Liberal Vision, Justice in the United States, Freedoms and Solidarities, and Two Logics: Globalization vs. Human Rights. She is journal editor of Societies Without Borders. Marina Karides, PhD (2001) in Sociology, University of Georgia, is Associate Professor of Sociology at Florida Atlantic University. She has published multiple works on autonomous employment strategies, gender inequalities, and economic development ideologies. She is one of eleven co-authors of Global Democracies and the World Social Forums. She serves as Sociologists without Borders' representative on the National Planning Committee of the USSF.

Table of Contents

Preface: Why Write about the World Social Forum	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Social Forum Process: The USSF And Its Relation To The WSF
In Defense of World Social Forum VII	p. 7
The US Social Forum: Building from the Bottom Up	p. 21
New Politics Emerging at the US Social Forum	p. 41
Another United States Is Happening: Building Today's Movement from the Bottom Up. The United States Social Forum and Beyond	p. 57
A Different (Kind of) Politics Is Possible: Conflict and Problem(s) at the USSF	p. 71
Debates And Social Thought: Highlighting The World Social Forum
Reading Nairobi: Place, Space, and Difference at the 2007 World Social Forum	p. 93
Is the World Social Forum the Privileged Space for Reinventing Labor as a Global Social Movement?	p. 117
Is the World Social Forum a Democratic Global Civil Society?	p. 131
Social Forums - Challenges and New Perspectives	p. 149
Bridging Activism And Academics
Reformist Reforms, Non-Reformist Reforms and Global Justice: Activist, NGO and Intellectual Challenges in the World Social Forum	p. 157
Feminists and the Forum: Is It Worth the Effort?	p. 173
Sociology, Human Rights, and the World Social Forum	p. 191
Another Structure of Knowledge Is Possible: The Social Forum Process and Academia	p. 205
World Social Forum: Re-imaging Development and the Global South beyond the Neo-colonial Gaze	p. 223
Notes on Contributors	p. 239
Index	p. 245
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