Beyond neoliberal governance: the World Social Forum as subaltern cosmopolitan politics and legality

Author(s):  
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Author(s):  
Sarah S. Stroup ◽  
Wendy H. Wong

Not all INGOs are alike, and they do not always play nicely. In fact, INGOs enjoy a diverse array of relationships with other INGOs. INGOs compete to offer specific visions of good practice for the entire INGO sector, and those visions depend on the INGO’s authority. We explore two such initiatives, both formed in 2001, the Accountability Charter (AC) and the World Social Forum (WSF). Each initiative is a mix of collaboration and condemnation, and while the AC is decidedly vanilla, neither has been particularly victorious in altering the ways the vast population of INGOs acts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Couture ◽  
Gretchen King ◽  
Sophie Toupin ◽  
Becky Lentz

This research-in-brief summarizes activities of our research delegation to the 2015 World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunis, including our participation in two associated events: the World Forum on Free Media (WFFM) and preparatory meetings for an eventual global Internet Social Forum (ISF). The WFFM and ISF provided rich terrain for our delegation to document and study contemporary struggles around communication media and technology issues. We report on these encounters as a way to foreground the many similar opportunities available to Canadian media, communication, and technology scholars at annual WSFs, in particular, the WSF coming to Montréal in August 2016. Notably, the 2016 WSF will be the first forum held since its inception in 2001 outside the global south.Ce texte résume les activités de notre délégation de recherche lors du Forum social mondial (FSM) de Tunis. Ces activités incluaient notre participation à deux événements associés : le Forum mondial des médias libres (FMML) et des rencontres préparatoires pour un éventuel Forum social d’Internet (FSI). Ces rencontres ont constitué de riches terrains pour documenter et étudier les luttes contemporaines concernant les médias et la communication. Ce compte-rendu vise à faire connaître aux médias et aux chercheurs canadiens les multiples opportunités offertes lors des forums sociaux annuels, en particulier lors du prochain Forum social mondial qui se déroulera à Montréal en août 2016. Ce forum sera le premier à se dérouler à l’extérieur du Sud global depuis sa création en 2001.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 869-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manisha Desai

The World Social Forum (WSF)—a global gathering of social movements and a process of global change—has come to signify the global justice movements. Since its inception in 2001 in Brazil it has traveled across the Global South, with the 2016 WSF in Montreal. As the WSF has traveled across the world, it has reflected the particular geographies and histories of movement politics in each place. Yet everywhere it has demonstrated what I have called the gendered geographies of struggle. By gendered geographies I mean the epistemic, spatial, and praxis divisions along gender lines evident in the marginalizing of feminist insights about the global political economy and global justice; low representation of women activists in public plenaries and private decision-making structures; and outsourcing of gender issues to women’s activists and movements. Without addressing these gendered geographies, I argue, there can be no global justice.


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