Transversality in Diversity: Experiencing Networks of Confusion and Convergence in the World Social Forum

Drawing on the World Social Forum as an exemplary case study, this article shows how an emerging mode of cosmopolitanist vision (‘transversalism’) can be explained in terms of activists’ experiences of both complexity and contradiction in their networks. The paper questions the idea that the transnationalization of networks of solidarity and interconnection can uncomplicatedly encourage the growth of cosmopolitanism among global justice activists. Activists’ experiences of dissonances between their ideals, the complexity of power relations and the structural uncertainties in their global justice networks can provide them with a base for self-reflexive ideation and deliberation, and thereby encourage agendas for accommodating differences. Underpinning the accommodating measures which arise for dealing with such a cognitive-practical dissonance is a new mode of cosmopolitanism, coined here as ‘transversalism’. The article proposes a new conceptual framework and an analytical model to investigate the complexity of this process more inclusively and systematically.

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Transversality in Diversity: Experiencing Networks of Confusion and Convergence in the World Social Forum

International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.17583/rimcis.2015.03 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 54

Author(s):

S A Hamed Hosseini

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Analytical Model ◽

Global Justice ◽

Power Relations ◽

World Social Forum ◽

The World ◽

Structural Uncertainties

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Acknowledging Strength in Plurality: The World Social Forum 2016 Through the Prism of Assemblage Thinking

Studies in Social Justice ◽

10.26522/ssj.v12i1.1583 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 56-74

Author(s):

Carminda Mac Lorin ◽

Nikolas Schall

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Power Relations ◽

The Political ◽

Urban Landscapes ◽

World Social Forum ◽

Migration Policies ◽

The World

In this article, we contribute to debates regarding the nature and role of the World Social Forum (WSF) in the post-2010 period by employing the prism of assemblage thinking. By using the WSF 2016 held in Montreal, Canada as a case study, we outline the political potential of the assemblage approach, which allows activists and researchers of social justice and contemporary contentious spaces to address some of the intrinsic paradoxes in such mobilizations. The observation of some paradigmatic moments from the WSF 2016 offers a glimpse into the heterogeneity that shapes it. We address elements as diverse as actors' intentionalities, migration policies, urban landscapes, power relations, contents, and absences, arguing that assemblage thinking opens up innovative possibilities for analyzing multidimensional phenomena such as the WSF.

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SWS 2015 Feminist Lecture

Gender & Society ◽

10.1177/0891243216672389 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 869-889 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Manisha Desai

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Political Economy ◽

Global Change ◽

Women Activists ◽

Global Justice ◽

Gender Issues ◽

World Social Forum ◽

Representation Of Women ◽

The World ◽

Justice Movements

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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