World Social Forums

Activism and advocacy have drawn academic interest as alternative ways of achieving collective ends outside established political institutions. However, there has been very little theoretical attention aimed at the interconnections between the two spheres. In Civil Becomings: Performative Politics in the Amazon and the Mediterranean, Raúl Acosta examines the manner in which progressive nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and activists act in a more intermingled and processual way than scholars have previously acknowledged.

Acosta focuses on networks from the vantage point of two NGOs: one in Brazil that concentrated on environmental issues in the Amazon and another in Barcelona called the Mediterranean Social Forum. The focus of this research is not on organizational aspects of collaboration, but rather on the practices and contexts in which such cooperation occurs. Three major aspects of activist and advocacy networks are analyzed: their communicative characters, their collective performances of the political, and the negotiations they engage in between vernacular and cosmopolitan values.

This volume theorizes the cooperative actions of activist and advocacy networks as legitimating processes for the work of participating groups. In doing so, Acosta argues, they address the issues that justify a joint campaign or effort and also crucially underpin each participating collective as a worthy organization of civil society.

Neoliberalism, which is the dominant economic and political paradigm, is associated with trade liberalization, deregulation, austerity, and precariarization of the labour market. While the neoliberal and feminist logics may seem incompatible, there are several ways in which feminist movements can accidentally collude with neoliberalism. Nancy Fraser describes this as “the dangerous liaison between feminism and marketization.” This thesis aims to contribute to the debates around Fraser’s charge of feminist co-optation, and examines if feminist networks in the Global South are susceptible to any degree of complicity with neoliberalism. I have analyzed the campaigns and activism of two major feminist networks from the Global South — Articulación
Feminista Marcosur (AFM), and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) to see if they have been successful in resisting any form of collusion with neoliberalism. In order to do so, I conducted theory-driven participant observation, supplemented with analysis of academic and grey literature, at the 2018 World Social Forum in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. AFM’s Campaign Against Fundamentalisms faces the issue of lapsing into the “problem of displacement” as they tend to focus on cultural issues, while sidelining the economic ones. However, while moving beyond the “problem of displacement,” their “Our Bodies Our Territories” campaign continues to operate within an ultimately problematic Westphalian nation-state framework. While DAWN does conduct an intersectional analysis, it adopts an “add and stir” approach, and fails to make adequate connections between the neoconservative cultural and neoliberal economic forces. This thesis attempts to provide some lessons and strategies that feminist networks, and the WSF in general, can adopt in the face of neoliberal, and other related crises such as the rise of right-wing authoritarian governments, and the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Le prétexte de cet article est un slogan subtil qui a connu à partir des années 1980 un immense succès dans les milieux de l’écologie, où il est né, jusqu’à paraître aujourd’hui galvaudé par sa migration dans des domaines proches, comme l’aménagement du territoire, ou qui lui sont a priori étrangers, comme le marketing. Il permet d’explorer une dualité des pratiques sociales et organisationnelles qui a traversé, en amont et en aval, l’histoire de l’environnement et qui s’est manifestée sous différentes formes : écologie par en haut et par en bas, vision systémique et solutions locales, verticalité et horizontalité de l'engagement, échelle nationale des partis verts et échelle cosmopolite de l’altermondialisme, avec à la clé, pour terminer, la reterritorialisation comme réponse aux derniers avatars de la mondialisation.
On situe généralement au début des années 1970 la naissance de l'écologie politique proprement dite. Comme nous le verrons, c'est à la fin de cette décennie que la fameuse devise « Penser globalement, agir localement » (Think Globally, Act Locally) est née sur le sol nord-américain de la bouche de deux Français...

In spring 2011, while world history was being written in Cairo and other North African cities and countries, the World Social Forum (WSF) took place in Dakar, Senegal. The 10-year old WSF has proven to be an indis-pensible transnational space of encounters for the development of strategy and for launching campaigns. As with the 2009 World Social Forum, held in the Northern Brazilian city of Belem, which focused for an entire day on the Amazon and issues of (resistance to) deforestation and clearcut-ting there, 1 the first day of events in Dakar was organized around regional, that is, African, issues. The next two days were dedicated to substantive discussions and exchange, while the two after that were given over to networking and planning. The Forum concluded, as always, with an Assembly of Social Movements. The organizational problems—caused mainly by the university rector who, just a few weeks before, had been installed by the president of Senegal—were huge, and made intense dialogues and learning processes difficult. 2 The venue of a WSF always makes a difference. For many participants from Europe, it was important to experience a pleasantly open and religiously tolerant Islamic country. Key issues were African agriculture, large-scale land grabbing by international investors—frequently mediated by powerful local interests 3 —France's military presence, as well as Europe's (neo)colonial role in the region. Several events focused on the oppression of women, although feminist issues were less prominent than at other Forums. At the end, many participants stated that it will not be until a few years in the future that we will be able to see the extent to which this World Social Forum will act as a political catalyst—namely, when democratic movements in West Africa emerge significantly strengthened.

"Reading  Geoffrey  Pleyers’  account  of  the alter-globalization movement  has  a  certain  poignancy,  as  well  as engendering a sense of excitement and the glimmer of new possibilities. ... Pleyers is very good on the limitations and constraints of forms of political organizing and, for this reason alone, every student of politics should read this book."
Henrietta Moore, University of Cambridge, Review in the European Journal of Sociology

“Well-documented and relying on the most indepth analyses. This book presents a movement both truly global and adapted to the economic context of each country and region.” Alain Touraine, EHESS

“This important book is the first scholarly account of the alter-globalization movement. This highly original analysis of the way the movement is constructed around the tension between its two logics - subjective experience and expertise based on reason - helps us to understand not only the movement itself but also the role that the movement plays in inventing global citizenship.”
Mary Kaldor, Director, London School of Economics

“Pleyers has traveled the world to offer readers the most sweeping look yet at this crucial global movement, including how it has changed in the face of the recent crisis of the very capitalism it criticizes. By showing us a movement grappling continuously with the Pyramid Dilemma over topdown versus bottom-up approaches, this book helps us think about the most basic issues of democracy and social change.”
James M. Jasper, Graduate Centre CUNY

“An outstanding example of contemporary sociological research that rises to the immense demands of a truly global ethnography. Pleyers’ book is bound to become the definitive account by a contemporary of the alter-globalization movement.”
Martin Albrow, L.S..E.

On all continents the enormity of the violence and danger of the times gives rise to multiple new practices of struggle and to conceptual innovations, which seek to serve justice, solidarity, and dignity for all. We explore the possibilities and different worlds intended in the main slogan of the World Social Forum ‘Another world is possible’. During its early years the World Social Forum was characterized by a fair amount of optimism. We know now that most of the high hopes of the movements have not been adequately materialized. The rise of authoritarian leaders and the nexus between capitalism and populism emerging in different parts of the world has created a new context for the attempts to create democratic futures. This collection presents and interrogates a variety of diagnoses of the present and of new strategies for transformative change that are emerging out of the forum process.

After providing a brief overview of the global justice movement
history, this article analyzes the main argument raised by its activists to oppose the neoliberal ideology, as notably asserted by the shifts in the discourses of some G20 leaders. Activists however call attention to the gap between the speeches of the G20 leaders and the measures actually implemented.
Accordingly, global justice activists have decided to focus on seeking concrete outcomes through the following: specialized advocacy networks, empowerment at the local level and alliances with progressive regimes.

In this reflexive essay, I explore how the present and the future of the World Social Forum are intimately related to the ability of its actors to acknowledge and actively address the inherent tensions of open spaces. The former must compose themselves articulating seemingly opposites: ideals shared within the World Social Forum vs. some practices not in accordance with its principles (enhanced in contexts of urgency); claimed horizontality vs. dynamic power relations; internal plurality vs. the need to act in unity to achieve systemic global change, amongst others. I will propose perspectives on how the strength of the WSF can be seen as its capacity to continue building radical hope for a positive shift of paradigm within progressive civil society: from divergences to resilient complementarities.

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.

Call for Paper per un numero monografico di Farestoria Rivista dell'Istituto storico della Resistenza e dell'età contemporanea di Pistoia Tra il 1999 e il 2003 lo scenario politico mondiale fu attraversato dal cosiddetto movimento "altermondista", un soggetto composito e internazionale che muoveva da istanze economico-sociali rivendicando una globalizzazione diversa e alternativa da quella che si stava imponendo dopo la fine della Guerra fredda, sintetizzata nello slogan "Un altro mondo è possibile". Definito anche come "il movimento dei movimenti", questa ondata di attivismo si caratterizzò per aver posto con forza una critica di sistema al modello di globalizzazione neoliberista (da cui l'altra definizione di "No global", fatta propria dagli attivisti) ma anche per una certa dose di indeterminatezza di prospettive. Al suo interno furono presenti numerosi aspetti, anche non lineari fra loro: dai Social forum agli "assedi" contro le grandi assisi degli organismi internazionali (WTO, G8, Consiglio europeo, Davos ecc.); componenti cattoliche, marxiste, ecologiste e anarchiche; uso dei nuovi media all'epoca emergenti (video e internet) e persistenza di forme di comunicazione politica novecentesca (volantini, musica attraverso la nuova formula dei sound system ecc.); un approccio spaziale alla dimensione dell'attivismo che tentava di coniugare la consapevolezza dell'interdipendenza planetaria con i limiti geografici di azione riassunta sempre con uno slogan, "pensa globale agisci locale"; crinale fra l'ultima mobilitazione del '900 e la prima del nuovo secolo ed incubatore di una nuova "estetica" della protesta e di forme di attivismo che si sarebbero poi manifestate di nuovo dopo la crisi economica del 2008 in Grecia e in movimenti come Occupy Wall Street e 15 Mayo (Indignados); infine, seppur intergenerazionale nella partecipazione-in particolare ai social forum-il movimento ebbe una forte componente e carica generazionale, tale da segnare i nati tra gli anni '70 e '80 del XX secolo. Un aspetto che tuttavia non sempre, e non ovunque, ha lasciato un'eredità e si è trasformato successivamente in una qualche forma di progetto e/o di organizzazione politica, come nel caso dell'Italia, paese tra i più coinvolti nelle mobilitazioni al tempo ma di cui è difficile ritrovare traccia di quel movimento e di quelle elaborazioni nello scenario politico già negli anni '10 del XXI secolo (a differenza di Spagna, Francia, Gran Bretagna, Stati Uniti, Grecia).

Since the beginning of the Internet, its features have been used to communicate knowledge between researchers in different universities or scientific laboratories, and later, with the increasing growth of the World Wide Web, knowledge became a collective good shared by its users. The current investigation has three main objectives: a) to describe the professional web forum as a discursive subgenre of the web, b) to illustrate the mechanism of knowledge transmission on the professional web forums, and c) to observe the variation across languages of the professional web forum as a subgenre of the knowledge transmission process.
In the analysis of the linguistic material of the professional web forum corpus we used a theoretical framework based on different linguistic trends and theories currently developed in France.
The analysed material consists in a comparable texts corpus, organised, in five sub-corpora, in function of the language the participants in the web forums use to communicate: English, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Catalan.
The analysis of the linguistic material of the professional web forum corpus provides essential information concerning the discursive features of the knowledge transmission process in different languages.

Fifty years after Bandung, the Bamako Appeal calls for a Bandung of the peoples of the South, victims of really existing capitalism, and the rebuilding of a peoples 'front of the South able to hold in check both the imperialism of the dominant economic powers and US military hegemony. Such an anti-imperialist front would not oppose the peoples of the South to those of the North.

Civil society’ has emerged as one of the essentially contested concepts in political modernity. It includes a variety of differing
and conflicting views and perspectives. These are visible beyond the academic debate also in the context of political theory and struggles. For some, global civil society represents a forceful and promising response to the ‘democratic deficit’ as
one of the hitherto most problematic aspects within the globalization process. But more critical objections are also prominent. They concern the enthusiasm about the notion of a global civil society (as well as the use of the concept of civil society as such) and the various developments it represents.
These contradictory positions are inviting for further reflections.
Most contributors to this special issue of Development Dialogue were part of a panel at the WSF in Nairobi 2007. The contributions to this volume testify to the contested nature of the concept of 'global civil society' and invite for further reflections.

This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in the World Social Forum (WSF), focusing on their relationship to processes of knowledge production. Using the concept of publics as a theoretical tool, it explores how, through mediated communication, forum organisers and communication activists seek to extend the WSF in time and space and thereby make it public. Engaging critically with the idea of the WSF as a global process, the thesis considers how mediated communication might contribute to making the WSF global, not so much in absolute terms as by creating a sense of globality, and how the idea of the global relates to other scales. It develops an understanding of the WSF as an epistemic project that seeks both to affirm the existence and validity of multiple knowledges and to facilitate convergence between them, and considers how different communication practices might further this project.

Based on ethnographic research carried out in connection with the WSF 2009 in Belém, complemented by fieldwork at other social forums, the thesis is structured as a series of case studies of different communication practices, ranging from efforts to engage with conventional mass media to various initiatives that seek to strengthen movement-based communication infrastructures and enable WSF participants to communicate on their own terms. These demonstrate that there are many different approaches to making the WSF 'public' and 'global', which beyond facilitating the circulation of media content also involve mobilising new actors to participate in media production and generating a sense of identification with a global WSF process. They also show that mediated communication can contribute to knowledge production not only by facilitating information sharing, but also through the more subtle processes of empowerment, network-building, and translation across difference it can stimulate when embedded in movement dynamics.

"Lieux extraordinaires de brassage d’expériences et d’expertises altermondialistes, les sept Forums Sociaux Mondiaux ont profondément marqué le mouvement altermondialiste. Ils ont incarné une volonté de renouveler la politique et la citoyenneté à l’heure de la mondialisation. Les Forums Sociaux Mondiaux et les grands événements altermondialistes abordés dans cet ouvrage incarnent toute l’énergie mais aussi l’ampleur du défi que représente l’altermondialisme, notamment dans la convergence active d’opinions et de cultures distinctes.
Il apparait dès lors essentiel de se pencher sur leurs dynamiques propres mais aussi sur leurs limites. Les analyses de l’altermondialisme en France et en Belgique francophone illustreront cette dynamique de convergence et ses défis ainsi que les spécificités nationales de ce mouvement. Ces comptes-rendus et investigations permettront au fil des pages de recueillir des éléments pour cerner l’état actuel du mouvement altermondialiste et l’évolution qu’il est susceptible d’adopter."

Det är i år 40 år sedan 1968. I västvärlden är inget annat år under efterkrigstiden så förknippat med politiska protester, rörelseengagemang och snabba samhällsförändringar. Historieskrivningen har hittills inte tillmätt året 1999 samma betydelse. Då riktades det mediala strålkastarljuset för första gången mot den rörelse som Global rörelse handlar om: den globala rättviserörelsen, som då protesterade i samband med WTO:s toppmöte i Seattle. Protesterna mot den ekonomiska globaliseringen har sedan dess utgjort den mest omfattande radikaliseringsvågen i västvärlden sedan 1968. Global rörelse är den första svenska systematiska genomgången av den globala rättviserörelsen, av vilka aktivisterna är, om deras plats i dagens politiska förändringsprocesser och deras förhållande till tidigare rörelser. I fokus står frågan om de sociala rörelsernas förhållande till demokratin. Undersökningen baseras på en omfattande enkätundersökning, intervjuer med aktivister och en analys av mediernas framställning av rörelsen.

It has become increasingly accepted that the world cannot be properly understood through theoretical lenses that consider state actors as the exclusive domain of the political. At the same time, there has been surprisingly little systematic analysis of how the political is manifested in the actions and articulations of the globalisation protest movements that have been subject to much general attention since the spectacular street actions in Seattle during the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in 1999.

This article seeks to provide a critical analysis of the alter-globalisation movement as a potential 'postmodern Prince' as advanced by Stephen Gill. The article proposes that the social forces aligned under the rubric of alter-globalism have always had intractable difficulties articulating a postmodern Prince, and that in contrast to Gill's appropriation of Gramsci, these difficulties can be usefully understood through a reading of Gramsci which is attentive to the problems of collective political action. Recent debate amongst key participants at the World Social Forum (WSF) is used as a case study for analysing the possibility of formulating a common master-frame or strategy for social transformation. It is at the WSF that the problems of articulating a postmodern Prince have been most clearly confronted. It is shown that the weaknesses of alter-globalism can be understood, pace Gill, through Gramsci's own theory of social transformation as evinced in the modern Prince. This underlines the need for further investigation of the agents of progressive politics in an era of global social transformation.

Reformulating the possibilities for action in this global world constitutes a major issue in contemporaneous social sciences and a central challenge of the alter-globalization/global justice movement. This book proposes to discuss it starting from concrete experimentations by social actors who have contested globalization in its neoliberal form, implemented participatory organization models and promoted a nascent global public space. It is based on extensive field research conducted since 1999 in Europe, Latin America and at eight world social forums.

Reviews
"The question of how we can change the world cannot easily be answered, but Geoffrey Pleyers has shown masterfully in this beautifully written and finely researched book that the way we now imagine those answers in changing, in part because of the way the alter-globalization movement has altered our understanding of ourselves as global citizens."
Henrietta L. Moore, University of Cambridge, Review in European Journal of Sociology

"The distinction between the way of subjectivity and the way reason that Geoffrey Pleyers proposes in his book clarifies the dynamics and tensions that we experience in groups and assemblies of the “Indignados” in Barcelona. It is a conceptual tool that has been of great help me in group facilitation and positive management of conflicts, both online and in assemblies as it allows overpassing tensions among positions that seem irreconcilable and developing an empathy based on mutual understanding."
David Leal Garcia, Indignado (15M) in Barcelona

“Pleyers projects a complex view of the alter-globalization movement, alternating narratives and perspectives within the movement and a rigorous analysis that captures the movement’s potentials, contradictions and creative tensions. (…) Several theoretical and methodological issues, such as the social construction of scales, multi-referential identities, the construction of knowledge within grassroots social movements, and the differences of political cultures between activists of different origins are still pending in social movement studies in the global era. All these analyses are welcome and will have as an essential reference Pleyers’ outstanding global ethnography of social actors.”
Breno Bringel, State University of Rio de Janeiro, International Sociology

"What is missing from much of today's media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement and related international struggles against corporate globalization and Western imperialism is the question of where these movements have come from and why they've all emerged at this particular time. Geoffrey Pleyer's book makes an important contribution to addressing the prehistory of the Occupy protests, and it can inform those participating in these struggles as well as students and scholars of social movements."
Jackie Smith, Review in Mobilization

"Provides an excellent overview of the main debates within the movement through a meticulously constructed research programme … [Pleyers'] thorough and balanced account of the development of alter-globalisation offers an immensely valuable resource for both researchers and activists."
Review in Capital & Class

“The topic of this book is a process that accompanies globalization like a shadow: counter-movements driven by activists from different walks of life, and in different sites. … The book is timely because the alterglobalization movement, which began to grow under neo-liberalism during its heyday, has emerged anew after the world financial crisis. Those who seek to understand and study these new phenomena will find in this book many descriptions, concepts, and analytical perspectives that are useful and perceptive.” Juan E. Corradi, Review in Contemporary Sociology 41(5)

"The kind of book that students of the alter-globalisation movement have been waiting for years for … An indispensable read for anyone - students, academics, activists or politicians - who is looking for an elaborate and sophisticated discussion of some of the most crucial political issues of our time."
Review in Journal of Democratic Socialism

“Pleyers’ reflections push us towards many decisive questions about the process of globalisation and its impact on our political and social worlds.”
Silke Trommer, Review in Helsinki Review of Global Governance

"Utterly convincing and theoretically robust ... This kind of scholarship is what the alter-globalisation movement and indeed the world deserve."
Giuseppecaruso's Weblog

Endorsements
“Pleyers’ study provides an indispensable tool to understand what is happening at Occupy Wall Street and possible futures of this movement”.
John Krinsky, City University New York, Editor of “Social movement studies”

“This book will be the main reference for those who want to understand how the global justice movement shapes today's world, how it modifies our perception of action, but also of democracy, and how this new actor articulates local and personal meanings with general concerns for the future of humanity.”
Michel Wieviorka, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, ISA President 2006-2010.

“Pleyers has traveled the world to offer readers the most sweeping look yet at this crucial global movement, including how it has changed in the face of the recent crisis of the very capitalism it criticizes. By showing us a movement grappling continuously with the Pyramid Dilemma over top-down versus bottom-up approaches, this book helps us think about the most basic issues of democracy and social change.” James M. Jasper, CUNY Graduate centre


“This important book is the first scholarly account of the alter-globalization movement. This highly original analysis of the way the movement is constructed around the tension between its two logics - subjective experience and expertise based on reason - helps us to understand not only the movement itself but also the role that the movement plays in inventing global citizenship.”
Mary Kaldor, Director, LSE Global Governance.

“An outstanding example of contemporary sociological research that rises to the immense demands of a truly global ethnography. Pleyers’ book is bound to become the definitive account by a contemporary of the alter-globalization movement.”
Martin Albrow, London School of Economics.

“Well-documented and relying on the most in-depth analyses. This book presents a movement both truly global and adapted to the economic context of each country and region.”
Alain Touraine, EHESS Paris.

Em tempos como os que estamos vivendo, de largo predomínio das ideias de uma mundialização
sem fronteiras da economia (sobretudo a financeira) e de um crescente questionamento em relação à operatividade (em termos da efetividade e eficácia) dos sistemas democráticos de representação, torna-se crucial voltar a discutir o tema da natureza, alcances e limites do Estado, do planejamento e das políticas públicas no capitalismo brasileiro contemporâneo.
Este tema se torna particularmente relevante agora, uma vez passada a avalanche neoliberal das décadas de 1980 e 1990 e suas crenças em torno de uma concepção minimalista
de Estado. Diante do malogro do projeto macroeconômico neoliberal (baixas e instáveis taxas de
crescimento) e suas consequências negativas nos planos social e político (aumento das desigualdades
e da pobreza, e o enfraquecimento dos mecanismos democráticos), evidencia-se já
na primeira década do novo século certa mudança de opinião a respeito das novas atribuições
dos Estados nacionais.
O contexto atual de crescente insegurança internacional (terrorismos, fundamentalismos,
guerras preventivas etc.) e de grande incerteza econômica no sentido keynesiano forte,
está fazendo com que se veja, nos círculos conservadores da mídia e da intelectualidade dominante,
bem como nas agências supranacionais como FMI, BID, Banco Mundial, OMC etc.,
um discurso menos hostil às ações dos Estados nacionais nos seus respectivos espaços territoriais,
em busca de um maior controle sobre a segurança interna, mas também sobre seus
sistemas econômicos e sociais. Embora a ênfase das políticas domésticas ainda esteja centrada
na harmonização e homogeneização das estruturas de produção e distribuição, nos controles
orçamentários e na inflação, começa a haver certo espaço para ações mais abrangentes e ativas
dos Estados visando tanto a recuperação do crescimento econômico como o combate à degradação
das condições de vida, ações estas que dizem respeito à viabilidade e sustentabilidade dos sistemas ambientais, de produção e de proteção social em geral.

Cet ouvrage est un constat d’apprentissage pour un travail dirigé effectué à titre de consultante interne au sein du Forum social mondial 2016 de Montréal. L’objectif du mandat était d’offrir du soutien à la performance de l’organisation, notamment dans le processus décisionnel, le style de gestion et la productivité des tâches. Le mandat a débuté le treize janvier 2016 et s’est terminé le deux septembre. D’une durée de huit mois à temps partiel, la consultante travaillait pour le Forum social mondial de Montréal. Quatre livrables ont été définis dans l’offre de service, soit le diagnostic de la performance organisationnelle, les recommandations pour les solutions, la mise en œuvre des solutions prioritaires et la rédaction d’un rapport d’intervention. L’approche de Lescarbeau (Lescarbeau, Payette et St-Arnaud, 1985), très collaborative est utilisé par la consultante dans son intervention et la théorie de Mintzberg (1978, 1989), sur l’organisation innovante, sert de support à la compréhension structurale et organisationnelle.
Le prochain Forum social mondial n’a pas encore été prévu, mais le Conseil International porte déjà un regard attentif sur celui de 2016, le premier dans un pays du nord.
Le lecteur doit comprendre que la structure de cet ouvrage ne respecte pas le cadre habituel requis pour ce type d’ouvrage, mais a été plutôt adapté au contexte, avec la précieuse collaboration de la directrice de stage, madame Gallant. Ainsi, il sera présenté en considérant la structure des quatre livrables. Chaque section dévoile la partie théorique, la pratique de la consultante dans la réalité, les constats qu’elle tire de ces différences et la conclusion qu’elle en fait pour son devenir de consultante.

This paper seeks an articulation between Marxist and anarchist approaches to representation in social movements. A generalised dismissal of representational politics leaves power with too many places to hide and sets unnecessary limits to political imagination. Prefigurative politics should not exclude political representation, as the exclusion can imply a class bias. The paper explores two different paths beyond strict assumptions of horizontality. Using mostly Latin American examples, a distinction is made between more classical state-centric paths and less theorised alternatives of non-state representation. Finally, the article approaches global democratisation from a non-state-centric perspective, tentatively called transnational libertarian socialism.

This paper starts from the observation that the very concept ‘social forum’ is to some extent predicated on a distinction between the market – the primary organisational model of neo-liberalism – and the forum, conceived as a different kind of model. It explores the different logics of social organisation implied by the competing concepts of the forum and the market, taking off from Arendt’s assertion that the transformation of the former into the latter was always the project of the tyrants of ancient Greece. It explores the complex political logics by which the collectivism and partial homogeneity required by any democratic situation have increasingly been undermined by the socio-economic processes of liberalisation and marketisation typical of post-modern capitalist societies. It goes on to explore different ways of understanding human collectivity in the light of the ‘democratic paradox’ by which individualism and egalitarianism are, at a certain level, logically incompatible. I...

While social movement and global civil society analysts have strongly associated social movements internationalization with their institutionalization (e.g. Keck & Sikkink, 1998; Tilly 2004), a new path towards an internationalization with less institutionalization and centred on more grassroots actors has emerged in the first decade of the 21st century. Drawing on a study of the World Social Forums, the US Social Forum and the rise of some international networks of grassroots actors, this paper will show that, while a pattern of institutionalisation exists within these forums and networks, it has been countered by the political culture of WSF activists; a culture that favours horizontality, internal democracy and the active participation of grassroots actors. The US Social Forum offers another interesting case study, as it has clearly rejected the participation of the most institutional part of US civil society. After describing some of its feature, the paper will focus on contextual elements that have fostered this form of internalization, its potential and some of its limits.

How are sexual politics part of global justice? Como a política sexual faz parte da justiça global? ¿Cómo es la política sexual parte de la justicia global? Inwiefern ist Sexualpolitik Teil globaler Gerechtigkeit?
This essay discusses sexual politics at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegro, Brazil, considering how the Forum addresses sexuality and sexual rights advocacy (including transgender issues) and how feminist and LGBT organizers engaged the Forum. ||  Como a política sexual faz parte da justiça global? Este ensaio discute a política sexual no Fórum Social Mundial em Porto Allegro, Brasil, considerando como o Fórum aborda a sexualidade e a defesa dos direitos sexuais (incluindo questões transgênero) e como as organizadoras feministas e LGBT engajaram o Fórum. ||  ¿Cómo es la política sexual parte de la justicia global? Este ensayo discute la política sexual en el Foro Social Mundial en Porto Allegro, Brasil, considerando cómo el Foro aborda la sexualidad y la defensa de los derechos sexuales (incluidas las cuestiones transgénero) y cómo los organizadores feministas y LGBT participaron en el Foro. ||  (Die deutsche Übersetzung ist im Abschnitt "Übersetzung" auf der Autorenseite verfügbar.) Inwiefern ist Sexualpolitik Teil globaler Gerechtigkeit? Dieser Essay diskutiert die Sexualpolitik auf dem Weltsozialforum in Porto Allegro, Brasilien, und untersucht, wie das Forum mit dem Eintreten für Sexualität und sexuelle Rechte (einschließlich Transgender-Themen) umgeht und wie feministische und LGBT-Organisatoren das Forum einbeziehen.

This article examines, through a quantitative analysis of survey data, the extent to which union members and labor activists attending the World Social Forum from different world system zones vary in their political goals and activities. Consistent with world systems theory, we find that labor activists from the semiperiphery protested most frequently whie their counterparts from the periphery protested the least frequently. We also found that union members and labor activists from the periphery were significantly more supportive of reforming (rather than abolishing and replacing) capitalism and international financial and trade institutions compared to their counterparts from other zones, although this finding disappears after local (Kenyan) participants are excluded from the analysis. Finally, we find that representatives of organized labor from the semiperiphery were the least supportive of proposals for creating a democratic world government, while those from the core were the most supportive of global/international strategies for social change. Social movement scholars have traditionally neglected the insights of world systems theory, but interest in this theory has increased along with interest in the role of transnational forces in shaping protest around the world as well as the dynamics of transnational social movements. Still, only a handful of scholars have integrated the insights of world systems theory with more traditional paradigms in the social movement field, such as the political process model. Integrating world system theory with the political process model helps us to better understand how domestic and international factors interact to shape the levels and forms of domestic protest, as well as how they shape participation within transnational social movement organizations and This article contributes to this line of research by examining the extent to which the political views and experiences of members of organized labor and other social justice activists attending the World Social Forum (WSF) are related to their location within a global hierarchy of nation states. Following world systems theory, we argue that respondents' location within this system shapes their experiences and political opportunities. Global divisions within the labor movement are important to study given the critical role of this movement in resisting neoliberal global capitalism as well as recent efforts, in many parts of the world, to revitalize this movement and to make it more transnational. Research on transnational social movements and advocacy networks, including trans-national labor alliances, points to tensions and political differences among activists from the global North, the wealthiest nation states, and Southern activists from the poorer nation states

“Estamos ante un libro que, además de ser innovador, es muy oportuno. No podríamos pensar en una publicación más adecuada en el momento en que CLACSO organiza el Primer Foro Mundial del Pensamiento Crítico.”
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Universidad de Coimbra

“Geoffrey Pleyers pone en la práctica una sociología de los movimientos sociales que efectivamente combina lo global-local, pone de relieve experiencias multisituadas, mostrando lo común de un momento riquísimo en movilizaciones y expresiones de descontento y esperanza. Nadie más podría hacer un ejercicio tan cosmopolita (en un sentido contextual y no etnocéntrico), movilizando luchas diversas y a sus intérpretes locales.”
Alexis Cortés, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile

“Al transitar por experiencias distintas y por decenas de países, Pleyers echa raíz en múltiples realidades y logra una visión global de los movimientos sociales sensible a los contextos locales y nacionales y a los principales dilemas políticos de este siglo.”
Breno Bringel, Universidad de Rio de Janeiro

Descarga libre en el sitio de CLACSO:
https://www.clacso.org.ar/libreria-latinoamericana/buscar_libro_detalle.php?campo=autor&texto=pleyers&id_libro=1475

Qui sont les altermondialistes ? Comment s'organisent-ils ? Que revendiquent-ils ? Ce livre tente de répondre à ces questions à partir de la vaste enquête que les auteurs, politistes et sociologues, ont réalisée au cours d'un des événements symboles de l'altermondialisme, le Forum social européen, deuxième du nom, qui s'est déroulé en région parisienne en novembre 2003. Grâce à ces données exceptionnelles, les auteurs présentent l'altermondialisme tel qu'il est et tel qu'il se fait. S'attachant tant à la préparation et au déroulement de l'événement qu'à son traitement par les médias, ils éclairent la place et le rôle que joue ou pourrait jouer cette nouvelle forme de mobilisation et de revendication, au niveau national aussi bien qu'international. Ils permettent de saisir les motivations et les aspirations des militants dont ils brossent pour la première fois le portrait sociologique, politique et idéologique. Ils montrent enfin, en analysant la participation de près de trois cents organisations françaises à l'événement, comment se recompose et se redéploie un espace militant national. L'émergence de revendications communes rajeunissant partis, syndicats et associations, en même temps que la formation de nouvelles lignes de conflits mettent en cause les habitudes et les clivages politiques.

Observers such as Thomas Berry and David Korten have proposed that the contemporary ‘Great Work’ is to tell new stories, embodied in practical new politics and economics, to navigate the deep cultural and institutional transformations necessary for human communities to survive and flourish. Herein I argue that grassroots movements of excluded and impoverished people from around the globe are critical agents of this contemporary Great Work. Examining the cosmological, spiritual, and ethical concerns that emerged in the 2005 World Social Forum, I demonstrate that grassroots social movements are engaged in epistemic struggle over the meanings of development and globalization. They are telling alternative stories of human betterment, rooted in an alternative and emergent worldview. Movements are bringing forth notions of radical complexity, transformative and transforming religion and spiritualities, participatory and deliberative democracy in all spheres of life, and the understanding of the living Earth as sacred and as an ecumenical reference for the sacred.

THE MOST interesting attempt to create a global space for critical social movements is the World Social Forum (WSF), organized annually since 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and in January 2004 in Mumbai, India. 1 Even though, to begin with, the event was organized simultaneously with–and also as a protest against–the World Economic Forum (WEF), in each subsequent gathering there were fewer attempts to interact with the WEF.