Handbook on World Social Forum Activism [Paperback]

The World Social Forum (WSF) has become the focus for a diverse array of movements advancing alternative visions of globalisation. The numerous WSF's have helped to connect activists in an increasingly dense network of advocates for radical social change. They have mobilised hundreds of thousands of people and may be one of the most important political developments of our time. The Handbook of World Social Forum Activism brings together leading scholars of the social forum process from North America and Europe. The collection contributes to the ongoing process of reflection from the WSF experience, and is accessible to activists, students and scholars alike.List of Tables and Figures List of Acronyms Preface and Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction: Learning from the World Social Forums Jackie Smith, Scott Byrd, Ellen Reese, and Elizabeth Smythe Part I Background and Context 1 Social Forums as Public Stage and Infrastructure of Global Justice Movements Dieter Rucht 2 (In)Fertile Ground? Social Forum Activism in Its Regional and Local Dimensions Peter (Jay) Smith and Elizabeth Smythe 3 The Political and its Absence in the World Social Forum: Implications for Democracy in the Forum and in the World Teivo Teivainen 4 Surveys of World Social Forum Participants Show Influence of Place and Base in the Global Public Sphere Ellen Reese, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Kadambari Anantram, Gary Coyne, Matheu Kaneshiro, Ashley N. Koda, Roy Kwon, and Preeta Saxena Part II Campaigns and Movements in the Social Forum Process 5 More Than a Shadow of a Difference? Feminist Participation in the World Social Forum Lyndi Hewitt and Marina Karides 6 Indigenous Peoples and Social Forums Marc Becker and Ashley N. Koda 7 Building National Labor Solidarity: Unions and Labor Activists at the 2007 U.S. Social Forum Ellen Reese, Kadambari Anantram, Linda J. Kim, Roy Kwon, and Preeta Saxena 8 The World Social Forum as a Bounded Open Space: Maintain It, Fix It, orls‚