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The World Social Forum and the challenges of global democracy
Author(s) -
Smith Jackie
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
global networks
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.685
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1471-0374
pISSN - 1470-2266
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0374.2004.00102.x
Subject(s) - vision , democracy , civil society , globalization , politics , political science , action (physics) , space (punctuation) , political economy , sociology , media studies , law , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology , operating system
Protests against economic globalization helped give birth to the World Social Forum (WSF) as a space for civil society groups to coordinate actions and articulate shared visions for global change. Since 2001 the WSF has brought together hundreds of thousands of activists from all parts of the world. But creating an inclusive political space that is also effective at generating unified action has proved challenging. In this article I explore the central tensions in the 2004 WSF and explore the possibilities for the Forum to overcome these obstacles and expand global democracy.