World Social Forum

The World Social Forum (WSF) began in 2001 as a civil society counterpoint to the corporate-organized World Economic Forum. The global gathering is now held semiannually in a location in the Global South. Activists from diverse movements, cultures, and faith traditions come together in the WSFs to share analyses of the social effects of economic globalization, to strengthen alliances, and to exchange experiences and organizing strategies. It is seen as a process because it explicitly links discussions and organizing experiences across time and place. The WSF aims to build a transnational movement and encourage what analysts have called “experiments in global democracy.” The longevity of the effort and the large numbers of people it has mobilized demonstrate its political significance.

Organized around the idea that “another world is possible,” the World Social Forum process has provided a focal point and organizing infrastructure for social movements and facilitated coordination and cooperation across movement sectors as well as across national borders and over time. It emerged following a series of large and confrontational demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Group of Eight, and regional trade blocs. At the time, many activists in an emergent “global justice movement” sought new strategies for advancing critical analyses of economic globalization and alternative visions of globalization. The turnout at early meetings consistently overwhelmed organizers and demonstrated the resonance of the WSF's message. From the very beginning, activists began organizing local, national, and regional social forums, explicitly linking conversations and themes across time and place. Global gatherings now attract up to 150,000 participants, and tens of thousands more participate through local, national, and regional forums.

An international council facilitates international coordination and leadership of the WSF process. [Page 1386]Organizers have made conscious use of technology to advance efforts to expand dialogue among diverse civil society members, reflecting a commitment to expanding participation from those most marginalized by dominant social institutions. The WSF has shifted its location and organizing format to promote greater inclusion and participatory democracy. There is constant internal debate about the limitations in fully achieving these ideals, and these debates fuel innovations that have expanded the forum's accessibility to poor and oppressed groups.

The WSF is an important and evolving response to the failures of representative democracy that supports cross-national and cross-sectoral dialogue on some of the most pressing conflicts of our day. Its process orientation allows for learning and relationship building to help unite a very diverse collection of individuals and groups.