workshop on the WSF and related events, 21-28th july 2007

workshop on the WSF and related events, 21-28th july 2007 Subject: [invites] 22, 23 July:: Workshop on the WSF (and related events,21-28 July)
From: use.info@gmail.com
Date: June 13, 2007
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Source: Choike @ http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/4617.html
Source: Choike @ http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/4617.html

This workshop will bring together activists and academics not to make decisions or proposals but rather to gather, share and debate research, writing, projects and reflections on the WSF and the context in which it exists, and to create a dialogue where this richness can be shared and
reflected upon.

A site for discussion, reflection and debate. The material below is just slightly-tweaked from last time, but will undergo renovations to incorporate
your recent ideas and others flowing in from all around. If you have tried to alert us of your intention to join us and somehow we inadvertently failed to register that, do please shout again.

BACKGROUND TO THE WORKSHOP ON THE WSF:

Since the first World Social Forum gathering, held in opposition to the Davos World Economic Forum in early 2001, the WSF has taken on a life of its own: often with multiple and contested identities and purposes; taking on the meaning that is given to it by the participant or observer; experienced and interpreted uniquely by each person who is part of the process. In 2002, continental social forum were set up in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia in addition to many national, thematic or local social forums.

The WSF has special characteristics: it is a symbol, it is a space, it is a project, it is owned by anyone who wishes to join, it is organic and experimental, it is a work in progress. But for all the achievements -both symbolic and actual- of the WSF, there are also criticisms: it is opaque, it is not effective, it is chaotic. The decision making structure is unclear.

Fundamentally, there are wide divergences in how the Forum is perceived: if its a space, what sort of space is it? Who has power and who is represented? Does anyone 'own' the space? Can it be better used? Are African voices and interests adequately represented? Do we need a unifying project? What are the differences between the different Forums, and are there 'recipes' for making a 'good' forum? Do we need better processes? What do we get in return for all the work we put in? Do the Forums succeed on being a place for cross-sectorial projects (between NGO, unions, etc.)? How can the WSF be more grounded? What role do the Forum's sectoral subcomponents -in healthcare, education, environment, economics, indigenous movements, labour, women, youth, anti-racists, faith-based movements and many others -play? Can
a programme for global social change emerge from the WSF?

The Workshop on the WSF will bring together activists and academics: not to make decisions or proposals but rather to gather, share and debate research, writing, projects and reflections on the WSF and the context in which it exists, and to create a dialogue where this richness can be shared and reflected upon. We will be asking: What has the WSF achieved? Where is the WSF going? How is it shaping, and being shaped by, the new forms of activism and social movements? Can the WSF provide a space for transforming social relations? What research needs to be done? Who is the research useful for? How can we share and democratise information.

In Durban over the 22-23 July weekend, we will pose these questions, and in October in Bangkok we will take them up again at the offices of Focus on the Global South. A Latin American venue is being sought, along with European and North American settings, for future Workshops on the WSF in 2007 and onwards.

Join us! Another Workshop is possible!

CONFIRMED ATTENDEES (Corrections welcomed)

1) HOSTS/PARTNERS

1.1 CCS:
Baruti Amisi
Patrick Bond
Dennis Brutus
Ashwin Desai
Ntokozo Mthembu
Prishani Naidoo
Molefi Ndlovu
Raj Patel
Helen Poonen
Trevor Ngwane
Virginia Setshedi
Ahmed Veriava
(others from CCS and UKZN)

1.2 FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH:
Walden Bello Nicola Bullard Meena Menon

1.3 CODESRIA/AFRICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
Jimi Adesina (Rhodes Univ, President of SA Sociology Association)
Fred Hendricks (editor, African Journal of Sociology and dean at Rhodes Univ)
Ebrima Sall (research director, Codesria)

1.4 INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (informal partner)
Immanuel Wallerstein, past president
Ari Sitas, vice president (invited)

1.5 BAMAKO APPEAL (informal partner)
Samir Amin, Third World Forum
PK Murthy

1.6 OTHERS FROM SOCIAL-FORUMS LISTSERVE:
Soren Ambrose (Jubilee Africa, Nairobi)
Njoki Njehu (Daughters of Mumbi, Nairobi)
Mohau Pheko (Integrity Consultants, Johannesburg)

2. FUNDERS IN ATTENDANCE:

2.1 SOUTHERN AFRICA TRUST
Barbara Kalima-Phiri
Petronella Ndebele

2.2 ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL:
Rose Wanjiru, Nairobi
Joyce Umbima, Nairobi

2.3 others to be confirmed

3. DURBAN Community organisations/leaders (approximately 30)

4. SA BASED ACTIVISTS/STRATEGISTS: To be confirmed

5. AFRICAN (NON-SA) VISITORS: To be confirmed
Ollen Mwalubunju (Director, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation,Lilongwe, Malawi)

6. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS:
Franco Barchiesi (Ohio State)
Judith Blau (Sociologists without Borders)
William Carroll (Univ of Victoria)
Giuseppe Caruso (School of Oriental and African Studies)
Christopher Chase-Dunn (director, Univ of California/Riverside Inst for
Research on World Systems)
Linda Christiansen-Ruffman (St Mary's Univ)
Graham Erion (York Univ)
Mark Herkenrath (Univ of Zurich and World Society Foundation)
Marina Karides (Florida Atlantic Univ and Sociologists for Women in Society)

Anne-Maria Makhulu (Duke Univ)
Paolo Martins (Univ of Brazil)
Henning Melber (director, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation)
Angela Miles (Univ of Toronto) Geoffrey Pleyers (EHESS-Paris, Universit de
Lige and London School of Economics)
Regine Reincke (Historical Materialism and Societies Without Borders
journal)
Eunice Sahle (Univ of North Carolina) Ariel Saleh (Australia CNS)

WORKSHOP ON THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM DURBAN, 22-23 JULY
(and related events, 21-28 July)

Join us for:
WHAT: A Workshop on the World Social Forum for discussion, reflection,debate
WHY: scholars and activists are ready to consider how this annual gathering of progressives best generates collective, global-scale, national and local social change
WHEN: the weekend of 22-23 July 2006
WHERE: Durban, South Africa, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Faculty Club (Howard College Campus, King George Ave, Glenwood)
PRIOR TO: the International Sociological Association quadrennial congress (23-28 July in Durban), and the Nairobi hosting of the WSF in January 2007.
AFTER: five years of WSF gatherings in Porto Alegre, Mumbai, Bamako, Caracas and Karachi; five years of community mobilisation in Durban, one of the Third World's most fractious cities, as well as popular uprisings across the world;dozens of intellectual reviews, books and academic articles about the WSF;and an overdose of neoliberalism, racism, sexism, eco-destruction and imperialism.

The Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and dozens of local social and environmental activists will welcome our co-hosts Walden Bello, Nicola Bullard and Meena Menon of Focus on the Global South plus movement intellectuals Immanuel Wallerstein (Yale), Samir Amin (Third World Forum), Fred Hendricks (Codesria and Rhodes Univ), Geoffrey Players (Univ of Liege), Giuseppe Caruso (SOAS), Mohau Pheko (Integrity Consultants), Franco Barchiesi (Ohio State) and many others. Durban's own leading social movement intellectuals will join us and relate global processes to local conditions; they will also arrange site tours in subsequent days for visitors with specific socio-economic interests, solidarity and networks to share.

On the evening of July 22, we will celebrate the fifth birthday of the UKZN Centre for Civil Society and the tenth birthday of the African Sociological Review, a flagship journal of the Dakar-based Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria).

African intellectual and activist inputs into our Workshop on the WSF are especially important, given that critical voices from this continent are too
often silenced by elites and other progressives. By virtue of suffering the most heinous of social systems -slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neocolonialism, neoliberalism- Africans have a passion for fighting global injustice from which this Workshop will draw sustenance and strategy.

Although space is limited, we invite notices of interest from international, African and local participants. Registration costs, to be announced, depend upon the success of fund-raising, but will be moderate. Overnight accommodation in the immediate vicinity of the Faculty Club is available on both 21 and 22 July. An estimated 120 people will be gathering, and the Workshop will close on Sunday with sufficient time to attend the opening of the ISA. Local transport will be provided.

The Centre for Civil Society includes staff and students who have promoted the World Social Forum, but not without critical intellectual concern. We are working with one of the world's leading think-tanks of social change -Focus on the Global South based in Bangkok, Manila and Mumbai- and Codesria to celebrate African contributions to sociology and social change, and to ask and answer tough questions about the WSF.

CCS LIAISON COMMITTEE TO THE WORKSHOP ON THE WSF:
Baruti Amisi, Patrick Bond, Dennis Brutus, Ashwin Desai, Ntokozo Mthembu, Prishani Naidoo, Molefi Ndlovu, Raj Patel, Helen Poonen, Trevor Ngwane, Virginia Setshedi, Ahmed Veriava

For more information and to register your intention to attend, please contact Patrick Bond, Ntokozo Mthembu and Molefi Ndlovu.

22-23 JULY DRAFT WORKSHOP AGENDA: (Corrections and proposed amendments welcomed)

SATURDAY 22 JULY

8:30am Welcome from Dennis Brutus

9:00am PANEL ONE: The World Social Forum's History and Trajectory Key queries: What are the precedents for the WSF? What is the context for the emergence of the WSF? What main themes and processes have characterized WSF meetings in Porto Alegre, Mumbai and the 2006 polycentric sessions? What has the WSF achieved and what are its imitations? How has the WSF broken with or reproduced existing power relations (in civil society, between men and women, North and South, race, class, etc.)?

Potential panelists: Immanuel Wallerstein (Yale), Mohau Pheko (Integrity), Desmond D'Sa (South Durban Community and Environmental Alliance)

10:45am TEA BREAK

CONTINUATION OF PANEL ONE 1:00-2:00pm LUNCH

2:00pm PANEL TWO: Global and African Scales: Case studies Key queries: What role have African groups played in the WSF? Are there strong national and local Social Forum processes in African countries? Are there uniquely African challenges to address at the WSF, in terms of constituencies, issues, themes and processes?

Potential panelists: Representatives from Zimbabwe Social Forum and other African groups, Zandile Ntsibande (Abahlali base Mjondolo, Durban)

4:00pm PANEL THREE: Local Politics and the WSF Key queries: How do local community activists best relate to scale-shifts, from grassroots to global? What issues link communities across the world via the WSF? Are Durban community organising experiences relevant to WSF building? Does the WSF offer a useful tool for local organising?

Potential panelists: S'Bu Zikode (Abahlali base Mjondolo) and other leaders from Durban, KZN and SA communities

SUNDAY 23 JULY

9:00am PANEL ONE: The WSF and global justice movement and campaign building Key queries: What is the uneven state of WSF organising, in
different places and sectors? What strategies have worked to build sectors and constituencies at the WSF?

Potential panelists: To be determined

11:00am PANEL TWO: The WSF's organizational basis and missing constituencies Key queries: How is the WSF organised and by whom? What are the different models and different experiences of organising social forums? What are the innovative practices in the WSF and new ways of organising? How can the "missing" constituences find a space in the WSF? (language, gender, location, etc)

Potential panelists: Giuseppe Caruso (SOAS), Geoffrey Players (EHESS/Paris), Paolo Martins (Univ.of Brazil)

2:00pm - PANEL THREE: The WSF and programmatic options Key queries: Is the WSF an open space, a transformative space, a partisan space? What do we learn from the Bandung Appeal experience? Potential panelists: Samir Amin (Third World Forum), Prishani Naidoo (CCS), Franco Barchiesi (Ohio State),Orelan Naidoo (Westcliffe Residents Assn, Durban)

4:00pm PANEL FOUR: Preparing for Nairobi Potential panelists:Representatives from the Africa Council, Nairobi and Kenya organisingcommittees, South Africa representative, Nicola Bullard/Meena Mennon (Focus on the Global South)

5:30pm - Closure for transport to ICC for International Sociological Association congress opening

ADDITIONAL EVENTS, 21-28 JULY

21 JULY DAY-LONG SEMINAR ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS RESEARCH Cases, Methods, Comparisons

UKZN Centre for Civil Society School of Development Studies Seminar Room Memorial Tower Building, Howard College Campus (Glenwood, Durban)

9am-10:15: CCS doctoral candidates:
Baruti Amisi discusses DRC civil society and potential eco-social resistance to the Inga power project Shireen Essof (Stellenbosch) reviews her dissertation research on casualisation and worker resistance

10:30-noon: CCS post-graduate student research on Soweto and Johannesburg urban social movements:
Prishani Naidoo
Trevor Ngwane
Virginia Setshedi
Ahmed Veriava

1-4pm Panel on social movement research chaired by Ashwin Desai, with special guests
Anne-Maria Makhulu (Duke) on Cape Town urban movements,
James Ferguson (Stanford) on policy advocacy by SA social movements, and
Immanuel Wallerstein (Yale) on revisiting 'anti-systemic movements'
research after Zapatismo, Seattle and the World Social Forum.

24-28 JULY OTHER CCS-RELATED ISA EVENTS

During the period 24-28 July, CCS and the journal Capitalism NatureSocialism will be sponsoring two afternoon events, to be announced.

Additional CCS events at the ISA include staff involvement in panels associated with Alan Touraine, Frantz Fanon and international finance to be
announced. CCS and local partners will facilitate reality tours of local communities, to be announced.

28 JULY GRASSROOTS SOCIOLOGY!
Join CCS and the International Sociological Association's Research Committee 47 at the ICC on Friday, 28 July, 3:30-7pm for a double-session 'Grassroots Sociologists' forum plus the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture by Ashwin Desai.

Location to be announced.