I attended the World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunis, Tunisia from March 24-28, 2015 with the Network Institute for Global
Democratization and community radio station WORT-FM.
Making a Better World: The 2015 World Social Forum in Tunis (Toward Freedom, April 6, 2015), also published in The Monitor (Truman State University) (May 2015): 5-6.
Norm Stockwell's report to Third World View on WORT-FM
My blog posts during the trip include one on NIGD's panel The Future of the Forum.
In lieu of notes I have uploaded the audio of the strategy session (2 hrs, 113MB). One interesting comment from this broad ranging discussion: "Power doesn't corrupt, but it reveals who you really are." Three points of agreement:
- To continue the forum.
- Inside the forum, to keep and follow
- Others not involved in the forum should be invited (but we need to deepen the discussion of who are the others who should be invited)
Photos on facebook:
Audio of Julian Assange speaking to the forum via internet.
A good overview is the essay by Giuseppe Caruso and Teivo Teivainen, "Beyond the square: changing dynamics at the World Social Forum" (December 7, 2014).
My writings from previous forums are available on my Trip Reports page.
I have also participated in the publication of several academic works on social forums:
- Marc Becker and Ashley N. Koda, “Indigenous Peoples and Social Forums,” in Handbook on World Social Forum Activism, ed. Jackie Smith and others (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2012), 105-124.
- Jackie Smith, Marina Karides, Marc Becker, Dorval Brunelle, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Donatella della Porta, Rosalba Icaza, Jeffrey Juris, Lorenzo Mosca, Ellen Reese, Peter Jay Smith, and Rolando Vázquez, Global Democracy and the World Social Forums (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008; 2d 2014 edition).
- Marc Becker, “World Social Forum,” Peace and Change 32, No. 2 (April 2007): 203-20.