Global Democracy and the World Social Forums
Jackie Smith Christopher Chase-Dunn Donatella Della Porta Marina
Karides Marc Becker Dorval Brunelle Rosalba Icaza Garza Jeffrey S.
Juris Lorenzo Mosca Ellen Reese Peter (Jay) Smith Rolando Vazquez

978-1-59451-420-3 (Hardcover) $79.00 $67.15
978-1-59451-421-0 (Paperback) $18.95 $16.11
Paradigm Publishers
August 2007
192 pp.
5" x 8"
“Davos” has become synonymous with everything bad about
globalization—capitalist imperialism, elitism, secrecy, and
antidemocratic operations. Dating from the first confrontations at
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2001, the World
Social Forum has become the largest political gathering in human
history and offers a direct challenge to the extreme inequities of
corporate-led globalization. The forums are an experiment in global
and participatory democracy, bringing together networks,
organizations, and activists from around the world to create visions
of a just and liberated global society. This book is itself an
experiment in collaboration among twelve leading scholars, all of
whom have participated in World Social Forums around the globe.
Recounting dozens of dramatic firsthand experiences from their
attendance, these authors draw on their knowledge of global politics
to introduce the World Social Forum process, explain its foundations,
and discuss its relevance to ongoing transnational efforts toward
freedom, peace, and democracy.
Jackie Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology and Peace Studies at
the University of Notre Dame. She is author of Global Visions/Rival
Networks: Social Movements for Global Democracy (Johns Hopkins
University Press 2007). She has coedited three books and numerous
articles on transnational activism, including Coalitions across
Borders: Transnational Protest in a Neoliberal Era (with Joe Bandy),
which explores how people have developed organizations and techniques
to build transnational alliances among people of widely varying
cultural, political, and economic backgrounds.
Christopher Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside, is the
author of Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems (Westview, 1997).
Donatella della Porta is Professor of Sociology at the European
University Institute in Florence. Her most recent book is
Transnational Protest and Global Activism (edited with Sidney Tarrow,
Rowman & Littlefield 2004).
