A Social Forum is an open meeting place for civil society organizations and individuals opposed to neoliberalism and the domination of the world by capital and imperialism. The first Social Forum was the World Social Forum (WSF) held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre. It was designed as a counter forum to the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos at the same time. While the WEF is a meeting of the political and economic elite of the world, the WSF gathers social forces and promotes democratization and social justice.
After the first WSF, the Social Forum idea was replicated across the world in various transnational, national, and local Social Forums. Most, though not all, Social Forums adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the International Council of the WSF. The diversity of actors participating in the Social Forums has become iconic for the diversity of the Global Justice Movement (or Anti-Globalization Movement).
For more details see the article on the World Social Forum.
Read more about Social Forum: Transnational Social Forums, National Social Forums
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or forum:
“What people don’t realize is that intimacy has its conventions as well as ordinary social intercourse. There are three cardinal rules—don’t take somebody else’s boyfriend unless you’ve been specifically invited to do so, don’t take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)