Toward an Emancipatory Cosmopolitan Project: The World Social Forum and the Transformation of Conflicts

Abstract

Can the World Social Forum (WSF) contribute to building the conditions for convivial existence on our planet? Can it inspire global emancipation? To answer these questions, I discuss a case of conflict negotiation between some organisers of the WSF in Mumbai (2004) and a member of the Indian Muslim community. The case illustrates how managerial approaches to conflict and hegemonic politics at odds with the vision of the WSF have considerably limited the possibility for the WSF organisers to engage with Indian Muslims. I suggest that in order to inspire a truly emancipatory cosmopolitan project, transnational activist networks like the WSF might consider practices of conflict and difference transformation centred on recognition and empowerment aimed at generating emancipatory dynamics among, and at developing and extolling the autonomy of, all parties involved (individual and collective). Such practices could contribute to developing a cosmopolitan vision beyond a priori universal values, often colonial and ethnocentric.

¿Puede el Foro Social Mundial (WSF, por su sigla en inglés) contribuir en la construcción de las condiciones para la existencia cordial en nuestro planeta? ¿Puede inspirar a una emancipación global? Para responder a estas preguntas, yo discuto un caso de negociación de conflicto entre algunos organizadores del WSF en Mumbai (2004) y un miembro de la comunidad musulmana india. El caso ilustra cómo la estrategia gerencial al conflicto y a la política hegemónica en desacuerdo con la visión del WSF, ha limitado considerablemente la posibilidad a los organizadores del WSF para colaborar con los musulmanes indios. Sugiero que para inspirar realmente un proyecto cosmopolita emancipador, las redes activistas trasnacionales como el WSF, podrían considerar las prácticas de conflicto y la transformación de diferencia centradas en el reconocimiento y el empoderamiento dirigido a generar la dinámica emancipadora para desarrollar y elogiar la autonomía de todas las partes implicadas (individual y colectivas). Tales prácticas podrían contribuir a desarrollar una visión cosmopolita más allá de los valores universales a priori, generalmente coloniales y etnocéntricos.

世界社会论坛（WSF）会有助于建立我们这个星球上和谐存在的条件吗？它能激发全球解放吗？为了回答这些问题，我讨论了在2004年孟买世界社会论坛上一些组织者与印度穆斯林社区一成员间进行冲突谈判的一个案例。这个案例详细说明了冲突管理方法以及与WSF意见相左的霸权政治如何在相当程度上限制了WSF的组织者与印度穆斯林交往的可能性。我提出，为了激发一个真正具有解放意义的世界性项目，像WSF这样的跨国活动网络可考虑冲突与差异转变的各种做法，其中心是以有关各方（包括个体与集体）产生解放动力、发展和赞美各方自治为目标的承认与授权。这些做法可能有助于发展一种世界性视野，它超越了先验的、通常是殖民和种族中心的普适价值。

세계사회포럼(WSF)이 지구에서의 공생에 필요한 조건을 만드는데 기여할 수 있는가? 지구적 해방을 도모할 수 있는가? 나는 이러한 질문에 답하기 위해서 2004년 붐바이 세계사회포럼 조직자들과 인도의 무슬림 커뮤니티 구성원들 사이의 갈등 협상 사례를 논의한다. 이 사례는 세계사회포럼의 비전과 잘 맞지 않는 갈등과 헤게모니적 정치에 대한 경영적 접근이 어떻게 세계사회포럼 조직자들로 하여금 인도의 무슬림들과 관계를 맺는데 상당한 제약이 되었는지를 것을 보여준다. 진정으로 해방적인 코스모폴리탄 프로젝트가 되기 위해서는 세계사회포럼과 같은 초국가적 활동가 네트워크가 모든 관련된 당사자(개인과 집단)들 사이에 해방적 동학을 만들어 내고 자율성을 발전시키기 위해 인정과 역량강화에 초점을 맞추고 갈등과 차이를 변형시키는 실천을 고려해야 한다는 것을 제안한다. 이러한 실천은 때로 식민주의적 혹은 인종중심적인 선험적 보편적 가치를 넘어서는 코스모폴리탄 비전을 발전시키는데 기여할 수 있다.

Keywords:

• emancipatory cosmopolitanism
• World Social Forum
• conflict transformation

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Afia Afenah and Ryan Schram and the reviewers for their invaluable suggestions on a previous draft of this article.

Notes

‘The WSF was consciously created as an open space for movements to meet in spite of their differences’. WSF India campaign material.

Notes taken by the author at the evaluation meeting of WSF2004, Mumbai, February 2004.

For an accurate review, see the work of Eschle and Maiaguashca's research on the WSF from a feminist perspective (2007, 2009).

For a criticism, see Barring (1989) and Alvarez (1990).

Compelling work aiming at decolonizing feminism has been done by Mohanty (2003) and Alexander (2005). The latter articulated an inspiring analysis of gender differences (and some of their deepest social implications) and border crossings. The former engaged debates on practices of solidarity in the alternative globalisation movement, of which the WSF is part, read from a feminist perspective.

Notes taken by the author at the evaluation meeting of WSF2004.

Ibid.

Ibid.

See the groundbreaking work of Goodwin and his co-authors, Goodwin et al. (2000), Polletta (2002), Jasper (2007).

Attempts at universal commensuration have been repeated through the ages, usually at the point of the sword. Attempts to commensurate particular values with general universal theories were made by theorists like Marx and Weber, to mention just two influential Western names. Marx's analysis of the processes of commoditisation and Weber's analysis of bureaucratisation explain mechanisms that purport to set standards for universal commensuration. Gramsci and Foucault, on the other hand, investigated dynamics of commensuration not based on force but on co-option and encompassment. Feminist literature shows in political practices the possibilities of emancipatory solidarities genuinely negotiated that do not contemplate the subjection of weakest partners by the hegemon. Transformative mediation engages with the issues mentioned so far and offers a viable and robust alternative to commensuration and hegemony as differences management and control.

‘[E]mpowerment means the restoration to individuals of a sense of their value and strength and their own capacity to make decisions and hand life's problems. Recognition means the evocation in individuals of acknowledgment, understanding or empathy for the situation and the views of the other. When both of these processes are held central in the practice of mediation, parties are helped to transform their conflict interaction—from destructive to constructive—and to experience the personal effects of such transformation’ (Bush and Folger, 2005, p. 22–23).

For a systematic critique of global civil society as a tool of control, see Amoore and Langley (2004).

Feminist literature has widely reflected on the reification of male rationality and female emotionality and the ensuing domination by the former over the latter.