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:
“I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)