Place and Base:

the Public Sphere in the Social Forum Process

Ellen Reese, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Kadambari Anantram, Gary Coyne, Matheu Kaneshiro, Ashley N. Koda, Roy Kwon, and Preeta Saxena[1]

v. 7-21-08 7864 words

IROWS Working Paper #45 at http://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows45/irows45.htm

This paper compares survey results of attendees at the World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre in 2005 with surveys from the WSF07 in Nairobi and the United States Social Forum in 2007 in Atlanta to study continuities and changes in those who are participating in the Social Forum process. And it compares these results with other global surveys and with other studies of Social Forum meetings. The purpose of these comparisons is to examine the question of stability and change in the composition of activists and social movements participating in the social forum process, and to look for differences that might indicate changes or that might stem from the fact that the meetings that we studied were held in different locations and were organized under rather different circumstances and with varying degrees of support from the host governments. Brazil is a semiperipheral country in Latin America. Kenya is a peripheral country in East Africa. The United States is the reigning hegemon of the global system.

Much of the research on participation in social movements focuses on involvement in protests and social movement organizations, rather than in gatherings where the goals, values, and strategies of social movements are discussed. In particular, there has not been much formal academic research on the social and political characteristics of the hundreds of thousands of people who have attended meetings of the World Social Forum (WSF). Some of the activists seek to transform the Social Forum process into a “movement of movements,” or a global organization that can take political stands and organize actions (Patomaki and Teivainen 2004; Chase-Dunn and Reese 2007; Smith et al. 2008). As it currently exists, however, the World Social Forum charter is constituted as an arena for discussion and debate that is more akin to “movement half-way houses” that develop people’s oppositional consciousness and prepare them to take collective action within movements (Morris 1984; see also Gamson 1992). At these meetings, participants from a variety of movements and organizations gather to exchange ideas, develop new skills, coordinate actions, and to expand and strengthen their networks.

Prior research on the WSF is mainly based on scholars’ observations of workshops, reports produced by participants, and media reports (e.g., see Byrd 2005; Hammond 2003; Ponniah and Fisher 2003; Reitan 2007; Smith 2004c; Smith et al. 2008). While often insightful and revealing, these studies focuses mostly on the views and characteristics of the more visible and vocal attendees, such as those leading workshops or giving speeches. Other research is based on observations of, or interviews with, members of the WSF’s two leadership bodies, the International Council and the Organizing Council (Patomaki and Teivanen 2004; Schönleitner 2003; Teivanen forthcoming; de Sousa Santos 2006). Della Porta and her colleagues provide the most extensive academic research on Social Fora participants; their work combines data from surveys, participant observation, interviews, and documentary analysis, but it focuses exclusively on local and regional Social Forums in Western Europe (della Porta 2005a,b; della Porta et al 2006). To our knowledge, there have only been a few surveys of WSF participants besides our own whose results have been published: Fundaçao Perseu Abramo’s (FPA) survey of participants at the 2001 meeting and IBASE’s survey of participants at the 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 meetings.

To better understand the types of people that attend the WSF, our research team collected a total of 639 surveys from attendees of the 2005 WSF meeting at Porto Alegre, Brazil, 535 surveys from attendees of the 2007 WSF meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. We also collected 582 surveys from attendees of the 2007 US Social Forum meeting in Atlanta, USA. We targeted adults, but a few respondents were below the age of 18. Respondents completed paper copies of questionnaires, which collected information on respondents’ demographic and socio-economic characteristics, their political views, their affiliations with different types of organizations and social movements, and their political activities. Our 2007 WSF and USSF surveys were more extensive than our 2005 survey. Questionnaires were collected in English, Spanish, and Portuguese at WSF 2005; English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Swahili at WSF 2007; Spanish and English at USSF 2007, and Table 1 displays the distribution of respondents in each language. [2]

Table 1

Demographic and descriptive statistics of WSF and USSF participants (valid responses)

	WSF 2005	WSF 2007	USSF 2007
Language of Questionnaire
English	32.0%	66.7%	80.2%
Spanish Portuguese French Swahili	22.0% 46.0% n/a n/a	06.0% 05.4% 12.7% 09.2%	19.8% n/a n/a n/a
Region of Residence
South America	70.2%	07.3%	01.1%
Europe	10.7%	18.9%	00.4%
North America	8.5%	09.7%	95.2%
Asia	7.7%	07.1%	00.7%
Africa	1.4%	55.4%	00.0%
Central America (incl. Mexico) Oceania	1.1% 0.3%	01.2% 00.4%	02.3% 00.4%
Gender
Male Female	52.0% 48.0%	54.0% 46.0%	37.9% 62.1%
Age
Under 18	04.0%	00.4%	03.4%
18-25	37.0%	24.7%	27.2%
26-35	29.0%	24.3%	27.9%
36-45	13.0%	19.8%	12.5%
46-55	10.0%	19.3%	11.5%
56-65	05.0%	08.8%	13.6%
Over 65	01.0%	02.6%	03.9%
Marital Status Married Not Married Domestic/Civil Union	n/a n/a n/a	40.2% 59.8% n/a	24.6% 67.8% 08.6%
Custody of Children <18 Years Yes No	n/a n/a	37.5% 62.5%	15.2% 84.8%
Race/Ethnicity
Black	14.0%	46.6%	12.7%
Middle Eastern	00.9%	02.0%	01.4%
Asian/Pacific Islander	05.9%	08.6%	04.8%
Indigenous	01.8%	03.0%	00.7%
Latino/Hispanic	06.3%	03.0%	15.2%
White	38.7%	30.1%	48.6%
Multiracial Other/ Unclear Answer Nationality Religion	09.3% 06.3% 14.7% 02.3%	03.0% 3.6 n/a n/a	10.0% 06.5% n/a n/a
Immigrant
No Yes	n/a n/a	88.4% 11.6%	82.0% 18.0%
Religiosity Not Religious Somewhat Religious Very Religious	n/a n/a n/a	33.8% 27.6%