Media
Le Forum social retisse sa Toile
Le Courriel Suisse Online
URL: https://lecourrier.ch/2021/01/11/le-forum-social-retisse-sa-toile/
« Del otro mundo posible… al otro mundo necesario »
Rebelión, June 15, 2016Online
URL: https://rebelion.org/del-otro-mundo-posible-al-otro-mundo-necesario/
"The traditional North-South distinction no longer makes sense today"
Foro Social Mundial: ‘La distinción tradicional Norte-Sur hoy ya no tiene más sentido’
Alternativa LatinoamericanaOnline
URL: http://alternativalatinoamericana.blogspot.com/2015/04/foro-social-mundial-la-distincion.html
Acknowledging Strength in Plurality: The World Social Forum 2016 Through the Prism of Assemblage Thinking
by Carminda Mac Lorin
Published by Studies in Social Justice
In this article, we contribute to debates regarding the nature and role of the World Social Forum (WSF) in the post-2010 period by employing the prism of assemblage thinking. By using the WSF 2016 held in Montreal, Canada as a case study, we outline the political potential of the assemblage approach, which allows activists and researchers of social justice and contemporary contentious spaces to address some of the intrinsic paradoxes in such mobilizations. The observation of some paradigmatic moments from the WSF 2016 offers a glimpse into the heterogeneity that shapes it. We address elements as diverse as actors' intentionalities, migration policies, urban landscapes, power relations, contents, and absences, arguing that assemblage thinking opens up innovative possibilities for analyzing multidimensional phenomena such as the WSF.
The World Social Forum: the paradoxical quest for strength in plurality The World Social Forum: the paradoxical quest for strength in plurality
by Carminda Mac Lorin
Published by Globalizations
October 21, 2020
In this reflexive essay, I explore how the present and the future of the World Social Forum are intimately related to the ability of its actors to acknowledge and actively address the inherent tensions of open spaces. The former must compose themselves articulating seemingly opposites: ideals shared within the World Social Forum vs. some practices not in accordance with its principles (enhanced in contexts of urgency); claimed horizontality vs. dynamic power relations; internal plurality vs. the need to act in unity to achieve systemic global change, amongst others. I will propose perspectives on how the strength of the WSF can be seen as its capacity to continue building radical hope for a positive shift of paradigm within progressive civil society: from divergences to resilient complementarities.
Biography
For fifteen years, Dr. Carminda Mac Lorin has been involved in many international programs committed to improving populations' lives and promoting civic participation through innovative mechanisms. Her main focus has been contributing to global citizenship education by building creative spaces (including numerous workshops, mentoring processes, and participatory events), and processes of citizen empowerment, especially for and by youth. She held a leadership position for the Global Civil Society where she was the general co-coordinator of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Montreal, Canada in 2016, with over 35,000 participants from approximately 120 countries. She is now the General Director of Katalizo, a nonprofit organization, as well as the coordinator of the citizenship education Summer School of the Institut du Nouveau Monde. Mac Lorin has a PhD in applied human sciences from the University de Montréal.