Global Civil Society in Action : Dilemmas of Democratization in the World Social Forum

Starting from the emergence of the globalization protest movement in the late 1990s, this new book explores how democratic principles can be applied in transnational and global contexts. Focusing on the World Social Forum (WSF), Teivo Teivainen analyzes the various dilemmas of democratization in a dynamic process that is explicitly global but has many local variations. He acknowledges that states and democratic institutions play a significant role, but also argues it is more important to analyze the extent to which particular social processes are democratic, than to rely on nation-state-centric categories of democracy. Using the World Social Forum as a case study, Teivainen provides a detailed history of its emergence and subsequent global expansion, and keenly analyzes the internal and external challenges it faces in the future. Making an important contribution to theoretical and political debates, this new volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of globalization, social movements, global civil society and democracy.