This comprehensive volume provides a glimpse into the wide-ranging discussions, debates and arguments which have gone into making the World Social Forum (WSF) one of the more prominent platforms of alternative ideas and practices in the present world. Building on the First Edition (published in India by the Viveka Foundation, New Delhi in 2004), this Second Edition has been revised and updated to include coverage of those Social Forums that took place as recent as the summer of 2007.

Here is what some critics had to say about the First Edition:

If you want to know how the World Social Forum was formed and what the opinion of some of the main actors in it is on issues such as globalization, transnational feminism, justice and peace among others, this is the book to read. - VirtualActivism.org

A useful array of writings on the entire WSF process--the global context in which it emerged, the manner in which different movements and ideologies have interacted and shaped this process and the manner in which it has itself grown in the past years. - Aniket Alam, The Hindu

An excellent effort at combining both information and critical reflection on the World Social Forum phenomenon. - Massimo De Angelis

World Social Forum: Challenging Empires is a stupendous collection of essays, documents and statements, a critical self-consideration of the WSF process by a variety of people. - Milan Rai, The New Standard

A stellar collection of essays. Indispensable reading. - Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel Center

Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements
Notes on the Editors
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction: Critically Engaging with the World Social Forum

PART 1 Antecedents: Critical Perspectives
- For Struggles, Global and National - Samir Amin, interviewed by V. Sridhar
- Coming: A Rerun of the 1930s - Walden Bello
- The Road From Genoa - Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, Brendan Smith
- Towards a New International? - Michael Löwy
- Transnational Feminism and the Struggle for Global Justice - Johanna Brenner
- Towards Another Anarchism - Andrej Grubacic
- Empire, Global Power Centres, and People's Alliances - Muto Ichiyo
- The Global Justice and Solidarity Movement and the World Social Forum - Peter Waterman

World Social Forum Documents
- World Social Forum Charter of Principles - WSF International Council, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2001
- WSF IC--Nature, Responsibilities, Composition, and Functioning - WSF Brazilian Organising Committee, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2001
- Note of Information, Fourth Day Activities at WSF Nairobi - WSF Organising Committee, WSF Nairobi, Kenya, 2007
- Call for Day of Action/Mobilisation January 26th 2008 - WSF International Council, Berlin, Germany, 2007

PART 2 Critical Engagement: The World Social Forum
- The World Social Forum As Open Space - Chico Whitaker
- The World Social Forum: Arena or Actor? - Teivo Teivainen
- Another World Is Necessary - Nawal El Saadawi
- The Secret of Fire - Peter Waterman
- Is It Possible to Put a Human Face on Globalisation and War? - ILC
- World Forum Movement: Abandon or Contaminate - Linden Farre
- De-Centering the Forum: Is Another Critique of the Forum Possible? - Michal Osterweil
- Another (Also Feminist) World Is Possible - Sonia E. Alvarez, with Nalu Faria and Miriam Nobre
- How Open? the Forum As Logo, the Forum As Religion - JaiSen
- The World Social Forum 3 and Tensions In the Construction of Global Alternative Thinking - Gina Vargas
- The World Social Forum: Toward a Counter-Hegemonic Globalisation - Boaventura de Sousa Santos
- World Social Forum's 'Many Alternatives' to Globalisation - P.J. James
- The World Social Forum, Beyond Critique and Deconstruction - Emma Dowling, interviewed by Rebecca Shah

Movement And Other Independent Documents
- Call of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 2002
- Mumbai Declaration 2004 - Mumbai Resistance, Mumbai, India, January 2004
- Porto Alegre Manifesto - Group of Nineteen, WSF Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 2005

PART 3 Globalising The Forum: The Forum In The World
- Globalising the WSF: Ironies, Contrasts, Challenges - Achin Vanaik
- Citizen Mobilization In the Americas and the Birth of the WSF - Dorval Brunelle
- The World Social Forum In Africa - Jean Nanga
- The World Social Forum: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives - Irene León and Sally Burch
- Another U.S. Is Happening!Judy Rebick
- The Road to Atlanta - Michael Leon Guerrero, Tammy Bang Luu, Cindy Wiesner
- Asterix On the St. Lawrence - Pierre Beaudet

Movement And Other Independent Documents
- The Bamako Appeal - World Forum for Alternatives, Third World Forum, Forum for Another Mali, ENDA, and others, WSF Bamako, Mali, January 2006
- Call of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Caracas, Venezuela, January 2006
- Declaration of Social Movements - Social Movements Assembly, WSF Nairobi, Kenya, January 2007

PART 4 Looking Beyond: Possible Futures, Possible Worlds
- WSF: Where to Now? - Michael Albert
- The Twilight of Vanguardism - David Graeber
- The World Social Forum and the Future - Boaventura de Sousa Santos
- Women's Global Charter for Humanity - World March of Women
- Other Worlds Are (Already) Possible - Arturo Escobar
- Glossary
- References

Jai Sen, an architect and a housing-rights activist, is an independent researcher living in New Delhi. Peter Waterman worked for the institute of Social Studies, The Hague, for nearly thirty years. He is the author of Globalisation, Social Movements, and the New Internationalisms.

2007: 475 pages, 6x9, resources, bibliography and index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55164-308-3

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-55164-309-0