The World Social Forum: Social Forums as Resistance Relays

This article examines the World Social Forum and the global social forum process it has spurred by encouraging the creation of autonomous social forums on various levels, from the local to the global. The article argues that social forums, these "open spaces" for groups, movements, and networks opposed to neoliberalism, start to function as "resistance relays." On the basis of their common opposition to capitalism, social forums provide a catalytic context for generating exchanges, linkages, convergences and mobilizations. As such, they are strategic instruments of alter-globalization movements. While social forums seek to forge novel practices and visions over social change that point to a novel logic of social movement based resistance, they are riddled with tensions and challenges.