Beyond the square: changing dynamics at the World Social Forum

The World Social Forum (WSF) will hold its next global gathering in March 2015 in Tunis. Since 2001, the forums took place annually around the same dates as the World Economic Forum in Davos. Organized every two years since 2007, the event has now become somewhat less visible. Some of the reasons for the frustration with the WSF are related to dilemmas of representation. For the activists that reject representation as a political principle, the forums have been too embedded in traditional politics. For those who want to build global political parties, the WSF’s open space has lacked the capacity for action. These are some of the questions that need to be debated on the road to the next WSF in Tunis.