Papers - Conference 2009 - Institute of Latin American Studies

een to stand up to neo-liberalism and to work for a development of an alternative (Borras Jr.2008: 260).Due to global risks such as global warming, environmental degradation, terrorism,pandemics, poverty, mass migration, etcetera – all of which are related to the consumptiondriven neo-liberal economic model – the future of the world is highly uncertain. What seemsto be of a more certain nature, however, is that “[…] old truisms and well-worn practices”have proved not to be working very well (Smith 2004: 221); at least not if global sustainabledevelopment is what is aimed for. 8 Thus, what MST, La Via Campesina, and many other civilsociety actors around the world are stressing is the urge for an alternative world (Curran 2007;Klein 2001; Becker 2007; Seone & Taddei 2002; Petras 2002; Santos 2008; Stedile 2004).However diverse these movements, and other actors, may be, and whether this diversity is tobe considered beneficial or not, a belief in the possibility of another world, and a consensusplacing corporate-led neoliberal globalization as the main target for resistance seem to bestrong and important unifying factors.In the year of 2001, as a response and alternative to the “World Economic Forum” 9(WEF), social movements and other social actors met for the first time in the Brazilian city ofPorto Alegre in what has become known as the “World Social Forum” (WSF). One of theorganizers in the forefront for this event was MST (Plummer & Ranum 2002: 21). The WSFhas since then become “[…] the world‟s largest meeting of civil society” (Becker 2007: 203)and the “[…] most consistent manifestation of counter-hegemonic globalization” (Santos:2008). Central to the forum is to “[…] rethink globalization”, and to put “[…] human rights,social justice, and ecological sustainability before profits” (Ibid.207). 10 Another central aspectof the WSF is that there is no specific underlying political ideology of how to construct analternative world or of how such world is suppose to be. This opens up for a broad range ofparticipants that may have different ideas of how to restrain and/or transform globalization aswell as what issues that should be in focus (Curran 2007: 9). In other words, the WSF seemsto be an inclusive event both when it comes to scale and thematics (Santos 2008: 250). As8 “Sustainable development” is a somewhat diffuse concept with various definitions. The definition I havechosen to follow in this paper is the one put forward by the World Commission on Environment andDevelopment: ”Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. (WCED 1987). For further elaborationon this definition, see WCED 1987. See also Chasek 2008 and Reeves & D‟Costa 2008.9 This is a meeting, held in the Swizz city of Davos once a year, in which corporate and governmental elites ofthe world gathers to discuss the forthcoming of economic globalization (Becker 2007: 203). See alsoWeforum.org.10 See also WSF 2002.6