UCR Research Working Group on Transnational Social Movements

“The World Social Forum Process and Transnational Social Movements”

Since 2004 the Transnational Social Movements Research Working Group at the University of California-Riverside has been studying the World Social Forum process in order to better understand the potentials for transnational social movements to engage in effect collective action in world politics. Professors Ellen Reese and Christopher Chase-Dunn of the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS) have led this effort with the help of a large number of graduate students and some undergraduates at UCR. One of the main activities has been to carry out surveys of the attendees at the 2005 World Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil and the 2007 World Social Forum meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. These surveys study the transnational activist segment of global civil society as represented by the participants in these two global meetings. Results of the surveys are reported in working papers that are listed below.

WSF 2005: Porto Alegre

Five UCR students attended the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil January 26-31, 2005 to do participant observation and survey research on transnational social movements. They are Rebecca Giem, Erika Gutierrez, Linda Kim, Christine Petit, and Darragh White. They were accompanied by UCR Sociology Professor Ellen Reese. Pictures we took at the WSF05 are at http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/wsfpics.htm

The Research Working Group on Transnational Social Movements obtained over 600 responses to our survey at the 2005 World Social Forum to learn more about the characteristics of people that participate in the Forum and their perceptions and beliefs about the relations among the participating social movements. We want to facilitate cooperation and concerted action by helping activists to understand the interconnections between different progressive movements. The English, Spanish and Portuguese versions of the survey are at

http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/wsfsurvey.htm

WSF 2007: Nairobi

Six UCR graduate students attended the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, January 20-24, 2007 to do participant observation and survey research on transnational social movements, especially focusing on the labor movement. They are Rebecca Giem, Erika Gutierrez, Linda Kim, Christine Petit, Toi Carter and Roy Kwon. They were accompanied by UCR Sociology Professor Christopher Chase-Dunn. Pictures we took at the WSF05 are at http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/nairobipics.htm

The Research Working Group on Transnational Social Movements obtained over 500 responses to our survey at the 2007 World Social Forum. The English, Spanish, Frence, Swahili and Portuguese versions of the survey are at

http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/wsfsurvey2.htm

USSF 2007: Atlanta

The Research Working Group on Transnational Social Movements received support from the U.C. Labor and Employment Research Fund (LERF ) to study the participation of labor union members, union leaders and labor activists in the United States Social Forum that was held in June 26-July 1 of 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia. Our LERF proposal is at: http://irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/lerfprop.htm

We observed sessions sponsored by labor groups, and other sessions and we obtained over 500 responses from attendees to our survey. Our session reports are at http://irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/sessionreportstoc.htm

Pictures that we took in Atlanta are at http://irows.ucr.edu/research/tsmstudy/ucrussfpics.htm

Working papers from our project are:

IROWS Working Paper #17 Ellen Reese, Chris Chase-Dunn, Erika Gutierrez and Rebecca Giem

“Labor and other anti-systemic movements at the World Social Forum”

IROWS Working Paper #21 Chris Chase-Dunn and Ellen Reese, “Global party formation in world historical perspective”

IROWS Working Paper #25 Christine Petit “Web Contours of Social Movements”

IROWS Working Paper #26 Christine Petit, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Ellen Reese and Richard Niemeyer

“Transnational solidarity and divisions among global activists”

IROWS Working Paper #29 Ellen Reese, Mark Herkenrath, Chris Chase-Dunn, Rebecca Giem, Erika Gutierrez, Linda Kim, and Christine Petit

“Alliances and Divisions with the ‘movement of movements’: survey findings from the 2005 World Social Forum”

IROWS Working Paper #31 Ellen Reese, Mark Herkenrath, Chris Chase-Dunn, Rebecca Giem, Erika Gutierrez, Linda Kim and Christine Petit 

“North-South contradictions and bridges at the World Social Forum”

Published works from our project:

Christopher Chase-Dunn 2005 “Global public social science” The American Sociologist 36,3-4:121-132 (Fall/Winter).

Chase-Dunn, Christopher, Ellen Reese, Mark Herkenrath, Rebecca Giem, Erika Guttierrez, Linda Kim, and Christine Petit. 2007 [forthcoming].

“North-South Contradictions and Bridges at the World Social Forum,” in NORTH AND SOUTH IN THE WORLD POLITICAL ECONOMY,

edited by Rafael Reuveny and William R. Thompson. Blackwell.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Ellen Reese Forthcoming “Global party formation in world historical perspective” in Katarina Sehm-Patomaki and Marko Ulvila (eds.)

Global Party Formation. London: Zed Press.

Smith, Jackie, Marina Karides, et al. forthcoming [2007]. The World Social Forum and the Challenges of Global Democracy. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

UCR Institute for Research on World-Systems

University of California-Riverside