[Reader-list] [Announcements] The Open Space Seminar Series on the World Social Forum - Programme for September 2003

[Madhuresh]

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September 6 2003

Are Other Worlds Possible ?

Cultures of Politics and the World Social Forum

Dear friends

We are very pleased to announce and invite you to the Open Space
Seminar Series on the above theme at the University of Delhi, which
started on August 19 and will continue through more or less every ten
days till December 19.

The World Social Forum, initiated in Brazil in January 2001 as a
challenge to the World Economic Forum, is now widely seen as being a
highly significant initiative towards democratising economics and
politics on a world scale. The motto the WSF has coined for itself is
nothing less than : 'Another World Is Possible !'. The next world
meeting of the Forum - analysis, debate, protest, celebration, and
positing alternative ways of living and being - is scheduled to be
held in Mumbai between January 16-21 2004. But the Forum is as yet
hardly known in India, especially the interesting culture of politics
it promises to offer, the culture of 'open space'.

THE OPEN SPACE SERIES is designed to address this gap, leading up to
the world meeting. It is organised in two inter-weaving streams, one
'Exploring the Forum and its politics' and the other 'Confronting
Empires : The World Social Forum'. The first stream, alternating with
the second will attempt to explore the relationship of the Forum with
the Empires that attempt to bind us, the Empires that the Forum has
decided to confront, while grappling simultaneously with the evolving
culture of politics and the 'other worlds' that the WSF promises to
offer. The second stream will deal with the structural issues the WSF
has been concerned with - economic globalisation and militarisation
and war - as also with the new themes that have been added to this
vocabulary : Religious fundamentalism and communalism, caste, and
patriarchy.

This series is being organised by The History Society Ramjas College.
The effort is to hold the seminars in different colleges of Delhi
University. Each session begins at around 12 noon.

Plays, music, book displays and poetry are also being woven into the
Open Space. A Reader on the World Social Forum has been prepared (and
is available at each session or from us here), and towards the end a
booklet may emerge, made up of reports on the various sessions. Let's
see.

We give below the proposed programme for the series. The dates are
fixed, the locations for all the seminars till the end of September
are now finalised, and the list of panellists and venues for all the
remaining sessions is being finalised. We hope you will definitely
make it a point to join us.

Please feel free to circulate this message widely and to encourage
your associates and friends to also come.

With warm greetings in welcome,

Mukul Mangalik Jai Sen Madhuresh Kumar

Contact details for more information :

Madhuresh Kumar and/or Jai Sen

A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024

Ph 011/5155 1521, 2433 2451

Eml <mailto:openspaceseries at hotmail.com>openspaceseries at hotmail.com
cc jai.sen at vsnl.com

For further information on the World Social Forum:

World Social Forum

<http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp>http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp

World Social Forum India

<http://www.wsfindia.org/>www.wsfindia.org

WSF India Secretariat

wsfindia at vsnl.net

European Social Forum (Paris, November 12-16 2003)

<http://www.fse-esf.org/>www.fse-esf.org

_____________________________________________________________________________

OPEN SPACE SERIES : PROPOSED SCHEDULE - EACH SESSION AT ~ NOON

August 19, Tuesday : Cultures of Politics : The Idea of the World Social Forum

Venue : Seminar Room, Ramjas College, University of Delhi (North
Campus), Delhi 110 007

Panellists :

Veena Das, Professor, University of Delhi and The Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, US

Nivedita Menon, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi

Jai Sen, independent researcher and civil actor, New Delhi

[Some 200 people came, and after a long discussion, we screened Amar
Kanwar's film 'Nights of Prophecy'.]

August 29, Friday : Empire 1 : Globalisation - Questions of Capital,
Labour, and Sustainability

Venue : Seminar Room, Ramjas College, University of Delhi (North
Campus), Delhi 110 007

Panellists :

Praful Bidwai, journalist and commentator, New Delhi

Jean Drze, Delhi School of Economics

Jayati Ghosh, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal
Nehru University

Mahesh Rangarajan, Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and Library

[Again, some 200 people came; and after the discussion, we screened
the film 'Jari Mari'.]

NEXT SESSION :

September 9, Tuesday : The WSF and Old vs New Politics : Parties,
social movements, and civil groups

Venue : Room 22, Arts Faculty, University of Delhi (North Campus)

Time : 12 noon

Expected panellists :

Mary John, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Vinod Raina, Eklavya, Jubilee South, and All India People's Science Network

Kavita Srivastava, PUCL, Jaipur

Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India (Marxist)

and perhaps one other panellist,

+ with Aditya Nigam, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, as Moderator

After the discussion, we will be screening Amar Kanwar's film
'Freedom'. 55 min.

September 19, Friday : Empire 2 : Authoritarianism, Militarisation, &
Nuclearisation : Questions of War, Peace, and Terror

Venue : Auditorium, I P College, University of Delhi (North Campus)

Time : 12 noon

Invited panellists :

Rohini Hensman, journalist, activist, Sri Lanka

Ashis Nandi, author, commentator, Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, Delhi

Achin Vanaik, journalist, commentator, and anti-nuclear activist, New Delhi

September 26 Friday : Contested Space ? The Forum as Space, the Forum
as Movement

Venue : Gargi College, University of Delhi (South Campus)

Time : 12 noon

Invited panellists :

Dinesh Abrol, Delhi Science Forum, Member WSF India Organising
Committee, former convenor, WSF India Programme Committee for Asian
Social Forum (2002-3)

Ashok Bharti, Convenor, National Coordinator, National Conference of
Dalit Organisations (NACDOR), and Member, Member WSF India Organising
Committee

Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South, Bangkok and Bangalore

Jai Sen, independent researcher and civil actor, New Delhi

+ with Razia Ismail Abbasi, India Alliance for Child Rights & Women's
Coalition Programme Centre, as Moderator

[DUSSEHRA BREAK]

October 21, Tuesday : Empire 3 : Caste and Race : Questions of
Identity and Exclusion

October 31, Friday : The Politics of Boundary : The Question of the
WSF and (Non)Violence

November 11, Tuesday : Empire 4 : Fundamentalism, Communalism, and Nationalism

November 25, Tuesday : The WSF and New Internationalisms : The
Culture and politics of Cyberspace

December 2, Tuesday : Empire 5 : Patriarchy, Sexuality, and Questions
of Openness

December 12, Friday : How Open ? Is Socialism the Only Possible Other World ?

December 19, Friday : Cultures of Politics : The University as Open Space ?

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And please excuse cross-posting..
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