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Sara Koopman

Abstract

Rumors were that 90 women were raped in the youth camp at the Fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, in January of 2005. Later reports were that there had been two. Yet the rumors speak to how the space of the forum is socially produced and what sort of space it is. How does space then shape the forum and what we can do from there? Lefebvre argues that revolutionary festivals are an important challenge to the abstract space of capitalism. Revolutionary festivals can liberate us, but our bodies must be free if we are to create a revolutionary space, another world. We need freer revolutionary spaces from which to nurture our struggles for freedom. Another forum is possible. Honoring our bodies, and making room for pleasure, is a way to create a freer forum. It is also an effective strategy for building that other world that we know is possible.

Author Biography

Sara Koopman is a feminist political geographer interested in doing feminist geopolitics in resistance to political violence in everyday life. She recently completed an M.A. in Women’s Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where she is now a PhD student in Geography. After many years as a Spanish interpreter and Latin America solidarity activist, she came back to academia to find new ways to build connections across distance and difference.

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