Transnational Feminisms and the World Social Forum: Encounters and Transformations in Anti-globalization Spaces

Authors

Janet Conway

Abstract

What would it mean to place feminism(s) – as movement(s), politics and ethics – at the centre of our understandings of the World Social Forum? The author argues that transnational feminisms have been among the significant forces constituting the WSF, although this has been uneven across different time-spaces and scales of the WSF. She further asserts that transnational feminisms, understood as movement(s), politics and ethics, are making particular and irreducible contributions to contemporary emancipatory movements in and beyond the WSF. This study historicizes and analyzes some major expressions of transnational feminism at the WSF with implications for understanding the inter-relationality of feminisms, anti-globalization movements and the WSF and for illuminating contemporary debates over the future of feminism taking place in transnational feminist networks.

Author Biography

Janet Conway teaches social movements, feminism and democratic theory at Ryerson University in Toronto. She is a long-time feminist and activist in women’s and antipoverty movements in Canada; through the 1990s, in cross-sectoral social justice coalitions; and since 2002, in the Toronto Social Forum.

Recommended Citation

Conway, Janet (2007) "Transnational Feminisms and the World Social Forum: Encounters and Transformations in Anti-globalization Spaces," Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 8: Iss. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol8/iss3/5