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The Southern African Social Forum (SASF) was a Social Forum conference held in a different Southern Africa county each year.

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94-831: It is organised in the spirit of the World Social Forum but is not organized by the WSF Secretariat or the International Council [1] The SASF emerged from the Africa Social Forum (ASF) which was held in Mali in 2001 and Ethiopia in 2002. At the Ethiopia ASF it was agreed in Forums needed to be organised on a more local level. Amongst other things this was to overcome problems of prohibitive transport costs. The 2003 SASF

188-466: A choice. What is your choice? What is your vision of the world?" Another one of the founders of the WSF, Cándido Grzybowski has said of the annual meetings, "The numerous recent crises are expressions of the contradictions and limitations of the form of global capitalism that has been imposed on humanity and the earth. The assertion that "another world is possible" is now an absolute necessity." Since 2001,

282-409: A computer without regard to location. This included accounting, software development, and engineering design. Student exchange programs became popular after World War II , and are intended to increase the participants' understanding and tolerance of other cultures, as well as improving their language skills and broadening their social horizons. Between 1963 and 2006 the number of students studying in

376-402: A continuum with the local, national and regional. At one end of the continuum lie social and economic relations and networks which are organized on a local and/or national basis; at the other end lie social and economic relations and networks which crystallize on the wider scale of regional and global interactions. Globalization can refer to those spatial-temporal processes of change which underpin

470-468: A foreign country increased 9 times. Since the 1980s, modern globalization has spread rapidly through the expansion of capitalism and neoliberal ideologies. The implementation of neoliberal policies has allowed for the privatization of public industry, deregulation of laws or policies that interfered with the free flow of the market, as well as cut-backs to governmental social services. These neoliberal policies were introduced to many developing countries in

564-673: A positive or a negative phenomenon. Economic globalization comprises: globalization of production; which refers to the obtainment of goods and services from a particular source from locations around the globe to benefit from difference in cost and quality. Likewise, it also comprises globalization of markets; which is defined as the union of different and separate markets into a massive global marketplace. Economic globalization also includes competition, technology, and corporations and industries. Current globalization trends can be largely accounted for by developed economies integrating with less developed economies by means of foreign direct investment ,

658-662: A series of agreements to remove trade restrictions. GATT's successor was the World Trade Organization (WTO), which provided a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements and a dispute resolution process. Exports nearly doubled from 8.5% of total gross world product in 1970 to 16.2% in 2001. The approach of using global agreements to advance trade stumbled with the failure of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiation. Many countries then shifted to bilateral or smaller multilateral agreements, such as

752-413: A state is not dependent on another, then there is no way for either state to be mutually affected by the other. This is one of the driving forces behind global connections and trade; without either, globalization would not have emerged the way it did and states would still be dependent on their own production and resources to work. This is one of the arguments surrounding the idea of early globalization. It

846-520: A third of the world's human population—have used the services of the Internet. Growth of globalization has never been smooth. One influential event was the late 2000s recession , which was associated with lower growth (in areas such as cross-border phone calls and Skype usage) or even temporarily negative growth (in areas such as trade) of global interconnectedness. The China–United States trade war , starting in 2018, negatively affected trade between

940-485: A transformation in the organization of human affairs by linking together and expanding human activity across regions and continents. Without reference to such expansive spatial connections, there can be no clear or coherent formulation of this term. ... A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements: extensity (stretching), intensity, velocity and impact. Held and his co-writers' definition of globalization in that same book as "transformation in

1034-405: Is agency-extended globalization, the circulation of agents of different institutions, organizations, and polities , including imperial agents. Object-extended globalization, a third form, is the movement of commodities and other objects of exchange. He calls the transmission of ideas, images, knowledge, and information across world-space disembodied globalization, maintaining that it is currently

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1128-637: Is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil , which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization. The World Social Forum can be considered a visible manifestation of global civil society , bringing together non governmental organizations , advocacy campaigns, and formal and informal social movements seeking international solidarity . The World Social Forum prefers to define itself as "an open space – plural, diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan – that stimulates

1222-461: Is argued that archaic globalization did not function in a similar manner to modern globalization because states were not as interdependent on others as they are today. Also posited is a "multi-polar" nature to archaic globalization, which involved the active participation of non-Europeans. Because it predated the Great Divergence in the nineteenth century, where Western Europe pulled ahead of

1316-450: Is filled with a range of norms , claims, beliefs, and narratives about the phenomenon itself. James and Steger stated that the concept of globalization "emerged from the intersection of four interrelated sets of ' communities of practice ' ( Wenger , 1998): academics, journalists, publishers/editors, and librarians." They note the term was used "in education to describe the global life of the mind"; in international relations to describe

1410-449: Is largely organized via Northern donors and their NGOs. Mngxitama also describes how popular organizations in the global South are systematically marginalized or included in a deeply subordinated manner. Many grassroots movements in the global South boycott the forum and the NGOs that gate-keep participation in the forum and some actively oppose it as just one more space of domination. There

1504-399: Is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term globalization first appeared in the early 20th century (supplanting an earlier French term mondialisation ), developed its current meaning sometime in the second half of the 20th century, and came into popular use in the 1990s to describe the unprecedented international connectivity of

1598-409: Is used to refer to the fear of globalization, though it can also mean the fear of balloons . There are both distal and proximate causes which can be traced in the historical factors affecting globalization. Large-scale globalization began in the 19th century. Archaic globalization conventionally refers to a phase in the history of globalization including globalizing events and developments from

1692-734: The East . Without the spread of traditional ideas from the East, Western globalization would not have emerged the way it did. The interactions of states were not on a global scale and most often were confined to Asia, North Africa , the Middle East , and certain parts of Europe. With early globalization, it was difficult for states to interact with others that were not close. Eventually, technological advances allowed states to learn of others' existence and thus another phase of globalization can occur. The third has to do with inter-dependency, stability, and regularity. If

1786-512: The Great Recession . New opposing views from some economists have argued such trends are a result of price drops and in actuality, trade volume is increasing, especially with agricultural products, natural resources and refined petroleum. Economic globalization is the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross- border movement of goods, services, technology, and capital. Whereas

1880-604: The Indus Valley civilization in the third millennium BCE . This archaic globalization existed during the Hellenistic Age , when commercialized urban centers enveloped the axis of Greek culture that reached from India to Spain, including Alexandria and the other Alexandrine cities. Early on, the geographic position of Greece and the necessity of importing wheat forced the Greeks to engage in maritime trade. Trade in ancient Greece

1974-940: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions , capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, sociocultural resources, and the natural environment. Academic literature commonly divides globalization into three major areas: economic globalization , cultural globalization , and political globalization . Proponents of globalization point to economic growth and broader societal development as benefits, while opponents claim globalizing processes are detrimental to social well-being due to ethnocentrism , environmental consequences, and other potential drawbacks. Between 1990 and 2010, globalisation progressed rapidly, driven by

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2068-492: The International Organization for Standardization , which is composed of representatives from various national standards organizations . A multinational corporation , or worldwide enterprise, is an organization that owns or controls the production of goods or services in one or more countries other than their home country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation, a transnational corporation, or

2162-584: The Movimento dos Sem-Terra and the World Social Forum are not well known. The WSF has, especially in recent years, been strongly criticised for replacing popular movements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A delegation from the South Africa -based Abahlali baseMjondolo criticised the event's 2009 iteration as "dominated by" non-governmental organizations. The group also argued in 2007 that

2256-694: The Thirty Years' War , and demand for commodities, most particularly slaves . The triangular trade made it possible for Europe to take advantage of resources within the Western Hemisphere . The transfer of animal stocks, plant crops, and epidemic diseases associated with Alfred W. Crosby 's concept of the Columbian exchange also played a central role in this process. European, Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian , and Chinese merchants were all involved in early modern trade and communications, particularly in

2350-479: The United Nations has had a presence at the WSF through UNESCO , showing the institutional credibility achieved by the forum, seen by UNESCO as a "prime opportunity for dialogue and a laboratory of ideas for the renewal of public policies" through "critical reflection on the future of societies we want to create and for elaborating proposals in search of solidarity, justice, peace and human rights". The third WSF

2444-511: The University of Aberdeen and an early writer in the field, described globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole." In Global Transformations , David Held and his co-writers state: Although in its simplistic sense globalization refers to the widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnection, such a definition begs further elaboration. ... Globalization can be on

2538-590: The developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs). As economic integration intensified workers moved to areas with higher wages and most of the developing world oriented toward the international market economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union not only ended the Cold War's division of the world – it also left the United States its sole policeman and an unfettered advocate of free market. It also resulted in

2632-411: The history of globalization , and of modern globalization. Economically, globalization involves goods, services , data, technology, and the economic resources of capital . The expansion of global markets liberalizes the economic activities of the exchange of goods and funds. Removal of cross-border trade barriers has made the formation of global markets more feasible. Advances in transportation, like

2726-488: The post–Cold War world . Its origins can be traced back to 18th and 19th centuries due to advances in transportation and communications technology . This increase in global interactions has caused a growth in international trade and the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects. However, disputes and international diplomacy are also large parts of

2820-513: The steam locomotive , steamship , jet engine , and container ships , and developments in telecommunication infrastructure such as the telegraph , the Internet , mobile phones , and smartphones , have been major factors in globalization and have generated further interdependence of economic and cultural activities around the globe. Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times , others trace its history to long before

2914-537: The 17th century, world trade developed further when chartered companies like the British East India Company (founded in 1600) and the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602, often described as the first multinational corporation in which stock was offered) were established. An alternative view from historians Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, postulated that: globalization began with

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3008-422: The 1980s and 1990s. The revolutions of 1989 and subsequent liberalization in many parts of the world resulted in a significant expansion of global interconnectedness. The migration and movement of people can also be highlighted as a prominent feature of the globalization process. In the period between 1965 and 1990, the proportion of the labor force migrating approximately doubled. Most migration occurred between

3102-489: The 19th century, steamships reduced the cost of international transportation significantly and railroads made inland transportation cheaper. The transportation revolution occurred some time between 1820 and 1850. More nations embraced international trade . Globalization in this period was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism such as in Africa and Asia . The invention of shipping containers in 1956 helped advance

3196-403: The 2011 United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement . Since the 1970s, aviation has become increasingly affordable to middle classes in developed countries . Open skies policies and low-cost carriers have helped to bring competition to the market . In the 1990s, the growth of low-cost communication networks cut the cost of communicating between countries. More work can be performed using

3290-575: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine included a blockade of Ukrainian ports and international sanctions on Russia , resulting in some de-coupling of the Russian economy with global trade, especially with the European Union and other Western countries. Modern consensus for the last 15 years regards globalization as having run its course and gone into decline. A common argument for this is that trade has dropped since its peak in 2008, and never recovered since

3384-557: The European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World , and some even to the third millennium BCE. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s, and in the late 19th century and early 20th century drove a rapid expansion in the connectivity of the world's economies and cultures. The term global city was subsequently popularized by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her work The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (1991). In 2000,

3478-569: The Forum, "We must state it clearly. We must say to President Bush that we do not agree with the way he controls the world. We must tell him that he has to govern with his mind, not with might." The fifth World Social Forum 2005 was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil between 26 January and 31 January. There were 155,000 registered participants at the Forum, with most coming from Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Uruguay, and France. A number of participants in

3572-598: The Global Anti-War Movement , an idea that originated from the Asian Social Forum in November 2003, and broadly coalesced in response to the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003. The Assembly had few activists from the United States, but overwhelmingly tried to articulate that they opposed the policy, and not the country itself. The former director-general of UNESCO , Federico Mayor Zaragoza , said at

3666-603: The Indian Ocean region. According to economic historians Kevin H. O'Rourke , Leandro Prados de la Escosura, and Guillaume Daudin, several factors promoted globalization in the period 1815–1870: During the 19th century, globalization approached its form as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution . Industrialization allowed standardized production of household items using economies of scale while rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. In

3760-558: The Silk Routes. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road served as a means of carrying out cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The movement of people, such as refugees, artists, craftsmen, missionaries , robbers, and envoys, resulted in the exchange of religions, art, languages, and new technologies. From around 3000 BCE to 1000 CE, connectivity within Afro-Eurasia

3854-660: The United States Social Forum during June 22–26. Regional forums have taken place in the Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States. The first Canadian Social Forum took place in June 2010. Most, though not all, social forums adhere to the WSF Charter of Principles drawn up by the World Social Forum. The goal of these forums is to decentralize and allow far more people to engage in

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3948-613: The World Bank and the IMF to become global financial market regulators that would promote neoliberalism and the creation of free markets for multinational corporations on a global scale. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the connectedness of the world's economies and cultures grew very quickly. This slowed down from the 1910s onward due to the World Wars and the Cold War , but picked up again in

4042-714: The World Economic Forum. The World Social Forum first met in 2001, but it had its roots in Latin American activism, namely the encuentro, a meeting which emphasizes dialogue and exchange of ideas among activists. Some of the founders of the WSF, were part of the First International Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism in 1996, and decided to expand the idea and make it a global forum for activists of all stripes opposing hegemonic globalization and neoliberalism . It has also been suggested that

4136-711: The World Social Forum took place in Tunis from 23 to 28 March 2015. It led to the creation of the Internet Social Forum . The fifteen edition of the World Social Forum took place in Montreal from 9 to 14 August 2016. It was a multilingual event which featured organizations from around the world. The sixteenth edition of the World Social Forum took place in Salvador, Bahia , Brazil , from March 13 to 17, 2018. Having representatives of 120 countries. The 2021 World Social Forum

4230-590: The World Social Forum was another decentralized affair, with about 35 national, regional and local forums taking place across the world. In Porto Alegre , the flagship space for the WSF, events and speakers were held from January 25–29, entitled "FSM 10 Years: Greater Porto Alegre". The big event held in Porto Alegre was the International Seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world", which featured over 70 intellectuals from around

4324-520: The beginnings of the World Social Forum originated in the Battle for Seattle November 1999, where anti-globalization activists protested a meeting of the World Trade Organization 's latest trade negotiations. One of the originators of the World Social Forum, Oded Grajew , of the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility, said in an interview with InMotion Magazine in 2004, "Then I had

4418-492: The bigger and wealthier NGOs having far more space to talk and lead the events. Raúl Zibechi argues that there is a "crisis" of the World Social Forum in that it has been "weakened" as it has been "taken over" by "those who were most capable of 'leading' assemblies, professionals from universities and NGOs." South African politician Andile Mngxitama sees the World Social Forum as mostly dominated by Northern NGOs, donors and activists, and argues that Southern representation

4512-540: The connections that made the global day of action on February 15, 2003 so successful. The global day of action was an international protest attended by an estimated 12 million people in 700 cities across 60 countries protesting the Bush Administration 's plans to invade and occupy Iraq. At the time, the New York Times called international public opinion a superpower to counter the United States. The fourth WSF

4606-552: The decentralized debate, reflection, proposal building, experiences exchange and alliances among movements and organizations engaged in concrete action towards a more solidary, democratic and fair world; a permanent space and process to build alternatives to neoliberalism ." The World Social Forum is held by members of the alter-globalization movement (also referred to as the global justice movement ) who come together to coordinate global campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around

4700-414: The dominant form of globalization. James holds that this series of distinctions allows for an understanding of how, today, the most embodied forms of globalization such as the movement of refugees and migrants are increasingly restricted, while the most disembodied forms such as the circulation of financial instruments and codes are the most deregulated . The journalist Thomas L. Friedman popularized

4794-450: The emergence of a transnational élite and a phasing out of the nation-state . Meanwhile, he used "cultural globalization" to reference the worldwide homogenization of culture. Other of his usages included " ideological globalization", " technological globalization", and "social globalization". Lechner and Boli (2012) define globalization as more people across large distances becoming connected in more and different ways. "Globophobia"

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4888-651: The event being closed down. But by the end of the meeting, buoyed by the size of the participation, speakers were denouncing Mugabe. According to Charie Kimber, writing in the Socialist Worker " Half of the watching police were nodding along in agreement ". The speakers at the event were critical of Capitalism itself as well as of the region's governments. One popular chant was "phansi capitalism" (down with capitalism) and "viva socialism". World Social Forum The World Social Forum ( WSF , Portuguese : Fórum Social Mundial [ˈfɔɾũ sosi'aw mũdʒiˈaw] )

4982-617: The event, to raise the issue of stateless peoples, and the plights that they face. The Escarré International Centre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations helped to organize the tent for the Collective Rights of Stateless Peoples, who are marginalized in an international system that recognizes only states as political units. Various stateless ethnic groups represented were the Basques , Kurds , Palestinians , Roma , Tibetans , Mapuche , Saharawi and Australian Aborigines . The tenth edition of

5076-488: The extension of the European Common Market , and in journalism to describe how the "American Negro and his problem are taking on a global significance". They have also argued that four forms of globalization can be distinguished that complement and cut across the solely empirical dimensions. According to James, the oldest dominant form of globalization is embodied globalization, the movement of people. A second form

5170-502: The first circumnavigation of the globe under the Magellan-Elcano expedition which preluded the rise of global silver trade . Early modern globalization is distinguished from modern globalization on the basis of expansionism , the method of managing global trade, and the level of information exchange. The period is marked by the shift of hegemony to Western Europe, the rise of larger-scale conflicts between powerful nations such as

5264-489: The form of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) that were implemented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These programs required that the country receiving monetary aid would open its markets to capitalism, privatize public industry, allow free trade, cut social services like healthcare and education and allow the free movement of giant multinational corporations. These programs allowed

5358-756: The forum released the Porto Alegre Manifesto . Since Article 6 of the World Social Forum's Charter of Principles bars the event from attempting to represent all participants through formal statements, the Porto Alegre Manifesto was released on behalf of 19 activists. This 'Group of 19' includes Aminata Traoré , Adolfo Pérez Esquivel , Eduardo Galeano , José Saramago , François Houtart , Boaventura de Sousa Santos , Armand Mattelart , Roberto Savio , Riccardo Petrella , Ignacio Ramonet , Bernard Cassen , Samir Amin , Atilio Borón , Samuel Ruiz García , Tariq Ali , Frei Betto , Emir Sader , Walden Bello , and Immanuel Wallerstein . The sixth World Social Forum

5452-423: The globalization of business is centered around the diminution of international trade regulations as well as tariffs , taxes, and other impediments that suppresses global trade, economic globalization is the process of increasing economic integration between countries, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market. Depending on the paradigm, economic globalization can be viewed as either

5546-563: The globalization of commerce. After World War II, work by politicians led to the agreements of the Bretton Woods Conference , in which major governments laid down the framework for international monetary policy , commerce, and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to facilitate economic growth by lowering trade barriers . Initially, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) led to

5640-517: The great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. . . . In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. Sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as "all those processes by which

5734-440: The great movements of trade and empire across Asia and the Indian Ocean from the 15th century onward. In 1848, Karl Marx noticed the increasing level of national inter-dependence brought on by capitalism , and predicted the universal character of the modern world society. He states: The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To

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5828-497: The growing prominence of attention focused on the movement of diseases, the proliferation of popular culture and consumer values, the growing prominence of international institutions like the UN, and concerted international action on such issues as the environment and human rights. Other developments as dramatic were the Internet's becoming influential in connecting people across the world; As of June 2012 , more than 2.4 billion people—over

5922-524: The historically variable ways that it has been practiced and socially understood through changing world-time. Manfred Steger , professor of global studies and research leader in the Global Cities Institute at RMIT University , identifies four main empirical dimensions of globalization : economic, political, cultural, and ecological . A fifth dimension—the ideological—cutting across the other four. The ideological dimension, according to Steger,

6016-493: The idea. Why not create the World Social Forum, as we have the World Economic Forum, speaking about the people in the world? Why not have the World Social Forum—the social is more important than the economic—to have a space to show that we can have an alternative? We have choice. This is not the only way you can see the world, globalization. We have another way to see it. And, at the same time, force people to look, to make

6110-454: The information and communication technology revolution that lowered communication costs, along with trade liberalisation and the shift of manufacturing operations to emerging economies (particularly China). The word globalization was used in the English language as early as the 1930s, but only in the context of education, and the term failed to gain traction. Over the next few decades, the term

6204-704: The most globally representative WSF so far. It was criticized as being 'an NGO fair' and movements of the poor in Kenya and South Africa mounted vigorous protests against some of the NGOs that attended and, in their view, dominated the forum in the name of the African poor. The ninth World Social Forum took place in the Brazilian city of Belém , located in the Amazon rainforest, between January 27 and February 1, 2009. About 1,900 indigenous people, representing 190 ethnic groups attended

6298-443: The open forum atmosphere of the World Social Forum without needing very much money for travel expenses. All of the various social forums in this mold include international attendees and are in no way specifically focused on the problems of a single region of country. On January 26, 2001 a number of activists with Brazil's Movimento dos Sem-Terra (MST) reacted in protest to the growing role of Monsanto in global agribusiness , which

6392-1078: The organisational background has taken place since a decade ago when critical voices were raised. As of 2020 , preparatory meetings for the 2021 World Social Forum were run by a younger generation of female and male organisers while the founders (Oded Grajew and Chico Whiteker) usually did not intervene. Communicating languages were mainly Spanish and Portuguese (because of many Latin American organisers), and also English and French. New individuals, social groups and movements were invited to co-organise events in 2021; new ecological movements run by young generations, for example. Globalization 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville  ·  Marx ·  Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto ·  Tönnies · Veblen ·  Simmel · Durkheim ·  Addams ·  Mead · Weber ·  Du Bois ·  Mannheim · Elias Globalization ( North American spelling ; also Oxford spelling [UK]) or globalisation (non-Oxford British spelling ; see spelling differences )

6486-920: The organizing of many regional social forums , including the Americas Social Forum , European Social Forum , the Asian Social Forum , the Mediterranean Social Forum and the Southern Africa Social Forum . There are also many local and national social forums, such as the Norwegian Social Forum , Iraqi Social Forum, Italian Social Forum , India Social Forum, Liverpool Social Forum and the Boston Social Forum . The first-ever United States Social Forum took place in Atlanta in June 2007. In 2010 Detroit , Michigan , hosted

6580-450: The participating NGOs would sometimes compete with popular movements for access to the forum and for influence there. The 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya was criticized as an "NGO fair" by Firoze Manji , as he believed that the large number of international NGOs crowded out less formal groups of activists. He also asserted that not all the attendees were properly represented, with

6674-409: The people of the world are incorporated into a single world society." In The Consequences of Modernity , Anthony Giddens writes: "Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa." In 1992, Roland Robertson , professor of sociology at

6768-586: The phase of increasing trade links and cultural exchange that characterized the period immediately preceding the advent of high "modern globalization" in the late 19th century. This phase of globalization was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, in the 15th and 17th centuries, first the Portuguese Empire (1415) followed by the Spanish Empire (1492), and later the Dutch and British Empires . In

6862-451: The process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on the other side of the world. Paul James defines globalization with a more direct and historically contextualized emphasis: Globalization is the extension of social relations across world-space, defining that world-space in terms of

6956-442: The reduction of trade barriers as well as other economic reforms, and, in many cases, immigration. International standards have made trade in goods and services more efficient. An example of such standard is the intermodal container . Containerization dramatically reduced the costs of transportation, supported the post-war boom in international trade , and was a major element in globalization. International standards are set by

7050-439: The rest of the world in terms of industrial production and economic output , archaic globalization was a phenomenon that was driven not only by Europe but also by other economically developed Old World centers such as Gujarat , Bengal , coastal China , and Japan . The German historical economist and sociologist Andre Gunder Frank argues that a form of globalization began with the rise of trade links between Sumer and

7144-488: The spatial organization of social relations and transactions—assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact—generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows" was called "probably the most widely-cited definition" in the 2014 DHL Global Connectiveness Index . Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization , states that globalization: ...is

7238-551: The term "flat world" , arguing that globalized trade , outsourcing , supply-chaining , and political forces had permanently changed the world, for better and worse. He asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow. Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined "economic globalization" as the opening and deregulation of commodity , capital , and labor markets that led toward present neoliberal globalization. He used "political globalization" to refer to

7332-532: The term and bringing it into the mainstream business audience in the later in the middle of 1980s. Though often treated as synonyms, in French, globalization is seen as a stage following mondialisation, a stage that implies the dissolution of national identities and the abolishment of borders inside the world network of economic exchanges. Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired competing definitions and interpretations. Its antecedents date back to

7426-472: The time of the earliest civilizations until roughly the 1600s. This term is used to describe the relationships between communities and states and how they were created by the geographical spread of ideas and social norms at both local and regional levels. In this schema, three main prerequisites are posited for globalization to occur. The first is the idea of Eastern Origins, which shows how Western states have adapted and implemented learned principles from

7520-489: The two largest national economies. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included a massive decline in tourism and international business travel as many countries temporarily closed borders. The 2021–2022 global supply chain crisis resulted from temporary shutdowns of manufacturing and transportation facilities, and labor shortages. Supply problems incentivized some switches to domestic production. The economic impact of

7614-624: The world and their particular issues. The World Social Forum is explicit about not being a representative of all of those who attend and thus does not publish any formal statements on behalf of participants. It tends to meet in January at the same time as its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum 's Annual Meeting in Davos , Switzerland . This date is consciously picked to promote alternative answers to world economic problems in opposition to

7708-611: The world. One of the notable regional forums was the US Social Forum held in Detroit, Michigan and attended by about 18,000 people. The 2011 World Social Forum was hosted in Dakar, Senegal and ran from 06 to 11 February. The 2012 World Social Forum was hosted in Porto Alegre, Brazil and ran from 24 to 30 January. The thirteen edition of the World Social Forum took place in Tunis from 26 to 30 March 2013. The fourteenth edition of

7802-539: The world’s elite at the expense of the majority ". The 2005 SASF took place in Harare Zimbabwe . It had the largest participation so far with around 4,000 people taking part. Participants came from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe The event organisers had been put under pressure from the Zimbabwean police who warned speakers that any criticism of Robert Mugabe would lead to

7896-686: Was "polycentric", held in January 2006 in Caracas , Venezuela and Bamako , Mali , and in March 2006, in Karachi , Pakistan . The Forum in Pakistan was delayed to March because of the Kashmir earthquake that had recently occurred in the area. The seventh World Social Forum was held in Nairobi , Kenya in January 2007. There were 66,000 registered attendees, and 1,400 participating organizations from 110 countries, making it

7990-507: Was again held in Porto Alegre, in January 2003. There were many parallel workshops, including, for example the Life After Capitalism workshop, which proposed focused discussion on anti-capitalism and participative possibilities for different aspects of social, political, economic, communication structures. Among the speakers was American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky . Some credit this meeting of World Social Forum for

8084-615: Was also criticism of the way that CelTel had exclusive rights at the Kenyan event, the virtual monopoly of a local hotel offering food at rates that the average Kenyan could not afford, and the physical and financial exclusion of local business. A delegation from Abahlali baseMjondolo criticised the World Social Forum, following their attendance in 2009, for being too focused on Latin America, and for failing to provide delegations with adequate translational services. A demographic transformation of

8178-556: Was centered upon the Indo-Mediterranean region, with the Silk Road later rising in importance with the Mongol Empire's consolidation of Asia in the 13th century. " Early modern " or "proto-globalization" covers a period of the history of globalization roughly spanning the years between 1600 and 1800. The concept of "proto-globalization" was first introduced by historians A. G. Hopkins and Christopher Bayly . The term describes

8272-495: Was considered by the group to be unethically using their seed patents to harm the rights of rural peoples, tore up an experimental plot of transgenic crops in Não-me-Toque, 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Porto Alegre, where the World Social Forum was taking place at the time. Three days later, Jose Bove, a French citizen, was arrested by Brazilian authorities as the World Social Forum ended on January 29, 2001. Connections between

8366-450: Was held in Mumbai , India, from 16 January to 21 January 2004. It was the first meeting of the World Social Forum held outside Brazil and its success has encouraged the WSF to expand in scope across the global South . Some credit it with inspiring the Asian Social Forum held in November of that year. The attendance was expected to be 75,000 and it shot over by thousands. The cultural diversity

8460-680: Was held on the 9–12 November 2003 in Lusaka Zambia under the banner “Another Southern Africa is Possible”. Approximately 400 people participated. At the forum motions were passed stating that The Forum " the globalisation process, dominated by the giant transnational corporations from the North, is impacting negatively on the people [of Southern Africa] " and that the New Economic Plan for African Development (NEPAD) should be rejected " as an expression of support by certain leaders of our continent for

8554-536: Was hosted virtually from 23 to 31 January 2021. Representatives from 144 countries attended the forum, with 1,371 organizations participating. The digital events attracted over 78,000 visits. The 2022 World Social Forum was held in a hybrid format, with in-person events in Mexico City , and virtual events . Preliminary data from the World Social Forum reported attendance from 500 organizations, 2,080 participants, and over 31,230 online visitors. The WSF has prompted

8648-630: Was largely unrestricted: the state controlled only the supply of grain. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of civilizations from China, the Indian subcontinent , Persia , Europe, and Arabia , opening long-distance political and economic interactions between them. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, common goods such as salt and sugar were traded as well; and religions , syncretic philosophies, and various technologies, as well as diseases, also traveled along

8742-468: Was occasionally used by other scholars and media, but it was not clearly defined. One of the first usages of the term in the meaning resembling the later, was by French economist François Perroux in his essays from the early 1960s (in his French works he used the term " mondialisation " (literarly worldization in French ), also translated as mundialization). Theodore Levitt is often credited with popularizing

8836-478: Was one notable aspect of the forum. A notable decision that was taken was the stand on free software . One of the key speakers at the WSF 2004 was Joseph Stiglitz . In contrast to earlier meetings, which had focused more on Euro-centric political intellectualism, the 2004 meeting included marches, as well as colorful and lively demonstrations. The 2004 meeting also saw the convening of the General Assembly of

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