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"The World Social Forum Library Project". Overview of the project 8 November, 2010 at the Bibliothèque Centrale UCAD, Dakar by Mikael Böök / Network Institute for Global Democratization book@kaapeli.fi. 1- Information literacy 2- “ The Second Superpower”
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"The World Social Forum Library Project" Overview of the project 8 November, 2010 at the Bibliothèque Centrale UCAD, Dakar by Mikael Böök / Network Institute for Global Democratization book@kaapeli.fi
1- Information literacy 2- “The Second Superpower” 3- Global democratization and governance Part 1: WHY?
Information literacy - is one of the permanent general goals of public libraries, library associations and IFLA - defines the general educational rationale of the WSF library project - consists of e.g. readings skills + IT & internet skills
“The Second Superpower” - defines the political rationale of the project • * is “a term used to conceptualize a global civil society as a world force comparable to or counterbalancing the United States. The term originates from a 2003 New York Times article which described world public opinion as one of two superpowers” • * “Anti-war protests (February 2003, before the Iraq war) were the impetus for the invention of the term.” • Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Superpower
Global democratization and governance - defines the tendency and context of the project (Supposed, that global democratization will continue and that global governance – through disarmament, international cooperation, ecological economics and tax justice - will become more real than it is today?)
Librarians ought to unite and cooperate more than hitherto with social movements and organisations at the global, regional, national and local levels. (This requires a conscious effort, on both sides...)
Rôles of librarians: Kay Raseroka, IFLA chair, at the Mumbai WSF 2004: ”librarians ought to participate in the WSF and to document it in their libraries” The librarian may document past activities, but she/he can also facilitate on-going social forum activities. She/he can choose to monitor a certain group, network or theme. The documentation and monitoring of the social forum is supposed to become an integral part of the librarian's daily work.
An international team of free and open source software specialists are needed to develop the present rudimentary www.wsflibrary.org into an advanced, multinglingual bibliothèque publique d'activités* of the Social forums * see below
Events and processes • Alter-Davos - the World Social Forum (WSF) to become the alternative to the World Economic Forum (WEF) • The first WSF event took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2001. • Porto Alegre: symbol of local democratization (participatory city budget) • Many regional, national and local SF events have been organised since • Thematic WSF events (health, education...) • The social forum is a process ( a sum of global, regional, national and local processes)
The Declaration of principles (2001) Alter-mondialisme against “Neoliberalism's” pensée unique: Um outro mundo é posível ; un autre monde est possible; another world is possible! Non-governmental, and non-violent An open space: no general assembly, no voting, no resolutions, no final documents; (Corollarium of the open space principle: The WSF International Council takes decisions only by consensus.)
Axis 12: For the inter-learning of alternative paradigms for the crisis of hegemonic civilization of modernity/Eurocentric coloniality, through decoloniality and socialization of power, especially in the relations between State-Market-Society; the collective rights of peoples, the decommodification of life and “development”; the emergence of alternative subjectivities and epistemologies for racism, Eurocentrism, patriarchy and anthropocentrism. Source: the thematic axes of the Dakar WSF event, quoted via http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/noticias_01.php?cd_news=2864&cd_language=2 Is this break with “Eurocentrism” a new edition of tiers-mondialisme? Is anew universalism underway? Additional principle 2010-?
Challenges to the WSF (2010) “Neoliberalism” is in crisis, yet the “altermondialisme” of the social forum seems weaker than before; “Davos” has stolen some proposals (on financial regulation and global taxation) from ”alter-Davos” and is using them to continue and restore “Neo-liberalism” The climate crisis – diagnosis and solutions dictated by governments and corporations. Frustration with the outcome of the social forums among its participants. Lack of openness and transparency of the decisions of the WSF secretariat and International Council; this is also a consequence of insufficient, or inexistent documentation.
Part 4: Phases of “The WSF Library Project” • Invention, Mumbai WSF 2004 • Pilot project, Bamako and Nairobi WSF 2006-2007 • Incubation period, 2008-2010 • New start, Dakar WSF 2011 • 3-Year Project 2012-2015
Nairobi WSF 2007 Participants in 19 January 2007 workshop of the KLA pilot project at Olives Gardens, Kasarani (Nairobi)
Creating a Knowledge Base from The World Social Forum. A Manual for Library and Information Professionals. By Esther Obachi. Published by the Kenya Associaltion of Library and Information Professionals (KLA). Nairobi 2007. 21 pages. ISBN 9966-7238-0-3
Present and near future • → Dakar WSF 2011 • 3-Year Project 2012-2015
documentation of the WSF 2001-2010 – General Impression: Lack of central effort -- Archives of the WSF secretariat in Sao Paulo ? A number of printed books on the WSF (Chico Whitaker; Choike...) have been published Lots of materials scattered along the web The main websitehttp://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/ has a section ”Memória” which covers the period 2001-2005 A “Memoria Viva”-project was started by WSF-activists (2005?) , but by now the domain memoria-viva.org is for sale... The WSF LibraryProject – the pilot project stagnated after 2007, maybe partly because of the political crisis in Kenya 2008. A plan to found a physical WSF library in Nairobi stranded. Depository library(ies) or archive(s) for physical documents ? Involvement of Labadie collection, Michigan University Library (depository of physical materials from the first USSF in Atlanta 2007) Workers' Movement Library and Archive, Stockholm (depository of physical materials from the ESF in Malmö 2008) Beginning involvement: International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (is interested)
To be done:documentation and monitoring • Documentation of past activities • Collections of physical documents in archives and depository libraries • Documentation of printed matter in public libraries Documentation and monitoring of the ongoing activities Once upon a time in Paris, they founded the famous “Bibliothèque publique d'information”(BPI) at Beaubourg... Librarians and archivists ought to found a “Bibliothèque publique d'activités” (BPA) on the Net in order to monitor thousands of self-organised activities and networks of the participants in the social forums. This BPA would be the core of the WSF Library Project.
Philosophical questions regarding the concept of documentation. Documentation of knowledge vs. documentation of action and activities. gnosis (documented knowledge; external memory) and praxis (often undocumented, “silent knowledge”, personal or collective memory).The convergence of archives and libraries The abundance of digital documents. Their preservation problems.
Part 6: Funding • Invention phase 2004 : Finnish library associations, IFLA • Pilot project, Bamako and Nairobi WSF 2006-2007 : Finland Formin and Embassy Kenya • Incubation period 2008-2010 : - • Project start, Dakar WSF 2011 : Netherlands Embassy Senegal? • 2012-2015 : Digital Solidarity Fund ? IFLA?
