Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Democracy and the London European Social Forum

Rootes, Christopher, Saunders, Clare E., Papadimitriou, T. (2007) Democracy and the London European Social Forum. In: European Consortium for Political Research Joint Sessions, May 2007, Helsinki. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:14957)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/p...

Abstract

The issue of democracy is fundamental for the global justice movement, both as a focal point of its critique of the current political-economic configuration of power, and as a principle of its internal organisation. Popular demands for democracy increasingly move beyond the liberal representative model to more radical conceptions that include greater insistence on personal autonomy, individual control over life choices, and direct participation in key decisions which affect people’s lives based on decentralized networks, rejection of leadership and hierarchy, and respect of diversity and subjectivity. Social Forums have recently emerged as important arenas of the global civil society where different notions of ‘another world’ are articulated, challenged and contested. The London European Social Forum was greatly identified with the conflict between ‘vertical’ organisations – that largely adhere to a model of representative democracy and operate within a relatively predetermined set of structures and processes that are firmly oriented towards effective results – and ‘horizontal’ networks of activists that follow more deliberative forms of democracy that that emphasise inclusiveness and quality of communication.

This paper, after a brief theoretical discussion of different models of democracy, examines the conceptions and practices employed at the ESF, its preparatory process and the autonomous events that took place in opposition to it, and argues that, contrary to most accounts that have pointed at a democratic deficit, it was precisely this adherence to different models of

democracy that consisted the principal source of the conflict.

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Paper)
Uncontrolled keywords: Democracy, civil society, social forums
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Funders: European Consortium for Political Research (https://ror.org/05retmr68)
Depositing User: G.T. Swain
Date Deposited: 29 Jun 2011 19:12 UTC
Last Modified: 12 Jul 2022 10:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/14957 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Rootes, Christopher.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4551-6735
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Saunders, Clare E..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.