We start from the premise that ethics is related to a choice in relation to how we think and act in the world and how we see and relate to others; and that everyone's knowledge is constructed socially, but human beings can act upon this construction. From this perspective, knowledge of ourselves and an awareness of the process of construction of our knowledge can be interpreted as an ethical responsibility. In this sense, as defined by Paulo Freire, being aware of the mechanisms that shape our understanding of the world, and of its partiality or non-determinism, is a precondition to a process of self-liberation, of going beyond prescribed understandings of the nature of reality and being. It is also an acknowledgement of human “unfinishedness” and of the possibility to conceive the world in a way other than the one we have inherited.

The notion of unfinishedness, as the belief in the partiality of one's knowledge and in the possibility that one might be wrong, associated with processes of self-reflexivity and unlearning, might give rise to positions that are more uncertain and humble and, therefore, more open to engagement with and contamination by difference. Difference, in this view, is something essential to transform and broaden perceptions in a process where cross-fertilisation or “contamination” may fundamentally affect participants: transforming the ways one sees the nature of reality, being and knowledge. Ethics, in this sense, is a call for relationship: an embrace of difference as an act of love.

The Forum as a pedagogical space

The characterisation of the Forum as a pedagogical space can contribute to the nurturing of this kind of ethic. Rather than pedagogy defined as content transmission, this ideal pedagogy should be re-conceptualised as a willingness to learn and to teach, to challenge and be challenged, and to emerge different from this encounter, moving away from coercion and persuasion. This pedagogy should also cultivate an emphasis on critical engagement with and within the Forum making it a dialogical space where participants can reclaim their right to question knowledges and realities and share the ownership of the process and outcomes of the production of new contingent knowledge. Self-reflexive critical engagement can push the boundaries of the Forum and transform it at different levels. Besides being central to a pedagogy for decolonisation of minds and imaginations, it can also function as a safeguard against essentialisms and fundamentalisms, preventing processes of closure, promoting openness and supporting decentralizations of power in various dimensions, such as within organisational processes and the events themselves.

In practical terms, this conceptualisation signals a move from a feeling of vanguardism and from a “talking heads” format to more participatory, dialogical and inclusive structures in order to create an environment in which individuals can learn from one another and allow each other to feel acknowledged, validated and relatively safe from oppressive or silencing institutional powers. This would require the organising committee to use more participatory and inclusive approaches in an attempt to set the example in WSF-organised events, an effort that is already starting to take shape in preparation for the WSF 2005 and that will hopefully be embraced and celebrated by participants and other Forum initiatives, including the ESF.

Promoted and addressed in this way, the Forum has the potential to attract individuals (particularly young people) who are sceptical of the forms of politics that present absolute certainties or fixed utopias. It can also increase the Forum's potential as a catalyst for the creation of similar pedagogical spaces that can inspire and support “non-politicised” people in the wider society to start asking certain questions and to become aware of their political existence, expanding the role of the Forum as a catalyst for change beyond its boundaries. We can cite two initiatives that, using the Forum as an icon for resistance, have worked in this direction:

•  The twelve-session Open Space Seminar Series on the theme “Are other worlds possible? Cultures of politics and the World Social Forum” that was organised by Jai Sen, Mukul Mangalik and Madhuresh Kumar at Delhi University in India during August-December 2003, under the auspices of the History Society, Ramjas College. One of the outcomes of this project was the publication of the book Are Other Worlds Possible? The Open Space Reader compiled by Jai Sen and Madhuresh Kumar; another was the formation of two autonomous discussion groups among students from different universities in the city; and a third is a forthcoming set of books based on the transcripts of the seminars.

•  The educational project “Other Worlds”, an initiative inspired by the seminar series in New Delhi that involved educators, activists and academics in Brazil, India and the UK in the development of a set of introductory learning materials as an entry point to the Forum and to the issues discussed within it in order to prompt and support the creation of pedagogical “open spaces” in educational and community settings. In the second phase of this project, an international comparative research exercise has started, in which groups are going to pilot the materials in different contexts in five countries.

Final Thoughts

The Forum promoted as a learning or pedagogical space would expand the current focus on national and international links among movements and organisations in society and on connections and dialogue focusing on similarities. In outreach strategies to activist groups this view has the potential to help demystify the divide between theory (thinking) and practice (doing) and support the emergence of a culture of dialogue across differences. It could also justify the creation of outreach approaches for non-activists – as an invitation to a process of collective reflection and construction of an alternative world, increasing and expanding the Forum's political impact. We also claim that fostering the culture of self-reflexivity that is already emerging within the Forum could generate systematic considerations of the Forum's own contradictions, which could encourage Forum participants to re-negotiate their subject positions, bring in new actors and create new possibilities for the future of the space, reinforcing its potential as a catalyst of change in society.

Vanessa Andreotti and Emma Dowling

This article is extracted from a longer article entitled “WSF, ethics and pedagogy” International Social Science Journal Volume 56 Issue 182 (December 2004)