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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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The World Social Forum of 2007 and the formulation and circulation of militant tools of expertise on armed conflicts and justice
| Panel |
69. The World Social Forum in Nairobi : exploring the making of African causes.
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| Paper ID | 274 |
| Author(s) |
Dezalay, Sara
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Based on empirical research, which will be carried out at the next World Social Forum (WSF), in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2007, in the framework of a collective investigation on the making of African anti-globalization militancy, led by Professor J. Siméant and Lecturer M.-E. Pommerolle, this paper will aim at exploring how the WSF, and in particular its African setting, reflect and impact on the transformation, triggered by the end of the Cold War, of a field of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) prevailing themselves of legal or para-legal tools of expertise aiming at the resolution of armed conflicts.
Three concurring factors - the multiplication of “internal” armed conflicts, the explosion of the market of militancy and the “revival” of the “Spirit of Nüremberg” - have contributed to a shift towards a juridification and/or judicialization in the handling of armed conflicts, which is reflected in the apparition of a militant expertise, asserted both by generalist NGOs in the North and specialized NGOs in the North and the South, aiming specifically at the resolution of armed conflicts.
With the “building of a world of peace and justice” being set as the first of the nine themes of the agenda of the WSF, my aim is to understand how this thematic fits within an anti-globalization locus of militancy, by exploring how it has been seized by anti-globalization movements and the ways in which NGOs prevailing themselves of an expertise on conflict resolution have adapted to an anti-globalization forum.
I will thus investigate three series of interrogations:
The first will aim at retracing the coining and setting of a thematic on armed conflicts and justice on the agenda of a world social forum, by locating and exploring the discourse and positioning of NGOs present at the Forum which prevail themselves of an expertise in conflict resolution, drawing a distinction between non-governmental actors claiming a specialization in this regard and those who have invested the theme so as to participate to the debates of the Forum.
Focusing specifically on international NGOs of the North, such as London based Amnesty International and the Paris based FIDH present at the WSF, the second interrogation will purport to understand how they have contributed to the consultation phase of the Forum, the definition of its agenda and how they participate to its debates on conflicts and justice. In return it will also seek to understand how they have adapted their own agenda, regarding in particular their expertise on armed conflicts, to an anti-globalization forum.
The third question will aim at locating local NGOs specialized in conflict resolution that are funded and partners of NGOs in the North, such as London based International Alert, so as to explore the (re)definition of the space of militancy of these local actors through internationalized networks of influence. The purpose will also be to understand how the two series of partners have adapted their respective agendas both to each other and to the Forum, and how, in return, they influence the debates of the WSF.
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