Reading Nairobi: Place, Space, and Difference at the 2007 World Social Forum

The author seeks to elaborate an approach to more adequately analyze the World Social Forum (WSF), the annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalization or alter-globalization movement, both as somewhat coherent global political process while also recognizing the exploding plurality of the WSF as a multi-faceted phenomenon. He presents an interpretative framework that allows for different and intersecting levels of analysis. To assess the significance of the Nairobi event in Africa, he situates it in the history of the WSF process