Contents -- Preface: Why Write about the World Social Forum (Immanuel Wallerstein) -- Introduction (Marina Karides and Judith Blau) -- PART I SOCIAL FORUM PROCESS: THE USSF AND ITS RELATION TO THE WSF -- 1. In Defense of World Social Forum VII (Marina Karides and Thomas Ponniah) -- 2. The US Social Forum: Building from the Bottom Up (Michael Leon Guerrero) -- 3. New Politics Emerging at the US Social Forum (Jackie Smith, Rachel V. Kutz-Flamenbaum, Christopher Hausmann) -- 4. Another United States Is Happening: Building Today's Movement from the Bottom Up. Th e United States Social Forum and Beyond (Walda Katz-Fishman and Jerome W. Scott) -- 5. A Different (Kind of ) Politics Is Possible: Conflict and Problem(s) at the USSF (Michal O sterweil) -- PART II DEBATES A ND S OCIAL THOUGHT: HIGHLIGHTING THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM -- 6. Reading Nairobi: Place, Space, and Difference at the 2007 World Social Forum (Janet Co nway) -- 7. Is the World Social Forum the Privileged Space for Reinventing Labor as a Global Social Movement? (Peter Waterman) -- 8. Is the World Social Forum a Democratic Global Civil Society? (Stellan Vinthagen) -- 9. Social Forums - Challenges and New Perspectives (Chico Whitaker) -- PART III BRIDGING ACTIVISM AND ACADEMICS -- 10. Reformist Reforms, Non-Reformist Reforms and Global Justice: Activist, NGO and Intellectual Challenges in the World Social Forum (Patrick Bo nd) -- 11. Feminists and the Forum: Is It Worth the Effort? (Lyndi H ewitt) -- 12. Sociology, Human Rights, and the World Social Forum (Mark F rezzo) -- 13. Another Structure of Knowledge Is Possible: The Social Forum Process and Academia (Steven S herman) -- 14. World Social Forum: Re-imaging Development and the Global South beyond the Neo-colonial Gaze (Eunice N. Sahle) -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.