APPLICATIONS INVITED FOR CACIM FORUM FELLOWSHIPS 2008-9 - Deadline
August 17
Thursday, August 7, 2008
This posting is to reach out to members on this list, both to invite
submissions to our CACIM Forum (WSF) Fellowships programme and to
request you to send this posting on to anyone you think would be
interested in applying. Please note, however : There are just ten
days left before the deadline.
Thanks !
Jai Sen, on behalf of CACIM
First posted 11.07.2008 / Repeat posting 07.08.2008
APPLICATIONS INVITED FOR CACIM FORUM FELLOWSHIPS 2008-9
More info @ http://cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Fellowships
APPLICATION DEADLINE : August 17 2008
CACIM (Critical Action - Centre in Movement), based in New Delhi,
India but active in local and global networking, and an initiative
towards promoting criticality in socio-political action and movement
by promoting a culture of critical engagement and reflection, is
again offering four Fellowships on the World Social Forum process.
CACIM is involved in research on and documentation of the Forum and
other related processes (such as social movements); plays an active
role in the organising process of WSF in India and globally;
publishes books, reports, newsletters, and bibliographies on the
Forum, both in Hindi and English; and organises local and global
debates and discussions around the WSF, its programmes and politics,
and related issues. For details on the Forum and on our work on the
Forum, see www.openspaceforum.net and www.cacim.net; and for
‘official’ details on the Forum, www.worldsocialforum.org.
This is the second round of the award of these Fellowships. (For
details on the first round during 2007-8, see http://www.cacim.net/
twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Fellowships.) As do many others, CACIM
considers the WSF to be a very significant social and political
initiative – but where, like all such processes, it also has its
problems. The Forum Fellowships provide opportunities for young
activists, students, and researchers to critically look at different
aspects of the Forum process in India and globally. This would
include intensive interaction with social and popular movements and
with civil organisations and networks, in India and South Asia and as
far as possible globally – both those who are part of the WSF process
and also with movements and organisations who have either boycotted
or stayed away from the WSF and/or who take part in similar but
alternative processes. We hope that the Fellowships will provide the
opportunity to the Fellows to develop a substantial understanding of
the Forum and also engage with and study wider socio-political
processes in the country and in the world as they are emerging; and
through this, to contribute to strengthening both the Forum and socio-
political movement. We invite Fellows to critically examine the
procedural depth, methodology, potentialities, and limitations of the
Forum and of the ‘new politics’ of ‘open space’ that it professes,
and also the impacts that the WSF and these politics may be having on
socio-political movements and processes in the region.
The 2008-9 Forum Fellowships, offered for a period of six months
(September 2008 – February 2009), will provide candidates with Rs
50,000 for the preparation of a research paper to be presented at a
Workshop on the WSF that CACIM will organise in mid 2009. Selected
Fellows will be provided with literature published on the Forum and
with contacts in India and worldwide, and will receive introductions
to mentors / advisors both within India and from around the world for
assistance in sharpening their Fellowship work. The process will
include an orientation workshop and at least one interim review
meeting that will take place in the course of their Fellowships, as
well as a final public Workshop where the Fellows will present their
research findings. CACIM also undertakes to publish and publicise
the research papers.
This round of Fellowships will start from September 1 2008 and
continue till February 28 2009. Fellows will be expected to budget
the Fellowship award to cover their stipend as well as all research
and other related expenses for their Fellowship work. They will be
expected to attend all the review meetings and the final Workshop,
and also the final Workshop of the current 2007-8 process, which will
take place in New Delhi during August 29-30 2008. CACIM will take
care of travel and staying expenses for attending all the meetings.
At the end of the Fellowship period, Fellows will be expected to
submit a well researched and referenced paper of publishable quality
on their theme of study, along with all supporting material. They
will also be expected to submit copies (or originals, if they prefer)
to CACIM of any research material generated in course of their study
(such as documents, newsclippings, interview tapes, articles, etc),
for its archives on the WSF and on social movements, which are
publicly available. While we do not expect Fellows to devote full
time to their Fellowship work, given the quality of work that is
expected Fellows must expect to make a serious and definite time
commitment to their award work.
For this round of Fellowships, we are again accepting applications
only from people living within India, though both from Indian and
other nationalities. Candidates may be from any discipline and
background. No formal academic qualification is required for
application. Applications can be in English or Hindi. Due to our own
limitations at the moment, we are not able to entertain applications
in other languages but welcome ideas for including them in this
endeavour.
The following are some suggested themes for study, but the awards
will not limited to these areas only; the proposal MUST, however,
have to do with the WSF, in one way or another :
· The roles, potentials, and limitations of the WSF process in
relation to the particular experiences, visions, aspirations, and
expectations of various sections of Indian society such as Dalits,
Adivasis, women, the physically challenged, sexual minorities, and
others, as well as their questions and dilemmas in this regard
through any engagement they may have had with the Forum process so far
· Has the WSF managed to promote inter-movement networking and
dialogue ?
· What is the social and political significance and relevance of
the WSF process in India, in the context of wider emerging social,
political, and economic conditions, and related issues – in the
country and globally ?
· The organising principles, political economy, and/or information
architecture of the Forum, in India and worldwide.
Please send your application by email to cacim [at] cacim.net or by
post by August 17 2008 along with :
· A short research proposal indicating the scope, nature, and
approach of your proposed research (covering objectives, method, and
literature and other references; plus a first list of contacts in
your subject and/or field areas)
· One writing sample (published or unpublished), and -
· Your detailed CV (two relevant references preferable).
The Fellowships will be announced on August 20-21 2008.
CACIM is committed to promoting diversity in all its work, and women
and other persons are encouraged to apply. We especially encourage
those who have been active within the Forum process to apply.
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India. Ph :
+91-11-4155 1521
cacim [at] cacim.net, www.cacim.net / www.openspaceforum.net
______________________________
Jai Sen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jai Sen, an architect by training and earlier an activist on dwelling, labour,
and rights-related issues based in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, is now a
researcher, writer, and installation architect living in New Delhi. Till
recently independent and during 2004-6 a Nehru Fellow, he is now Director of
CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement), New Delhi,
and also of Unnayan, based in Kolkata. He writes, publishes, and creates events
on and around the history and dynamics of popular movement in India and on the
globalisation of civil movement. He has published widely. Among other things,
he has edited, together with Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter Waterman,
World Social Forum : Challenging Empires (New Delhi : The Viveka Foundation,
2004); ‘Explorations in Open Space : The World Social Forum and Cultures of
Politics’, special issue 182 of the International Social Science Journal,
together with Chloé Keraghel (UNESCO and Blackwell’s, December 2004); and Are
Other Worlds Possible ? Talking New Politics with Mayuri Saini (New Delhi :
Zubaan Books, 2005). He has also written ‘A World to Win – But whose world is
it, anyway ?’ in Whose World Is It Anyway ? Civil Society, the United Nations,
and the Multilateral Future, edited by John W Foster with Anita Anand (Ottawa :
United Nations Association of Canada, 1999) and ‘Are other globalisations
possible ? The World Social Forum as an instrument of global democratisation’,
in From a Global Market Place to Political Spaces, edited by Leena Rikkilä and
Katarina Sehm Patomäki (NIGD, 2002).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
