Actionable themes

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"Actionable themes" refers to 21 themes that were debated decided in the Content and Methodology Commission (of the WSF International Council) meeting held in Nairobi from the 16th to 18th Dec. 2006.

Contents 1 General remarks 2 Original and revised version 3 The revisions 3.1 2. National /International Institutions and Democracy 3.2 4. Housing 3.3 5. Women’s struggles 3.4 15. Debt 3.5 17. Free Trade 4 Proposed alternative versions of the actionable themes 4.1 Alphabetical order? 4.2 Fredrick Kachero's proposal

General remarks

This classification of the activities of the WSF in 21 "actionable themes" was sanctioned by the International Council of the World Social Forum in December, 2006. The list is short enough to permit a rapid overview of the whole, yet it is fairly comprehensive.

It is not a classification of knowledge. Rather, it is the taxonomy of things that a contemporary Government should be concerned with. (The list shows a rough resemblance with the list of Ministries of a modern state.) However, no Government can be perfect. Neither can this kind of classification by subject be perfect.

The 21 themes can be arranged in

20! = 2 432 902 008 176 640 000  

ways. Another order is (almost always) possible!

Original and revised version

The revisions

Slashes (/) have been substituted with commas and "and". - Reason: the slashes sometimes seem to indicate opposition, in other cases just conjunction, which may be confusing.

2. National /International Institutions and Democracy

Changed to Political Institutions and Democracy. - Reason: The political institutions, ion particular, belong here. The WSF-activities concern not only national and international political institutions, but also local, regional and global,and "world", political institutions.

4. Housing

Changed to Housing and human habitat. - Reason: Where does urban planning, for instance, come in, if only this theme is only described with the word "housing" ?

5. Women’s struggles

Changed to "Gender issues and womens' struggles.

15. Debt

Changed to Taxation, debt and public finance. - Reasons: a) from the start, taxation has been a major theme of the WSF. Compare, for instance, the role of Association to Tax financial Transactions to Aid Citizens (ATTAC) in the making of the WSF. b) In order to have public services (Water, Health, Education etc.), we need public finances. At the global level, a new financial architecture and world public finances are needed.

17. Free Trade

Changed to Trade and transportation. - Reason: a) Not only "free" trade, but trade as such is on the WSF's agenda; b) transportation needs to be mentioned somewhere.

Proposed alternative versions of the actionable themes

Alphabetical order?

Sharon said: the classification system choosen is o.k, but for subject classification am suggesting we use alphabetical order also.

Fredrick Kachero's proposal

"Quite agree with Mikael that the 21 actionable themes should stay in tandem with the spirit of the WSF. Additional changes in line with our experiences may help so long as the picture is not at obvious variance with that envisaged by the forum. I believe that this is an exciting experience to information science workers as it is devoted to a specific entity addressing universal as well as special issues. In line with this, but in view of upheld practice, I first wish to agree with Esther that we better focus on the broader topic of gender and its manifestations with spefic topics such women's struggles coming in as sub-topics; and secondly wish to propose changes in the order of the themes. It has always been held in our classification order that its better to move from generalia to specific, mundane to the more abstract. I wish to suggest that the order be as follows:

   1) Food Sovereignty, Peasants and Land Reform
   2)Water
   3) Environment and Energy
   4) Housing
   5) Health
   6) Labour and Workers
   7) Children
   8) Youth
   9) Peace and War
   10) Education
   11) Culture
   12) Institutions and Democracy
   13) Migrations
   14) Human Rights
   15) Gender-based Oppression, Discrimination and Struggles
   16) Human Dignity, Diversity and Discriminations
   17) Knowledge, Information and Communication
   18) Taxation, Debt and Public Finance
   19) Trade
   20) Transnational Corporations 
   21)Alternative Economies"

I think Fredrick's order is to be preferred before order that was proposed by the WSF IC. - Mikael --Book 00:04, 11 February 2007 (EAT)