[URBANTH-L]FUNDING: CACIM Forum Fellowships (World Social Forum, India)

[Angela Jancius]

[Please Circulate it widely ! Sorry for any cross-posting !]

APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR CACIM FORUM FELLOWSHIPS (3)
Application Date : JANUARY 5 2008
More info @ http://cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Fellowships

CACIM (Critical Action - Centre in Movement), an initiative towards 
cultivating and nurturing a culture of critical reflexivity and action in 
individual and public work, is offering three Fellowships on the World 
Social Forum process. CACIM is involved in detailed 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 debates and discussions 
around related issues. For more details of our work on the Forum, see 
www.openspaceforum.net and www.cacim.net.

This is the first round of the award of these Fellowships.  CACIM is 
instituting the Forum Fellowships in order to provide opportunities for 
young activists, students, and researchers to conduct studies on different 
aspects of the Forum process in India and globally. This would include 
intensive interaction with social and popular movements and civil 
organisations and networks in India and South Asia 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.  Through this, we hope that the Fellowships will provide the 
opportunity to the Fellows to also engage with and study wider 
socio-political processes in the country, in order for them to develop, 
broaden, and deepen a critical engagement with the Forum process. We would 
like them to critically examine the procedural depth, methodology, and 
potentialities of the Forum and the 'new politics' of 'open space' that it 
professes and the impact it and these politics may be having on 
socio-political movements and processes in the region, by undertaking 
surveys, interviews, and discussions with the main actors in the process.

The Forum Fellowships, offered for a period of three months (January 16 - 
April 15 2008), will provide candidates with Rs. 40,000 for the preparation 
of a research paper to be presented at a Workshop on the WSF that CACIM will 
organise during May-June 2007.  Selected Fellows will be provided with 
literature published on the Forum and with contacts in India and worldwide, 
and in general, will receive assistance in sharpening their proposal; and 
CACIM will take care of travel, boarding, and lodging for attending the 
Workshop.

For this first round of Fellowships, we are accepting applications only from 
people living within India, both 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 we would welcome ideas for including them in this 
endeavour.

The following are some suggested themes for study, but not necessarily 
limited to these areas only :

- The dynamics of WSF as well as of Mumbai Resistance in 2004 and of other 
autonomous spaces, counter forums, mobilisation campaigns, and other forums 
that have emerged around the WSF process in India and elsewhere in the 
world.
- The experiences, visions, aspirations, and expectations of the various 
sections of society of the WSF, such as the Dalits, Adivasis, women, the 
physically challenged, sexual minorities, and others, as well as their 
questions and dilemmas in this regard, through their engagement with the 
Forum process.
- The social and political significance of Forum process, its relationship 
with other movements, its organising process, and its regional and global 
expansion.
- The political economy and the organising principles of the Forum, in India 
and worldwide.

Please send your application in along with :
- A short abstract indicating the scope and nature of your proposed research 
and the approach you would like to take to it
- One writing sample (published or unpublished), and
- Your detailed CV

to Madhuresh, CACIM Programme Coordinator by email (cacim at cacim.net) or post 
by January 5 2008.
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 
+91-11-2433 2451 cacim at cacim.net, www.cacim.net / www.openspaceforum.net


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CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, +91-98-1890 5316 (Mobile)
madhuresh at cacim.net / kmadhuresh at gmail.com
www.cacim.net
Check out the OpenSpaceForum @ www.openspaceforum.net