Synopsis This committed and critical collection of writings by women and men spanning three generations from the South and the North, presents the first in-one-place analysis of the World Social Forum. From political ideologies, social movements and processes of the old to present-day-reality, the views expressed in this volume converge on the significance of the World Social Forum. On the eve of the fourth World Social Forum, The Word Social Forum: Challenging Empires presents views on what led up to the Forums before it, critical engagements around it the significance of the Forum in India, and the future of the Forum.