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 ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) or post
by January 5 2008 to CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph :+91-11-4155 1521, +91-11-2433 2451 This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , www.cacim.net / www.openspaceforum.net