CACIM
= India Institute for Critical Action - Centre in Movement
URL = http://www.cacim.net/
Description
"CACIM (the India Institute for Critical Action - Centre in Movement) is an initiative towards cultivating and nurturing a culture of critical reflexivity and action in individual and public work. In principle we expect to work in many fields, but our focus at the moment is on activism, research, and publication in relation to social and political movement. We primarily work by building and maintaining real and virtual spaces for fundamental research and critical reflection, exploration, action, and creation in the field of movement : Books, seminars, workshops, websites, listserves, and newsbulletins and action alerts. Initiated in India in 2005, CACIM is transnational, intercultural, and interdisciplinary in vision and culture.
Organisationally, CACIM is a networked association between individuals and organisations located in different parts of India and the world. (See end of this Note for two lists – of the CACIM Council, and of CACIM’s Partners.) CACIM has grown out of Critical Action (CA), an experiment during 2001-2005 in informal, voluntary association between individuals based in different parts of India and other countries in different continents who were engaged or concerned with social and political movement in different ways. This experiment focussed on the critical study of, reflection and exchange on, and engagement in emerging social and political movement, and in particular through critical involvement and engagement with the World Social Forum.
In a longer frame, CACIM has also grown out of an earlier experiment and initiative named Unnayan, a civil organisation based in Kolkata, India. Formed in the mid-late 70s, and working through the 80s and 90s, Unnayan’s work in research, documentation, social organisation, and advocacy was in providing critical support to communities and associations of the urban labouring poor in their struggles to gain control over their lives, and in advocacy campaigning at the state, all-India, and international levels. Unnayan is a Bengali word meaning ‘development’ in the sense of unfolding and self-realisation (and not just ‘progress’). Several members of CACIM and CA have been and remain associated with Unnayan.
CACIM was registered as a non-profit company in India in July 2005. In early 2007, it has taken the first steps in establishing a new initiative in publishing critical thought, OpenWord." (http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=AboutUs)
More Information
- Director: Jai Sen
Links: