A Look at Social ActivismPosted by Hutchison Gissel on July 30th, 2021 Social activism refers to the ways that people engage in political and social movements. Activism can take many forms. One way to think of social activism is as a kind of citizen's arrest. In other words, an activist is someone who is participating in a political or social movement in order to bring about change in a community or society. Activists may engage in occupations, marches, demonstrations, or other forms of social engagement. There is a difference between social activism and civil rights activism. Civil rights activism usually involves physical actions such as marches, demonstrations, sit-ins, and other types of protests. An interest in history, philosophy, arts, science, immigration, guns, and other social issues are not typically part of civil rights activism. A person who engages in social activism may use various types of media to communicate their ideas and ideals. Some common characteristics of social activism are organizing, communication, and communication strategies. Activists can organize into groups or participate in activities such as fundraisers, marches, conventions, and protests. The most organized form of social activism occurs in terms of professional and/or student organizations. The activists in these groups work together to advocate for social change and to lobby for legislation concerning environmental protection, social welfare, racial discrimination, and other issues. Communication strategies include using written texts, mass media, public speaking, and oral statements. The goal of activists is to promote awareness of causes, increase political influence, create change, improve social conditions, and protect human rights. While some forms of activism are spontaneous, many forms of social action are planned, coordinated, and orchestrated. Organizers plan out tactics for protests, conferences, conventions, meetings, pickets, demonstrations, and sit-ins. Activism can be defined as intentional action that makes social change through the collective effort of a society, a group of people, or an organization. In other words, any individual who becomes deeply involved in any given social action directed toward creating social change is considered to be an "activist." Activists are sometimes known as "cells," and they may not have specific cell specific goals. For instance, a protest or march may unite all members of a single society under one organizational banner, such as the "Red Power" Association. One type of more complex activism involves what is called "collective grassroots action." This type of social change is not characterized by specifically designated leaders or cells. Instead, an entire community may collectively decide to take on new social issues in a non-traditional way. Rather than planning a small meeting to discuss one issue, such as animal rights, an entire town or city might unite in order to change their government. Such activism is much more complicated to monitor, but it has been successful. Another type of social activism is characterized by its commercial viability. There are groups which are strictly commercial in nature; these are known as "spokes groups." These groups, such as the National Petrotero Committee, raise money for particular causes and then use their money to promote those causes. Commercial activists tend to be easier to track, since they have a very specific goal for spending their money. In general, though, all forms of social activism are the same. agency tend to do a wide variety of different things to promote social change, and have the same overall goal: social change. Activists use various methods to make that change happen. Those methods include public speech, peaceful public demonstrations, organizing mass rallies and protests, and the publicity of their cause. Whether it's animal rights activists suing corporations for animal abuse, or activists opposing the policies of the state controlling the environment, or environmentalists suing big oil companies for pollution, or single mothers fighting to have an education for their children, or environmentalists suing big corporations for harming the planet, or any number of other groups trying to improve the world, social activists are making social change happen.Like it? Share it! More by this author |