Activism

Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or directsocial, political, economic,

or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society.
Forms of activism range from writing letters to newspapers or to politicians, political
campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing
businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.

One can also express activism through different forms of art (artivism). Daily acts of
protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they Barricade at the Paris Commune,
exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging 1871
privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism.[1] Research
has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic
engagement and collective action.[2][3]

The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words "activism" and
"activist" (in the political sense) from 1920[4] and from 1915[5] respectively.

Contents Civil rights activists at theMarch on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Types
during the Civil Rights Movement in
Environmental activists
1963
Internet activism
Design activism
Activism industry
Methods
See also
References
Further reading

Types A Women's Liberation march in

Washington, D.C., 1970
Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., introduced the term "judicial activism" in a January 1946 Fortune
magazine article titled "The Supreme Court: 1947".[6] Activists are also public watchdogs and whistle blowers, attempting to
understand all the actions of every form of government that acts in the name of the people: all government must be accountable to
oversight and transparency. Activism is an engaged citizenry.[7]

Some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to
change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change. The cooperative movement
seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically
.

In his 2008 book, Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution,[8] Douglas Schuler suggests something he
calls an activist road trip, whereby activism and road trips are merged into an activity that can be pursued on geographical levels that
range from neighborhood to international.[9]
As with those who engage in other activities such as singing or running, the term may apply broadly to anyone who engages in it
even briefly, or be more narrowly limited to those for whom it is a vocation, habit, or characteristic practice. Activism is not always
an action by Activists.[10]

Environmental activists
Environmental activists, in the narrower sense, align themselves with EarthFirst! or Road Protestors and would commonly be labeled
activists, while a local community fighting to stop their park or green being sold off or built on would fit the broader application, due
to their using similar means to similarly conservative ends. Every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed: a Global
Witness report[11] found that in 2014 at least 116 environmental activists were assassinated,[12] and in 2015 at least 185 activists
were killed around this planet.[13]

Internet activism
Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes. Specific platforms like
MoveOn.org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999
used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference. Throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social
media platforms to generate interest.

The power of Internet Activism came into a global lens with the Arab Spring protests. People living in the Middle East and North
African countries that were experiencing revolutions used social networking to communicate protests, which put the issues in front of
an international audience.[14]

They use different means to avoid political persecution, such as Tor Browser (a browser that uses Tor network to protect users'
identity, IP address, network or location), and encryption data tools and encrypted mails to prevent governments or anyone else
intercepting their communications.

Design activism
'Design activism' is a conceptualization that occurs across various communities of practice and can be associated with diverse
initiatives such as transition movement, speculative design,[15] design futuring,[16] activist systems,[17] biopolitics[18] and others.
One working definition of design activism describes it as "design thinking, imagination and practice applied knowingly or
unknowingly to create a counter-narrative aimed at generating and balancing positive social, institutional, environmental and/or
economic change."[19]

Activism industry
The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism. Activism is often done full-time, as part of an
organization's core business. Many organizations in the activism industry are either non-profit organizations or non-governmental
organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods.

The term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage
in other activities as well.[20] Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic. Many groups,
including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by
the federal government.[21]

Many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations
to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-
exempt organizations.

Methods
 Agitation
Art
Civil disobedience
Community building

Conflict transformation
Cooperative movement
Craftivism
Grassroots
Guerrilla gardening
Voluntary simplicity The longest running peace vigil in
Demonstration U.S. history, started by activist
Dissident Thomas in 1981.
Economic activism

Boycott

Freeganism
Veganism (boycott of animal usage)
Vegetarianism (boycott of animal meat usage)
Consumer activism
Divestment (a.k.a. Disinvestment)
Simple living
Tax resistance
Franchise activism
Lobbying
Media activism

Culture jamming
Hacktivism
Internet activism
Nonviolence
Peace activist and Peace movement
Political campaigning
Propaganda

Guerrilla communication
Protest

Demonstration
Direct action
Protest songs
Theater for Social Change
Strike action
Youth activism

Student activism
Youth-led media
Atheist activism

See also
List of activists
Advocacy Evaluation
Advocacy group
Agitator
Counterculture of the 1960s
Community leader
 Human rights activists
Media manipulation
Restorationism
Slacktivism
Social engineering (political science)
Social movement

References
1. "Inspired Voices: 5 Unconventional forms of Activism" (http://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/04/beautiful-trouble-5-u
nconventional-forms-of-activism/). Elephant Journal. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
2. Obar, Jonathan; et al. (2012). "Advocacy 2.0:An Analysis of How Advocacy Groups in the United States Perceive
and Use Social Media as Tools for Facilitating Civic Engagement and Collective Action".Journal of Information
Policy. SSRN 1956352 (https://ssrn.com/abstract=1956352) .
3. Obar, Jonathan (2014). "Canadian Advocacy2.0: A Study of Social Media Use by Social Movement Groups and
Activists in Canada". Canadian Journal of Communication. SSRN 2254742 (https://ssrn.com/abstract=2254742) .
4. Harper, Douglas. "activism" (http://www.etymonline.com/?term=activism). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved
17 December 2015.
5. Harper, Douglas. "activist" (http://www.etymonline.com/?term=activist). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved
17 December 2015.
6. Keenan Kmiec in a 2004California Law Review article
7. "Politically Active? 4 Tips for Incorporating Self-Care, US News" (http://health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/artic
les/2017-02-27/politically-active-4-tips-for-incorporating-self-care)
. US News. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 5 March
2017.
8. Schuler, Douglas (2008). Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press.ISBN 9780262693660.
9. "Activist Road Trip" (http://www.publicsphereproject.org/content/activist-road-trip). Public Sphere Project. 2008.
Retrieved 1 November 2015.
10. "Introduction to Activism"(http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/). Permanent Culture Now.
Permanent Culture Now. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
11. "Report | How Many More?"(https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/how-many-more/),
Global Witness, 20 April 2015.
12. Cronin, Melissa, "Map: 116 environmental activists were killed in just one year"(http://grist.org/news/map-116-enviro
nmental-activists-were-killed-in-just-one-year/)
, Grist.org, 4 March 2016.
13. Holmes, Oliver, "Environmental activist murders set record as 2015 became deadliest year"
(https://www.theguardia
n.com/environment/2016/jun/20/environmental-activist-murders-global-witness-report)
, The Guardian, 20 June 2016.
14. Sliwinski, Michael (21 January 2016)."The Evolution of Activism: From the Streets to Social Media"(http://lawstreet
media.com/issues/politics/evolution-activism-streets-social-media/)
. Law Street. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
15. Dunne, Anthony; Raby, Fiona (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming
. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
16. Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice. Oxford: Berg.
17. Roudavski, Stanislav; Jahn, Gwyllim (2016)."Activist Systems: Futuring with Living Models"(https://www.academia.e
du/26321020/Activist_Systems_Futuring_with_Living_Models) . International Journal of Architectural Computing
. 16
(2): 182–196. doi:10.1177/1478077116638946(https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1478077116638946) .
18. Da Costa, Philip; Kavita, Fiona (2008).Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and T
echnoscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
19. Fuad-Luke; Alastair (2009).Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World
. Sterling: Earthscan. 27.
20. Dana R. Fisher, "The Activism Industry: The Problem with the Left's Model of Outsourced Grassroots Canvassing (ht
tp://prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=11993)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20101205162211/http://prospect.
org/cs/articles?articleId=11993)5 December 2010 at theWayback Machine.", The American Prospect, 14
September 2006
21. New Federal Lobbying Law Reporting Periods Begin(https://web.archive.org/web/20110711095632/http://www
.gkla
w.com/publication.cfm?publication_id=724)

Further reading
Paul Rogat Loeb, Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time (St Martin's Press, 2010). ISBN 978-0-
312-59537-1.
Brian Martin with Wendy Varney. Nonviolence Speaks: Communicating against Repression , (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton
Press, 2003).
Randy Shaw, The Activist's Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond(University of California Press, 1996).
ISBN 0-520-20317-8.
David Walls, The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy Organizations in
America (Simon & Schuster/Fireside, 1993).ISBN 0-671-74634-0.
Victor Gold, Liberwocky (Thomas Nelson, 2004).ISBN 978-0-7852-6057-8.

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