Activism
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.[citation needed]
Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. introduced the term "judicial activism" in a January 1947 Fortune magazine article titled "The Supreme Court: 1947."[1]
Some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically, and clergymen often exhort their parishioners to follow a particular moral code or system.
As with those who engage 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. In the narrower sense environmental activists that align themselves with Earth First or Road Protestors would commonly be labelled activists, whilst 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. In short activism is not always an action by Activists.[2]
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[edit] Methods
This article mainly consists of lists. The information may be better understood by either replacing or supporting with prose. You can help by consulting the relevant guideline and making appropriate changes or additions. Editing help is available. (February 2012) |
- Civil disobedience
- Community building
- Economic activism
- Boycott
- Veganism (boycott of animal usage)
- Vegetarianism (boycott of animal meat usage)
- Divestment (a.k.a. Disinvestment)
- Simple living
- Tax resistance
- Boycott
- Franchise activism
- Lobbying
- Media activism
- Nonviolence
- Peace activist and Peace movement
- Political campaigning
- Propaganda
- Protest
- Strike action
- Youth activism
[edit] See also
- Advocacy Evaluation
- Advocacy group
- Agitator
- Community leader
- Feminism
- Master Legend
- Restorationism
- Social engineering (political science)
- Social movement
- Virtual volunteering
[edit] References
- ^ Keenan Kmiec in a 2004 California Law Review article
- ^ "Introduction to Activism". Permanent Culture Now. Permanent Culture Now. http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
[edit] 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.
- 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.