Activism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- Gil Scott-Heron "Activism has had major impacts on Western societies, particularly during the 20th century through social movements such as the labour movement, the women's rights movement, and the civil rights movement."--Sholem Stein ""Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" (1989) was an awareness campaign by the American feminist group the Guerrilla Girls; who, after counting all male artists, female artists, male nudes and female nudes at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, condemned the limited number of female artists found in that institute."--Sholem Stein |
Illustration:Liberty Leading the People (1831, detail) by Eugène Delacroix.
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society. Forms of activism range from mandate building in the community (including writing letters to newspapers), petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage (or boycott) of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.
Activism may be performed on a day-to-day basis in a wide variety of ways, including through the creation of art (artivism), computer hacking (hacktivism), or simply in how one chooses to spend their money (economic activism). For example, the refusal to buy clothes or other merchandise from a company as a protest against the exploitation of workers by that company could be considered an expression of activism. However, the most highly visible and impactful activism often comes in the form of collective action, in which numerous individuals coordinate an act of protest together in order to make a bigger impact. Collective action that is purposeful, organized, and sustained over a period of time becomes known as a social movement.
Historically, activists have used literature, including pamphlets, tracts, and books to disseminate or propagate their messages and attempt to persuade their readers of the justice of their cause. Research has now begun to explore how contemporary activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action combining politics with technology.
Methods
- Agitation
- Civil disobedience
- Community building
- Dissident
- Economic activism
- Boycott
- Guerrilla gardening (boycott of food- and drug industry)
- Freeganism
- Veganism (boycott of animal usage)
- Vegetarianism (boycott of animal meat usage)
- Consumer activism
- 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
- Atheist activism
See also
- List of activists
- Advocacy group
- Agitator
- Civil disobedience
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- Community leader
- Dissident
- Hacktivism
- Human rights activists
- Media manipulation
- Politics and technology
- Restorationism
- Slacktivism
- Social engineering (political science)
- Social movement
- Student activism
- Youth activism
