Quiet Activism PDF Download

Author: Wendy Steele
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030787273
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
This book focuses on the potential and possibilities for socially innovative responses to the climate emergency at the local scale. Climate change has intensified the need for communities to find creative and meaningful ways to address the sustainability of their environments. The authors focus on the creative and collaborative ways local- scale climate action reflects the extra-ordinary measures taken by ordinary people. This includes critical engagement with the ways in which novel social practices and partnerships emerge between people, organisations, institutions, governance arrangements and eco-systems. The book successfully highlights the transformative power of socially innovative activities and initiatives in response to the climate crisis; and critically explores how different individuals and groups undertake climate action as ‘quiet activism’ – the embodied acts of collective disruption, subversion, creativity and care at the local scale.

Author: Robert R. Janes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351251023
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Only a decade ago, the notion that museums, galleries and heritage organisations might engage in activist practice, with explicit intent to act upon inequalities, injustices and environmental crises, was met with scepticism and often derision. Seeking to purposefully bring about social change was viewed by many within and beyond the museum community as inappropriately political and antithetical to fundamental professional values. Today, although the idea remains controversial, the way we think about the roles and responsibilities of museums as knowledge based, social institutions is changing. Museum Activism examines the increasing significance of this activist trend in thinking and practice. At this crucial time in the evolution of museum thinking and practice, this ground-breaking volume brings together more than fifty contributors working across six continents to explore, analyse and critically reflect upon the museum’s relationship to activism. Including contributions from practitioners, artists, activists and researchers, this wide-ranging examination of new and divergent expressions of the inherent power of museums as forces for good, and as activists in civil society, aims to encourage further experimentation and enrich the debate in this nascent and uncertain field of museum practice. Museum Activism elucidates the largely untapped potential for museums as key intellectual and civic resources to address inequalities, injustice and environmental challenges. This makes the book essential reading for scholars and students of museum and heritage studies, gallery studies, arts and heritage management, and politics. It will be a source of inspiration to museum practitioners and museum leaders around the globe.

Author: Joel D. Harden
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 1459405072
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Spontaneous and creative protest movements have burst onto the political stage in Canada and around the world. Joel D. Harden, an activist, writer, and educator, offers a ground-level account of the most important of these recent expressions of large-scale political engagement, mostly by young people. Based on first-hand accounts from many of the participants and organizers, Harden describes key events and turning-points -- in Canada and beyond -- from the viewpoint of a committed insider. Harden believes that these new bottom-up movements are the most challenging and effective agent of political change on the scene today, galvanizing people to express their views actively in the streets and parks or in their workplaces. The political and corporate power structure has been shaken by these challenges, sometimes enough to generate real political change. Political analysts, journalists and academics have not yet come to terms with this new activism. Harden briefly reviews theories that fail to capture its essence and those that come close to getting it. In a concluding chapter addressed to students and participants in these social movements he offers his own take on a "movement-relevant" theory informed by his own considerable experience as a widely respected Canadian activist. This book offers new thinking about how ordinary citizens -- particularly young people -- have started to take back power in our democracy and change the world.

Author: Gal Beckerman
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 152475918X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • An “elegantly argued and exuberantly narrated” (The New York Times Book Review) look at the building of social movements—from the 1600s to the present—and how current technology is undermining them “A bravura work of scholarship and reporting, featuring amazing individuals and dramatic events from seventeenth-century France to Rome, Moscow, Cairo, and contemporary Minneapolis.”—Louis Menand, author of The Free World We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fueling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate about how to achieve their goals. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that—in a world dominated by social media—they might soon go extinct. Gal Beckerman, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, takes us back to the seventeenth century, to the correspondence that jump-started the scientific revolution, and then forward through time to examine engines of social change: the petitions that secured the right to vote in 1830s Britain, the zines that gave voice to women’s rage in the early 1990s, and even the messaging apps used by epidemiologists fighting the pandemic in the shadow of an inept administration. In each case, Beckerman shows that our most defining social movements—from decolonization to feminism—were formed in quiet, closed networks that allowed a small group to incubate their ideas before broadcasting them widely. But Facebook and Twitter are replacing these productive, private spaces, to the detriment of activists around the world. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart? Why did Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential? Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem lacks—everything from patience to focus—and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again. Lyrical and profound, The Quiet Before looks to the past to help us imagine a different future.

Author: Leila Ahmed
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300175051
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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A probing study of the veil's recent return—from one of the world's foremost authorities on Muslim women—that reaches surprising conclusions about contemporary Islam's place in the West todayIn Cairo in the 1940s, Leila Ahmed was raised by a generation of women who never dressed in the veils and headscarves their mothers and grandmothers had worn. To them, these coverings seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, however, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil's return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered, however, in the stories of British colonial officials, young Muslim feminists, Arab nationalists, pious Islamic daughters, American Muslim immigrants, violent jihadists, and peaceful Islamic activists, confounded her expectations. Ahmed observed that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is the strain of Islam most easily and naturally merging with western democracies' own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. It is often Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women's rights. Ahmed's surprising conclusions represent a near reversal of her thinking on this topic.Richly insightful, intricately drawn, and passionately argued, this absorbing story of the veil's resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggests a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam.

Author: Peter Staley
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1641601450
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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"Never Silent is a gorgeous book . . . Peter Staley has written an electrifying primer for anyone who's thinking/worrying/wondering about how to change/save the world." —Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Angels in America 2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalist The previously untold stories of the life of the leading subject in David France's How To Survive A Plague, Peter Staley, including his continuing activism In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-Related Complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power—ACT UP—in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made. ACT UP would change the course of AIDS, pressuring the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, and three administrations to finally respond with research that ultimately saved millions of lives. Staley, a shrewd strategist with nerves of steel, organized some of the group's most spectacular actions, from shutting down trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to putting a giant condom over the house of Senator Jesse Helms. Never Silent is the inside story of what brought Staley to ACT UP and the explosive and sometimes painful years to follow—years filled with triumph, humiliation, joy, loss, and persistence. Never Silent is guaranteed to inspire the activist within all of us.

Author: Anna Lora-Wainwright
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262341107
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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An examination of the daily grind of living with pollution in rural China and of the varying forms of activism that develop in response. Residents of rapidly industrializing rural areas in China live with pollution every day. Villagers drink obviously tainted water and breathe visibly dirty air, afflicted by a variety of ailments—from arthritis to nosebleeds—that they ascribe to the effects of industrial pollution. “Cancer villages,” village-sized clusters of high cancer incidence, have emerged as a political and cultural phenomenon. In Resigned Activism, Anna Lora-Wainwright explores the daily grind of living with pollution in rural China and the varying forms of activism that develop in response. She finds that claims of health or environmental damage are politically sensitive, and that efforts to seek redress are frustrated by limited access to scientific evidence, growing socioeconomic inequalities, and complex local realities. Villagers, feeling powerless, often come to accept pollution as part of the environment; their activism is tempered by their resignation. Lora-Wainwright uses the term “resigned activism” as a lens through which to view villagers' perceptions and the diverse forms of environmental engagement that result. These range from picketing at the factory gate to quieter individual or family-oriented actions. Lora-Wainwright offers three case studies of “resigned activism” in rural China, examining the experiences of villagers who live with the effects of phosphorous mining and fertilizer production, lead and zinc mining, and electronic waste processing. These cases make clear the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits that underlie China's economic power.

Author: Robert Wuthnow
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520233131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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"For those who thought Mainline Protestantism was well on its way to extinction, this collection provides interesting—possibly even shocking—reading. It points to new life arising out of old structures and changing modes of engagement with the culture. The message the reader takes away is that while the future for this religious tradition will not look like its past, it has a future. The best book written lately on this topic."—Wade Clark Roof, author of Spiritual Marketplace: BabyBoomers and the Remaking of American Religion "An important contribution to our understanding of the public influence of mainline Protestantism. This well-written and expansive book reveals how socially, civically, and politically active mainline Protestantism continues to be in American society, contrary to much conventional wisdom. Yet it shows the mainline influence as having a particular character, different from that of other religious traditions. Mainline Protestantism has, without justification, been understudied lately. This landmark book puts it back on the map and will generate discussion and inquiry for years to come."—Christian Smith, author of The Secular Revolution "This important book provides a balanced, critical, yet genuinely appreciative analysis of the role of mainline Protestantism's public role. It is a stimulating and refreshing change from the mainline Protestant 'bashing' of the past three decades. In a time of increased calls for religious organizations to be involved in public life, readers will be helped to understand both the possibilities and limits of such involvement as the authors examine the practices and policies of the most publicly engaged of America's religious families."—Jackson W. Carroll, coauthor of Bridging Divided Worlds: Congregations and Generational Cultures "An essential book for anyone interested in the public nature and works of the Protestant mainline. The vast majority of American citizens believe that churches have a public role. But they disagree about what that role should be. Help has arrived."—Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy "This book is a comprehensive overview of mainline Protestantism's contribution to the public role of religion during the last three decades of the 20th century. It provides a firm platform from which to guide our vision in the new millennium."—Donald E. Miller, author of Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium

Author: Sarah P. Corbett
Publisher: Unbound Publishing
ISBN: 1783524081
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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'This is mindful activism . . . thought-out, strategic and engaging' Guardian 'I love what Sarah does! It's quiet activism for everyone including introverts' Jon Ronson 'Sarah Corbett mixes an A-grade mind with astonishing creativity and emotional awareness' Lucy Siegle If we want a world that is beautiful, kind and fair, shouldn't our activism be beautiful, kind and fair? **Award-winning campaigner and founder of the global Craftivist Collective Sarah Corbett shows how to respond to injustice not with apathy or aggression, but with gentle, effective protest. This is a manifesto – for a more respectful and contemplative activism; for conversation and collaboration where too often these is division and conflict; for using craft to engage, empower and encourage us all to be the change we wish to see in the world. Sarah's craftivism has helped change laws and business policies as well as hearts and minds; here, with thoughtful principles and practical examples, she shows that quiet action can speak as powerfully as the loudest voice.

Author: Si Kahn
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1605094455
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Privatization has been on the right-wing agenda for years. Health care, schools, Social Security, public lands, the military, prisons-all are considered fair game. Through stories, analysis, impassioned argument-even song lyrics-Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich show that corporations are, by their very nature, unable to fulfill effectively what have traditionally been the responsibilities of government. They make a powerful case that the market is not the measure of all things, and that a vital public sector is an indispensable component of a healthy democracy.