Grassroots Advocacy Research Articles

Evaluating the impact of open access policies on research institutions.

The proportion of research outputs published in open access journals or made available on other freely-accessible platforms has increased over the past two decades, driven largely by funder mandates, institutional policies, grass-roots advocacy, and changing attitudes in the research community. However, the relative effectiveness of these different interventions has remained largely unexplored. Here we present a robust, transparent and updateable method for analysing how these interventions affect the open access performance of individual institutes. We studied 1,207 institutions from across the world, and found that, in 2017, the top-performing universities published around 80-90% of their research open access. The analysis also showed that publisher-mediated (gold) open access was popular in Latin American and African universities, whereas the growth of open access in Europe and North America has mostly been driven by repositories.

Between Government and Grassroots: Archaeology as Advocacy in Southern Belize

The consolidation of archaeology as a scientific discipline reinforced the power of the nation-state as archaeologists produced material and intellectual data that was used to bolster state identities at the expense of the history and heritage of Indigenous peoples. Accordingly, there are inherent structural inequalities within the discipline that favour researchers from Western nation-states in knowledge creation about the past. In this paper I explore the political implications of advocating for an equitable archaeological practice in Belize, Central America. Though archaeological research has incorporated grassroots engagement and community-based approaches, there is a gap in the discussion about negotiations with government officials. Among the issues surrounding grassroots advocacy is walking a ‘middle ground’ between negotiating with government officials for excavation permits and working closely with disenfranchised communities. Building relationships between registers of power supports the practice of a socially just archaeology abroad and could mitigate the structural inequalities inherent in our discipline. I illustrate this ‘middle ground’ with the Aguacate Community Archaeology Project, which I conducted in collaboration with Aguacate village, Toledo district, from 2012 to 2015. I explore the role of the archaeologist as an advocate for local communities’ control over knowledge produced on their community land.

Expanding Advocacy to the Grassroots Level: The New York State Model

New York State has achieved pharmacy practice advancement legislation more slowly than other states. Despite the benefits of pharmacy advocacy in shaping legislation, in New York State advocacy activities have generally been limited to once per year during Lobby Day. Implementation of a grassroots advocacy infrastructure has been able to organize and sustain legislative engagement among members of our professional organization, with more than 100 legislative visits completed since creation of the Grassroots Advocacy Committee. A committee with infrastructure including a buddy system and legislative visit tracking process and educational programs, such as simulation training, have reduced the perceived burdens of participation. Other pharmacy organizations who have identified advocacy as a priority can utilize these tools to organize their members to support legislative goals.

‘Social justice for all!’ The relative silence of social work in abortion rights advocacy

Social work has been largely silent on matters of reproductive rights, particularly in relation to abortion. This may partially be explained by abortion being secured as a part of health care in many countries. However, elsewhere, abortion remains in criminal codes with service access controlled via medico-legal barriers. We make a case for the increased visibility of reproductive justice within education and professional activity, employing case studies from Australia, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand to illustrate recent social work advocacy on abortion rights. Social work abortion activists report two themes: professional bodies have varied their approach to advocacy for abortion rights due to political sensitivities; and social work involvement in campaigns has reflected individual and grass-roots advocacy. Improved education about reproductive justice for social workers, alongside greater collective professional advocacy, are needed to contribute to campaigns together with women’s and human rights groups, as well as public health champions.

Understanding the Outcomes of Climate Change Campaigns in the Australian Environmental Movement

Climate change is a global problem requiring a collective response. Grassroots advocacy has been an important element in propelling this collective response, often through the mechanism of campaigns. However, it is not clear whether the climate change campaigns organized by the environmental advocacy groups are successful in achieving their goals, nor the degree to which other benefits may accrue to groups who run them. To investigate this further, we report a case study of the Australian climate change advocacy sector. Three methods were used to gather data to inform this case study: content analysis of climate change organizations’ websites, analysis of website text relating to campaign outcomes, and interviews with climate change campaigners. Findings demonstrate that climate change advocacy is diverse and achieving substantial successes such as the development of climate change-related legislation and divestment commitments from a range of organizations. The data also highlights additional benefits of campaigning such as gaining access to political power and increasing groups’ financial and volunteer resources. The successful outcomes of campaigns were influenced by the ability of groups to sustain strong personal support networks, use skills and resources available across the wider environmental advocacy network, and form consensus around shared strategic values. Communicating the successes of climate change advocacy could help mobilize collective action to address climate change. As such, this case study of the Australian climate change movement is relevant for both academics focusing on social movements and collective action and advocacy-focused practitioners, philanthropists, and non-governmental organizations.

Mobilizing personal narratives: The rise of digital “story banking” in U.S. grassroots advocacy

ABSTRACTThis article interrogates digital “story banking,” a storytelling practice that has become increasingly popular among U.S. grassroots advocacy organizations. Through the examination of LinkedIn data and in-depth interviews with story banking professionals, this technique emerges as the centerpiece of the growing institutionalization, professionalization, and datafication of storytelling in progressive advocacy. Following the 2016 election, political crisis and an increasing awareness of changing information consumption patterns promoted story banking diffusion. Story banking ushers in the era of stories as data and political story on demand. Yet, political constraints currently limit story banking to a reactive approach based on news monitoring, algorithmic shortlisting of stories, and audience testing. Furthermore, an unresolved tension has emerged between the growing centralization of storytelling functions and the participatory potential of crowd-sourced story banks. The implications of these trends for progressive advocacy organizations and the groups they aim to represent are considered.

The Characteristics, Activities and Goals of Environmental Organizations Engaged in Advocacy Within the Australian Environmental Movement

ABSTRACT A sustained groundswell of grassroots advocacy is required to trigger the urgent action required to solve our many global environmental problems. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics, issue focus, tactics and targets of this grassroots advocacy, we analyzed the website communications of 497 environmental movement organizations (EMOs) undertaking advocacy in Australia. Findings indicate that Conservation and Protection issues continue to dominate, although a wave of new climate change-related issue groups have emerged in recent years. Almost half of all groups operate at a local level. EMO websites suggest that their actions are primarily normative (vs. radical), and focus primarily on information provision. Of the 960 campaign targets identified, just over half were political, however, climate change, renewable energy and sustainability campaigns more often targeted individuals or business entities. We identify the areas where further investigation could advance the research agenda on grassroots environmental advocacy.

Civic Action, Historical Agency, and Grassroots Advocacy: Historical Inquiry Into Freedom Summer

In this article, the authors discuss how to explore the agency of ordinary citizens using local institutions to combat Jim Crow segregation laws during Freedom Summer. Primary sources from Miami (OH) University website about Freedom Summer and Susan Goldman Rubin's trade book ground the inquiry. Through the series of activities discussed, middle school students utilize the steps of the Inquiry Arc in the C3 Framework to analyze primary and secondary sources about Freedom Summer to determine how ordinary citizens took civic action to address the economic, social, cultural, and political inequalities of Jim Crow segregation laws. These experiences equip students with the knowledge and skills to be change agents in their own communities.

Education as the practice of freedom, from past to future: Student movements and the corporate university

As contemporary universities become increasingly deregulated and neoliberalised structures, how is grassroots student political organising to adapt? What role could student organisers, working in coalition with academics, unions and communities, play in shaping the Future University? We argue that student organising has an even more crucial place in the site of the neoliberal university, working against both the corporatisation of the contemporary university, as well as rising neoliberal conditions in the broader communities within which tertiary education is embedded. These conditions, without doubt, have the potential to stultify student movements by burdening students with ever-increasing debt, and packaging degrees as a commodity with a market-determined value. However, we argue, the neoliberalisation of education also engenders an opportunity for students in shaping the Future University, through grassroots advocacy for staff working conditions, and for critical pedagogies that enable the integration of transformative social justice movements with academic theory. For us, the Future University is a space that nourishes critical and creative thinking, and produces students that are able to integrate theory with radical praxis. However, for this to be realised, the ideological function of the university, in justifying and naturalising hegemonic power structures, and the very meaning of public education, must be exposed and critiqued from the ground up.

Senegal: Presidential Elections 2019 - The Shining Example of Democratic Transition Immersed in Muddy Power-Politics

Whereas Senegal has long been sold as a showcase of democracy in Africa, including peaceful political alternance, things apparently changed fundamentally with the Senegalese presidentials of 2019 that brought new configurations. One of the major issues was political transhumance that has been elevated to the rank of religion in defiance of morality. It threatened political stability and peace. In response, social networks of predominantly young activists, created in 2011 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring focused on grass-roots advocacy with the electorate on good governance and democracy. They proposed a break with a political system that they consider as neo-colonialist. Moreover, Senegal’s justice is frequently accused to be biased, and the servility of the Constitutional Council which is in the first place an electoral court has often been denounced.

Science Policy Begins at Home: Grassroots Advocacy at the State and Local Level

Science Policy Begins at Home: Grassroots Advocacy at the State and Local Level

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Grassroots Advocacy 101

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is committed to accelerating improvements in health and well-being through food and nutrition. As part of its strategic plan, the Academy seeks to influence food and nutrition policies though advocacy and participation in the legislative process at local, state, federal, and global levels. The Academy advocates for policies that support prevention and well-being, elevating the role of nutrition status in quality health care throughout the life cycle, and increasing equitable access to and utilization of safe nutritious food and water. 1 The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. What is the Academy’s Strategic Plan? https://www.eatrightpro.org/leadership/academy-policies/strategic-plan/what-is-the-academys-strategic-plan. Published 2017. Accessed June 6, 2018. Google Scholar

Pembe Caretta

Pembe Caretta

How a Birthday Celebration Changed the Course of My Life

How a Birthday Celebration Changed the Course of My Life

Grassroots Advocacy: Make Policy Personal to Bring Home Your Message

Grassroots Advocacy: Make Policy Personal to Bring Home Your Message

Using Grassroots Advocacy to Increase Utilization and Access to Youth Friendly Services: The KMET Experience

Introduction: Constitution of Kenya 2010 protects the rights of adolescent children to health care. The constitution also recognizes the right of every person to health including reproductive health, the right to equality and freedom from discrimination, the right to human dignity, the right to privacy, and the right to access to information.6 Despite these provisions under the law, there are a lot of barriers to access at the local level. Nearly 40% of all births in Kenya are unplanned, 47% of whom are adolescents. KMET recognized the special needs of adolescent and youth therefore adopting a grassroots advocacy project. Of key importance is the fact that it takes a lot more than having laws in place. The gate keepers at the grassroots also need to be brought on board regarding the existing laws. Grassroots advocates (youth advocates) aim to raise the level of awareness regarding certain causes and issues at the local level. Although the main purpose of these efforts is so that, the grassroots advocate, can influence public perception, regulations, or public policy such as legislation, these efforts have also seen the target group change their mindsets about FP and offered solutions to some of the issues experienced in terms of access. Method: The grassroots advocacy model is implemented by youth advocates. They have undergone training in advocacy. In addition KMET facilitates them to conduct grassroots advocacy within their communities. The main targets are: teachers; local administration; religious leaders and any other influential opinion leader within the community. Quarterly reviews are also conducted for purposes of peer reviews, adoption of best practices and tracking progress. Findings/results: There has been a lot of significant positive changes since the inception of grassroots advocacy. The following are some of the success stories.

Men’s Involvement on Promoting Gender Equality: Case Study of Campaign by “Laki-Laki Peduli” in Indonesia

Men can take parts in promoting the agenda of gender equality in many ways, ranging from; grassroots campaigns, advocacy, and education programs. In Indonesia, one of the few movements which particularly prominent is a campaign by Laki-Laki Peduli (LLP). This research used qualitative descriptive approach to explore and analyze the strategy that has been used by LLP’s campaign, especially on how they used various media to construct a message which can be accepted by Indonesian society who’s still largely embraces patriarchal culture. It has been found that LLP’s use TVC and short movies to amplify their message on the importance of fatherhood, showing a more positive concept of masculinity, and to encourage men to play an active role in becoming partners with their wives. Furthermore, they also utilize various digital media to help spread the awareness about the importance of men’s involvement on gender equality.

A quick guide to effective grassroots advocacy for scientists.

The current political climate in the United States has mobilized scientists to become more cognizant of the need to advocate for sustainable science funding from the federal government and for acceptance of evidence-based policy making that relies on the best available scientific data. Many scientists, however, do not learn about science policy or how to advocate in Washington, D.C., or at the local level as part of their scientific training. Here we explain why science advocacy is important and provide steps on how to get involved by communicating with elected officials and engaging in the local community.

Grassroots Advocacy for your Music Program

Grassroots Advocacy for your Music Program

Unmasking the crowd: participants’ motivation factors, expectations, and profile in a crowdsourced law reform

ABSTRACTThis article examines the demographic characteristics, motivations, and expectations of participants in a crowdsourced off-road traffic law reform in Finland. We found that the participants were mainly educated, full-time working professional males with a strong interest in off-road traffic. Though a minority, the women participating in the process produced more ideas than the men. The crowd was motivated by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic motivations included fulfilling civic duty, affecting the law for sociotropic reasons, to deliberate with and learn from peers. Extrinsic motivations included changing the law for financial gain or other benefits. Participation in crowdsourced policy-making was an act of grassroots advocacy, whether to pursue one’s own interest or more altruistic goals, such as protecting nature. The motivations driving the participation were in part similar to those observed in traditional democratic processes, such as elections as well as other online collaborations such as crowdsourced journalism and citizen science. The crowds’ behavior was, however, paradoxical. They participated despite the fact that they did not expect that their contributions would affect the law.