Strategies For Social Change Research Articles

Advocacy as a Strategy for Social Change: A Qualitative Analysis of the Perceptions of UN and Non-UN Development Workers

AbstractAdvocacy is an important strategy in achieving change in international development programming. Different aid agencies design and implement advocacy programmes to influence the political cl...

Wisconsin’s Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families: Application of the Maternal and Child Health Life Course Perspective Through a Regional Funding Initiative

National experts are calling for more integrated approaches such as the life course perspective to reduce health disparities and achieve greater health equity. The translation and application of the life course perspective is therefore of great interest to public health planners, policy makers and funders to promote community-wide improvements in maternal and child health. However, few organizations have applied the life course perspective in designing strategic funding initiatives. For over three decades, Wisconsin has observed persistent racial disparities in birth outcomes. This complex public health issue led to the development of the Lifecourse Initiative for Health Families, a regional multi-million dollar funding initiative created and supported by the Wisconsin Partnership Program of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (Created by the UW SMPH from an endowment following the conversion of Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, the Partnership Program makes investments in research, education, and public health and prevention initiatives that improve health and reduce health disparities in the state.). Over a 2-year period, the program funded four collaboratives to adopt a life course perspective and develop strategic plans for improving African American birth outcomes. The Twelve-point plan to close the black-white gap in birth outcomes provided the framework for the planning process. Despite the conceptual challenges, the life course perspective was embraced by the collaboratives, challenged community assumptions on the root causes of poor birth outcomes and provided a unifying funding construct for organizing and planning complementary individual-level interventions with social and physical environmental change strategies. These integrated and complimentary approaches provide a long-term opportunity to address the persistent racial birth outcome disparity in Wisconsin.

Black, white, and green: farmers markets, race, and the green economy

Farmers markets are much more than places to buy produce. According to advocates for sustainable food systems, they are also places to vote with your fork for environmental protection, vibrant communities, and strong local economies. Farmers markets have become essential to the movement for food-system reform and are a shining example of a growing green economy where consumers can shop their way to social change. Black, White, and Green brings new energy to this topic by exploring dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy. With a focus on two Bay Area markets--one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland--Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy. Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors, and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food, and the ways that those meanings are raced and classed. She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not. Black, White, and Green is one of the first books to carefully theorize the green economy, to examine the racial dynamics of food politics, and to approach issues of food access from an environmental-justice perspective. In a practical sense, Alkon offers an empathetic critique of a newly popular strategy for social change, highlighting both its strengths and limitations.

Fostering change in back pain beliefs and behaviors: when public education is not enough

Mass media campaigns designed to alter societal views and individual behaviors about back pain have been undertaken and evaluated in multiple countries. In contrast to the original Australian campaign, subsequent campaigns have been less successful, with improvements observed in beliefs without the corresponding changes in related behaviors. This article summarizes the results of a literature review, expert panel, and workshop held at the Melbourne International Forum XI: Primary Care Research on Low Back Pain in March 2011 on the role and interplay of various social behavior change strategies, including public education, law and legislation, healthy public policy, and social marketing in achieving a sustained reduction in the societal burden of back pain. Given the complexities inherent to health-related behaviors change, the Rothschild framework is applied in which behavior change strategies are viewed on a continuum from public education at one end through law and health policy at the other. Educational endeavors should likely be augmented with social marketing endeavors and supportive laws and health policy to foster sustained change in outcomes such as work disability and health utilization. Practical suggestions are provided for future interventions aimed at changing back pain-related behaviors. Evaluation of previous back pain mass media campaigns reveals that education alone is unlikely to foster positive and persisting behavioral change without concomitant strategies.

Book Review: Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change

Book Review: Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change

“Religion and Nonviolence in American History”

AbstractNonviolence has long been an important aspect of American religion. Understanding the tradition of religious nonviolence helps illuminate such subjects as the growth and limits of state power, the character of political dissent, and the significance of race in the nation’s history. In the colonial period, Quakers tried to square the nonviolent ideal with the vagaries of pluralism and cultural conflict. Nineteenth‐century nonresistants led by William Lloyd Garrison tied the problem of violence to the injustice of slavery. The connections between peace and justice were revitalized in the decades after the First World War, when Mohandas Gandhi’s efforts in India suggested the viability of nonviolent direct action as a practical strategy for social change. That modern form of nonviolence achieved great success in the civil rights movement, as Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African American innovators used it to defeat white supremacy. Religious nonviolence was also at the center of antinuclear protests and the campaign to end the Vietnam War. More recently, nonviolence has appeared in the prolife movement and the opposition to United States military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change – By Amanda Tattersall

Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change – By Amanda Tattersall

‘To make a better world tomorrow’: St. Clair Drake and the Quakers of Pendle Hill

This article is part of a larger project by the author to record St. Clair Drake’s contribution to the black radical tradition. Here he examines Drake’s involvement with the Quakers in the early years of the Depression. Drawing on writings in African American and Popular Front periodicals of the time, it considers how a Quaker community shaped Drake’s identity as an intellectual activist and how his encounter suggests the ways in which black intellectuals engaged with non-violence as a philosophy and strategy for social change before the civil rights movement. Drake’s participation in non-violent campaigns for workers’ rights, world peace and an end to racial discrimination and violence reflects the Quakers’ sustained interest in African American affairs well beyond the anti-slavery movement. His eventual break with the Quakers underscores Drake’s practice of constantly pushing boundaries in his search for the most effective means to transform society at the grassroots, as he journeyed across the Atlantic world.

"We're still in a struggle": Diné resilience, survival, historical trauma, and healing.

As part of a community/university collaborative effort to promote the mental health and well-being of Diné (Navajo) youth, we explored the relevance of addressing historical trauma and current structural stressors, and of building on individual and community strengths through healing and social transformation at multiple levels. Qualitative analyses of 74 ethnographic interviews with 37 Diné youth, parents, and grandparents suggested that a focus on historical trauma as a conceptual frame for behavioral health inequities, understood within the context of resilience and survival, is appropriate. Our findings also highlight the salience of current stressors such as poverty and violence exposure. We explore the fit of an historical trauma healing framework and present implications for intervention and transformation through revitalization of traditional knowledge, culturally based healing practices, intergenerational education, and social change strategies designed to eliminate social inequities.

Defining the Product in Social Marketing: An Analysis of Published Research

Social marketing, a discipline rooted in marketing principles, lacks consensus on the conceptual and operational definition of product. The purpose of this article was to explore how social marketing researchers have conceptualized the product and how this definition has influenced strategy development. A systematic review of 10 years of peer-reviewed literature resulted in 92 intervention-based articles. Nearly all studies focused on health-related behavior change. Few studies used marketing language and the three product level classification. One-third of studies provided a tangible product while communication was the only strategy in over half of the studies. The focus on behavior as the product and using communication as the primary or sole strategy may limit social marketing's effectiveness as the approach resembles other social change strategies. If social marketing research aims to advance its position as a social change strategy, a starting point should be to reexamine the definition of product.

Charter Protection for the Great Apes: A Litigation Strategy for Animal Welfare and Animal Rights Activism in Canada

This paper analyzes the possibility of extending Charter protection to the non-human great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos). It is argued that great apes are plausibly people under Canadian law who benefit from the s.7 Charter right to 'life, liberty, and security of the person'. The law on this point (as many legal points) is argued to be indeterminate. The legal claim that great apes are people protected by the Charter is analyzed from several different perspectives. This paper begins from the perspective of animal rights activism, viewing litigation of this issue as a strategy for social change. It discusses why an activist would pursue this legal strategy, how such a challenge fits in with the broader animal rights movement, what activists should hope to achieve through this litigation, and where they should begin. The second section moves to a scientific and philosophical viewpoint in order to build an empirical and conceptual background for the arguments to follow. This section examines the general (non-legal) understandings of 'person-hood' and illustrates the psychological properties of the great apes that will be relevant to their Charter claim. The third section shifts to a legal perspective. The claim that great apes are people is considered narrowly in the Canadian legal context. The aim is not to show that the great apes are demonstrably people under the Charter, but only that there is sufficient legal room for a plausible claim for their inclusion into this group, thereby making space for activists to pursue such a challenge.

Learning through laughing: an ‘African-American’ singer with ‘Japanese soul’ and the possibility of a new subjectivity in Japan

In this article, we argue that laughter can be a catalyst in learning about a new subjectivity – simultaneously African-American and Japanese – by analyzing an audience’s initial reaction to Jero, a young ‘African-American’ singer wearing hip hop attire who sings enka, a genre of music that is considered the ‘heart and soul of Japan’. Using television clips uploaded to YouTube and the viewers’ comments left on the sites as data, we analyze the audience’s laughter and amazement, followed by the question, ‘Why?’ and explanation of his background. Drawing on Hervé Varenne’s argument that learning occurs when we acknowledge our ignorance and seek to change it, we argue that the laughter marks their ignorance of such subjectivity, followed by learning as to why such subjectivity is possible. Challenging hegemonic behavior in daily life is often considered ‘bad sport’ and thus difficult. While involving complex relations of power of consumer-performer relations and authenticator-authenticated relations as well as a problematic race-talent link, we suggest that learning-through-laughing may be a new field worth exploring as an effective strategy for social change.

Power in Coalition — Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change – By Amanda Tattersall

British Journal of Industrial RelationsVolume 50, Issue 1 p. 168-169 Power in Coalition — Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change – By Amanda Tattersall BRUCE NISSEN, BRUCE NISSEN Florida International UniversitySearch for more papers by this author BRUCE NISSEN, BRUCE NISSEN Florida International UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 13 February 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2011.00879.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume50, Issue1March 2012Pages 168-169 RelatedInformation

Imagining ‘radical’ youth work possibilities – challenging the ‘symbolic violence’ within the mainstream tradition in contemporary state-led youth work practice in England

This paper critically assesses the contemporary mainstream state-led youth work tradition in England. Its particular focus is possibilities within this tradition for engaging disadvantaged young people in activities that facilitate resistance to oppression. The basic thesis presented is that the current framework for youth work policy and practice is closing off opportunities for progressive ways of working with young people and, as a corollary, is stifling their capacity to overcome the constraints limiting their life chances. The data were gathered in 2010 while the author worked at an open-access youth club in a deprived inner-city district of an English city. While the majority of the young people using the club suffered severe social disadvantage, both the macro and micro political frameworks for state-led youth work worked against imagining strategies of resistance and social change. The paper draws on Bourdieu's notion of ‘symbolic violence’ to shed light on the way the operations of social institutions often conceal the power relations behind the violence of oppression and thereby add their own symbolic force to those relations. In the case of contemporary youth work practice, the force of this symbolic violence is having profound material consequences in the form of denied dreams and aspirations.

The Abolition of Slavery Movement as a Moral Movement: Ethical Resources, Spiritual Roots, and Strategies for Social Change

The abolition of slavery movement in Britain was rooted in a prophetic spirituality, an ethic of compassion and justice, and spiritual resiliency, and pioneered the development and refinement of social change tools (e.g., petitions, boycotts, etc.) and the strategic building of alliances, approaches that are now commonplace in social work practice and social movements. This article explores the spirituality of leaders in the abolition movement, and offers an overview of the tools and strategies of social change (network development, research, communications tools, and political advocacy and economic tools) employed by these leaders, highlighting their relevance for the current environmental justice movement. The article concludes with reflections on the role of spiritual resiliency in social work and the environmental movement.

Book Review: Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change

Book Review: Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change

On the frontlines of the law: Legal advocacy and political protest by lawyers in contested Kashmir (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article analyzes the role of Kashmiri lawyers working in a context of conflict, militarization and political resistance in Kashmir Valley, India. It finds that the Kashmir Bar Association, operating under conditions of state control that are maintained and legitimized through the law, constitutes an authoritative normative community and powerful institutional actor, working within the parameters of the Indian legal system while simultaneously supporting and maintaining solidarity with the movement for self‐determination, and contesting the legitimacy of Indian state rule. The association's decidedly moral vision of the law offers an alternative form of legal imagination that draws on transnational normative frameworks and practices to challenge the legal provisions and legal failures that function to legitimize human‐rights violations taking place under conditions of militarization. As we show in this article, the recent crisis period in Kashmir has posed challenges to KBA lawyers, as they negotiate and assess their relationship to the state, their place in the struggle for self‐determination, and the promise and potency of law as a strategy for social change.

Green travellers? Exploring the spatial context of sustainable mobility styles

In developed nations a growing emphasis is being placed on the promotion of environmental behaviours amongst individuals, or ‘citizen-consumers’, as a means to reduce personal carbon emissions in the light of climate change. Within the UK, focus has tended towards the segmentation of consumers into ‘lifestyle groups’ and the subsequent development of so-called social marketing behaviour change strategies, promoted as a way to encourage environmental behaviours. In the context of travel and tourism research, this approach has been operationalised through the notion of ‘mobility styles’ as a way of understanding the motivations and barriers different groups of consumers face when making pro-environmental travel decisions. However, this paper argues that the issue of climate change presents a major challenge for those attempting to promote behavioural changes using a single ‘mobility styles’ approach because of the ways in which issues such as climate change transcends the spatial and motivational contexts for travel behaviours. Using data gathered as part of a UK–based project on sustainable travel, the paper will demonstrate the potential conflicts that emerge when exploring daily travel behaviour and travel for short-breaks and holidays using a single mobility styles approach. The paper will argue that the discord between daily and holiday travel raises important questions for adopting a single and asptatial mobility styles approach for promoting behaviour change. This in turn highlights the challenges faced by a wider community of both researchers and policy makers in the environmental social sciences who seek to use segmentation as the basis for understanding and promoting behavioural change.

Bride-price and its links to domestic violence and poverty in Uganda: A participatory action research study

As a marriage rite, bride-price is commonly practiced in many African and other countries. While it has an on-going cultural longevity, the practice has been subjected to increased scrutiny by women's activists and academics concerned by its negative impacts on women and girls. Conceptualizing bride-price as a violence against women issue, this article reports on an innovative participatory action research study, carried out through an international collaboration, which sought to explore the links between bride-price, domestic violence and poverty and to lead to locally developed strategies for social change. The study found that bride-price was seen, overwhelmingly, to have mainly negative impacts on rural women and thus to require reform. In situations where domestic violence is common, bride-price introduces additional ways in which men can justify the abuse of women. The research clearly demonstrates that the commoditization of wives has led to deleterious social impacts, especially in terms of increased domestic violence and male power over women. The introduction of a gendered lens into conceptualizations of the practice and the ensuing campaigning and policy work, including this research, have been key to beginning the process of transforming views on bride-price.

Community Psychology and Liberation Theologies: Commonalities, Collaboration, Dilemmas

Community psychology and liberation theologies share an emphasis on personal and social transformation through a process of liberation. Emerging in the 1960s in the climate of social change movements, both fields serve to challenge the dominant discourse of how and why to perform the tasks of theology and psychology. My purpose in this article is to put these fields into dialogue, with a focus on commonalities, collaboration, and dilemmas. After presenting an overview of the fields and their commonalities, I posit that liberation theologies can enrich the why and where of liberating structural change, whereas community psychology can enrich the how with conceptual tools such as multiple levels of analysis and social change strategies. I conclude with dilemmas internal to these fields and inherent in collaboration. My goal is to promote theoretical and practical collaboration in the quest for liberatory social change.