How would your experience of the COVID-19 pandemic have been different if you had no access to the internet? The APLE Collective - a group seeking to eradicate poverty – rooted their pandemic activism in expertise held by those with lived experience of poverty. This resulted in the decision to campaign against the exclusively digital response to the crisis and the alienation of people in poverty. Drawing on case studies from Thrive Teeside, ATD Fourth World and Expert Citizens (APLE Collective organisations), this book interrogates the term ‘lived experience’. It critically investigates how knowledge gained from lived experiences of poverty is integral to developing effective COVID-19 policy responses.

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply shaken societies and lives around the world. This powerful book reveals how the pandemic has intensified socio-economic problems and inequalities across the world whilst offering visions for a better future informed by social movements and public sociology. Bringing together experts from 27 countries, the authors explore the global echoes of the pandemic and the different responses adopted by governments, policy makers and activists. The new expressions of social action, and forms of solidarity and protest, are discussed in detail, from the Black Lives Matter protests to the French Strike Movement and the Lebanese Uprising. This is a unique global analysis on the current crisis and the contemporary world and its outcomes.

Improve your knowledge of the ways global trends shape activism with this insightful volume that will supercharge your impact on communities and organizations Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism brings the perspective of experienced global social innovation leader, scholar and speaker, Steve Davis, to bear on some of the most powerful and helpful macrotrends rippling through society today. The book teaches readers how to harness their outrage and capitalize on global trends to instigate and encourage change across the world. The author identifies five global undercurrents with outsized importance that are shaping our world: Global economies are moving away from the old pyramid model into a diamond, bringing powerful new possibilities for human well-being; Communities are becoming the customer – rather than passive beneficiaries - as social change is increasingly led by local voices and activists; Equity is leveling and reshaping the field of social change and activism; Digital disruption, through the power of data and digital tools, impacts almost everything; and The middle of the journey to social change is becoming surprisingly sexy, as we focus on adapting innovation for widespread impact at scale. The book’s lessons are supported throughout by stories, experiences, data and observations from across the globe. Undercurrents is perfect for activists and leaders of all kinds who aim to increase their impact on their organizations and the world at large, as well as the intellectually curious who hope to increase their understanding of the changing world around them.

The theory and practice of networked art and activism, including mail art, sound art, telematic art, fax art, Fluxus, and assemblings. Networked collaborations of artists did not begin on the Internet. In this multidisciplinary look at the practice of art that takes place across a distance--geographical, temporal, or emotional--theorists and practitioners examine the ways that art, activism, and media fundamentally reconfigured each other in experimental networked projects of the 1970s and 1980s. By providing a context for this work--showing that it was shaped by varying mixes of social relations, cultural strategies, and political and aesthetic concerns-- At a Distance effectively refutes the widely accepted idea that networked art is technologically determined. Doing so, it provides the historical grounding needed for a more complete understanding of today's practices of Internet art and activism and suggests the possibilities inherent in networked practice. At a Distance traces the history and theory of such experimental art projects as Mail Art, sound and radio art, telematic art, assemblings, and Fluxus. Although the projects differed, a conceptual questioning of the "art object," combined with a political undermining of dominant art institutional practices, animated most distance art. After a section that sets this work in historical and critical perspective, the book presents artists and others involved in this art "re-viewing" their work--including experiments in "mini-FM," telerobotics, networked psychoanalysis, and interactive book construction. Finally, the book recasts the history of networks from the perspectives of politics, aesthetics, economics, and cross-cultural analysis.

Explains the character of contemporary protest politics through a micro-mobilization analysis of participation in street demonstrations.

This collection immerses scholars of communication and related disciplines in narratives of and conversations about social-justice-focused activism. Through autoethnographic essays, Mindful Activism chronicles the authors’ experiences as activist academics challenging and seeking to remedy injustices on campus and in local and global communities. Those experiences range from engaging in a single activist act to collaborating over many years with oppressed communities and social change groups. Building upon communication activism research and following a liberation-based transformative learning model, the book shows both activism in action and deep reflection on that activism. The authors re-experience activist experiences, draw out lessons, and invite readers to apply those to their own social justice endeavors. Mindful Activism also demonstrates how mindfulness supports activists in deepening their awareness and understanding of themselves, others, and social systems. This orientation increases the likelihood that activists will remain grounded enough to respond to injustice mindfully/effectively. The book will enrich courses on activism, social justice, dialogue, narrative inquiry, qualitative methods, autoethnography, and general graduate studies, and will resonate with scholars committed to building a more equitable and just world.

According to recent estimates 400,000 people die every year as a result of human-made global warming. The UN projects that 3 billion additional people may be pushed into extreme poverty by 2050 because of environmental destruction. The scale of the problems we face makes it clear that individualist, lifestyle-centric approaches to activism will not suffice. We need to change the structures of our social system, not our light bulbs. This book seeks to expose the structural roots of the injustices we must confront, and outlines an approach to activism which transcends the hopeless individualism of our time.