User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/Power/Power in Activism

=Power in activism= Power dynamics is heavily embedded in the act of activism. Activism can be defined as action(s) and effort(s) that promotes a cause in society, with an objective of causing social change. The role of power in three different forms of activism will be examined to demonstrate the ways power can be a force for or against change.

Power in racial activism
The South African apartheid is a system of policies that segregates its citizens by race (the word apartheid is ‘segregation’ in Afrikaans). It was enforced from 1948 to 1994 through its legislation. Activist movements opposing apartheid within South Africa began as early as 1949, mainly through strikes and boycotts mobilized by the African National Congress (ANC). From this point on towards the late 50s, the notion of power held by activist and political groups is demonstrated through a strategy of influencing from a grassroot level, by inspiring thoughts on individuals and mobilizing them. The mainly peaceful domestic activist movements later escalated to armed conflicts in the 60s, which can be interpreted as the power of direct coercion held by the white South African authority clashing with the physicalized strategical activist power of the then underground ANC and other organizations.

On the international level, the US and its western allies initially generally avoided interference in South Africa’s racial movements. However, with the pressure from the rising civil rights movements within the US and Western European countries, states began to impose sanctions through the UN on the South African regime during the 60s and onwards. Here denotes a transition of power from transnational protest strategies in the activist movements of the Western society to an institutionally coercing power represented by Western states in international politics, through interventionalist efforts of condemnation, sanctions, and boycotts. Some historians noted the lack of direct impact on South African’s white minority regime from the transnational activist movements until the power is transformed to the nation-states level, and suggested that states’ institutional power remain more dominant in promoting socio-political change compared to civil transnational activism.

Power in economic activism
Economic activism promotes change with economic power as the means. Consumers hold the power to promote opinion and ideals by purchasing goods from certain brands that share their vision and ideas on certain issues, and on the other hand they can boycott goods to pressurize corporations and organizations to participate (or not to participate) or fund (or defund from) certain movements and policies. Here the purchasing power of consumer is given a new layer of socio-political meaning, and the power can transfer into higher levels of capital coercion among the corporate level.

Economic activism also comes in the form of corporate/industry lobbying, where private sectors and interest groups mobilize their socioeconomic power to influence policies or government opinion. This can be seen as a power of indirect coercion where influences of corporations in the neoliberal capitalist market systematically change social opinions and create political trends/values that ultimately benefits the set of corporations. An example is the donations made by the tobacco industry to the Republican administration of the US in exchange for representation of interest and bias in public health and economic policies.

Power in academic activism
Activism has been visible in many aspects of academia. One form of academic activism is the cause for changes in the policies of higher education and research institutions. The gender and racial inequality and bias in universities and research departments across the Western world has been brought to discussion and scrutiny in the recent years, concerning that institutional power of certain races and genders is mobilized to defend bias in academia.

The academia also hold power in shaping and promoting the development of social activism. It can be seen as putting theory into practice, and that the conventional political turbulence between moderates and progressives can also be found in the academic activist discourse. Here the power of the arguably subjective truth that is generally perceived to be produced through academic research and debate is mobilized to strategically inform and empower activist movements.