[p2p-research] Fwd: The Drum Beat 436 Social Movements: Motivating Change

[Michel Bauwens]

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From: The Drum Beat <drumbeat at comminit.com>
Date: Mar 29, 2008 4:51 AM
Subject: The Drum Beat 436  Social Movements: Motivating Change
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com



The Drum Beat - Issue 436 – Social Movements: Motivating Change
March 31 2008


from The Communication Initiative...where communication and media are
central to social and economic development.


Subscribe to The Drum Beat: http://www.comminit.com/subscribe_drumbeat.html
Access this issue online at: http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat_436.html


===


This Drum Beat is one of a series of commentary and analysis pieces.
In this issue, Robin Vincent of Panos London takes a look at
communication within and from social movements. He reviews elements of
social movement communication related to HIV/AIDS, gender equality,
and sanitation rights, concluding with suggestions of how development
agencies might successfully engage with and support social movements
to further their development goals.

The Drum Beat aims to feature a range of critical analysis
commentaries of the communication for change field. Though we cannot
guarantee to feature your commentary, as we have a limited number of
issues to be published each year, if you wish to contribute please
contact Deborah Heimann dheimann at comminit.com  Many thanks!


===


Motivating Change - What Can We Learn from Social Movements?

In this commentary, I look at what can be learned from the
communication processes of social movements, drawing on recent
analyses and examples from HIV and other social movements.
Social movements make use of distinct forms of communication which can
facilitate social change and motivate social action, particularly for
less powerful groups  For an expanded, referenced paper covering
similar issues, please see:
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www.panos.org.uk/files/spark_social_background.pdf
 For more information about Panos' work with HIV social movements,
please see: http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www.panos.org.uk/global/projectdetails.asp%3FProjectID%3D1062%26ID%3D1001


Introduction

Social movements often animate social change in a way that many formal
development initiatives struggle to do. The energy and sense of
belonging that drove the early response to AIDS in the United States
(US), or the social mobilisations around HIV treatment in South
Africa, for example, show vitality and momentum often lacking in
official health and development initiatives. Social movements have
mobilised people, in the North and South, to set their own agendas in
relation to a wide range of issues: from neo-liberal trade policies to
access to HIV antiretroviral treatment, as well as longer standing
struggles over women's and indigenous people's rights. In the case of
HIV and AIDS, social movements of people living with HIV and AIDS, gay
men, women, sex workers and people who inject drugs have developed a
variety of responses in different settings, and organised themselves
to counter stigma and discrimination.

Previous Communication Initiative commentaries have noted the
importance of understanding the distinct communication dynamics of
social movements, particularly for the way they promote local
leadership, amplify the voices of those most affected by development
issues, and shape locally-driven agendas (see The Drum Beat 222 -
http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_222.html). Recent analyses of
social movements provide insights into the nature of both social
change, and what motivates social action.[1] Social movements have
much to teach us about:

* what motivates social change, including the importance of meanings and values
* the use of novel communication approaches that are culturally grounded
* the limits of the processes and institutions of politics and governance


What are social movements?

Social movements have been defined as collective enterprises seeking
to establish a new order of life[2]

...and as forms of collective action with a high degree of popular
participation, which use non-institutional channels and which
formulate their demands while simultaneously finding forms of action
to express them.[3]

Social movements tend to be loosely organised, and are interesting for
the way they engage people in processes of mobilisation and social
change, rather than because of any particular organisational form.[4]
In their challenge to authorities and dominant institutions, social
movements often involve a transformation in everyday habits and the
meanings attached to certain ways of living


Motivating change

By bringing people together through shared experiences and by
promoting a collective recognition of neglected issues and problems,
social movements often give people a sense of belonging. The process
of everyday mutual support - organising and acting together - can be a
creative one, where new ideas, forms of action, rituals, and
institutions are generated, adding up to a movement culture. The
Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, for example, is best known
for its high profile campaigns focused on ensuring access to HIV
treatment, but it also provided a sense of belonging and self-worth to
many people living with HIV and AIDS who had previously been shunned
by families and communities. This has empowered many people to find
new meaning in their HIV diagnosis – even, for some, amounting to a
'new birth' as social activists, according to Steve Robins.[5]

Struggles over values and meanings
Social movements often create new meanings that 'frame' relationships
and institutions differently, and in this way mobilise people to
challenge them. They have raised questions about what counts as
development, about the relationships that underpin patterns of
differential access to resources, and what kind of social change is
important. Rather than the instrumental campaigning of more formal
organisations, social movements tend to develop new ways of
understanding and framing existing inequitable relationships, as an
ongoing part of the way they organise.

The women's movement in Northern Europe and Northern America in the
60s and 70s reframed existing unequal gender relationships as
oppressive and harmful rather than being 'just the way things are'.
The way in which everyday language reinforced inequality between men
and women, and the assumptions that were made about division of labour
- not least the unpaid domestic work of women - were made visible,
framed differently and challenged in the process. The People's Health
Movement is another example: this global movement, rooted in
developing countries, asserts that health is much more than a medical
issue, drawing attention to the social and economic impact of dominant
models of economic growth that adversely affect health.[6] HIV social
movements have notably 'framed' AIDS as much more than a health issue
by putting emphasis on questions of human rights and moral and sexual
politics.

Such battles over meaning are also important within movements
themselves, where there may be differences of power and resources as
well as competition to define movement priorities. Nancy Stoller's
account of the early response to AIDS in the US for example shows how
the concerns of women and ethnic minority communities tended to be
eclipsed by the, albeit, very effective and creative organising of
middle class, white gay men. This influenced both the priorities of
AIDS organisations and their styles of communication and
campaigning.[7] High-profile direct action and campaigning became the
priority for many, while the ongoing support and care that arguably
underpinned the wider response tended to be invisible and was
disproportionately carried out by women – reproducing a familiar
gendered division of labour.


Creative communication

Social movements often develop novel forms of communication and
expression - ways to collectively decide what is important - to
communicate these priorities and act on them. Such communication may
build on existing historical and cultural experiences of protest –
sometimes described as 'repertoires of contention'[8]  - but equally,
they may innovate new methods rooted in the ongoing struggle and
cultural context.

An example of novel communication embedded in local context and
culture is the 'Toilet festivals'[9] organised by
informal-settlement-dwellers in Mumbai, India, that drew local
municipal officials into negotiations around adequate water and
sanitation (see below). Movements may also make use of new and
emerging media, such as the use of the internet by the Zapatista
movement in Chiapas, Mexico, to communicate about their resistance to
economic domination by the US in imposed free trade agreements. The
Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa blended old and new styles
of communication by drawing on experiences of involvement in the
Anti-Apartheid struggle - including court and legal action,
international solidarity, civil disobedience and community
mobilisation – and combining these with sophisticated media
campaigning, and innovations around treatment literacy and community
support.


Doing 'politics' differently

Linked to these different styles of communication, social movements
often challenge dominant notions of politics and accountability. In
Latin America in particular, social movements have been shown to enact
a distinctively 'cultural politics' – expanding the boundaries of what
is considered political, moving beyond the confines of the electoral
politics of so-called democracy to different kinds of participation
and involvement in social struggles, novel forms of political
expression, and different spaces for public debate.[10]

The 'Toilet festivals' in Mumbai, mentioned above, confronted local
officials with the realities of living in slums without toilets. By
inviting local officials to inaugurate new toilets, they highlighted
the constructive initiative of shack-dwellers who had organised their
own infrastructure. Local officials were also drawn into an engagement
about resources and infrastructure, challenging their previous
indifference and former tendency to focus on issues of illegal
settlement. Appadurai suggests this changed the 'terms of engagement'
between informal settlement dwellers and authorities, rather than
using the usual political channels of municipal bureaucracy and
governance - where the balance of power was stacked in the official's
favour - even if it had no simple political impact. It was also an
important part of developing the aspirations of those in settlements
and motivating them to organise and challenge their situation.


How can development engage with social movements?

Bebbington[11], who analyses social movements that address aspects of
poverty, argues they contribute to equitable development by
politicising aspects of poverty and widening public debate. Social
movements in South Africa have also arguably enhanced democracy by
representing the interests and voices of the poor and marginalised,
and contributing to the restoration of political plurality.

Support to social movements from development agencies risks elevating
the views and priorities of some above others, possibly splitting or
weakening a movement. The gradual institutionalisation and
professionalisation of the early response to AIDS in the US
illustrates this well. As new formal organisations proliferated, they
undermined the engagement and ownership of the communities that
originally organised the response, and they became more preoccupied
with sustaining funding and impressing influential constituencies than
dealing with the real needs of people most affected by HIV and AIDS.
Given the demonstrated importance of community engagement for
effective prevention, this is a salutary warning for HIV and AIDS
responses that become overly bureaucratised.

In this context, development action could usefully concentrate on
strengthening the enabling environment for movements rather than
direct support: through protecting the right to form independent
associations and the right to protest; and by supporting social
movements to communicate in public debates and to be visible in the
media. Approaching communication and information as public goods and
working to build enabling communication environments is relevant here,
as has been argued in Panos' 'Heart of Change' (see
http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_410.html) and recent Drum Beat
commentaries.

Just as with recent critiques of participatory development approaches
however, it is important not to romanticise social movements, even
while their methods of communication may appear to give greater voice
to those who are usually marginalised. Just as with all examples of
communication and media, it is important to ask about the resources on
which they depend, and the way they challenge or reproduce dominant
social norms and relationships of power in their particular context.

Ultimately, the power dynamics of social movements are in need of
further critical analysis. As debates over the recent Make Poverty
History campaign attest, the symbolic and ritual trappings of social
movements – from wrist bands to live music - may equally be used to
promote dominant models of development, and drown out alternative,
dissenting Southern voices.[12] In quite another context – such as
'inter-ethnic' conflicts in South Asia and Africa - charismatic
leadership and emotional or identity-based appeals may mobilise people
in similar ways to social movements, but for less transparent
political agendas.

Two key questions for our discussion:

How are social movements a help or hindrance for sustainable development?

How should development be done differently to recognise and engage
with people's movements and their methods of communication?


Robin Vincent
Senior Adviser, HIV/AIDS Programme
Panos London
robin.vincent at panos.org.uk


===

REFERENCES

[1]  For a concise but comprehensive theoretical overview, see
Crossley, N (2002) Making sense of social movements, Buckingham: Open
University Press.
[2]  Crossley, N (2002) Making sense of social movements, Buckingham:
Open University Press.
[3]  Jelin in Alvarez, S and Escobar, A (eds) (1992) The making of
social movements in Latin America: Identity, strategy and democracy,
Oxford: Westview Press.
[4]  Mitlin, D and Bebbington, A (2006) Social movements and chronic
poverty across the urban-rural divide: Concepts and experiences, CPRC
Working Paper 65, Institute of Development Policy and Management,
School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester.
[5]  Rights passages from 'near death' to 'new life':AIDS activism and
treatment testimonies in South Africa, Steven Robins, IDS Working
Paper 251, October 2005.
[6]  People's Health Movement, see:
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www.phmovement.org/
[7]  Stoller, N (1998) Lessons from the damned: Queers, whores and
junkies respond to AIDS, New York: Routledge.
[8]  Tilly 1986 in Crossley, N (2002).
[9]  Appadurai, A (2004) 'The capacity to aspire: Culture and the
terms of recognition' in Rao, V and Walton, M (eds) Culture and Public
Action, California: Stanford University Press.
[10] Alvarez, S, Dagnino, E and Escobar, A (eds) (1998) Cultures of
politics, politics of cultures: Re-visioning Latin American social
movements, Oxford: Westview Press.
[11] Bebbington, A (2006) Social movements and the politicisation of
chronic poverty, CPRC Working Paper 63, University of Manchester
Chronic Poverty Research Centre.
[12] Red Pepper (2005) Inside the murky world of Make Poverty History:
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?cimo=1&r=http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/315058.html


===


This issue of The Drum Beat is meant to inspire dialogue and
conversation among the Drum Beat network.

Please engage in dialogue, beginning April 2nd, through the
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dheimann at comminit.com - who can assist you with the registration
process.


===


This issue of The Drum Beat is an opinion piece and has been written
and signed by the individual writer. The views expressed herein are
the perspective of the writer and are not necessarily reflective of
the views or opinions of The Communication Initiative or any of The
Communication Initiative Partners.


===


The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication
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Leer Foundation, Calandria, CFSC Consortium, CIDA, DFID, FAO,
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Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Soul City garthj at soulcity.org.za
Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek at comminit.com


===


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