Activism and Community Medicine

Dr. Hughes traces the growth of student activism and its implications for medicine, especially in relation to the development of the specialty of community medicine

From laboratory to praxis: communities of philosophical inquiry as a model of (and for) social activism

This article discusses the conditions under which dialogical learner-researchers can move out of the philosophical laboratory of a community of philosophical inquiry into the field of social activism, engaging in a critical and creative examination of society and seeking to change it. Based on Matthew Lipman’s proposal that communities of philosophical inquiry can serve as a model of social activism in the present, it presents the community of philosophical inquiry as a model for social activism in the future. In other words, Lipman’s central ideas in his earlier and later thought—including meaning as a mode of action, relevance as a way of examining life and stimulating influence for change as a form of creating a democratic society—establish two parallel circle of influence: the present time, in the shape of the philosophical community of inquiry that allows activist skills to be honed, and a social space that extends into the future as a forum for applying principles and bettering society. Finally, this paper adduces several forms of social activism that may be anchored in philosophical awareness of real conditions and their contexts. Through them, the community of philosophical inquiry not only constitutes a place in which young people’s thought processes can be developed but also one in which they can aspire to become activists in various areas

Social Capital in Boston: Findings From the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey

Highlights survey findings on the ways in which Bostonians connect and how these social networks benefit the entire community. Ranks community involvement in Boston, including politics, activism in the arts, and tolerance, among forty sites nationwide

Tying Knots With Communities: Youth Involvement in Scouting and Civic Engagement in Adulthood

Using data from a nationally representative sample of American adult males (N = 2,512), this study examines (a) whether duration of membership in the Boy Scouts of America is associated with adult civic engagement and (b) whether five characteristics of positive youth development (confidence, competence, connection, character, and caring) account for the relationship between duration of Scouting membership and adult civic engagement. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that duration of participation in Scouting is positively associated with four indicators of civic engagement: community involvement, community volunteering, community activism, and environmental activism. Among the five positive characteristics, confidence and competence were found to fully mediate the effects of Scouting on all four types of civic engagement, whereas the other three only to partly mediate the effects

Water Concerns Unite Citizen Activists:A Community Rights Movement Transcends Party, Age, and Gender

In this brief, author Cliff Brown examines an instance of sustained local activism in which citizens in the communities of Nottingham, Barrington, and Barnstead, New Hampshire, mobilized to protect community groundwater against threats from commercial use. Beginning in 2001, USA Springs commenced work on a large water-bottling operation that would have pumped over 400,000 gallons daily from Nottingham and Barrington. Activists fought back through state agencies and the courts, engaging in a lengthy campaign that involved petitioning, lobbying, community meetings, rallies, public protests, and a State Supreme Court case. Brown reports that threats to community water precipitate a high level of concern and activism, even among those lacking prior experience with environmental or political protest. The campaign to protect local water united residents from across the political spectrum, distinguishing the effort from other movements that tend to speak to distinctly liberal or conservative constituencies. Barnstead’s first-in-the-nation prohibition on corporate water privatization and the passage of similar bans in other New Hampshire towns suggest that rights-based ordinances, though sometimes controversial, provide a focal point for activism that meshes well with a tradition of local, town-based politics

Salva la Iglesia: A Congregation\u27s Fight for Community

The purpose of this study is to examine community response to crisis and the impact intercultural interactions have on the outcome of ethnic and religious group conflict. This research uses a case study focusing on the San Martín Catholic Mission in Oregon and the ways this particular community responded to the crisis of the Catholic diocese threatening to sell their property in 2010. I gathered data from a year of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observations in the setting, and in-depth interviews with six individuals involved in the church and related community groups. I then analyzed the data using the lens of social capital theory to examine the resource networks built through this event and their effect on the communities. Themes such as changing roles of immigrants and minorities in the United States, changing gender roles in community activism, and changing levels of activism after community crises are resolved emerged from this analysis, which indicate the importance of social factors in affecting community response to crisis. The findings of this case study have implications for how communities may need to adapt to the changing demographic of the United States as the Latino population increases, and it provides insight into patterns of interaction that may be seen between ethnic and religious communities in the future

The Ties That Bind: Women's Public Vision for Politics, Religion, and Civil Society

Based on a series of in-depth interviews with women involved in community activism around a variety of political, social, or civic causes. Determines what kinds of values and themes are central to their work and leadership

Free Radicals

Commissioned article looking back at London's printmaking workshops of the 1960s and 70s, DIY sites of political and community activism that rejected the role of the artist to participate in a network of campaign groups, radical publishers and distributors

'We do not have to be vicious, competitive, or managerial'

Akwugo Emejulu discusses changes to 'collective public politics' – including the third sector, activism, community development and political and union campaigning – alongside Black feminist activism, her own intellectual development, and institutional racism at British universities. In these right-wing times, she argues 'we need people in lot of different kinds of spaces and places to take back power'. She outlines the consequences of the defeat of the left since the 1980s and the rise of neoliberal technocratic managerialism in the third sector: how it put already-vulnerable people further at risk and destabilised the political power of NGOS. More recently there has been a surge of interest in political education and in campaigning on 'the bigger political picture' amongst community activists. We need a far more expansive conception of 'activism': for more attention to be given to its role in everyday life, its intersectionality and its sustainability. To do this, and to foreground the diverse contributions of women of colour activists, is to address and redress the 'raceless discussions of the white left'. The interview concludes by considering academia in a neoliberal climate. 'We do not have to be vicious, competitive, or managerial', she says: all academics need to behave well at every level to change institutional racism

Drag Magazine: A Study of Community

This research aims to understand the trans/drag community and its relationship to political activism and the lesbian and gay community in the 1970s and early 1980s. I aim to answer the following questions: How did Drag perceive the relationship between the gay/lesbian community and the trans/drag community? How did Drag function in the trans/drag community? How did Drag benefit its readers? Transgender individuals and drag queens were at the forefront of activism in the1960s during the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot and the Stonewall Inn Riots. Recently, there has been more attention to the critical transgender activism by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Still, there is little academic research on other drag queen activism historically between Stonewall and the start of the AIDS epidemic. I conducted archival research at the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota. To conduct my research on trans/drag activism, I examined the magazine Drag. In my research, I found that Drag played an important role in the building of a trans/drag community. During the 1970s, the trans/drag community was met with hostility from the gay and lesbian community, who often ostracized them from their activism. Drag created an expansive drag community that encompassed a wide spectrum of transfeminine/drag identities and provided support to that community