Activism the public policy game

Tackle the most challenging issues facing the United States and learn what it takes to be a changemaker. This course dives into the laws, regulations, funding, people, entities and priorities that shape the United States and its people. From education to healthcare, criminal justice to the environment, public policy impacts every facet of American society. Students will engage in hands-on exercises about identifying problems and solutions; negotiating compromises; determining which government entities can and should act; considering legislation in the context of broader political strategy.

Students will then engage with activism, examining ethical, practical, strategic, and tactical considerations that go into deciding how to advance policy goals. This multidisciplinary approach to learning encourages students to sample different fields and employ critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

The course is geared toward students eager to discover their passions, try something new and prepare for college and life after high school. From site visits and excursions to lectures by expert practitioners, the course is curated to give students a newfound sense of direction for their future studies by shedding light on a diverse selection of subject material.

Site Visits Visits will vary based on the instructors and terms. Students have previously visited:. I wondered why kids spend so much time on tasks in these problem-solving spaces yet we have so much trouble getting them to do the same thing at school. Many of the games, such as Darfur is Dying , have metrics to try to measure their social impact — how often the game is played 2. The whole notion of social issues digital games brings up for me two related areas in other forms of design activism.

It may be publicly perceived as more authentic, especially as linked to leadership and corporate values. Corporate activism reflects a responsiveness by businesses for the challenges of the modern activist landscape where companies are able to increasingly engage in the democratic process and influence societal change.

Further research and professional guidance are necessary to navigate the new challenges of today — all of which may be linked back to that age-old question about the public expectations of businesses and responsibilities of corporations to society.

Public relations researchers and professionals are ideally positioned to make meaningful and substantial contributions in this arena. Melissa D. Dodd, Ph. Follow her on Twitter mellydodd. Follow on Twitter. Your email address will not be published. Paid activists seldom receive a large salary, though there are exceptions. Because they are committed to a cause, activists are often willing to work at much lower wages than if they took a conventional job.

The term "professional activist" can apply to a paid staff member but also - sometime pejoratively - to volunteers who spend so much time doing activism that they are as experienced as a full-time worker. The easiest way to learn how to be an activist is to join a group and become involved.

There are few courses in educational institutions about activism, and even fewer teaching in practical skills. Some activist groups run training sessions for their members and others, but most learning occurs on a person-to-person basis, through direct instruction, learning by imitation, and learning by doing. This is supplemented by manuals on community organizing, campaigning, nonviolent action, and other skills, with an ever-growing amount of material available online.

Groups are the main way that activists are organized to get tasks done. In many cases, groups are part of what is called a social movement. A social movement typically includes many groups and individuals acting towards a common goal to change society in a particular way. A movement is broader than any single organization and it has a broader, less precise vision than most groups. The peace movement, for example, includes a wide variety of groups, including local groups campaigning on a single issue such as against a particular war, national groups with an agenda such as nuclear disarmament, professional networks such as Physicians for Social Responsibility, and international organizations such as War Resisters' International.

The peace movement also contains a diversity of general themes, such as opposition to wars and inhumane weapons. Within any movement, there can be many different beliefs and emphases. Some people and groups in the peace movement oppose any involvement in war or war-making, whereas others are primarily concerned about nuclear weapons, land mines, or a particular war.

Other social movements include the labor, feminist, environmental, gay and lesbian, animal rights, and disability movements. Movements provide an important context for activism in several ways. They constitute a network of individuals and groups that is a source of communication, advice and inspiration.

They provide a learning environment, with activists drawing on the experience of other groups to find out what works. And they provide a framework or perspective for understanding society, its problems, possible futures, and ways of bringing about change. This framework, or belief system, develops out of the experience of activists, combined with the ideas of writers and leaders, some who are part of the movement and some who are largely independent of it.

For example, the feminist movement has supported activism through the network of individuals and groups, has fostered learning about tactics, and has offered an understanding of the problem of patriarchy through women sharing their experience and through feminist writers presenting ideas that illuminate and inspire their readers.

Most movements have activist and non-activist aspects. The feminist movement, for example, has included plenty of activism, including confrontation and noncooperation with sexist practices. There are also many important parts of the movement that are less activist or non-activist. Women's consciousness raising groups - in which women share their experiences - were a key part of the second wave of the western feminist movement, starting in the s, but most of these groups did not engage in action.

Similarly, liberal feminists who operated through the system by pushing for equal opportunity laws and procedures were at the less activist end of the spectrum, as were those who put all their energy into feminist scholarship. This again raises the issue of the boundaries of what is called activism. Someone working on a campaign might spend time listening to the news, reading and sending e-mails, phoning others, participating in a meeting, and writing a grant proposal.

None of this is out in public, such as joining a rally or blockade, but it is all an essential part of what makes such public events possible. It is useful to distinguish between "direct action" or "front-line action," in which people are putting their bodies on the line, and support work, which is usually behind the scenes. Without the support work, the front-line action could hardly occur.

This is analogous to military forces: only a few troops are engaged in fighting, with vastly more personnel involved in accounts, cooking, maintenance, and a host of other support activities. Those involved in behind-the-scenes work, in support of a cause, can either be called activists or supporters or members of an activist group or movement. This is a matter of definition but has a wider significance. For many people who are concerned about the world's problems, and especially in social movement groups, there is status in being called an activist.

This can lead to a valuing of dramatic and visible direct action and a corresponding devaluation of routine, less visible activity such as answering correspondence or handling accounts. On the other hand, some people who take action do not think of themselves as activists: in their minds, they are simply doing what is necessary to address a pressing problem. It is useful to think of an ecology of activism, in which a flower or fruit can only exist with the support of nutrients, roots, stems, pollinators, and sunlight.

Analogously, effective direct action depends on prior learning, supportive group members, resources including funds , and communication. Many people can contribute to making activism effective without necessarily being activists themselves: financial contributors, resource people, teachers, supportive friends and family members, and journalists, among others. There are some activists who operate on their own, largely or entirely independent of groups.

They might produce their own leaflets and hold a single-person vigil outside an office. Such individuals, if campaigning on a relevant issue, could be considered part of a social movement. A few such individual activists take up issues that no one else is concerned about. Most activists find it much easier to be part of a group, but this is not an obligation!

Activism can be on behalf of a great many causes, such as labor, religious, or environmental goals. Some people associate activism with "progressive" causes that promote equality and the rights of those with less power, but activism can just as well be used to attack the weak.

Tim Jordan usefully proposes three types of activism, oriented to the past, present, and future. Past-oriented or reactionary activism seeks to protect the interests of those with more power, often at the expense of those who are weaker. Examples are men who assault gays, vigilantes against illegal immigration, and campaigners for aggressive wars. Present-oriented activism is aimed at changing policies.

This is also called reformism. Examples are campaigns for laws and regulations, such as on election financing, gun control, or whistleblower protection. Future-oriented activism - called by Jordan "activism! Examples are greater equality in the family, worker participation in decision making, and treating non-human animals as valuable in themselves. Most of the entries in this encyclopedia are about future-oriented activism. The idea of the political left and right is often used to classify activism.

It is most appropriate applied to labor left versus capital right , but does not work so well as a way of classifying positions on other issues. The so-called new social movements - student, feminist, environmental, and others - that developed in the s and thereafter do not comfortably fit within the left-right classification system.

Those on the left are often called progressives or radicals and those on the right conservatives or reactionaries. But if conservative means maintaining the status quo and reactionary means harking back to an earlier age, then movements do not always line up in a predictable way. For example, environmentalists campaigning against a waste dump or chemical factory are seeking to maintain the status quo in the face of industries trying to change it.

Environmentalists seeking to return a region to earlier vegetation patterns, before human settlement, could be called radicals because they are challenging the logic of industrial development or reactionaries because they want to recreate an earlier time. It is possible to see activism as a spectrum from the local to the global, both geographically and in relation to the person. Local activism is often about protecting the quality of life of a family or small community, such as when local citizens campaign for better schools or hospitals or against a factory or freeway.

A broader focus brings concern for groups subject to disadvantage or discrimination, including women, ethnic minorities, the poor, and people with disabilities. Much activism is carried out by people in these groups, supported by some from more privileged groups.