Stories tagged with "activism"

It's Our Turn to Eat: How Politics Works and Why Activism is So Important

Posted by Prof. Goose on June 30, 2009 - 10:15am
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: activism, interest groups, politics, rationality, social movements, sustainability [list all tags]

This is a guest post by Dave Pollard, an author and activist who blogs over at How to Save the World (Dave's always been one of my favorites in the blogosphere). I found this piece interesting because it elucidates many of the problems and lessons that we talk about in my interest groups/social movements course--and in turn those problems and lessons inspired some of the foundational goals that we set up The Oil Drum to fulfill: to educate and inform, and then to inspire and organize those educated and informed people to be a positive and persuasive force in a difficult, seemingly path-dependent world. Yes, that's right, you folks here at The Oil Drum are a small (and very informed) part of a larger sustainability/resource depletion social movement; and, even though we may all have different ideas about how to get to a better world, I hope that we can still agree that continuing an informed discourse about how to make it better is an important part of getting there.
HtStW3
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Activism or Joining the System or Both?

Posted by Glenn on February 17, 2006 - 12:47am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: activism, internet, local, manhattan, oil, peak oil [list all tags]

I'm really starting to build a local base of activism for environmentally friendly ideas. I've been thinking about setting up a separate website like the Park Slope Neighbors or paying the $19/month for a Meet-Up site. Another site recommended to me is the Open Plans Project. The Gotham Gazzette has also run a series of articles about local cyber-activism.This would help sustain my local environmental initiatives and give a voice to the majority of people in the district that support these ideas against the narrow micro-NIMBY naysayers and stagnant institutional players like the NYC Department of Transportation.

But maybe there is another path? Interloafer comments in my last post that I should apply for open spots on my local community board. BP Scott Stringer and the local council members will have full rights to appoint new people to the board. Indeed Stringer has made Community Board reform a major issue.

So what's a budding activist to do? Apply for Board membership or continue to build a local movement for policies that will help soften the impact of peak oil? Would it be possible to do both?

I welcome thoughts from my dear readers.

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