Until 1969 'activism' simply meant doing things with decision and energy
English speakers began using activist in a political sense around 1915 and activism around 1920. Yet as late as 1969 a definition still described activism merely as doing things with decision and energy, with no hint of politics. Only after the new social movements of 1960s America did it come to mean legitimate democratic protest.
Protest tactics accumulate like a toolkit. The sociologist Charles Tilly called this the repertoire of contention: every method that has worked before at a given time and place, from boycotts and petitions to marches and sit-ins, which any new movement can borrow. Fresh ideas, such as Douglas Schuler's activist road trip, spread from group to group through a process called diffusion and, if they succeed, join that repertoire.
Choice of method matters. Nonviolent campaigns generally win more public sympathy than violent ones and turn out more than twice as effective at reaching their stated goals. In 1930 thousands of Indians followed Mahatma Gandhi on the Salt March against oppressive taxes; some 60,000 people were imprisoned, and independence eventually followed. Two 21st-century favourites, the banner drop and the overpass protest, rely on signs big enough to read from far away.
Everyday choices count as activism too. Artivism works through art, hacktivism through computer hacking, and economic activism through spending, such as refusing to buy from a company accused of exploiting workers. Some activists skip governments altogether: the cooperative movement builds new institutions run on cooperative principles instead of lobbying. Others campaign to keep laws exactly as they are, and judges who press their own idea of the social good are said to practise judicial activism.
Activism belongs to no single ideology or age group. Conservative British women were important campaigners on tariffs during the 1920s, and political engagement continues across whole lifetimes, not only among young adults. Pamphlets, tracts and books once carried activist messages; researchers now study how groups use social media, noting that online campaigners on left and right tend to adopt different tactics.
Source: Activism
