Method
- Interview members of SEED, Divest Campaign, and others willing to discuss their involvement in activism.
- Dialogue – ask questions regarding motivations, sacrifice, and efficacy. Listen.
- Map responses onto Grid-Group Cultural Theory (Hulme 2015) – See below.
- Engage with audience at Festival of Scholars. Continue dialogue. Invite insights and critiques.
Scholarship
Why does the term “activism” bring up different emotional responses in individuals? Why do some modes of change appeal to certain people, while those same people might scoff at other avenues? Why does change seem so hard? We posit that perhaps the answers to these questions relate how individuals perceive fairness and efficacy, and how they judge those with different ways of operating. We limit our scope to environmentalism on this campus, so that we may distinguish future actions for strengthening connections between approaches favored by different groups of LC community members.
Activism in response to Wicked Problems, or problems that are manifestations of complex networks of causes and effects, characterized by circularity and “contradictory certitudes” (Rayner 2014), require Clumsy Solutions that ideally appeal to the four “ways of life” (Verwij et al. 2006). Activism is but one entrance in affecting change, and is therefore just one element of clumsy solutions, but even within this approach there are conflicts regarding what is right, effective, and necessary. There is clumsiness and hybridity needed in many complex situations.
“Successful solutions to pressing social ills tend to consist of innovative combinations of a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues,” (Verweij et al. 2006).”
Our project attempts to delve into how activists on this campus operate with respects to Cultural Theory. An initial perception of conflict between these groups inspires our hope that by beginning this conversation, further work can be done to distinguish means of bridging these different approaches.
References
Hulme, Mike. 2015 Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rayner, Steve. 2014 Wicked Problems. Environmental Scientist 23, no. 2: 3–4.
Verweij, Marco, Mary Douglas, Richard Ellis, Christoph Engel, Frank Hendriks, Susanne Lohmann, Steven Ney, Steve Rayner, and Michael Thompson. 2006 Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change. Public Administration 84, no. 4: 817–43.