social activism
Fighting for change
Social activism is organized effort to promote political or social change, typically through public campaigns, protests, or community organizing.
Activists work on issues like civil rights, environmental protection, or economic justice.
The term can be neutral or carry connotations—positive for those who see engaged citizenship, negative for those who view activists as disruptive: Her social activism began in college with voter registration drives.
- campaigningActively pursuing political support
- petitionsFormal requests for action
- media outreachEngaging journalists for coverage
- public speakingAddressing a live audience
- lobbyingAdvocating to decision-makers
sign the petition · press conferences · grassroots movements · cultural critique · guerrilla art · civil disobedience · educational workshops · town hall meetings · public consultations · lobbying efforts · occupy · taking to the streets · march · uprising · picket · banner · mobilize · community
- Catholic Actionlaity, lay leaders, Knights of Columbus, Pax Romana, parish councils
- civic engagementcivic engagement, citizen participation, civic participation, civic responsibility, civic values
- Harlem RenaissanceLangston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, racial pride
- ProhibitionProhibition, speakeasies, bootlegger, bootleggers, speakeasy
- post-materialismself-expression, self-actualization, quality of life, anti-consumerism, downshifting
social activismapathy
Absence of feeling
passivity · indifference · complacency · inaction · quietism
social activismconservatism
Preference for existing institutions
traditionalism · reactionism · social conservatism · conformity · orthodoxy
social activismindividualism
Doctrine of personal independence
social withdrawal · hermitage · insularity · isolationism · self-absorption
active, social, society, association, sociable, activate, activist, socialism, antisocial