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Occupy Development!
Social Movements and Future Directions for Development
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Asterix611
Overview
Personal Background The Occupy
Movement Freire, Alinsky and
Social Movements Dimensions of
learning for NGOs Slum Dwellers
International Further Reading
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/tranZland
Personal Background Thirty years in local & international development
Seven years in Timor-Leste & Zambia
Confronted by “How change does or doesn’t happen”
Re-invigorated by Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky & others who
sought bottom-up, grassroots, people-led change
Currently: PhD (Deakin) focusing on change led by people
in informal settlements in Zambia & South Africa
Occupy Movement Linked to Arab Spring as well as protests in Spain & Portugal Spread to 95 global cities & 600 US communities, from mid July
to mid October, 2011 “Occupy” as the 2011 Word of the Year The 99% and the 1%:
In 30 years, pre-tax income of bottom 90% decreased by $900, top 1% increased by over $700,000
Movement was vague on specific goals, strong participatory ethic, “horizontal” leadership focus
Images of movement coloured by mainstream media Initial official sympathy, but eventually forceful evictions
Social Movements
Hard to define! Charles Tilly: “consist of a sustained challenge to power holders ... by means of the repeated display of that population’s worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment”
Dispersed control, decision making processes, authorities Four characteristics (Diani and Della Porta):
informal interaction networks; shared beliefs and solidarity; collective action focusing on conflict; use of protest
Empirically: power & potential to trigger wider change: eg Occupy, Civil Rights Movement, International Campaign to Ban Landmines
Paulo Freire and Social Movements Analysed link between colonisation
and “banking method of education” Proposed alternative of
“conscientisation”, critical literacy and “problem posing education”
Ideas reflected in Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil
Linked to Robert Chambers, Amartya Sen, ActionAid’s REFLECT and to others concerned about poor people’s participation in development
Philosopher of Education, Catholic, Marxist
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/josemota
Freire and Social Movements (2)
In agreement with Occupy’s key issues: challenge corporations’ power, broaden democracy, participatory democracy
Belief in important role of teachers/leaders Action on its own insufficient: revolutionary
praxis as “constant process of action and reflection”
Contrast between focus of Landless People’s Movement and broad approach of Occupy
Saul Alinsky and Social Movements Reveille for Radicals (1946) & Rules for
Radicals (1971) Organised neighbourhood, civil rights and
union campaigns across the USA Influenced Barack Obama (First job),
Hillary Clinton (Honours thesis) & Bill McKibben (350.org)
Model of local leadership, organisation of organisations, facilitated by outside organisers
Winnable fights, use of conflict, highly targeted& well organised campaigns
Tactician, pragmatist, small “d” democrat
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Floyd Brown
Alinsky and Social Movements (2)
Would agree with key issues behind Occupy protest
Emphasise need to focus on a few key messages Turn around power of ridicule Target specific individuals Match power of money with people power Broaden support base (communicate out) Tactics, tactics, tactics – protest marches not
enough
Social Movements and (I)NGOs INGO focus is more:
Good governance, accountability, community development, civil society strengthening
Communities to be, enlisted, organised, herded
Partnering with governments as organisational consequence of rights based approach
Participation is usually about participating in (our) NGO programmes
NGOs uncomfortable with language and consequences of:
Dissent, defiance, conflict, “challenge to power”
Amorphous locus of power associated with social movements
Usually an asymmetry of power in NGO-community relationships
(I)NGOs often speak on behalf of “poor people” but basis of this “voice” not so
clear
What Might We Do Differently?
Look for & befriend social movements, particularly poor people’s movements,
community groups, emerging leaders
Give away power and control
Spend more time reading and sharing ideas of Freire, Alinsky and others
“Serve” movement priorities rather than organising or conscripting
Understand, learn and use tactics in support of movement goals
Recognise necessity of dissent, opposition and conflict
Recognise what’s at stake for us (eg potential irrelevance in times of massive
change)
Acknowledge change is like innovation, sometimes requires marginal
improvements, other times disruptive change/paradigm shift (which we find
difficult).
From A Ladder of Participation, Sherry Arnstein
From A Ladder of Participation, Sherry Arnstein
Slum Dwellers International
Across 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (18 in Africa) Movement owned by people living in informal settlements
(750,000 members in India) Technical and other supported provided by local, independent
NGO (eg SPARC, CORC) “Rights” work (eg land tenure, upgrades) linked to community
savings, health and sanitation
Typically, NGOs have been established by middle-class people whose vision of the world reflects their own social and economic backgrounds; as such, they are poorly placed to determine priorities for a movement of the urban poor.
- Shelia Patel, SPARC
Further Reading www.sdinet.org/ www.pedagogy4radicals.wordpress.com/ www.reflect-action.org/ Alinsky, S. D. (1969). Reveille for Radicals. Vintage Books. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin Books. Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal
of the American Institute of Planners. Giugni, M., McAdam, D., & Tilly, C. (1999). How social
movements matter. University of Minnesota Press. Piven, F. F., & Cloward, R. A. (1977). Poor people’s movements:
Why they succeed, how they fail. Random House.