Organizational Impact
Hope-Centered Community Activism - Reimagining Future Progress in Present Potential: A Revolutionary Framework of Activism for Sustainable Leadership and Change
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne Maguire
The key to sustaining leadership and community engagement within movements of social change calls for revolutionary theory that challenges responses of burn-out and despair arising from circumstances of defeat. I introduce the term ‘hope-centered community activism’ as a framework of action that places hope at the center of practice and theory of community activism and organizing, situating the activist in a position of greater possibility to achieve sustainable change within social movements. Shifting away from deficit-frameworks and damage-centered research allows for the discovery of gifts and potential that brings the hope of the future into the present moment and into the hands of those who are affected most by the plights of social injustice. Hope-centered community activism acknowledges the existence of abundance in situations of perceived scarcity and in the face of adversity; the idea that the means of change-making is ever-present in the community is promoted with the need to recognize our community in terms of its assets. Through the appreciative-inquiry of activists, faith leaders, community members, and participants of social movements in the city of South Bend, Indiana, the reconstruction of our understanding of hope within the context of activism is initiated through personal interviews, as well as through the examination of global leadership case studies.
Catholic Religious Groups Operating in India since 1947: Problems in Carrying Out Their Desired Goals
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Charles Borges
Since Indian independence, various Catholic groups have been working in the fields of education, social welfare, and religion with government authorization. With new political groups in places of authority at the center and in Indian individual states, the former have find themselves in various stages of being unable to accomplish their desired goals on behalf of the people both Catholic and not. This paper draws on abundant reports to show how Catholic organizations have to virtually use a tight rope walk in India.
Environmental Activism in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Advocating for Change On the Local-Global Continuum
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sara O'connor
Central Asia’s legacy of resistance features prominent instances of environmental civic activism. Prior to the dissolution of the USSR, Central Asian satellite states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan asserted independence through opposition to damming and reservoir building, and Kazakhstan became a global denuclearization leader following discoveries of environmental degradation and detrimental health impacts from the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. These points of resistance were starting points for anti-colonial critiques of Soviet power within the satellites (Florin, 2019) and the forging of national identities and imperatives. The Central Asian satellite states are again at a pivotal political moment of regime change and widespread public dissent of the authoritarian structures. Citizen groups in Kazakh and Kyrgyz cities have been pressuring their governments and making strides through environmental activism, halting development projects that aim to convert natural public resources into private property and encouraging citizen focused urban dialogues. This research illuminates the processes by which environmental civic activism in Central Asia has transcended borders and challenged sovereign power by drawing upon transnational resources, creating issue driven cross-border communities, and altering the trajectory of state driven development projects to create space for civic participation in urban landscapes. By highlighting transnational environmental movements this work shows how local actors in authoritarian environments become a part of transnational movements that interrogate sovereign authority and advance civil rights in repressive environments. Through urban form interventions these groups are dismantling notions of bordered identities and futures in favor of addressing local impacts of global issues.
