A civil society campaign is one that is intended to mobilize public support and use democratic tools such as

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whic ...

in order to instigate

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or soci ...

Civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Baby Milk Action, or by professional

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

(NGOs), such as the

World Development Movement Global Justice Now, formerly known as the World Development Movement (WDM), is a membership organisation based in the United Kingdom which campaigns on issues of global justice and development in the Global South. The organisation produces r ...

, who may have several campaigns running at any one time. Larger coalition campaigns such as 2005's

Make Poverty History Make Poverty History are organizations in a number of countries, which focus on issues relating to 8th Millennium Development Goal such as aid, trade and justice. They generally form a coalition of aid and development agencies which work togethe ...

may involve a combination of NGOs. Effective campaigning can sometimes achieve much more than

good works In Christian theology, good works, or simply works, are a person's (exterior) actions or deeds, in contrast to inner qualities such as grace or faith. Views by denomination Anglican Churches The Anglican theological tradition, including The ...

or giving to charity. For example, the

Jubilee 2000 Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of third world debt by the year 2000. This movement coincided with the Great Jubilee, the celebration of the year 2000 in the Catholic Chur ...

debt campaign persuaded G7 governments to cancel $100 billion of debt owned by poor countries, releasing more money for development than 1,000 years of

Christian Aid Christian Aid is the relief and development agency of 41 Christian (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) churches in the UK and Ireland, and works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster ...

in weeks. In the UK, ASH (

Action on Smoking and Health Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the name of a number of autonomous pressure groups (charities) in the anglosphere that seek to publicize the risks associated with tobacco smoking and campaign for greater restrictions on use and on cigar ...

)’s campaign for a ban on smoking in public places in 2006 saved over 2,000 lives and billions of pounds a year. The

Empty Homes Agency The Empty Homes Agency was established in 1992 by Antony Fletcher with assistance from Serge Lourie as a registered charity in England that works to help people create homes from empty properties and campaigns for more empty homes to be brought ...

is working with UK

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

to bring thousands of properties into use as a result of a successful amendment to the UK

Housing Act 2004 The Housing Act 2004 (c 34) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced Home Information Packs, which have since been abandoned. It also significantly extends the regulation of houses in multiple occupation by requiring so ...

. Campaigning is increasingly recognised as an important way for NGOs to achieve their objectives. Many charities employ campaigners, produce campaigning materials and train their supporters to campaign. The

Charity Commission for England and Wales , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , ...

says that “charities may undertake campaigning and political activity as a positive way of furthering or supporting their purposes.” Some organisations, such as the

Centre for Policy Studies The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a think tank and pressure group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independ ...

, want to keep charities and community groups out of politics. Many NGOs and community groups are wary of campaigning. They worry about being political or offending their funders. The problems voluntary organisations deal with often need political action, as well as good works. Over 200 years ago there were charities for the welfare of slaves, but abolishing the institution of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

was also necessary. There is still a lot wrong with the world about which to campaign. Not all problems can be solved by campaigning. Sometimes it is better to provide a service, as a private business, a

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

or a charity. But many problems are best solved by influencing the policies and actions of an industry, firm, public service or government rather than trying to fix them yourself. Most campaigns are small, such as improving play space in a park, creating access for

people with disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

or changing work practices. Some tackle very big issues, like

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, world poverty and injustice. Many campaigns do not get anywhere or make very slow progress. Some even undermine their own cause, because they turn people off or make mistakes. Influencing others takes skill and knowledge as well as commitment.

Lobbying

A key element of campaigning is researching and offering policy suggestions. A campaigning organisation will usually attempt to keep track of legislative processes, and mobilise its supporter base to provide mass lobbies at critical junctures.

Stunts and actions

While civil society campaigners may come from a range of political backgrounds, modern campaigning owes its largest debt to the ideas of the

Situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

, such as

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situation ...

, who recognised that as society falls increasingly under the thrall of the spectacle, it is impossible to generate political momentum without existing in the visual plane. A frequent tactic of civil society campaigns is thus the deployment of high-profile stunts and actions to draw attention to their cause. An example of a stunt is the group Fathers4Justice dressing as popular superheroes and scaling tall buildings to draw attention to their cause. The occupation of the

Brent Spar Brent Spar, or Brent E, was a North Sea oil storage and tanker loading buoy in the Brent oilfield, operated by Shell UK. With the completion of a pipeline connection to the oil terminal at Sullom Voe in Shetland, the storage facility had cont ...

platform by

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

to prevent

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

dumping it at sea was an action rather than a stunt as it had intrinsic influence as well as generating publicity.

Direct Action

Direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

is politically motivated activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political goals outside of normal social/political channels.

Human Rights

Human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Campaigners use the Human Rights Act, such as the

right to life The right to life is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including capital punishment, with some people seeing it a ...

and liberty,

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

, to further their cause.

Transnational advocacy networks

Margaret E. Keck and

Kathryn Sikkink Kathryn Sikkink (born 1955) is an author, human rights academic, and scholar of international relations working primarily through the theoretical strain of constructivism. She is currently at professor at Harvard Kennedy School. Academic career K ...

, in ''Activists Beyond Borders'', define transnational advocacy networks as "networks of activists, distinguishable largely by the centrality of principled ideas or values in motivating their formation." This definition can be seen in many human rights organizations. Keck and Sikkink write from a context before the universal availability of information technology and at this point the main actors are the States. The boomerang pattern, argued by Keck and Sikkink, is a model of advocacy where a State A causes "blockage" by not protecting or violating rights. Non-state actors provide other non-state actors from a State B with information about the blockage and those non-state actors inform State B. State B places pressure on State A and/or has intergovernmental organizations place pressure on State A to change its policies. In order to facilitate transnational advocacy networks, the network needs to have common values and principles,

access to information Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO s ...

and be able to effectively use that information, believe their efforts will cause change and effectively frame their values. Information use is historically very important to human rights organizations. Human rights methodology is considered "promoting change by promoting facts." By using facts, state and non-state actors can use that viable information to pressure human rights violators. Human rights advocacy networks focus on either countries or issues by targeting particular audiences in order to gain support. To gain audience support human rights organizations need to cultivate relationships through networking, have access to resources and maintain an institutional structure. Activists commonly use four tactics in their advocacy efforts: 1) Information politics provides comprehensive and useful information on an issue that otherwise might not be heard from sources who otherwise might be overlooked; 2) Symbolic politics uses powerful symbolic events as a way to increase awareness surrounding an issue; 3) Leverage politics utilizes material leverage (examples such as goods, money, or votes), moral leverage (the "mobilization of shame") or both in order to gain influence over more powerful actors; 4) Accountability politics holds those who make commitments to a cause accountable for their actions or lack thereof.

Information technology and networked advocacy

The widespread availability of the internet, mobile telephones, and related communications technologies enabling users to overcome the transaction costs of collective action has begun to change the previous models of advocacy. Shirky, Clay. '' Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations''. New York: Penguin Group, 2008. Due to information technology and its ability to provide an abundance of information, there are fewer to no costs for group forming.Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin Group, 2008. Coordination is now much easier for human rights organizations to track human rights violators and use the information to advocate for those in need. One effect is that it is harder for governments to block information they do not want their citizens to obtain. The increase in technology makes it nearly impossible for information not to penetrate everyone around the globe making it easier for human rights organizations to monitor and ensure rights are being protected. In addition, the fact that the Internet provides a platform for easy group forming, the use of an institutional organization is not essential. With social networking sites and blogs, any individual can perpetuate collective action with the right tools and audience. The need for a hierarchy is diminishing with the great abundance of information available.

Using the Arts

Some campaigners use the arts to get their message across. For example, radical cheerleading is used at demonstrations to promote a radical message in a media-friendly, people-friendly way.

Demonstrations

A demonstration is a form of nonviolent action by groups of people in favor of a political or other cause, normally consisting of walking in a march and a meeting (rally) to hear speakers

Petitions

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...

is a request to change something, most commonly made to a government official or public entity

Social media

The use of

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...

is helping campaigners to recruit members and communicate. Social media can take many different forms, including

Internet forums An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

weblogs Weblogs may refer to: *Plural of Blog *Weblogs, Inc. Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 b ...

, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.

Influencing Parliament

In the UK, Parliamentary Outreach works with NGOs to help them to understand Parliamentary processes

Freedom of Information Legislation

Campaigners can now use

Freedom of Information legislation Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisf ...

to request Government held information and receive it freely or at minimum cost.

References

{{Reflist Activism Civil society