The Contextualization Of Activism

The Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice defined activism as “action on behalf of a cause, action that goes beyond what is conventional or routine.”(Anderson and Herr, 19)
However, one presently encounters manifestations of activism in daily life: social media feeds are plagued with narratives that compel one to engage in clicktivism, while the local cafes are riddled with banners that implore one to stand in solidarity with coffee-workers from a Latin American country. In the short span of a decade since its definition, activism has gone from being unconventional to becoming an inevitable part of one’s routine.

The conventionality of activism is a double-edged sword: while it brings with it increased avenues of civic engagement, it also restricts society’s comprehension of the things it recognizes as activism. In a neoliberal, globalizing world where the export and import of ideas is as common as the export and import of goods, it is fairly easy for aspiring activists to believe that activism looks the same wherever it is practiced. The conventionalization of activism risks the decontextualization of activism.
This essay highlights this by closely examining the contextualization carried out by Maathai on the local and global