So far, the focus of my PIP development at the moment has
been finding secondary material. The material I have found has been wide and
varied in its mediums, going from segments of TV shows to newspaper articles,
websites, and journal articles. Currently, most of my sources have been about the
globalised aspect of social justice looking at the influence of technology on
the social justice. However, there are have a couple articles looking at the
influence of poetry in reflecting major social justice movements such as civil
rights.
The first yet brief source I found was a segment of the ABC
show Q&A[1] (I
thought I may as well trial footnotes in this) where a question was posed to
the panel discussing how hashtags (#) are undermining social issues and terrorists.
It provided an interesting insight into the varying views of the topic. One of
particular interest was that of newly freed journalist Peter Greste who argued
that it was for the better of society as it enabled people to be instantly up-to-date
with what’s happening around the world. However, it didn’t look at much of the
social justice side as the question was hastily dominated over by another
arising topic that was raised during Greste’s response.
I found another great source that looked at the influence of
mobile phones in social justice campaigns. Titled ‘Thank God for Cellphone
Cameras’, this source looks at the influence of filming social justice
events, and reflects how mobile phone cameras have enabled people to instantly
record what is happening, stating “the most significant images in the
criminal-justice reform movement have not been shot by professional
photographers… but by ordinary people, wielding only their phones” [2].This
source has shaped my PIP to look at the influence of mobile phones in the
social justice cause, and whether filming it and not intervening is really
helping the cause.
Another fascinating article called The #Hashtag
Revolution[3],
by Bernadette N. Lim, looks at the influence of hashtags in the social justice movement.
Moreover, Lim analyses the movement #YesAllWomen, presenting the need for
change in violence against women.
I also found articles about the influence of poetry in
presenting social justice causes. The two articles very, very wordy and were
targeted at using poetry as a means of teaching social justice in schools.
There were also several books I found that looked at social
justice in education, but these weren’t very helpful in looking into the change
caused by these movements.
As you can see, through my secondary research it seems as if
my PIP is moving towards the impact of technology and the digital world in
social justice movements. It’s certainly been a lot easier to find articles on
this aspect than grassroots social justice. So I may be changing my PIP topic
to suit this. Time will tell!
[1]
Q&A (13 April, 2015) 47:01 – Peter Greste, Mitch Fifield, Alannah
MacTiernan, Su McCluskey. Accessed on 1/5/15 from http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/qanda/FA1407H011S00
[2] Robinson
Meyer: ‘Thank God for Cellphone Video Cameras’ (29 April, 2015).
Accessed 1/5/15 from
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/thank-god-for-cellphone-video-cameras/391688
[3]
Bernadette N. Lim: The #Hashtag Revolution (17 July, 2014). Accessed
5/5/15 from http://www.thecrimson.com/column/media-justice-movement/article/2014/7/17/hashtag-activism
All good secondary, with great 'grabs' from each source. Don't leave out books. A quick Google Books search will always yield some great new directions and insights. You might try researching 'change agents' using Google Books with the key words 'social justice' as well. Looking at differences between individual and institutional attempts to enact change will also be interesting here. I think what you'll find is that technology is rapidly changing the way we 'do' not only interactions generally, but social justice specifically.
ReplyDeleteWhereas the traditional social justice campaign might have started with individuals who feed into and create networks and organisations, and who then raise awareness and recruit more persons to their cause, technology has allowed for social justice to be engaged with more and more at the micro level, without a necessary need for meso or macro interactions. I think a conclusion that you will draw fairly early will be that the most effective attempts at change are not only micro, but also meso. When you network with other people to bring about change, then change at the macro level becomes more feasible.
Mr Cox