Political protest. Demonstration.

This month’s blog will focus on the final model of community organizing and social action. Locality development, social planning, and social action use different interventions for addressing social problems. However, the primary focus of these three models is to promote social change.

In both locality development and social action model, the community identifies the issues and is involved in the decision-making process, which increases the community problem-solving ability.

When people come together to either volunteer, fundraise, organize, and work towards changing laws and policies, it is social action. Social action encourages the participation of marginalized individuals or groups of people to make adequate demands that will benefit the oppressed communities.

Social action is in favor of the disadvantage. It assumes that those without power have been deprived through systematic oppression. This model focuses on decision making, redistribution of power, resources, pressuring the power structure to implement social policy, and make legislative changes.

Confrontation, protesting, boycotts, strikes, media exposure, lobbying, negotiation, and political campaigns are tactics employed to solve issues related to inequalities and deprivation. Some historical figures and grass-roots organizers advocated for change in a nonviolent approach, such as the civil rights movement, gay rights movement, disability rights movements, among others.

In a country or community that feels divided on numerous issues, social action brings people together and empower them to make things better.