Social Movements & Civil Society
My understanding of civil society coincides with what I define a social movement as; citizens mobilizing their efforts together to achieve social change. What comes to mind is the #MeToo Movement and Black Lives Matter.
Civil society’s definition is not far off from social movements, and I’d even go as far as to say that social movements are a crucial component to civil society. Since not all governing is done by government, I believe social movements — when mobilized for the right reasons (!) — have the ability to govern the dichotomy that is public and private life.
For instance, the #MeToo Movement has massively shifted workplace culture that once silenced, perpetuated, and dismissed harmful behaviours that historically and systematically disadvantaged women. The movement sparked private corporations to, at the very least, become more aware about the workplace they have created and how to restructure given the severity of the environment.
Furthermore, Black Lives Matter has sparked a larger discussion about equity, inclusion, and diversity in public policy. The Government of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, Building a Foundation for Change, features a new Anti-Racism Secretariat, and includes an Indigenous focused approach for building awareness and changing attitudes amongst Canadians, corporations and institutions.
However, for both of these social movements, more work is still to be done. This is where civil society actors, like non-governmental organizations (NGOs), come into the picture.
NGOs can work with or without government to tackle specific policy issues at a more granular level. When I think back to our conversation with many alumni the past few weeks, most have said that the federal government is so far removed from ground-level issues that have a big impact on daily life. Now think about working on a specific policy issue, like housing, within the confines of the government; it is still difficult to recommend certain policy issues due to the institutional constraints found at all levels. This isn’t to say that NGOs are not institutionally constrained, but they are given more freedom to think radically about policy solutions and devote their acquired resources towards issues that matter most to their organization.
I learned that the non-profit sector has a variety of opportunities to explore specific policy interests from a more exploratory perspective that promotes unique and innovative solutions to very complex policy problems. When a group of experts is tasked with providing more insights and pressuring governments to do better, the results can improve our public policy, and in turn, reform our society.
