From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERActive citizenship includes, but is not confined to, politicalactivism. It comprises any individual action with social consequences,which may include participation in faith groups or neighbourhoodassociations, ‘social entrepreneurship’ directing business activities tosocial ends, and a panoply of other social organisations, if theirbenefits extend beyond the purely personal or familial. Necessarilyit is blurred at the edges – and is distinct from the broader concept of‘social capital’ (which includes any social network), being distinguishedby its transformatory character and its engagement with the structuresof power, in particular the state.Such an assertion of power is both an end in itself – a crucial kindof freedom – and a means to ensure that the different institutions ofsociety (the state, the market, the community, and the family) respectpeople’s rights and meet their needs, via laws, rules, policies, and dayto-daypractices. Institutions often discriminate against women,indigenous communities, disabled people, and other specific groups.Yet when individuals join together to challenge discrimination, theycan transform the institutions that oppress them. In contrast withportrayals of poor people as passive ‘victims’ (of disasters, or poverty,or famine) or as ‘beneficiaries’ (of aid), in this development visionpoor people’s own ‘agency’ takes centre stage. In the words ofBangladeshi academic Naila Kabeer, ‘From a state of powerlessnessthat manifests itself in a feeling of “I cannot”, activism containsan element of collective self-confidence that results in a feeling of“we can”.’ 3Across the world, Oxfam has seen social, political, and economicactivism by people living in poverty achieve profound and lastingimprovements in their lives. It constitutes a central means of combatingdeep-rooted inequalities by redistributing power, voice, opportunities,and assets to those who historically have lacked all four. Activism ismore often local than national, and more often national than global,although increasingly it takes place on all three levels. It is often aboutresisting imposed changes, which in the process may create positivealternatives. It usually addresses the allocation of resources, such asland, public spending, or credit. And it nearly always pursues reformsrather than revolution, although the reforms pursued are often radical,and the accumulation of reforms can, over time, constitute a revolution.20