Out of class Artifact

I decided to take the survey for my out of class artifact. This survey talks a lot about community issues and political ideas. It asks many questions about involvement in ones community and what you need to do to participate in certain things.  Another point it brings up is believing in your own opinions and creating your own social and political identity. one of the last main things brought up is community service, donations and help towards creating a better and more together community.  This has a lot of relativity to my life and what we have learned in class. In class we have learned what it means to be a part of an effective community and that it takes numbers and a lot of work to really help and do something for a community. it is also very important to be informed politically and socially to be able to do something useful.  This past week I have really experienced the part of contributing to a community and helping out.  I donated food, money, clothes and other things to my friends who lost everything.  It was amazing to see the community come together and it was kind of cool to learn more about how a social movement can work.  As we all joined together we learned what it takes to make a real difference. We learned about the issue and took the proper concerns and ideas to make a difference and to make a change.  With the survey, the things I learned in class, and the issued going on in my life, I learned what it takes to make a change.  You have to want to do something, you have to try to do something, and you have to take the proper steps to making it happen.

Museum

At the museum we saw and learned a lot about the war and the civil rights social movement in itsself.  So many of the exhibits were very detailed and gave us a lot of information reagrding the war and how people lived during this time.  we saw artifacts about the soldiers, the “hippies” the music and even the weapons used during this time.  A lot of what we saw related to what we have learned in class this year. While learning about social movements we learned a lot about the groups that it took to make this movement possible.  One of the most interesting displays that i saw was the hippie and music wall.  On this wall we saw how it takes huge numbers to make a  movement and how to stabilize and mobilize a movement.  There were over 40,000 people who were involved in this music festival and over 50,000 people who partook in this life style.  We have learned in class that it takes a voice, a leader, a purpose and numbers in order to make a movement possible.  With over 40,000 people, famous bands and musicians, the right of speaking their mind and constant protests and people to stand up for themselves this movement was created. It is still considered to be a part of the civil rights movement but it definitely has a side section that makes them unique and different in their own way. This museum had so many amazing artifacts and displays that helped us relate it to our lessons in class.

     

Invisible Children

Last week in class we watched the documentary about the invisible children.  This documentary showed the journey of three young men in the attempt to change the world.  Going to Africa and trying to help the people of Uganda was an inspiration to people all over the world.  It is amazing to me that people who are so young can become so passionate about something so much bigger than them. I believe that this documentary showed us that anything really is possible but we have to take the initiative and the action to do so. Just because we are young and so far away, it is still important that we realize what is important in life and that materialistic and objective things are nothing compared to what we can do for others. To me, the most important part of their experience was hearing, and seeing the reactions of the people’s lives they touched.  Seeing the children smile and the mothers seeing hope in their eyes for the first time.

With everything we have learned this semester so far, something I saw in this documentary was the aspects of the leadership.  The charisma, the pragmatism, the dedication of these men made me realize that it does take an amazing leader in order for something so big to actually happen.  Laren is the leader of the invisible children and he has all of the characteristics of a true leader.  His organization of groups, trips, and roadies are just the start.  He is so passionate and not only went there once, but at least three times and took back his knowledge to the United States to make it even bigger than before.  He changed the lives of so many children there and they got to see a happy, genuine person. His dedication and charisma and perseverance through the risks gives him the legitimate means of being this leader and I believe he will continue to try to change the lives of people all over the world for as long as he can.

Artifact 2

In this reading, I learned the what who and how to creating and maintaining a social movement. The what consists of what must be done to create this social movement. What had to happen for it to be successful and what the group puts forth to make it known.  The who is who goes into making it work and become a successful movement. Although it seems that it is mostly ordinary people trying to do something for a good cause, there had to be a leader and organization ahead of the whole institution. There are steps that go along with this as well.  The steps include, finding enough people to go along with this uninstitutionalized collectivity, support the organizations and leadership best suited to the problems, and lastly they have to establish membership limitations to create elites capable of dealing with the conditions. Lastly is the how. It is important to know how a social movement will work and the strategies that must be used to make it successful.  The biggest point to this section was that tactics needs to be spiced up and ideas need to change so it keeps moving forward and does not become boring. This section of the reading really taught me what goes into a social movement and all of the things that must be done to make it keep moving forward, but mostly how to keep it running and successful.

It was very clear cut and to the point of what the social movement ideas were.  I wanted to compare it to something that everyone deals with daily.  A recipe or cooking kind of reminded me of this.  You need a who, what, and how to make something that everyone will respect.  The who is the chef, or the cook.  The who needs to be a leader and take the reins so that everything will fall into place and be something other people want to try.  The what, is the food that goes into it. It is what must be done to create the meal.  The steps that are taken can be anything from grating cheese to measuring oil or whatever. Regardless there are many steps that are taken to create it.  The how is the most important part.  In the reading it says that things must be switched up or tactics must be changed to make it worth it.  When making a meal things must be done to spice it up as well.  If you make this meal all the time it can get boring to the people eating it and sometimes new ingredients or new things must be added to make it better.  Also if it is made and does not taste good, things should be altered or taken out to make it work.  They are two completely different things, but all in all I find it very relatable to this concept.

Artifact 1- Social Movement as Interpretive Systems

I was very interested in learning all about the way that communication is used through social systems.  I found the topic of nonsummitivity to be very interesting.  It explains how things work together and how removing one thing can possibly alter or change it, but it wont change the concept or overall idea of what was trying to be accomplished. It brings up the idea also that things come together with the sum of all parts. With this reading i learned the difference between the pile and system and made me think of my basketball team that i am on. We have 12 girls on the team, and although only five of us start, taking one girl out would completely change the chemistry and vibe of our team.  One player may not be the key to he win, but it is the key to keeping our team together and maintain our system to promote our movement together.

The artifact i chose describes exactly what i was talking about.  A team is a unit, a pile, and a sum of all players.  I think this picture does a good job in showing what those things mean.  If one of these guys were to get injured it would affect the entire team physically and emotionally.  although it would not ruin everything by switching players out, there is potential for the sum to be divided.

 

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