Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.
Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. introduced the term "judicial activism" in a January 1947 Fortune magazine article titled "The Supreme Court: 1947."[1]
Some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically.
There is also a distinction to be made between Activists and Activism, as a huge amount of activism is carried out by people who would not label themselves as activists. It is crucial to recognise this, otherwise you fail to recognise the amount of activism being carried out and risk marginalising this type of social change as a specific form of activism i.e. as carried out by the activist. For example environmental activists' that align themselves with Earth First, or Road Protestors would commonly be labelled activists, whereas a local community fighting to stop their park or green being sold off, or built on would not be classed as activists, yet they are still effectively carrying out very similar actions. In short Activism is not always carried out by Activists. [2]