GROUNDING DEFINITIONS
Activism
An assemblage of encounters pushing the system towards new states, activism is one of the causes bringing about evolution and re-creation within the system. (Marcelo Svirsky)
Art
“If you think we’re going to try to define art, you’re crazier than we are.” (The Culture Group)
Biiskabiyang
The process of returning to ourselves. The embodied processes as freedom. (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson)
Choir-Building
If we understand base-building as a sustained political-organizational engagement with a specific community/demographic/sector of the working class over certain issues (Punto Rojo) then we should understand “choir-building” as a sustained engagement with the activists, groups, and organizations whose primary labor is focused on a set of social issues to align, organize, and activate around a more concrete and shared vision. (BLIS Collective)
Collective Action
An action taken by a group, either directly or on its behalf, through an organization in pursuit of its members’ perceived shared interests. (J. Angelo Corlett)
Culture
The shared set of implicit and explicit values, norms, ideas, concepts, and rules of behavior that allow a social group to construct its reality. A society’s “way of life.” (BLIS Collective)
Cultural Identity
Identification with, or sense of belonging to, a particular group based on various cultural categories, including nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, and religion. Cultural identity is constructed and maintained through the process of sharing collective knowledge such as traditions, heritage, language, aesthetics, norms, and customs. (Vivian Hsueh-Hua Chen)
Decolonization
“A long-term process involving the bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic, and psychological divesting from colonial power.” (Linda Tuhiwai Smith)
“Decolonization in a settler context is fraught because empire, settlement, and internal colony have no spatial separation. Each of these features of settler colonialism in the US context – empire, settlement, and internal colony - make it a site of contradictory decolonial desires.” (Eve Tuck, K.Wayne Yang)
Frame
Select aspects of a story that are communicated in a specific way to promote a particular problem, solution, or moral evaluation. (Robert Entman)
Hegemony
The way in which a dominant group or institution maintains and reinforces its power by shaping beliefs, values, and norms within a society. (Nicki Lisa Cole)
Liberatory Social Identity
A social identity that can activate or rally individuals within a group to collective action that is grounded in the values of liberation, collectivism, freedom, and justice. This identity is rooted in the belief that true freedom is collective, and liberation is a shared journey. (BLIS Collective)
Mobilizing Social Identity
A social identity that can activate or rally individuals within a group to collective action. It can be used for justice or oppression, depending on the values driving the collective action. (i.e. MAGA) (BLIS Collective)
Movements
Sustained groupings that develop a frame or narrative based on shared values, that maintain a link with a real and broad base in the community, and build for a long-term transformation in power (Manuel Pastor, Rhonda Ortiz)
Narrative
A collection of stories that circulate within a society that convey themes, frames, and worldviews that are collectively understood and embraced by its members. These narratives often uphold and reinforce cultural norms, values, and beliefs. Narratives serve as powerful tools for communication, conveying meaning, identity, and cultural norms within societies. They influence perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors and both reflect and shape our collective consciousness. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Alignment
When narratives situated across different topic areas move closer to a state of agreement, harmony, and/or congruence. It involves various components of narratives becoming more coherent and mutually reinforcing. Effective narrative alignment enhances the clarity, impact, and engagement of a story, enabling it to resonate across different audiences. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Braiding
An intentional effort to form and interlace narratives and relationships within different target audiences. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Change
An intentional effort to shift the stories that guide our values and shape how people make meaning of information and experiences. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Environment
The daily collection of narratives that individuals or groups within a specific culture interact with. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Infrastructure
The fundamental and interconnected systems, services, and platforms that enable stories, perceptions, and understandings to be constructed, shared, and evolved. (BLIS Collective)
Narrative Power
The ability to influence perceptions, understandings, mindsets, and ideologies within a society. It involves the capacity and ability to challenge or maintain existing narratives, shape cultural norms, and promote alternative perspectives. Narrative power can be held at the individual and collective level – and can be wielded to challenge dominant paradigms, advocate for social change, and foster greater understanding and solidarity across communities. (BLIS Collective)
Radical Collaboration
An orientation and set of activities focused on deep and reciprocal cooperation and partnership, specifically designed to challenge the competitive dynamics that capitalism facilitates. (BLIS Collective)
Radical Solidarity
Both a sustained practice of deep empathy and shared action, and an outcome that fosters deeper connections between struggles.
“Solidarity is an uneasy, reserved, and unsettled matter that neither reconciles present grievances nor forecloses future conflict.” (Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang)
Reparations
A process of repairing, healing, and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions, and families. (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America)
Social Change
A shift in society’s attitudes, policies, and laws with regard to particular values (equality, justice, liberation) and issues (immigration, gun violence, climate change, etc.) (BLIS Collective)
Social Environment
The immediate physical surroundings, social relationships, and cultural milieus within which defined groups of people function and interact. (Elizabeth Barnett, Michele Casper)
Social Identity
A person’s knowledge that they belong to a social category or group (Michael Hogg and Dominic Abrams)
Value-added theory
An analytic framework for studying the origins of collective actions and how collective actions occur. Value-added theory claims that if a social system is structurally conducive to collective action, and a group of people recognizes structural strain, a generalized belief emerges within said group, and a selection of participants can be mobilized to act, and the social control forces are unable to counter the prior determinants – then a collective action will occur. (Neil J. Smelser)