Advocacy and Lobbying

Advocacy can be defined as a way of causing political action, using methods such as civic education and public campaigns to influence decision-makers. * Advocacy is driven by the purposes of social change, and these changes can be directed at government policies, laws, procedures, or sometimes even ourselves. For this reason, it can be said that advocacy is actually an act of persuading to support any issue. The conclusion I draw from this is that advocacy is a process, and it aims to reach a conclusion on an advocated issue. I believe advocacy is also about motivating the community. It starts with a small group of people who share their concerns about a particular problem and are willing to devote time and expertise to achieving desired change. It can have goals such as; transportation, improvement and development of community services, etc. such as the provision of public services such as education, improvement of laws on different subjects.
In other words, advocacy is about bringing attention to an important issue and guiding decision makers to a solution, mobilizing members of the wider community, and seeking solutions for change.
On the other hand, Lobbying is a group, organization or association that tries to influence legislators or other public officials for a specific purpose.* It can be said that lobbying is aimed at influencing policy makers, public officials or other decision makers. In other words, it is aimed at directly influencing decision makers.
To better understand the two and clarify the difference, I can give the following examples:
For example, it might be advocacy work for us to use social media to get information about a cause or problem, or to inform a government official about a policy community and its work and goals.
Sending an email inviting your members to contact the government or decision-makers directly to support any action may be considered as a lobbying activity.

*symbol is a quote: http://www.cod.rs/en/what-we-do/advocacy-and-lobbying/

A Movie about Youth Activism: “He Named Me Malala”

First of all, I should mention that director-producer Davis Guggenheim made the story of Yousafzai in the movie “He Named Me Malala”. Malala’s story is quite impressive. At the age of 15, he was shot in the head by a terrorist organization on his way home by school bus, but he managed to survive.
Malala Yousafzai wins the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 in 2014 after surviving a Taliban assassination attempt. She’s a Pakistani, she became an advocate of girls’ education, which was actually the reason why the Taliban tried to kill her. Despite being shot in the head, he survived and continued to talk about the importance of education. He gave a speech at the United Nations in 2013 and published his first book, I Am Malala. It was quite impressive to see his speech in the movie. I especially found the sentence ‘One child, one teacher, one book, on epen can change the World.’ quite motivating. In fact, if you ask, this was the clearest scene I remember from the movie.
In fact, everything is “How does the Taliban take away my right to basic education?” begins with the saying. Later, Yousafzai started blogging for the BBC to reject the training of the Taliban and to explain how difficult it was to live under their threats. Although she hides her identity, she is revealed after a while. Yousafzai and his family learn that the Taliban has issued a death threat against him for his activism. Yousafzai, who was shot in the head, is transferred to Birmingham, England for treatment. From here on, his life changes. He says that he has not changed despite all the difficulties he has experienced, his time in hospitals, and his face with death, and he will still defend the same things. Then it does exactly what it says. I started following Yousafzai, who still continues his activism, after this movie. I learned the important role of believing, taking firm steps by believing, in social movements much better with this movie and its story.

Suffragettes, American Civil Movement and Gandhi’s non-violence Movement

Suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organization that fought for the right to vote in popular elections under the banner of “Vote for Women” in the early 20th century.
Today, we know that every citizen has the right to vote. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, some citizens in the United States had privileges, and not all people were given the privilege of citizenship, and not all US citizens were given the same right to vote. These privileges varied based on gender, race, age and income, and not everyone had the right to vote. But over time, this injustice has caused controversy, protests, and advocacy. A reform was needed and women won the suffrage with the success of this movement. So how did they achieve this?
Beyond giving women the right to vote, the suffrage movement encouraged civic action among women through associations, unions, and organizations. This played an important role in making a difference for women at local and regional levels. Over time, women began to take on tasks such as establishing their organizations and conducting public works. As such, they have succeeded in positively influencing their communities. I believe these achievements have been made possible by their persistent struggle for suffrage, their social response to the arguments against women’s suffrage, their progress towards equality, and associated social and political reform.
The civil rights movement in the USA (1955 – 1968) is a movement that aims to establish civil rights equality for Black Americans by ending racial segregation laws. The clergy and leaders of different social movements also supported this movement. The first important event was the declaration of racial segregation in schools as unconstitutional. Over time, the rise of the Black Power movement adds importance to the struggle for civil rights. Also, another important point is that Malcolm X started to use the word “African-American” instead of “Black American”. We continue to use it today. Even though African-Americans started to get their rights legally, we know that such racist activities continue today. For example, the “Black Lives Matter” movement was initiated with the African American man killed by the police in America. In fact, I think we can evaluate the civil movement organized in the early 19th century in America as the basis of today’s civil movements, at least in this regard.
Nonviolence is a civic movement based on not harming oneself or others under all circumstances. It argues that it is unnecessary to harm people, animals or the environment in any way to achieve a result. Sometimes he can do this by pursuing religious, moral or spiritual concerns. For Gandhism, the nonviolent civic movement is a strategy for social change. In general, we can say that activists or people with nonviolent ideas use forms of education and persuasion. In fact, they follow a slightly more passive path than other civic movements.
When we compare these three civil movements, we can see the similarities between the Suffragette and the American Civil Rights Movement. In my opinion, especially the Suffragettes have achieved a result by following a very successful way in this regard. Because I think they carry out their efforts to make their voices heard step by step, with realistic strategies. I have some questions about Ghandi’s nonviolence movement. Because sometimes it can be very successful to express yourself by being passive or keeping quiet. But after a while, it can get mundane. Or being completely unresponsive may not be the right way to express yourself. For this reason, I believe that Sufragette is the most strategically advanced among these three civil movements.

Social Change and Technology

The Industrial Revolution, the discovery of steam engines, and especially the change of means of transport completely changed the way people traveled and how goods were transported. The way people travel and transport goods during this period also determined the daily life style of people. Before the Industrial Revolution, transportation depended mainly on animals (such as horses pulling carriages) and boats.
The invention of the railway and the steam locomotive started a new order in transportation and the change of the social structure. Now trains can go wherever tracks can be built. Transportation is no longer limited to rivers and canals. This changed the social culture over time. For example, while it may take months to travel within a country before this discovery, these discoveries have shortened these borders with the developments in transportation. Places that seemed like a different world have become closer over time. Traveling faster and more often has also begun to change the culture. Intercultural dialogues began to develop. Regions, cities became places with mixture cultures. This, I believe, can be the first step towards a more tolerant society by breaking stereotypes and prejudices. On the other hand, while people used to live in the immediate vicinity of the places where they worked, they began to be able to go to work further away by railroads. Even short-term trips to work areas in different countries and on different continents have become possible today. With the creation of long-distance working areas, both job opportunities have expanded and residential areas have started to form near these areas. Cities that grew economically and physically changed the daily life and socio-economic structure of the society. So cities began to grow and then develop. In the following periods, these developments also caused great migrations from rural to urban areas. Also, with the discovery that there are other places, international competitions began to enter human life. These competitions in the field of art, science or sports also constituted one of the important steps of social change. In addition, the transport of heavy materials (such as iron) played an important role in the transport of fresh food.
So what’s next? First of all, when the railways are reconsidered, we observe that high-speed trains are starting to enter our lives. Boundaries between spaces are decreasing day by day (though not physically). We are just seeing these examples in Turkey, but when we look at Europe, it is possible to see people living in Belgium and working in Paris. I think the issue of being a citizen of the world becomes more prominent here. And it is proof that we are faced with a brand new world order today and that we are in a great change.

Sam Stevens’ inspirational speech: ‘Moving Youth Towards Action and Activism’

“Sam Stevens is a senior student at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) and has participated in as well as leading youth activism projects. Under the two-year leadership of the BUHS student group Civil Leadership, Education and Action Project (CLEA), Sam led students from education to action projects on local and global issues.”

video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALqzWs9gjGI&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

When we listen to Stevens’ story and his inspiring TEDx talk, ‘Moving Youth Towards Action and Activism’, he talks about how we can be a voice for change rather than forcing ourselves to stand up for something first. He mentions that because young people have remained silent in recent years, they can do very effective work even by not buying their products to protest a company whose method they do not support. In fact, he sees youth activism and movements as great potential. I agree with Stevens on this one. Because today, it is believed that young people really only live in the digital world, but I believe that this generation may be more open to different perspectives and different approaches. They were born in an era where information is much more accessible than previous generations, and they were introduced to technology at a very young age. In addition, when we look at the developing technology day by day, it is clear that young people can catch and even create change. However, Steven does not believe that it is very productive for an adult to come and talk to the youth about what to do and how to behave. Instead, he favors young people influencing and learning from each other. It is also very valuable for adults to guide young people in different roles, but many of us have experienced in our daily lives that people who speak the same language can have stronger communication with each other. Finally, Steven invites young people to go out and make the world a more livable place rather than being consumers. It also calls on adults to support young people.
In my opinion, each activism is very important and valuable. However, the potential for youth activism to be one step ahead is very high. Because they act for change not only with a desire, but with a much higher motivation given by the youth, and their energy is very high. On the other hand, their viewing angle is much wider. When properly guided, they have the power to turn the world into a much better place. However, I believe that they should first learn their rights very well and then discover their potential. With this method, they can take much more solid steps. At this point, adults have a responsibility. Adults should stand by the youth as teachers and guides. In this way, as Steve said, it is possible for us to go out and change the world and take steps for a better world.

#thevoidmagsummer18

MIDAS:Genius Locus

Here is my final model for ARCH102.

Understanding the City of Boulevard: PARIS

An abstraction of Paris:

Champs Elysees Boulevard and its arround:

Done Midas Model As A Teamwork

Human Scale in Midas