Social action

Why social action? Because it improves social connectivity. It is beneficial to the person who is involved in the social action and to others.

What can we do that makes a difference? Many programs to prevent or correct social problems have little research to back them up. Does educating children about the types of drugs available and the dangers of drug use, decrease drug use among teens? Does educating teens on the virtues of abstinence decrease teenage sexual activity and pregnancy? Would a “Just say no” diet be effective? Behaviorists for Social Responsibility mention a number of social actions that have a sound basis of social and behavioral research to support them. Included among them is Peace Power! To quote from their website: “PEACE POWER is a strategy for building nonviolent community and organizational cultures incompatible with violence, threat and coercion. Unlike many untested violence prevention programs, the PEACE POWER strategy is based on state-of-the-art behavioral research, particularly from the science of behavior analysis.” For a reasonable cost, they provide training materials and also training workshops. Another organization with similar goals and methods is PeaceBuilders.

Another area for social action is crime prevention. What works? A review has been published on the web here. There is little data to support many existing crime prevention programs, and more research is needed. Also, there could be wider application of programs and methods that have been shown to work.

Constructive social action is possible in so many areas. So where do we begin? We can participate in ongoing activities in our communities. We can join a club. Another is to start an activity ourselves. Forming a study circle is a time tested way of engaging in useful social action. The idea is to form a group of 8 to 12 people with a common interest in trying to understand and identify solutions to a problem in our community. For more information on study circles go to http://www.studycircles.org/. For examples of tools for social action see http://www.indiana.edu/~ythvoice/socialtools.html and http://www.teaching.com/EarthDay97/. Besides study circles, another example is Drums Not Guns (see http://www.drums.org/dng/), where drumming circles are promoted as a way to increase social cohesion in a positive way. Some people use this as a way to relieve stress.