On the paucity of 'aising awareness'
Doug Belshaw,
Open Thinkering,
Jun 29, 2023
This post made me think of this article in the Guardian on the two types of anti-racism: "The liberal tradition sees racism as essentially a matter of irrational beliefs and attitudes.... The radical tradition, on the other hand, sees racism as a matter of how economic resources are distributed differently across racial groups." Changing attitudes and beliefs may feel worthwhile, but only changing actions, structures and institutions will create real change. It also makes me think of the 'awareness campaigns' being run by, say, Creative Commons, which again to my mind don't actually put open educational resources into the hands of people. So to the present article: Doug Belshaw approaches the question by outlining the concept of 'supererogation', which is the idea that an action might be good, but is not required. That's what the liberal tradition buys you. "Once you see people putting in the minimum effort of 'awareness raising'," he writes, "you start seeing it everywhere. It's particularly prevalent on social media, where it takes a single tap to reshare news and make others aware of something you've just seen." Quite so.
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