Meta-activism.org is a website dedicated to the analysis of activism in the digital age.

It has gone through many permutations.  It started out in 2010 as a research collective, The Meta-Activism Project, with these great folks as collaborators and advisors.  Then, in 2012, I took a time-out to co-found the Digital Activism Research Project at the University of Washington, and worked on that for a year.  During that time, this site was my personal blog.  Now I’m back to focusing on this site as a stand-alone project. It is currently my personal site, but also hopefully more than a blog.  This has also been an iterative process.  The site is now dedicated to evidence-based activism, making activism more scientific, technologies of resistance.  Feedback is welcome!

 

 

Mission Statement

Truth, Logic, and Compassion are the gateway drugs to revolution.
They cause us to see the world as it is.
They cause us to question the lies we’ve been told to keep us complacent.
They cause us to expand the scope of our empathy.

Once these three things happen, we are hooked.
We cannot go back.
We cannot accept the world as it is.
We commit to change it.

Addicted to justice,
Addicted to love,
Addicted to the dream,
We have become revolutionaries.

About the Author

My name is Mary Joyce and I run this site.  I am an activism consultant.  I use my skills as a researcher, strategist, and communicator to help organizations promote human rights and social justice around the world.

Bio

I have ten years’ international experience in activism innovation, focusing on the use of digital media.  I am author of the edited volume Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change (2010) and gained practical campaign experience as New Media Operations Manager for President Obama’s national 2008 campaign.

I have worked as a trainer and activism advisor in  countries such as Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, and Lebanon.  My clients have include the YMCA, Open Society Foundations, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network, and Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.  (You can read their endorsements here.)   I specialize in trainings on the strategic use of digital media in activism.

I am also a skilled qualitative researcher.  I co-founded the Digital Activism Research Project at the University of Washington in 2012, where I designed and then led a team that created the Global Digital Activism Data Set.  That ambitious project used citizen media reports to catalog and analyze 426 digital activism campaign from 100 countries.  My research has been supported by the United States Institute of Peace and the National Science Foundation.

Services

• Interactive Workshops on the strategic use of digital media, ranging from 45 minutes to three days, and on tool-focused topics like mobile phone advocacy, video advocacy, and blogging;
• One-on-One Advising to organizations and individuals facing challenges as they use communication tools to achieve their social change goals;
• Public Talks on the implications of digital media for civil society, politics, and advocacy (find videos here).
• Research and Writing about how individuals use digital media to achieve social and political change;

Education

I have an MA in Communication from the University of Washington (2014).  My academic credentials also include a certificate in the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy‘s Summer Institute (2010) and graduate study in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2007-8).  My BA in History and Africana Studies is from Vassar College (2004).

Selected Media Mentions

• Drop Your Weapons: When and Why Civil Resistance Works (Foreign Affairs)
• Slacktivists, Unite! Social Media Campaigns Aren’t Just Feel-Good Back Patting (Digital Trends)
• Sign of the Times: How Change.org and e-Petitions Have Given Campaigns New Life (Metro UK)
• Does Online “Slacktivism” Reduce Charitable Giving? (New Scientist)
• The Pink Equal Sign Facebook Campaign: Powerful Solidarity Or Empty Slacktivism? (International Business Times)

Contact

So enough about me.  Won’t you tell me something about yourself?  You can reach me at contact@maryjoyce.com, via my contact page, or through Twitter at @Meta-Activism or @Mary_Joyce.

Top Photo Credit: Randy Stewart (@stewtopia)