on agency & what it gives us
hope is by no means a universal feeling. One recent study found about one-third of young adults describe themselves as encouraged about the future, but 60 percent are “very worried.”
Maddy Lauria • Hope is not passive: How activism keeps optimism alive
guerrilla gardening is a way that people can take back not only their present, but also their future – even as it seems under dire threat from an economic and social system apparently hellbent on human self-eradication.
Damien Gayle • ‘I Call It Botanarchy’: The Hackney Guerrilla Gardener Bringing Power to the People
Positive Friction encourages an alternative design practice in order to restore human agency within online spaces
DVTK • Positive Friction
On the other hand, I am a believer in radical hope, by which I mean recognising that the chances of success may be slim but still being driven to act by the values and vision you are rooted in. Time and again, humankind has risen up collectively, often against the odds, to tackle shared problems and overcome crises.
The challenge we face as a
... See more• Use your imagination as a way to practice exploring possibilities…and discover the many ways this is connected to real-world hope.
Morgan Harper Nichols • A Necessary Imagination
To make diagnosis something ‘empowering’, the first step is to completely break it apart and acknowledge all of its potential different and conflicting functions. Diagnosis can give you access to community, or cut you off from community. It can give you access to benefits, or it can bar you from income through employment. It could get you your
... See moreDazed • This New Book Asks Whether Capitalism Really Is Driving Us All Crazy
Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. But there are good reasons.
"[Swaraj] is loosely defined as self-rule but it actually goes much deeper," says Kothari, who has written extensively on Swaraj and the ecological crisis. "It means my own autonomy, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, my independence, both as an individual and as a community. But it's not the American notion of individualism that I can do what I
... See moreCreative Destruction • Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #39
Gaining agency is gaining the capacity to do something differently from, or in addition to, the events that simply happen to you.