Non-reformist reform, also referred to as abolitionist reform,
anti-capitalist reform,
revolutionary reform,
structural reform
and transformative reform,
is a
reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...
that "is conceived, not in terms of what is possible within the framework of a given system and administration, but in view of what should be made possible in terms of human needs and demands". On the other hand,
reformist
Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.
Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...
reforms essentially maintain the ''
status quo
is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...
'' and do not threaten the existing structure. These have been described as reforms that rationalize or "fine-tune the ''status quo''" by implementing modifications "from the top down", but that fail to address
root causes of the issue.
As described by philosopher
André Gorz
André Gorz (né Gerhart Hirsch ; 9 February 1923 – 22 September 2007), more commonly known by his pen names Gérard Horst and Michel Bosquet , was an Austrian and French social philosopher and journalist and critic of work. He co-founded ...
, who coined the term ''non-reformist reform'', non-reformist reforms in a
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
system are
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
reforms, or reforms that do not base their validity and their right to exist "on capitalist needs, criteria, and rationale", but rather on human ones.
Non-reformist reforms have been identified as reforms that "challenge existing power relations and pave the way for more revolutionary changes in the larger society necessary for a more socially just and environmentally
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
world",
those that create and recreate "the capacity to cumulatively transform the existing system"
and those that abolish and undermine the very foundations of the existing structure.
Scholars identify that for this to truly be possible, these reforms cannot "be taken for the poor or the
racialized
In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...
" under the assumption that "those deemed poor or racialized are not able to take action themselves". In other words, the marginalized cannot be "passive agents" in the process, but must be transformative subjects who "are active in reordering social relationships, diagnosing social inequalities, and mobilizing for a better way of socially organizing the world".
Challenges
Creating non-reformist reforms is often cited as difficult.
One challenge to creating non-reformist reform is the
co-option
Co-option (also co-optation, sometimes spelt coöption or coöptation) has two common meanings.
It may refer to the process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manage opposition and so maintai ...
, incorporation and depoliticization, or mainstreaming, of the demands of
social movements
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of Group ...
.
Lawyer and activist
Dean Spade
Dean Spade (born 1977) is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective in New York City that provides ...
identifies mainstreaming as "when a very oppressive harmful institution tries to use an emptied-out version of
or example
Or or OR may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* "O.R.", a 1974 episode of List of M*A*S*H episodes (Season 3), M*A*S*H
* Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew)
Music
* Or (album), ''Or ...
queer politics as a
PR stunt for itself, but queer people don't get anything out of it". Spade states that mainstreaming can be identified when "new forms of visibility" for the
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
issue in question become visible, but only under a form of "conditional acceptance" or
respectability
RespectAbility is an American nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to empowerment and self-advocacy for individuals with disabilities. Its official mission is to fight stigmas and advance opportunities for people with disabilities. Sta ...
to the dominant system. Mainstreaming results in the "deployment of 'deserving' figures" in which a select group of people who the social justice issue pertains to become cast as "hardworking", "professionals", or "things that are tolerable" to the dominant system while others are simultaneously cast as "undeserving" and are excluded. Mainstreaming then produces reformist reform or recuperative reform proposals that reinforce or recuperate harmful institutions while the harm and violence actually continues.
Janet Newman states that "women's claims for equality
n the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s">new_social_movements.html" ;"title="n the new social movements">n the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970shad been incorporated through processes of 'mainstreaming' that have served to bureaucratize and depoliticize feminism".
Another challenge to creating non-reformist reform is the difficulty to avoid expanding the system one is attempting to reform. An attempt to implement a non-reformist reform may become reformist in its implementation, for "some factors leading to the growth of the prison industry were the direct result of attempts to reform the system", as described by scholar Liat Ben-Moshe. In many instances, public and activist efforts to change the conditions inherent to the prison system eventually resulted in the expansion of the prison system.
Marie Gottschalk
Marie Gottschalk (born December 17, 1958) is an American political scientist and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, known for her work on mass incarceration in the United States. Gottschalk is the author of ''The Pris ...
cites three examples to illustrate how this occurs in relation to the prison system: (1) "opposition to the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
brought forth
life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
without parole, and helped strengthen the
deterrence
Deterrence may refer to:
* Deterrence theory, a theory of war, especially regarding nuclear weapons
* Deterrence (penology), a theory of justice
* Deterrence (psychology), a psychological theory
* ''Deterrence'' (film), a 1999 drama starring Kev ...
argument in
crime control
Crime control refers to methods taken to reduce crime in a society. Crime control standardizes police work. Crime prevention is also widely implemented in some countries, through government police and, in many cases, private policing methods such ...
discourse, (2) LGBT activists fighting against
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
and
transphobic
Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...
violence helped in creating
hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
legislation that incarcerated people for longer time frames, and (3) Moms against Gun Violence ushered in
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...
measures that also increased the net effect of the
penal system
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...
, including surveillance measures on communities of color". In consideration of this phenomenon, Ben-Moshe identifies that the perpetuation of this problem may reside in activists "not reaching far enough, not engaging enough in coalitional and revolutionary politics that will address the root causes of harm" and may also be unknowingly perpetuated by those who have internalized "the state in their actions and interactions".
Criteria for identification
In consideration of the challenges to creating non-reformist reform that scholars identify, activists have established criteria for identifying when a reform may be reformist or non-reformist. Notable activists and organizations who have established criteria include
Dean Spade
Dean Spade (born 1977) is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective in New York City that provides ...
,
Peter Gelderloos
Peter Gelderloos (born ) is an American anarchist activist and writer.
Biography
In November 2001, Gelderloos was arrested with 30 others for trespass in protest of the American military training facility School of the Americas, which trains L ...
,
Harsha Walia
Harsha Walia is a Canadian activist and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has been involved with No one is illegal, the February 14 Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eas ...
,
Critical Resistance
Critical Resistance is a U.S. based organization that works to build a mass movement to dismantle what it calls the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters ...
and
Mariame Kaba
Mariame Kaba is an American activist, grassroots organizer, and educator who advocates for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, including all police. She is the author of ''We Do This 'Til We Free Us'' (2021). The Mariame Kaba Papers ...
, who propose the following criteria respectively:
; Dean Spade
* Does it provide material relief?
* Does it leave out an especially marginalized part of the affected group (e.g. people with criminal records, people without immigration status)?
* Does it legitimize or expand a system we are trying to dismantle?
* Does it mobilize the most affected for an ongoing struggle?
; Peter Gelderloos
* Does it seize space in which new social relations can be enacted?
* Does it spread awareness of its ideas? (participatory, not passive)
* Does it have elite support?
* Does it achieve any concrete gains in improving people's lives?
; Harsha Walia
* Has the tactic been effective in exposing or confronting a specific point within the system by either diminishing its moral legitimacy or undermining its functions?
; Critical Resistance
* Will it expand the system we are trying to dismantle?
* Will we have to undo this later?
; Marbre Stahly-Butts
* Does this reform shift any power or resources?
* Does it, in some way, acknowledge past harm?
* Does it improve material conditions?
* Does it create space for experimentation?
* Are we able to try something new or different as a result?
; Mariame Kaba, in regard to police reform
* Does it allocate more money to the police?
* Does it advocate for more police and policing?
* Is the reform primarily technology-focused?
* Is it focused on individual dialogues with individual cops?
Reformist reform examples
Hate crime laws
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
have been identified as an example of reformist reform because they add "punishing power" to institutions, often by including "more money for local law enforcement" and sometimes including "different types of
data gathering
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...
" measures, as stated by lawyer and activist
Dean Spade
Dean Spade (born 1977) is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective in New York City that provides ...
. While on the surface they may appear beneficial, Spade argues that for
trans people arguing for more hate crime laws actually works to "produce the idea that police punishment systems are there to protect trans people, when in reality the largest source of violence for trans people, is those very systems". As Spade states, it allows "the criminal punishment system to be able to say: 'we're here to protect trans people.' Meanwhile, it continues to be a thing that kills trans people".
Anti-bullying legislation Anti-bullying legislation is a legislation enacted to help reduce and eliminate bullying. This legislation may be national or sub-national and is commonly aimed at ending bullying in schools or workplaces.
According to one study, state-level anti- ...
has been identified by scholars and activists as a reformist reform by enhancing the power "of
school punishment
School discipline relates to actions taken by teachers or school organizations toward students when their behavior disrupts the ongoing educational activity or breaks a rule created by the school. Discipline can guide the children's behavior or ...
programs to target students of color". The argument is that they have not reduced or made school environments safer, but rather have functioned as a
punitive
Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...
framework for students and youth.
The
criminalization
Criminalization or criminalisation, in criminology, is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. However, ...
of
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
has been identified as an example of reformist reform. The demands of a
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
social movement to name domestic violence as violence were taken by the criminal punishment system which funded efforts to combat domestic violence through "enhancing punishment for people who do it". This racially divided the feminist movement as
white feminists became more likely to support law enforcement and the criminal justice system while
women of color
The term "person of color" (plural, : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "White people, white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily a ...
feminists and
Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
feminists asserted that this system would not protect them or their communities, for "
don't feel comfortable calling the cops, the cops will come and they'll
deport
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
us, they'll arrest all of us". This led to the development of what has been termed
carceral feminism
Carceral feminism is a critical term for types of feminism that advocate for enhancing and increasing prison sentences that deal with feminist and gender issues. It is the belief that harsher and longer prison sentences will help work towards sol ...
in which the criminal justice system was able to present itself as protecting women. Dean Spade identifies that "
sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...
happens at the hands of the police inside the
correctional system
In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and su ...
, perhaps more than anywhere else" and criminalization has not addressed the root cause of domestic violence.
Police body camera
In policing equipment, a body camera or wearable camera, also known as body-worn video (BWV), body-worn camera (BWC), or bodycam, is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system used by police to record events in which law enforc ...
s and police
dashboard camera
A dashboard camera or simply dashcam, also known as car digital video recorder (car DVR), driving recorder, or event data recorder (EDR), is an onboard camera that continuously records the view through a vehicle's front windscreen and sometimes ...
s have been identified as reformist reforms that strengthened the power of the
carceral state
The concept of a carceral archipelago was first used by the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1975 publication, '' Surveiller et Punir'', to describe the modern penal system of the 1970s, embodied by the well-known penal ins ...
.
Scientist Ardea Skybreak argues that body cameras have been identified as reformist because they "tinker with the system" rather than address that
police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
is "deeply rooted in the fabric of this system, in its very foundation, which has everything to do with the white supremacist origins of this particular society in the United States
..that requires that certain sections of society be kept down and oppressed".
Civilian review board
A civilian police oversight agency, also known as citizen review board or civilian review board, is a body of civilians in an American city that is tasked with reviewing and improving police officer conduct.
These agencies are an implementation ...
s have been identified as a reformist reform because they have not fundamentally altered the outcomes of policing despite being implemented in some locations since the 1960s.
Scholar Suleiman Osman identifies how these civilian police oversight agencies were widely supported by reformists who "were confident that they could allay the fears of white ethnic voters by organizing town hall meetings and open debates", but instead were met with opposition from "a populist conservative insurgency".
Policies and rights frameworks regarding
sexual orientation and gender identity in military service
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) personnel are able to serve in the armed forces of some countries around the world: the vast majority of industrialized, Western countries including some South American countries such as A ...
have been identified as reformist reforms that gained popularity among reformist sectors of the gay and lesbian community since the election of
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
in 1992. Gay and lesbian harm and violence within the military has been recognized as pervasive. At the same time, as described by scholar Nicola Field, "the discipline of capitalist military forces means that even if they allow lesbians and gays to serve, they cannot suddenly become a force for freedom, equality, and liberation".
Gay marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
laws have been identified as an example of a reformist reform because it "leaves intact institutions of state violence by 'rejecting those objectives and demands—however deep the need for them—which are incompatible with the system". Although gay marriage has been recognized as providing important rights and protections to gay people, "it does not contest the violences imposed by institutionalized heteropatriarchy, including the police killings of transgender women of color". In other words, gay marriage laws have been identified as reformist reforms because they do not strive to eradicate the institutionalization of
marriage law
Marriage law refers to the legal requirements that determine the validity of a marriage, and which vary considerably among countries. See also Marriage Act.
Summary table
Rights and obligations
A marriage, by definition, bestows ...
itself which perpetuates
cisheteropatriarchal
In feminist theory, heteropatriarchy (etymologically from ''heterosexual'' and ''patriarchy'') or cisheteropatriarchy, is a socio-political system where (primarily) cisgender (same gender as identified at birth) and heterosexual males have author ...
violence, but rather extends it.
Non-reformist reform examples
The
prison abolition movement
The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institution ...
and empowering of communities to engage in restorative practices function as an example of non-reformist reform by activists such as
Mariame Kaba
Mariame Kaba is an American activist, grassroots organizer, and educator who advocates for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, including all police. She is the author of ''We Do This 'Til We Free Us'' (2021). The Mariame Kaba Papers ...
. Kaba states that non-reformist reform in this regard would mean the creation of a new structure that "will allow people to feel safe, have their needs met, on our way to an abolitionist end".
Degrowth
Degrowth (french: décroissance) is a term used for both a political, economic, and social movement as well as a set of theories that critique the paradigm of economic growth. It can be described as an extensive framework that is based on crit ...
has been proposed as an example of a non-reformist approach to transforming
capitalist society
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
. Petridis, Muraca and
Kallis identify that the gradual implementation of "
environmental policies
Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem mana ...
(resource and
caps, extraction limits), social policies (
basic income
Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...
,
maximum income
A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure, but its effects are unrelated to those of mini ...
,
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
guarantees, reduced
working hours
Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week.
Many countries regulate the work week by law, s ...
), and economic proposals (
social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Social enterprises ca ...
s and
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
firms,
ethical bank
An ethical bank, also known as a social, alternative, civic, or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned with the social and environmental impacts of its investments and loans. The ethical banking movement includes: ethical investment, impact invest ...
s,
environmental taxation)" as well as more transformative proposals such as "the restriction on
advertisement
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
and the creation of
commerce-free zones" are non-reformist steps to transferring from capitalist society to a degrowth society.
Individual and collectivist challenges to the hegemony of the private
car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
have been proposed as examples of non-reformist reforms intended to create "a more socially just and environmentally sustainable world". Eliminating one's driving in favor of a bicycle is an example of a non-reformist approach on an individual level. Expanding
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
services and restricting individual automobile use has been proposed as an example of a non-reformist reform on a collectivist level.
In a hypothetical example, scholar Brian Martin states "a strike for higher wages might simply buy off discontent and solidify capitalist control: it is a reform that strengthens the system. In contrast, pushing for greater worker control over shop-floor decisions can lay the basis for further worker initiatives: it is an example of non-reformist reform".
References
{{reflist
Abolition
Anti-capitalism
Criminal justice reform
Reform
Social justice
Social movements