If power stays where it has always been, then the language may have changed – but the system has not

In #OMN usage, #mainstreaming is the process by which radical ideas are absorbed, softened and neutralised by mainstream institutions. The language survives, the branding survives, even some of the practices survive – but the political challenge and challenge that gave those ideas their power is gradually stripped away. This is not simply about compromise, compromise is necessary, #mainstreaming is something different. It is the transformation of ideas so they no longer threaten existing power. A movement develops a new way of understanding the world, it challenges assumptions, builds new practices, creates new forms of organisation. If it succeeds, larger institutions begin to adopt parts of its language. Governments, corporations, universities, NGOs and the media start talking about the same issues. At first this appears to be a victory, the ideas are finally being heard, but then something changes. The difficult questions disappear, the structural critique fades into the…