Society has been shaped by the collective actions of individuals just like you and I.  

Of course, its rare these days for one person’s actions to positively shape society all on their own. The efforts of the many should be acknowledged: 

• Early theorists like Tolstoy and Thoreau
• Civil disobedients like Gandi and Luther King 
• Those that argue for the ‘full range of tactics’ like Mandela, Malcolm X or Che Guevara
• Journalists like John Pilger, Anna Politkovskaya, Robert Fisk and Eric Schlosser
• Photographers like Sebastiao Salgado, Gordon Parks and James Nachtwey
• Culture jammers like Adbusters, Kalle Lasn, Banksy, Mogul, Priest and Shepard Fairey
• Movements that resisted the status quo like the Situationists, the Surrealists and Dada, and the artists within those movements 
• Researchers, academics and writers like Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano and Edward Said
• Activists like Ken Saro-Wiwa or Chico Mendes

This is really just a starting point: who’d make your list?