Evaluating social movement power
Though social movements are not new, there is considerable confusion differentiating social movements from other types of social change and a lack of literacy about how movements build power to transform the status quo. Existing evaluation approaches provide critical...
Campaign strategy as a house
Strategy as a House is a basic mud map to help you and your team develop a campaign strategy. The foundation of a robust strategy is an understanding of context and a rigorous understanding of the problem you seek to remedy. Next, you’ll need an analysis of...
Stop Adani and the Suffragettes: Reflections on targets and tactics [Joel Dignam]
The 2017 Queensland state election took place against a proposed new coal mine in Queensland, and a concerted national campaign against it. The mine’s proponent was Adani Group, of India, and the opponents: Stop Adani. Before the Queensland state election campaign...
Logic Model Workbook (Innovation Network)
A logic model is a commonly-used tool to clarify and depict a program within an organization. You may have heard it described as a logical framework, theory of change, or program matrix—but the purpose is usually the same: to graphically depict your program,...
A guide to email writing for action
Ben Brandzel’s excellent guide ‘From moment to movement and beyond’ (text and slides): moment, crisitunity, ‘ask’, reader focused theory of change…
Can the Centre Hold? (book review)
Joel Dignam reviews Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom’s ‘The Starfish and the Spider’. Decentralisation is so hot right now. People are talking about swarms, distributed leadership, horizontal learning. And it’s not the only thing that’s so hot right now. The...
Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom
This campaign strategy received saturation media attention when it was leaked to the Australian media. It’s interesting to look at for several reasons. Its authors used ‘theory of change’ in a very practical way, building their tactics around a...
climate movement strategy (March 2009)
Towards a movement strategy: reflections on grassroots climate change campaigning James Whelan & the Change Agency collective January 2009 Later this month, hundreds of people involved in grassroots climate action will meet in Canberra to create a national...
Strategy
A map that charts the territory between our current position and the achievement of our intended change objectives can help us achieve our purpose and avoid the sense of being overwhelmed that often accompanies social and environmental activism. Our maps can be simple...
People Power Manual Indonesian
Checkout Shipping Info Terms Cart The People Power Manual has been created to support facilitators and educators working to help local action groups and social movements win environmental and social justice goals. All funds generated by the sale of the manual go back...
Mentoring
Approach People Partners Workshops Mentoring Pricing Mentoring Supporting community action through reflective practice Learning to bring about change doesn’t need to be lonely or tough. Sometimes it helps to have a fellow traveler to debrief with, to share stories and...
People Power Manual
Checkout Shipping Info Terms Cart The People Power Manual has been created to support facilitators and educators working to help local action groups and social movements win environmental and social justice goals. All funds generated by the sale of the manual go back...
Groupwork Institute of Australia’s collaborative leadership short course | various dates in 2018
As a leader, you need to both identify and make the most of the wisdom and experience in your organisation or team. With so many operational issues to address and negotiate, however, the emotional content is often overlooked. The advantage of an emotionally resilient...
Moved to Action: Joel Dignam’s review of Hahrie Han’s text
Hahrie Han’s Moved to Action (published in 2009) tackles the question of what motivates political participation by people who face significant barriers to participation. While some people have many resources that facilitate political participation (education, wealth,...
Tactics for Mobilisers: Amanda Tattersall’s review of ‘Rules for Revolutionaries’
You have probably heard of Rules for Radicals, an old but still living set of strategies designed for changing the world, written by the grandfather of community organising – Saul Alinsky. It is that book, or at least its title, that inspired Becky Bond and Zack Exley...
Merdeka and the Morning Star: Civil Resistance in West Papua
Jason Macleod is a member of the Change Agency team: a dedicated activist educator, mentor and strategist. Having dropped out of university in 1991, Jason hitched to northern Queensland then made his way to Papua New Guinea. Hiking and paddling the Sepik, he made his...
Nic Clyde, Climate team leader, Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Before coming into this cohort, my community organising ability was – at best – intuitive, with not much structure and theory… or ‘all hat and no horse’ (as the Texans say). This is starting to change. This fellowship has reinvigorated my thirst to become a...
Social ecology: applying ecological understanding to our lives and our planet
Social ecology addresses the burning question of how to apply ecological understanding to every aspect of our lives. The twenty-seven contributors, all of whom have directly or indirectly contributed to the teaching of social ecology in Australia and beyond, share...