Activists Solutions
Contents
Effecting Social Change
Succeeding Social Movements
Making a change isn’t easy, so understanding important factors as described in Crutchfield's book can be important:
- How Change Happens – Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t – Leslie Crutchfield, Wiley, 2018. .
Briefly the six factors are:
- Turn grassroots to gold: let local leaders lead
- Sharpen your 10/10/10/20 = 50 Vision: push for improvements in local and state levels
- Change hearts and policy: the change sought is the new normal, the message connects.
- Reckon with adversarial allies: face intra-field challenges, put egos aside, focus on a common agenda
- Break from business as usual: work with sympathetic businesses to change internal policies
- Be leaderful: find balance between “leaderless” and “leader-led”, work through networks and systems and be organized.
Spiral Dynamics, Leadership and Change
Understanding the different dynamics of human society and how to identify eight levels of thinking models that are demonstrated by individuals, organizations and societies will help us develop approaches to effecting change and solving people problems. See:
- Spiral Dynamics: mastering values, leadership, and change – Beck & Cowan, Blackwell Publishing, 1996.
See:
Tipping Points for Social Change
If reported societal tipping points exist, we can get an understanding of the effort needed.
Recent research from University of Pennsylvania suggests 25% of participants need to be on board before large scale social change happens. See Damon Centola, 7 June 2018
Then there’s the 3.5% rule (to topple dictators for example) discussed in My Talk at TEDxBoulder: Civil Resistance and the “3.5% Rule”, 4 Nov 2013, see:
Brain Biases that Get in the Way
Changing minds is hard as Matthew King reports in:
“Cognitive biases that ensured our initial survival now make it difficult to address long-term challenges that threaten our existence, like climate change.” - Matthew Wilburn King, 8 March 2019:
The original report is at:
Training & Simulation
Climate Interactive offers a suite of tools to help model policies and strategies to fight the climate crisis. These models EN-Roads, C-Roads and ALPS through a combination of games and workshops educate participant in systems shaping our world.
“As John Sterman says, “Research shows that showing people research doesn’t work,” so we create experiences for people to use our tools with their peers to enable deeper understanding of the systems shaping our world. This approach comes from MIT Sloan School of Management where these types of interactive exercises are used to train top business leaders. Our workshops and games have been used with a wide range of audiences from heads of state to middle school students.”
From the World Climate Simulation Game website:
“The World Climate Simulation is a role-playing exercise of the UN climate change negotiations for groups. It is unique in that it uses an interactive computer model to rapidly analyze the results of the mock-negotiations during the event. All the materials and tools for World Climate are available for free and many are available in multiple languages. We encourage you to organize a World Climate Simulation yourself.”
From the Climate Action Simulation Game website:
"The Climate Action Simulation is a highly interactive, role-playing game. It uses the En-ROADS simulation model to engage a wide range of participants in exploring key technology and policy solutions for addressing global warming. The game is conducted as a simulated emergency climate summit organized by the United Nations that convenes global stakeholders to establish a concrete plan that limits warming to Paris Agreement goals. This game is a fun format for large groups to explore climate change solutions and see what it would really take to address this global challenge."
Volunteering Skills
The power of good interpersonal skills can probably not be overstated. Some of us are blessed in these skills more than others. Being welcoming may be one of them. Hearing more about taking a skills inventory (perhaps a guided self-reflection) with the aim of doing better could be useful. Are there books on 'Becoming Charismatic'? A quick Google search found:
So there is lots of advice out there. Not sure on how to assess the quality tho'. This almost suggests we should find and assign the right person to do the volunteer engagement.
Social Discount Rates
What are they and what does it mean for climate crisis fighters?
From GRIST:
From Forbes:
From the Center for Climate and Energy Studies:
