movement building
Strategic practice: Grassroots policy project
Provides social justice groups with tools and frameworks for more strategic approaches to movement-building.
Bringing down a Dictator (documentary)
This documentary examines the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October, 2000 by an ingenious nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience.
Investment Risk: An Amplification Tool for Social Movement Campaigns Globally and Locally
Aidan Ricketts’ latest offering examines emerging corporate campaigning models that have been employed in global campaigns and ways in which these techniques can be effectively deployed in local grassroots campaigns. His article focuses on the community campaign...
Project South
A leadership development organisation which provides opportunities for organisers to learn and develop movement building tools.
Strategic questioning: An approach to creating personal and social change
Strategic questioning is the skill of asking the questions that will make a difference. It is a powerful tool for personal and social change. It is a tool for giving service to any issue … as it helps people discover their own strategies and ideas for...
The Vernal Education Project
The Vernal Education Project is a long-term effort to create a comprehensive education and support network that can bolster and sustain grassroots progressive social change movements in the United States. The project is described in Randy Schutt’s great book...
Why do people join a movement?
An informative resource from CANVAS outlining various motivations for joining a movement.
Why do people join movements?
A brainstorming activity to develop participants’ understanding that individuals join movements and groups to fulfil particular needs.
Education for Building a People’s Movement
David Reed (1981) Education for Building a People’s Movement, South End Press, Boston, MA. (excellent reading on ‘social education’)
Making a difference: Factors that influence participation in grassroots environmental activism in Australia
Sam La Rocca’s Honours study (2004) found that the important motivations and catalysts that inspire activism include ecological experiences, a sense of personal responsibility and a desire to make a difference. Barriers to participation include paid work...
Student environmentalism: shifting winds
Holly Kemp’s insider perspective on Australian student environmental activism during a time of major change.
The Australian Student Environment Network: The future of student organising?
A critical appraisal of student organising in the context of voluntary student unionism. Colin invites readers to comment and engage with him in this analysis. (112kb PDF)
A tale of two movements? Environmental non government organisations and community action on climate change
Cassandra Star (2012) argues that the rise and success of community action on climate change opens a space for critical reflection on current ENGO efforts to secure effective public policy outcomes on climate change.