The Noble Art of Book Reviewing
Video on the Noble Art of Book Reviewing with insights and tips for writing effective and engaging book reviews. This was part of a Commons Library Skills Session.
Author
Joel Dignam
Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in Twenty First Century America – A Book Review
A book review of Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America by Hahrie Han, Elizabeth McKenna & Michelle Oyakawa.
Frame the Debate: Insights from Don’t Think of an Elephant!
An introduction to the concept of framing, drawing on George Lakoff’s book Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate.
Fighting online racist trolls
Laura O’Connell Rapira from ActionStation (Aotearoa New Zealand) ran a workshop at the conference, FWD+Organise 2019, about how their organisation worked with volunteers to tackle the trolls behind online hate.
Beginner’s guide to making video with your smartphone
Learn practical tips from Digital Storytellers on how to make a video with your smartphone including information about what you need, shooting tips and editing.
Your organisation can and should raise more money from major donors: Here’s how Oxfam did it
Learn best practice approaches to fundraising & proven tips to build lifelong relationships with major donors from Micah Demmert at Oxfam Australia.
Top 3 Messaging Tips from Anat Shenker-Osorio at Progress 2019
The top 3 messaging tips from Anat’s keynote speech at Progress 2019 – 1. Politics is not solidarity, 2. Empathy, not sympathy, 3. What you fight, you feed.
Economic Messaging for Progressives: A review of Don’t Buy it by Anat Shenker-Osorio
Don’t Buy It by Anat Shenker-Osorio is a guide to progressive messaging on the economy and economics – A book review by Joel Dignam.
The Role of Stories in Organising
Joel Dignam reviews Marshall Ganz’ approach to story as fundamental to organising. Through story we understand happenings, communicate our values, and make sense of our choices.
Ground Wars Electoral field campaigning
Joel Dignam reviews Ground Wars, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen’s hands-on ethnographic study of two competitive congressional campaigns in the 2008 US election. The book is a richly-detailed portrait of contemporary field campaigning.
Work less: You’ll get more done
Overwork has heavy costs. Working longer hours is dangerous and ineffective. But poor management, the subconscious, workplace culture, and work volume, can each be a barrier to better workplace practices. Thankfully though, these barriers can be overcome.
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Joel Dignam reviews Jo Freeman’s “The Tyranny of Structurelessness” which explores some of the key structural problems facing groups. Recognising that power dynamics are present in all groups Freeman proposes formal structures, transparency and accountability.
Retain volunteers with intrinsically motivating work
Civic associations depend upon volunteers to get their work done. Joel Dignam distils insights from Ruth Wageman and Richard Hackman’s “Designing work for individuals and for groups” from Perspectives on Behavior in Organizations.
How to Structure Teams for Organising
Joel Dignam reviews Marshall Ganz’ treatment of structure as a craft of organising. As Ganz notes “Developing leadership requires structuring the work of the organization so it affords as many people as possible the opportunity to learn to lead.”
Hahrie Han on How Relationships Improve Mobilisation
Insights from The Organizational Roots of Political Activism: Field Experiments on Creating a Relational Context. In her paper, Han demonstrates that a relational context affects civic engagement, arguing that decisions like voting or other forms of activism aren’t based upon a simple cost-benefit analysis.
Book review of This is an Uprising: How nonviolent revolt is shaping the twenty first century
Joel Dignam reviews Paul and Mark Engler’s 2016 book This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century. TIAU is an analysis of social change, how it has occurred, and how contemporary campaigners may make it occur again.
Relationships are the Glue of Organising
This post reviews Marshall Ganz’ approach to craft of relationships in organising. Relationships foster the commitment that is needed for success and allow us to understand the interests, values and motivations of others.
Is personalised political communication manipulative?
“Personalized political communication” refers to when the medium for a message is a person, not media such as television, pamphlets, or billboards. The electoral arms race is seeing a renaissance of PPC and greater engagement of voters in campaigns and the political process.
Launching a Leadership Revolution: A book review
Joel Dignam reviews Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward. Joel distills the key lessons that are relevant to social change organisations.
How Organizations Develop Activists: A book review
Joel Dignam reviews Hahrie Han’s How Organizations Develop Activists. A key finding of Han’s research is that high-engagement chapters practise both organizing and mobilizing. The Voice for Indi campaign is considered as an Australian example of combining these two approaches.