Introduction
Emergent Strategy is philosophy developed by adrienne maree brown, drawing on the teachings of Grace Lee Boggs, Octavia Butler, the natural world and complexity science. The book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds was released by AK Press in 2017, and followed by several other books in the Emergent Strategy Series, as well as trainings through the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute (which has since sunset).
Emergent Strategy is an ideological amalgam that inspires and supports the development of social justice movement and transformation towards a world of dignity and wholeness. It is a set of principles and elements that continually turn us towards life in the midst of violence and devastation. Emergent Strategy is rooted in Black feminist, abolitionist and anti-capitalist thought with deep love for the earth and all life.
Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education. Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything, that we need each other—at our highest natural glory – in order to get free. – adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
Emergent Strategy invites activists and organizers to engage with two distinct yet interconnected sets of concepts: Elements and Core Principles.
Elements of Emergent Strategy
Non-Linear & Iterative: How do I/we learn from this
Fractal: How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale
Adaptive: How we live & grow & stay purposeful in the face of constant change
Resilience & Transformative Justice: How we recover & transform
Creating More Possibilities: Where we move towards life. where we shape tomorrow towards abundance
Interdependence & Decentralization: Mutual resilience, shared leadership & vision
Core Principles
Change is constant. (Be like water).
Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.)
There is always enough time for the right work.
Less Prep, More Presence.
There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.
Never a failure, always a lesson.
Trust the people. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy).
What you pay attention to grows.
Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass – build resilience by building relationships.
About the Book
From the AK Press site:
Self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. A resolutely materialist spirituality based equally on science and science fiction: a wild feminist and afro-futurist ride!
Inspired by Octavia Butler’s explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.
Emergent Strategy is an examination of where our movements have been and an offering of a framework for resistance that is rooted in the miracles of nature, decentralized, collective leadership, and personal, relational, organizational, and movement-wide transformation. Brown not only inspires me to resist, but to do in the most beautiful, joyful, creative, sustainable, collective and effective ways. – Andrea, J. Ritchie, author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
About the Author
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public. Through her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot decks and poetry; her music, which includes songwriting, singing and immersive musical rituals; and her podcasts, including How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and The Emergent Strategy Podcast, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas, frameworks, networks and practices for transformation. Her work is informed by 25 years of social and environmental justice facilitation primarily supporting Black liberation, her path of teaching somatics, her love of Octavia E Butler and visionary fiction, and her work as a doula. She is the author/editor of several published texts including Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017), Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (2019), and Grievers (2021) and Maroons (2023) the first two novellas of her speculative fiction trilogy. After a multinational childhood, adrienne lived in New York, Oakland and Detroit before landing in her current home of Durham, NC.
Support adrienne maree brown’s work.
Watch
Listen
Emergent Strategy Podcast
The Emergent Strategy Podcast is a collaborative project of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, cohosted by Sage Crump, Mia Herndon and adrienne maree brown. The podcast is an interview-based map of how emergent strategists exist in the world, and an exploration of what it looks like to apply the framework, methodologies and practices of emergent strategy in contexts as divergent as organizing, theater, philanthropy and food systems.
Listen on Spotify and Apple Music.
How to Survive the End of the World
A podcast that delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side. Cohosted by adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown.
Visit endoftheworldshow.org
Octavia’s Parables
Octavia’s Parables is a podcast where hosts Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown read the works of Octavia Butler one chapter at a time. Cohosted by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon.
Visit www.readingoctavia.com
