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.
Format
Book Reviews
How to un-do a ‘done deal’ with Strategy and Soul
Campaign insights from Daniel Hunter’s book Strategy and Soul about how to fight a battle people think is a ‘done deal’.
What the US can learn from Scandinavia in the struggle against inequality
In this interview, George Lakey explains what lessons can be learned from how movements in Scandinavia won and secured their egalitarian economic model.
3 tools for advocacy evaluation
Links to useful resources in the area of advocacy, policy change, and social movement evaluation.
How to inspire a young activist? A collection of books for kids and teens
An inspiring collection of stories about activism and social justice for children and teenagers mostly collated by Melbourne independent bookstore Readings.
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.
Purpose Driven Campaigning
Australian Progress has prepared this 40-point summary of Pastor Rick Warren’s bestselling book The Purpose Driven Church. The resource is based on Rick Warren’s experience of growing his church, Saddleback, from scratch to 20,000 members attending every week. Saddleback is now the eighth biggest church in the United States.
How to Make Trouble and Influence People – About and Book Reviews
Information about How to Make Trouble and Influence People, including reviews of the two editions. The book offers an alternative history of Australia, chronicling how it “has progressed by a series of little rebellions”.
Frameworks for Winning Change
Social change can be messy and challenging work! It helps to have frameworks to make sense of the situations we find ourselves in and plan for the way ahead. This article outlines four models, by Martin Luther King, Jr, George Lakey, Bill Moyer and Tim Gee.
Becoming allies: Reaching across the divide
Allies work is key to building strong and diverse groups and social movements. An ally is someone outside an oppressed group or identity, who commits to standing alongside those people.
Decolonizing Solidarity Bookclub
Decolonizing Solidarity is a book by Clare Land which offers directions (and knotty dilemmas) to people seeking to support Indigenous Struggles. This article includes suggested guidelines for book clubs discussing Decolonizing Solidarity which are also beneficial for other groups doing anti-oppression and ally work.
‘Tactics for Mobilisers’ A Review of Rules for Revolutionaries
Amanda Tattersall cautions campaigners, organisers and activists to not take Bond & Exley’s rules” as gospel. While the book puts forward valuable insights into the Bernie Sanders campaign the focus is tactics and mobilisation rather than deep organising.
Moving the rock: Shifting power for sustained change
This article explores the ‘moving the rock’ concept put forward by Daniel Hunter in his book Strategy and Soul. The concept has been valuable for campaigners and organisations reassessing their theory of change and particularly how they engage politicians and supporters.
Being Purpose Driven
Nothing precedes purpose. The starting point for every organisation or movement should be the question ‘Why do we exist’? A number of tips for focusing an organisation on vision and purpose. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning, based on Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.
Levels of Commitment from Community to Core
Rick Warren focuses on five ‘circles of commitment’ – community, crowd, congregation, committed and core, and argue that it’s important to recognise where your supporters fall in these categories, and develop processes to move them from the outside in. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning.
Time to move the rock
A follow up article from a workshop presented at Progress 2015 by Holly Hammond and Sam La Rocca with a video presentation from Daniel Hunter. The workshop explored Daniel’s metaphor ‘politicians are like a balloon tied to a rock’.
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.
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.
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.