A guest post from Sara Epperson, Chairperson, Public Health Association, Canterbury/West Coast Branch
“The way we make change is changing.”
Marisa Franco, Director of #Not1More Deportation
Someone from the antivivisection society sat next to a food resilience activist, and an environmental campaigner was chatting animatedly with a cervical health promoter. The workshop had barely begun, and already we were tapping in to one another, one of the many takeaways from the ‘Reinventing Advocacy in the 21st Century’ workshop.
In April 2018, the New Zealand Drug Foundation partnered with the Public Health Association of New Zealand (Canterbury/West Coast Branch) to bring a NetChange advocacy workshop to Ōtautahi. Participants had the opportunity to learn from the research and expertise at NetChange about the strategies of today’s most successful advocacy campaigns and the ways we can apply them to our causes. Later, we used a campaign grid to make concrete plans and workshop these together, sharing our own tips and experiences with one another.
The workshop participants were eager to share what they’d learnt, and to start perusing the reading list. We thought we’d share it with you — something to think about whether you’re new to organising, just around the corner from a big movement — or both. For a start, the Networked Change Report and the brand-new ‘Blueprints for Change’ guides.
Here are the recommended readings:
Books
- The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be Moisés Naím
- How change happens Duncan Green
- This changes everything: Capitalism vs the Climate Naomi Klein
- The Activists' Handbook: a step-by-step guide to participatory democracy Aidan Ricketts
- Our revolution: A future to believe in Bernie Sanders
- Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundations of a movement Angela Davis
- This is an uprising: How nonviolent revolt is shaping the twenty-first century Mark Engler
- Social change anytime everywhere: How to implement online multichannel strategies to spark advocacy, raise money, and engage your community Allyson Kapin
- Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age Manuel Castells
- The seventh sense : power, fortune, and survival in the age of networks Joshua Cooper
- Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy John Arquilla, David Ronfeldt
- Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything Becky Bond and Zack Exley
- The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy David Karpf
Articles and online resources
- Millennials Support Causes, Not Institutions, Survey Finds. 2013 Millennial Impact Report
- Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains Nicholas Carr, The Atlantic, July/August 2008
- Understanding ‘New Power” Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms, Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2014
- On competition in the nonprofit sector, see: “Effects of Nonprofit Competition on Charitable Donations,” by Bijetri Bose, Department of Economics, University of Washington, Seattle.
- Networked Change Report (2016)
- The Common Cause Handbook – A Guide to Values and Frames for Campaigners, Community Organisers, Civil Servants, Fundraisers, Educators, Social Entrepreneurs, Activists, Funders, Politicians, and everyone in between
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Sara Epperson, Chairperson, Public Health Association, Canterbury/West Coast Branch
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