Introductory Modules

AIMS OF THE INTRODUCTORY MODULES

 

• Allow participants to explore their own intuitive responses to campaigning.

• Explore why activism needs re.imagination and what a vision of new activism could look like.

• Illustrate simply yet persuasively how mainstream activism avoids tackling the deeper, more systemic issues which need to be addressed by activists and civil society.

• Provide an understanding of the underlying system logic, which lies behind today's global crises and what alternative vision for systemic change could tackle these.

• Illustrate how framing shapes our thoughts and the way we structure ideas, and invite audiences to imagine alternative, more effective framing for social change challenges through a case study example.

• Illustrate how important leverage points are for achieving system-level change.

• Explain how civil society actors can adopt different complimentary roles of systemic activism to strategically contribute to the Great Transition.

KEY MESSAGES

 

• The challenges our society faces are global and systemic, and our current change strategies are not tackling these deeper, systemic issues.

• To successfully deal with today's systemic crises we need a collective societal search process to develop and put into practice alternatives to the current cultural and economic paradigm of growth and marketisation.

• For a successful Great Transition we need to make change efforts at all three levels of the system (culture, regimes, niches) that reinforce one another to create positive feedback loops. Our strategic question should always be: What effect could my actions have on all of the levels and what feedback loops could it catalyse? (p37)

• The way we use language and structure thoughts influences the way we think: we have the power to re-frame current debates to be more systemic and meaningful.

• In order to exert influence it is important that we focus on effective leverage points within the system.

• The Great Transition requires diverse but complementary strategies and roles – they focus on supporting the seeds of the new system, movement building, fighting the power of the old system and helping shift entrenched narratives.

 

TIMING

 

The material in these introductory modules can be delivered within 2 – 2.5 hours.
Should you wish to go into more depth in each section, it could take up to 3 hours.