Consensus

Activist Handbook | Campaigning guides for activists ✊

We write guides for activists. Learn how to become a social activist, plan a political campaign strategy, and start a grassroots movement.

Social Influence and Action — Jen Christiansen

I’m wary of climate solutions that are hyper focused on the action of individuals as opposed to systems and corporations. Do you experience carbon footprint guilt every time you board a plane to visit family too? Well, that whole schema was a product of the PR firm Ogilvy & Mather for British Petroleum. It was an effort to shift focus away from oil companies and onto individual responsibility to lower greenhouse gas emissions. For more, read “The carbon footprint sham” by Mark Kaufman for Mashable in 2021, and “Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook” by Rebecca Solnit for The Guardian.    

Canopy | The UK umbrella group of tree campaigners

Canopy is the national coalition of grassroots tree campaigners and campaign groups. By coming together we can have a louder voice in the fight to save our trees and green spaces.

Citizen Participation (@oliverescobar.bsky.social)

Professor of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation | University of Edinburgh | Working on #democracy #participation #deliberation #commons #governance #power #research | RT≠ endorse | Own views | Profile: https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/oliver-escobar

Citizen Participation (@oliverescobar.bsky.social)

Professor of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation | University of Edinburgh | Working on #democracy #participation #deliberation #commons #governance #power #research | RT≠ endorse | Own views | Profile: https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/oliver-escobar

Grassroots Economics — Community-Powered Economies

Empowering communities across the World with community currencies, ecosystem restoration, and commitment pooling since 2010.

Bioregionalism, Commoning, and Relationalized Finance | David Bollier

Have you noticed how the term “bioregional” is becoming a new eco-buzzword and greenwashing term? At the same time, many ordinary people are genuinely excited about the idea of bioregionalism as a constructive way to focus activism and socioeconomic innovation. Bioregionalism offers a practical, politically accessible space for addressing climate change, social inequality, the eclipse of democracy, out-of-control oligarchs, and capitalist growth.

Tiny Publics: Small Groups and Civil Society

It has been conventional to conceptualize civic life through one of two core images: the citizen as lone individualist or the citizen as joiner. Drawing on analyses of the historical development of the public sphere, we propose an alternative analytical framework for civic engagement based on small-group interaction. By embracing this micro-level approach, we contribute to the debate on civil society in three ways. By emphasizing local interaction contexts-the microfoundations of civil society-we treat small groups as a cause, context, and consequence of civic engagement. First, through framing and motivating, groups encourage individuals to participate in public discourse and civic projects. Second, they provide the place and support for that involvement. Third, civic engagement feeds back into the creation of additional groups. A small-groups perspective suggests how civil society can thrive even if formal and institutional associations decline. Instead of indicating a decline in civil society, a proliferation of small groups represents a healthy development in democratic societies, creating cross-cutting networks of affiliation.

Metrics for Building, Scaling, and Funding Social Movements

Investing in movements or networks for social change is a strategy that some funders are using.  But, how do you measure the results? Marino Morino, who wrote “Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity” pointed me to this recent report, “Transactions, Transformations, Translations:  Metrics That Matter for Building, Scaling and Funding Social Movements” by Manual Paster, Jennifer Ito, and Rachel Rosner with the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and funded by the Ford Foundation.   The report addresses metrics for success for investing in broad field social movements or networked approaches to social change.  The report is written for funders and those on the ground doing the work in the context of networks, although it doesn’t go deep into practice. The report captures a conundrum in measuring social change movements or networked approaches.    Outcomes for “wicked problems” can be easily counted – policies passed, housing the homeless, educating children.  But there are less tangible results such as “we changed the frame” or “we shifted members’ consciousness” which for grassroots organizers on the ground view as the vibrancy of the network .   The report lays out some new metrics for movement building – that are paths to the more easily counted tangible results and where the unit of analysis is the movement or network, not an organization. As the report points out,  movement organizers are grappling with big questions.  It is less about how to raise funds for their organizations (although that’s important) but focused on the big picture:   What is the long-term change that we want to see?  What is needed to achieve it?  What roles do different organizations play?    The report identifies metrics to measure progress around this these questions – it asks and answers – “What exactly are the right metrics for today?

Civic, Citizen and Grassroots Science: Towards a Transformative Scientific Research Model | Request PDF

Request PDF | On Jan 1, 2013, Jessica McCallum Breen and others published Civic, Citizen and Grassroots Science: Towards a Transformative Scientific Research Model | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

How Identity Leadership Drives Collective Action for Sustainability

The climate crisis presents an unprecedented challenge that requires collective behavioural change on a large scale. Drawing on the social identity approach to crisis leadership, this paper examines how identity leadership principles can mobilise sustainable behaviours. Through integration of recent empirical findings from acute crises and theoretical insights from the identity leadership literature, I propose a framework highlighting that climate leadership involves three key processes: (1) creating shared group identity that makes climate action identity-relevant, (2) building collective efficacy beliefs that transform individual helplessness into group agency, and (3) embedding sustainable practices as group norms. However, climate leadership faces unique challenges distinct from acute crises. The paper also addresses tensions between local identity mobilisation and global coordination, alongside social justice considerations that emerge when climate impacts and action capacities vary across groups. I conclude with policy recommendations for fostering identity leadership at multiple levels, including community-level training programmes, organisational interventions, and international coalition-building strategies, while protecting against manipulation. I argue that the path to sustainability requires navigating collective identity processes within contested influence dynamics.   JEL Classification: Q54; D91; Z13

Coalition Politics: Turning the Century

Abstract. I’ve never been this high before. I’m talking about the altitude. There is a lesson in bringing people together where they can’t get enough oxyge

Social Capital - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Atmosphere

The problem Atproto is solving

Social Capital - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Atmosphere

The problem Atproto is solving