Summary
Social movement ecology is a framework for seeing a movement as an ecosystem of approaches that need one another. It was developed by Carlos Saavedra and Paul Engler at the Ayni Institute. As summarised by the funder Chloe Cockburn in 2018, it sorts everyone working on a cause into three theories of change: personal transformation, building alternatives, and changing dominant institutions. The last splits into mass mobilisation, structure organising and the ‘inside game’ of lobbying and litigation.
Its use is in mapping who does what, and reading clashes between groups as differences in theory of change. “In this model, each of the wedges needs the others to win”, Cockburn writes.
Rationale
Part 1 warns that a field disposed to individualistic competition “will end up reproducing fragmentation and competition”. This framework is a practical counter, and it counts personal and prefigurative work as part of the movement.
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