Resources

This activity encourages activists to assess their position within the social movement landscape, focusing on identifying key movements and communities in struggle. Through a four-stage process, participants analyze their surroundings, considering geographical scope, ideological orientation, and relational dynamics. By mapping these elements, they visualize alliances and gaps, prompting reflection on collaboration, intersectionality, and organizational identity. The activity emphasizes understanding how others perceive their movement, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and potential for collaboration. It fosters introspection and strategizing to facilitate effective solidarity within the broader activist ecosystem.

This activity simply involves participants reading several articles related to the theme of allyship and then engaging in facilitated discussion to explore key themes and relate the authors positions and experience to their own.

Ecology of Strategies is an activity that aims to explore diverse transformative strategies within social movements, emphasizing the shift from antagonistic attitudes to appreciating complementarity. Participants categorize themselves based on strategic affinity based on Eric Olin Wright’s typology of transformative strategies (creating alternatives within the system, building alternatives outside the system, and ruptural strategies). Through interactive exercises, participants engage in playful critiques and appreciations of other approaches, fostering understanding of complementarities of different approaches and shift from divisive attitudes to collaborative movement building.

Movement Mapping is a strategic activity aimed at enhancing activists’ understanding of social movement dynamics, emphasizing long-term capacity building over short-term interventions. It involves mapping key movement actors, analyzing power dynamics, identifying relationships, and assessing network characteristics. The process helps recognize strengths, weaknesses, identify opportunities for strategic interventions, and inform strategic planning. Movement Mapping complements traditional campaign tools, offering a holistic approach to movement resilience and power-building.