Movement Building
Overview
Some people make a distinction between community building (the process of using planned strategies to change a specific place for the better), and movement building (the process of organizing and helping to activate the will and capacity of people and organizations to work individually or collectively toward a vision they all share). Movement building vests its power in people and organizations so they can take the work wherever it needs to go. Both are important ways to work towards racial equity; each has strengths and limitations. This section provides examples of social movements and ways of using the tools of movement building to create community change. It also includes some research on common features of effective movements, and links to some groups and organizations with a history of supporting racial equity movements. Please also see the section in this site on Resistance and Movements.
Research
- Making Change: How Social Movements Work - and How to Support Them
- Social Movements: A Summary of What Works
- From Concern to Action: A Look at Consumer Engagement to Advance Quality Health Care
- Building Social Movement Infrastructure
- The Movement Action Plan: A Strategic Framework Describing The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements
- Transactions And Transformations: A Framework For Metrics That Matter
- Unstill Waters: The Fluid Role of Networks of Social Movements
- The Future of Black Politics
- Left or Right of the Color Line? Asian Americans and the Racial Justice Movement
- More Than We Imagined: Activists' Assessment of the Moment & the Way Forward
- Movement Mic Check: Rapid Response to Racial Disasters
- Silence is Violence and Inaction Gives Traction to White Supremacy
- Calling Cards: Revolution means building towards a national movement of uncompromising politics
- How do We Solve Structural Racism? A 5X 5 Review
- The Black Freedom Movement Then and Now: Organizing Traditions
Practice
- Building Movement vs. Building Organization: Summary of Regional Discussions
- Building a Multiracial Movement:Some Suggestions for White Folks on Loving Our Role In the Struggle
- Building Organizations in a Movement Moment
- Building Youth Movements for Community Change
- From the Roots: Building the Power of Communities of Color to Challenge Structural Racism
- The Listening Project: A National Dialogue on Progressive Movement-Building - Problems, Prospects, Potentials
- Organization Development for Social Change: An Integrated Approach to Community Transformation
- Out of the Spiritual Closet: Organizers Transforming the Practice of Social Justice
- So You Wanna Building a Movement: An Equation for Building Progressive Power
- Connecting at the Crossroads: Alliance Building and Social Change in Tough Times
- Let's Talk: At the Heart of Movement Building
- Reflections on Movement Building and Community Organizing
- Creating Culture: Promising Practices of Successful Movement Networks
- What Anti-racists Stand to Gain from Greater Class Awareness
- 14 Characteristics of an Intersectional Mass Movement
- Authoritarian State or Inclusive Democracy? 21 Things We Can Do Right Now
- South Asians and Black Lives
- How Latinx People Can Fight Anti-Black Racism in Our Own Culture
Resource
- National Council of Elders
- Compact for Racial Justice
- Building a New Racial Justice Movement
- What is Transformation? And How it Advances Social Change
- Forward From Ferguson: Movement Theory
- Behind the Curtain: One Theory of Social Change
- Ferguson: America's Movement for Racial Justice
- Behind the Curtain: One Theory of Social Change
- Love With Power: Practicing Transformation for Social Justice
- Movement Pivots: Five Steps to Collective Impact & Transformative Social Change
- Building Movements Without Shedding Differences: Alicia Garza of #BlackLivesMatter
- Social Movements and Philanthropy: How Foundations Can Support Movement Building
- SONG on the Role of White People in the Movement at this Time
- For White Anti-Racists Holding Back From Stepping Up in These Black Lives Matter Movement Times
- The Movement Video Series
- From Protest to Power
- Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements
- Movement Cycles in the Struggle for Black Lives
- The Practices of Transformative Movement Building
- Social Justice SOS:16 Social Justice Leaders Respond to the 2016 Election
- The Progressive Movement Commons
- From Silos to Solidarity: Learning from 2017’s Resistance Movements
- Our Relationships Keep Us Alive: Let's Prioritize Them in 2018
- The Case for Interpersonal Reparations
- Identity Politics: Friend or Foe?
- Solidarity Is This podcast
- Why Somatics for Social Justice and a Transformative Movement?
