Authors Meet Critics ’Organising for Change. Social Change Makers and Social Change Organisations’
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Freedom of expression and the right to assemble are some core characteristics of democracies. Democracy itself is an outcome of mobilisation processes and it is under threat by right-wing actors.
In December 2023, Silke Roth and published their book They examine the interactions and reactions across multiple forms of everyday activism for social justice and inclusion. To do this, they use the concept of social change organisations, which they define as the broad range of organisations that aim to bring about or resist societal change through any form and combination of service provision, advocacy and protest and the people engaged in these organisations as social change makers.
In the webinar on 23 May 2024, chaired by Valentina Cardo , a former co-director of the Centre for Democratic Futures (2020 to 2023), they discussed their book with 4 critics.
Silke Roth, Clare Saunders and Valentina Cardo
Ali Meghji, Associate Professor in Social Inequalities, Magdelene College, Cambridge University
highlighted the explicitly historical scope and sensibility of ‘Organising for change’ and welcomed it as an invitation to historical sociologists who are interested to understand how change happens. He considered the book part of a new wave of sociology which understands social change from a pragmatic perspective which overcomes the limitations of social movement scholarship through the examination of incremental, non-linear change through a variety of reformist and radical tactics. Pointing to abolition, the civil rights movement, and more recently Black Lives Matter, he asked for clarification about the mechanisms that explain the durability of social change, and whether it matters who is implementing social change.
Bandana Purkayastha, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in Sociology and Asian and Asian American Studies, University of Connecticut
focused in particular on knowledge hierarchies and production. She stressed the importance of all authors recognising the power their words and being responsible for them. She appreciated that the book is historically and empirically grounded in the authors’ research projects. Purkayastha highlighted in particular the role that resources and funding play for social change organisations. She noted that resources provided by funders shape not only projects, but also discourse and thus what is perceived as necessary and possible social change.
Margaret Perez Brower, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Washington
appreciated that authors approach to social change organisations as a rich eco-system of interconnected groups. Furthermore, she highlighted the intersectional approach of the authors and their nuanced exploration of multiple, complementary or conflicting tactics and the ways in which social change organisations might challenge or perpetuate inequality. Perez Brower drew on her own book
to highlight the relationship between insider and outsider tactics.
John Boswell, Professor in Politics and Public Policy, TV
The last of the four critics,
John Boswell
, highlighted the scale and scope of the book which examines social change in a historical and global perspective. He found that the book simultaneously developed a magisterial argument and provided an intimate sense of the world, being grounded in 20 years of joint and separate research on a wide variety of social change organisations (summarised in the appendix which provides an overview over the empirical research on which the book is based). He also noted that rather than presenting essentialist accounts of social change makers which are either defended or criticised, the book develops sensible, nuanced social science. He ended his comments with the provocative question whether the authors believed that “things are getting better”?
In the following response to the critics and audience members, Roth and Saunders sought to clarify that social change is based on ongoing actions, interactions, and reactions. Rather than durable change they noted that progress is always at risk and always needs to be defended. They also highlighted that individuals and organisations, which they understand as ‘learning organisations’, constantly need to reflect on their tactics which might persist or change over time. The authors also explained that their book is addressed equally at those who are engaged in organising for change and those who analyse social change makers.