I’m sympathetic to the problem of measuring “marginal cost effectiveness” for ACE’s movement grants, that does seem difficult and at risk of measurement bias. But let’s change the topic for now:
I’m curious how much thought has gone into considering the dilemmas here as“spread movement infrastructure broadly everywhere vs concentrate it in particular social groups/geographies/municipalities/political levers/corporate targets”?
There’s an extent to where establishing footholds widely is important, maintaining the universality of the movement and maybe benefiting from a wide diffusion of tractable goals.
But on the other hand, it seems to me that concentration of funds may benefit from possible social tipping points?
Protests and leafleting both seem to more likely to happen with, say 20 individuals, 5 of whom show up on a given day.
Likewise, the salience of such acts seems somewhat predictable − 5 fill a sidewalk, 20 might be enough to pressure a particular target, 100 enough for a march/parade.
“Friend group”, “social scene”, “group identity”, all seem dependent on different scales.
Social media effectiveness might require 10,000 viewers.
Major (positive) media attention might require 250 moderately dedicated individuals.
Signature collecting clearly benefits from concentration, as do “letters to your representatives”
More abstractly, there are possible tipping points for achieving clear social consensus on topics, what ideas are conformed too rather than against, how many are needed to veto dinner party decisions, and so on
Obviously this isn’t remotely an empirical matter, there are no objective numbers to refer to, I made these up. And I’m of course equivocating between $$$ and social network building, there’s plenty of room for particularly capable organizations and individuals to dominate.
But what if we concentrated millions in groups in Berkeley, California? What if hundreds of thousands go to fueling activism against one single provision in a particular bill? What about 10-timing the funding of a single university group?
I may not be “on the ground” enough to get a good sense of actual movement dynamics, so feel free to discount what I’ve said on that basis. And maybe I’m just naive as to the amount of funds that can actually be productively used by a given group?
But it seems like one essential problem of the movement is that it is drowning in just causes. Random barn fire happens, 10k cows burn alive—what now?
I agree with GWWC’s case that AWF may be overestimating the value of addressing geographic neglectedness. But I’m wondering if the problem is wider? Could animal movement-building giving in general do with a bit more concentration? EA has been great at pioneering new, neglected frontiers in animal welfare; but perhaps there’s a point where we should shy away from novelty and bet everything on a few choice picks?[1]
I realize that the emphasis on the humane league could be construed as doing just this, but I vague notion that “corporate campaigning” isn’t exactly a movement-builder tactic and so may have more of ceiling on possible benefits? Very uncertain on this.
I’m sympathetic to the problem of measuring “marginal cost effectiveness” for ACE’s movement grants, that does seem difficult and at risk of measurement bias. But let’s change the topic for now:
I’m curious how much thought has gone into considering the dilemmas here as “spread movement infrastructure broadly everywhere vs concentrate it in particular social groups/geographies/municipalities/political levers/corporate targets”?
There’s an extent to where establishing footholds widely is important, maintaining the universality of the movement and maybe benefiting from a wide diffusion of tractable goals.
But on the other hand, it seems to me that concentration of funds may benefit from possible social tipping points?
Protests and leafleting both seem to more likely to happen with, say 20 individuals, 5 of whom show up on a given day.
Likewise, the salience of such acts seems somewhat predictable − 5 fill a sidewalk, 20 might be enough to pressure a particular target, 100 enough for a march/parade.
“Friend group”, “social scene”, “group identity”, all seem dependent on different scales.
Social media effectiveness might require 10,000 viewers.
Major (positive) media attention might require 250 moderately dedicated individuals.
Signature collecting clearly benefits from concentration, as do “letters to your representatives”
More abstractly, there are possible tipping points for achieving clear social consensus on topics, what ideas are conformed too rather than against, how many are needed to veto dinner party decisions, and so on
Obviously this isn’t remotely an empirical matter, there are no objective numbers to refer to, I made these up. And I’m of course equivocating between $$$ and social network building, there’s plenty of room for particularly capable organizations and individuals to dominate.
But what if we concentrated millions in groups in Berkeley, California? What if hundreds of thousands go to fueling activism against one single provision in a particular bill? What about 10-timing the funding of a single university group?
I may not be “on the ground” enough to get a good sense of actual movement dynamics, so feel free to discount what I’ve said on that basis. And maybe I’m just naive as to the amount of funds that can actually be productively used by a given group?
But it seems like one essential problem of the movement is that it is drowning in just causes. Random barn fire happens, 10k cows burn alive—what now?
I agree with GWWC’s case that AWF may be overestimating the value of addressing geographic neglectedness. But I’m wondering if the problem is wider? Could animal movement-building giving in general do with a bit more concentration? EA has been great at pioneering new, neglected frontiers in animal welfare; but perhaps there’s a point where we should shy away from novelty and bet everything on a few choice picks?[1]
I realize that the emphasis on the humane league could be construed as doing just this, but I vague notion that “corporate campaigning” isn’t exactly a movement-builder tactic and so may have more of ceiling on possible benefits? Very uncertain on this.