Thanks for sharing this! One of the points that resonates most with me is the idea that animal advocacy has to deal with situations where the threshold for reaching the ânext levelâ might be too high at the moment. Weâve all seen cases where animal advocates have gone to great lengths to create innovative, well-informed campaigns, but which failed to gain the traction needed to drive meaningful progress. Itâs like their efforts create ripples but no tsunami. Itâs sobering to see that you can put lots of smart work into the cause, and donât get any substantial results because of external factors. Itâs also dangerous because advocates might cling to the hope that the threshold is within reach, or that theyâre getting closer and closer, so they continue pouring resources into something that ultimately wonât deliver.
I feel like this threshold thing is one reason why synergy between the various parts of the âecosystem of social changeâ is promising. If each group within this ecosystem is trying their best, but independently, they may never gather enough momentum to break through the inertia and status quo. But by coordinating around a topic or campaign, a movement might be able to create sufficient waves to get to the ânext levelâ, and get ambitious reforms passed that seemed unattainable years ago. Iâve recently come across some interesting initiatives on this front via the Social Change Lab, including organizations like The Ayni Institute, Breakthrough, Changing Ideas. Their goal is to build strong, mass social movements and to train and propel effective movement leaders. Thereâs also Link for Change, which connects activists, lawyers and journalists to create synergy and amplify the impact of social movements.
Money is probably not the limiting factor here. What Iâd love to see is a team of people crafting this kind of synergy among various actors for a major national campaign (perhaps around broiler chickens?). The skills required would include excellent project management, a network in various influential circles, a good grasp of the ways cultural change might happen, experience in the media and PR⊠And yet, I agree that it may still not suffice.
I definately agree with your point that we should think more about how to create more social momentum.
But while I am very open and curious about testing new ideas about this, I am also a bit pessimistic about these efforts. I guess the main difficulty is that we just canât âshort circuitâ building a movement. Many things need to come together in a long time period: social conditions, public opinion, elite opinion, corporate culture, competent leaders, team cohesion, patient funders, other stakeholders, etc. And these things need a lot of time to change and mature.
Thanks for sharing this! One of the points that resonates most with me is the idea that animal advocacy has to deal with situations where the threshold for reaching the ânext levelâ might be too high at the moment. Weâve all seen cases where animal advocates have gone to great lengths to create innovative, well-informed campaigns, but which failed to gain the traction needed to drive meaningful progress. Itâs like their efforts create ripples but no tsunami. Itâs sobering to see that you can put lots of smart work into the cause, and donât get any substantial results because of external factors. Itâs also dangerous because advocates might cling to the hope that the threshold is within reach, or that theyâre getting closer and closer, so they continue pouring resources into something that ultimately wonât deliver.
I feel like this threshold thing is one reason why synergy between the various parts of the âecosystem of social changeâ is promising. If each group within this ecosystem is trying their best, but independently, they may never gather enough momentum to break through the inertia and status quo. But by coordinating around a topic or campaign, a movement might be able to create sufficient waves to get to the ânext levelâ, and get ambitious reforms passed that seemed unattainable years ago. Iâve recently come across some interesting initiatives on this front via the Social Change Lab, including organizations like The Ayni Institute, Breakthrough, Changing Ideas. Their goal is to build strong, mass social movements and to train and propel effective movement leaders. Thereâs also Link for Change, which connects activists, lawyers and journalists to create synergy and amplify the impact of social movements.
Money is probably not the limiting factor here. What Iâd love to see is a team of people crafting this kind of synergy among various actors for a major national campaign (perhaps around broiler chickens?). The skills required would include excellent project management, a network in various influential circles, a good grasp of the ways cultural change might happen, experience in the media and PR⊠And yet, I agree that it may still not suffice.
Thanks for the comment!
I definately agree with your point that we should think more about how to create more social momentum.
But while I am very open and curious about testing new ideas about this, I am also a bit pessimistic about these efforts. I guess the main difficulty is that we just canât âshort circuitâ building a movement. Many things need to come together in a long time period: social conditions, public opinion, elite opinion, corporate culture, competent leaders, team cohesion, patient funders, other stakeholders, etc. And these things need a lot of time to change and mature.