Glossary
- Active support
- Absorption
- Civil resistance
- "Changing the weather"
- Escalation
- Framing
- Mass protest
- Momentum
- Moment of the whirlwind
- Movement ecology
- Passive support
- "Structure-based" organizing
- Theory of change
- Trigger event
Active support
Active supporters of a movement agree with a movement’s values and goals, and are participating in sustained action (repeatedly, over time) to advance the movement. Read more about active support.
Absorption
A phase/task of organizing when groups make a specific effort to take in new people and engage them as volunteers for the movement for the long-term. Absorption is important to make sure the energy of any single trigger event (a march, an event someone attends, etc.) carries forward to push the goals of the movement forward. Read more about absorption.
Civil resistance
A field of study that focuses on the use of nonviolent protest for strategic reasons to achieve reform or revolution. Also called "strategic nonviolence." Read more about civil resistance and how it differs from "principled nonviolence."
"Changing the weather"
"Changing the weather" refers to how mass protest movements change the societal 'common sense' on an issue and thus change what is possible to win (i.e., what bills can be passed, what is the 'safe' side of an issue for a politician to support, etc). Read more about changing the weather.
Escalation
A period of movement organizing when organizers take action in a way that uses disruptiveness and sacrifice to attract attention and stake moral claims. Examples of escalated tactics include sit-ins, hunger strikes, marches, and so on. Escalation is always seen in relation to what kinds of actions the movement or group has already gone through – i.e., actions can be planned to escalate over time as demands are not met. Read more about escalation.
Framing
Framing is a concept related to understanding public perception of an issue. Frames are essentially 'worldviews' that are embedded deep into the subconscious neural networks in our brains, according to cognitive scientist and political framing pioneer George Lakoff. Framing can also be seen as a shorthand way of communicating a larger set of values. For example, before Occupy Wall Street, the economic conversation was about the national debt. OWS led to the public and media adopting Occupy's 'frame' of the 99% and the 1%. Now, whenever we hear 1%, we know exactly what's referring to – elites, corporate greed, inequality, and so on. Read more about Lakoff and framing (see: the left, the right, and polling), or how OWS changed the frame.
Mass protest
In the mass protest organizing tradition, organizations or movements build power by using a series of repeated, nonviolent, and escalating scenarios to create political crises that gradually generate a majority of active popular support for national reform or revolution. Read more about mass protest organizations.
Momentum
Momentum is the name of a training institute and movement incubator. It is also the name of an organizing framework that aims to synthesize the best of two major organizing traditions - “mass protest” and “structure-based” organizing. Read more about the history and development of Momentum.
Moment of the whirlwind
A moment of the whirlwind is a period of time in which multiple trigger events are popping off, building off of each other to further shift the political landscape and open pathways for transformation. In a moment of the whirlwind, many people who were previously unengaged may be asking "What can I do??"" Read more about moments of the whirlwind.
Movement ecology
A framework developed by the Ayni Institute to describe the relationship between groups with different theories of change in one movement. We use the metaphor of “ecology” because, in any natural ecosystem, many different organisms live together in a productive synergy. Each species has its own niche in the environment, and they live in complex relationships with each other (some parasitic, some symbiotic, etc). In a healthy ecosystem, species sustain each other on the whole and diversity flourishes.
In a healthy movement ecosystem, organizations with different theories of change recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses can work together to produce large-scale social change. Read more about movement ecology.
Passive support
Passive support for a movement refers to how many people agree with a movement’s values and goals - but aren’t taking sustained action to help push the movement forward. For example, this can be measured as how many people respond to polling in favor of a movement or issues brought up by a movement.
"Structure-based" organizing
Connected to the traditions of labor unions, Ella Baker, and Alinskyite community organizing, structure-based organizing (or ‘structure’) builds power and resources through long-term organization, develops leadership through 1-on-1 relationships and committee building, and believes that campaigns are won primarily through leverage over primary and secondary targets. Leverage is gained through bringing people together who share common self-interest and using that collective power to build pressure towards a certain demand. Read more about structure-based organizations.
Theory of change
The way an individual or organization conceptualizes how and why social change happens. For example, believing that change happens when we convince individual legislators to support an agenda is a different theory of change than believing that change happens when average people make demands of power-holders and stop cooperating with the status quo until they are met. Read more about 3 major theories of change.
Trigger event
Trigger events are moments of social movement activity that quickly change the political landscape and attract more participation and attention than anyone thought possible. They are opportune moments of escalation for the movement. Read more about trigger events.