Social movements have played a crucial role in the evolution of our societies: resisting domination, struggling against forces of disempowerment, and striving to realise alternative projects that challenge the limitations of existing systems. These movements focus and channel purposive collective actions that can deeply transform our world and ourselves.
They are highly complex phenomena and learning about the ecology of social movements can help us to make good sense of how we can contribute to them effectively and think strategically about our own action in solidarity with life.
The ecology of movements (ESM) framework highlights the fact that in order to combat the interlocking systems of oppression we face today requires interconnected forms of resistance. Similarly, it assumes that the processes of social change are highly complex and necessitate a multiplicity of contributions, synergies and creativity. And, just as contributions are diverse, so too are the actors involved, assuming we want to build large scale movements for deeper change. Finally, the ESM approach can help us to recognise the advantages of redundancy, adaptability and resilience that come with diversity of practice and experimentation across our movements.
To help us to make sense of movement ecology, we’ll explore a series of interlocking frameworks, apply these to our own contexts, and reflect on where we understand ourselves and groups in relation to the wider movement ecologies around us.
