Community Building / Mobilisation / Alliance Building
Community Building is one set of tools we can use to engage with people. It is not the only set of tools, it is simply one we have not foregrounded in XR before.
There are different ways for people to make change in the world. Sometimes these seem like they are competing with each other but multiple approaches exist in our society at any one time. These are three approaches that are often present at the same time.
There are a lot of similarities between these approaches but this table is focused on their differences and at the extreme of those differences.
| Community Building | Mobilising | Alliance Building |
|---|---|---|
| How do we get people to step into their power to make change together? | How do we get as many people on the street as possible for an event? | How do we get as many organisations working on this as possible? |
| How do we get people to act in ways that matter to them? | How do we get people to be part of us? | How do we get organisations working on the same cause? |
| Everyone has power to make change when we act together that is amplified | Power and the ability to make change lies with people who have power over us and and we must take it from them to have any of our own | Power is organisational, organisations have power to make change people don’t |
| Everyone has answers to this we want to hear yours | We have the answers come with us | Organisations not individuals have the answers |
| This issue is really big and scary. How can you help in your own way? | This issue is really big and scary we all need to do this thing | This issue is really big and scary how do organisations all work on it in their ways? |
| People act in lots of ways to make a difference on this issue, not all with us. How do we connect | People not acting with us are not taking this issue seriously so must be persuaded to do so | Organisations not acting on this issue do not care how can more organisations take action together to make a difference |
| We are co-creators of change | Change happens to us but we can influence it | Change happens to us but organisations can influence it. |
| Abundance - people have the skills knowledge and experience to make change | Scarcity - why don’t we have enough people to make change | institutionalisation - institutions have the skills, knowledge and influence to make change. |
| Be curious about the outsider | Be attractive to the outsider | Be an organisation |
| How do we share compelling stories? | How do we tell a compelling story? | How do organisations tell compelling stories? |
| How do we share our skills to act in ways that matter to us? | How do we upskill people to act? | How do we get organisations to act? |
| How do we build networks? | How do we build members? | How do we build strong alliances between organisations? |
| People care about the things that matter to them | People need to be made to care about this issue | Organisations need to care about this issue |
| We generate our own power we need to share it to make more | Power is finite and must be taken from others | Organisations hold power to influence bigger institutions |
| Start with what’s strong | Start with the problem | Start with structures |
| We must go to where people are | People must come to us | It is the known names that count |
| How do we care for each other | How do we extract what we can from people | How do we extract from organisations. |
| Measure of success = connections | Measure of succes = numbers | Measure of success = structure |
| Looks for connectors to build connections | Looks for leaders to bring followers | Looks to organisations to build structures |
| People in connection = change | People = mass = change | People in organisations = power = change |
| People co-create change, democracy, justice, safety and care | Institutions make change and create democracy, justice, safety and care | organisations make change and create democracy, justice, safety and care |
| Ecosystem | Our system | Organisational systems |
| Local and everywhere | National importance top down | Top down organisation to organisation |