Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America
In this moment of enormous uncertainty about the state of democracy around the globe, people all over the world are pouring into the streets to pressure governments to be more responsive to their needs.
Yet, the overwhelming response to these public outcries is stasis. How does change become possible?
A new book, Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America, by Hahrie Han, Elizabeth McKenna, and Michelle Oyakawa—helps develop the science of social change, looking systematically at outlying cases of movement power-building in the US to identify the characteristics that successful organizations share.
Watch this book talk with Elizabeth McKenna to learn the organizational design choices that made these organizations powerful.
The co-authors examine cases of successful change in Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, and Virginia and show that the most effective movements were the ones that rejected the false choice between idealism and pragmatism, between working inside the system and outside the system, between articulating a bold vision and making political compromises.
Instead, by investing in building constituencies that were flexible and committed, these movements were able to win voting rights for the formerly incarcerated in Virginia, pass universal preschool in Cincinnati, push back against the worst excesses of SB 1070 in Arizona and lay the groundwork for the state's historic shift in 2020, and elect candidates willing to articulate new vision of multi-racial politics in Minnesota.
Through careful analysis and vivid storytelling, the book provides a roadmap for designing a new kind of democracy that gives people voice over the things they care most about in their lives.
Presenter
Liz McKenna is a postdoctoral scholar at the SNF Agora Institute and a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods (ethnographic, interview, spatial, and network analysis) to study organizing, power, and political change. Her current research agenda examines when civil society organizations safeguard against authoritarianism, and when do they become the primary carriers of it. Her newest book, Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America, co-authored with Hahrie Han and Michelle Oyakawa, develops a theory of how grassroots organizations build durable political power.
Her first book, Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America analyzed how the Obama campaign turned a social movement into an electoral machine. Before graduate school, Liz worked as a political and community organizer in Ohio and Rio de Janeiro and obtained a B.A. in social studies from Harvard.
How can we help you?
If you are interested in collaborating, get in touch soon. It’s never too early. We typically book engagements six months or more in advance.
Some of the projects we worked on recently include:
Supported the Sunrise Movement to design, launch, and support hundreds of volunteer teams
Worked with United for Respect to develop and test new tactics to recruit retail workers
Advised and coached senior leaders of several organizations on how to grow a healthy organization through volunteer power