Changeeffort topic of choice: Effort to block mining on a Native American reservation
start by identifying a past or well-developed current change effortof interest. Please make sure to see the lecture material differentiating a systemic change effort from an organization, agency, initiative, policy or program focused on improving the lives of individual clients. Identify a Target of Change(individual or group) that an organized Action Group attempts to persuade or pressure in order to act in a specified manner or to modify or stop certain activities. Examples might include elected officials who could be decision-makers (mayor, governor, city council, zoning board, state representative, etc.), voters who could make decisions reflected by their actual votes in an upcoming election, re a candidate or ballot initiative, or responders who might change their behaviors, attitudes or positions (slumlords, corporate polluters, neighbors, anti-tax groups, environmental organizations, etc.). It’s key that the Action Grouphas a viable strategy and plan that has/had the potential to actually change the Target’sactivities, rather than simply expressing opposition to the current course of action. TheAction Groupneeds to be well organized, with identifiable leaders, some degree of structure, recruitment methods, goals and objectives, as well as strategies and tactics to achieve their ends. The change effort should either be completed (successfully or unsuccessfully) or one that has been ongoing for enough time to enable you to critique the efforts of the Action Group.
Please note that a change effort in which the Action Group encountered some level of resistance from theTarget(individual or institutional decision-makers/responders) works best for this assignment. Your analysis will flow more easily if there is some controversyanddisagreementabout this change effort. Accordingly, please describe the toneof this change effort – was it adversarial, persuasive or collaborative in nature? Many students select a change effort in the community that was studied for Assignment 1. However, you are not required to do this. You have the option of selecting a change effort in a different community—or even one at the county or statewide level, such as a ballot initiative or a piece of legislation. If you have great difficulty identifying a change effort to study, the following websites might provide some ideas:
Change.org
;
Petition Site
; or
Care2
. Note: As you move forward with this assignment, please keep in mind that you will be analyzing what was/is being accomplished, not simply describing what happened, and you will be critiquing the effectiveness of the Action Group’s efforts. Who is the Action Group?
- Is there an organized group that is driving the change effort?
- Does the Action Group feature grassroots community members and leaders?
- A powerful decision-maker like a governmental department, an elected official, a commissioner, a police department, a human services agency manager, a large corporation or a school administrator should not lead the Action Group. (No problem if such individuals are allies or even members of the Action Group—just not be the leaders of it).
- Does the Action Group do more than advocacy, public awareness and/or provision of services? Has this group engaged in collective action to influence a decision-making target?
Whatis the nature of the Action Group’s Goals & Objectives?
- Is the change effort carried out at a relatively local level (e.g. neighborhood, human services agency or bureaucracy, city or town, or even statewide), or is this a regional or national effort?
- Note: If you are interested in a national movement or organization such as Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood, Students Demand Action, National People’s Action, #MeToo, United Students Against Sweatshops, Jobs with Justice, etc., is it possible to focus on a local chapter?
- If your change effort involves winning or trying to win a legislative victory, did the Action Group do more than simply file legislation? For example, was there a lobbying day or rally? Did the Action Group utilize the media to win this victory? Did the Action Group have members testify at hearings?
- Does/did the Goals of the change effort involve more than a single petition, legislative hearing, protest, etc.?
- Are there measurable outcomes that can be assessed and critiqued?
Which decision-makers are theTarget(s)of the Action Group?
- Can you identify the decision-makers Whom the Action Group targeted/is targeting?
- Decision-maker targets should be individuals or groups of people—not an institution or organization e.g. city hall, the statehouse, congress, big oil, a corporation, a university, public opinion, etc.
Howdid/does the Action Group conduct this Change Effort?
- Is collective action by grassroots community members central to the Action Group’s efforts? This certainly can include lobbying, petitioning, testifying, holding press events, town meetings/accountability sessions with decision makers, registering voters, holding candidates nights, GOTV, as well all types of demonstrations, marches, boycotts, etc.
- The Action Group should not employ a legal strategy as its primary means of securing its Goals.
- Has the change effort been completed? If so, how long ago?
- Is the change effort still in progress? If so, how long has it been going on and how close to completion is it?
- examining the Action Group, its Goals and Objectives, the Target (individual or group) for the change, Allies who provide support, and the sources of Opposition. Please interview (and document in your paper), at least three people who have knowledge about this change effort and incorporate their perspectives into this paper. Utilize information from interviews and cite them in the same manner as Assignment 1.Resource: Please download and review Interview Tips (Word doc).Who comprised the Action Group attempting to bring about this change?How many people were involved?What were the demographics of the participants?What skills and resources did the group members bring to this effort?Who (if anyone) was missing from the Action Group? Why?What methods and techniques for recruitment were utilized (include social media if relevant)? Which methods worked, which didn’t, and what else could have been done to engage more participants?Who were the leaders for this change effort?How were the leaders selected? Were they representative of the full group?Did new leaders develop as the effort moved forward?Were the leaders effective in their roles? Why or why not?How much internal harmony was there among leaders and key activists?What were the general Goals and particular Objectives that the Action Group was attempting to accomplish?Were the overall Goals realistic and appropriate? Was the Action Group aiming too high or too low?Were the specific Objectives that were sought consistent with the larger Goals?Were there incremental Goals and Objectives that enabled the effort to maintain momentum and avoid delays?Should the Goals and Objectives have been changed or reassessed as the change effort moved forward?Which individuals comprised the Target System? Who was/were the particular decision-maker(s)/responders Whom the Action Group attempted to change?Did this target actually have the power to give the Action Group what it wanted?What was the level of agreement or disagreement with the Target System?How much resistance was there from the Target System?What were the strengths of the Target System and what were the points of vulnerability?Were there any indirect targets who were engaged by the Action Group? Were any possible indirect targets not recognized by the Action Group?Which Allies supported the efforts of the Action Group?What kinds of support did they provide?Were they contributing as much as they could to this effort?What more could they have done? What could the Action Group have done to secure a greater commitment?Were there potential Allies who were not engaged? How could the Action Group bring these potential Allies on board?Who comprised the Opposition to this change effort?Were they part of the Target System or external actors?Why were these parties opposed?What were their strengths and their weaknesses?Was it possible to split or divide the Opposition, and if so, did the Action Group do this effectively?examining the Strategies, Tactics, and Handles employed by the Action Group. Utilize information from interviews and cite them in the same manner as Assignment 1.How effective were the Strategies that the Action Group adopted to pursue its Goals and Objectives?Please list the Strategies utilized. Refer to Checkoway’s article for this, plus the additional Strategies that I present in Lecture 5.Was an effective external print and electronic media strategy developed?Were these Strategies appropriate, given the level of agreement-disagreement of the Target System?What different Strategies (if any) might the Action Group have employed to increase chances for success?Assess the Tactics employed by the Action Group to influence the Target System.List the different Tactics used.Which community assets, strengths, and resources were utilized?Which Tactics were most effective and which ones were unproductive?Which additional Tactics (if any) might have been applied to good effect by the Action Group?Assess the use of Handles to provide leverage for social change.Identify the different Handles that the Action Group used effectively. (See examples in Lecture 6, but don’t be restricted by this list.)Were there any potential Handles that the group failed to identify or utilize?Were there any Objective Conditions that provided leverage (or could have)?Assessing the success of the change effort. Also, please develop an Appendix (if the initiative is current and unfinished, examine the success to date). Utilize information from interviews and cite them in the same manner as Assignment 1.What was the role of Objective Conditions (both positive and negative) in this change effort?How successful was this initiative and why was this true?In your Appendix, provide a Force Field Analysis (see the article by Minkler and Coombe) that indicates the Driving, Restraining, and Undetermined Forces that impacted the success of this change initiative (include an intensity scale). Provide a summary discussion of this Force Field Analysis in the body of your paper.In your Appendix, provide a SWOT Assessment that indicates the Strengths, Weaknesses/Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats for the Action Group (see the article by Minkler and Coombe). Provide a summary discussion of this SWOT Assessment in the body of your paper.In your Appendix, provide the Timeline showing the various stages for this change effort and briefly address the following:Was the pace of this initiative appropriate, too slow, or too quick?Should the effort have been broken up into more distinct stages in order to better control the Timeline?Describe your interviewees in your Appendix just as you did for Assignment 1.In your Appendix, provide supplemental materials, including relevant recruitment flyers/leaflets, fact sheets, press releases, news articles, and other materials as appropriate.