Smart CSOs Conference November 2015
To effectively support the Great Transition to a truly sustainable and just society requires re.imagining our activism from a different level of consciousness. From November 5-7 social change leaders and activists from cross-sectorial NGOs, grassroots, think tanks, academia and grant-making organisations met in Berlin to reflect on their own world views and to co-create concrete new ways for our organisations and networks to advance deep system change.
We were lucky to have with us filmmaker Rui Veras from the International Water Association. He interviewed some participants and filmed impressions and views that participants expressed about the discussions at the conference. Watch the short videos here.
Re-imagining our theories of change
What do we know about how system change can happen? What are our own theories of (system) change? How do they fit together? What is our own agency in this?
Re-imagining ourselves as activists
How can we transcend our current paradigms and think differently as activists? How can we ensure our work is both sustainable and meaningful?
Re-imagining our story
In what way are current frames / narratives supportive or unsupportive of the Great Transition? How can we deconstruct old narratives and which new ones can we create?
Re-imagining our organisations
What needs to change in our organisations to become fit for system change? How can we initiate change?
Re-imagining our campaigns
What needs to change in our campaigns to make them fit for the Great Transition. How can we start changing our strategies and campaigns?
A plenary debate:
Is it a good activist strategy for the Great Transition to reject long established instititions?
Often we hear that the only way to create a sustainable and just future is to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch. So should we celebrate that many young networked grassroots activists fight institutions to make them superfluous? Does it follow that the EU should break up or that small nations are always preferable?
