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How Change Happens
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How Change Happens

Duncan Green
Oxford UP, 2016
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Background
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Economist Duncan Green, the author of From Poverty to Power, proposes a new path to change for activists, nonprofits and aid agencies. His “Power and Systems” approach can help advocates and development agencies engage more flexibly with communities in need of change. Green, a senior strategic adviser at Oxfam and a professor of International Development at the London School of Economics, addresses the theoretical underpinnings of his concept of change, examines how change affects institutions involved in aid or development work, considers the people who embrace activism and examines the implications of his approach to bringing about change. getAbstract believes that government aid workers and development and aid officers in local and international agencies can benefit from learning about this approach to creating change.

Summary

“Power and Systems Approach”   

A successful community change effort requires understanding how power works beyond the obvious political and economic structures. Activists can produce a better strategy by first conducting a “power analysis” to identify which people hold what kind of authority in a given situation and what might allow change to occur. Make sure you have partnerships, connections and relationships with people who can and will help implement change. Consider how to sway the people you’re targeting for change, whether through “laws and policies, or in social norms, attitudes and beliefs.” Consider what could happen to instigate change: a political event, an environmental catastrophe or some economic disaster.

Whether you’re working within a development organization, an aid agency, a government office or a nonprofit, you can create change using a Power and Systems Approach. To make it work, stay flexible and build continuous feedback into your process. When you work on an aid or development initiative, have your entire team agree on basic rules. Some activists negotiate through conflict, and others prefer cooperation. Both fit...

About the Author

Duncan Green is senior strategic adviser at Oxfam and a professor of International Development at the London School of Economics. His blog on international development, From Poverty to Power, was the basis for his earlier book of that name. 

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