Resources
Multi-sector
Knowledge Base
These resources address issues in more than one sector. Some address society as a whole, but neither explicitly nor implicitly do they see society as a single self-perpetuating social system that oppresses everyone. Neither do they affirm mutual support for self-development.
Advocacy/Services
advances groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality. We are scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers committed to building a world where all people belong.
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.
Berggruen Institute — Ideas for a Changing World
We live in a time of great transformations. From capitalism, to democracy, to the global order, our institutions are faltering. The very meaning of the human is fragmenting.
The Berggruen Institute was established in 2010 to develop foundational ideas about how to reshape political and social institutions in the face of these great transformations. We work across cultures, disciplines and political boundaries, engaging great thinkers to develop and promote long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.
For 27 years, Beyond Conflict has created powerful and innovative frameworks to open pathways for progress in peace talks, transitions to democracy, and national reconciliation in the aftermath of division and violence in over 75 countries.
BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity) .
“a national training intermediary focused on transforming the practice of Black organizers in the US to increase their alignment, impact and sustainability to win progressive change.... The backbone of the course is Transformative Organizing (TO), which seeks to integrate personal transformation and transformation of our relationships into our fight for Black liberation, radical social change, and a just society…. featuring individual and collective transformative practice.”
Chicago Center for Leadership and Transformation.
“The Chicago Center for Leadership and Transformation (CCLT) is a locally rooted, nationally and globally connected learning community. Our mission is to build strong leaders and capacity for transformative social justice movements. We are committed to investing in the leadership of Black, Brown, AAPI and Indigenous people working to create a world free of capitalism, anti-Black racism, white supremacy and patriarchy..... We do this through program experimentation, political study and building an ethic of self-work and community care with people across class, gender, ability, faith, sexuality and marginalized racial identities…. [and] providing movement education and facilitation grounded in radical feminist, abolitionist and transformative organizing.”
Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples.
“The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples is an interfaith, interracial, intercultural community of seekers dedicated to personal empowerment and social transformation through an ever-deepening relationship with the Spirit of God in All Life.”
Cointelligence Institute’s Wise Democracy Project, Tom Atlee.
“exists to help us envision and co-create a deeply participatory culture that generates policies and activities that support the long-term quality of life. We seek to evoke and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole.”
The mission of Earth Charter International is to contribute to the transition to sustainable ways of living on the planet.
“a community of practice and exploration, training and education, healing and resistance.”
Our mission is to support social and climate justice movements in achieving their visions of a radically transformed society. We do this by bringing somatic transformation to movement leaders, organizations, and alliances. Our programs engage the body (emotions, sensations, physiology), in order to align our actions with values and vision, and heal from the impacts of trauma and oppression. We aim to advance loving and rigorous movements that possess the creativity, resilience, and liberatory power needed to transform society.
Helena is a global problem solving organization. Through Helena Projects, we seek to implement solutions to critical societal problems. Our work is conducted alongside a small group of exceptional people called Helena Members. We believe the most consequential decisions in human history will be made during the next 50 years. To meet this critical moment, the world needs new institutions designed for the radically shifting dynamics of the 21st century. We aim to be one.
Human Systems Dynamics Institute.
“We build capacity among individuals, teams, communities to deal with the complexity of day-to-day existence. In public and private Adaptive Action Labs, we guide clients through innovative design, implementation, and assessment cycles to find breakthrough responses to intractable issues. In research and writing we create and disseminate perspectives, models, and methods for thriving in the 21st century.... The network engages more than 600 certified HSD Professionals who invest in their own growth and development while supporting colleagues and clients to influence human systems dynamics.”
“Vision: a just, peaceful and sustainable world to which everyone, responding to the call of conscience, makes their unique contribution. Mission: to inspire, equip and connect people to address world needs, starting with themselves. We work worldwide on many initiatives through a network of individuals, groups and organizations.”
Interaction Institute for Social Change.
When IISC started in 1993, we brought the power of collaboration to the social sector through our work with thousands of individuals, and hundreds of organizations and networks working to advance social justice. Over time we focused explicitly on the profound and persistent racial inequities that destroy people, communities, and the planet and that account for many of the challenges our clients face. Guided by our values and Collaborative Change Lens, we deepened our approach to supporting individuals, organizations, and networks to shift systems so that groups and communities that have been historically marginalized and oppressed by racism and other ism’s have an equitable share in the power and control of organizational and societal resources in order to ensure they are able to thrive and contribute to their communities and organizations.
“We encourage people in all walks of life to discover their innate capacity for nonviolence and to cultivate its power for the long-term transformation of themselves and the world, focusing on the root causes of dehumanization and ultimately all forms of violence.” Focuses on individual transformation, but does not clearly affirm mutual support for self-development. Addresses issues in multiple sectors, but does not address how society as a whole is rooted in a single, self-perpetuating social system. Rather, it aims to “reassure the general public that your movement is not a danger to the social order.”
“The Village Movement is an innovative grassroots movement that coordinates critical services for older adults. Villages are one of the most promising options to cope with the upcoming ‘Revolution Aging’ dilemma. The Village Movement began in 1999 with a group of older adults that wanted to live in their own homes while staying engaged in social activities within their neighborhood.”
One affiliate is the San Francisco Village — “a membership organization designed with, by and for older San Franciscans and the extended community that champions them. We operationalize love for elders in an ageist society by mobilizing the power of intergenerational relationships and mutual support. We envision a future in which people of all ages, races, cultures, and abilities work together to create communities of belonging and in so doing, model possibilities for relationship and connection that benefit the greater good.”
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works®. PolicyLink seeks to deliver and scale results in the following arenas:
Equitable Economy: Promote economic inclusion and ownership to eliminate poverty, shrink inequality, and increase mobility.
Healthy Communities of Opportunity: Create and maintain opportunity-rich communities in all neighborhoods and all regions of the country through strong networks and social capital, equitable development, and infrastructure investments that enable low-income people and communities of color to thrive.
Just Society: Build power and expand agency to ensure that all systems and institutions are just, free of racial bias, and lead to a vibrant democracy where all, especially the most vulnerable, can participate and prosper.
“more than 20 years of experience helping teams of people, from across the same organisation or across multiple organisations, work together to address their most critical and difficult issues.... We use tried-and-tested collaboration methods to deal with systemic challenges.”
“We help people move more intentionally toward wisdom in their organizations, communities, and lives. At TWI, we believe that wisdom is practical and useful in our lives. It is available to all of us. We can learn tools and strategies to manifest it in ourselves. TWI challenges people to become other-wise; that is, to use practical wisdom in their lives every day.
Articles, Essays, Op-eds, Poems
How to Support Black Lives Matter Online, Tom Read.
The threat of Coronavirus means many of us must continue to support Black Lives Matter online. Unfortunately, fighting social justice issues online isn’t always a risk-free protest in itself. Are you looking for a way to stay safe as you continue to fight for Black rights online? Well, don’t worry. vpnMentor has compiled all of the most important safety information you need to know as you show your solidarity for BLM on the internet. (read more)
Protests Are Taking Over the World. What’s Driving Them? (behind paywall), Zachariah Mampilly.
“…In many countries, trust in government has been shaken by leaders who put their faith in market-based solutions to the detriment of most citizens... Social trust is a precious thing. It can take generations to build but can be lost in a flash. And so protests are likely to continue wherever that trust remains low,... The pandemic has revealed the disconnect between governments and their citizens. The latter now demand a different, more just world…” (read more; behind paywall)
The Race-Class Narrative Project.
“The goal of Demos’ Race-Class Narrative (RCN) project is to develop an empirically-tested narrative on race and class that resonates with all working people and offers an alternative to — and neutralizes the use of — dog-whistle racism.”
Francis Fukuyama’s Defense of Liberalism,
“Francis Fukuyama and Yascha Mounk on how to make the case for liberalism… You need to not be apologetic about liberalism. That's why I've written this book: To try to remind people why they should be liberals. Say it now and say out loud: “I’m a liberal”. Obviously, in the United States, it has a very specific connotation. So you might want to say, “I’m a classical liberal.” People have to understand that being a classical liberal has these very powerful arguments standing in its favor.”
The Broken System: What comes after meritocracy? Elizabeth Anderson.
A review of THE TYRANNY OF MERIT: WHAT’S BECOME OF THE COMMON GOOD? By Michael J. Sandel. “...In Sandel’s view, meritocracy does more than drive material inequality; it creates a toxic economy of esteem. The winners in meritocratic competition feel entitled to take all they can, while the losers feel humiliated, continually told they deserve the fate to which elites consign them...
Sandel rightly argues that many concerns of white working-class voters in the United States should not be dismissed, even if some of them are moved to vote based on bigoted and racist appeals... Sandel doesn’t consider important core issues faced by many contemporary workers, such as the feminization of poverty, the lack of paid family leave and affordable dependent care, and our failure to honor dependent-care labor as an essential contribution to the common good—not only when it is wage labor but also as unpaid family labor. He never mentions the gross exploitation of immigrant workers or the precarity of those who are (or whose families include) undocumented immigrants. He doesn’t consider how the residential hypersegregation of Black workers causes unemployment or how mass incarceration is used to create a substantial class of unpaid prison laborers exploited by major corporations...”
I Dream A World, Langston Hughes.
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
Trumpism Without Borders, Thomas B. Edsall.
America is embedded in a world that is troubled by insidious parallel variants of the same structural problems — anti-immigrant fervor, political tribalism, racism, ethnic tension, authoritarianism and inequality — that led to a right-wing takeover of the federal government by Donald Trump.
The peculiarly American characteristics of the Trump years have blinded us to the spread of this radical disorder worldwide — even as some prescient scholars and analysts have seen the connections all along and have been trying to make the public aware of them…
Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at Columbia, has a darker view: “The multiple challenges can be addressed through public action at all scales, from global to local,” he wrote by email:
Unfortunately, the U.S. is not a constructive problem-solving actor in this drama. At the national level, we are torn apart by race and class. The U.S. system is at danger of coming completely unhinged over the corruption of our political system (sheer plutocracy with a democratic veneer) and rear-guard racism.
Nor is Sachs upbeat about Biden’s chances:
At the global level, the U.S. is a disruptive force as well, because instead of focusing on global problem solving, we are far more focused on trying to maintain hegemonic prerogatives that are past their due date. Hence, the utterly stupid new Cold War with China, which is a U.S. concoction.” (read more)
Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration speech - excerpts.
“We can see each other not as adversaries, but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. … Let's begin to listen to one another again. Hear one another see one another, show respect to one another. Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path…. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we're willing to stand in the other person's shoes, as my mom would say, just for a moment, stand in their shoes. Because here's the thing about life. There's no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days, when you need a hand. There are other days when we're called to lend a hand. That's how it has to be. That's what we do for one another. And if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. And we can still disagree.”
Rebuilding the Community Fabric for the Information Age, John Sanger. “A Community is not created by the simple proximity of its parts; rather, it emerges from their integration.”
The Fear of Demographic Eclipse, Wade Lee Hudson.
Seven Social Sins, Mahatma Gandhi
-Politics without principles.
-Wealth without work.
-Pleasure without conscience.
-Knowledge without character.
-Commerce without morality.
-Science without humanity.
-Worship without sacrifice.Trump Is Trying to Bend Reality to His Will, Thomas B. Edsall.
“Can his aggressive version of ethnonationalist populism prevail in 2020? The answer is not obvious. …The four argue that the focus on Democratic and Republican identification masks another key divide between voters whose prime concern is protection from adverse cultural and economic forces and voters whose agenda is personal autonomy and economic freedom. They call these two constituencies the “protection-based” and the “freedom based.””
What Is Owed (behind paywall), Nikole Hannah-Jones.
“If true justice and equality are ever to be achieved in the United States, the country must finally take seriously what it owes black Americans.”
Is Economic Inequality Really a Problem? (behind paywall), Samuel Scheffler.
“Yes, but the answer is less obvious than you might think.... The imperative that Professor Frankfurt identified — the imperative to ensure that all citizens have enough resources to lead decent lives — is of the utmost importance.... But addressing Professor Frankfurt’s imperative is not enough....”
What Kind of Country Do We Want?, Marilynne Robinson.
“…it is in fact an anthropology, a theory of human nature and motivation. It comes down to the idea that the profit motive applies in literally every circumstance, inevitably, because it is genetic in its origins and its operations. ‘Selfishness,’ its exponents call it,…”
The America We Need, New York Times Editorial Board.
“Many Americans have demonstrated heroic strength during the coronavirus pandemic, but the society itself has revealed profound weaknesses. Widening gaps in income, wealth and opportunity in the years before the virus hit left everyone more vulnerable to the disease. It undermined the nation’s defenses and weakened its response. Yet the devastation of the pandemic has also created an opportunity to begin to put things right, to ensure that the America that ultimately emerges is more just, more free and less fragile. Through this initiative, Times Opinion is exploring, and seeking to answer, basic questions about what the government owes its citizens, what corporations owe their employees and what we all owe each other. America was ailing long before the coronavirus reached its shores. Now we have the chance to make it better.
Jimmy Carter’s ‘malaise’ speech was popular!, Ezra Klein.
“The truth is the speech got great reviews at the time and horrible reviews in hindsight. As historian Kevin Mattson writes, Carter's mistake wasn't the speech — it's what he did next.” (the speech)
Humanism and Its Aspirations: Humanist Manifesto III.
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance.
A Gandhian Stand Against the Culture of Cruelty, Pankaj Mishra.
India is undergoing a process of dehumanization. More ominously, this moral calamity in the world’s largest democracy is part of a global rout of such basic human emotions as empathy, compassion, and pity. May 22, 2018
Books
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love, Valarie Kaur.
"How do we labor for the world we want when the labor feels endless? Valarie Kaur – renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer – declares that revolutionary love is the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation."
Minnesota Equity Blueprint, Growth & Justice, OneMN.org, and the members of the Thriving by Design Network.
“Widening inequalities and climate change pose the most important and immediate challenges to Minnesota’s long-term economic prosperity and quality-of-life. The Minnesota Equity Blueprint is intended to serve as a comprehensive policy guidebook for the next decade, to address these demographic and geographic disparities, to build a more inclusive economy, to find more common cause between rural and urban Minnesotans and to restore our natural environment.”
Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World, Paul Hawken 2007.
A most influential environmentalist reveals a worldwide grassroots movement of hope and humanity.
Blessed Unrest tells the story of a worldwide movement that is largely unseen by politicians or the media. Hawken spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, these organizations collectively comprise the largest movement on earth. This is a movement that has no name, leader, or location, but is in every city, town, and culture. It is organizing from the bottom up and is emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.
Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of this movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and centuries-old history. it will inspire, surprise, and delight anyone who is worried about the direction the modern world is headed. Blessed Unrest is a description of humanity’s collective genius and the unstoppable movement to re-imagine our relationship to the environment and one another.Law and Society in a Populist Age: Balancing Individual Rights and the Common Good (2018), Amitai Etzioni.
The law-based, political institutions in many democratic societies are being challenged by fast-growing populist movements, parties, and leaders. In other nations, the state is failing. These seismic changes call for greater attention to be paid to the role society plays in forming and challenging laws--and how the law copes with these challenges. Amitai Etzioni, one of the most respected thinkers in the US, argues for a new liberal communitarian approach as an effective response to populism. This recognizes that different members of the society have differing values, interests, and needs that cannot be fully reconciled to legislation in a populist age.
Leading with 100 Year Vision: Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the Future, Movement Strategy Center.
“Six years ago Movement Strategy Center took a bold leap and gathered movement leaders to explore the ways that embodied wisdom could generate untapped possibility, potential, and power in the work toward social, economic, and ecological justice.”
Opposing the System (1995), Charles A. Reich.
On the 25th anniversary of the publication of his mega-best seller The Greening of America (250,000 sold in hardcover and more than 2 million in paperback), Charles Reich offers a bold new appraisal of why America has lost its way and how it can rededicate itself to the pursuit of true prosperity for all its citizens.
Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place (2006), Melvin McLeod, ed.
"I've studied politics my entire life. It's been because of working on this book that I've finally learned what's really important in politics." So says Melvin McLeod, editor of Mindful Politics, a book that transcends Right and Left, progressive and conservative, to get to what matters: how we can all make a positive difference in our complex political world.
This is not your typical political book. It's not written at a fever pitch, it doesn't use a good/bad binary, and it doesn't tout partisan policies. Instead, this timely collection addresses the less-discussed but more important questions about politics: What insight does religion have to offer politics? How can we as concerned citizens move beyond the particulars of legislation and party affiliation, and take direct action? How, amid divisive and challenging times, can personal growth and effective advocacy take place together?
Mindful Politics offers the perspectives of 34 important authors and thinkers on how each of us, right now, can make the world a better place.
Films
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller.
A bleak critique of the American Dream, with a glimmer of authenticity.
A detailed explanation of the factors that led to the 2008 financial collapse: removal of financial regulations, creation of complex financial instruments (derivatives, credit swaps), incestuous relationships of financial institutions and the Federal Agencies intended to watch over them.
Podcasts
Prelude: Revolutionary Love is How to Citizen (with Valarie Kaur).
Baratunde lays the spiritual foundation for the show. His first guest, Valarie Kaur, activist and author of See no Stranger, helps us go inward to ready our hearts and minds for How To Citizen. Welcome to the show!
Hidden Brain, From NPR.
“Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.”
Pursuing deep thinking and moral imagination, social courage and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together. The On Being Project is a nonprofit media and public life initiative. We make a public radio show, podcasts, and tools for the art of living. Six grounding virtues guide everything we do. We explore the intersection of spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, community, poetry, and the arts.
Video
3 lessons of revolutionary love in a time of rage (Valarie Kaur | TEDWomen 2017) .
by the author of See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love
Websites
“Online library and cooperative peer support network dedicated to acknowledging, nurturing, celebrating, and defending the Web of Life.”
“Earth Citizen’s Library / Resource Center / Learning Cooperative”