There is, of course, no magic formula for making social or cultural change occur and much of it depends on circumstance and luck combining with strategy and skill. There are, however, still some necessary ingredients that do need to be present for any long-lasting, deep-rooted change to occur in a society or across societies.
A new frame
Frames are the basic assumptions we have that help us understand the world around us. These building blocks are crucial to our functioning as human beings – there is so much information out there in the world for us to compute that we need short-cuts to help us get quickly to an understanding of what we are experiencing. That doesn’t mean, however, that those understandings are always true or fair. One example of a frame – particularly pervasive in Western societies – is that humans are selfish. This gives a shortcut to other ways of thinking – for example, it might influence how we interpret another person’s behaviour, whether we give to charity, and whether or not to fear or help refugees. Social change starts when these basic assumptions get challenged and redefined – otherwise much our thinking will continue to use our established frameworks and shortcuts which will lead ultimately to the same actions and reactions.
Opening conversations
To do that requires conversations. Change doesn’t tend to happen in any long-term or meaningful way when it is forced upon people. That often has the opposite effect – causing people to reinforce their existing views and values in defiance. That is why, for example, so many Executive Orders by American Presidents (laws introduced without the consent of Congress) are overturned by the next incumbent. To create meaningful change requires that people willingly engage and are active participants in exploring and understanding new ideas. A powerful example of this was the #MeToo movement. This gave everyone an invitation to talk about women’s experiences of sexual harassment and to understand more about how pervasive it is and what it feels like to be on the receiving end. This has helped – to some extent at least – shape all genders approaches to the issue.
Top-down and bottom-up
To achieve deep and long-lasting change necessitates that work is done across society, not just at one level. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, because change at one level can be turbocharged by change at another. Politicians, for example, often need to show they have public backing to introduce a policy change. Secondly, because our societies are extremely complex and interlinked. If you were building a house you would employ planners, architects, plumbers, and electricians. And you would have them plan their work together. The same is true for society – we need multiple groups pulling in the same or similar directions. And thirdly because the challenges we are facing are enormous and cannot be tackled by individuals or small groups alone. One political party cannot stop climate change. One community group cannot help every refugee. We need big solutions delivered by big coalitions.
Diverse approaches
This also means that a range of styles and techniques are needed to build the momentum towards change. What appeals to or galvanizes one audience might not be appropriate for another. What is exciting about this is the fact it builds space for many more people in a movement. It means that cultural change calls upon all kinds of people with all kinds of passion and ways of working. So long as the overall message – the frame – remains the same and there is general agreement on the values of the movement, different people can work across different levels.
Opportunism
Ultimately, much of the work of social change is about preparing for an opening or an opportunity. Movements must spend time educating, training, and spreading their message in order to create conditions that allow for a leap forward to happen when some external event brings their efforts to public attention and makes their story compelling and necessary. As the economist Milton Friedman said: ‘Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.’
