Social movements are powerful engines for change, and they coalesce around a vast range of issues, causes, and communities. But they fall into two basic categories: inclusionary and exclusionary.

Good discussion of two types of social movements: Inclusionary (building a wide coalition by appealing to many different groups) vs exclusionary (building group solidarity through us v them strategies). The challenges to both, and the ways the elite try to capture and appropriate inclusionary social movements to maintain the status quo.

Why is this “solarpunk”? Because solarpunk is a social movement, not just an aesthetic. If you want to make positive change (environmental or otherwise) you need collective action, and understanding the challenges to collective action helps you decide what orgs are worth committing to and see when those orgs have been appropriated.

The other articles in the series are “Widening the We” and “The Growth of Malignant and Exclusionary Social Movements” - linked at the bottom and also worth reading.

  • Cris@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    10 days ago

    That was incredibly dense but a very good read, the idea of the holding environment and “third force” were both really interesting and gave me a lot to think about

    I also really liked this part from the conclusion

    Inclusionary and exclusionary social movements inevitably clash. Every movement, no matter how successful, will at some point meet resistance and experience at least partial reversal. Its goal, then, must be to sustain its period of ascendancy long enough to achieve its principal goals and to embed these so deeply in the social structure that they are irreversible.

    Even in periods when an exclusionary movement dominates, the seeds of a new, inclusionary movement are always sprouting, nurtured by the achievements of the last period of inclusionary dominance. To stay in command of the center long enough to achieve its goals, it needs to maintain a high level of public support. It can only do so if it pays attention to and draws on local knowledge, actively resists co-optation by the Third Force, and takes care not to fall victim to the self-inflicted wounds we detailed above.

    Thank you very much for posting

      • Cris@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        I used to never be the kind of person to click through to the article but since switching to Lemmy I’ve been trying to get better about actually reading the article, and I figure it helps to share my takeaways or excerpts I think folks who don’t read it would appreciate for context or whatever

        I’m really happy to be the kinda person who reads the articles sometimes now ☺️. Hope you have a lovely day!