Movement Ecology Resources

Social Movements and Movement Ecology

• ULEX, Sustaining the Climate Justice Movement: A Psychosocial Resilience and Regenerative Activism Training Manual
• Adams (2022), “Mapping the UK climate movement”
• Cox (2018), Why Social Movements Matter
• Holling (2001), “Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems”
• Nunes (2021), Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization
• Tufekci (2017), Twitter and Tear Gas
• ULEX, The Ecology of Social Movements (Highly recommended course by the Ulex Project that sparked the initial conversations leading up to creation of the Movement Ecology Collective.)
• Wright (2010), Envisioning Real Utopias

Hegemony

• Cox (2024), “Social movements and hegemonic struggle”
• Gramsci (1947), Prison Notebooks (This is not easy to read because he wrote while in prison and his letters were censored by the police.)
• Hoare & Sperber (2016), An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci (clarifying essential concepts, e.g. “common” and “good sense”)
• Michael Mezz: An academic sharing short videos about hegemonic narratives and cultural hegemony, e.g. on why people brag about working long hours.
• Perez (2004), “Finance and technical change: A long-term view” (Explains the dynamics of the techno-economic paradigms that underpin successive hegemonic regimes)
• Williams (2008), Political Hegemony and Social Complexity: Mechanisms of Power After Gramsci
• Williams & Gilbert (2022), Hegemony Now: How Wall Street and Big Tech Won the World

Complexity

• Boulton, Allen, Bowman (2015), Embracing Complexity: Strategic Perspectives for an Age of Turbulence
• Case (2018), “Attractor Landscapes” (A fun, interactive online visualisation)
• Constraint Mapping:
  • Estuarine framework wiki
  • Snowden (2022), “Estuarine Mapping, some additions”
• Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework
• Doyle (2022), “Vector theory of change”
• Sapolsky (2010), “Chaos and Reductionism” and “Emergence and Complexity” (Lectures)
• Valente (2017), “Complexity theories and Systems Thinking: parallels and differences”

Movement Culture

• Machado de Oliveira (2021), Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism
• Lawson (2021), The Entangled Activist: Learning to Recognise the Master’s Tools
• The “Triangle of Love & Hate” we use in the course is listed as “Exploring an Ecology Of Strategies Activity” in the Psychosocial Resilience and Regenerative Activism Training Manual.

Disrupting Hegemonic Relationships

• Popular education
  • Gahman (2016), “Dismantling neoliberal education: a lesson from the Zapatistas”
  • Hope & Timmel (1984), Training for Transformation
  • The Trapese Collective (2007), Do It Yourself: A Handbook for Changing Our World
• Meeting our own needs
  • Anti-Raids Network: “Man released on bail after protesters block police van”
  • Black Panthers’ Breakfast Programme
  • Cooperation Jackson: Video
  • Rojava protecting villages from ISIS:
    • Knapp, Flach, Ayboga (2016), Revolution in Rojava
    • Make Rojava Green Again
    • “The Rojava Revolution - A Decade On (Part 1”)
  • Spade (2020), Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)

Identities (Movement Psychology)

• Munson (2009), The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works (Summary article) (NB: We are pro-choice, AND we believe we should learn from any successful movement tactics given they don’t violate our principles.)
• Powerlabs, “Thriving Together: Boosting the well-being and performance of members and volunteers through the science of motivation” (Webinar)

Where to get books

• Bookshop UK: Independent online platform supportinhg local booksellers
• Biblio and WorldOfBooks are good for getting second-hand books.
• Anna’s Archive has downloadable EPUBs and PDFs. You can download EPUB reader apps for free. If you can, please donate directly to the author.