Questions for Planning a Campaign – a worksheet courtesy of the CDC

Doing some research for our book and I came across this worksheet from the Centers for Disease Control. Those who have taken our workshop will be familiar with some of these ideas. This list of questions can help you get started in knowing what decisions you’ll need to be making as you move through the …

Restaurant Calorie Labeling and Obesity: Does it Work?

A 620 calorie Starbucks Venti White Hot Chocolate is over 1/4 your recommended calories for the day1. But would knowing that change what you order? As calories on menus goes nationwide, this New York Times article asks “does it work?” and there are arguments on both sides. “There are very few cases where social scientists …

The future and why we are terrible at predicting it « You Are Not So Smart

I am listening to the You Are Not So Smart Podcast and reminded of how often Stephen Duncombe and I encounter these faulty visions of the future. Thing like “We’ll never be able to do _______.” or “That’s just not going to happen.” come up in our workshops because we all have such a hard …

CAA, YesLab, and Beautiful Trouble work on Action Switchboard

On Feb. 8-9, 2014, the Yes Lab, the Center for Artistic Activism, and Beautiful Trouble conducted a workshop with fifty participants, including members of eight social justice NGOs and a number of NYU students. The eight projects that resulted were posted on the Action Switchboard and will be helped forward by facilitators. Please sign up …

Inside The Box: People don’t actually like creativity

Great article on Slate: In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. …

New Article – Activist Art: Does it Work?

Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert have a new article in Open! Magazine. Activist Art: Does it Work? The first rule of guerilla warfare is to know the terrain and use it to your advantage. The topography on which the activist fights may no longer be the mountains of the Sierra Maestra or the jungles of …

2013 Lone Star State School for Creative Activism participants announced

Marianela Acuña Arreaza Marianela is a budding community organizer, social researcher and educator. She was born and raised in Venezuela, and she a recent immigrant to the US. Marianela studied Sociology and Arts at the University of Houston. Her research experience is mostly on social inequalities, labor, gender, and social movements, mostly through qualitative and participatory research. While in college, Marianela was a student …

Narrative, comedy, and a message: The Internet Must Go

In 2012, market researcher John Wooley was dispatched to help the big ISPs figure out how to sell their vision for a “faster,” “cleaner” Internet.  Six months later he produced this report — and shared it with the world. A great example of using comedy to play the villain, a great narrative, and still able …

Are you an overworked activist?

“The enemy often tries to make us attempt and start many projects so that we will be overwhelmed with too many tasks, and therefore achieve nothing and leave everything unfinished. Sometimes he even suggests the wish to undertake some excellent work that he foresees we will never accomplish. This is to distract us from the …

Activists: Four 20 minute steps for online privacy and security

The recent reports on the spying programs of phone records and internet activity is unsettling, but no surprise for some of us. Our School for Creative Activism in May was with Muslim-American activists unfairly surveilled by the NYPD. Sweeping surveillance is lazy police work, and the side effects are damaging to society. So what can …