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If you care about changing society, focus on strengths

Asking “What is wrong with our community?” will produce quite different answers to asking, “What would our ideal community be like?”

Published:
//www.healthesoilcsa.org.
//www.healthesoilcsa.org.

Permaculture in Auroville, India, created by the Transition movement. Credit: http://www.healthesoilcsa.org.

Social movements, including those opposing globalisation, environmental destruction and racism, typically start with a problem; a sense that things aren’t right and that change is needed. Often, they are fed by anger at the injustice, the violence or the environmental destruction surrounding us. They are often premised on struggle and resistance. 

In 2009, after both my daughters had started school, I was ready to become involved in social change groups again. A few years earlier I had become immersed in strengths-based approaches to working with communities and wanted to explore this approach in the context of social change.