Resource List

Which books to read?

You are not expected to read all or any of these books. This is a list of the most important books pertinent to different areas of the organisation. You may wish to pick a book to read during your time here. It may or not may not be appropriate to read it during working hours. Refer to what you can do in your role to figure this out.

Culture

Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm by Kazu Haga. An excellent introduction to Kingian Nonviolence which shows how a principled approach to nonviolence can not only transform unjust systems but can also reconcile broken relationships.

The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups by Starhawk. A comprehensive manual for groups who want to organise with shared power and distributed leadership, drawing on the author’s decades of experience with activist and other groups.

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle. An examination of the key skills and behaviours that support group cooperation and a guide to building more effective and happier teams.

Social Movement Building

This is an Uprising by Paul & Mark Engler. A comprehensive theory of Momentum Organising grounded in academic literature and observations of countless successful social uprisings. The first 2 chapters are a bit dry.

Hegemony: How To by Jonathan Smucker. How to get out of the activist bubble and engage the population to build a broad mass movement. An excellent critique of where much activism and Direct Action goes wrong.

Organisation Building

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins. A practical guide grounded in extensive research into practices that build successful and resilient companies.

Good to Great by Jim Collins. Likewise grounded in extensive research into the most successful companies, this text looks into what it is that makes them exceptional, allowing them to achieve greatness over their competitors.

Narrative

RE: Imagining Change by Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough. how to frame your demand to persuade the public

Strategy

There is a wealth of resources and materials available on non-violent strategy for social change, below are some key ones:

• How to Win by Roger Hallam (available here)

• Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt

• Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth (YouTube summary available here)

Leadership Development

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown. This is a guide to developing brave leaders and courageous cultures through learning the four skill sets of daring leadership.

Leadership and The New Science by Margaret J. Wheatley discusses a style of shared leadership.

How Organisations Develop Activists by Hahrie Han. A book which looks deeply into building leadership and encourages volunteers to take on high levels of responsibility and be transformed through the process.

Ethics and Ideology

An Unnatural Order by Jim Mason. This text explores the roots and development of civilisation, in particular Western society, detailing the basic separation of humans from nature and how this has impacted our culture, philosophy, and ideology. Mason introduced key terms like 'misothery' and 'dominionism' to help discuss and address the issues faced within contemporary society as systemic injustices.

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