Project Status
Analytical Activism (AA) is the title of a book in progress.
The manuscript is complete. 18 out of 18 chapters are done.
The manuscript is now undergoing critical feedback. If
you would like to participate, contact us to request a printed
copy or download and print the manuscript, read it carefully
while taking thoughtful notes, and then share your suggestions
and insights with us on the forum. This can be done as you
go or after you've read the entire book.
Please note that
the much
shorter book on the Dueling Loops is a better
first read. Most readers find the AA book large and intimidating
at first. But as they read more of it, they slip into its new
way of thinking and become a bit more enthusiastic.
The quickest way to find out what the AA book has to offer is
the Introduction to
the New Paradigm. This is followed by the three parts
of the book:
Part one explains "How the Environmental Movement
Can Find Its Way Again." It illustrates how the Analytical
Method is fully capable of solving the global environmental
sustainability problem, if applied correctly over a long period
of time. Compared to the eight chapters of part two, the three
chapters of part one are a shorter and easier read.
Part two, titled "First Things First: Solving
the Transformation Problem," deals with how we can find
our way again by transforming the environmental movement from
Classic to Analytical Activism. How to do that is the transformation
problem, which is solved (we hope) using the four steps of
the System Improvement Process. As part two goes along it presents
a suite of powerful problem tools that anyone can learn today
and apply tomorrow, with one exception: modeling. That takes
a little longer. The most incredible section in part two is
the eight pages of The Powell Memo.
To read part two or part three, click on Complete Manuscript.
Part three is titled "Now We Are Ready: Solving
the Sustainability Problem." Now that we have the ready
in ready, aim, fire, how can a newly transformed environmental
movement begin to solve the sustainability problem? Part three
shows where the analysis and solution might lead, by presenting
examples of work that has already occurred. Part three is concerned
with the practical application of the tools presented in part
two, such as how experimentation can begin, what the key social
structure may turn out to be, solution factories, etc. The
highlight of part three is the analysis of the social structure
that appears to be causing such large resistance to solving
the sustainability problem. This structure is The
Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace.
Analytical Activism centers upon following a process that
fits the problem and applying the Scientific Method to solving
real, pressing problems. Once you begin using it, most of your
time will go to analyzing problems to create hypotheses and
running experiments to test those hypotheses. Of these two,
experimentation takes far and away the most time. It's the "99%
perspiration" that Thomas Edison knew was so essential
to inventing new ways that work.
The Next Step
Once this manuscript becomes reasonably
mature, the next step is to begin experimentation. There will
be a large backlog of experiments needing to be run. These
will test two main things: how correct is the analysis and
how promising are the solution elements? Running these experiments
will not only produce new, reliable knowledge that will make
a difference; it will also introduce environmentalists to an
entirely new way of thwinking.
