In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want.
Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.
I enjoyed many of the ideas and concepts in this book. That said, I didn't find it an easy read. I found much of it disjointed and difficult to focus on the core points. I did enjoy the extensive use of examples from nature to illustrate points, although some don't stand up to too much scrutiny.
My key takeaway was the analogy or natural systems... A bee can't be a bee without flowers, trees, fungi and birds... Successful movements also need to strengthen connections between diverse people and communities, even/especially those who we may disagree with.
Unprincipled, haphazard word salad. Her arguments would have been much, much stronger if she actually included much of the primary source from Octavia Butler that she reports considering having included.
To the extent that this is legible at all, it appears to be some random thoughts along her path from an authoritarian, self-centered “executive” director of a white male hierarchy to a slightly less authoritarian, somehow even more self-centered “executive” director of a more diverse hierarchy.
It’s often not legible, and essentially mystifies where it’s entirely unneeded to do so. It’s like a magician demonstrating bricklaying by waving a wand and then dropping a brick with a thud. Like ok, maybe let’s learn from bricklayers instead? She talks about fractals as a way to encourage non-hierarchical organizing, but why don’t we just look at the practical reality rather than some occult symbolism?
She also has quite a few quotes that …
Unprincipled, haphazard word salad. Her arguments would have been much, much stronger if she actually included much of the primary source from Octavia Butler that she reports considering having included.
To the extent that this is legible at all, it appears to be some random thoughts along her path from an authoritarian, self-centered “executive” director of a white male hierarchy to a slightly less authoritarian, somehow even more self-centered “executive” director of a more diverse hierarchy.
It’s often not legible, and essentially mystifies where it’s entirely unneeded to do so. It’s like a magician demonstrating bricklaying by waving a wand and then dropping a brick with a thud. Like ok, maybe let’s learn from bricklayers instead? She talks about fractals as a way to encourage non-hierarchical organizing, but why don’t we just look at the practical reality rather than some occult symbolism?
She also has quite a few quotes that sound pretty similar to “diverse oppressors,” like when she says leadership needs to be black and female. This makes sense, though, as a black female executive.
Essentially, it’s a laughably indirect, rambling, and inconsistent navel-gazing “look at me I’m so good” story about how she moved an org from being patriarchal and white to being matriarchal and nonwhite. Which, cool if that’s your bag, but it helps pretty much no one else beyond the new matriarch. It’s like hearing someone talk about their bowel movement. Good for you, but explain how that helps anyone else?
An original and fascinating book. You need to let it take you through the process, as it will almost certainly be different than most of what you have read elsewhere, but there is so much to think about and act on inside. Really interesting read.
I am giving this book 5 stars because of how it spoke to my heart, even though I don't think I would unilaterally recommend it to everyone, and it has plenty of flaws from an analytical perspective. But the way it put certain intuitions into words, speaking so powerfully to my desire to be a whole and happy person while also contending with the bleak dystopian present and trying to contribute to meaningful solutions... I needed this book. Maybe you need it, too.
You might especially like this book if: - You are a leader or active member of any organization, whether doing activism, political work, community service, community organizing, or just plain working for a company or institution; - You're an activist who's tired of feeling depressed and burnt out all the time; - You are interested in process and people, and in understanding more clearly how people function …
I am giving this book 5 stars because of how it spoke to my heart, even though I don't think I would unilaterally recommend it to everyone, and it has plenty of flaws from an analytical perspective. But the way it put certain intuitions into words, speaking so powerfully to my desire to be a whole and happy person while also contending with the bleak dystopian present and trying to contribute to meaningful solutions... I needed this book. Maybe you need it, too.
You might especially like this book if: - You are a leader or active member of any organization, whether doing activism, political work, community service, community organizing, or just plain working for a company or institution; - You're an activist who's tired of feeling depressed and burnt out all the time; - You are interested in process and people, and in understanding more clearly how people function as part of processes; - You like metaphors having to do with ecosystems and the natural world; - You like speculative fiction and think it can be a powerful force for imagining better futures for humanity; - You're an Octavia Butler fan; - You don't mind a bit of new-agey "woo" in your books.
This book is both good and boring at the same time, which is a quite interesting and unusual experience for me. Good book because it is full of useful resources and keywords to work with in your own communities. Boring because there is so much "noise" or useless/irrelevant/too personal infos you don't really need to understand the concepts. It takes a lot of space, then you kind of get lost within what is excellent and what's superficial. Sometimes when you disregard the irrelevant infos, you find yourself lacking the core of the concept AMB attempts to talk about, which is probably a bit problematic :D I would still recommend others to read it because I think reading this book helps having good conversations about emergent strategy with the people around you.
It's too early to tell for sure but this book may have changed how I think about organizing. All about how to change ourselves through small simple steps and how that will change our world.
I resisted this book at first, because it contains a lot of the kind of spirituality that strains my comfortable logic zone. But the writing is so also grounded, down to earth, and routed in experience. The core of the book - getting better at the micro and living in worlds of our own imaginations rather than the imaginations of the people who got us into this mess - is so crucial. Regardless of how you feel about her practices and path, it is hard for me to believe that anyone who is not trying to change things has not at some level bumped into the core conflicts that she hones in on in the book. Definitely something folks should read.
