At the intersection of power and social change are questions about using power responsibly, holding individuals and institutions accountable, and addressing power structures that reinforce systems of inequity. Understanding these dynamics will inform the day-to-day work of social sector leaders and help them shape the future of social innovation.
The 2022 Frontiers of Social Innovation conference, “Power at Play in Social Change,” is being convened online March 22-24 and will use power as a lens to examine the strategies and practices commonly used, and still emerging, in the field of social innovation today.
This reading list explores topics related to each session of the conference, including shifts in power, place-based social change, citizen/government collaboration, changes in philanthropy, and public interest technology. If you’re joining the conference, these articles may serve as a foundation for the discussions to come. If you’re unable to attend, we hope they are a valuable resource for conversations happening across the field.
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Power for All: Harnessing Power for Positive Impact
Harvard Professor and co-author of the book Power for All Julie Battilana and SSIR Academic Editor Johanna Mair will discuss the fundamentals of power, debunk the common myths surrounding it, and discuss how to harness power for positive impact in our lives and in the world.
- Problems of Power by Hahrie Han
- Wielding Power With Community: Creating Pathways for Change and Transformation by Linda S. Campbell
- Workplace Power by Andrea Dehlendorf & Michelle Miller
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Redefining Power: The Emerging Field That Puts the Public Interest in Front of Technology
Jenny Toomey of the Ford Foundation, Charlton McIlwain of NYU, and Hana Schank of New America, will explore ways in which public interest technology is making critical contributions to designing systems that are more equitable than those commonly used today and help expose the power dynamics at play in the current tech field.
- Web3 and the Trap of ‘For Good’ by Scott Smith & Lina Srivastava
- Improving Diversity in Tech With Smarter Investments in Higher Education by Dwana Franklin-Davis & Kinnis Gosha
- Social-Tech Entrepreneurs: Building Blocks of a New Social Economy by Mario Calderini, Veronica Chiodo, Francesco Gerli & Giulio Pasi
- Investing in AI for Good by Ben Brockman, Skye Hersh, Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, Florian Maganza & Micah Berman
The Good Lobbying Movement: Reclaiming Lobbying as a Social Innovation Practice
Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of Law & Public Policy at HEC Paris, will discuss today’s negative conception of lobbying in an attempt at unleashing its social change potential.
- Learn to Love Lobbying by Dwana Franklin-Davis & Kinnis Gosha
- Getting Political Is Good for Everyone by Bill Shore
- A Crack Opens in the False Narrative on Gun Violence by Kevin T. Kirkpatrick
Trust Between Government and Citizens: The Key to Responsiveness?
Jasmina Haynes of Integrity Action, Arman Azizyan of the Armavir Development Center, and Aidan Eyakuze of Twaweza East Africa will explore how we can scale up citizen/government collaborations from problem-solving within communities to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing societies, such as COVID-19 and climate change—moving from a transactional social contract to a collaborative “social compact.”
- Co-Creation in Government by Francis Gouillart & Tina Hallett (Available to SSIR print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
- A Strategic Plan to Rebalance Power in Fresno for Inclusive and Equitable Growth by Chantel Rush, Joseph Schilling & Gretchen Moore
- Codesigning Better Futures With Citizens by Philippe Coullomb (Available to SSIR print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
Tackling Income and Wealth Inequality: In Conversation With La June Montgomery Tabron
La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Eric Nee, editor in chief of SSIR, will discuss income and wealth inequality, what interventions are working and what are not, what the Kellogg Foundation is doing to address this problem, and what it has learned that other organizations might benefit from.
- Podcast: Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders—Economic Opportunity in America (featuring La June Montgomery and Larry Kramer)
- Expanding Opportunity in the Capital Markets Through Racial Equity by La June Montgomery Tabron
- Building an American Ownership Society by Elwood M. Hopkins (Available to SSIR print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
- Democratize the Economy by Felicia Wong, K. Sabeel Rahman & Dorian Warren
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Race to Power: Dismantling Global White Privilege
Chandran Nair, founder and CEO of Global Institute For Tomorrow, will lead this session inspired by his most recent book: Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World. Nair, who resides in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, will discuss white privilege’s pervasive global reach and aims to create a new space for discourse on worldwide racial equality.
- Excerpt from Dismantling Global White Privilege by Chandran Nair
- In-Depth Series: This Is What Racism Looks Like
Funding BIPOC Communities Through Intermediaries—The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This session, moderated by Aaron Dorfman of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, will explore the forces driving the trend to fund communities through intermediaries and dig into the benefits—and the potential disadvantages. Panelists include: Crystal Hayling of The Libra Foundation and Democracy Frontlines Fund, Michael Roberts of the First Nations Development Institute, and Gloria Walton of The Solutions Project.
- Overcoming the Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding by Cheryl Dorsey, Peter Kim, Cora Daniels, Lyell Sakaue & Britt Savage
- Roles Foundations Play in Shaping Impact Investing by David Wood
- Effective Change Requires Proximate Leaders by Angela Jackson, John Kania & Tulaine Montgomery
Shifting Power Through Place-Based, Community-Governed Investments
In this session, presenters Andrea Armeni of Transform Finance, Aditi Vaidya of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Aaron Tanaka of Center for Economic Democracy will showcase community-engaged approaches—ranging from direct democratic voting over investments to having community representatives on boards—and their potential to create social change.
- Participatory Grantmaking Is Your Future by Nikki Brown-Booker
- Shifting Power to Communities in Grant Funding by Rodney Foxworth & Marcus Haymon
- Shifting Philanthropic Power by Alyssa Haywoode (Available to SSIR print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
Envisioning an Equitable Future—Sustainable Funding for BIPOC-Led Social Change
In this session, Darren Isom of The Bridgespan Group, Lyell Sakaue of The Bridgespan Group, and Tarik Ward of the ELMA Philanthropies Services will facilitate a group reflection on a future in which BIPOC-led efforts to build racially equitable systems are abundantly resourced and deliver impact for all of us.
- Endow Black-Led Nonprofits by William Foster & Darren Isom
- Making Big Bets for Social Change by William Foster, Gail Perreault, Alison Powell, & Chris Addy
- Transformative Philanthropy for Racial Justice by Crystal Hayling
How Restorative Economics Can Lead Us Towards a Just Transition
Nwamaka Agbo, CEO of the Kataly Foundation and managing director of the Restorative Economies Fund, will share her restorative economics framework and its origin story as a tool she created to guide her own movement building work.
- Scaling Community Finance to Fill a Growing Market Gap by Beth Bafford & Patrick Davis
- The Vision of a Well-Being Economy by Anna Chrysopoulou
Trust-Based Philanthropy in Practice: In Conversation With Rohini Nilekani
In conversation with Stanford PACS executive director Priya Shanker, Rohini Nilekani, a noted activist, writer, and philanthropist whose foundation, Nilekani Philanthropies, is located in Bangalore, will share her thinking on the role of trust-based philanthropy in building effective and ethical solutions to social and environmental challenges.
- Building a Trust-Based Philanthropy to Shift Power Back to Communities by Nate Wong & Andrea McGrath
- How Funders of Collective Impact Initiatives Can Build Trust by Victor Tavarez, John Harper & Fay Hanleybrown
- A Call-In to Grow Indigenous Power by Michael Johnson & Angie Chen
- Q&A With Rohini Nilekani
Register for 2022 Frontiers of Social Innovation
From Hunger to Health: Democratizing Development With Data
Drawing on data-driven innovations in global health and hunger as a lens for examining broader issues of power and social change across the philanthropic sector, Action Against Hunger Canada CEO Onome Ako will lead this session featuring speakers Hajir Maalim, regional director for the Horn and Eastern Africa; Heather Stobaugh, senior research and learning specialist; and América R. Arias Antón, country director for Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay.
- A Digital Lifeline in a Public Health Crisis by Alex Robinson & Rakib Avi
- Community-Defined Evidence as a Framework for Equitable Implementation by Linda M. Callejas, Gilberto Perez Jr. & Francisco J. Limon
- Finding the ‘True Value’ of Food Can Drive Innovation Across Sectors by Alexander Müller & Ruth Richardson
To Unlock the Power of Data, First Build Trust
Data holds the power to tackle society’s greatest challenges and improve lives across the globe. Ginger Zielinskie of data.org, Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup of the National Alliance Against Disparities in Patient Health, and Rey Faustino of Alluma will share the findings of RECoDE, the Rising Equitable Community Data Ecosystems project. The panelists will discuss the impetus for the project, which reached nearly 500 people through a series of surveys, interviews, and convenings; the thought behind the novel methodology; and the potential impact of their real-world application.
- Creating a Data Culture by Kathleen Kelly Janus
- Decolonize Data by Nithya Ramanathan, Jim Fruchterman, Amy Fowler & Gabriele Carotti-Sha (Available to print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
- How Philanthropy Can Help Lead on Data Justice by Louise Lief
Bolstering Fragile Neighborhoods: How ‘Going Local’ Helps Disadvantaged Americans
Seth Kaplan, professorial lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, will moderate this session featuring Geoffrey Canada, president of Harlem Children’s Zone; Othello Meadows, managing director, Portfolio Strategy & Initiatives at the Blue Meridian Partners; and Shirley Franklin, the 58th mayor of the City of Atlanta. They will explore the idea that a “prevention society”—a strong society that supports and advances all its members—is only possible when philanthropists, policymakers, and local leaders collaborate across sectors to catalyze lasting change.
- Place-Based Strategies for Reviving America by Seth D. Kaplan
- The Importance of Place by Jennifer Blatz & Geoffrey Canada
- Reflecting on Collective Impact for Place-Based Social Change by Melody Barnes, Jennifer Blatz, Geoffrey Canada, Rosanne Haggerty & Erik Stegman
Workplace Democracy Doesn’t Happen by Accident: Collective Bargaining as a Powerful Tool
Sarita Gupta of the Ford Foundation and Erica Smiley of Jobs With Justice will explore case studies and theories around collective bargaining in the workforce, focusing heavily on dismantling white supremacy and gender discrimination culture in the labor force and in approaches to building worker power.
- The Power of Collective Bargaining by Tim Keary(Available to SSIR print and digital subscribers only. Subscribe here for access.)
- Reversing Income Inequality by Jane McAlevey
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