Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher & Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Patton

As the titles suggest, both these books are written for the would-be world-saver, who sees a problem and feels compelled to be involved in the solution. They are both also distinctly written from a left-leaning point of view, with examples and causes drawn from the environmental and social justice movements. Both are useful, interesting and potentially inspiring, but intended to be used in different ways.

Writing to Change the World was my first purchase, an Amazon order back in April when it was released. Believe it or not, I've been meaning to write about it ever since, but it never managed to float to the top of the blog to-do list.

Pipher's book is for those who believe that changing someone's perspective is changing the world, and that if a writer's words can alter even by a millimetre the way the world is seen, then that writer has changed the world. It's divided into three sections: What We Alone Can Say (how to find and connect with your own material and point of view), The Writing Process (the ins and outs of writing to argue a point and change the reader's mind), and Calls to Action (with a chapter each on letters, speeches, blogs and other particular forms of writing). The first two sections were the strongest; based on her own experiences as an author of books about various social issues and which methods and techniques were successful vs. which weren't, there were a number of useful insights and ideas. The third section was, unfortunately, weaker. Each chapter was too brief to contain enough useful detail on how to use particular writing methods to achieve particular aims. For instance, the chapter on blogging conveyed little beyond the standard pro-blogging the-internet-is-inherently-radical-and-democratic rhetoric that many of us know is untrue. There's little about how to use a blog to change people's minds, including the ever-pressing issue of finding and connecting with an audience who doesn't already agree with you, and while there are several examples of unusual points-of-view conveyed movingly on blogs, there are few examples of how those writers changed policy or voting patterns or news reporting or, indeed, anything concrete.

Still, the content of the first two sections is solid and unique enough to more than make up for the third.

Getting to Maybe is a more difficult book to characterize. The authors are three experts in the field of social innovation, which could be defined as the creation of a business model or organization or process that changes the underlying societal structures that perpetuate inequality or environmental destruction. For example, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh pioneered a new concept of credit which allowed them to lend money to high-risk, very poor women at much lower interest rates and still make a profit. The result was a new credit system that has allowed, in the thirty years this idea has spread globally, millions of women to escape the cycle of high-interest credit that kept them in poverty. If you are familiar with The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's book on how small ideas and seemingly inconsequential products can become overnight marketing sensations, this book is The Tipping Point of the Social Justice movement. How can one person, or a small group of people, change the world for the better?

However, their ideas are complicated and difficult to communicate. I don't mean this as a criticism; I think it's probably inevitable. Changing the world as one person isn't easy. If it were, we'd all be doing it already. They base their model on complexity theory, and this is where your head is starting to hurt, isn't it? I know, and I wish I could make that better, but to get it I really think you have to read the book. It's equally inspiring and frustrating. There are no ten easy steps, no checklists, no summary charts; there are dozens of stories of individuals and small groups who effected enormous societal change through a new idea at the right time.

For those of you not particularly interested in world-saving, or who like to make the world a better place through participating in someone else's bright ideas, these are probably not the right books for you. This isn't meant dismissively, but they are both directed towards leaders, whether leaders of opinion or leaders of actual organizations. Having written that it seems somehow ludicrous to count myself among the audience. But for those of you in whom the daily news creates a desperate need to do something that isn't already being done, either book will fill you with hope and good ideas, depending on how you like your activism.

Posted by Andrea at November 22, 2006 7:15 AM under Books

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