We need a fundamental shift in our values--a pivot in how we think, act, work, and connect. Despite what we've been told, the most critical mainspring of social change isn't coalition building or problem analysis. It's healing: deep, whole, and systemic, inside and out.
Here, Shawn Ginwright, PhD, breaks down the common myths of social movements--a set of deeply ingrained beliefs that actually hold us back from healing and achieving sustainable systemic change. He shows us why these frames don't work, proposing instead four revolutionary pivots for better activism and collective leadership:
Awareness from lens to mirror
Connection from transactional to transformative relationships
Vision from problem-fixing to possibility-creating
Presence from hustle to flow
Supplemented with reflections, prompts, cutting-edge research, and the author's own insights and lived experience as an African American social scientist, professor, and movement builder, The Four Pivots helps us uncover our obstruction points. It shows us how to discover new lenses and boldly assert our need for connection, transformation, trust, wholeness, and healing. It gives us permission to create a better future--to acknowledge that a broken system has been predefining our dreams and limiting what we allow ourselves to imagine, but that it doesn't have to be that way at all. Are you ready to pivot?
Shawn Ginwright is one of the nation's leading innovators, provocateurs, and thought leaders for youth. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and currently serves as Professor of Education and Africana Studies at San Francisco State University.
- Publisher: North Atlantic Books (January 25, 2022)
- Language: English
- Paperback: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 1623175429
- ISBN-13: 9781623175429
- Item Weight: 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions: 6 x 0.66 x 8.92 inches