Changing Hearts & Minds with Sense and Solidarity
Thursday November 14th - Sunday November 17th
Last few places.
Why are so many people apathetic and defeated? How can we bring more people into our movements? Why do we burn out, fall apart and split? (And can we avoid it?)
Join us for a three and a half day workshop with Sarah Stein Lubrano and Max Haiven of Sense and Solidarity, and grapple with some of the toughest challenges in organising and activism.
Using Sense and Solidarity’s signature mix of psychological insight, radical imagination and strategy, we’ll explore how to make best use of our limited resources, overcome fear and factionalism, build solidarity and mobilise others.
We have a maximum of 25 spaces for this event, which will include a mix of succinct lectures, focused seminar-style discussions, experience sharing, creative exercises and role-play.
Together, we’ll learn what does and does not change people’s minds (hint: actions over words), how to be strategic about whose hearts and minds we want to change (it can’t be everyone); how to work with common fears, anxieties and antagonism; how and when activism can provide a welcoming community (and when it shouldn't); how to disrupt and divide our opponents and recognise when they’re doing the same. And much much more.
Find out more and register via Sense and Solidarity's website.
THE WORKSHOP
This workshop will provide a space for new and established educators, activists, artists, thinkers and organisers to assemble, share resources, and inquire into topics including (but not limited to):
- How can we use psychological insights to help people actively care and organise around issues like the climate and ecological breakdown, mobilise others, keep up momentum, and build solidarity?
- How can we see (the good kind of) emancipatory social change within our lifetimes?
- How can we create arguments and infrastructures to change hearts and minds and overcome fatalism, fear and factionalism?
- How can we strategise to make the best use of our very limited resources and energies?
- How can we cultivate the radical imagination in ourselves and those around us?
- How can we avoid burning out?
It will draw on and combine:
- The intergenerational wisdom and best-practices of social movements
- Critical theories of ideology that analyse the way power shapes our feelings and imaginations
- Recent insights from the cognitive sciences into things like unconscious patterns, cognitive dissonance, the impact of social bonds, social media and more.
FULL SCHEDULE
Thursday, November 14 – Public event
- Evening meet-and-greet
- Evening public Kairos event: “Has the radical imagination failed?" with Max Haiven (free entry for workshop participants)
- Dinner and discussion
Friday, November 15 – Workshop day
- Cognitive dissonance and why it matters for organisers
- How to convince an asshole (and when not to)
- Taking care and (not) giving up
Saturday, November 16 – Workshop day and public event
- Actions, not words (and also sometimes words)
- Cultivating the radical imagination
- Afternoon public Kairos event: Podcast launch and live recording of “What Do We Want?", a podcast about the all-too-human side of organising for collective liberation (free entry for workshop participants)
- Socialising with comrades
Sunday, November 17 – Workshop day
- Staying in the fight for the long haul
- Making spaces for critical learning and reflection
- Creative activism (and its discontents)
COSTS
For the three and a half day event, which includes lunch each day, entry costs:
- £120 standard fee for individuals
- £220 for supporters and those with institutional support
- £90 for those on low incomes and Kairos members
- There are also modest subsidies to help cover part of the costs for those who otherwise cannot afford to participate, or who need assistance (eg. childcare) – please include this in the application form.
- Fees can be paid in November
While applicants may propose coming to only a few of the sessions, preference will be given to those who wish to attend all. Please note that there will a small fee for the public events (on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon) for those not attending the entire workshop.
REGISTRATION
Find out more and register via Sense and Solidarity's website.
ABOUT SENSE AND SOLIDARITY
Led by Sarah Stein Lubrano and Max Haiven, Sense and Solidarity is a platform where people who want to radically change the world can learn together and build individual and collective capacity. Building on Sarah’s focus on cognitive dissonance and ideology and Max’s focus on social movements and the radical imagination, Sense & Solidarity aims to create bridges between critical theory and activism and organising. It produces media (podcasts, toolkits, etc.), hosts in-person workshops and online courses, organises writing retreats, and otherwise seeks to build community and grassroots power. For more information visit Sense and Solidarity’s website.
Kairos, 84 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TG
Thursday November 14th - Sunday November 17th