from Andrea J. Ritchie, ed.

,
Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies
(AK Press, 2023) [print edition pages 55– 87]

VISIONARY PRACTICE: To Build a Future Without art (speculative fiction, horror, magical realism, fantasy, etc.) that
might aid in creating social change and a way to differentiate between
Police and Prisons, We Have to Imagine It First more mainstream science fiction that most often reproduces
reactionary or society’s dominant politics.
by Walidah Imarisha
Visionary fiction is not utopian. It does not imagine perfect
societies, because, while utopias can be useful as thought
In this essay, Walidah Imarisha emphasizes the critical role of experiments, we know there are no true utopias, or for that matter
fostering spaces for imagination in abolitionist organizing, as well as dystopias, in reality. As visionary fiction writer Octavia E. Butler once
the role emergent strategies can play in visioning new futures. She said, “I find utopias ridiculous. We’re not going to have a perfect
also introduces the Wakanda Dream Lab anthology Black Freedom society until we get a few perfect humans, and that seems unlikely.”
Beyond Borders: Memories of Abolition Day from which several Conversely, as long as even one person can imagine something
pieces of abolitionist visionary fiction reprinted throughout this book different, there are no true dystopias because the possibility for
are drawn. The essay closes with an invitation to readers practice change is ever-present. Instead, visionary fiction is any fantastical art
dreaming worlds without the violence of policing or punishment by that helps us to understand existing power structures and supports us
responding to a simple writing prompt. in imagining ways to build more just futures.
Grab a piece of paper or open a new document on your computer, To do that, visionary fiction demands us to be unrealistic in our
and join in. visions of the future because all real, substantive social change has
I have been a prison abolitionist for almost twenty years. I have been considered to be unrealistic at the time people fought for it—
held firm to the belief that prisons, policing, and all parts of the until those people changed the world to make it happen. With
carceral system have made us less safe, less free, and less human. visionary fiction, we start with the question What is the world we
That we can create community-based institutions to address harm want? rather than What is a win that is possible and realistic?
and hold people accountable that focus on healing, transformation, We can’t build what we can’t imagine, so it is imperative for us to
and wholeness, rather than punishment and control. This is also why, create spaces that allow us to infinitely stretch our understanding of
for ten years, I have created, nurtured, and taught a practice called what’s possible. Famed sci-fi/fantasy writer and thinker Ursula K. Le
visionary fiction—a means of imagining better, more just futures and Guin said in her 2014 National Book Award acceptance speech, “We
then doing the work of building them into reality—and why I hope we live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the
will embrace it today. divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed
A lifelong nerd, I began to see that not only could science and by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very
speculative fiction coexist with social change, but they were intricately often in our art, the art of words.”1 This is why visionary fiction and
connected. I recognized the need for spaces, both real-world and other imaginative spaces are key to true liberatory change: because
digital, that allow us to imagine beyond the limits of what we are told we must be able to imagine something different before we can build
is possible if we are to build liberated futures. I used the term it, and we have lived all of our lives within systems that tell us radical
“visionary fiction” for the first time in a 2010 issue of Left Turn change is an impossibility.
magazine where I guest-edited a section called “Other Worlds Are Visionary fiction pairs perfectly with the abolition movement, as we
Possible.” Visionary fiction is fundamentally concerned with how we have all grown up in a society that has told us society would collapse
reshape this world: it’s an all-encompassing term for any fantastical
without police and prisons. The idea that a prison- and police-free While it may feel like we warped into the future, this moment and
society might not only be possible but flourish has been mostly this movement did not arise out of nowhere. It came from decades of
absent from mainstream discourse—even as it has been held and folks who have been imagining, dreaming, writing, and organizing for
nurtured and explored by so many, especially Black women and trans something they were told again and again was impossible. Until
folks of color. It was considered a fantastical idea that belonged in the suddenly it was not only possible—it felt almost inevitable.
realm of science fiction, not reality. This is why we must dream beyond what we are told is possible or
And then everything changed. realistic. Because we have the power collectively to change what is
In 2020, we saw a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests rise up possible, to lay strong foundations so that when a moment like this
across the nation, this time centered in the framework of “Defund the arises, we are ready to take advantage of it. Folks like Angela Davis
Police.” The question of what that meant, exactly, quickly arose, and Ruthie Gilmore and INCITE! and Mariame Kaba and the Black
along with a host of responses that ranged from surface reform to Panther Party and countless others held this work for decades until
radical transformation of abolition. City councils across the country we as a whole were ready for it.
voted to reduce, in some cases by millions of dollars, police budgets Police abolition has been held for generations and centuries. From
and redirect those resources to communities of color. And yet enslaved Black folks being told freedom and an end to chattel slavery
protests continued in the streets, folks organized online, demanding was an impossibility, down to the civil rights era and the Black
more. Protesters and organizers challenged the foundations of the liberation era, the Black freedom struggle has always understood that
institution of policing itself, and said that abolition, and reinvesting true liberation for us would always be framed as science fiction by the
those funds into marginalized and oppressed communities, is the real mainstream.
justice we are demanding for those murdered by police. Even the phrase “Black lives matter” is visionary fiction, and a gift to
Minneapolis was the epicenter of this iteration of the Black Lives us from the three Black women/femmes—Alicia Garza, Patrisse
Matter (BLM) movement. Why Minneapolis? Because of all the police Cullors, and Opal Tometi—who coined it, and the countless others
reforms of the past that changed nothing.2 Folks realized the issue is who have breathed and continue to breathe life into it. A few years
systemic, not surface. Minneapolis and other cities had done ago, BLM put out a call to answer the prompt, “In a world where Black
everything possible under reform, and the issue had not lives matter, I imagine . . . ” an immense gift to make concrete our
fundamentally changed. imaginings, so they are not just vague ether but tangible things we
So, it was time to do the “impossible.” can see and embody and fight for. That prompt made explicit that all
I watched in amazement as activists successfully called for the of it was visionary fiction in action.
defunding and redistribution of the entire Minneapolis Police This is the challenge of true liberatory movements—we critique and
Department budget, seeing the stuff of futuristic science fiction fight against what exists, but we take on the responsibility of
quickly become our lived reality and part of our political landscape. stretching beyond the now, beyond what we have seen and felt and
The fact that it was happening in the midst of a global pandemic heard, to root in a shared vision of true liberation. And then we do the
blended the horror with the visionary. And while Minneapolis’ City work of building that into existence.
Council is now backtracking on their original commitment, it does not In 2015, I coedited Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from
take away from the abolitionist organizing and protests that continue Social Justice Movements along with adrienne maree brown.4 It is a
unabated till today.3 collection named in honor of sci-fi writer Octavia E. Butler, and it
contains visionary fiction short stories written by organizers, activists, of tactics and strategies. One of the ways movements are made to
and changemakers. adrienne and I reached out to folks—many of fail is that they are pressed into fighting each other over what is the
whom had not written fiction, let alone science fiction—who were “right” way to struggle and to create change. We cannot allow the
holding the visions of the future we longed for. very people we are fighting to decide what is a “good” protester or a
We knew they would create compelling and rich worlds that would “bad” protester, what the acceptable avenues for change are, how we
help us build better futures because the premise for Octavia’s reshape the world. When we are rooted in a shared vision and shared
Brood is that all organizing is science fiction. Every time we imagine a principles and values, there is space for all our imaginings. We live in
world without prisons, without police, without borders, without a quantum multiverse where everything that can happen
oppressions, that’s sci-fi—because we’ve never seen it in our reality. does/has/will, where time is not linear and exists layered upon itself.
But we can’t build what we can’t imagine, so we absolutely need So how do we engage in quantum organizing that roots in the
imaginative spaces like sci-fi that allow us to dream. abundance of futures and presents?
During the pandemic, we have continued holding visionary events There is an absolute necessity in looking historically, presently, and
and workshops—virtually, adapting the in-person interactions for our futuristically for rebellion, for radical struggle, and—most of all—for
current remote age. One example is a presentation and conversation unity.
I called “Better Futures: Visioning in a Time of Crisis,” which left If we embrace all of this, we can change the world. We know this
space for those attending—around five hundred—to collectively because we have already done it. To everyone who has been in the
vision a poem about what a liberated world will be like.5 streets, who has struggled on every level, you have already changed
This is the time to be unrealistic in our demands for change. We are the world. Every generation born after this one will see abolition of
told repeatedly we need to be realistic, but that is just another method police and carceral systems as a real, viable option. It may be
of social control. We are told true liberation is an impossible dream by maligned and degraded, but it will be debated as a real possibility, not
the powers that be, over and over again, because us believing that it as the stuff of fantasy.
is an impossible dream is the only thing between here and the new, That is a huge cultural shift and a win. We must remember that as
just futures we want. we continue to struggle for institutional and systemic change because
The more scared we are, the more in crisis, the more we are told to all of those struggles are connected and important. In the moment,
pull back. But this is the time when anything and everything can when our focus is explicitly on abolishing the police, we may lose
change. Let our imaginations grow as large as galaxies. sight of this. Even if we don’t win everything we want now, we are still
And then we have to do the work of building those freedom winning. Cultural critic and author Jeff Chang has said we often focus
ideations into existence. It is not enough to just dream and envision, on political change, on events when discussing change, but that
we have to roll up our sleeves and dig in. My coeditor adrienne’s work cultural shifts are key to real systemic transformational change, and
on Emergent Strategy, for example, is a vision for organizing that that culture is the purview of artists: “Cultural change always
focuses on adaptation and creativity and imagination, is connected to precedes political change.”6
the concept of visionary fiction—you could say the ideas grew up It is not an either/or. Again, part of visionary fiction and visionary
together. One of the principles she discusses is being generative, organizing is embracing a quantum framework and recognizing the
creating more possibilities and entry points. multiplicities of our movements. There is room for us to celebrate
Every successful movement for social change has used a diversity movement forward even as we work harder to create the futures of
our dreams. grief into action, loss into light, trauma into triumph. So, let’s keep
I was lucky enough to be part of a new Black multimedia abolitionist pulling liberated futures into the present over and over again until we
sci-fi anthology called Memories of Abolition Day, put out by reach the day when that’s all there is.
Wakanda Dream Lab and PolicyLink.7 This radical worldbuilding
A Visionary Fiction Prompt for 2020:
project embodies that notion of Black liberation and quantum
organizing both in content and process. In June [2020], a group of As part of my work with Octavia’s Brood, I have worked with many
Black creators assembled remotely during a global pandemic and wonderful folks—especially Octavia’s Brood writer Morrigan Phillips
collectively imagined an abolitionist world. Then we each wrote a and my coeditor, adrienne—to develop visionary fiction workshops
story within that world. We ended up with a timeline that spans five and prompts. A large part of our goal with the anthology is to create
hundred years of abolition, moving from when the last prison closes spaces where others can engage in collective imagining and
(Abolition Day) to accountability processes to transformative justice dreaming because the future is not the purview of the powerful but
through contact with aliens. The communities in our stories are belongs to us all. And imagination is a practice, just as Mariame Kaba
constantly reimagining abolition because abolition is not just the says that hope is a discipline.
absence or end of police and prisons, it is the creation of a truly just We must practice, joyfully and even playfully, imagining what lies
society. Abolition and liberation are processes, not destinations, and beyond the event horizon society has embedded in our minds.
there is room for all of our imaginings and creativity. So, try this: Imagine it’s fifty years in the future, and social justice
The stories in Memories of Abolition Day are laid out in a nonlinear movements have continued winning and advancing liberation. What
order, which allows the reader to see change as fluid and in motion. It would your life be like? What would your everyday routine be? You
also highlights the fallacy of constant linear time. But after six months could write out your daily schedule, you could write a journal entry
of lockdown, most of us already know that time can stretch out from the year 2070. You could write a letter to a loved one talking
infinitely, that days can repeat, that the future and the past can exist about the changes that have occurred over your life.
simultaneously with the present.
1. Ursula K. Le Guin, “Books Aren’t Just Commodities,” National Book Awards speech, The
We need that understanding when we talk about building better Guardian, November 20, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-
tomorrows because often social change is framed as something that le-guin-national-book-awards-speech.
is too far away for us to touch, something we will never experience in 2. Wesley Lowery, “Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point,” The Atlantic, June 10, 2020,
our lifetime. But the liberated futures we want don’t exist as https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/wesley-lowery-george-floyd-
minneapolis-black-lives/612391.
untouchable distant points out of our reach. When we focus on 3. Astead W. Herndon, “How a Pledge to Dismantle the Minneapolis Police Collapsed,” New
collective action, mutual aid, self-determination, and centering the York Times, November 3, 2021,
leadership of the marginalized, we live the change we want, and we https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/us/politics/minneapolis-defund-police.html.
4. adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, eds., Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction
defy linear time. We pull those liberated futures into the present. Stories from Social Justice Movements (Oakland: AK Press, 2015).
That is what this Black-led, Black-dreamed movement is doing right 5. Walidah Imarisha, “Better Futures: Visioning in a Time of Crisis,” Allied Media Projects,
now. Even in the midst of brutal anti-Blackness and continuing Black video, June 11, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5vG7ZvoX_g.
6. Jeff Chang, “Culture Before Politics,” American Prospect, December 6, 2010,
death, Black people are breathing liberated futures, breathing https://prospect.org/culture/culture-politics.
visionary fiction out with each exhale. This is a hard time, full of grief 7. The Wakanda Dream Lab and Policy Link, Black Freedom Beyond Borders: Memories of
and pain and anxiety, but oppressed people have always alchemized Abolition Day (New York: Policy Link, 2020), https://www.policylink.org/equity-in-
action/webinars/black-freedom-beyond-borders_8-24-20; the Black Freedom Beyond
 What Are Emergent Strategies?
Borders podcast is available at https://www.thebigwe.com/abolitionday.

Emergent Strategy offers us the opportunity to study and practice

the work of shaping change by understanding ourselves as part of
the ongoing emergence of nature.
—ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS, UNDROWNED

In essence, emergent strategies are ideas drawn from the natural

world, as well as observations of human interactions and societies,
about how to shape and shift complex systems through relatively
simple, interconnected interactions. shea howell describes emergent
strategies “as a summation of the shifting grounds of our knowledge
of what it means to be human, how we understand the aliveness of
the world around us. They stand in contrast to systems of thought
rooted in industrial capital that require us to see the Earth as dead
and knowledge as something that is only produced by the material
world.”
Interestingly, the term “emergent strategy” was used in the early
1970s by Henry Mintzberg, a professor at McGill University. Writing
with James A. Waters, a professor at York University, Mintzberg used
it to describe patterns he observed in business contexts where
many different actors naturally converge on the same theme, or
pattern, so that it becomes pervasive in the organization, without
the need for any central direction or control . . . strategy grows out
of the mutual adjustment among different actors, as they learn
from each other and from their various responses to the
environment and thereby find a common, and probably
unexpected, pattern that works for them . . . convergence is not
driven by any intentions of a central management, nor even by
prior intentions widely shared among the other actors. It just
evolves through the results of a host of individual actions. Of
course, certain actors may actively promote the consensus,
perhaps even negotiate with their colleagues to attain it. . . . But
the point is that it derives more from collective action than from
collective intention.1
 Mintzberg and Waters contrasted what they described as emergent strategies as adrienne and I understand them are neither a business
strategy with planned strategies, built around precise intentions, proposition nor a product of capital. Far from an invention of the
mechanisms, and guidelines for implementation toward desired twentieth century, emergent strategies are rooted and embodied in
outcomes—much like the strategic plans developed by many non- the (often uncredited or vaguely acknowledged) Indigenous ways of
profits, philanthropic organizations, municipalities, and regional knowing and being in relationship, which have been practiced for
governments or what they describe as “ideologically driven millennia on Turtle Island and beyond.
strategies” of social movements, “in which a consensus forms around In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through
a system of beliefs.”2 Radical Resistance, Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg scholar and organizer
In other words, planned strategies are the linear, ten-point plans, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson describes Nishnaabewin, the
often rooted in mass mobilization toward changes in law and policy, Nishnaabeg system of governance, as “an emergent system
that I and others have been drawn to. According to Mintzberg and reflective of the relationality of the local landscape.”5 Community and
Waters, success in realizing planned strategies depends in large part nation are characterized by “connectivity based on . . . deep
on the accuracy of the planners’ predictions; the existence of reciprocity, respect, non-interference, self-determination, and
relatively stable conditions; the power to impose conditions; or some freedom.”6 This focus on critical connection is one of the core tenets
combination of these. In movement terms, this translates to of what is described here as emergent strategies.
accurately assessing current conditions, correctly predicting the The formation of networks based on these critical connections is an
impact of our efforts to change them, and having the power to equally essential aspect of emergent strategies. As Simpson
preserve the changes we make. Because planned strategies often describes, “We relied upon process that created networked
involve detailed blueprints for implementation, adaptation is relationship. . . . Networked because the modes of communication
discouraged—just as deviations from organizational strategic plans and interaction between beings occur in complex, nonlinear forms,
or campaign strategies might be, with consequences for our ability to across time and space.”7 Simpson reminds us that the Indigenous
respond to rapidly shifting circumstances. According to Steven communities she is part of are governed by “a series of practices that
Johnson, the author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, are adaptable and to some degree fluid . . . a series of complex,
Brains, Cities, and Software, corporate America is beginning to interconnected, cycling processes that make up a nonlinear,
recognize the limitations of planned strategies and advantages of the overlapping emergent and responsive network of relationships of
“bottom-up intelligence” emergent strategy makes way for.3 deep reciprocity, intimate and global interconnection and
Mintzberg and Waters assert that emergent strategy is “especially interdependence, that spirals across time and space.”8 These
important when an environment is too unstable or complex to practices include self-determination, consent, honesty, empathy,
comprehend, or too imposing to defy. Openness to such emergent caring, sharing, self-sufficiency, and internationalism (referring to
strategy enables [an individual] . . . to respond to an evolving reality human, plant, and animal nations, and the natural world). Many
rather than having to focus on a stable fantasy.”4 This points to the Indigenous abolitionist scholars and organizers, including Klee
potential relevance of emergent strategies in this particular moment Benally, Morning Star Gali, and Nick Estes offer similarly rich
of instability precipitated by racial capitalism, ongoing pandemics, depictions of Indigenous pasts, presents, and futures rooted in similar
climate collapse, wars, and rising fascism. principles and practices.9
To be clear, despite Mintzberg’s use of the term, emergent These principles and practices—often decontextualized from their
roots in Indigenous peoples and communities—are reflected in influence” which is not only greater than the sum of its parts, but of a
multiple explorations of emergent strategies, as well as in visions for different character altogether. Consequently, this system of influence
abolitionist organizing, including those articulated and practiced by can create conditions leading to significant shifts within large,
Simpson herself.10 In looking to and honoring the ways that emergent complex systems. In their words, a system of influence
strategies are reflected in Indigenous cultures, we must be careful not possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the
to engage in re-colonization or call for a return to an idealized state of individuals. It isn’t that they were hidden; they simply don’t exist
being but heed the lessons that can help us to chart bold, new until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not
abolitionist futures. As a student of Amilcar Cabral and the revolution the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the
of Guinea Bissau, Sage Crump emphasizes that, while we may draw system that emerges always possesses greater power and
on historical and Indigenous practices as we create abolitionist influence than is possible through planned, incremental change.
cultures, “to decolonize is not to go back to an actual culture but to Emergence is how Life creates radical change and takes things
create one that is formed by all the learnings and lived experience to to scale.15
date, including colonization.”
According to Wheatley and Frieze, to create systems of influence
Many organizers currently thinking about and practicing emergent we need to focus on building and strengthening connections among
strategies—including adrienne maree brown—credit Margaret J.
people with shared values: “Rather than worry about critical mass,
Wheatley’s work as a critical spark. A student, researcher, and our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince
teacher of organizational and leadership development, Wheatley
large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with
draws lessons about the operation of complex systems from
kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new
evolutions in scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-
human health, environment, chaos, and organizational theory.11 based change.”16 Wheatley and Frieze argue that fostering the
Central to her thinking is a move away from scientific understandings
emergence of networks and communities of practice is necessary for
that change happens in isolation, mechanically, through force.
individual actions to connect and coalesce into systems of influence
Instead, Wheatley moves toward holistic understandings of the with the power to shift large, complex systems. To this end, they
operation of deeply interconnected and interdependent systems.12 encourage us to explore the following questions:
Writing with her cofounder of the Berkana Institute, Deborah Frieze,
Wheatley submits that “in nature, change never happens as a result Why do networks form? What are the conditions that
of top-down, pre-conceived strategic plans, or from the mandate of support their creation?
any single individual or boss. Change begins as local actions spring
What keeps a network alive and growing? What keeps
up simultaneously in many different areas.”13 However, it doesn’t stop
members connected?
there. Wheatley and Frieze argue that “when separate, local efforts
connect with each other as networks, then strengthen as What type of leadership is required? Why do people
communities of practice, suddenly and surprisingly a new system become leaders?
emerges at a greater level of scale.”14 What type of leadership interferes with or destroys the
Wheatley and Frieze describe the cumulative impact of network?
interconnected networks and communities of practice as a “system of What happens after a healthy network forms? What’s next?
 If we understand these dynamics and the life cycle of abolitionist practice at regional, national, and international levels to
emergence, what can we do as leaders, activists, and preserve and further the gains of the 2020 Uprisings, resist the
social entrepreneurs to intentionally foster emergence?17 forceful backlash that ensued, and continue to strengthen systems of
influence that will enable us to effectively resist increasing
Networks can further coalesce into communities of practice, which authoritarianism and fascism and move toward abolitionist futures. In
are self-organized spaces in which people share information, other words, instead of attempting to generate or sustain an
strategies, skills, and support, and come together intentionally to unsustainable scale of organizing or recreate mass mobilization,
create new knowledge in service of their individual needs and passing more laws or seeking to change policies, it’s time to regroup
advance the greater good.18 When systems of influence are and refocus on healing and deepening our relationships, expanding
generated by networks and communities of practice, “efforts that our networks, and practicing the world we want to build as we till the
hovered at the periphery suddenly become the norm . . . practices soil and sow the seeds for the futures we are fighting for.20
developed by courageous communities become the accepted
standard.”19 In other words, culture shifts, shaping larger structures. Diving Deeper: Complexity Science
What Wheatley and Frieze describe may explain what appeared to Emergent strategies are rooted in “complexity science,” scientific
be a “sudden” emergence of abolitionist politics and organizing on the principles governing the operation of complex systems in nature and
national stage in the context of the 2020 Uprisings. In fact, the entry of society—whether it’s bees or human communities, our nervous
abolitionist demands into mainstream discourse was shaped and systems or the Internet.21 According to #ComplexityExplained, a
made possible by abolitionist networks and communities of practice worldwide collaborative of experts, practitioners, and students,
inspired, supported, and nurtured for decades by abolitionist complex systems are made up of individual components that interact
organizations such as Critical Resistance and INCITE! In a moment with each other and their environment through interdependent
of opportunity, their influence converged into a force to be reckoned networks and systems. Through these interactions, the components
with, shaping discussions and understandings of policing and safety generate novel information and structures with the capacity to have
and forcing a response from systems and institutions. impact at greater scale. This process, known as “emergence” is often
The work of emergence scholars suggests that the most effective unpredictable and difficult to understand.22
way to impact complex systems—societies, economies, ecologies— Slime mold is one example of a complex system explored in the
is at the level of critical connections, networks, and communities of popular science book Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants,
practice, rather than focusing exclusively on top-down interventions Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson. According to
that target singular components of the system by force. We effect Johnson, “Slime mold spends much of its life as thousands of distinct
systems change through relationship and experimentation, not by single-celled units, each moving separately from its other comrades.
blueprint. Under the right conditions, those myriad cells will coalesce again into
In the context of abolitionist organizing in the current moment, a single, larger organism which then begins its leisurely crawl across
emergent strategies point to a focus on re-envisioning and practicing the garden floor, consuming rotting leaves and wood as it moves
how to produce greater safety and well-being beyond police at the about.”23 The process is mediated by individual actions governed by
individual, relationship, community, and translocal levels. We are simple rules: individual cells adjust the amount of a chemical they
building networks of abolitionist organizers and communities of release based on their individual assessments of their environment,
and other cells react accordingly. Interestingly, slime mold coalesces
into a single organism under adverse conditions and disperses when trying to do battle against a distributed network like global capitalism,
food is plentiful—offering additional support to the notion that you’re better off becoming a distributed network yourself.”28
emergence is a critical tool for collective survival. Complex Movements, a Detroit-based artist collective that works to
Complexity science is the study and exploration of phenomena support the transformation of communities, has played a pivotal role
such as these, examining “how a large collection of components— in popularizing applications of complexity science to organizing. As
locally interacting with each other at small scales—can Sage Crump, a member of both the Complex Movements collective
spontaneously self-organize to exhibit non-trivial global structures and the Emergent Strategies Ideation Institute, said, “Complex
and behaviors at larger scales, often without external intervention, science gives us a new way to think about how change happens in
central authorities, or leaders.”24 Or, as Johnson puts it, how the world.”29 Building on this knowledge, the collective studied and
“individual agents in a system pay attention to their immediate adapted principles of complexity science to reflect, inspire, and focus
neighbors rather than wait for orders from above. They think locally organizing based on emergent strategies. To help organizers
and act locally, but their collective action produces global behavior.”25 internalize the core concepts of complexity science, they developed a
Johnson describes the process as follows: “In complex adaptive poetic iconographic framework, explored in greater detail in the next
systems . . . agents residing on one scale start producing behavior section, that uplifts practices of cooperative work and collective
that lies one scale above them: ants create colonies, urbanites create sustainability; replication at a small-scale; resistance; resilience;
neighborhoods, simple pattern-recognition software learns how to regeneration and decentralization; interconnectedness; valuing both
recommend new books.”26 Importantly, it is impossible to understand process and outcome; and collective leadership, partnership, and
the properties of a complex system just by studying its individual adaptability.30
components or layers. We also have to understand the process of
emergence. Or, as Margaret Wheatley puts it, we have to grasp the Complex Movements
“and” in the simple equation “one and one equals two.”27 This section was cowritten with ill weaver, one of the founding
Sure, slime mold might be fascinating to someone like me, a members of Complex Movements, and draws from presentations and
researcher who studied science as an undergraduate (another materials developed by the collective throughout their existence.31
reason I am drawn to emergent strategies). But it’s easy to think that Complex Movements emerged in 2010 as a collective made up of
studying slime mold is a frivolous distraction in a moment of urgency. graphic designer/fine artist Wesley Taylor, music producer/filmmaker
What does this have to do with abolitionist organizing? We are not Waajeed, hip-hop lyricist/organizer ill weaver,
single-celled creatures simply in search of food—we are complex artist/designer/engineer L05 (Carlos Garcia), and producer/cultural
individuals living in complex societies and systems, seeking to strategist Sage Crump. In some ways, it can be understood as an
dismantle complex systems of power that are doing real harm, right abolitionist community of practice that is inspired by Grace Lee
now. Yet students of emergence and complexity science believe that Boggs’s engagement with Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the
systems like slime mold have important lessons to offer people New Science and evolved in conversation with the ideas reflected in
looking to change human societies. Johnson argues that slime mold Emergent Strategy.32 In ill’s words,
offers important lessons on “organizing from below,” while the We were fascinated by the way Grace and Meg Wheatley were
scientists behind #ComplexityExplained believe network science framing social justice movements as emerging complex systems.
contains keys to disrupting systems of harm, concluding, “If you’re We discovered that specific framework was called complex
 science . . . the study of emergent system behavior, which seeks complexity science courses, and popular science and urban design
to understand how the complex behavior of a whole system literature, collective members engaged in a wide-ranging study of
arises from its interacting parts. Complex behavior generally complexity science, examining how emergence shaped both the
cannot be reduced to or derived from the sum of the behavior of Zapatista Uprisings and religious fundamentalist movements, and
the system’s components. Exploring these ideas made us ask has been used to both build nuclear bombs and to shape resistance
ourselves, “Can complex science metaphors be useful to local to imperialism.35 They were inspired by the decentralized leadership
movement building?”33 they saw in operation in Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring, in the
To answer this question, the collective engages in interactive Occupy movement, in Chilean Uprisings, and in the movements that
performance juxtaposing complex science and social justice sprang up under the banner of #BlackLivesMatter in response to the
movements to support the transformation of communities.34 murders of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, and sought to apply
Complex Movements’ evolution was also shaped by multiple decentralized leadership in local organizing with groups like Detroit
organizing heartbreaks, spurred by what ill describes as “all the top- Summer, a youth leadership development organization founded by
down, parachuting, national, impositional, patriarchal ways that Grace Lee Boggs and Jimmy Boggs.
movement happens.” As artists, organizers, and cultural strategists, Based on study and practice, the collective distilled six key
Complex Movements sought to offer a counterpoint to organizing metaphoric emblems or signposts to guide visionary organizing to
methodologies that are based on what Mintzberg and Waters might shape and influence complex systems. They are described in a
characterize as planned ideological strategies. These top-down series of posters developed by the collective and reproduced below.
approaches, designed and implemented by state or national As they developed these signposts, Complex Movements asked
organizations, led by charismatic leaders bent on “organizing the themselves, “Could these metaphors rooted in complex science be
masses,” often internalize and replicate the systems and relations of useful to better describe our movements? Can they be a way to invite
power we are seeking to dismantle. people into restructuring what they place value on, what to engage in,
Complexity science suggests that decentralized networks are more how they define success, how a movement should feel?” Could they
effective in creating change than models in which small leadership offer methods to move past ideological divides or blockages? Could
groups develop campaigns, goals, slogans, and tactics to be locally they enable organizers “to have more qualitative generative
implemented in what ill describes as a “franchise model.” Complex conversations about organizing theory and about organizing science
Movements explored and expressed how complexity science could because this is how living systems function, this is how brains and
inform organizing work that is both more values-aligned and more cities function”? How might these metaphors “give new language and
effective. The collective took at their starting point the question, “How through new language create new meaning and value to the work of
can complex systems and emergent science theories be applied to making change?”
create new poetic articulations and metaphors for the work that’s The metaphors are not intended to be prescriptive or to become
already happening, in ways that are compelling, spark radical another rigid, top-down framework to be adopted and implemented
imagination toward visionary organizing, and invite more people into by rote. Instead, they draw on complexity science to describe what is
new ways of understanding how change happens and new ways of already occurring in effective movements, and to invite generative
acting toward change?” questions about what might be possible if we lean more deeply into
Through research, informal study groups with organizers, online the principles they represent. After all, as ill points out, “I think people
don’t understand: we are actually part of natural systems. I don’t
know why we don’t think organizing is part of a natural system. The
emblems represent an effort to bring some of that dimension back to
our perception.”

Mycelium: Interconnectedness, detoxification, remediation. Mycelium is the part of the

fungus that grows underground in thread-like formations. It connects roots and breaks down
plant material to create healthier ecosystems. It is the largest organism on Earth.
We asked ourselves if we could apply lessons from mycelium to detoxify and remediate
trauma in our communities and to deepen intersectional solidarity by forming interconnected
relationships across silos and sectors.
 Within our ecosystems, what do we need to break down in order for life to flourish? What survival activities: hills are erected and maintained, chambers and tunnels are excavated.
toxins do we need to remediate and heal before we can thrive? What relationships and Every ant relies on the work of others producing their own, and there is no master or queen
critical connections (especially unexpected ones) are vital for this to occur? ant overseeing the entire colony and broadcasting instructions. The structure applies to other
social insects such as bees as well.
What is one of the resource-related obstacles to addressing a challenge in your
community? What cooperative economics or collective resourcing practice can be used to
address this challenge? What are opportunities for collective work to meet community
needs?

The Ant: Cooperative work and collective sustainability. Ant societies function through
individual ants acting collectively in accord with simple local information to carry on all their
 Fractals force us to think about the patterns that can reverberate out from small-scale
solutions to impact the whole system.
Where are examples of highly effective, deeply rooted small-scale practices in your
community? What are the dynamics embodied in small-scale solutions that make them work?
What would they look like if applied on a different scale?

The Fern: Ferns are a form of fractal. A fractal is an object or quantity that displays self-
similarity, which means it looks roughly the same on any scale.
Small-scale embodiment of whole vision at any scale. In a fractal pattern the solution is
not to replicate the same solution everywhere (a cookie-cutter/franchise model). A fractal
approach uses the same set of principles to build something at all scales even if the The Wavicle: Uncertainty, doubt, valuing both process and outcome. The wave-particle
particular instance or perspective looks different from place to place. duality suggests that all objects exhibit both wave and particle properties. Between
observations, as the object evolves on its own, it behaves like a wave, distributed across
space, exploring different, intermixing paths to all possible destinations. However, when its
location or speed is measured, it appears definite and concrete like a particle. It is the wave
nature that gives measurement a curious property: the more certain we are about either
speed or position, the more uncertain we become about the other.
Uncertainty/doubt: According to the scientific method, valuing doubt allows room for
unknown possibilities. As soon as you are absolutely certain of something, you foreclose the
possibility of ever discovering anything to the contrary. Being too certain of one thing can
make you less certain of something else. This helps us move away from false binaries,
valuing doubt and the unknown.
What are the false binaries surrounding dynamics in your community? How can vision and
resistance address these dynamics? What are the uncertainties and questions you’re still
asking in regard to your process and the outcomes you are working toward? How can we
embrace uncertainty and avoid the self-righteousness of dogmatic practices? How can we
move beyond false binaries that divide and conquer our communities? How can we equally
value both process and outcome?

The Starling: Collective leadership and partnership, adaptability. The synchronized

movement patterns of a starling flock are also known as a murmuration. Guided by simple
rules, starling murmurations can react to their environment as a group without a central
leader orchestrating their choices. Instead, each starling influences its neighbors, and these
mutual relationships create a network that spans the whole flock. In an instant, any part of
the flock can transform the movement of the whole flock.
What would decentralized action to resolve this issue look like? What can we learn from
the decentralized, coordinated ways that the murmuration patterns of starlings to apply to the The Dandelion: Resilience, resistance, regeneration, decentralization. The dandelion
way to take collective action? What would our leadership structures look like, what roles flower head can change into a white globular seed head overnight, each seed a tiny
would different people play? What would our collective actions and practices look like (other parachute that allows it to spread far and wide in the wind. The entire plant has medicinal
than a rally or a march)? Can starling murmurations help our communities explore the properties and is often used in herbal remedies. Dandelions are often mistaken as a weed
possibilities of collective leadership and true partnership and decision-making, moving away and aggressively removed but are hard to uproot—the top is pulled but the long tap root
from charismatic singular leaders? stays in the ground, and resprouts.
What are our wind carriers and seeds that carry ideas across communities, into resilient
communication systems? How do disruptive ideas and cultures spread that can infect
manicured lawns of thought? What are ways to build resilience and stay rooted? How can
small-scale and deep-rooted projects form decentralized networks and cross-pollinate
lessons? How can Black and Brown economically disenfranchised and criminalized
communities in Detroit and other cities stay resilient and resistant and pass on collective
models of leadership?
Based on this metaphorical framework, Complex Movements
developed Beware of the Dandelions, a mobile art installation that
functions as a performance, workshop space, and visual arts
exhibition, for which the above images were created. Through an
immersive audio-visual experience that uses science-fiction
narrative, music, interactive performance, video projection, and
technology, Beware of the Dandelions invites communities to explore
how the ideas of complex science are applicable to local social
justice issues and connects participants across communities and
sectors to cross-pollinate and develop new strategies to create
change.36
Using visionary fiction, the artists invite participants to think through
social change by stepping out of day-to-day realities and conditions
to explore and imagine new possibilities. The parable that underlies
the performance is intended to incite participants to connect with
each other and draw on the story to reimagine current local political
struggles. Robin D.G. Kelley describes Beware of the Dandelions as
akin to a hip-hop opera, a lyrical play in eleven tracks that moves
us through a story of revolt against corporate power,
environmental destruction, genetically modified food, industrial
farming, land enclosure, “the water hoarders,” and prisons. Set in
the twenty-fourth century in a small city that bears more than a
passing resemblance to Detroit, it is the story of a popular
uprising, the Dandelion Revolution, against a ruling class of
“Dome Dwellers” who occupy the last unpolluted spaces on the
 planet. They consume genetically modified “immortality apples” of cities shaped by stories of how community organizers tried to
produced by workers who labor in factory farms and live in a create change, where they succeeded and where they struggled. ill
state of semi-slavery on a “planetation.” The uprising is sparked points out that the memory maps were intended to uncover buried
by an elder who goes on a hunger strike to protest conditions but stories, to make them visible rather than iconic, to help people see
dies. Songs like “Apple Orchard,” “Channel,” “Doubt,” “Man Made themselves as part of a larger story, to understand that they hold part
Drought,” and “False Solutions” recount how the commodification of the thread, but they don’t have to have all the answers. In other
of resources forced people into “hubs” and a precarious life, and words, to see that “they only need to pay attention to the starlings
how underground revolutionaries resist the “groundskeepers” around them; they don’t need to engineer the whole murmuration.
who control the land and resources. The story is neither utopian That’s the piece that’s hard—to get people to see the big picture and
nor dystopian, but like great science fiction it reveals the not feel they have to grab onto the whole picture.”
contradictions we face today. The movement is wracked by The memory maps traveled between cohorts in Seattle, Dallas, and
internal debates among organizers over whether to fight the Detroit, dispersing movement lessons and resilience, nurturing
system from within or take more radical action. Complex “translocal cross-pollination, learning, and collaboration.”39 Cohorts
Movements recognizes that movements are, indeed, “complex” also formed a network that met annually at the AMC as a way of
and so they resist easy answers or triumphalist narratives.37 furthering translocal organizing.40 In these ways, Complex
Beware of the Dandelions can be presented as a single Movement’s work practiced what ill describes as “relationship-based
performance or workshop or used to build a cohort in which the organizing”—organizing through building the critical connections and
collective collaborates with organizers, artists, and activists in a values-aligned networks Wheatley and Frieze characterize as
community to curate a series of events designed to “foster and essential to fostering emergence that can affect large-scale systems.
deepen authentic relationships, exchange skills, and build community Over the six years the collective performed and used Beware of the
capacity for visioning.”38 According to ill, the goal of the cohorts is to Dandelions to share and gather lessons from complexity science for
engage these questions in low-stakes environments as people come organizers, Complex Movements also served as a fractal,
together around art that is “energizing, inspiring, beautiful, creative, manifesting each of the emblems in its own work: they worked
and generative of both imagination and connection as a way to build collaboratively, seeking to detoxify the impacts of top-down,
relationship.” Using the emblems, facilitators would ask questions patriarchal, mass-mobilization-based movements; endeavored to
like: “Think of an issue you’re working on within your movement work create the change they wanted to see in the world on the scale of
or within your cultural organizing. What would decentralized collective each performance, workshop, or cohort; adapted content to suit each
action to address this issue look like? What different roles would community and set of conditions as well as their own changing
people play? What would our collective actions and practices be that capacity over time, recognizing that it would be impossible to
weren’t just replicating a rally or march?” accurately measure the full impact of their work; and trusting that the
In other words, the goal was not just to point people to phenomena seeds they sowed would spread like dandelions and take deep root in
and patterns present in complex systems in the natural world but to abolitionist organizing.
engage people in seeing and applying them in the context of Emergent Strategy Principles
organizing they were already doing to effect systems change. Part of
adrienne maree brown defines emergent strategy as how “humans
this process involved creating “movement memory maps,” reflections
practice complexity and grow the future through relatively simple
interactions.”41 In other words, emergent strategies “leverage Adaptive, focusing on how we live and grow and stay
relatively simple interactions to affect complex patterns, systems, and purposeful in the face of constant change. In other words,
transformation using principles of adaptation, interdependence, and change is constant. “Be like water.” Help people change
decentralization, fractal awareness, resilience, nonlinear and iterative with intention.
change, creating more possibilities.”42 adrienne builds on this Nonlinear and iterative, asking, “How do we learn from
definition in Holding Change, stating that “Emergent Strategy is this?” recognizing that there are no failures, only lessons,
fundamentally about how we get in right relationship with change, and that what you pay attention to grows. Change comes
realigning with an Indigenous worldview that understands the from cumulative shifts. Reflect how groups are
relationality of all things. At the intersection of ancient understanding, accumulating change, what they are practicing.
science, the sacred, and science fiction sits a set of principles that Resilient and transformative, focusing on how we recover
helps us practice shaping change.”43 and transform, seek understanding, build resilience by
The principles synthesized from this body of work in Emergent building relationships, move at the speed of trust, nurturing
Strategy—along with strands of thought ranging from Black feminist critical connections more than critical mass. Keep a
wisdom (“We are in an imagination battle.”) to ancient Buddhist systemic view even if it appears in individual behavior.
maxims (what you pay attention to grows) to conversations with
Interdependent and decentralized, attending to and
fellow organizers—offer a set of guideposts that organizers can look
supporting authentic relationships, fostering mutual
for, gravitate toward, and practice within existing political frameworks
resilience, collaboration, and shared leadership and vision.
and organizing work. Over the five years since the book was
published in 2017, the principles have influenced thousands of people Create more possibilities, focusing on how we move
who read the book, shaped dozens of conversations with organizers toward life and shape the future toward abundance, and
on the Emergent Strategy Podcast, structured Emergent Strategy recognizing that there are many pathways and ways to
“immersions” in Durham, New York City, Detroit, Minneapolis–St. grow the future.44
Paul, New Orleans, Washington, DC, Oakland, and Puerto Rico, in
which groups came together to explore applications for local Importantly, as Seattle-based abolitionist organizer Angélica
organizing. They also informed facilitation trainings hosted by the Cházaro observes, the principles outlined in Emergent Strategy and
Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, which sunset in early 2023. Holding Change describe things that are already happening within
The principles of emergent strategies—each of which will be effective organizing spaces. For instance, Chicago organizer Damon
explored in greater detail in the chapters that follow—remind us to Williams was not aware of Emergent Strategy when he saw the
organize in ways that are: book’s principles charted on butcher paper lining the walls of a
conference room when he attended a retreat at the Boggs Center in
Fractal, recognizing that how we are at the small scale is 2017. Yet he recognized them as similar to those he and his fellow
how we are at the large scale. In other words, “Small is organizers adopted during a thirty-day protest encampment the
good, small is all.” Patterns repeat at scale; the large is a previous year. Similarly, ill weaver describes Complex Movements’s
reflection of the small. Help people see, celebrate, and iconography as an effort to reflect back to movements the ways that
build on the small shifts they are making. they are already deploying emergent strategies to varying degrees, to
help further focus, inform, and structure their work. In other words, the
Complex Movement emblems and the principles of Emergent on the clock of the world, and offers an organizing framework shaped
Strategy are shaped by existing abolitionist organizing. by values that reflect many of the principles of emergence, including
And they are also shaping both discourse and practice. Echoes and interdependence, adaptation, transformation, and complexity.50
influences of Emergent Strategy—and emergent strategies more These are just two of the many schools of thought and action
broadly—are increasingly reverberating in theoretical and organizing drawing from and building on emergent strategies. The following
frameworks around how change happens. As INCITE! cofounder and chapters specifically explore how principles of emergent strategies
longtime anti-violence organizer Mimi Kim observes, more and more are reflected and manifesting in abolitionist organizing in the US and
people are exploring emergent strategies as an invitation to reject beyond.
“the militarized language of organizing campaigns or the corporate
discourse of logic models for more nature-inspired models of social 1. Henry Mintzberg and James A. Waters, “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent,”
Strategic Management Journal 6, no. 3 (July–September 1985): 257–72.
change.”45 Mimi theorizes that this is because “nimble organizational
http://strategy.sjsu.edu/www.stable/B290/reading/Mintzberg,%20H,%201985,%20Strategic
forms, porous containers, networks built upon relationships rather %20Management%20Journal.%206%20pp%20257-272.pdf.
than formal structures feel more resonant with the post-modern 2. Mintzberg and Waters, “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent.”
3. Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
social, political, economic, and cultural climate.”46 In her book Viral
(New York: Scribner, 2001).
Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, scholar Ruha Benjamin 4. Mintzberg and Waters, “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent.”
explores what she describes as a “microvision of social change.”47 5. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom
Drawing lessons from nature, she advances a vision for what she Through Radical Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), 3.
6. Simpson, As We Have Always Done, 8–9.
dubs “viral justice,” which focuses on the role of individual actions, 7. Simpson, As We Have Always Done, 23.
with a recognition of our collective interdependence in shaping 8. Simpson, As We Have Always Done, 24.
change.48 Like other emergent strategists, Benjamin acknowledges 9. Learn more about Klee Benally’s work at http://kleebenally.com/about. See also Morning
Star Gali, “Broken Chains and Colonial Cages,” in Abolition for the People: The Movement
that “we’re still taught to only appreciate that which is big and grand, for a Future Without Policing and Prisons, ed. Colin Kaepernick (San Francisco:
official, and codified,” and argues that “a microscopic vision of justice Kaepernick Publishing, 2021), and Nick Estes, Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock
and generosity, love, and solidarity can have exponential effects.”49 A vs. the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance
(Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books, 2019).
sociologist, Benjamin has largely focused on structural change 10. Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Rehearsals for Living (Chicago:
through policies and institutions and is now reaching beyond these Haymarket Books, 2022).
approaches to understand new ways of making change through 11. Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic
World (Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2006).
emergent strategies. She too describes shifting her focus from 12. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science.
cataloging crisis to articulating what we want to see emerge from 13. Margaret J. Wheatley and Deborah Frieze, “Using Emergence to Take Social Innovations
crisis, and invites us to turn attention away from the structures we are to Scale,” The Berkana Institute, 2006, reprinted at
https://margaretwheatley.com/articles/emergence.html.
struggling to dismantle or transform and toward the power that small 14. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
things have to change the world. Deepa Iyer of the Building 15. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
Movement Project also draws on Emergent Strategy and natural 16. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
systems to explore how to cultivate sustainable social change 17. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
18. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
ecosystems in Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and 19. Wheatley and Frieze, “Using Emergence.”
Connection. Deepa begins with Grace’s question about what time it is 20. Andrea J. Ritchie, #DefundPolice #FundthePeople #DefendBlackLives: The Struggle
Continues (New York: Interrupting Criminalization, 2023),
 https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/struggle-continues. See also Ejeris Dixon, https://vimeo.com/196201236.
“Our Relationships Keep Us Alive: Let’s Prioritize Them in 2018,” Truthout, February 8, 34. Complex Movements: Beware of the Dandelions, 2016 (on file with author).
2018, https://truthout.org/articles/our-relationships-keep-us-alive-let-s-prioritize-them-in- 35. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime,
2018. and Militancy (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2001).
21. “Complexity science is the study of complex systems ranging from cells to cities to 36. Complex Movements: Beware of the Dandelions.
civilizations, the nervous system to the immune system to the human genome, to the 37. Kelley, “Back to the Future.
internet to ecosystems, to social networks societies, and economies, and the ways that 38. Complex Movements: Beware of the Dandelions.
their operation is shaped by nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and 39. Complex Movements: Beware of the Dandelions.
emergence.” Adapted from David Krakauer, ed., Worlds Hidden in Plain Sight (Santa Fe: 40. Movement Generation defines translocal organizing as, “autonomous and place-
SFI Press, 2019), https://www.santafe.edu/what-is-complex-systems-science. In other based organizing that is tied together across communities with a unifying vision, shared
words, “Complexity science, also called complex systems science, studies how a large values, aligned strategies and common frames. Through Translocal Organizing, we seek
collection of relatively simple components—locally interacting with each other at small to build to scale not by creating larger and larger organizations with greater and greater
scales—can spontaneously self-organize to exhibit non-trivial global structures and concentrated power but by aggregating to scale by uniting across places.” Movement
behaviors at larger scales, often without external intervention, central authorities or Generation Justice and Ecology Project, “Resilience-Based Organizing and Translocal
leaders.” #ComplexityExplained, “What Is Complexity Science,” Organizing,” last accessed April 24, 2023, https://movementgeneration.org/resilience-
https://complexityexplained.github.io. The Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, founded based-organizing.
by adrienne maree brown to create a practice space for organizers interested in emergent 41. adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (Chico,
strategies, defines complex science as “the investigation of how relationships between CA: AK Press, 2017), 20.
parts give rise to the collective behaviors of a system and how systems interact to form 42. brown, Emergent Strategy, 24.
relationships with environments.” For more information, go to: https://esii.org/about. 43. adrienne maree brown, Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and
22. Manlio De Domenico et al, Complexity Explained, May 2019 Mediation (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2021), 12–13.
https://complexityexplained.github.io/ComplexityExplained.pdf. 44. brown, Holding Change, 15–17; brown, Emergent Strategy, 42–50.
23. Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software 45. Mimi E. Kim, “Anti-Carceral Feminism: The Contradictions of Progress and the
(New York: Scribner, 2001). Possibilities of Counter-Hegemonic Struggle,” Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
24. Manlio De Domenico et al, Complexity Explained. 35, no. 3 (2020): 309–26.
25. Johnson, Emergence, 74. 46. Kim, “Anti-Carceral Feminism.”
26. Manlio De Domenico et al, Complexity Explained. 47. Ruha Benjamin, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Princeton, NJ:
27. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science. Princeton University Press, 2022), 11.
28. Manlio De Domenico et al, Complexity Explained. 48. Benjamin, Viral Justice, 13.
29. Robin D.G. Kelley, “Back to the Future: Complex Movements Make Revolution,” Shift 49. Benjamin, Viral Justice, 16.
Space, 2022, https://www.shiftspace.pub/back-to-the-future-complex-movements-make- 50. Deepa Iyer, Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection (Washington,
revolution. DC: Thick Press, 2022).
30. Design Justice Network, Complex Movements iconographic framework,
https://designjustice.org/complex-movements.
31. For a gorgeous exploration of and tribute to Complex Movements’s work, please read
Kelley, “Back to the Future.” You can also listen to their presentation “Eyeo 2017 Complex
Movements: Invincible-ill Weaver, L05, Sage Crump & Wesley Taylor,” Eyeo 2017, video,
https://vimeo.com/233329636; Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and Complex
Movements, “Shifting the Culture with Complex Movements,” The Emergent Strategy
Podcast, podcast, January 19, 2023,
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/emergentstrategy/episodes/Shifting-the-Culture-
with-Complex-Movements-e1tmgeq/a-a96s4pk; and visit the Complex Movements page
on emergence media: https://emergencemedia.org/pages/complex-movements.
32. adrienne maree brown and ill weaver were partners at the time Complex Movements and
the framework outlined in Emergent Strategy were evolving, and they remain family and
collaborators.
33. Complex Movements: Beware of the Dandelions, Emergence Media, video, 2016,