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The Massively Parallel Strategy for Dealing with Scale and Complexity >
Ideas for Addressing Scale and Complexity to Build Upon
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Theories of Change

BI Article
Theories of Change
A simple introduction to a complex concept, this explains what theories of change are, and why they are needed to confront both COVID-19 and racism.

News and Opinion
Practical Approaches to Theories of Change in Conflict, Security, and Justice Programmes
A DFID document presenting practical skills for developing high quality theories of change, and understading the role they play in conflict, security and justice program design and assessment.

BI Article
Jay Rothman: Systematic Collaborative Visioning for Conflict Resolution Action and Evaluation in the Post-Covid19 World
A summary of the conclusions of an action evaluation workshop examing the conflict field's response to COVID.

BI Article
Kristin Hansen talks about the Civic Health Project's Work on De-polarization in America

BI Article
These 4 Steps Will Help When You're Stuck--How do some people make major changes happen?
Introducing "desire paths," and the importance of designing change to follow them whenever possible.

BI Article
Conflict Styles
A summary of the five most common conflict styles and a discussion of when to use each.

BI Article
Talk with Shamil Idress, CEO of Search for Common Ground
Heidi Burgess interviews Shamill Idress about his career, Search for Common Ground's work, current challenges facing Search, the peacebuilding field, and the world as a whole--and how we can meet them.

BI Article
Sharing Ideas From Around the Globe on Ways to Strengthen Democracy - A BI/IGN Discussion
A summary of ideas generated by the joint BI/IGN discussion on ways to strengthen democracy using negotiation, conflict resolution, and related processes.

Colleague Activities
How to Save Democracy
From The Atlantic, a report on a massive, crowd-sourced effort to find and then test mass audience-based strategies for diffusing our hyper-polarized politics

Colleague Activities
Compassionate Humanity Community
An emerging network of people working to build movements dedicated to serving humanity, the environment, and life. Reducing conflict and fostering collaboration are tools advocated to achieve these goals.

Colleague Activities
Building Bridges Without a Foundation for Peace Won't Work
An article comparing different bridge-building strategies and the goals of negative peace versus positive peace. Just getting people to "talk nicely" isn't nearly enough to solve our problems.

Colleague Activities
How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions
Damon Centola presents over a decade of original research examining how changes in societal behavior ( in voting, health, technology, and finance) occur and the ways social networks can be used to influence how they propagate.

Colleague Activities
The Paradox of Transformation: Acceptance as a Precondition to Change
An insightful article from NetworkWeaver about Carl Rogers' paradox: The curious paradox is that when I accept myself, just as I am, then I can change.

Colleague Activities
Civility, civil disobedience or something in between
When does civility become compliance and when does activism that might further divide serve a tactical function that outweighs a more passive approach? A bridge-builder considers this question.

Colleague Activities
Rediscovering Social Innovation
Social entrepreneurship has become popular for those trying to improve the world, but social innovation is a better vehicle for understanding and creating social change in all of its manifestations.

Colleague Activities
Essentials of Social Innovation - Articles
from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, a starter kit for "leaders of change" who are beginning to explore social innovation .

Colleague Activities
Revisiting the pillars of peacebuilding: understanding the Lederach gaps in conflict transformation
Despite advancements in conflict transformation and peacebuilding, significant gaps remain. Addressing these is imperative for realizing a positive, sustainable, and just peace that goes beyond just a simple ceasefire and the absence of violence.

News and Opinion
When Was the Last Successful Revolution?
At a time of widespread protest in China, Iran, and (perhaps, under the surface) Russia, a sobering look at how rarely revolutionary uprising actually succeed (and why authoritarianism must be avoided).