Changing the world? Start by Changing a Definition

So, you want to change the world, eh? Social change is to many people like love - you know it when you feel it, but it's sometimes difficult to describe. Indeed, social change is complex, involving many interrelated people, organizations, concepts and policies. It can be difficult to define.

I find it essential to work within a framework, and one of the best that I’ve found is offered through The Center for Effective Philanthropy and and then applied through the Women's Funding Network. This framework conceptualizes social change as occurring on five interconnected levels, the first one being Changing the Definition of something.

I can’t think of a better way to begin than changing the definition of something, first in one person’s mind, and then in understanding of others. Indeed, for every social justice issues, it seems to begin here. Working on sexualized violence, for example, starts with redefining rape, learning the origins of the historical concepts of rape as a property crime against the men (either father or husbands) in a woman’s life. The redefinition emerges when we turn it around and realize that rape is an attack on the body, mind, and soul of the victim and is not the victim’s fault or responsibility. Working on issues of poverty begins when we redefine poverty through a lens of understanding society’s oppression. I’m convinced that this is where it starts.

So, how do we change the definitions of the issues that we address through our organizations and alliances? We can begin amongst ourselves but very quickly that becomes an exercise of cyclical ranting - the proverbial singing to the choir. What we really need is a means of changing definitions more broadly - by reaching the minds and hearts of the general public, policy makers, allies, families, educators.

I’m convinced that we can start here through an intentional campaign of telling the world. At Graphix for Change we utilize web-based tools to build and promote the expert status of organizations. Most organizations who work to help people affected by a problem are indeed the experts on the issue, but often don’t get the public recognition or credit for being the experts. Through a system of article marketing we take what organizations know about an issue and help you widely distribute it, by placing it on your website as well as numerous other sites. The result is a more informed public, with a redefined understanding of your issue, while at the same time, your status as an expert and leader in the area expands. Shift happens, let’s start shifting some definitions today.