Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

adrienne maree brown is a New York Times-bestselling author, activist, and facilitator whose work centers around social justice and liberation. Her activism has extended beyond her writing, as she has actively participated in community organizing, and facilitating transformative practices. She has participated in social justice movements including Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. She has also engaged in birth work as a doula, providing compassionate care and support during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum periods.

She has been deeply engaged in antiracist and feminist movements, and after extensive experience in organizing and activism, she recognized the need for a new framework that not only addresses personal growth but also calls for collective action and systemic change. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017) grew from this. The book is a culmination of her learnings in activism and exploration of the alternative ways social change can be approached.

In Emergent Strategy, brown presents a framework that emphasizes collaboration, adaptability, interdependence, decentralization, nonlinearity, iteration, and resilience. All elements relate to qualities found in the natural world, as she believes mimicking nature’s patterns is a way of returning to a natural, harmonious order, which in turn inspires more balanced relationships. Emergent Strategy has had a significant impact on social justice organizers, providing them with principles and practices for transformative change.