New Modules
Here you’ll find Beautiful Trouble modules that we’ve added since the publication of our original encyclopedic volume.
Case Study: Québec student strike
On March 22, 2012, hundreds of thousands took the streets, marking the first of what would become monthly mass demonstrations backing the strike.
Principle: Build strength through repetition
Holding regular events permits activists to build strength through repetition, because with each iteration, the event has the potential to become bigger and better.
Case Study: Countering Homophobic Policing in the UK
In the UK in the 1980s, thousands of men were being continually prosecuted for consensual gay behavior — a level of institutionalized police and judicial discrimination greater than any other European Community member at the time. In 1989, convictions for “gross indecency” (a consensual, gay-only offense) were more than three …Continue Reading
Case Study: Standing Man
“They asked me whether I was waiting for someone. Did I have a problem? I remained calm and mute. I didn’t have a problem, but in the following hours, as my picture and the mysterious alias “Standing Man” spread on Twitter, I became one.”
Case Study: Pyramid of Shoes (to protest landmines)
“The pyramid of shoes worked because it was visually arresting, emotionally powerful, and easy both to participate in and to understand.”
“…the sculpture that arose from the accumulation of each of these simple acts, told a big, complex story that captured the scale of the problem.”
Tactic: Inflatables
To bring playfulness to a protest; to soften a tense standoff with police; to ridicule the authorities.
Case Study: Park(ing) Day
Who knows what exciting initiatives might come about thanks to the efforts of par(k)ticipants inspired and excited by all the ways a parking space could be put to use!
Case Study: Conflict Kitchen
Believing that the quickest way to a person’s heart is through their stomach, Conflict Kitchen seeks to build cross-cultural understanding and promote peace by introducing people to the food and culture of places with which their government is in conflict. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the brainchild of artist/activists Jon …Continue Reading
Principle: Use your cultural assets
By drawing on the cultural assets of the community, organizers can deepen the involvement of participants, disorient opponents, and shift the cultural terrain in their favor.
Case Study: Idle No More and the Round Dance Flash Mob
“The round dance flash mobs represented both a powerful expression of resistance and a practice of cultural regeneration.”
Practitioner: Free Fare Movement (Movimento Passe Livre)
The Free Fare Movement (Movimento Passe Livre) is an independent and nonpartisan social movement in Brazil that fights to change the current private transportation system to a free public transportation system available to everyone. The movement started in the 2000s, with several important campaigns in various cities that led up …Continue Reading
Case Study: Brazil’s Free Fare Movement
Ten years ago in Brazil, a horizontal, autonomous, independent and non-partisan movement called the Free Fare Movement (Movimento Passe Livre) was formed to fight for free, high-quality public transportation. Since then, every time a municipal government in Brazil has tried to increase public transportation fares, the Free Fare Movement has …Continue Reading
Tactic: Cacerolazo
To express popular dissent; to overcome fear in repressive settings; to draw wide swaths of the population into active participation in civil disobedience.
Practitioner: Enmedio Collective
The Enmedio Collective is a group of image professionals (designers, filmmakers, artists) that, unsatisfied by the lack of connections between art and politics action, decided to abandon their usual fields and work to situate themselves in-between, in no specific place at all and in all places simultaneously. From there they explore the power of …Continue Reading
Principle: Jury-rig solutions (or, How would MacGyver protest?)
Fix a problem as best you can to pressure authorities to fix it properly.
Case Study: World Record for the Number of People Shouting “No Vas a Tener Casa En La Puta Vida”
On October 6, 2007, thousands of people gathered in front of city halls in various Spanish cities to break the world record for the number of people simultaneously shouting “No vas a tener casa en la puta vida!” (You’re never going to have a home in your fucking life!). How …Continue Reading
Tactic: Legislative theater
Legislative theater takes Augusto Boal’s interactive forum theater exercises from the stage into the real world – as a tool for proposing and enacting legislative and policy changes at any level of government.
Case Study: Pimp My… Carroça!
Carroça is the Portuguese word for carriage — that is, a wheeled vehicle for conveying people, often drawn by horses, and designed for comfort and elegance. Curiously, in Brazil this word also refers to the ramshackle carts that some human beings are compelled to use. These are the collectors of …Continue Reading
Practitioner: Escola de Ativismo
Escola de Ativismo is an independent, non-partisan collective based in São Paulo and active in different regions of Brazil. The school provides training in grassroots and campaign strategies to organizations, collectives, movements and individuals working for greater democracy.
Principle: Recapture the flag
Love your country, and fight so that its flag and other national symbols evoke its most egalitarian and noble values.
Case Study: Champions of Unemployment
In June 2013, Barcelona’s city council shocked residents by renting out the iconic Columbus Monument to two multinational companies to use as a billboard — just another case of public goods being sold off or rented while private companies make massive profits. Immediately thereafter, those two companies put an enormous …Continue Reading
Theory: Dunbar’s number
Dunbar’s number refers to the approximate number of primary, care-based relationships people can maintain. The concept carries interesting implications for navigating the leap from organizing among friends to organizing under formal structures.
Case Study: Public Art Nanny Hotline
Nannies, housekeepers, and elder care providers have long been excluded from basic labor protections in the United States, but thankfully, this is now starting to change. In 2010, New York passed the very first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, followed by Hawaii and California, with other states soon to follow. …Continue Reading
Principle: The real action is your target’s reaction
When taking on a big and well-known target, it is often the target’s reaction to your action that’s the key to success. Therefore, anticipate your target’s reactions and write them into your script.
Theory: Framing
In the words of media researcher Charlotte Ryan, “A frame is a thought organizer, highlighting certain events and facts as important, and rendering others invisible.” Framing a message correctly can make or break an entire campaign.
Tactic: Light Brigade
To broadcast a message through collective action; to frame nighttime actions with a key message; to make creative use of overlooked public spaces.
Practitioner: Overpass Light Brigade & the Light Brigade Network
The Overpass Light Brigade was forged in the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011, and at first focused upon the campaign to recall right-wing governor Scott Walker. Out of that regional action the international Light Brigade Network was formed, and is behind the national coordination of messages such as the WALKOUT ON …Continue Reading
