Alexa Clay

You may have heard sentiments like ‘pandemic as portal’ or calls for a ’new normal,’ spelling out an optimism for turning the Covid-19 crisis into a revolutionary act of systemic re-alignment. Sometimes change feels like a euphoric tide, a sweeping in of the new, a coup of creative destruction. Or as historian Christopher Hill wrote of the English radicals of the 1640s, like “a door that opens widely… and then suddenly closes.” In other moments, social change feels like a hard-won and gradual chipping away of the status quo. An act of pragmatic and hard-nosed dedication and craftsmanship. In this interactive session, Alexa puts a lens on the art of change-making itself and interrogate our assumptions and common myths around how we make change in society. Participants will share reflections around the art and science of social change and invite group discussion around some driving questions: What do we collectively know about making social change in the world? What theories of change do we hold? How does social change happen? Why does change so often fail? Is social change an art or are there patterns and mechanics we can learn from? How is this current crisis transforming our identities and abilities as change-makers?