Theory of Change

There is an old proverb that captures an important element of the Everett Program’s philosophy: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Or perhaps Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich said it more directly and pointedly “To hell with good intentions”.  

There are many people in the world who want to do good things–to help the poor, to house the unsheltered, to feed the hungry.  But our goal in the Everett Program is not to help the poor but to end poverty; not to house the unsheltered but to end homelessness; not to feed the hungry but to end hunger.  We aim to be part of movements pushing for social transformation–not amelioration.  

This is, of course, easy to say and much harder to do!   And we continue to learn every day how to do it better.  For us, the work centers on trying to understand three things: power, systems, and the theory of change of the organizations we work with. 

Power

Imagining and creating a different future requires ideas, but it also requires power: a belief and ability to join with others to make a new and fairer society. Sometimes power is viewed negatively, and some marginalized communities are wary of embracing power since their most common experience of it is as a negative “power over others.” But as Steven Lukes argues, power can also be understood as the capacity to act, either alone or with others, and thus it can be “productive, transformative, authoritative and compatible with dignity.” Feminist thinkers have also conceptualized power as power with others to achieve justice and the power within to shape “self-knowledge” and esteem. These perspectives give us more tools to understand power not as a means of control and domination but rather as an expression of collective determination.

As John Gaventa has powerfully argued, there is visible power, hidden power and invisible power.  Visible power is where there are clearly observable decisions being made, with different interests vying for influence in those decisions. Hidden power operates by shaping who gets to a decision-making table and what decisions are on the agenda. In this context, power might be hidden because it precludes direct conflict of competing interests, yet those different interests are clearly understood.  But invisible power operates by shaping how people think about themselves and their place in the world. It is fundamentally rooted in ideology and worldviews.  This last form of power highlights the importance of consciousness and the processes of socialization in shaping what is considered normal and what possibilities exist (or do not exist) for changing the world.  

How do these perspectives on power show up in the work of the Everett Program? It certainly shows up in helping students and our community partners understand the power of technology as a tool for supporting their work. It is clearly tied up in our understanding of understanding systems and our theory of change.  But it also shows up in the very structure of our classes and the program overall.  From the first day of class, students are challenged to NOT see themselves as only students, but also as teachers and leaders. They are challenged to see classrooms and the University as sites of discipline and subjugation, as much as they are sites for liberation and social mobility. Students exercise levels of governance in the program that challenge fundamental but often unexamined assumptions in higher education–about sources of knowledge and hierarchies of authority.

Systems

Power is also a central component of our understanding of systems. Inequality, poverty, racism, discrimination, and other forms of social problems are not the result of random acts, nor are they the results of individual actions alone.  They are the result of systems set up by dominant and powerful interests in our society, and it will take alternative sources of power to transform those systems. 

Economic, political, social and ecological systems are, of course, highly complex.  But in their essence, as Donella Meadows powerfully argues in Thinking in Systems, they can be understood quite simply as consisting of only three kinds of things:  elements or actors, interconnections, and a function or purpose. Systems are more than simply the sum of their parts–they become dynamics, self-perpetuating, self-preserving and evolving entities.  But understanding systems in this way can help guide our actions in trying to transform them:

• The actors or elements in a system are often the easiest to identify, and working to change who is part of that system can lead to important changes.  Efforts to promote greater diversity and inclusion in organizations, for example, can be an important step in shifting how they operate and the results they produce.
• Interconnections between actors in a system often operate through the flow of resources and information, helping hold systems together and shaping how they operate.  This is one reason why information technology provides such a powerful set of tools for shaping society. 
• The function or purpose of a system is often the most important determinant of a system’s behavior and outcome, but also can be the most difficult to understand. And the more obvious purpose of a system may hide more underlying purposes that are less explicit.

Take the University of California, for example. The actors on campus that make up the system are obvious–students, professors, administrators, staff of all kinds, from department advisors to groundskeepers and food service workers.  But the University system also includes the Board of Regents and legislators, tax-payers, parents, federal and state agencies and foundations that provide research funding and more. The core interactions in this system center on education and research (with the informational context of those activities being important) but the information about their importance–e.g. the types of careers they help prepare students for, or the types of questions and problems the research is trying to answer–helps guide how much resources flow into the system and what resources go where.  There are, of course, many other interactions in this system that take place outside the central set of education and research activities–between students in their social and recreational activities for example, or between professors and staff in departments–that are important for how the system operates and the impact it has. Finally, the function of the University is most obviously centered on  educating young people–to be better prepared to pursue fulfilling careers and more informed members of society–and conducting research.  But as many researchers have argued, Universities (and our education system more generally) have also had less noble functions with deep historical roots: filtering and stratifying people into appropriate roles in our class-based society; socializing young people into hierarchies and authority in a capitalist economy; providing extension services and knowledge for colonial expropriation. 

Theory of Change

Shifting and even transforming systems requires research, analysis, and deep understanding of all three components of the system.  It also requires action, with a clear understanding of how that action is intended to lead to change–in who is part of the system, how they interact, and for what purpose. 

We try to model this in our own program.  We’ve tried to create a system with a central purpose of building young leaders who are connected to empowered communities, skillfully using technology and communication tools while building a socially, economically and sustainably just world.  The interactions in the Everett system deliberately aim to undermine traditional hierarchies of authority and power in our education system and society, promote supportive communities of learners rather than reward individual achievements, and prioritize communication and collaboration with social change communities and organizations outside the University boundaries. The actors in the system are deliberately diverse and disproportionately from marginalized groups in society, with a recognition that these differences are an important strength and source of knowledge and learning.

Our theory of change is deeply intertwined with our educational philosophy, particularly our holistic approach to engaging people through their heads, hands and hearts.  And while we think information, knowledge and ideas are critically important, we also know that while powerful actors still benefit from the inequities in our current society, only the collective actions of organized communities of people will have the power to transform society. 

Helping students understand the theory of change of their community partners, and how the work they do relates to the systems they are part of and the power relations embedded in those system, is an important part of our work.