Movements & Organizations – Unraveling the relationship

1. Movements & Organizations – Unraveling the relationship Srilatha Batliwala Scholar Associate, Building Feminist Movements and Organizations (BFEMO) Initiative, AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

2. What are organizations? • At its simplest, an organization can be defined as a group of people joining together intentionally and creating a structure to accomplish a common set of goals. • In business management language, organization is defined as “A social unit of people, systematically structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis. All organizations have a … structure that determines relationships between functions and positions, and …. delgates roles, responsibilities, and authority to carry out defined tasks. Organizations are open systems in that they affect and are affected by the environment beyond their boundaries.” (see http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organization.html) SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

3. In the social movement context: • Organizations have most of the above characteristics, but in addition, must be seen as sites from which movements are built, supported, serviced and governed – and sometimes, destroyed! • They are also the structures in or through which movement leaders, activists, and members are organized, trained, capacitated, and protected to pursue the transformational work of their movement SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

4. So to sum up, social movement organizations are: • Structures intentionally created by a group of people to accomplish particular social change goals • Sites from which movements are built, supported, serviced and governed – they are essential infrastructure for movements • Spaces in which movement leaders and activists are located, trained, capacitated, and protected while they perform the transformational work of movements SBatliwalaAWID-YFA 2011

5. Some critical facts about organizations: • Organizations are NOT rational entities, that are invariably logical, equitable and efficient • They are microcosms of the social / power relations contexts in which they are created • Consequently, they reflect and reproduce the power relations (inequalities, discrimination, hierarchies) of the societies in which they are located • So gender-biased and socially-unequal societies produce inequitable organizations, though these imbalances are often hidden, in what is called the “deep structure” (the invisible structure of the organization ) • But organizations are also sites from which power relations are challenged, internally an externally; they are also the only way we know to organize our SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

6. Assumptions about power in feminist organizations • Because we’re all women, we don’t have to worry about power in our organization (yes we do) • We don’t have any hierarchy (because you have a hidden / invisible one) • We are all equal here (no, we’re not – there are always hierarchies of age, ability, experience, class, education, sexual orientation, etc. etc.) • Formalizing decision-making power and systems is patriarchal and bureaucratic (no, it’s often more democratic, accountable and transparent) • I don’t have to be accountable to you because I am accountable to “the movement” (Which one? Where? How?) • If you are a feminist organization, you should allow me to get away with murder (come to work at any time I please, not meet deadlines, spend all my time on facebook or twitter, mope instead of work because my personal life is a mess, etc. etc.) SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

7. What are Organizational “Deep Structures”? • Invisible / informal decision-making processesthat influence / lead to formal organizational decisions (think of an example) • Informal groupings, “cliques”, that become sites of influence or hold/exercise informal power (think of an example) • How different work and roles are valued and measured • The hidden vs formal work culture – working late hours, weekends, etc. • Sites of building / damaging people’s credibility, reputation, etc. (gossip, smear campaigns, etc.) • More positively, sites where conflict / tension gets mediated or resolved informally SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

8. Organizational Deep Structures Work culture / informal norms Informal power / influence groups Cultural distance “walked” from personal/informal biases to formal organizational norms Valued work / behaviour Informal / invisible decision-making processes Positive influences / personalities SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

9. Relationship of organizations to movements • Organizations are not Movements, but movements are built, supported, managed, and sometimes destroyed, by organizations • Movements contain two types of organizations: • Formal organizations (legally constituted) • Informal organizations – not legally constituted, but often equally powerful, and can be highly sophisticated and organized! SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

10. Formal Organizations Informal Organizations Not legally constituted - Networks, women’s collectives, savings/credit / self-help groups, etc., Usually an organizing structure within movements May exist alongside formal structures such as federations, unions, etc. Informal doesn’t mean simple, disorganized, less effective, or inferior to formal organizations! • legal entities regulated by laws and financial accountability • Can be external to movements, or created by them, and may be focused on: • Building movements – “movement-building organizations” • Serving movements – “movement-serving organizations” SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

11. Roles organizations play in movements: • Servicesto movement members (education, child care, health care, etc.) • Strategic Support : ideas, political and policy analysis, strategic advice, convening spaces • Capacity-building: leadership development, need-based training, organizational development, advocacy skills • Advocacy SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

12. Key types of movement-organization relationships • Movement created organizations – i.e., organizations set up by movements to promote visibility, democratic representation, voice, and decision-making, manage services, and to negotiate movement members’ interests and priorities with other actors • Movement-building or supporting organizations, which stand in relationship to the movement, may even be taking or giving direction to it, but not created by it; SBaweretliwala AWID-YFA 2011

13. Key types of movement-organization relationships • Organizations joining together to form movements - with greater or lesser levels of grassroots / constituency base. •  Organizational allies of movements – including political parties, academic / research groups, feminist organizations of various kinds, other NGOs, and even UN agencies or donors SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

14. Movement-Organization Relationship Dynamics • Can be of the following types: • Equilateral / circular / symbiotic (existing for each other) • Paternalistic / instrumentalist / clientelist (using, leveraging, exploiting) • Short-term, issue or goal-specific • Long-term, agenda-related • Can fall anywhere on a continuum of formal to informal. • Is based on the strength of the “glue” that binds the relationship (loose coalitions, tighter networks, tightly bound alliances, etc.) • Is often also based on the financial relationship between the two! SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

15. Movements & organizations – a relational view (hypothetical) Service providing NGO (health, micro-credit, child care, etc.) Grassroots women’s movement Grassroots women’s federation (registered) grassroots women’s informal collectives movement-building NGO Int’l grassroots women’s federation (informal network) National women’s federation (registered) SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

16. Formal International network organization A real case: GROOTS GROOTS International Movement-building & supporting NGOS COMITE Honduras GROOTS KENYA SSP India MINE Europe KDVE Turkey GRASSROOTS WOMENS MOVEMENT Community Mothers Centers Grassroots Women’s Groups SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011

17. Exercise: • Pick an organization (it could be your own, or one you know well) • Map / Analyze the organization’s relationship’s to a movement or movements • Which category does it fall into in terms of its relationship to movement building? • How would you advise that organization to strengthen its role in movement building? SBatliwala AWID-YFA 2011