Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism, reviewed

Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism brings the perspective of experienced global social innovation leader, scholar and speaker, Steve Davis, to bear on some of the most powerful and helpful macrotrends rippling through society today.

The book teaches readers how to harness their outrage and capitalize on global trends to instigate and encourage change across the world. The author identifies five global undercurrents with outsized importance that are shaping our world:

• Global economies are moving away from the old pyramid model into a diamond, bringing powerful new possibilities for human well-being;
• Communities are becoming the customer – rather than passive beneficiaries – as social change is increasingly led by local voices and activists;
• Equity is leveling and reshaping the field of social change and activism;
• Digital disruption, through the power of data and digital tools, impacts almost everything; and
• The middle of the journey to social change is becoming surprisingly sexy, as we focus on adapting innovation for widespread impact at scale.

Review of Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism

This story weaves the personal and the political well. Davis starts by describing a formative experience playing football in Thai refugee camps. Before moving onto to being a very early LGBT married couples college dorm advocate, a tech leader, and then working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This enriching range of experiences ensured that Davis had to look at his own life, the people he was trying to help, and the institutions and organisations he had to work with to try to effect change.

I talked with @rupertscofield, host of The Social Enterprise Podcast, about changes in #activism as a result of #COVID, new capabilities and tools in global development, and the improvements within global wellbeing.

Listen to the full discussion here: https://t.co/EFnFfJRMlh pic.twitter.com/BEBjFdBAPL

— Steve Davis (@stevebrowndavis) December 22, 2020

Davis acknowledges the impact of others who have confronted unhelpful organisations head on, through protests and boycotts, but his approach has been very much one of working on the other side of the boundary, looking to achieve change through dialogue. These approaches are of course potentially complimentary, rather than in opposition, and, over the decades we have seen massive progress in terms of awareness around LGBT+ issues, gender inequality, and the most effective routes to raising up more people out of poverty.

This book is practical, honest, and self aware, all of which ensures that it offers useful and actionable insights into how to effect real change across global societies. Davis may not have all of the answers but it is certainly an informative book and a smart read as we move into 2021 and hope to support those working to make society a better place for as many as possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

STEVE DAVIS is a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and was former CEO of PATH, a global health innovation non-profit. With degrees from Princeton University, the University of Washington, and Columbia Law School, he formerly served as CEO of Corbis, a digital media pioneer, and as the director of social innovation at McKinsey & Co., a global consultancy. He advises many organizations, and frequently speaks and writes, about the intersection of innovation, technology, and social impact. He lives with his family in Seattle, Washington.

---

More about Irish Tech News and Business Showcase here.

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 50,000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles.

If you would like to be featured in our podcast series drop us a line & don’t forget to sign up for notifications for our latest episodes and follow us on Twitter, Linkedin, SoundCloud, iTunes or your own favourite podcast platform.

Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully, we can share your story too and reach our global audience. We are agile, responsive, quick and talented, we look forward to working with you!

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking