Beyond Bifurcated
Organizing
tensions between field & digital
research by dizzy zaba
Our movements face a paradox. On the one hand, we over-inflate the term “digital organizing” by using it to mean everything that happens online from social media to email. On the other hand, we under-inflate the term by thinking about “digital organizing” as inert tools and tactics rather than acknowledging the expansive social transformation of technology that is inseperable from our everyday lives.
As our lives are increasingly blurred between online and offline, we need to rethink how we organize.
READ THE REPORT
After interviewing and surveying more than a hundred organizers at various base-building organizations, I argue that digital organizing is closer to field organizing than it is to digital communications. If we are to tap into the most effective organizing, we need to rethink and collapse the distinction between the power building work we do “online” and “offline.” My hope is for organizers to see their challenges reflected in this research, for organizational leaders to consider how the structures of their teams impact the effectiveness of their organizing, and for funders to support this important work.
The strategic questions that guided this research project were as follows:
Where do digital organizers live within organizational team structure?
What is the relationship between digital organizing, field organizing, and digital communications – and how is this relationship changing over time?
How do organizers build and cultivate long-term relationships online?
How do online spaces support or undermine power building?
How are organizations building capacity and literacy around digital organizing?
What are the obstacles to effective digital organizing?
WorkMoney
NDWA
LUCHA Arizona
Florida Rising
MoveOn
National LGBTQ Task Force
WorkMoney NDWA LUCHA Arizona Florida Rising MoveOn National LGBTQ Task Force
ACLU
Down Home North Carolina
Mijente
NextGen America
Black Voters Matter
Alabama Forward
BYP100
ACLU Down Home North Carolina Mijente NextGen America Black Voters Matter Alabama Forward BYP100
M4BL
Faith in Action
Gig Workers Rising
United for Respect
Community Change
Sierra Club
M4BL Faith in Action Gig Workers Rising United for Respect Community Change Sierra Club
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Better Wyoming
Hoosier Action
United We Dream
United Today Stronger Tomorrow
Jobs with Justice
PICO California
Bend the Arc
Better Wyoming Hoosier Action United We Dream United Today Stronger Tomorrow Jobs with Justice PICO California Bend the Arc
Dizzy Zaba is a technology fellow at the Ford Foundation. Their work focuses on the intersection of technology and organizing.
Previously, they were the strategy director at ThinkShout, where they worked on digital products for organizations including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Demos, and Amnesty International. Before that, they were the digital director at United for Respect, where they experimented with online-first organizing strategies that translated online engagement to mass offline action.
Dizzy has more than a decade of organizing experience, beginning in the labor movement as a field organizer with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance before helping to launch an alt-labor organizing program at Working America to experiment with organizing models beyond traditional unions.
They have also advised on digital strategy for various campaigns, including managing the Fight for $15 paid ads program to recruit low-wage workers into the movement, launching the super-volunteer Defenders program at Planned Parenthood after the 2016 election, and advising the Working Families Party on an experimental fandom organizing project.
