Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds is a nonfiction book by writer and activist adrienne maree brown. Published in 2017, the book is often classified as part of the self-help and personal development genre. However, while also offering practical guidance and tools for personal growth, the book blends elements of activism, spirituality, and social justice to present a framework for collective transformation. Drawing inspiration from elements of the natural world, the author explores an adaptive, collaborative, interdependent, nonlinear, iterative, resilient, and imaginative approach to social justice work and encourages all members of society to cocreate a world that is just and sustainable through small, everyday interactions.

Emergent Strategy blends reflections around personal growth, commonly seen in titles of the self-help genre, with other texts, creating a unique and interconnected narrative; in her Introduction, she writes, “This book is a collection of essays, speeches, spells, interviews, conversations, tools, profiles, and poems sharing my learning processes” (4). The author merges family stories with descriptions of her work in well-established social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, offering a memoir-style account that exposes her intimate relationship with the concepts she engages with. In between her considerations, brown engages with texts, poems, speeches, and quotes by other authors, poets, scientists, and activists, acknowledging the lineage that informs her reflections and building upon ideas already explored.