In this project area we offer guidance on how to measure the outcomes of mass mobilizations, examining key metrics for tracking social movement impacts. We also provide case studies that document gains won by past movements.
It takes effort to track the impacts of mass mobilizations like #MeToo, Occupy or Black Lives Matter, but understanding social change is impossible without such work.
This article explains the “pillars of support” framework, and it provides a case study of how movement impacts can be tracked through a variety of social institutions.
The concept of the "Overton Window" can help in understanding the impact of grassroots organizing.
Smart organizing during whirlwind moments seeds the ground for new waves of action in the future.
Popular uprisings have ramifications that go beyond immediate legislative results, and they can alter the climate of political debate.
The following articles, written on anniversaries of the protests against the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle, discuss the lasting relevance of those demonstrations, as well as the wider impact of the period’s global justice movement.
In 2018, Whirlwind Institute co-director Paul Engler was one of the lead authors on an Ayni Institute report entitled Funding Social Movements: How Mass Protest Makes an Impact. This guide was created as a resource for funders interested in understanding the impacts and dynamics of social movements, as well as in how to best support them.
A main section of the document (Part III: Measuring the Impact of Mass Protests Movements) is dedicated to discussing how outside observers can quantify and document the effects that movements have. This includes discussion of metrics appropriate for tracking social movement impact on active and passive support around an issue.
Active support can be measured through monitoring of: 1) Protests, 2) Organizational growth, 3) Digital engagement, 4) Fundraising, and 5) New organizations.
Changes in passive support can be tracked through: 1) Public opinion polls, 2) Media coverage, 3) Narrative adoption, and 4) Voting trends.
The report explains how the growth of active and passive support relate to instrumental gains around social justice issues, and how movements make critical contributions to changing the political landscape in order to make concrete wins possible. The full report is available here.
As a supplement to this document, Ayni created the Movement Metrics Research site, which provides additional information about the data, concepts, and case studies used in the report.
We recommend the following for further reading on tracking the outcomes and effects of social movements:
