A Theory of Social Change
In civil society, legislation, regulations and policies guide the collective energies of society in the same way that a rational or moral will guides the actions of an individual. Forms of legislation in this way act as an articulation of the collective will or intention.
However, a society, like a human individual is not an integrated, consistent whole. Both change over time in response to context, and both can hold intentions in one context that conflict with intentions manifested in another context. Evolution for both is the ongoing resolution of inconsistencies, tension, and dissonance.
When they become the object of attention, these inconsistencies are resolved by applying a hierarchy of values and principles. In the human context, this might be introspection. In the social context, where law is the language of intention, this is through legal reform. Strategic litigation is one way of triggering such reform, highlighting inconsistencies between higher and lower values, and using the legal process as a way of resolving that tension.
It is valuable to take the analogy between the individual and collective consciousness a step further. Dissonance arises when certain energies are not fully expressed or integrated into the larger whole. In the individual, this can happen through trauma, where psychological defences develop to shield the mind from unprocessed fears or other intense negative emotions. This repression also happens on a social scale.
The marginalization of residents of the Downtown Eastside represents the submersion into collective unconscious of many nagging social issues such as addiction, prostitution, mental illness, homelessness, etc. These issues represent psychologically fearful forces, which to many threaten to overwhelm civil society if left unchecked. Systems of control such as police are used to suppress those energies and keep them in check, in much the some way as a psychological defence system.
However, systems of control are not the answer to the tension that is represented by marginalization. Rather they are only a stopgap, and in fact an obstacle in so far as they increase the social divide and perpetuate marginalization.
Social dissonance, like cognitive dissonance, must be resolved through conscious attention, by giving voice to the forces in question and allowing the resolution of tension according to a hierarchy of values. In a civil society where our collective intention is expressed through legislative instruments, that voice is expressed through the mass media and popular discourse, and the resolution occurs through legal reform.
Pivot's approach to social change is to accelerate the evolution of our collective will by giving voice to those who are marginalized, and rationally integrate the social energies they represent according to principles of equality, fairness and compassion. Applied consistently and effectively, we believe this activity will over time lead us to a more integrated, just, and ultimately healthier society.