How Change Happens (Book)

Published by: Oxford University Press, USA. December 2014. 192 pages Author: Duncan Green

‘In this powerfully argued book, Duncan Green shows how we can make major changes in our unequal and unjust world by concerted action, taking full note of the economic and social mechanisms, including established institutions, that sustain the existing order. If self-confidence is important for the effective agency of deprived communities, so is a reasoned understanding of the difficult barriers that must be faced and overcome. This is a splendid treatise on how to change the actual world— in reality, not just in our dreams.’ Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University

Download book as PDF

‘In How Change Happens, Duncan Green points to a simple truth: that positive social change requires power, and hence attention on the part of reformers to politics and the institutions within which power is exercised. It is an indispensable guide for activists and change-makers everywhere.’ Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and the Mosbacher Director of FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University

‘It was George Orwell who wrote that “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.” Well in Duncan’s book How Change Happens I have found something better: A book that made me think differently about something I have been doing for my entire life. He has captured so much in these pages, drawing on global and national and local change and examples from past and present. But what makes this book so insightful is that at all times we are able to see the world through Duncan’s watchful eyes: From his time as a backpacker in South America to lobbying the WTO in Seattle and his many years with Oxfam, this is someone who has always been watching and always been reflecting. It is this gift that will most help Duncan’s readers—whether they be students or those who think they have seen it all. There is always more to notice about such a complex, changing world. And the more we can see, the better we will be at making change happen.’ Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam International