Duration:
7 weeks
Role:
Team member, team of 4
Kanal Chhajed
Justin Bartkus
Alexandria Rengifo
Justin Walker
Responsibilities:
Defining the research scope, user interviews, shadowing, observatory research, participatory research, social media scan, analysis and synthesis, visual design of the assets below.
What is Sunrise:
The Sunrise Movement is a youth-led movement, advocating for political action on climate change and urging young people across America to mobilize against fossil fuel executives and to elect leaders who stand up for climate justice.
Sunrise is working to unite millions across America to create political power and enact The Green New Deal, a holistic vision for a more caring, equitable, and sustainable society.
What we found and more:
The appearance of Sunrise on the American social and political scene marks the arrival of something curiously paradoxical: aggressive agitation mixed with talk of vulnerability and belonging; righteous fury mixed with practices of deep listening and storytelling; urgent resolve to avert the climate crisis joined with a resolute commitment to stand with the entire spectrum of social justice movements. To some, Sunrise is therapy, to others it is a harbinger of chaos; for one member, it was grounds for believing it morally permissible to bring children into the world. Clearly, Sunrise marks a new kind of patch in the social fabric. Who are its members? And what does Sunrise offer to them? Does it leave anyone behind?
DESIGN RESEARCH | DESIGN STRATEGY
My process in action:
(Illustrated by me)
Mapping the human stories of the Sunrise Movement Chicago
Activism coming of Age
Research and Analysis - Project Process
Primary Research
Secondary Research
Research Analysis
Synthesizing Insights
Suggesting
recommendations
Why would designers study Sunrise?
Organizational Structure: Hub and National
Sunrise Chicago:
Key Activities
What we saw and did:
Primary Research
Accepting the tension between the roles of “researcher” and “participant,” we embedded ourselves within the week-to-week activity of the Sunrise Chicago hub for a span of six weeks.
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01
01
03
01
01
Interviews of
Sunrise Members
Chicago Hub Meeting
Sunrise 101
training
Strike Circle
Meetings(As participant)
Canvassing
Outing(As Canvasser)
Climate
Strike
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Slack Chicago
Channels
Email communications
from Sunrise National
Instagram Chicago,
National & Boston
Facebook Chicago,
National & Boston
What we tracked:
Secondary Research
While we focused most of our energy on the local Chicago Sunrise community, the movement is a national entity, fueled by messaging and goals from its national leadership. We tracked messaging and communications coming from the national hub, while also performing regular social media scans of some other of the prominent Sunrise hubs.
Sunrise principles and Culture
The culture of Sunrise Chicago is unmistakable: it is a place of welcome and warmth, of resonance and passion. This is the secret of the movement’s mass appeal, the main reason why Sunrise marks an evolutionary leap beyond the activist movements of yesteryear. The hub not only intends to generate fierce political action (as has been well noted by media pundits), but community, belonging, and care as well. Sunrise Chicago understands itself to be practicing many of the values that unrestrained global capitalism has sought to trample.
Mentioned on the right are some of the cultural peculiarities that we observed at Sunrise Chicago.
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STORY TELLING
RESONATING
SINGING
INDOCTRINATING
Sunrise
principles
NEWS TRACKING
Journeying into the heart of Sunrise
Though Sunrise is an open movement where a bureaucratic structure is kept to a minimum, there is a standard journey by which members enter the movement and by degrees align their lives with it. At key points of transition, individuals gain new realizations, take on new roles, and experience new emotions. Key people or groups preside over the transition, making sure that the transformation is properly cemented. Taken together, these moments form a powerful and transformative journey that can provide a new direction to life, and even, at its higher levels, a new kind of identity.
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Swiped a Match
2
First
Date
Presiding over the transition
Third parties talking about Sunrise
Sunrise voices hosted on media platforms
Other activists with experience in the movement
New realizations
Sunrise is a political force to be reckoned with
Sunrise is actually getting things done
New emotions
intrigued, impressed, curious, piqued
New roles
follower-from-a-distance, onlooker
Presiding over the transition
national mass call leaders
hub core team members
emcees and speakers at meetings
New realizations
Sunrise is about relationships as much as politics.
The people of Sunrise are like-minded.
New emotions
vulnerability and safety, hope, relief, connection, collective anger
New roles
activist, member
Interim
waiting
3
Going
Steady
4
Getting
Serious
5
Becoming
One
Key activities
tracking Slack
keeping tabs on social media
posting, commenting
volunteering
Key emotions
overwhelmed by volume and disorganization of information Slack channel
eager to contribute
hope to be of value
Presiding over the transition
core team leaders
strike circle leaders
team leaders
action leaders
New realizations
I am necessary for the expansion and success of the movement
I have a Sunrise story that is worth telling
New emotions
being valued, adrenaline, the “start-up spirit”, flourishing, growth, awakening, intensity
New roles
storyteller, demonstrator, organizer, contributor, recruiter
Presiding over the transition
core team leaders
New realizations
Sunrise is a core part of my life
If the hub has deficiencies, it’s my responsibility to address them
I represent and communicate the Sunrise message in all its aspects
I must welcome and care for everyone in the hub
New emotions
responsibility, empathy, gravity, nervousness, courage, growth
New roles
caretaker, spokesperson, shepherd, visionary
Presiding over the transition
national leadership
New realizations
Sunrise is the story of America
The Green New Deal must be America’s future
Sunrise offers a microcosm for how all society should be.
New emotions
awe, magic, unity, inspiration, contemplativeness, intimacy, connection
New roles
an actor on the stage of history, bearer of the torch of social justice
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Humans of the Chicago hub:
Stories of engagement, journeys of belonging
A sampling of stories from Sunrise Chicago
We interviewed eleven different followers of Sunrise Chicago in order to understand the stories of their interaction with the Movement, their values and background, their motivations for being there, and what pains and gains they were experiencing at that moment in time.
These conversations grounded our analysis of the human structure of the hub and the stories of its members.
*Photos blurred for privacy purposes
The Sunrise
System
The Activated Leaders
The Engaged Members
The Drifting orbiters
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*Photos blurred for privacy purposes
Who thrives, who drifts?
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*Journeys of only 5 people are shared for the succinctness of the documentation.
Key Insights & Recommendations
Less than a year old, the Chicago hub has made great strides in establishing a culture of hospitality and gathering a team of passionate and informed leaders. On the spectrum of Alinsky vs. Piven, the two major schools of thought on grassroots social change, the Chicago Hub seems to be growing steadily according to the model of Alinsky: slow, incremental building of community groups through tactics such as leadership development. However, to reach its next stage of maturity and scale towards reaching Sunrise’s goal of 11 million Americans marching by early 2021, a pivot to Piven’s model may be in order: flashpoints of unruly, broad-based participation and disobedience. To assist Sunrise Chicago in this, we have highlighted insights and recommendations around communication, recruitment, organization, community messaging, and identity creation that can help grow the hub and activate the masses.
01/
Sunrise Chicago is a start-up culture in which some are
activated and others require more direction.
We recommend
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Raise Sunrise’s Principle “We Take Initiative” to a place of prominence in Sunrise 101 and other onboarding occasions, co-equal with the principle concerning storytelling and resonating.
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Develop the member practice of creating action roadmaps, supported by a soft mechanism for check-ins and accountability.
02/
Retention of membership depends upon activation.
We recommend
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After new members have experienced the welcome of the hub community, get acquainted with their story and their skills, and solicit for ways they might wish to contribute.
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Maintain the regular practice of shoulder-tapping any members who appear to have gone dormant.
03/
People with previous activist experience are on-boarded and activated quickly.
We recommend
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Focus on building out Sunrise networks in professional sectors where activism is a relatively uncommon practice (e.g., corporate business, educators, engineers, etc.).
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Activate new members to evangelize Sunrise in their professional networks.
04/
Sunrise Chicago’s communications are disorganized and informational, rather than accessible and
story-based.
We recommend
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Establish engaging characters, voices, and moments on the hub’s social media.
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Create periodic communications that keep the membership abreast of happenings in the hub. Maintain and host a hub calendar.
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Crowdsource for experience among hub membership in digital storytelling and mediamaking.
05/
Strike circles are expected to deliver viral recruitment results despite lacking key skills and support to get the job done.
We recommend
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Unify the experiences and cultures of the strike circle and hub, and strategically ingrain mass recruitment throughout all the activities of the Chicago hub.
