Emergent Strategy, Introduction

During my reading of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown, I got similar feelings as I did when reading Feminist Accountability and The Revolution Starts at Home. I thought all of these books were very effective in offering realistic reflections on how to create more positive and productive movements. I thought that Emergent Strategy was inspirational and beautiful. All of the insights from brown gave a very meditative impression, and suggested deep rumination from the author. The writing style that brown has, while discussing very smart ideas, is very down-to-earth, and accessible. The ideas expressed in the text seem not only useful for establishing positive feminist spaces, and sustainable ways to deal with conflict within those groups, but I thought many of the lessons gained from this book are beneficial in learning how to deal generally with conflict throughout all our lives. And I think that was part of the point; if we can deal with conflict within our own personal lives, our attitudes within feminist movements will reflect that. As Brown says, “In the framework of emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts” (12).

In the introduction to the book, brown states that emergent strategy is “strategy for building complex patterns and systems of change through relatively small interactions” (6). This emergence is “adaptive,” and a unique way of interacting with ourselves and others. A key point that I took away from this chapter is that love and connection are fundamental aspects of emergent strategy. Brown talks about the importance of love, saying that “love leads us to observe in a much deeper way than any other emotion” (11). Brown states that humans are the most perfect and resilient when we are doing things out of our love for others. I think brown states these ideas in a really beautiful manner, and these ideas are important in building positive personal and political lives.