We are often divided about how to move forward in this time of instability and change. But one thing is for sure. We have extraordinarily consequential decisions to make in this 2020 decade: do we acquiesce and shrug our shoulders; fight each other to the bitter end; or do we fearlessly change and begin to flourish together? My new book, Fearless Change in Difficult Times, is intended for those who choose to fearlessly change and flourish together.

One or two national elections may give us breathing space, but do not wipe away the dangers of incipient authoritarianism and the ever-increasing violence. Nor can we find any foundation for effective negotiation or compromise with those political perspectives which in the past have implicitly assumed, and now demand, that some groups are to be considered ‘less than’, and are therefore expendable. As a result, political negotiation, accommodation, and compromise—the mainstays of political power—are no longer effective.

Instead, for true change, we need something more comprehensive, more profound; something like a culture shift, even a collective change of consciousness. It is exactly here that Fearless Change in Difficult Times situates itself. It illustrates how ‘social integrative power’ and ‘deep participation’—the heart of this book—operate together at that pivotal juncture between theory and action.

Most important, Fearless Change clarifies the critical shift between the social and the political. This clarity makes all the difference because political change can only take us so far. Political protests, with their demands for reform, absolutely have their place. But deep participation dynamics will take us further both in terms of positive change and healing solidarity for the long term. In other words, understanding the difference between political and economic power to which we are accustomed, and social power of which we know little takes us to the next level.

Social power connects us. It enhances social relations which are the basis of trust, solidarity, love, social status, values, identity, ideas and community. It is only these factors, collected together as social power, which can confer acceptance and legitimacy on new ideas and institutions. This is how culture shifts are created.

It is only by using the social dynamics of deep participation, which brings forth social power, that the profound changes we need can be peacefully achieved. Deep participation itself is a little known but well researched dynamic participatory process. It brings new ideals and new ways of doing into the reality of the world. It does so by expanding—deep participation group by group—the collective trust and shared ‘self-knowledge’ of society.

These deep participation social movements are then able to collectively change our living injustice. In other words, ‘social power’ can change the present status quo. It is important to note here that while the current phenomena of polarized politics is exhausting to so many of us, social power and deep participation provides a collective social energy that has positive, even joyful effects.

Fearless Change in Difficult Times provides the necessary information, reflection, and expanded cultural understanding for success in each of the necessary steps. It first digs deep into the four ancient wrongs to understand their root and inter-related causes. It then explores exit strategies that can begin to positively change the structure of our society and our communities. Understanding the social power/deep participation process as a social movement is essential in organizing multiple groups for maximum impact. Finally, it assists each group, once they have made their own decision on where to specifically utilize deep participation and social power, on the critical mechanisms that create enduring positive change.

With this solidarity-growing social power we can begin to recognize, and then explore those out-of-sight, out-of-mind collective thought-worlds which give legitimacy to the implicit rules of society—those intangible ‘systems’ of which we are now becoming aware. Using deep participation and social power, it is possible to reimagine and reinvent those enduring thought-worlds which are negative; thereby changing those often outdated and sometimes immoral implicit rules of society. It is here that socially based rapid culture shifts have their beginning.

Paula Donnelly Roark, Oct 25, 2022

Paula Donnelly Roark is a scholar/participation practitioner who combines theory and practice in social change and social movements. She has used these skills to focus on justice, poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, and conflict diminution. Donnelly Roark began her career with a Fulbright-Hayes professorship in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Over a thirty year career Donnelly Roark has provided intellectual leadership in the provision of concepts, methodologies, and analysis for effective social action and incorporation of indigenous institutions to numerous international development agencies and non-governmental organizations. She has also served on various international advisory councils and committees. Donnelly Roark now works as a writer, researcher, and social activist, including stints as a Board member of the local International City of Peace, and as a Restorative Justice facilitator.

My career path and personal life have always been inter-mixed, and it began in a rather dramatic way. I left the US for the first time after graduating from university to visit the relatively new republic of Algeria. Getting there turned out to be more of an adventure than I had anticipated. As it turned out, I was on the first plane to enter the country after a military coup. I left the plane hand-in-hand with a new-found Algerian woman-friend who nonchalantly maneuvered us through a corridor of soldiers with their guns at-the-ready. That situation began a process that changed the direction of my life and work. The social and political tumult, the never-ending discussion of new ideas, the association and friendships with people of profoundly different cultures, living radically different life experiences—all began an intellectual and social process that changed my life.

Several years later, married with a new baby and living in Morocco, the learning curve continued. I was lucky; I had married a generous, forward-thinking man. His suggestion that we alternate our professional activities, three years mine and three years his, provided a wide range of career opportunities for both of us; and that back-and-forth plan has worked for our family all these years. So at that moment, not working but assuming that I would return to the US and go to law school; I energetically delved into Morocco’s social and historical life.

That decision changed my career aspirations. I became enthralled instead with the enormity and intensity of the social change that was taking place all around us. So a change in career path began, with a focus on social change and culture. Several years later living in Burkina Faso as a Fulbright-Hayes professor at the University of Ouagadougou and the National Institute of Education, I was again extremely fortunate. A group of Burkinabe colleagues highly experienced in participation and community development, introduced me to this process from the inside out, and continued to mentor me on how it interacted with indigenous institutions.

This participatory and indigenous institutions perspective became central to my social change work and research. Over the years, I have worked in 22 different countries, always using and expanding this social orientation. Some of the work highlights include: for UNICEF in Somalia, I wrote the organization’s first “Situation Analysis of Women and Children; as a longterm consultant for UNDP, I undertook multiple assignments focusing on participatory and sustainable development; based in Washington, D.C. I was Director of Research and Evaluation for the African Development Foundation, a public corporation that funded communities directly and reported to the US Congress; I then was Senior Social Analyst for the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Department where I was responsible for assisting local communities to establish equitable, participatory communication systems with their regional and national governments; the British economic development program (DFID) then talked me into a new and original assignment: working with a national Congolese team to initiate participatory poverty programming to diminish conflict in the Congo, a daunting but highly rewarding initiative.

All of these diverse assignments had one thing in common—a focus on the social. Usually, social change with its shifts in values and social structures is so slow moving as to be almost imperceptible. But my multi-faceted African experience, with its fast-moving changes, allowed me to understand how the dynamics of social change for every society take place in the interface between the social and the political. I learned how social integrative power emerges so groups in diverse societies can ‘culturally re-image’ their collective social compacts and critical social institutions. It is this indigenous dynamic which provides social legitimacy and the societal ‘license to operate’ in times of change.

I first wrote about all of this in my first book as theory and practice observed in both the United States and Africa. Social Justice and Deep Participation was published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan. Then 2017 began with a new and toxic US President who exposed and expanded an ongoing negative shift in values in political and social structures throughout the nation. As these changes speeded up, I realized that the same, almost imperceptible, critical interface between the social and political—to which hardly anyone pays attention until it’s too late—was where these negative shifts were taking place. After six years of research and writing, Fearless Change in Difficult Times is the result. Clarifying the shift between the political and the social makes all the difference. This is where true social change begins.