The Ambivalence Project, partnering with Goodwin Simon Strategic Research, has launched their messaging guide, “Ambivalence as an Opportunity for Social Change.” It can be downloaded for free at: http://goodwinsimon.com/ambivalence.
The Ambivalence Project, led by P.I. Valerie Traub, was composed of 5 faculty, 2 graduate students, and 1 staff person located in LSA and the Medical School. In addition to exploring the significance of ambivalence – a state of mixed or conflicted feelings – to their academic work, they aimed to construct a guide that would aid organizations and activists in using the phenomena of ambivalence to effect progressive social change.
After a year of researching and discussing ambivalence as it appears as a topic and method in feminist, queer, and anti-racist scholarship, they consulted with the Ginsberg Institute to identify potential community partners. With representatives from the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative, We the People, Liberate Don’t Incarcerate, Faith in Action, and the American Indian Health and Family Service, the project’s Advocate Advisory Board made recommendations to the team about what would be most helpful to them in their work. The Ambivalence Project then collaborated with members of Goodwin Simon Strategic Research to draft a comprehensive messaging guide addressed to social justice organizers; it provides ways to explore their own ambivalence as well as that of the communities with which they engage.
While some forms of organizing and advocacy depend on individuals resolving their internal conflict or ambivalence to support an issue or become part of a movement, this guide offers an alternative approach. It provides practices to equip individuals to recognize and engage with their ambivalence, to hold it, and to ultimately put more emphasis on the things that allow them to become more supportive of social change, even if conflicting feelings remain.
Goodwin Simon Strategic Research is an independent opinion research firm that conducts research both within the U.S. and globally. GSSR Partners Paul Goodwin, Amy Simon, and John Whaley, along with their team of researchers and messaging specialists, have decades of experience in polling, social and political marketing, policy analysis, program evaluation, and communications strategy for clients in the public and private sectors. Collaboration with this external firm would never have happened without the support of the Humanities Collaboratory. Feel free to download the guide and share it with others!