torsdag 2 december 2010

Equality going global


Rättviseförmedlingen (The Equality Agency) is a new approach to a social equality movement, which has grown from one persons' idea, to a collaborative movement of over 21,000 people, within eight months. And now it's going global.

The Equality Agency (soon to be given another official name in english), is a pretty straight forward response to an all too common problem. The big problem is the commonly used phrase "there aren't any", or "we couldn't find any", which pops up just about anywhere were the contact networks, imaginations, or research skills of the people looking is limited to the dominant majority norm or a confined group within a certain field. So if the great problem is too limited contact networks, the simple response is: let's pool everyones networks, imaginations and research skills together instead!

One of the great things about the Equality Agency is that people join and get involved at their own leisure and level. Whether you want to suggest yourself to a search where you fit the match or if you want to pass on a specific search to the rest of your network, or go out of your way to find people to suggest to every search, it's all up to you what your involvement is. The idea is that peole like to share and contribute to something larger than themselves.

Speaking of something larger, the movement that started in Sweden and spread like wildfire there, gaining recognition in the press and social media, winning a national grant for inspiring social projects, is now building up for its first international launches.

The online movement has received an interest from New York, London, Oslo, Berlin and several other cities and countries outside of Sweden. Now the process goes from expressing curiosity to doing initial needs and network analyses and mobilizing people and allies in the places where there is real potential for growth, relevance and making a difference.

Quelle Différence is involved in this exciting process of a movement going global, coordinating international contacts and allies, compiling best practice and how-to material and contributing to the english-speaking press and PR-work.

I am having a lot of fun with this process and I am looking forward to seeing the results in the actual spread and growth of the project. Early 2011 is going global time! See you out there!

/Ola Nilsson
quelle différence