The Strategy Project

For years, activists in various social movements have asked me what academic work
they should read to make them more effective as strategists. It's always been an
embarrassing question, because there was almost nothing to recommend. So about ten
years ago, I started reading various literatures that bear on this issue: diplomacy and
international relations, game theory, conflict theory, research on war and sports. The
mathematical approach called game theory seemed to dominate the academic
approach to strategy, unsatisfactorily, so I've tried to develop a sociological challenge
and alternative to game theory, which would be more cultural and institutional. When I
have time, I'll put more information about it here, but for now you can order my book
Getting Your Way from my homepage.

Here is an article from 2004 that applies my emerging perspective to social movements:
[pdf]