Risk assessment in movement organising [foundational material]

Overview

When thinking about risk assessment at the level of movement organising, it means expanding the scope of consideration to also include shared spaces, processes, resources or activities that are helmed collectively – formally or informally.

Movements are larger than an organisation, and made up of relationships of shared political commitment and action between different actors. Movement actors can be comprised of individuals, organisations, collectives, community members or groups, and bring different knowledge, skills, contexts and priorities into a movement. How movement actors organise themselves, figure out roles and areas of responsibilities and come to agreements are important dimensions of movement organising, where risk assessment can also play a part in surfacing potential points of stress.

Risk assessment from a movement perspective

It's often easier to identify movements from hindsight, as they grow organically through time and in response to concerns of specific contexts and moments. Sometimes, we think of movements as protests, since that is often the site where many movements are visible and grow. But not all movements end (or begin) in protest. For example, many LGBTIQ++ movements in places where visibility carries a high cost organise and take action in less visible ways, such as creating closed community spaces online, where individuals can convene, converse, provide support and strategise for different kinds of interventions.

A movement is made up of many different moments or stages, such as community outreach, building evidence, deepening understanding, consensus building, taking action, holding space for collective care, distribution of resources and so on.

Each of these moments or stages can be specific times in which collective risk assessment can be undertaken by those who are holding space or process. It might be useful to think about movement security as having the conditions in which the many stages or components of movement work can take place and thrive.

Layers of risk

One way to begin the process of risk assessment from the perspective of movements is to unpack the different layers that need consideration. There are three components that interplay with each other.

1. Relationships and protocols
2. Spaces and infrastructure
3. Data and information

The next sections describe what each layer is about, and some of the components within them, including questions for discussion that can help to unpack, analyse and understand the risks, towards coming up with a plan.

1. Relationships/protocols

At the heart of strong movements are strong relationships which are built on the basis of trust. This is particularly important as movements are less about form than about the strength and tenacity of their relationships at different levels.

Risk assessment can take place at the level of the individual, organisation or informal groups. When approached from a movement building perspective, it means paying attention to the relationships between those levels.

For example, if an individual is undergoing a lot of stress because they are working from pay check to pay check, this can affect their ability to participate fully, which in turn can impact on the organising work as a whole. Or if an organisation is under attack by the government, its affiliation to other organisations or individuals in the movement can also render them open for similar attacks. Or if there is abuse between members of a collective, this can weaken the movement as a whole from both external as well as internal stresses.

In other words, risk from a movement perspective is something that is taken on collectively, and is affected by the practices and well-being of the different nodes/actors who are part of movement organising.

To manage risks at the level of relationships, the following three areas can be looked at:

a) Collective care

Collective care is both an individual responsibility and a matter of collective accountability to each other. This means that assessing and planning for risks needs to take into consideration different individuals’ state of well-being, as well as in relation to each other in terms of shared spaces, platforms, resources and processes.

b) Inclusion and representation

This is in terms of processes and criteria for including people into different layers of organising spaces. Sometimes this is only considered when a security breach has happened, such as information about an event being leaked to hostile parties because everything happens in one WhatsApp or Facebook group. Thinking about inclusion mechanisms can help in being more purposeful in developing different security levels of information sharing and communication channels. Thinking about representation in movement activities can help to also surface particular risks to individuals or groups of people, and how to mitigate, distribute or prepare for this risk.

c) Managing conflict

This is often an area that is least addressed within movements, as we assume shared politics, values and interest. However, it’s important to allow for these to be surfaced, discussed and planned for, as they can serve to support the overall justice mission of the movement, as well as ensure that internal vulnerabilities or power differences are addressed.

A plan doesn’t have to be complex, but it can begin with a frank and carefully held discussion, surfacing shared values and coming to agreements, and then making a plan around this including who should be involved, what measures can be taken, and how shared values can be collectively enacted.

2. Spaces/infrastructure

The digital layer is an increasingly critical component for organising and movement building in current times. Because movements are not located within an institutional space, digital infrastructure and platforms become an important shared space for coming together, coordinating and planning activities, documenting decisions/transparency, as well as the living archive of collective history, etc. It's a critical part of the ecosystem of movements today.

Often, digital infrastructure of movements is a combination of different platforms, tools and accounts that are employed or emerge across time in evolution with the movement as it grows. Unlike within an organisation, there may be several people taking care of different kinds of spaces for different purposes, which may also serve different communities. Some of these could be personal accounts, some could be temporary accounts set up for an activity or event, and some can be subscriptions and spaces created specifically for a coming together of different information, content and community streams. Taking a moment to understand this as an ecosystem – interconnecting components of a shared movement infrastructure – and to assess potential risks can help to surface collective responsibility, care and stewardship over these spaces, as well as to develop safety plans around potential compromises.

The following areas can be discussed when thinking about risk assessment on spaces and infrastructure, with some questions that can be considered:

a) Platform/tool/hosting decisions

Movement and organising work relies heavily on information sharing and effective communication. As such, thinking through risks related to which platform or tool to use for organising, and where they will be stored, can have a large implication on the safety and security of the people, groups and work of the movement. In assessing risks related to vulnerability to breaches and attacks, it may be useful to consider if there are feminist/activist-developed or hosted solutions for that specific need, as they generally pay greater attention to issues of privacy and security.

It’s also important to consider accessibility, usability, ease and likelihood of effective adoption by larger movement members. It’s not always useful to choose the most technically secure solution, when it requires a lot of investment in time and energy to learn how to use it, which may not always be possible or preferable.

b) Ownership and resourcing

Ownership and management of shared digital infrastructure is both responsibility as well as power and potential gatekeeping. The more a movement is able to surface this as a political conversation around shared values and understanding on governance, economy and community building, the more sustainable some of the shared technology practices can be.

c) Administration and protocols

In the context of movement organising, thinking about infrastructure as shared space means that having clarity around how these spaces are managed and by whom can help to surface not only collective care, but also potential risks related to access to, care of and potential loss of information and community space.


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3. Data/information

Data and information are being produced and generated all the time while organising. This can be in the form of formal or informal, deliberate or shadow forms of data. Another way to understand risks in increments is to look at the data practice of a specific activity or strategy of a movement. Think about this from either a specific working group within a movement that is responsible for carrying out specific tasks or strategies, or from the perspective of an activity. This can also be used at the level of an organisation, as every organisation deals with data, and each unit within an organisation does as well.

Here, there are some security and safety considerations for each phase of the data life cycle. There is an activity called “Data life cycle to as a way to understand risk” that operationalises this section.

a) Creation/gathering/collection of data

b) Data storage

c) Data processing

d) Publishing/sharing of information from the processed data

e) Archiving

f) Deletion

Conclusion

This background document aims to help provide you with a conceptual overview of how to think about risk assessment from the perspective of movement organising. Often, risk assessment is done at the level of an individual, or an organisation. Thinking about this at the level of movements means asking participants to situate themselves as significant, yet partial, parts of a larger community of organisers.

This can be helpful as a common ground for groups of people who are organised differently to come together and think through a common plan, when a shared context, aim or activity is identified. It can also help to facilitate processes for collective thinking around sustainability and organising by anticipating and planning for risks related to group and relational dynamics, and where information and communications technologies play a critical role as movement infrastructure.

You can share this as an additional resource for background reading with participants, or choose specific layers to further deepen as a group exercise or discussion.

Further reading

More broadly on understanding movement building and collective organising, as well as on digital realities:


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Revision #7
Created 18 April 2023 04:44:12 by Kira
Updated 28 July 2023 14:51:36 by Kira