THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHANGEMAKERS
The different kinds of changemakers, defined.
Changemakers are people who work both behind the scenes and on the front lines of a social issue to bring about positive change—teachers, administrators, counselors, youth workers and mentors among them. They can work along a spectrum from part-time to full time as volunteers or for pay, within their communities and/or on-line. The most powerful changemakers function in the words of Malcolm Gladwell as “contagious agents.”
Everyday Changemakers are those who make change in less formal and structured ways. As Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, says, “everyone a change maker.”
Social entrepreneurs work full-time over the course of years to accomplish their goals. In particular, they release potential trapped in an unproductive system (within an individual, groups and social situations) and create new, more sustainable and positive systems. Social entrepreneurs differ from:
Social psychologists study how social situations and groups influence the ways that individuals understand themselves and the world around them (i.e., their “construals”). The current generation of social psychologists have built an impressive number of “interventions” (short lessons) that are implemented within schools to improve students’ academic performance and social/emotional wellbeing.
Changemakers are people who work both behind the scenes and on the front lines of a social issue to bring about positive change—teachers, administrators, counselors, youth workers and mentors among them. They can work along a spectrum from part-time to full time as volunteers or for pay, within their communities and/or on-line. The most powerful changemakers function in the words of Malcolm Gladwell as “contagious agents.”
Everyday Changemakers are those who make change in less formal and structured ways. As Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, says, “everyone a change maker.”
Social entrepreneurs work full-time over the course of years to accomplish their goals. In particular, they release potential trapped in an unproductive system (within an individual, groups and social situations) and create new, more sustainable and positive systems. Social entrepreneurs differ from:
- social service providers, who “take direct action in a given situation but leave the existing system in place” (for example, running a food bank)
- social activists, who “work indirectly, advocating for legislative changes that can transform the environment in question” (for example, overhaul the health care system).
Social psychologists study how social situations and groups influence the ways that individuals understand themselves and the world around them (i.e., their “construals”). The current generation of social psychologists have built an impressive number of “interventions” (short lessons) that are implemented within schools to improve students’ academic performance and social/emotional wellbeing.