The World-Builder's Guide to Revolution: Lessons from Fantasy and Sci-Fi
Social movements and speculative fiction share a fundamental truth: both are in the business of imagining different worlds. Whether you're writing about a post-scarcity federation of planets or organizing for police abolition, you're asking people to envision and believe in a reality radically different from our own.
So what can social movements learn from the world-builders of fantasy and science fiction? As it turns out, quite a lot.
The Power of Complete Worlds
The most compelling speculative fiction doesn't just change one thing – it thinks through how that change ripples out to affect every aspect of society. Take N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy: it doesn't just imagine a world where some people can control geological forces. It explores how this ability would shape everything from architecture to family structures to systems of power.
This is crucial for movements too. When we talk about abolishing prisons, we need to paint a complete picture of what that world looks like. How do communities handle harm? How do support systems work? What institutions need to exist instead? The more complete our vision, the more real it feels.
Characters as Carriers of Possibility
The best sci-fi and fantasy doesn't just tell us a world is different – it shows us through the lives of its characters. Octavia Butler's Parable series doesn't just describe a society in collapse; it shows us Lauren Olamina actively building a new way of life through Earthseed. Her journey makes abstract possibilities feel tangible and achievable.
Movements need their own "characters" – not leaders, but examples. Stories of real communities already practicing transformative justice. Examples of neighborhoods creating mutual aid networks. Concrete instances of people living the future we're fighting for.
Systems Thinking in Fiction
Great speculative fiction excels at systems thinking. Consider Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, which explores how changes in artificial intelligence and gender concepts would affect everything from language to social hierarchies. Or Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, which meticulously maps out how we might actually tackle climate change through multiple interconnected systems.
This is vital for movements. We can't just focus on what we're against – we need to understand how different systems could work together to create the world we want. How does economic democracy connect to environmental justice? How does transformative justice support community health?
World-Building Techniques for Movements
Here are some practical tools from speculative fiction that movements can use:
The Five Whys: For any aspect of your envisioned future, ask "why?" five times to uncover the deeper systems and values that need to change.
Day in the Life: Write detailed scenarios of how everyday life works in your envisioned future. What's different about going to school, dealing with conflict, or participating in community?
Ripple Effects: For each major change you're proposing, map out second- and third-order effects. How does it affect family life? Work? Culture?
Multiple Perspectives: Like a good novel, consider how different people would experience your envisioned future. How does it work for elderly people? For children? For disabled people?
Learning from Successful Examples
Some movements are already using these techniques effectively. The Movement for Black Lives doesn't just call for defunding police – they've created detailed visions of community safety and well-being. The Green New Deal combines technical policy with compelling narratives about a more just and sustainable future.
The Sunrise Movement excels at using story to make climate action feel urgent and possible. They combine clear policy demands with a powerful narrative about young people fighting for their future, complete with its own symbolism, rituals, and culture.
Building Your Movement's World
Ready to strengthen your movement's world-building? Try these exercises:
Create an Atlas: Map out the key institutions, relationships, and systems in your envisioned future.
Write the History: What's the story of how we get from here to there? What are the key turning points?
Develop the Culture: What new rituals, practices, or traditions might emerge in your envisioned future?
Detail the Economics: How do people meet their needs? How does work function?
The Stories That Make Revolution Possible
The most powerful thing about speculative fiction is how it makes other worlds feel possible. It doesn't just tell us things could be different – it lets us walk around in that difference, feel it, believe in it.
This is exactly what movements need to do. We need to make our envisioned futures feel so real, so detailed, so lived-in that people can't help but believe in them. We need to be world-builders as much as organizers.
The future is a story we tell together. Make yours compelling enough to fight for.
Want to develop your movement's world-building capacity? Contact us to learn how we can help.