{"id":96122,"date":"2026-10-04T07:19:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T06:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=96122"},"modified":"2026-10-04T07:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T06:19:56","slug":"solution-focussed-campaigning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/10\/04\/solution-focussed-campaigning\/","title":{"rendered":"Solution focussed campaigning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our event in Ely yesterday was, I think, a great success. We addressed solution-focused campaigning, which is also the topic of today\u2019s podcast with John Christensen, whom I discussed this issue with yesterday.<\/p>\n

To aid discussion, I produced 12 pages of infographic material<\/a>, split into two parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first part is an overview of my approach to solution-focused campaigning, and the second, longer part addresses the need for imagination if we are to create a vision of a better world that solution-focused campaigning might make possible, because that is what it is all about.<\/p>\n

The combined PDF of these materials is available here<\/a>. Please feel free to use them, share them and agree or disagree with them, as you will.<\/p>\n

The short-form summary of this thinking is reflected in this infographic:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I noted in the podcast, and yesterday during our sessions, the idea of solution-focused campaigning is partly derived from what is called solution-focused therapy, where the intention is to make someone feeling burdened by problems imagine that a better world is possible by asking them to consider what it would look like if it were to exist. As campaigners, this is what we need to do.<\/p>\n

Whether we campaign politically, as NGOs, civil society organisations, or simply as individuals with a cause that creates a bee in our bonnet, complaining is never enough. Moaning might be a common human pastime, but it has rarely, if ever, produced positive outcomes for society. To achieve that, we must imagine what the better world we want looks like so we can communicate what we are working for, why it is imperative that we achieve it, who opposes it, and how we can overcome the obstacles in our path.<\/p>\n

I am not pretending that I think everyone who attended yesterday will now be fully versed in these techniques. But if we are to break the hegemonic poverty of opinion based upon the singularly acceptable patterns of thought that have created the neoliberal world in which we now exist, we have to imagine that a better world is possible, or we will get nowhere.<\/p>\n

That is why I so often say that looking out of the window is the most important activity any campaigner can undertake, except, that is, going for a walk to see what is really going wrong in the world about us so we might imagine how to do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our event in Ely yesterday was, I think, a great success. We addressed solution-focused campaigning, which is also the topic of today\u2019s podcast with John
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