What is ACTionism?
You know that feeling when you look around you and see what needs changing, but wonder if you're alone in caring? You're not. And you have more power than you think.
ACTionism is the art of finding your people and taking action - together.
Inspired by Jon Alexander's insight in his book CITIZENS, that "all of us are smarter than any of us," we reject the tired narrative that you're either a passive subject or an isolated consumer. What you are instead, is an active citizen capable of creating meaningful change.
ACTionism exists to inspire you by sharing examples of ordinary people bucking the system to effect change. We also help you find your people so you can start taking collective action.
How ACTionism can help you
We have big plans to help inspire and connect you, including online Citizen Spotlight calls, in-person film screenings and events, a book club, an immersive podcast series, another ACTionism film, magazines and more.
Access all areas
If you’re reading this, you’ll have seen you can get free access to the full archive of everything that's been published before and everything that's still to come - a library of articles to inspire you and provoke reflection.
Who is behind ACTionism?
The term ACTionism was initially coined by filmmaker Michael Shaw as a working title for a film created in collaboration with the Re-Action Collective, founded by Gavin Fernie-Jones and Heather Davies. Through community film screenings and discussions, the resonance of the idea became undeniable -something was clearly striking a chord with audiences.
Tamasine McCaig, who had previously led the Citizens Collective project with Jon Alexander and Olivia Stamp (an experiment exploring the idea of active citizening) saw a gap in the work they were doing.
While the Citizens Collective engaged those already on their journey with citizening, there was an opportunity to reach people who needed inspiration and community to help them decide where to put their energy, take action, and find others.
Recognising this potential, Tamasine, Olivia and Gav saw an opportunity to build something bigger. ACTionism existed as a concept and a film, but not yet as a project or platform. In response, we founded ACTionism as an entity to shape, develop and amplify this emerging movement.
How we're funding this work
At present, we're run by a team of enthusiastic volunteers, writers and creators. As you have read, we have big plans. If you believe in this project and want to support our work financially, you can do so here on Open Collective. By listing on Open Collective, we’re pledging to be completely transparent about the money we receive and where it is spent.
ACTionism works to:
- Lift up marginalised voices and ensure our work reflects community diversity.
- Cultivate joy deliberately - it creates energy, energy creates movement, and movement changes communities and systems
- Amplify the work of community initiatives and organisations that align with our manifesto
- Educate by sharing stories, strategies, and practical guidance for collective action
- Build collective agency and reduce feelings of powerlessness
- Promote and enable community-led solutions across food, education, nature, repair, and local spaces
- Help people turn inspiration into practical action in their communities
- Celebrate and amplify grassroots initiatives that demonstrate collective power
- Connect people through accessible storytelling and community places and spaces
Stay up to date
We’d love you to go a step further, by signing up for the ACTionism newsletter so we can keep you up to date with the best new content and let you know about upcoming calls and events.
Stay up to date by using the subscribe button in the menu.
Our ethical commitment
Regenerative Practices: We support initiatives that restore rather than extract, measuring success by what we leave behind.
Ethical Funding: We only accept funding from organisations focused on regenerative practices. We don’t accept funding from entities investing in fossil fuels, arms, or organisations contributing to harm.