Power Tools

The Carnegie UK Trust’s interest in power and influence is driven by both a commitment to increasing the engagement of those with least power in public decision-making and a desire to enhance the capabilities of civil society associations to affect change in the interest of social justice.

Civil society associations often use tools to enhance their strategic thinking and action including diverse tools to map and understand power and influence, to organise power and ensure that gains are sustained. In essence, such ‘power tools’ are designed to be an aid to thinking and action so that civil society associations can better engage with and reshape power and its distribution. 

What is a power tool?

A ‘power tool’ is here understood as a practical set of strategies, techniques or tactics that explicitly recognise, analyse and address various forms of power and influence. We distinguish:  

- tools for understanding both inward-looking and outward-looking power and influence mechanisms  

- tools for organising citizens and voices and engaging with multiple groups and actors through a mix of collaboration and resistance 

- tools for ensuring that analysis and engagement lead to action and that gains are sustained.

The aims of the first phase of this project are:-         

• to map and compile power and influence tools that are of practical use to civil society associations
• explore if and how power tools could be usefully disseminated or developed in the interest of strengthening the power of marginalised and excluded groups