Description
This 90-minute simulation immerses students in the process of designing and organizing a social movement in order to understand how leadership structure, strategic goals, and differentiated roles shape collective action. Students are divided into two movement groups tasked with reviving the Occupy Wall Street movement in response to contemporary economic inequality. Each group operates under a distinct leadership structure—horizontal or hierarchical—and adopts either a reformist or radical strategic orientation. Within each movement, students assume one of three leadership roles: agitators, innovators, or orchestrators. These roles require participants to articulate grievances, develop actionable strategies, and coordinate collective efforts. The contrasting structures and goals create meaningful constraints that influence decision-making, participation, and internal dynamics. The exercise concludes with group presentations and a structured debrief comparing how leadership design and movement goals shaped outcomes.
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Resource Type
- Interactive Exercise or Project
Time Commitment
- 1–2 Hours
Recommended or Required Reading
Suggested Readings
•Battilana, J., & Kimsey, M. (2017, September 18). Should you agitate, innovate, or orchestrate? Stanford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/should_you_agitate_innovate_or_orchestrate
•Massey, J., & Snyder, B. (2012, September). Occupying Wall Street: Places and spaces of political action. Places Journal. https://placesjournal.org/article/occupying-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/
•Ransby, B. (2017, October 21). Black Lives Matter is democracy in action. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/opinion/sunday/black-lives-matter-leadership.html
•The Week Staff. (2015, January 8). Occupy Wall Street: A protest timeline. The Week. https://theweek.com/articles/481160/occupy-wall-street-protest-timeline
Additional Information
Modifying the Exercise:
This simulation is adaptable across a range of class sizes and instructional formats. It works especially well in classes of approximately 30 students divided into two groups, but it scales to larger enrollments. In courses of 50 students, instructors can form two groups of 25. In large lectures of 100 or more, the simulation can expand to four concurrent movements, distributing leadership structures and strategic orientations for comparative analysis. The exercise is paired with a short reading on the agitator, innovator, and orchestrator framework, which can complement existing course materials. Although the current version focuses on Occupy Wall Street and economic inequality, the issue area can be easily modified to align with other disciplines or themes, including gender equity, racial justice, environmental justice, immigration, tribal sovereignty, or public health. Time allocation is flexible. While extended breakout sessions deepen strategic planning, the exercise can be condensed into a one-hour format without losing its core learning objectives. Structured reflection questions allow instructors to tailor the debrief to their pedagogical goals.