“Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change” with Professor Alex Madva

About this episode

The episode discusses how individual choices can contribute to social change, featuring insights from Professor Alex Madva on the complexities of structural change.

Achieving meaningful and sustainable social change is a complex task and a demanding challenge. Many of the most urgent problems, such as climate change, racism, and poverty are structural. They arise from collective practices, including laws, economies, history, culture and social norms. Yet structural change still depends on individuals making different choices—choices that confront existing structures and challenge established norms. In their recent book “Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change” Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly present a novel and scientific account of how personal choices can contribute to transformative social change. The authors argue that individual action matters most when it connects people to collective efforts. Meaningful change happens when individuals work with others to challenge and reshape existing structures. In this episode of Bridging the Gaps I speak with Professor Alex Madva. Alex Madva is Professor of Philosophy, Director of the California Center for Ethics and Policy, and Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Consortium at Cal Poly Pomona. We begin our discussion by unpacking a key point made…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Waseem Akhtar

Guest: Professor Alex Madva

Topics covered

• social change
• individual action
• structural change
• collective efforts
• philosophy
• ethics

Keywords

• social change
• individual choices
• structural change
• climate change
• racism
• poverty
• philosophy
• ethics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: California Center for Ethics and Policy, Digital Humanities Consortium, Cal Poly Pomona

Books & works: Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change

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