Watch Andrew Slack’s TEDx talk (13:19), in which he calls on the power of story to mobilise activism. At 10:55 he talks about how the model could be used in schools.
Description
The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) taps into the fanbase of the fictional character of Harry Potter to involve young people in civic action. Since its foundation in 2005, the HPA has rallied over a million participants in a variety of initiatives such as providing books for libraries around the world, sending five cargo planes of supplies to help with the relief effort in Haiti, and putting pressure on big corporations to respect fair trade agreements. Although the movement operates outside of the school system, it provides rich learning opportunities through social engagements and cultural activities.
How does it demonstrate CL?
Personalized (interest-powered)
Participation is optional, fueled by a shared cultural interest. The particularity of this popular movement is that the interest is generated by the shared culture around the Harry Potter narrative; participants are eager to parallel the actions of the book’s protagonist in making the world a better place. Founder Andrew Slack makes the point that the model can be applied to any fan base (a movie, a sports team, etc) or any popular cultural artifact.
Authentic
The HPA takes on real-world problems, empowering members by making a real difference to the lives of others.
Collaborative
The types of projects undertaken by the group require local and global collaboration. Fans are mobilised through social media and other digital networks.
Equitable
Membership in HPA is open to anyone with a passion for social justice. The mission of the organization is works towards making the world more equitable.
What is HPA’s potential as a vehicle for CL?
The founders seized a unique opportunity in establishing a connection between social action and a cultural phenomenon with a theme conducive to social engagement. Although it would be possible to create a similar movement around other themes, HPA is unique because its fan base is so large and international. Opportunities for involvement in the HPA are created by the members and are virtually limitless. So far, the movement has been involved in charitable work, literacy development, relief work and human rights.
What are the barriers to its success?
Work done by the HPA is not recognized in schools. The Harry Potter theme may actually dissuade potential participants. All pop cultural artifacts are “of the moment.” Harry Potter is the most successful fiction series in history, so its fan base may linger once the immediate popularity of the books and films fade. However, similar organisations modeled on the HPA may encounter problems with long-term sustainability.
I find the HPA to be an interesting model, and yes, it may be overlaid onto to other pop-culture references so that it’s not crystallized in Harry Potter era. Harry Potter was so radically successful that it’s perhaps unlikely to expect an equivalent reference with every subsequent highschool, or even K-12 cohort, although I think it could be reasonable to imagine smaller scale and/or more localized, culturally relevant movements, which could be fruitful for overarching themes of CL. The trick would be to design a resilient model that can be flexibly adapted in order to ensure long-term sustainability of the valued outcomes (volunteerism, activism, empowering the self and others, concern for global issues, etc), if not the particular hook. For example, in the group of five planes sent to Haiti, they only had four character names from the Harry Potter series and so the final plane was called DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome), which definitely transcends the Harry Potter series 😉
I think that HPA “not [being] recognized in schools” is not deeply relevant concern for this style of CL. There are many extracurriculars that are just that – extra to curricular work, but nonetheless valued as a portion of overall human development.