This book is for all those - community workers, adult educators, social activists of every kind - who want to overcome pessimism and play a part in changing society in the direction of peace, justice and dignity for all human beings. As author Brian Murphy-- the independent analyst, organizer, educator and writer, and former staff member of the social justice organization, Inter Pares--points out, many of us are pessimistic about our ability to change the world when confronted by destructive political and corporative forces and the destruction they wreak. Murphy reveals the social and personal dilemmas which hold people back from social engagement, and argues that the various constraints we face can be overcome. In this new edition, David Austin explains in his Introduction why this book, first published in 1999, is perhaps more relevant to our times than ever, offering insights from his own experiences of engaging critically with the book and with others. And in his new afterword, Brian Murphy reflects on the continued relevance of the original text, emphasizing how our humanity is being corroded and commodified. To reclaim our humanity, he argues, we must transform ourselves to transform the world.This is a new edition of the book originally published by Zed Books in 1999. The book includes an Introduction written by David Austin and an Afterword from the author, Brian Murphy.

Brian Murphy is an independent analyst, organizer, educator, and writer. Until his retirement at the end of 2006, Brian was a member of the staff team of the Canadian international social justice organization Inter Pares, where his work focused on policy development and programme support for Inter Pares' com- mon cause action in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Canada. He also served from 1983 to 2004 on the governing body of the Project Counselling Service, an inter- national NGO based in Costa Rica, which provided political and material sup- port to the self-organization of people and communities dislocated by violence and repression in Latin America. Brian served on the Advisory Committee for the Institute in Management and Community Development at Concordia University (Montréal) from 1992 until it closed in 2010, where he was active as an external advisor and seminar leader on issues of social activism and citizen participation. Brian remains an active member on the Steering Committee of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group'ÄîICLMG (https://iclmg.ca/about- us/), which he helped create in 2002; and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of AidWatch Canada, based in Black Rock, Nova Scotia (http://aid- watchcanada.ca/about/). Brian is the author of numerous articles on global social justice, civil society organization, and the process of social change. He currently writes at MurphysLog.ca.

Brian Murphy's profile page

David Austin is the author of Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution (2018) and editor of Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness (2018) and You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James (2009). Fear of a Black Nation Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal is the 2014 winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize. His writing engages the work of C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Hannah Arendt, Walter Rodney, and Linton Kwesi Johnson in relation politics, poetry and social movements. A former youth worker and community organizer, he has also produced radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Ideas on C.L.R. James and Frantz Fanon. He currently teaches in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Religion Department at John Abbott College and in the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

David Austin's profile page

Brian Murphy's immensely inspiring book,Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World, deeply challenges us to think and rethink everything we knew and thought we knew.--Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation & Right Livelihood Award Laureate in 2010

We need more conversations like the one in this book, which are rooted in hope while honestly working through a foundational way of seeing and understanding ourselves in the bigger picture.-- Christina Warner, Co-Executive Director and Director of Campaigns and Organising, Council of Canadians.

This is one of the coolest, enjoyable and important books I have read in recent years. Written from the heart as well as the head, it is a breathtakingly visionary, unique and insightful take on the life of the ultimate activist.--Hope Chigudu, Feminist activist

The republication of Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World is a gift for our troubled times. All of us who share the drive to change our society will find encouragement and nourishment. This book offers a break from an all-too-common type of "activism" that demands harmful suppression of our individual creativity, freedom and health. What we have here is a celebration -- and an entirely convincing validation -- of a way of changing the world that is always nurturing and open-ended; a process of possibility and becoming, as we build on humanness to realise greater humanness. As Murphy puts it: "'I will act, because it is sane, and healthy, and human to do so. We will act together, because it is sane, and healthy, and human, and more effective to do so. ... This is how we can begin to develop an open conspiracy'". I'm energised to sign up to this "open conspiracy", and I'm sure many more readers will be too. -- Mark Butler, co-author with Church Land Programme (South Africa) of in, against, beyond, corona