Campaigning Wiki

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Summary

TBD — distil a 2-4 sentence summary from Body.

Body

A structure test is a small, deliberately provocative action that exposes the real alignment of a stakeholder — whether an official, a corporation, or a media outlet — with the campaign’s demand.

The action is designed so the stakeholder can either comply (revealing they could) or refuse (revealing they won’t). The point is not to win on the test action but to gather information and to shift the spectrum of allies. The Commons Library’s organizing module treats structure tests as the diagnostic tool that turns a spectrum-of-allies hypothesis into evidence [source: commons-library]. Beautiful Trouble presents many worked examples — flash-mob test-buy, prank petition, humorous ad-bust — designed to provoke a public response from a target that has been silent [source: beautiful-trouble]. Seeds for Change adds the discipline that test actions must be reversible: the campaign must be able to scale up regardless of the answer, so the test is small enough to walk back [source: seeds-for-change]. The French Alinsky tradition runs the same diagnostic under the name épreuve de structure, treating it as the moment a passive opponent is forced to declare themselves [source: alinsky-fr]. The mistake is to over-invest in the test action — it is meant to be small and reversible.

Use it for

Diagnosing where the real power lies; mobilising a base around a small win; setting up a confrontation that the target is forced into.

Summary

TBD — distil a 2-4 sentence summary from Body.

Open Questions

None yet.

Sources & verification

  • sources/commons-library — grounding: secondary — RAW (5257 chars)
  • sources/beautiful-trouble — grounding: secondary — RAW (2589 chars)
  • sources/seeds-for-change — grounding: secondary — RAW (452 chars)
  • sources/alinsky-fr — grounding: secondary — RAW (1304 chars)

Verified 2026-06-23 by llm-qc.

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