So besides all the sex, chrome, and violence. I want this campaign of Shadowrun to include at least the possibility that the Runners will be in a position to cause Radical Social change for better or worse in the setting.

I was thinking a currency devaluation due to post Crash recession might trigger riots, and lead to a New Deal attempt to address the poverty stricken at least for the short-term to shut down the rioting.

But I also wanted to other possibilities...

Also what are some currencies besides Neuyen? Do the Elves mint their own money? I've just got the SR4 corebook. First time running Shadowrun but not my first attempt at Cyberpunk.

If you have the opportunity to grab Corporate Enclaves, you might consider reading about Horizon, the newest megacorp on the scene (which gets a write up in the LA chapter--it's the first time Horizon gets a write up in SR). It's got a reputation for doing things to influence the social ills of poverty, lawlessness, and... other things... If you want your players to have a part in changing society, on a micro or macro level, Horizon would be an employer of choice.

Horizon: Because We Care ™

Options:
*destabilizing a gang that's preventing a housing initiative from building shelters for homeless refugees of [insert disaster here].
*investigating a rumored outbreak of a new virus that's being spread by the unsanitary conditions of a barrens; protecting the scientists going into the area for research; protecting/escorting/securing/delivering a vaccine before the virus spreads (riots often occur in areas of major outbreaks, plus you get the fun option of police/military forces trying to cordon off the area and/or cover it up).
*exposing a [insert evil bad corp here] plot to dump toxins into an area where the groundwater reserves supply a large slum or lower-class neighborhood.

Keep in mind, despite what you may think, horizon are not good guys, like all other corps all they care about is the bottom line, they just figure that if everyone loves them, everyone will be loyal, not a bad racket.

Oh, ye of little faith...

Oh, you think so, huh?

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see that Tiger Eyes had already posted a subtle yet oblique comment. Didn't mean to pile on; sorry.

Anyone who has read their Machiavelli knows that you don't become one of the ten most powerful corporations in the world without some underhanded tactics and tricks. Sure horizon may be better then the other corps, but no corp that side is immune to the taint of corruption and greed. If you honestly think that horizon has everyone best interests in mind instead of just caring about the bottom line, then you are just playing into horizons hands.

Oh, yes one of the players has Corporate Enclaves. I see about borrowing it when I see him on friday. Thanks so much.

MOM likes to break up Wizzer gangs, and a lot of organisations do charitble work for low level things. If it is a high powered campaign, consider taking over a country. Just for giggles. You could also have them work for the Anarchist Black Cross for a while - train a pack of revolutionaries while busy pulling runs and hits, then move on to the next zone.

Another possible social change is a shift away from centrally controlled conglomerates and towards independent and self-contained private enclaves. So for instance, if you had a prototype community on the edge of the barrens which provides its own food, power, matrix service and basic manufacturing. The catalyst here could be a 3D prototyper, sort of like the thing in Diamond Age which makes whatever it has a design for. A community with this can turn basic materials into just about anything, and that includes making it into the perfect recycler.

This mirrors real-life concerns and shifts, as well as the line between cyberpunk and transhumanism.

Ok, so we have 2 devs using subtle and oblique comments about Horizon being just another corp looking for money. I guess we have our new front for mysterious entities with mysterious agendas here.

Back on topic, you can do what I did for my Hamburg campaign: clearly define the underworld of your campaign setting, with its movers and shakers. Even if they work for corps, Shadowrunners aren't likely to have a big impact on the corp-controlled world where they're nobodies. But in the underworld, it's different. Corps aren't that powerful, and since the PCs are Shadowrunners, they're quite important in that scene (they're the elites of the Shadows and they're independants) . More often than not they'll be the working hands instead of the thinking heads but this means they'll witness a lot of things, and their actions will eventually decide what happens next.

Just a point of clarification. SR has only one developer--Peter the Great, the all-knowing, the sleepless. The rest of us (Aaron & myself, and even Ancient History, bless his twisted little heart) are just Grunts Who Write ™. That being said, I still maintain that TheOOB needs to have some faith.

And following up on Hagga's post (in case Mr.Lost didn't understand the acronym), MOM stands for Mothers of Metahumans, a non-profit organization dedicated to having everyone, tusks, pointy ears, and short people alike, live together in harmony. They're actually fairly powerful; they were instramental in freeing San Francisco from Saito's rabid anti-metahuman rule. They would make a great employer for runs that positively change up the social status quo. In the same vein, there are other non-profits and NGOs in the SR world, and you could make up your own or use an existing one.

This... Is my campaign. Or how I envisioned it. Shadowrun, as it stands, has most or maybe all of the tech for a post-scarcity society to evolve, it just hasn't, yet, due to corporate control of the technology. If only the right people could get their hands on the good stuff...

Meanwhile, Horizon is my major bad guy in the works, because the dawkins group has determined that all this "post-scarcity" "Self-sufficient" "DIY civ" crap is a dangerous meme.

one of the main themes of cyberpunk in my mind, is the fact that social change is completely outpaced by technological change, and the discord that results.

Oh, come on, lets not forget the obvious solution, unify North America.

Start by doing runs that encourage reconciliation between the Union and the Confederacy. When that's accomplished, work on California. They're not in very good shape and are particularly vulnerable, as should be obvious from Saito's occupation. Given its strategic importance to the Pacific and its vulnerability, a merger with the UCAS/CAS makes sense, assuming that they don't join forces with Hawaii.

At this point, that Natives will be getting restless. Sandwiched by the White Devils, the NAN would be feeling more than a little threatened by the American re-expansion. But the Nations are only loosely unified, and one can chip away at their solidarity, slowly bringing them over in a battle of political attrition, with many interesting shadowruns to help that out.

Once the NANs have joined the States, conflict with Aztlan is inevitable. So one only needs a shadowrun that provides an excuse to fire the first shot (much like the government orchestrated 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq). Once the firefighting begins, Texas will be caught in the middle and we all know who they'll have no choice but to side with. It doesn't actually matter if the States win against Aztlan; they'll have the Lower 48 back plus parts of Canada. Nabbing Mexico and Central America would just be icing.

Keep in mind the PCC is pretty chummy with CAS b/c of the Azzies and might rejoin the US voluntarily.
Of course they are going to make sure any land claims and treaties prior to the Denver agreement are null and void. The new Tir might just follow suite due to the economics of it. The Salish, Suiox and Ute (currently under PCC control) would object strenuously though. Of course the big Q is would the Ghost Dance return in response?

Are you looking for Radical Social changes for the better or for the worse? If you want to drive the dystopia further into the black on a micro-level, with macroscopic results, I'd look into Loose Alliances. Many of the groups (eco-terrorists for example) there had agendas which could find fertile soil in the chaos following the Crash. Militia groups either for or against the New Revolution would also be a destablizing influence.

For Horizon--Don't trust Machiavelli in all things, though he would have approved of this plan. They didn't have to get their hands dirty because they were mostly a digital agency. During the Crash, they were offline preparing for the WMI--when everyone else got hit, they were unharmed. Then the group grabbed more digital presences during the firesale that followed. If you're lucky, you don't have to be mean.

The debate here is like the debate on Jackpoint--everything we know about them is good, so they must be bad. For my vote: "Horizon--the Lesser of all Evils."

On the Run has the runners , so they're definitely not all good.

Horizon is born from entertainment industry and is focused on mass medias; their aim is to control the masses's coscence and point of view, influencing likes and dislikes, so influencing the consumer base and by extension the bottomline of other corps (along improving their own). Once they will have a firm grip on what they want they will be able to exert alot of pressure on other corps, they will be able to make or destroy the future of smaller corps and seriously affect the one of bigger players.
If they are succesfull they would become the screen behind which megas hide their dirt, being paid to keep their secrets secret, basicaly completely skipping the part of getting their hands dirty while still making money; in this development they wouldn't have any interest in improving the social situation of opulation, they would act just to make the other boys nervous and keeping the money flowing in their coffers (from big boys who don't want skeletons pop up and from consumers who see them as a beam of light in the darkness of other corps's decept), endeed not a bad racket.

Oh yeah, MoM and Saito's ass being kicked out of power, thats a story that deserves a (historical/retro)adventure on its own. I mean, CFS was left as a veritable BOOM-keg just waiting a match, than the crash came along with the no more repressed ire of the metas (with a hand from Ares and from a great dragon or two): it's a perfect setting for a sourcebook. I realy, Realy, REALY wish it be covered.

Actualy that was more an initiative of a single man (the elf didn't tell to the corp what he was up to), as for Horizon having death squads, they weren't much more than Lone Star's beat cops (I might bewrong, I dont have the book here) in terms of competicy, they would be described as good security forces sent in a retrive mission (considering the corp they work for they probably recive the most disparate assignaments).
I don't dubt Horizon has some professional issue-disposers for nasty jobs (they ARE a triple A corp) but calling that squad a death squad is an hiperbole (it's also stated that they are not there to fight and won't try to geek the runners unless runners try to geek them).