This revised edition of a well-known and widely used text in community organizing and development fully examines the broad and changing political and social settings that influence actions; while portraying the infra-structure of social change -- the knowledge, personnel, and organizations -- that enable such work to be successfully accomplished. The text brings together the practicalities of organizing and development -- fund raising, working out news releases, running an organization, orchestrating political actions, academic knowledge -- and explains why various approaches work; as well as the values and ideologies that guide what is to be done. It provides the foundations of organizing and development work and then describes how activists -- through following either a social confrontation model or an economic and social production approach -- can respond to economic and social problems.

Providing new insight into an important community development challenge, this text looks at how to stimulate the formation of community-based organizations and effective citizen action in neighbourhoods.

Combines solid research, observation, and practical experience that speak forcefully to the need for both local place-based development and greater citizen involvement.

"The world is changing rapidly and the practice of community organizing needs to change with it. Representing both an homage to, and a departure from the "alinsky traditions" of organizing, Consensus Organizing offers techniques that are specifically designed for urban and rural communities struggling to succeed in the global economy and the information age. Ohmer and DeMasi are experienced organizers who offer a relentlessly thorough examination of the process of bringing diverse communities together to make change and to bridge the ethnic and economic divisions that keep many communities from succeeding." —Bill Traynor Executive Director, Lawrence CommunityWorks Inc. A person doesn′t have to be a consensus organizer to think like one. Consensus Organizing: A Community Development Workbook—A Comprehensive Guide to Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Community Change Initiatives helps students and practitioners begin to think like consensus organizers and incorporate this way of strategic thinking into their lives and their work. Through a wide range of exercises, role-play activities, case scenarios, and discussion questions, this workbook presents the conceptual framework for consensus organizing and provides a practical and experiential approach to understanding and applying consensus organizing to address a range of issues. This workbook is designed to be used by itself or along with Mike Eichler′s text Consensus Organizing: Building Communities of Mutual Self Interest (SAGE, 2007). Key Features and Benefits Provides a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a community analysis of both internal and external neighborhood resources Brings consensus organizing to life through case studies based on the real-life experiences of the authors Offers field exercises that engage the reader in applying and practicing consensus organizing Provides practical tools that community organizers and practitioners can use in their daily work Includes a sample job description, work plan, monitoring report, and field report for hiring and supervising consensus organizers Presents tools for describing and evaluating consensus organizing and community-level interventions Accompanying Website Instructors and students have access to the many activities and cases on the accompanying website.

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In cities across the US, grass-roots organizations are working to revitalize popular participation in disenfranchised communities by bringing ordinary people into public life. This book examines the techniques used to achieve these goals.

The second edition of Progressive Community Organizing offers a concise intellectual history of community organizing and social movements while also providing practical tools geared toward practitioner skill building. Drawing from social-constructionist, feminist and critical traditions, Progressive Community Organizing affirms the practice of issue framing and offers two innovative frameworks that will change the way students of organizing think about their work. Progressive Community Organizing is ideal for both undergraduate and graduate courses focused on community theory and practice, community organizing, community development, and social change and service learning. The second edition presents new case studies, including those of a welfare rights organization and a youth-led LGBTQ organization. There are also new sections on the capabilities approach, queer theory, the Civil Rights movement, and the practices of self-inquiry and non-violent communication. Discussion of global justice has been expanded significantly and includes an account of a transnational action-research project in post-earthquake Haiti. Each chapter contains discussion questions, written and web resources, and a list of key terms; a full, free-access companion website is also available for the book.

This book provides a brief introduction to what is variously called "faith-based," "congregation-based," and "institution-based" community organizing. Grounded in a composite case study of an actual organizing effort, it shows how local communities can be organized for power. Key organizing concepts and strategies are illustrated with stories of real encounters with leaders, communities, and powerful opposition figures. In the approach described here, civic and religious institutions come together to give the community a collective voice. Organizers help a community build a powerful organization rooted in core values of democracy and the social justice teachings of the world's great religious traditions. Saul Alinsky developed the foundations of the tradition of organizing described here, an approach that remains dominant in the U.S. today. Alinsky rooted power deeply in the lives, relationships and institutions of marginalized and oppressed people. In his early organizing days, his organizations brought together a wide range of institutions: religious congregations and labor unions, as well as mutual aid, self-help, athletic, sororal and fraternal, neighborhood and other voluntary associations. By the late 1970s, as non-congregational neighborhood associations fell into decline, organizers in the Alinsky tradition started looking more carefully at how to sustain the vibrancy of the religious institutions that remained. Organizers sought to help congregation members become co-creators, rather than consumers, of the life of their churches, and worked to help members connect their faith more directly to action in the world. In this way, they helped make both faith and the action more meaningful. This little book tells the story of one congregation that was a member of a "broadly-based community organization," and how a community organizer assisted its development as a true community.

Stir It Up--written by renowned activist and trainer RinkuSen--identifies the key priorities and strategies that can helpadvance the mission of any social change group. This groundbreakingbook addresses the unique challenges and opportunities the newglobal economy poses for activist groups and provides concreteguidance for community organizations of all orientations. Sponsored by the Ms. Foundation, Stir It Up draws onlessons learned from Sen's groundbreaking work with women's groupsorganizing for economic justice. Throughout the book, Sen walksreaders through the steps of building and mobilizing a constituencyand implementing key strategies that can effect social change. Thebook is filled with illustrative case studies that highlight bestorganizing practices in action and each chapter contains tools thatcan help groups tailor Sen's model for their own organizationalneeds. Stir It Up will show your organization how to: Design and conduct actions that further campaign goals Develop effective leaders Build strong alliances and networks Generate and use solid research Design an effective media strategy Put in place a plan for internal political education andconsciousness-raising With the information, tools, and suggestions outlined in thisbook your organization can use your "good idea" to change theworld.

Encompassing community development, organizing, planning, & social change, as well as globalisation, this book is grounded in participatory & empowerment practice. The 36 chapters assess practice, theory & research methods.