For this page, all I have to offer right now is an introduction to some of the books that have given me some theory and examples of community organizing as well as others that have influenced my thinking on social issues in general. (There are more on the My Journey-Challenges and Learnings pages) Most of my learning about community organizing happened in the national and local training events and actually doing the work. If you only read one book - read the first one mentioned below by Mike Gecan.
Gecan, M. (2002).Going public. Boston: Beacon Press.
This is one
of the clearest books about community organizing that I have read.It briefly covers the history of
Alinsky-style tactics and the origins of the Industrial Areas Foundation.Interspersed with very exciting real-life
battles in the public arena, it succinctly outlines the rationale and
techniques behind this decades-old, but relatively little known style of
restoring democracy and accountability to local communities.Gecan covers the principles of mutual
accountability, relational culture and leadership development, public actions
and reflection and evaluation.It is a
quick and interesting read with concrete examples of how and why this form of
community organizing works and would make anyone want to join up with an IAF affiliate
immediately upon reading.
Alinsky, S. (1946).Reveille for radicals.New
York:Random
House.
This bible
for “radicals” ignites a fiery call to pragmatic action by explaining what it
takes to be a radical versus a “liberal” and presenting observations on the
radicals’ place in historical revolutions.Alinsky stresses that everyone must understand the relationship between
themselves and the community they live in order to get them involved in its
changes and lifelong survival.He speaks
about the moral decline of our society and the inner conflict that can only be corrected
with a focus on spiritual values rather than material goods.He describes the building of a people’s
organization – the concepts, the tools, the pitfalls, and the tactics.Of importance to the adult education
community is the section on popular education – to achieve an unspoken
understanding – “create a climate in which people want to learn because
learning itself is essential to life.”
Alinsky, S. (1971). Rules
for radicals: A pragmatic primer for realistic radicals.New
York: Random House.
In his
second book, community organizing guru Saul Alinsky refines his original rules
for radicals seeking to change the power structures of U.S. society.I enjoyed this book much more than “Reveille”
– it was more accessible in its language and as noted in the title, it was pragmatic.There are interesting stories of how the
rules of revolution were applied by famous figures such as the founding fathers
of the United States and
Gandhi in India.The best chapter answers the question “Does
this particular end justify this particular means?” listing 11 rules regarding
the ethics of ends and means.If you have
ever felt in your life’s history that you were right and “they” were wrong,
this is a good chapter to revisit your certainties.He redefines such over-used words as power,
self-interest and compromise and spends a lot of time on the importance of
communication.There is also a chapter
on tactics, but it seems every situation is unique, so it serves as only an
example of what is possible.
Chambers E. T. with Cowan M. (2003). Roots for radicals:Organizing
for power, action and justice. New York: The Continuum
International Publishing Group.
“While the silent majority goes
along with the status quo, it only takes a well-organized 2 to 3 percent of the
body politic to initiate social change.”This is one of the insightful and energizing quotes from the third book
about community organizing begun by Industrial Areas Foundation founder, Saul
Alinsky.This book describes the newer
vision of community organizing including real life stories and riveting
examples of power in play.Some of the
concepts covered include:the relational
meeting as a foundational tool of the organizer, the meaning and purpose of
broad-based organizing, creating social capital, private versus public
relationships, public actions provide organizational oxygen, and power precedes
program.“Big Ed” Chambers, as named by
Studs Terkel in the foreword, is the successor of Saul Alinsky as the head of
the Industrial Areas Foundation since his death in 1972.His own stories of organizing give an updated
view of the principles in action as it can work in today’s world.
Warren,
M. (2001). Dry bones rattling:
Community building to revitalize American democracy.Princeton,
NJ:PrincetonUniversity Press.
Mark Warren recounts the multi-year
effort to rebuild social capital through community organizing in the San Antonio and southwest Texas area. Using and then updating
Industrial Areas Foundation techniques to achieve long lasting results, he
offers good reasons as well as his trial and error successes to make his
case. Through examples and strong stories, he covers topics such as
multiracial collaboration, reasons for working through established community
groups and leaders and the essential but often overlooked topic of intentional
and ongoing leadership development. It is IAF principles in concrete and
a strong case for embedding your particular issue within the overall needs of a
community for productive and long-lasting results.This I believe has strong implications for
the adult literacy field to position themselves as part of the community’s
issues rather than a separate and single crisis. (not sure about this anymore)
Reardon, K. (2000). An experiential approach to creating an
effective community-university partnership: The East St. Louis action research project. Cityscape: A journal of policy development
and research. 5(1), 59-74.
This is one
of the first articles given to me that got me interested in a kind of research
that would bring together adult education and community organizing in a way
that would make a difference in my community.It describes a ten year process of change between a university urban
planning department and several poor neighborhoods in East. St. Louis during the 1990’s.Because of systematic and critical reflection
of the process by all parties involved, the researchers changed their approach
through the years, moving from the professional-expert model to participatory
action research to empowerment planning to organizational capacity building.What I like about this article is that
Reardon acknowledges a “well-intentioned but ultimately counterproductive
community intervention approach.”He
emphasizes the benefits of systematic reflection and experiential education and
reminds us “that intervention in complex social systems is rarely effective
without considerable fine-tuning.”
Schorr, L., Sylvester, K., & Dunkle, M. (1999).Strategies
to achieve a common purpose:Tools for
turning good ideas into good policies.(Special report #12).Washington, DC:
Institute for Educational Leadership.(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED467663)
This paper was presented at a seminar
for education policy makers on tools for improving social policy by overcoming
bureaucratic restraints to scaling up small successful programs.As a follow up to her 1997 book on the same
topic, Schorr gives a history and examination of why social programs have
mostly failed when going to scale thus far.Wishful thinking rather than hardheaded analysis has led to the
phenomena of political credit for categorical funding of programs and
demonstration programs that do not spread automatically.Schorr states “I am convinced that the reason
we haven’t been able to build upon success on any significant scale is that we
have ignored the mismatch between the attributes of effective programs and the
gravitational pull of prevailing systems.”This report lists seven strategies for sustainability, scale-up and
replication, and the second author, Dunkle provides tools for implementing each
of the strategies.Although it is geared
specifically for early childhood programs, the strategies and tools are very
helpful and general enough to be transferable to any social service issue.
Schorr, L. (1997). Common purpose: Strengthening families and neighborhoods to rebuild America.New York: Doubleday
I don't know why I didn't annotate this book - it's one of my early favorites - see the related article and presentation above.
