Social Studies 98

Practicing Democracy: Leadership, Community and Power

Fall 2007

 


Instructor:

Marshall Ganz                      

Hauser Center 238 (495-3937)           

marshall_ganz@ksg.harvard.edu

Class Sessions:

Hauser Center Conference Room

(5 Bennett St, Charles Hotel Office. bldg)

Tuesday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

   

 

        Faculty Assistant:                                                                                                 Office Hours:

       Sarah Staley, Hauser Center 237 (384-9637)                                                        Thursday, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

       sarah_staley@ksg.harvard.edu

 

 

"In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of

knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others." de Tocqueville

 

 

INTRODUCTION

A.  OBJECTIVES:

Fulfilling the democratic promise of equity, inclusion and accountability requires the participation of an "organized" citizenry with the power to articulate and assert its interests effectively.  Because access to political resources is unequal, however, the voices many remain muted. Organizing – practicing democracy by mobilizing people to combine their resources to act strategically on behalf of common interests - is one way to confront this challenge. Organizers recruit, identify, and develop leadership; build community around that leadership; and build power from that community. How does this work? Why do some efforts fail while others succeed? Does it really make a difference?

 

In this seminar students explore these questions by learning how to build organizations through which people can make their “voices” heard. By analyzing their own leadership of an organizing project of their own choosing and for which they are responsible, students learn skills of reflective practice. Students use a framework to map power and interests, develop leadership, build relationships, motivate participation, devise strategy and mobilize resources to create organizations and win campaigns. Our approach is equally useful for community, electoral, union, and social movement organizing. As reflective practitioners, students learn to analyze their experience as data from which they can gain insight into their leadership skills, the workings of their organization, the issues it addresses, and the community within which it operates.

 

Organizing projects have three requirements: they must be rooted in the student’s values, they must focus on achieving an outcome by the end of the semester, and they must require engaging other people to achieve this outcome. Students may choose a project on which they have been working, design a new project, or serve as an “intern” with any one of a wide variety of advocacy organizations in the Greater Boston area. Projects have included campus based work with the Campus Political Society, Association of Black Harvard Women, Phillips Brooks House, Arab Students’ Association, Student Labor Action Movement, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Harvard Diabetes Network, Project Health; and community based work with Centro Presente, the Greater Boston Interfaith Network, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, St. Marks RC Parish, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Temple Israel, the Boston Youth Organizing Project, community development corporations in Chinatown, Allston-Brighton, Dorchester Bay, Dudley Street and Jamaica Plain; and current electoral campaigns.

 

 

B.  PARTICIPATION:

This course is intended for students interested in learning how to exercise leadership on behalf of social change through collective action. There are no prerequisites. Students with a strong a commitment to the community, organization, or goals on behalf of which they are working will be most successful.

 

 C. REQUIREMENTS:

1.     Students choose an "organizing project" upon which to base their learning. They may choose a project on which they are already working, initiate a new project or serve with one of various community or campus organizations.  An “organizing project” involves mobilizing others to join you in achieving a clear outcome that advances values you share by the end of the semester – and should average some 8 hours per week.

 

Students are welcome to use their organizing project to advance work

 that they are already doing on the campus or in the community.

 

2.     Getting Started. The course is front-loaded to give students the opportunity to acquire skills that will be useful in their organizing projects.

  One-to-One Meetings. To facilitate the selection of organizing projects – and get acquainted - students meet one-to-one with the instructor for 10 to 15 minutes during the first week of class.

·       A Conversation with Former Students. On Thursday, September 27th from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, we invite you to meet with former students who can share their experience of the class with you.

·       Action Skills Session. To acquaint you with a range of organizing skills useful in your projects, you are required to participate in a Saturday Skills Session on September 29th from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

 

3.     The seminar meets for 2 hours, once a week for thirteen weeks, with the exception of the week of Dec. 10, when class meets on Tuesday AND Thursday. Students use a learning framework to integrate lectures and reading with critical reflection on their project experience. In each session, we divide the time between discussion of reading and of student projects. You are required to attend all sessions, do the reading and take an active part in discussions.

 

4.     The reading combines theory, practice, and history and average 130 pages per week. An introductory paragraph to each week's readings focuses attention and prioritizes readings.  Readings designated with “►” are particularly important to focus on for class discussion.  My “organizing notes” frame the readings, explain the charts and offer a discussion framework. Recommended readings are available for those who wish to pursue a topic more deeply and can be purchased as a separate reading packet.

 

5.     Students keep field notes on the basis of which they submit "reflection papers" of approximately 2 pages each week in which they analyze their experience of their own organizing project. At the end of each week's readings we pose questions to stimulate reflection.  You are required to submit 8 of 10 possible reflection papers.  The first two (Oct. 16, 23), the one on strategy (Nov. 20) and the last one (Dec. 13) are required.  You may skip any two of the remaining reflection papers without excuse. Reflection papers are to be submitted via email on Monday by 6 pm to all of the participants in the class using the course web page (instructions provided in class).

 

6.     Each student prepares a 10 to15 minute class presentation during the semester. Students introduce themselves, their project, and discuss how the project relates to the topic of the week.  Presentations conclude with questions for class discussion.  A sign-up sheet for the presentations will be distributed during the first week of class.

 

7.     At the end of reading period, Friday, January 11, each student submits a 20-page final paper in which they reflect on what they learned about “practicing democracy.” Students are evaluated not on whether their project is a “success”, but on their ability to analyze what happened and why.  Final grades will be based on seminar participation (40%), weekly reflection papers (30%) and final report (30%).

 

D.  MATERIALS:

 

The five books required for this course are available for purchase at the COOP and are on reserve at the Lamont library.

 

a)  Ellen Langer, Mindfulness, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1989;

b)  Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, New York: Vintage, 1989;

c)   Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, New York: Vintage, 1989;

d)  Kim Bobo, J. Kendall and S. Max, Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, New York: Seven Locks, 2001;

e)  Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

 

The other required readings can be found in the SS98 reading packet available for purchase at FlashPrint Copy, 99 Mt. Auburn Street. 

 

Six recommended books can be purchased at the COOP. Required readings from these books are in the course pack:

 

a)  Jacqueline B. Mondros and Scott M. Wilson, Organizing for Power and Empowerment, New York, Columbia University Press, 1994;

b)  Clyde Wilcox, Onward Christian Soldiers: The Religious Right in American Politics, Boulder, Westview Press, 2000;

c)   Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, The Miner’s Canary, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2003;

d)  Mike Gecan, Going Public, Boston, Beacon Press, 2002;

e)  Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, University of California Press, 1995.

f)    Dana Fisher, Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns is Strangling Progressive Politics in America, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2006.

 

COURSE OUTLINE:

 

The following is the schedule of class meetings and reading assignments. The number of pages/week is indicated in italics beside the date. Special due dates are noted in italics.  Letters to the right of each reading indicate whether the focus is theoretical (T), practical (P) or historical (H).

 

INTRODUCING ORGANIZING

 
Week 1: What is Organizing? (September 25) (161 pp.)

 

Welcome. This week we get acquainted, get an overview of the course, set goals, answer questions, and schedule interviews to discuss internships. "What is Organizing" frames the work we will do. Aristotle, Bellah, de Tocqueville, and Schattschneider contextualize organizing within democratic politics. McKnight and Alinsky distinguish between service provision and organizing. Gunier and Torres challenge us to focus on how the structural divisions of race, class, and gender interact with organizing.  Woliver gives a snapshot of the mechanics of community organizing, and Skocpol locates organizing in debates about civic engagement. Gecan discusses different ways in which people “combine.”

 

a)    Marshall Ganz, "What is Organizing" 2006. (T) Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions (T) Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Aristotle, Politica, Book 1, Chapter 1-2 (pp.1127-1130). (T) http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AriPoli.html

 

d)    Robert Bellah, et al, The Good Society, "Introduction: We Live Through Institutions," (p.3-18) (T)

 

e)    Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume II, Part II, Chapters 2-6, (pp. 506-517). (H/T)

               http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/toc_indx.html

 

f)      ►E. E. Schattschneider, The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America, "Introduction" xii-xvii; “The Contagiousness of Conflict", (1-19).  (T)

 

g)    ►Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Chapter 1, (pp.3-23). (P)

 

h)    ►John McKnight, "Services are Bad for People," (pp.41-44). (T)

 

i)      Mike Gecan, Going Public, “Chapter 10, Three Public Cultures” (pp.151-166)

 

j)      Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, The Miner’s Canary, “Political Race and Magical Realism, Chapter 1”, (pp.11-31) (T).

 

k)     Laura R. Woliver, "Mobilizing and Sustaining Grassroots Dissent," Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 52, No. 1, 1996, (pp.139-151). (P)

 

l)      Theda Skocpol, "From Membership to Management”, Chapter 4 in Diminished Democracy, 2003 (pp. 127-174). (H)

 

Week 2: Learning in the Organizing Tradition (October 2) (229+ pp.)

 

This week we explore both “how” we will learn over the course of the semester using a pedagogy of “reflective practice,” and we consider the tradition in which organizing is rooted. Thich Nhat Hanh reflects on uses and abuses of theory in learning practice. Fiske and Taylor explain how we form theories, how they shape our learning, and how they inhibit learning.  Langer challenges us to engage critically with our own theories. And Kierkegaard calls attention to the fact that learning practice takes emotional resources, as well as cognitive and behavioral ones. Sitkin shows us how failure is often a necessary component of learning practice. Schon spells out the meaning of “reflective practice.”

 

a)    Marshall Ganz, “Notes on Learning to Organize” 2006 (T) Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Questions About Pedagogy Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Helpful Hint #1 Available on SS98 Webpage

 

d)    ►Thich Nhat Hanh, Thundering Silence: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake, "The Raft is Not the Shore," (pp.30-33). (P)

 

e)    Susan Fiske and Shelly E. Taylor, Social Cognition, Chapter 6, "Social Schemata," (pp.139-42, 171-181).  (T)

 

f)      Ellen Langer, Mindfulness, Chapter 3, "The Roots of Mindlessness," (pp.19-35); Chapter 4, "The Costs of Mindlessness," (pp.43-55); Chapter 5, "The Nature of Mindfulness," (pp.61-77); Chapter 7, "Creative Uncertainty," (pp.115-129). (P)

 

g)    M.S. Kierkegaard, “When the Knower Has to Apply Knowledge” from “Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life”, in Parables of Kierkegaard, T.C. Oden, Editor. (P)

 

h)    ►Sim Sitkin, "Learning Through Failure: The Strategy of Small Losses", Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol.14, 1992, (pp. 231-266).  (T)

 

i)      Donald Schon, The Reflexive Practitioner, Chapter 2, “From Technical Rationality to Reflection-in-Action” (pp.49-69).  (T)

 

In the West, popular, civic, and religious currents of the organizing tradition go back at least as far as Exodus and, in the US, the American Revolution. Currents emerged elsewhere from Gandhi’s vision of nonviolent organizing that influenced social change work in Asia, Africa, North America, and Eastern Europe.  Branch’s excellent account of the Montgomery bus boycott, the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement, shows how organizing actually works. In my March blog, I offer one view of the organizing challenges we face today. (121+ pp.)

 

a)    The Bible, Exodus, Chapter 2-6, (pp.82-89). (H)

       http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp

 

b)    Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, Chapter 11, "Resolution," (pp.221-239). (H)

 

c)     ►Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters, Chapter 5, "The Montgomery Bus Boycott," (p.120 - 205) (H)

       http://spot.colorado.edu/%7Ewehr/5025B.TXT

 

d)    ► Marshall Ganz, “Organizing for Democratic Renewal”, TPM Café, March 27, 2007; http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/mar/27/organizing_for_democratic_renewal

 

For those interested in exploring diverse currents of the organizing tradition further, you may choose among the following OPTIONAL readings:

 

a)    OPTIONAL: Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Chapter 31, "Drama at the Seashore" (pp.263 -275). (H)

 

 

b)    OPTIONAL: Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling, Chapter 2, “A Theology of Organizing”, (p. 40-70). (H)

 

c)     OPTIONAL: Timothy Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity 1980-82, Introduction, Chapter 1 "Inside the Lenin Shipyard," (pp. 1-67). (H)

 

d)    OPTIONAL: Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, Chapter 1, Introduction (pp. 1-38) (H)

 

e)    OPTIONAL: Howard Spodek, “Review Article: The Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India: Feminist, Gandhian Power in Development”, Economic Development and Cultural Change 43 (1), Oct 1994, (pp. 193-202)  (H) http://www.jstor.org.ezp1.harvard.edu/view/00130079/ap040186/04a00080/0

 

f)      OPTIONAL: Clyde Wilcox, Onward Christian Soldiers? Chapter 1, (pp. 1-19), The Christian Right in American Politics, Chapter 3, (pp.60-96) (H).

 

g)    OPTIONAL: Theda Skocpol, Marshall Ganz, Ziad Munson, “Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States”, American Political Science Review, September, 2000. (H) http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=4161514&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

Week 3: Telling Your Public Story (October 9) (142 pp.)

 

This week we focus on putting into words the sources of your motivation to learn leadership, organizing, and social action. This is important to understand not only for its own sake, but because whenever one assumes a role of leadership, especially in a community other than one’s own, people expect an account of who you are and why you are there. These questions of what I am called to do, what the community is called to do, and what we are called to do now are at least as old as Moses’ conversation with God at the Burning Bush: Why me? asks Moses, when he is called to free his people. And, who – or what - is calling me? And, why these people? Why here, now, in this place?  

 

Public narrative is the art of translating values into action. It is a discursive process through which individuals, communities, and nations construct their identity, make choices, and inspire action. Because it engages both “head” and “heart”, narrative can instruct and inspire - teaching us not only how we should act, but moving us to act. Leaders use public narrative to interpret themselves to others, engage others in a sense of shared community, and inspire others to act on challenges that community must face. It is learning to tell a story of self, a story of us, and a story of now.  It is not public speaking, messaging or image making. As Jayanti Ravi, MPA/MC 07 said, it’s learning how to bring out their “glow” from within, not how to apply a “gloss” from without.

 

1.     Jerome Bruner, “Two Modes of Thought”, Chapter 2 in Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), p.11 – 25. (T)

 

2.     George Marcus, The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics, (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2002), Chapter 4, “Becoming Reacquainted with Emotion” (pp.49-78) (T)

 

3.     Martha Nussbaum, “Emotions and Judgments of Value”, Chapter 1 in Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), (pp. 19-33). (T)

 

4.     Drew Westen, Chapter 4, “The Emotions Behind the Curtain” (69-88), in The Political Brain: the Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (Public Affairs: 2007).  (T)

 

5.     Jerome Bruner, Making Stories, Chapter 3, “The Narrative Creation of Self”, (pp.63-87). (T)

 

6.     Richard Kearney, “Narrative Matters”, Chapter 11 in On Stories: Thinking in Action (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 125-156.(T)

 

7.     William Gamson, “Political Consciousness”, Chapter 1 in Talking Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 1 – 12. (T)

 

8.     Barack Obama, Keynote Address, “The Audacity of Hope”, Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2004, Boston, Massachusetts (7 min). http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm

 

9.     Marshall Ganz, “What Is Public Narrative?” (Working Paper), 2006. (P) Available on SS98 Website

 

·       Organizing Project Report Due

 

 

INTRODUCING YOUR ORGANIZING PROJECT

 

Week 4: Actors, Values and Interests (October 16) (68 pp.)

 

Can you “map” the social world in which your organizing project is unfolding? Who are the actors? What do they want? And why? Are there leaders, a constituency, an opposition? What needs, values, and interests are in play? And where do you fit into the picture? Bruner offers some ideas. What do you think of Alderfer’s model of our needs? Bruner locates the sources of our values in our cultures, and Weber explains how we turn them into interests. Do you agree? Walker explains why groups with common interests may not act on them, while Guinier and Torres call attention to the political implications of how we understand “interests”. Mondros and Wilson describe the actors in a typical organizing campaign.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Actors, Values and Interests” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     ►Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, “A Word About Words,” (pp.48 - 62). (P)

 

d)    ►Clayton Alderfer, Existence, Relatedness and Growth, Chapter 2, “Theory,” (pp.6-13). (T)

 

e)    Jerome Bruner, Acts of Meaning, excerpt, Chapter 1, “The Proper Study of Man,” (pp.24-30). (T)

 

f)      Max Weber, Economy and Society, Volume I, “Types of Social Action,” (pp.24-26). (T)

 

g)    Jack L. Walker, Jr., Mobilizing Interest Groups in America, Chapter 3, “Explaining the Mobilization of Interests,” (pp. 41-55). (T)

 

h)    ►Guinier and Torres, The Miner’s Canary, Chapter 3, “Race as Political Space”, (pp. 67– 82).  (T)

 

i)      Mondros and Wilson, Organizing for Power and Empowerment, Chapter 1, “Social Action Organizations and Power,” (pp. 1-10). (T)

 

·       Reflection Paper # 1 (required): Actors, Values, Interests Map

 

·       First Student Presentation

 

Week 5: Actors, Resources and Power (October 23) (107 pp.)

 

How do we get the power to act on our interests? Power emerges from the interplay of resources and interests among actors: independence, dependency and domination, or interdependence. What resources does you constituency need to act on its interests? Who controls them? What are their interests? Emerson, Loomer and Miller offer similar, but distinct, ways of looking at power as relational. They distinguish between “power with” others or the “power over” others that Gaventa urges we look for below the surface. Ho shows how “power to” and “power over” work. And the Living Wage case shows how power dynamics can work here at Harvard. Thucydides challenges us to consider the links between power and right. Use the “four questions to track down the power” to map power relations in which your project is situated.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Actors, Resources, Power” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Richard Emerson, “Power-Dependence Relations”, American Sociological Review, 27:31-41. (T)

(Available in JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org.ezp2.harvard.edu/search/)

 

d)    ►Bernard M. Loomer, “Two Kinds of Power,” The D.R. Sharpe Lecture on Social Ethics, October 29, 1975, Criterion, Vol. 15, No.1, 1976 (pp. 11-29).  (T)

 

e)    Jean Baker Miller, Women’s Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center, Chapter 11, “Women and Power,” (pp.197-205). (T)

 

f)      ►John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, Introduction, (pp.3-32).  (T)

 

g)    Mimi Ho, “Californians for Justice”, NYU Review of Law and Social Change, Volume 27, 2001-2 (pp. 38 - 43).  (H)

 

h)    The Living Wage Debate Comes to Harvard (A) (10 pages) and (B) (18 pages); Kennedy School of Government, 20002.  Available on SS98 Webpage

 

i)      ►Thucydides, The Peloponessian Wars, Book V, Chapter 7, “The Sixteenth Year – the Melian Dialogue,” (pp.400-408). (H)

 

j)      OPTIONAL: Max Weber, “Class, Status, and Party” in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, translated and edited by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, (1946 [1920]), (pp.180-195).

 

·       Reflection Paper # 2 (required): Power Map

 

HOW ORGANIZING WORKS: LEADERSHIP, RELATIONSHIPS, MOTIVATION, STRATEGY, AND ACTION

 

Organizers mobilize communities by identifying, recruiting, and developing leaders within those communities. And leaders weave organizations with four threads drawn from the world within which they form: relationships, motivation, strategy, and action. By reweaving relationships, we can form new communities possible. Through processes of narrative and strategic deliberation we can devise new interpretations of what needs to be done and why. And we act by mobilizing and deploying resources.

 

Week 6: Developing Leadership (October 30) (154 pp.)

 

Where do leaders come from? How do we know one when we see one? What do they actually do? We build on Burns’ view of leadership as relational, Heifetz’s emphasis on adaptive learning, and Hackman’s emphasis on creating conditions that enable others to achieve their purposes. Gardner draws attention to the role of our story in exercising leadership. And Freeman, Alinsky, and King challenge our assumptions about leadership so we can learn to lead more effectively. The selection from Exodus posed the challenge of earning leadership by letting other earn it. Shamir and Eilam show how important it is to claim one’s own story in order to inspire others to claim theirs.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Leadership” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Helpful Hint #2 Available on SS98 Webpage

 

d)    James McGregor Burns, Leadership, Chapter 1, "The Power of Leadership," (p.9-28), Chapter 2, “The Structure of Moral Leadership” (pp.29-46). (T)

 

e)    Ronald Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers, "Values in Leadership," Chapter 1, (pp. 13-27). (T/P)

 

f)      J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances, Chapter 7, “Imperatives for Leaders” (pp.199 - 232) (T/P).

 

g)    Howard Gardner, “The Leaders’ Stories”, Chapter 3 in Leading Minds (New York: Basic Books, 1995), p. 41 -65.

 

h)    ►Jo Freeman, "The Tyranny of Structurelessness," Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 1970, (pp.1-8). (P)

http://www.anarres.org.au/essays/amtos.htm

 

i)      Richard L. Moreland, "The Formation of Small Groups", in Group Processes, edited by Kendrick, C. (1987), (pp. 80-105).  (T/P)

 

j)      ►Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Chapter 5, "Native Leadership," (pp.64-75). (P)

 

k)     The Bible, Exodus, Chapter 18  (H) http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp

 

l)      OPTIONAL: Dr. M.L. King, Jr. A Testament of Hope, "The Drum Major Instinct," (p.259-67). (H)

 

m)   OPTIONAL: Boas Shamir and Galit Eilam, “What’s Your Story?” A life-stories approach to authentic leadership development”, in The Leadership Quarterly 16, 2005, (pp. 395 – 417). (T)

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5N-4G1WY5Y-2&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2005&_alid=448273321&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6575&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000014438&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=209690&md5=90f93969109783e2a69f4865075c599f

 

·       Reflection Paper #3

 

Week 7: Mobilizing Relationships to Build Community (November 6) (97 pp.)

 

Organizers build relationships to construct a “community of interest”, a constituency.  Through relationships we come to understand our interests and develop the resources to act upon them. Gladwell explains the power of relational networks – with people “like us” and people not “like us” – in everyday life. Blau looks at relationships as exchange while Goffman views them as performances.  Kearney points to the role of our “story” in entering into relationship with others. Eccles and Nohria distinguish face-to-face relationships from email.  And Putnam shows how relationships can become resources – “social capital.”  Rosin, Rondeau, and Simmons report how organizers do relational work.  Bobo offers some hints on recruiting.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz, “Notes on Relationships” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     ►Malcolm Gladwell, “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” in The New Yorker, January 11, 1999 (pp. 52-63).  (T) http://www.gladwell.com/1999/1999_01_11_a_weisberg.htm

 

d)    Peter M. Blau, Exchange and Power in Social Life “Introduction.” (pp.1-11). (T)

 

e)    Erving Goffman, “On face-work: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction,” in Interpersonal Dynamics, edited by Bennis, et al. (pp. 213-225, 229-231). (T)

 

f)      Richard Kearney, On Stories, “Where do Stories Come From?” (pp.3-4). (T)

 

g)    Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work, “Social Capital and Institutional Success”, Chapter 6, (p. 163-185) (T)

 

h)    ►Kris Rondeau and Gladys McKenzie, “A Woman’s Way of Organizing,” Labor Research Review #18, (pp. 45-59). (H/P)

 

i)      ►Ian Simmons, “On One-to-Ones,” in The Next Steps of Organizing: Putting Theory into Action, Sociology 91r Seminar, (pp. 12-15) 1998. (P)

 

j)      Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chapter 2, (pp. 57-74). (T)

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html

 

k)     Hanna Rosin, “People-Powered: In New Hampshire, Howard Dean's Campaign Has Energized Voters”, Washington Post, Tuesday, December 9, 2003, p. C01.

http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/us/lnacademic/api/version1/sr?shr=t&csi=8075&sr=HLEAD(People-Powered)+AND+DATE+IS+12/09/2003

 

l)      Mike Gecan, Going Public, Chapter 1, “All Real Living Is Meeting”, (pp.19-32) (P)

 

m)   OPTIONAL: Robert Eccles and Nitin Nohria, Networks and Organizations, “Face-to-Face: Making Network Organizations Work,” HBS, (pp. 288-308). (T)

 

n)    OPTIONAL: Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” American Sociological Review, 78:6 (pp. 1360-79). (T) http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/In_Out_and_Beyond/Granovetter.pdf .

 

o)    OPTIONAL: Jim Rooney, Organizing the South Bronx, Chapter 6, “Relational Organizing: Launching South Bronx Churches”, (pp. 105-118). (H)

 

·       Reflection Paper #4

 

Week 8: Mobilizing Motivation: Values, Story, Celebration (November 13) (pp. 109)

 

We reinterpret our world – and our roles within it – even as we change it.  As Bruner explains we understand why we should act, our motivation, as a story. We understand how we can act, our analysis, as strategy. This week, we reconsider the role of motivation in organizing and the role of stories of “us” and “now” in particular in generating action. Alinsky argues organizing stories are best drawn from community traditions. We’ll look at video examples people telling stories of us as a way of expressing community identities as well as a story of now as a call to action. Amy Kober brings the mission of American Rivers to life and Susan Christopher does the same with participants in an electoral campaign. Our ‘story of now” is drawn from Shakespeare, whose Henry V challenges his men to find the courage to act despite seemingly hopeless odds. Reagan and Cuomo draw on distinct threads within the American tradition to tell contrasting stories in the early 1980’s – a topic Westen take further in his chapter on partisanship.  And, although he doesn’t explain how a movement begins, Chong explains why people become motivated to join once it has begun.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz, “Notes on Interpretation I: Story” 2006. (P) Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Saul Alinsky, Chapter 6, Reveille for Radicals, “Community Traditions and Organizations,” (pp.76-88). (P)

 

d)    Barbara L. Fredrickson, “The Value of Positive Emotions” in American Scientist, Volume 91, 2003, (pp. 330 – 335). http://ezp1.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.epnet.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=10029857&scope=site

 

e)    Joseph Davis, Stories of Change: Narrative and Social Movements, “Narrative and Social Movements” (pp. 10-29) (T)

 

f)      Marshall Ganz, “The Power of Story in Social Movements”, unpub. Paper (pp. 1-7). (H)

            http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~.MGanz.Academic.Ksg/MG%20POWER%20OF%20STORY.pdf

 

g)    Amy Kober, American River Story, December, 2006, Washington, D.C. (H) Available on SS98 Webpage

 

h)    Susan Christopher, Story of Us, Camp Obama, Los Angeles, CA, July, 2007. (H) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-WEM-taoG8

 

i)      William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3, “We Happy Few,” (pp. 140 –149). (H) http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Henry_V/20.html

 

j)      Dennis Chong, Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement, Chapter 5, “Creating the Motivation to Participate in Collective Action,” (pp. 90-102).(T)

 

k)     Ronald Reagan, “First Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1981, (7 pp.).  (H) http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres61.html

 

l)      Mario Cuomo, “Two Cities,” Keynote Address to Democratic National Convention, July 17, 1984, (11 pp.). (H) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/cuomo1984dnc.htm Also, there is audio here.

 

m)   Drew Westen, Chapter 7, “Writing An Emotional Constitution” (p. 145-169), The Political Brain: the Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (Public Affairs, 2007). (T/H)

 

n)    OPTIONAL: David Snow, et al, “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation,” American Soc. Review, 51, August 1986. (pp. 464-481) (T). (Available in JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org.ezp2.harvard.edu/search/)

 

·       Reflection Paper #5

 

Week 9:  Mobilizing Power: Analysis, Strategy, Deliberation (November 20) (134 pp.)

 

Strategy is how we turn what we have into what we need to get what we want. It is both analytic and imaginative, figuring out how we can use our resources to achieve our goals. We reflect on a “classic” tale of strategy recounted in the Book of Samuel: the story of David and Goliath, a tale that argues resourcefulness can compensate for lack of resources by developing “strategic capacity”. Mintzberg’s view that strategy is a “verb” is drawn from business while Kahn’s view comes from organizing. Alinsky and Bobo offer some “how to’s” for organizing strategy and tactics. Bobo spells out how to make deliberation work by holding good meetings.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Interpretation II: Strategy” 2006. (P)Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Helpful Hint #3 Available on SS98 Webpage

 

d)    The Bible, Book of Samuel, Chapter 17, Verses 4-49. (H) http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp

 

e)    ►Marshall Ganz, from “Why David Sometimes Wins: Strategic Capacity in Social Movements” Rethinking Social Movements (pp. 1-10).(T) http://www.shatil.org.il/data/Why%20David%20Sometimes%20Wins.pdf

 

f)      Henry Mintzberg, “Crafting Strategy,” Harvard Business Review, July 1987, (pp. 66-74). (T)

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=4076026&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

g)    ►Si Kahn, Organizing, Chapter 8 “Strategy,” (pp.155-174). (P)

 

h)    Marshall Ganz. “Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959-1966”, American Journal of Sociology, January 2000, (pp.1003-1005; 1019-1044). (T/H) http://ezp1.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.epnet.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=2828859&loginpage=login.asp&scope=site

 

i)      Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, Tactics, (pp. 126-136, 148-155, 158-161). (P)

 

j)      Kim Bobo, Organizing for Social Change, Chapter 4 “Developing a Strategy” (pp.30-47), Chapter 5, “A Guide to Tactics,” (pp.48-61); Chapter 12, “Planning and Facilitating Meetings,” (pp.128-139).  (P)

 

k)     Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Chapter 4, “The Program” (pp.48-54).  (P)

 

·       Reflection Paper #6, (required)  3-4 pages answering these questions:

               1) My project is working because….

               2) My project is not working because…

 

Week 10: Mobilizing Resources: Action (November 27) (53 pp.)

 

Organizers mobilize and deploy resources to take action based on commitments they secure from others. As Oliver and Marwell argue, the way we mobilize resources influences how we can deploy them and vice-versa. But whatever the constraints, acting to make change involves risk, and risk requires courage. Before moving on we return to the “now” piece of our public story, illustrated by Shakespeare’s account of how Henry V was able to inspire his “happy few” to face their fear. Hackman argues that the way we organize the action can itself enhance our capacity for action – or the opposite. Levy shows how to knit tactics together strategically.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Action” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Jacques Levy, Cesar Chavez, Prologue, (pp. xxi-xxv). (H)

 

d)    Pamela Oliver and Gerald Marwell, “Mobilizing Technologies for Collective Action,” Chapter 11, (pp 251-271), in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, edited by Morris and Mueller. (T)

 

e)    Kim Bobo, Organizing for Social Change, Chapter 7, “Designing Actions,” (pp.70-79), Chapter 21, “Grassroots Fundraising,” (pp. 276-286). (P)

 

f)      Richard Hackman, “Designing Work for Individuals and for Groups”, adapted from J.R. Hackman, Work Design in J.R. Hackman & J.L. Suttle (Eds.) Improving Life at work: Behavioral science approaches to organizational change. Santa Monica: Goodyear Publishing Company, 1977. (pp. 242-255). Please take special note of pages 242-244, and 248-250 and the Job Characteristics Model and how to use it.

 

g)    Creating a Culture of Commitment, Leadership Development Project, Sierra Club, 2007. (5 pp)

Available on SS98 Webpage

 

·       Reflection Paper #7

 

Week 11: Communities in Action: Campaigns (December 4) (pp. 115)

 

Organizers conduct campaigns to build organizations, and build organizations capable of running campaigns. Campaigns are rhythms of activity growing out of a foundation, targeted on specific outcomes, beginning with a "kick-off", gathering momentum, and culminating in a peak moment of mobilization when the campaign is won or lost. Gersick explains "rhythms" of organizational development. Levy recounts how the farm workers’ campaign “peaked” after five years, while Meyerson focuses on a shorter – but more recent – campaign. Read one of the following three starred (***) cases: the “Orange Hats” case that focuses on neighborhood self-help, “Cold Anger” on city-wide claims making, and the UFW on a national campaign.

 

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Campaigns” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     Connie Gersick, "Pacing Strategic Change: The Case of a New Venture," Academy of Management Journal, February 1994 (pp. 9-14, 36-42). (T) (Available in JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org.ezp2.harvard.edu/search/)

 

d)    ***Jacques Levy, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa;  “Boycott Grapes” (pp.263-271), “The Miracle of the Fast”, (pp. 272-293);  Book IV, Book V, "Victory in the Vineyards," Chapters 6-14, (pp.294-325).

 

e)    ***Kennedy School Case C16-91-1034, “Orange Hats of Fairlawn: A Washington DC Neighborhood Battles Drugs,” (pp. 1-18). (H) Available on SS98 Webpage.

 

f)      ***Mary Beth Rogers, Cold Anger, Chapter 11, “Leave Them Alone. They’re Mexicans,” (pp. 105-126). (H)

 

g)    Harold Meyerson, “A Clean Sweep”, The American Prospect, Volume 11, No. 15, June 19, 2000 (pp.24-29). (H) (Available in Lexis-Nexis - http:/web.lexis-nexis.com.ezp2.harvard.edu/universe/form/academic/s_guidednews.html)

 

The following OPTIONAL accounts by Mandela, Chen, Medoff and Sklar, and Halcli show how similar the temporal dynamics are of very different campaigns.

 

a)    OPTIONAL: Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, Chapter 14 (pp. 121-140).  (H)

 

b)    OPTIONAL: Martha Chen, "Engendering World Conferences: the International Women's Movement and the United Nations", Third World Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1995, (pp. 477-491).

http://ezp1.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.epnet.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=9512122502&loginpage=login.asp&scope=site

 

c)     OPTIONAL: Peter Medoff and Holly Sklar, Streets of Hope, Chapter 3, "Don't Dump On Us: Organizing the Neighborhood," (pp. 67-87). (H)

 

d)    OPTIONAL: Abigail Halcli, “AIDS, Anger and Activism, ACTUP as a SMO” in Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties, edited by Jo Freeman and Victoria Johnson, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, (pp.135-150).  (H)

 

·       Reflection Paper #8

 

Week 12a: Communities in Action: Organizations (December 11) (104 pp.)

 

Successful organizing campaigns can create lasting organizations. But creating organizations that continue to respond, change, and adapt requires learning how to manage the dilemmas of unity and diversity, inclusion and exclusion, responsibility and participation, and leadership and accountability. Smith and Berg identify dilemmas that organizations must manage. Janis points to the danger "too much" unity can suppress needed dissent.  Kahn focuses on the nuts and bolts of organization. And Warren focuses on the challenge of building organizations across racial, religious, and economic lines.

 

a)    Marshall Ganz. “Notes on Organizations” 2006. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

b)    Charts and Questions. Available on SS98 Webpage

 

c)     ►Kenwyn Smith and David Berg, "A Paradoxical Conception of Group Dynamics", Human Relations, Vol. 40:10, 1987, (pp. 633-654). (T) http://hum.sagepub.com.ezp1.harvard.edu/cgi/content/abstract/40/10/633

 

d)    ►Irving Janis, "Groupthink", in Perspectives on Behavior in Organizations, edited by J.R. Hackman, 1983, (pp. 378-384). (T)

 

e)    Si Kahn, Organizing, Chapter 3, "Organizations," (pp. 55-77). (P)

 

f)      ►Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling, from “Four, Bridging Communities Across Racial Lines” (98-100; 114-123) and “Five, Deepening Multiracial Collaboration,” (pp. 124-132; 152-155).  (H)

 

g)    Marion McCollom, Groups in Context: A New Perspective on Group Dynamics, edited by Marion McCollum and Jonathon Gillette. Chapter 2, “Group Formation: Boundaries, Leadership and Culture” in, Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1995, (pp.35-48). (T)

 

·       Reflection Paper #9

 

Week 12b: Becoming a Good Organizer (December 13) (112 pp.)

 

This week we reflect on organizing as a craft, art, and vocation: why do it, what can make a person good at it, what to do about the rest of our lives, how we can make sure we continue to grow? Heifetz discusses the challenge of accepting responsibility for leadership. Langer reflects on how to work "mindfully."  Addams, Chavez, and Alinsky describe how they came to terms with these challenges.

 

a)    Ronald Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers, Chapter 11, "The Personal Challenge," (pp. 250-276). (P)

 

b)    Ellen Langer, Mindfulness, Chapter 8, "Mindfulness on the Job," (pp.133-148). (P)

 

c)     Cesar Chavez, "The Organizer's Tale," Ramparts Magazine, July 1966, (pp. 43 - 50). (P)

 

d)    Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, "The Education of the Organizer," (pp.63-80). (P)

 

e)    Charles M. Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom, “Chapter 8: Slow and Respectful Work,” (pp.236-264). (H)

 

f)      Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House, Chapters 4-5, (pp. 60-89). (P) http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/addams/hullhouse/hullhouse.html

 

g)    OPTIONAL: Mondros and Wilson, Organizing for Power and Empowerment, Chapter 2, "The Organizers," (pp.11-35). (P)

 

·       Reflection Paper #10 (required)

 

Week 13: Conclusion, Evaluation Where Do We Go From Here? (December 18) (189 pp.)

 

Note: Class will be scheduled for 3 hours.

 

So what does organizing contribute to public life? After reflecting on the “big picture” today, we’ll hear from everyone about what they learned from their participation in the course.  Did we meet individual and group goals? How could the course be improved?  Alinsky's call for broader participation in democratic governance is as timely now as when it was written in 1946.  Skocpol, Grieder, Weir, and I argue a need for greater participation. Judis describes a world of advocacy without participants, while Reed describes his organizing successes. Keck and Sikkink point to the promise of transnational social movement organizing. Skocpol suggests future directions for democracy.

 

a)    Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Chapter 11, (pp. 190-204). (P)

 

b)    ►Ralph Reed, Politically Incorrect, 1996, Chapter 13, "Miracle at the Grassroots," (pp. 189-202); Chapter 17, "What is Right about America: How You Can Make a Difference," 1996, (pp.249-267). (H).

 

c)     William Greider, Who Will Tell the People?, Chapter 10, "Democratic Promise," 1993, (pp. 222-241). (H

 

d)    John B. Judis, "The Pressure Elite: Inside the Narrow World of Advocacy Group Politics," The American Prospect, #9, Spring 1992, (pp. 15-29). (H)

 

e)    Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders, Chapter 6, “Conclusions,” 1996, (pp.199-217) (T)

 

f)      ►Margaret Weir and Marshall Ganz, "Reconnecting People and Politics," in The New Majority: Toward a Popular Progressive Politics, 1999, (pp. 149-171). (H)

http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~mganz/publications.htm

 

g)    Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, Chapter 7, “Reinventing American Civic Democracy,” 2003, (pp. 254-293).

 

h)    Dana Fisher, “The Activism Industry”, in The American Prospect, September 14, 2006.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11993

 

i)      Zack Exley, “Stories and Numbers – a Closer Look at Camp Obama”, Huffington Post, August 29, 2007. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/stories-and-numbers-a-c_b_62278.html

 

FINAL PAPER due Friday, January 11 at 4 pm.

 

RESOURCES
 

A. Required Reading

 

  1. Ellen Langer, Mindfulness, Addison-Wesley, 1989.
  2. Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Vintage, 1989.
  3. Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, Vintage, 1989.
  4. Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall and Steve Max, Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, Seven Locks, 2001.

5.     Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2001.

  1. PAL 177 Readers, available at FlashPrint.
  2. PAL 177 Organizing Notes, available online.

 

B. Recommended Reading

 

1.     Jacqueline B. Mondros and Scott M. Wilson, Organizing for Power and Empowerment, Columbia University Press, 1994.

2.     Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, The Miner’s Canary, Harvard University Press, 2003.

3.     Mike Gecan, Going Public, Beacon Press, 2002.

4.     Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, University of California Press, 1995.

5.     Clyde Wilcox, Onward Christian Soldiers?: The Religious Right in American Politics, Westview Press, 2000.

6.     Dana Fisher, Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns is Strangling Progressive Politics in America, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2006.

 

C. Lifetime Reading

 

The following are accounts of organizing campaigns in a variety of settings recommended as background reading for those with particular areas of interest - or as a lifetime reading list.

 

  1. Organizing in General

 

a)    Davis, Gerald, Doug McAdam, W. Richard Scott, Mayer N. Zald eds., Social Movements and Organization Theory, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

b)    Faber, Daniel R. and Deborah McCarthy, eds. Foundations for Social Change: Critical Perspectives on Philanthropy and Popular Movements (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

c)   Smock, Kristina, Democracy In Action: Community Organizing and Urban Change, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).

d)   Baker, Colin, Alan Johnson, and Michael Lavalette, eds. Leadership and Social Movements (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001).

e)    Freeman, Jo and Victoria Johnson eds. Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties, (Lanham, Md: Rowland and Littlefield, 1999).

f)      Rochon, Thomas R.; Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values (Princeton, 1998).

g)    Langer, Ellen J., The Power of Mindful Learning, (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1997).

h)    McAdam, Doug, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald eds., Comparative Perspective on Social Movements, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

i)      Johnston, Hank and Bert Klandermans eds. Social Movements and Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).

j)      Gamson, William, The Strategy of Social Protest, (Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing, 1990).

k)    Horwitt, Sanford, Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky, (New York: Knopf, 1989).

l)      Gamson, William A., Bruce Fireman, and Steven Rytina, Encounters with Unjust Authority, (Homewood: The Dorsey Press, 1982).

 

 

 

  1. Labor Movement/Populism

 

a)  Fantasia, Rick and Kim Voss, Hard Work: Remaking the American Labor Movement, (Berkeley: UC Press, 2004).

b)  Milkman, Ruth and Kim Voss eds., Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).

c)  Milkman, Ruth ed., Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000).

d)  Clawson, Dan; The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements (Ithaca: ILR Press, 2003).

e)  Bronfenbrenner, Kate, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, and Ronald L. Seeber eds., Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies, (Ithaca: ILR Press, 1998).

f)   Zieger, Robert, The CIO, 1935-1955, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).

g)  Geoghegan, Thomas, Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be For Labor When It's Flat on It's Back, (New York, Plume, 1991).

h)  Cohen, Lizabeth, Making a New Deal, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

i)    Goodwyn, Lawrence; The Populist Moment, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

j)    Dubovsky, Melvyn and Warren Van Tine, John L. Lewis, A Biography, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977).

k)  McKenney, Ruth; Industrial Valley, (New York: Greenwood Press, 1939).

l)    Steinbeck, John; In Dubious Battle, (Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 1937).

 

  1. Civil Rights Movements

 

a)    Skocpol, Theda, Ariane Liazos, and Marshall Ganz; What A Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Frateral Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Princeton, 2006).

b)    Andrews, Kenneth T., Freedom is a Constant Struggle: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and It’s Legacy, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).

c)     Branch, Taylor, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999). 

d)    Wood, Dan, ed., Friends and Family: True Stories of Gay America’s Straight Allies, (Los Angeles: Alyson, 1999). 

e)    Halberstam, David, The Children, (New York: Random House, 1998).

f)      Lewis, John; Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998).

g)    Anner, John, ed., Beyond Identity Politics: Emerging Social Justice Movements in Communities of Color (Boston: Southend Press, 1996).

h)    Dittmer, John, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995).

i)      Skerry, Peter, Mexican Americans: the Ambivalent Minority, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993). 

j)      Takaki, Ronald, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans; (New York: Penguin, 1989).

k)     Branch, Taylor, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988).

l)      Shilts, Randy.  And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, (New York: Penguin, 1987).

m)   Morris, Aldon, Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change, (New York: Free Press, 1984).

n)    McAdam, Doug, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1980      (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).

 


  1. Political Movements

 

a)    Goss, Kristin A., Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).

b)    Hacker, Jacob and Paul Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution & the Erosion of American Democracy, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).

c)     Micklethwait, John and Adrian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, (New York: Penguin, 2004).

d)    Green, Donald P. and Alan S. Gerber, Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout (Brookings Institute Press, 2004).

e)    Trippi, Joe. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (Regan, 2004).

f)      Skocpol, Theda, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 2003).

g)    Green, John C., Mark J. Rozell, and Clyde Wilcox, eds.; The Christian Right in American Politics: Marching to the Millennium (Georgetown University Press, 2003).

h)    Perlstein, Rick, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001).

i)      Schier, Steven; By Invitation Only: the Rise of Exclusive Politics in the United States (University of Pittsburgh, 2000)

j)      Skocpol, Theda and Morris P. Fiorina, eds., Civic Engagement in American Democracy, (DC: Russel Sage, 1999).

k)     Costain, Anne N. and Andrew McFarland, Social Movements and American Political Institutions (Rowman Littlefield, 1998).

l)      Foner, Eric; The Story of American Freedom (Norton, 1998).

m)   Clemens, Elisabeth, The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890-1925, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).

n)    Reed, Ralph, Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in American Politics, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994).

o)    Hertzke, Alan, Echoes of Discontent, (Washington: CQ Press, 1993).

p)    Gitlin, Todd, The Sixties, (New York: Bantam Books, 1989).

q)    Crawford, Alan, Thunder on the Right, (New York: Pantheon, 1980).

 

  1. Women's Movements

 

a)    Critchlow, Donald T., Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservativism: A Woman’s Crusade, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005).

b)    Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod, Faithful and Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest inside the Church and Military, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).

c)     Feree, Myra Max, Controversy and Coalition: New Feminist Movement, (New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994).

d)    Klatch, Rebecca E., Women of the New Right, (Philadelphia: Temple, 1987).\

e)    Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod and Carol McClurg Mueller, The Women's Movements of the United States and Western Europe, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987).

f)      Mansbridge, Jane, Why We Lost the ERA, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

g)    Luker, Kristin, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

h)    Gelb, Joyce and Marian Lief Palley, Women and Public Policies, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982).

i)      Evans, Sara, Personal Politics, (New York: Vintage, 1980).

 

  1. Environmental Movement

 

a)       Sandler, Ronald and Phaedra Pezzullo, ed., Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: the   Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement ( Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007)

b)       Shabecoff, Phillip, Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century, (Washington: Island Press, 2001).

c)       Roberts, J. Timmons & Melissa M. Toffolon-Weiss, Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

d)       Kline, Benjamin, First Along the River: A Brief History of the US Environmental Movement (Lenham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

c)   Dowie, Mark, Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the 20th Century, (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995).

d)  Gottlieb, Robert, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement, (Washington: Island Press, 1993)

e)   Dunlap, Riley and Angela G. Mertig, American Environmentalism: the U.S. Environmental Movement, 1970-1990, (Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 1992).

f)   Fox, Stephen, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His Legacy, (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1981)

 

 

  1. Community Organizing

 

a)    Orr, Marion, Transforming the City: Community Organizing and the Challenge of Political Change, (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2007).

b)   Lefkowitz, Bonnie, Community Health Centers: A Movement and the People Who Made it Happen ((Rutgers, 2007)

c)     Chetkovich, Carol and Frances Kunreuther, From the Ground Up: Grassroots Organizations Making Social Change, (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2006)

d)    Boyte, Harry C., Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

e)    Chambers, Edward T., Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice, (New York: Continuum International, 2003).

f)      Osterman, Paul, Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America, (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003).

g)    Wood, Richard L., Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).

h)    Jacobsen, Dennis, Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001).

i)      Rooney, Jim, Organizing the South Bronx, (New York: State University of New York, 1995).

j)      Medoff, Peter and Holly Sklar, Streets of Hope, (Boston: South End Press, 1994).

k)     Fisher, Robert, Let the People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America, (New York: Macmillan, 1994).

e)   Robinson, Buddy and Mark G. Hanna, "Lessons for Academics from Community Organizing: A Case Study - The Industrial Areas Foundation" in Journal of Community Practice, Volume 1(4), 1994, (pp.63-94).

l)      Rogers, Mary Beth, Cold Anger: A Story of Faith and Power Politics, (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1990).

 

  1. Faith Based Organizing

 

a)     Young, Michael P.; Bearing Witness Against Sin: the Evangelical Birth of the American Social Movement (University of Chicago, 2006).

b)     Wallis, Jim; The Call to Conversation, (New York, HarperCollins, 2005).

c)   Freedman, Samuel G, Upon this Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church, (New York: Harper Collins, 1993).

d)   National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter of Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1986).

e) Ferguson, Charles W., Methodists and the Making of America: Organizing to Beat the Devil (Austin, Eakin Press, 1981)

 

9.     Immigrant Organizing

 

a) Bloemraad, Irene; Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United    States and Canada, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006)

b) Gordon, Jennifer, Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005).

 

10.  Transnational Organizing

 

a)   Della Porta, Donatella, et al, Globalization from Below: Transnational Activists and Protest Networks (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2006)

b)   Tarrow, Sidney, The New Transnational Activism, (New York: Cambridge, 2005)

c)   Khagram, Sanjeev, et al, Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2004).

d)    Smith, Jackie, Charles Chatfield, Ron Pagnucco eds., Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics: Solidarity Beyond the State, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997).

e)    Batistiana, Ma. Brenda S. and Denis Murphy, Rural Community Organizing in the Philippines, (Quezon City: COTRAIN, 1996). 

c)   Risse-Kappen, Thomas ed., Bringing Transnational Relations Back in: Non-State Actors, Domestic Structures and International Institutions, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

d)    Kreisi, Hanspter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Dyvendak, and Marco G. Giugni, New Social Movements in Western Europe, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).

e)    Margarita Lopa, Singing the Same Song: Reflections of Two Generations of NGO Workers in the Philippines. (Quezon City: Asian NGO Coalition, 1995).

f)      Sheila Rowbotham and Swasti Mitter, Dignity and Daily Bread: New forms of economic organizing among poor women in the Third World and the First, (London: Routledge, 1994).

g)    Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom: An Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, (London, Abacus, 1994).

h)    Dalton, Dennis, Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action, (New York: Columbia, 1993).

i)      Laba, Roman, The Roots of Solidarity: A Political Sociology of Poland's Working Class Democratization, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).   

j)      Goodwyn, Lawrence, Breaking the Barrier: The Rise of Solidarity in Poland, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

k)     Scott, James C., Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).

l)      Ash, Timothy Garton, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity 1980-82, (London, Jonathan Cape, 1983).

m)   Gandhi, Mahatma, Autobiography, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957).

 

D. Manuals/Guides

 

1.     Minieri, Joan and Paul Gestos, Radical Democracy: How to Organize for Power in Your Community (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007) -

2.     Brown, Michael, Building Powerful Community Organization: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World (Arlington: Long Haul Press, 2006)

3.     Staples, Lee, Roots to Power: a manual for grassroots organizing (Westport: Praeger, 2004).

4.     Kush, Christopher, The One-Hour Activist, (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2004).

5.     Tramutola, Larry, Sidewalk Strategies: Seven Winning Steps for Candidates, Causes and Communities, (Austin, Turnkey Press, 2003).

6.     Sen, Rinku and Kim Klein, Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003)

7.     Shaw, Randy, The Activist’s Handbook. (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001).

8.     Bartlett, John W., Henry Holt, & Co. eds., The Future is Ours: A Handbook for Students Activists in the 21st Century, 1996.

9.     Pierce, Gregory F. Augustine, Activism That Makes Sense: Congregations and Community Organization. (Skokie, Acta Publications, 1984).

10.  Kahn, Si, Organizing: A Guide for Grass Roots Leaders, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982).

11.  Industrial Areas Foundation Materials

12.  AFL-CIO Organizing Institute Materials

13.  Campaign Materials

 

E. Some Films

 

1.   Grapes of Wrath, Ford, 1940.

2.   Meet John Doe, Capra, 1941.

3.   Salt of the Earth, Bibberman, 1953.

4.   The Organizer, Monicelli, 1963.

5.   Encounter with Saul Alinsky, National Film Board of Canada, 1967.

6.   Saul Alinsky Went to War, National Film Board of Canada, 1968.

7.   Burn, Pontecorvo, 1969.

8.   FIST, Jewison, 1978.

9.   Norma Rae, Ritt, 1979.

10.   Northern Lights, Nillson, 1979.

11.    Gandhi, Attenborough, 1982.

12.    The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, Epstein and Schmiechen, 1984.

13.   Revolution, Hudson, 1985.

14.   Eyes on the Prize, Blackside, 1986.

15.   Matewan, Sayles, 1987.

16.   Streets of Hope, Dudley Street, 1994.

17.   Freedom on My Mind, Fields, 1994.

18.   Il Postino, Radford, 1995.

19.   The Fight in the Fields, Paradigm, 1997.

20.   The Apostle, 1998.

21.   The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and his Legacy, PBS, 1999.

22.   Bread and Roses, 2000.

23.   A Force More Powerful, PBS, 2000.