David S. Walls - Community Organizing

Is the world to be changed? How? By whom?

The skeptical first god in
The Good Person of Szechwan
by Bertolt Brecht

Can the world be changed? Bertolt Brechts challenging question continues to provoke. Community organizers answer with a resounding Yes! But exactly how? And who would be the active agents of change?

This book argues that the tradition of community organizing launched by Saul Alinsky, as modified and developed, offers concepts and tools that are indispensable to a democratic strategy of social change that promotes grassroots leadership and power for social, economic, racial, and environmental justice. Some critics have claimed the scale of community organizing is too small for the task of making transformative change in a large and complex society. But its no longer just about stop signs, block clubs, and neighborhood associations. Consistent with Alinskys original vision, the scope of community organizing has expanded to include cities, metropolitan areas, states, and even national government policy. Alinskys approach to organizing, like the man himself, was a product of his time and place, and needed to be modified to thrive in changing circumstances. We will look at the development of this organizing tradition through a framework of social movement analysis, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and examine proposals to modify and develop community organizing to meet its promise of deepening democracy in our challenging times of expanding inequality.