TY - JOUR
T1 - Crossing boundaries, building power
T2 - Chicago organizers embrace race, ideology, and coalition
AU - Lesniewski, Jacob
AU - Doussard, Marc
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Community organizing emerged as a coherent mode of intervention under conditions of postwar Fordism, a set of economic and political conditions that have changed substantially. The three critiques of classic organizing models, built by Saul Alinsky and subsequently adapted by others, point to the need to cross formal, informal, and conceptual boundaries. To date, little is known about whether, and to what end, organizers take up the proposals of these critiques. This article responds to this empirical gap with an analysis of the critical case of community-labor organizing in Chicago. We find that Chicago organizers engage in the boundary-crossing practice that observers have long recommended, by focusing on basic organizing and the recruitment of the economically marginalized and racial minorities; developing new collaborations across racial, territorial, and issue boundaries; and shifting daily practices to engage in political education, thereby connecting neighborhood struggles to structural problems and broader political coalitions.
AB - Community organizing emerged as a coherent mode of intervention under conditions of postwar Fordism, a set of economic and political conditions that have changed substantially. The three critiques of classic organizing models, built by Saul Alinsky and subsequently adapted by others, point to the need to cross formal, informal, and conceptual boundaries. To date, little is known about whether, and to what end, organizers take up the proposals of these critiques. This article responds to this empirical gap with an analysis of the critical case of community-labor organizing in Chicago. We find that Chicago organizers engage in the boundary-crossing practice that observers have long recommended, by focusing on basic organizing and the recruitment of the economically marginalized and racial minorities; developing new collaborations across racial, territorial, and issue boundaries; and shifting daily practices to engage in political education, thereby connecting neighborhood struggles to structural problems and broader political coalitions.
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U2 - 10.1086/694692
DO - 10.1086/694692
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85036615065
SN - 0037-7961
VL - 91
SP - 585
EP - 620
JO - Social Service Review
JF - Social Service Review
IS - 4
ER -