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Forthcoming Book: Collective Action for Social Change: An Introduction to Community Organizing, Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy (March, 2011)

The lectures, below, are the basis for this forthcoming book.

To download a draft of the first chapter, go here.

Online "Introduction to Community Organizing" Course

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Overview

This course was created for a lower-division, Introduction to Community Organizing Course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  The course is NOT intended to teach students how to be a community organizer.  They don't learn how to work with the media, or run a house meeting, nor other practical skills like that.  Instead the course is designed to help students learn how to THINK like an organizer.  To some extent, the course content reflects my own limitations.  I have worked extensively with community organizing groups but have not actually been an organizer.  For this online version I have cut some of the content specific to UWM, like the number of points for each exercise.

This was my first time teaching an online course, so the lectures are more like first draft efforts than final documents.  The lectures have the kind of minor editing issues and occasional repetitions that come with early drafts that are still in process.

Please post comments on your impressions or experiences here.

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Part I: Community Organizing in the United States (11/29/07 DRAFT)

To download a single file with all of these lectures, go here.
[IF MSWORD FILES AREN'T AVAILABLE A GOOGLE DOCS DRAFT IS HERE.]

With the exception of the Course Overview, these lectures are largely introductions to readings.  Part II, below, will be of more interest to those looking for an  overview of the conceptual framework of organizing.  The conceptual parts of the Overview are repeated in Part II.]

Course Overview and Introduction (DRAFT 11/29/07)
"Taking Back the Schools" in Los Angeles
Encountering Alinsky I
Encountering Alinsky II
[In the course, Public vs. Private, placed below, comes here]
[Course needs a history overview, here, maybe from Fisher or Halpern]
Gender and Organizing
Organizing After Alinsky

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Part II: Key Concepts in Community Organizing (11/29/07 DRAFT)

To download a single file with all of these lectures, go here.
[IF MSWORD FILES AREN'T AVAILABLE, A GOOGLEDOCS DRAFT IS HERE]

The Parable of the River [Excerpted from Overview, above] (DRAFT 11/29/07)
Public vs. Private
Conducting One-on-One Interviews
     One-on One Worksheet
     (Good video example of a one-on-one from Marshall Gantz's Obama
     organizing training.  Original page with flash video here--the video is #7. 
     Another good example of a one-on-one by Michael Jacoby Brown is here.)
Needs a section on Power Analysis, probably here. (12/13/08)
Locating a Target
Cutting an Issue
Tactics
Strategy
Final Exam