Online "Introduction to Community Organizing" Course

The lectures, below, have been expanded into a book:  Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy. (2011). Collective Action for Social Change: An Introduction to Community Organizing. Palgrave Macmillan (now in paperback). 

I have been playing with a shorter pamphlet summarizing different approaches to community power that I call Local Power: A Manual, which is in perennial draft form and not necessarily ready for prime time, but you are welcome to look at a version here.

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NOTE: This series of lectures was written a number of years ago.  As a basic introduction to organizing, I think it still does an okay job, despite some limitations.  But I know a lot more about organizing and the history of organizing than I did when I wrote them.  When I have some time, I may try to go in and do some rewriting, but my current vision is represented fairly well in the book, above.  Happily enough it is coming out in April 2012 in a much cheaper paperback version (The hardback is so expensive, I can't afford to buy many myself. . . . ).  I don't care if you purchase it or not--get it at the library if you want to read it!

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 (The video I use is here.)
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 (now Chapter 3 in the book)]
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
     (A good video 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