• DOI:10.1300/J125v08n03_01
• Corpus ID: 142622244

Challenging Community Organizing

@article{Fisher2000ChallengingCO,
  title={Challenging Community Organizing},
  author={Robert Fisher and Eric Shragge},
  journal={Journal of Community Practice},
  year={2000},
  volume={8},
  pages={1 - 19}
}

• R. Fisher, E. Shragge
• Published 28 November 2000
• Sociology
• Journal of Community Practice

This paper is a critical, reflective essay on the state of community organizing. Because we believe that organizing is shaped by a complex interaction between human agency and the wider social, political, and economic context, this paper explores the changing context and the shifts in practice that have accompanied it. In a nutshell, we see these shifts as ones that have dulled the political edge of organizing and removed its passion for social change. To develop this argument, we contrast two approaches to community organizing. Admittedly, the analysis simplifies both the models, their practice, and their relation to processes of social change. Nevertheless, we contrast the two models for a couple of reasons. First, the literature we refer to below differentiates these perspectives, and second, we want to sharpen rather than blur an important debate. We recognize important similarities in both grassroots processes. We include discussion of efforts that combine the two. We think the first, social action, gets different results and has been largely cast out of community organizing practice. Social action represents an engagement in the struggle for social change through organizing people to