Community Organizing: Alinskyism, Activism, and Abolition

Undergraduate / Graduate

What is community organizing? Who does it? Is it disruptive? inclusive? transformative? Community organizing holds an important position in the history of social work practice. Yet practitioners have often redefined what it seeks to accomplish; even today "organizing" can mean different things to different organizers. This course offers a comprehensive examination of the major approaches to community organizing in the U.S. today: Alinskyism, the pragmatic, organization-building model associated with activist Saul Alinsky; the distributed-leadership (or "snowflake") approach developed by organizer Marshall Ganz; social movement organizing, which emphasizes political education & mass mobilization; worker centers, which combine direct services, organizing, & advocacy; culture- and arts-based organizing, which centers creativity as a vehicle for political consciousness & social change; and abolitionist organizing, which emphasizes dismantling carceral institutions and logics in favor of mutual aid & community care. The course's purpose is to introduce a diverse array of practice models, to examine their distinctive contributions, and to explore how they may be mutually informative. We will examine different theories of social change implied by these approaches as well as the different skill-sets they seek to cultivate. No prerequisites. Students with no experience in organizing are welcome, and those familiar with organizing or movements should also find it a useful next step.