Progressive Community Organizing: Reflective Practice in a Globalizing World

by Loretta Pyles

This interdisciplinary textbook offers a comprehensive view of the central issues facing progressive community organizers who seek to mobilize those negatively impacted by local, national, and global social policies and practices. Intended for both undergraduate and graduate students in social work, it aims to articulate the depth of the subject by introducing students to the philosophical, political, and sociological theories that inform community organizing and advocacy. These topics are explored in detail through such examples as the labour movement, environmental organizing, feminist movements, and faith-based movements as a way to inform social work community practice. The author emphasizes the importance of a thorough understanding of why and how people get together to effect change in their own communities. Ongoing debates and controversies that face organizers and advocates in the social work profession are also considered. Each chapter includes relevant discussion questions for reflection, as well as a list of useful books and websites for further inquiry. Also included are numerous case studies from community efforts in Post-Katrina New Orleans, many of which the author has been involved in herself, providing a recent and widely recognized series of real world examples that will be easily accessible for students and professors around the world.

Genres: Social Work, Reference, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Briar]

Note: Required reading for my MSW.

I thought this was a very interesting read and I really got a lot from it. The information can be a bit dense, but taking the time to absorb it is well worth it. There are a lot of examples given and real life situations discussed so it was easy to compare and relate back to things I already know about. I enjoyed the break down of community organizing and I appreciated how Pyles always tells you where to find information she already covered or is going to cover it. This was useful to flip back and forth through if I needed to refresh on previously discussed concepts.

I would like to point out that Pyles seems to include a lot of her personal views on politics and certain movements throughout, which I enjoyed as we are on similar political spectrums, but I could see that this might be grating for readers who do not agree with those politics.

[Zachary Ransom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tulane University, MSW, Community Orgs Policy Advocacy

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer once said that “there is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people.” - favorite quote

[Danel Homméus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discover my critical approach on organizing and why you might want to read this book, Progressive Community Organizing by Lorreta Pyles, if you aim to become a community leader.

A critical approach to organizing implies: steps, how-to, logic, and rationality. As a community organizer you shouldn't have to fool the community in any complex and elusive goal which at the end could bring more difficulty than the real change expected.

A critical approach means an understanding of the concepts, thoughts, and theories relevant to the community organizing.

According to Merriam-Webster an online dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/), critical is using or involving careful judgment about the good and bad parts of something.

The idea of social change and organizing imply several theories. According to the author’s point there are five major schools of thought that are relevant to progressive community organizing, described on page 35 of the textbook. Here they are:
a) Marxist traditions
b) Feminist theories
c) Civil society perspectives
d) Anarchism
e) And postmodern/postcolonial perspectives

In spite of the fact it is not asked for a community organizer to copy and apply one of those theories in its entirety to organize and bring appropriate change in the community, I take for granted that their critical approach is a requirement to grasp a stronger understanding about community organizing and to get familiar with how the process of change has taken place throughout history. After all, the society is a whole, in other words the change a leader champions and works to implement is not differentiated from the types of social problems the rest of other communities around the world usually have to face up.

Sustaining a critical approach in that perspective is crucial for the community organizer in the sense that he/she will not have to put on any theories without taking great consideration of their pros and cons in one side, and along the other side due to the specificity of each community it would be futile to try to use only a specific type of thoughts in the expectation to bring the change that matter. Change is a necessary component that someone in charge of organizing the community has to deal with on a regular basis, sometimes more frequently than required. In the matter of fact, it is significant for the leader to provoke and manage that change.

At the end, “The world is a complex place in which everyone has a limited view." In the matter of fact, at some stage we will necessitate to get a line and discuss other people point and approach to have a firmer grip on what's moving on and accordingly making necessary adjustment, which not exclude in any point the rationality.