New Book: Community Organizing and the Challenge of Political Change

Posted by on July 21, 2008

Transforming the City
Community Organizing and the Challenge of Political Change
Edited by Marion Orr

As an avenue for progressive politics in a nation still skeptical of change, community organizing today faces significant challenges. This book assesses that activity within the context of political, cultural, social, and economic changes in cities—from World War II to the present—to show how community-based organizations have responded.

Transforming the City is the first book to examine the current state of community organizing in American cities, analyzing its place in contemporary progressive politics and assessing whether it has changed in response to changes in the political economy. Leading urban scholars—Peter Dreier, Dennis Judd, and others—have been drawn from a wide range of disciplines to offer original commentaries on the strengths and limitations of community organizing, a form of political and civic engagement that is too often overlooked by those who bemoan the decline in social capital.

http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/orrtra.html