Course Syllabus
Fa19-PS-0118-02 Office Hours: Th. 4:00-5:00
Topics in American Politics Lincoln Filene Room 304
Organizing for Social Change Phone: 617-410-9904 (LeBlanc)
Instructors: Danny LeBlanc & Ken Galdston Email: Daniel.LeBlanc@tufts.edu
Fall 2019 Kenneth.Galdston@tufts.edu
Course Description:
Social change movements can seem to have simply burst onto the scene at a moment in time. In reality, however, such movements – the civil rights movement, for example – come about after years or even decades of diligent organizing and leadership development work on the local community level. The practice of community organizing in the United States has several roots, but most commonly traces to the work of Saul Alinsky in Chicago in the 1930s and 40s.
This course will focus on the concrete skills and practices developed and utilized by Alinsky, as well as by a wide range of organizers who have honed and expanded that work since Alinsky’s time. Overall we will describe this work as “relational organizing” – skills and practices including conducting one-on-one relationship building, house (or small group) meetings, power analysis, community leadership identification and cultivation, and campaign strategy development and execution. Relational organizing is central to the theory and practice of organizing, whether an organizer is working in a community-based setting, around a particular issue or set of issues, with a specific constituency, or as part of a broader movement. The class will show the connection between periods of concentrated organizing and the better known social movements of the past and present, which often rise up as a result specific timing and opportunity in the social environment.
In class we will utilize such practices as one-on-one, house meetings and campaign strategy as a way to better illustrate and understand how they work. The class will also aim to place certain key actors, organizations and movements into a timetable and historical context.
The course is taught by two long-time community organizing practitioners, and will also include presentations and discussions with other Boston area community organizers organizing in a variety of settings , as well opportunities to visit with and observe local community-based organizations in practice. Students will also be asked early in class to “adopt” an organization and organizing campaign, on or off campus, that will serve as a backdrop for readings and class discussions, as well as the topic for final papers.
The seminar will be interactive, with brief written assignments and sharing among students and instructors. Grading will consist of:
- 30% active class participation, including attendance
- 20% first paper assignment
- 20% second paper assignment
- 30% final paper assignment, and evidence of active knowledge of “adopted” organizing campaign
Weekly office hours will be Thursdays 4:00-5:00 pm, immediately following the weekly seminar session.
The following books are available for purchase at the Tufts Bookstore and in Tisch Library:
Aaron Schutz and Mike Miller, People Power
Lee Staples, Roots to Power
Additional shorter readings will be assigned, posted on line and/or distributed in class. Readings listed on a particular date are to be read for the following class.
Curriculum:
September 5: Course Introduction – Personal intros; Community Organizing Background - context and practice; practice one-on-one meetings; introduction to “political autobiography” and Story of Self; “Adopt” an organization or campaign
Readings: Staples, Roots to Power, Chapters 1 & 2; pp. 282-290
Schutz and Miller, People Power, Chapters 2, 3, 7, 8 & 19.
September 12: Organizing Practice – Core practices and concepts in community organizing, including one-on-one relationship building, leadership cultivation, campaign strategy and collective action, self interest, power and power analysis; conduct two house meetings as practice and to determine student interests.
Readings: “One Mile” and “One Mile (afterward)”, from The Power Broker by Robert Caro (PDF)
Staples, Roots to Power, pp. 430-436
September 19: Problems, Issues and Power: Explore more deeply how organizers develop issues from defined problems; how power equations and power analysis factor into issue development and strategy; use these concepts to take next steps in working on group-defined issues from January 24th class.
One Mile Case Study: Use case example of One Mile in New York City to discuss and tease out a number of organizing dynamics involved in campaigns, including moving from problem identification to issue clarification, conducting power analysis, setting strategy and tactics, mobilizing your community for action, and campaign messaging.
Readings: Obama, Dreams from My Father, Chapters 7-9 (PDF)
Staples; pp. 1-14; 59-114; 273-81
Schutz and Miller; pp 215-225
1st Paper Due
September 26: Building Organizations: steps involved in building an organization to carry out social change from various perspectives, including sponsoring committees, organizing drives, and leadership development.
Altgeld Case: As with One Mile, use the case example of Barack Obama’s organizing work in Chicago in the 1980s to derive some broader lessons for organizing.
“Adopted” Organizations agreed to
Readings: Excerpts from This Is An Uprising by Paul and Mark Engler
Excerpts from We Make The Road by Walking and The Long Haul about Myles Horton and the Highlander Center
October 3: Guest: Emily Bloch, community organizer formerly working for the Merrimack Valley Project in Lawrence, MA: https://www.merrimackvalleyproject.org/ and now with Cosecha in Boston: https://www.lahuelga.com/#daca-header
Organizations and Movements: Myles Horton once said that “organizing is the hard, painstaking work we do in between major social movements.” We’ll examine the relationship between organizing and work inside organizations, and related social movements.
Readings: Staples, Chapters 4 & 5 and pp. 361-380
October 10: Campaign Strategies and Tactics Part 1
Utilizing materials developed by Meridith Levy, Deputy Director,Somerville Community Corporation for training with the Jewish Organizing Institute & Network (JOIN)
Readings: TBD
October 17: Campaign Strategies Part 2
Readings: 2-3 readings Boston area organizing campaigns
October 24: Guest: Kalila Barnett, a lifelong Boston resident who has worked as an organizer at Jamaica Plain NDC: https://jpndc.org/ and Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE): https://ace-ej.org/
Brief Organizing History and Campaigns in Greater Boston
Readings: TBD
2nd Paper Due
October 31: NO CLASS / SPRING BREAK
November 7: Group Campaigns: update and wrap up campaigns begun by student groups in the first two weeks of class.
Organizing History: tying up some of the strands and movements of organizing in the U.S. over the past 80 years, key actors, organizations and movements.
November 14: We will determine how best to utilize the April 4th, 11th and 18th classes as the semester moves along, taking advantage of whatever topics generate the most resonance for further exploration and discussion. In addition, each week one-third of the students in class will make brief presentations and lead discussions on their “adopted” organizations.
November 21:
November 28: NO CLASS / THANKSGIVING
December 5: Course wrap-up; Final Q&A
Final Papers due
Course Summary:
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