This course introduces students to the praxis of community organizing. It provides a foundational knowledge of the skills, strategies and tactics needed to facilitate social change. It explores models of working with, rather than on communities. Learners will become familiar with thinking about community organizing from the margins - by using practices developed to challenge social inequalities, especially those advanced by grassroots groups. Content areas include: the nature of community, processes of community organizing, strategies and tactics for social action, diversity and social change, and the role of the community worker/organizer. For the purposes of this course, it is important to note that community organizing is marked by a complex set of principles, processes and ethical values, themselves united by political ideology. Community work is political and ideological. The course draws on interdisciplinary insights from various fields, including Post-Colonial and Post-Socialist Studies, Indigenous Studies, Critical Theory, Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Cultural Studies, Balkan Studies, Visual Studies, Ethnic Studies and Anti-Resource Extraction Activism, in examining the dynamics of race, class, nationality, and their intersections in the context of community organizing.
- Enseignant: Tracy Glynn