Progressive Community Organizing: Reflective Practice in a Globalizing World - Softcover

Pyles, Loretta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 041595780X ISBN 13: 9780415957809

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

University at Albany, State University of New York, USA

Review

"Progressive Community Organizing is that most unusual and welcome of contributions to the world of social work scholarship...[it] represents a new and vital direction for social work...If you read one book on organizing this year, I would recommend that you consider Pyles's pulsing work. Putting the social back into social work, the book helps us understand the joy of creating a better world while connecting local organizing with global forces and movements to create change around the world." - Benjamin Shepard, Ph.D., LMSW., in the Journal of Progressive Human Services

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 041595780X
• ISBN 13: 9780415957809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208