Transcommunality: From The Politics Of Conversion - Hardcover

John Brown-Childs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592130046 ISBN 13: 9781592130047

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2003

Synopsis

In this original and collaborative creation, John Brown-Childs offers unique insights into some of the central problems facing communities, social movements, and people who desire social change: how does one build a movement that can account for race, class and gender, and yet still operate across all of these lines? How can communities sustain themselves in truly social ways? And perhaps most important, how can we take the importance of community into account without forgoing the important distinctions that we all ascribe to ourselves as individuals?Borrowing from the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois federation, Brown-Childs offers a way of thinking about communities as coalitions, ones that account for differences in the very act of coming together. Using the Iroquois as an example of transcommunality in action, he also offers specific outcomes that many people desireOCoracial justice and peace are two examplesOCoas points of focus around which many disparate groups may organize, without ever subsuming questions of identity as an expense of organizing.In addition to Brown-Childs' own exegesis, twelve scholars and thinkers from all walks of life offer their own responses to his thinking, enriching the book as an illustration and example of transcommunality.In an age of fractured identities and a world that is moving toward a global community, Transcommunality offers a persuasive way of imagining the world where community and individual identity may not only coexist, but also depend upon the other to the benefit of both."

About this title

From the Publisher

How can we build long-lasting communities and movements for change?

From the Inside Flap

"This is a bold and provocative book. It is visionary, and he has clearly articulated that vision of how groups, communities and nations might engage each other, holding on to their differences and yet respecting those of others. Childs does a fine job of laying out the sketches of such a set of relationships. His prose is elegant and contains strong hope and optimism."
—Troy Duster, Professor of Sociology, New York University, and Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley

"Both the content and the form of Transcommunality inspire hope—for activist practice and social analysis that can enable diverse communities to protect their particularities while sharing vision and strategy for social justice."
—Richard Flacks, Sociology Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592130046
• ISBN 13: 9781592130047
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248