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Current News

Glenn Beck, Andrew Breitbart, and the Campaign to Kill Community Organizing

Something terribly unsettling is going on in the world of community organizing. The phrase itself and possibly the concept are under attack by the right-wing meme machine in the US. David Neiwert summarizes a lot of what's going on in this post at Crooks and Liars: Glenn Beck, Andrew Breitbart, and the Campaign to Kill Community Organizing. He opens with a video (which I can't really tolerate watching) of Beck doing his bizarre schtick against ACORN. Looks like ACORN itself may dissolve as a national organization, despite the independent investigations vindicating the organization. But acorn itself is not the only target. Funding for community organizing is muddled in general as is the entire dialogue. This ongoing strategy to use sleaze and innuendo and propaganda to undermine the language of civil society is deeply disturbing to me. I for one don't plan to stop using the phrase "community organizing". It's a noble practice that contributes to the heart of our democracy and economy and, in many respects, is the antidote to much that ails us as a society. Posted: 2/23/10; 6:06:02 PM #

"Collaboration and Community" by Scott London

I'm teaching a workshop soon on Online Community Organizing and I took the time to re-read Scott London's super essay on Collaboration and Community. It's jam-packed with insights that we keep ignoring in our online efforts. For example, London lists five key weaknesses of collaboration in general: (1) Collaboration is a notoriously time-consuming process and is not suitable for problems that require quick and decisive action. (2) Power inequalities among the parties can derail the process. (Boy is this a big one that we ignore, especially when funders are at the table.) (3) The norms of consensus and joint decision-making sometimes require that the common good take precedence over the interests of a few. (I find this is exacerbated by our tendencies to want to pretend these issues don't even exist.) (4) Collaboration works best in small groups and often breaks down in groups that are too large. (5) Collaboration is meaningless without the power to implement final decisions. Posted: 2/23/10; 5:55:20 PM #

New Judges for Just Awards: Aaron Dorfman, Alana Conner, Paul Light, and Rosetta Thurman

The Just Awards nominations are getting some good attention. (Thank you for spreading the word.) Since I last wrote about the awards, we've added four new people to our panel of judges: Aaron Dorfman, Alana Conner, Paul Light, and Rosetta Thurman. We have short bios (and photos) of each, but briefly: Aaron Dorfman is the Executive Director of the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy. Alana Conner is a Senior Editor at the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Paul Light is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service, and Rosetta Thurman is a prolific blogger at places such as Perspectives from the Pipeline and Change.org. Posted: 2/23/10; 5:45:41 PM #

Wall Street, by Doug Henwood: A (Now) Free Book that Many of Us Need to Read

People who work in civil society are not immune to the personal and political delusions about wealth that permeate our culture. Those delusions, combined with the service vs change dynamic in our sector, means that we often embrace "change" strategies that reinforce the status quo -- whether it's in our personal lives, organizational lives, or our economic lives as citizens. Given the prominence of the finance sector on our minds these days, I find that it's a good time to recommend Wall Street, a book by Doug Henwood. Mr Henwood is one my favorite economists, right up there with Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. The book was written before the current crisis, which I believe gives us exactly the right analytical perspective. We are easily lost in the spin of the day, even our own. Posted: 2/23/10; 5:29:35 PM #