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Date:    Sun, 15 Sep 1996 18:58:43 CDT
Sender:  H-Net/H-Urban Seminar on History of Community Organizing &
         
From:    Wendy Plotkin 
Subject: ABSTRACT: Article on "empowerment" and PICO
 
Posted by Wendy Plotkin 
 
I'd like to abstract (in two postings) Paul W. Speer and Joseph Hughey,
 "Community Organizing: An Ecological Route to Empowerment and Power,"
_American Journal of Community Psychology_, 23:5, 1995 to respond to
Dick Schoech's recently posted query for teaching articles on power [1]
(any other responses?), and to flesh out Rich Wood's abstract of his
dissertation (which deals in part with the Pacific Institute for
Community Organizations [PICO]).
 
In a few days, I'll also post a brief history of PICO, from Donald
C. and Dietrich C. Reitzes, THE ALINSKY LEGACY ALIVE AND KICKING (JAI
Press, c1987) in the series "Research in Social Movements, Conflicts
and Change."
 
In an issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY devoted to
the topic of "empowerment theory," this article asserts that
 
  Empowerment is often approached from an individualistic
  perspective (Riger, 1993), whereas power is understood
  as a social phenomenon (Alinsky, 1971; Long, 1958). (729)[2]
 
It notes that many "empowerment studies" emphasize "individual
empowerment" at the expense of how such empowerment affects
the distribution of power in society.   The authors choose to
connect the two ideas, defining
 
   "empowerment as the manifestation of social power at
    individual, organizational, and community levels of
    analysis." (730)
 
To explicate this connection, the authors describe the organizing
strategy of PICO, which is distinctive from many other community
organizations in incorporating BOTH the idea of individual empowerment
and social power.
 
First is a discussion of the "instruments of power" as described
by J. Gaventa in a 1980 book, POWER AND POWERLESSNESS: QUIESCENCE
AND REBELLION IN AN APPALACHIAN VALLEY (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press).  These instruments are "superior bargaining
resources" and the ability to set the agenda and shape
the public ideology about the things that matter to the community
such as distribution of wealth and role of public power.
Community organizations are empowered only when they have these
instruments in hand.
 
From this general definition of power and empowerment, the organizing
principles of PICO are outlined:
 
 o  empowerment rests on organization
 
    Alinsky (in the 1971 RULES FOR RADICALS), John K.
    Galbraith (in his 1983 ANATOMY OF POWER), and
    other theorists are invoked as supporting this idea.
 
 o  strong interpersonal relationships underlay social power
 
    The authors, supported by an extensive literature, assert that
 
    "According to the PICO model, relationships based on
     shared values and emotional ties between individuals
     produce bonds that are more meaningful and sustainable
     than relationships based on rational or emotional
     reactions to community issues alone." (733)
 
     In a study reminiscent of the Stoecker/Stall paper
     presented earlier in the seminar[3], one of the authors
     studied two community organizations with contrasting
     approaches: "relation-focused and issue-focused
     organizing." (733)
 
     Favorable to the former approach, the author reports that
 
       Members of the relation-focused group perceived
       their organization as more intimate and less
       controlling, reported more frequent interpersonal
       contact with community members, had greater
       levels of psychological empowerment, and
       demonstrated a greater degree of organizational
       power." (733)
 
 o  individual empowerment must include both action and
    assessment.
 
        The authors emphasize the importance of
        integrating individual experiences
        with community involvement, both as a means
        of moving beyond the individual perspective, and
        of acting as an outlet for the intellectual and
        emotional stimulation resulting from empowerment.
 
PICO incorporates these principles into a "cycle of organizing"
through the following steps:
 
  o identification of issues through one-on-one interviews;
  o research into the underlying causes of the problems in
    the community
  o collective action to advertise the calls for change and
    to convince public and private decision makers to
    effect those changes.  Especially important to exploit
    are the contradictions that are uncovered in the
    research process (e.g. the expression of support for
    diversity and acceptance of the practice of racial steering).
  o "reflection," or taking the time to evaluate the effectiveness
    of strategy and actions.
 
The authors summarize the above set of principles and organizing
steps by observing
 
  "empowerment is achieved only through organization; organization
   is built on the strength of relationships among its members;
   and relationships are develped as individual act together
   and reflect on that action." (735)
 
The rest of the article explores these ideas in more detail.  The
authors describe the process by which participation in an organization
leads the individual to an awareness that individual well-being is tied
to community involvement and access to power.  They describe the
delicate operations of promoting participation -- creating multiple
types of involvement to allow for diversity in talents and interests.
They encourage interaction with other organizations at the stages of
research and action in order to mobilize mass power, observing that
through this means, PICO has amassed as many as 5000 individuals in an
action.
 
Most important is maintaining activity over time.
 
In an interesting aside, Speer and Hughey differentiate between
"mass movements" and "community organization."  They suggest
 
    "Although the mobilization of large numbers of people
     is an expression of power for community organizations,
     this mobilization differs from that produced by
     mass movements.  Actions are a type of meeting held
     by community organizations.  Actions have an agenda,
     time is kept, and information is presented.  Most
     important, there is dialogue between the community
     organization and the individual, organizational, or
     institutional target about specific policy changes
     or resources allocations." (738)
 
The authors also offer an example of the ability to define the
agenda.  In one case, PICO shifted the focus of concern from
how to allocate public resources to expand a convention center
to the need to coordinate the many agencies involved in substance
abuse in the neighborhood.  Similarly, PICO was able to
"reinterpret" the perception of substance abuse as a policing and
court issue to a public health issue.
 
 
[Notes]
 
[1]
 
Date:  Sun, 8 Sep 1996
Posted by Dick Schoech 
 
I am looking for a good article on community power to introduce masters
level social work students to the concept of community power and how it
influences practice.  I am interested in an article that describes the
sources of power and how to work with power and how to use it.  Any
suggestions would be most helpful
 
Dick Schoech 
U of  TX at Arlington
Box 19129, Arl TX 76019-0129
 
[2] Citations include:
 
   S. Riger (1993), "What's Wrong the Empowerment," AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, 15, 121-144
 
   Saul Alinsky (1971), REVEILLE FOR RADICALS
 
   N.E. Long (1958), "The Local Community as an Ecology of Games,"
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, 64, 251-261.
 
[3] "Community Organizing or Organizing Community?: Gender and the Crafts
   of Empowerment" (Alinskyism vs. Feminism)
 
   Available at http://h-net2.msu.edu/~urban/comm-org/alinsky
 
Wendy Plotkin
COMM-ORG Editor

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