========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 08:32:18 CDT Sender: H-Net/H-Urban Seminar on History of Community Organizing &From: Wendy Plotkin Subject: ABSTRACT: "Faith in Action: Religion, Race &..Future of Democracy Posted by Richard L. Wood "Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and the Future of Democracy" (Richard L. Wood PhD dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1995; available from University Microfilms --UMI) is a participant-observation and interview study of two of the most salient forms of community organizing in low-income urban areas in contemporary America: church-based organizing such as that done by the IAF, the Pacific Institute for Community Organization, Gamaliel, and DART; and "multi-racial organizing" done by multiple smaller organizations around the country. The heart of the dissertation compares strong examples of each kind of organizing: the separate organizing efforts by PICO and the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) in Oakland, California (the Oakland-based organizations are called OCO and Pueblo, respectively). "Church-based organizing" is familiar from previous discussion on this list; contemporary models work through religious culture to construct a political culture of civic engagement and political struggle. "Multi-racial organizing" uses similar tactics and strategies, but uses racial identity as the basis for constructing such a political culture. To avoid confusion, it is worth noting that BOTH models have often successfully drawn strongly multi-racial constituencies; the difference lies in their respective bases for constructing their internal political cultures. Data for this comparison is drawn from three years of partipant-observation in the two organizations. In addition, further data was gathered through sixty interviews with participants, organizers, and political targets in six cities nationwide (two cities where PICO and CTWO are both active, and four cities where only PICO is active). The opening chapters describe the organizing models employed by PICO and CTWO, including the practices, ideologies, internal cultures, and significant political successes of the two organizations. Chapter 5 is central: it discusses the development of the two organizations and their partly-parallel and partly-divergent trajectories over the last ten years. I use the concepts of social capital and "structural position in the public realm" to differentiate their political trajectories. A key finding here is that, while both organizations contribute significantly to enhancing the engagement of low-income and moderate-income urban residents in the public realm, church-based organizing in its stronger embodiments projects far greater power into the political arena. I show that both models successfully empower ethnically- and racially-diverse constituencies, and that BOTH hold potential to play important roles in transforming the American polity in democratic directions. But I argue that that potential is inherently more limited in the multiracial organizing model, in that its internal logic forces it to build relationships and social capital virtually from scratch and in ways sometimes self-contradictory; nonetheless, by engaging some of the most marginalized urban residents in civic action, it contributes to re-invigorating democracy in America. I argue that the combination of the institutional strengths of religious bodies (including not just money, but the social capital of trust and horizontal social networks -- see Putnam, 1993) and the cultural resources provided by CERTAIN FORMS of religious culture give church-based organizing a qualitatively different potential for democratic transformation. [Ed: Putnam, Robert D. MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK: CIVIC TRADITIONS IN MODERN ITALY, Robert D. Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti. Princeton University Press, c1993] Like multiracial organizing, PICO involves large numbers of quite low-income and racially diverse participants; unlike multiracial organizing, it also mobilizes large numbers of middle-class participants. This has given it sufficient voice in cities as diverse as Oakland, San Diego, Denver, New Orleans, and Camden (only considering PICO sites) to wield a powerful influence within official decision-making regarding policing, education, and economic development. The latter half of the dissertation explores the role of cultural resources more deeply, by looking at how church-based organizing plays out in the context of three quite different forms of religious culture in America, in three churches in Oakland. A key variable here is a specific religious culture's ability to confront the complexities and ambiguities of political engagement, while still remaining sufficiently coherent to instill meaning into the political process for its adherents. I argue that different forms of religious culture are differentially capable of this crucial process, and thus some succeed and others fail to sustain civic engagement over the long term. The Conclusion considers the theoretical, political, and ethical implications of much of the foregoing discussion, including the role each kind of organization may be expected to play in the coming historical process of more profoundly democratizing American life. I am now engaged in editing the dissertation for publication. I hope to publish it under its current title, though the powers-that-be in publishing have final control over that. Richard L. Wood Department of Sociology University of New Mexico 1915 Roma NE, SSCI 1110 Albuquerque, NM 87131-1166 phone: 505-277-3945 fax: 505-277-8805 email: rlwood@unm.edu
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