books about class and organizing

Wed May 21 10:53:39 CDT 2008

[ed:  thanks to Ann and  Chris for contributing.  A bit from me below 
their two contributions.]

From: curry-stevens at comcast.net

To these excellent texts, I add Betsy Leondar-Wright's "Class matters: 
Cross-class alliance building for middle class activists" put out by New 
Society Publishers. For those ready to explore the privileged status of 
the middle class in comparison with the poor and working class, it is a 
phenomenal text full of practice insights that is particularly useful in 
teaching university students.

Ann Curry-Stevens, Assistant Professor
School of Social Work, Portland State University

***********************************************

From:
"Chris Cavanagh" <story at web.ca>

I would recommend the work of J.K. Gibson-Graham. In particular, their 
newest book A Postcapitalist Politics 
<http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/G/gibson_postcapitalist.html> has both 
great case studies and discussions of class. In their first book, The 
End of Capitalism (As We Knew It) 
<http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/G/gibson_end.html>, they lay the 
foundation for an analysis of class not so much as a /thing/ that we 
/are /but as a conjuncture of relationships within which we act. You 
could say that they propose that class is better understood as a verb 
than a noun. If you're a theory junky like me you'll enjoy their first 
book - but it's heavy-going at times. The second is also loaded with 
theory but it is more grounded in reflecting on projects to practice new 
economic relationships. Their work has inspired a new and growing 
interest in what they call "diverse economies" and there's a related 
website called Community Economies 
<http://www.communityeconomies.org/index.php>. What i love about their 
work is the way it provides me, as an educator and organizer, with a new 
vocabulary for talking about economics, capitalism and class. This last 
is one that i find profoundly obfuscated (no less in Canada than in the 
US). We've used their theory to look at our work at the Catalyst Centre 
<http://www.catalystcentre.ca/> to understand better how, as a worker 
co-op, we fit into a different picture of the economy than one that 
relegates us to an "alternative" to capitalism.

I think that class is one of the most dangerous conversations that we 
can have. One that must absolutely be simultaneous (and integrated) with 
anti-racism, feminism and other forms of oppression. In the complex set 
of oppressions that we resist, class is the one that is most 
threatening, of course, to capitalism. Which is partly why people like 
Ruby Payne are so welcome by the mainstream. If class is about choices 
then the dominant economic system (i.e. capitalism) needn't worry about 
anything. In fact it rewards such analyses and lauds them.

peace

chris

**********************************

[ed:  while both are old, my favorite books on class that inform how I 
think about community organizing and community development remain  The 
New Class War by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, and Blaming 
the Victim by William Ryan.  Both get at some of the core structural 
issues that Chris notes.  On my to-read list is What's the Matter With 
Kansas by Thomas Frank in hopes it may provide some understanding of how 
people with so little could so consistently work against their own class 
interests.]**

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> [ed: thanks to Catherine and Windy for continuing the discussion.]
>
> From: "Catherine Mobley" <CAMOBLE at exchange.clemson.edu>
>
> I'd like to echo the sentiments about Linda Stouts book. I have found
> it to be very useful for my Policy and Social Change class.
> Also, the books on Teaching for (and Readings on) Diversity and Social
> Justice (by Maurianne Adams) are quite good, too.
>
> I, too, discovered Ruby Payne several years ago. At first, I was
> enamored with her work. But, some colleagues have since introduced me
> to another perspective on her books. I only present this information to
> show another viewpoint on her perspective. I highly encourage you to
> read the essay in Rethinking Schools about her work:
>
> http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_01/ruby221.shtml
>
> Just another viewpoint...
>
> Catherine
>
>
> ***************************
>
> From: Windy Cooler-Stith <windy_coolerstith at yahoo.com>
>
> Several years ago, small son in tow, I spent all the money I had, 
> leaving the Southern US for the first time in my entire life, on my 
> first plane trip, to work as a volunteer for a very prominent 
> “poor”-by-choice peace activist in Chicago. I was hoping that the 
> experience would school me in all things ideologically to the Left that 
> I felt I needed to know to succeed as an anti-poverty organizer in 
> Alabama - where I was already poor-but-not-by-choice and a successful 
> anti-poverty organizer in many ways.
>
> Clearly, I was working class. That unmistakable, irrational, sense of 
> know-nothingness and incompetence in the face of middle-class formal 
> education and culture says it all.
>
> I did get something of life-long ideological value out of that summer. 
> It came from the book: Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker 
> by Joanna Kadi. This remains my absolute favorite book about class. I 
> have given people copies for Christmas. This is the book that taught me 
> that I was lower-working class and what that really meant. It taught me 
> about racism and homophobia in details and systems I had never fully 
> fathomed on my own – or as a result of any myriad of the trainings I 
> routinely attended. That book spoke to me like the Horn of Gabriel.
>
> If I could meet Joanna Kadi today I would kiss her feet.
>
> The book is poetic, lyrical, and beautiful at the same time is powerful 
> and educational. I highly recommend it.
>
> You can order it from South End Press at: 
> http://www.southendpress.org/search?query=Kadi&action=find_book&search_key=all
>
> -Windy
>
> *Take the 2008 Survey of Organizer Well-Being at InspiredPropinquity.com 
> today; pass it to a friend who needs it!*
>
>
>
> Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
>   
>> --------
>> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
>> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
>> --------
>>  
>> [ed:  please feel welcomed to send other books on your favorites lists.]
>>
>> From: SusanGSMcGee at aol.com
>>
>>
>> I discovered a book that many of you may already be familiar with 
>> "Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing" 
>> by Linda Stout, Founder of the Piedmont Peace Project, with a foreword 
>> by Howard Zinn, 1996 Beacon Press.
>>  
>> I find that there are very few books that talk about class in specific 
>> terms. (Another that I have discovered is Ruby Payne's Bridges Out of 
>> Poverty) There are many books who mention class as an "aside." Linda 
>> Stout is a feminist, a lesbian, and an organizer who focuses on class 
>> issues in her work building an organization focused on peace. She deals 
>> with issues such as: social change versus social services; principles of 
>> organizing; the backlash; and redefining leadership so that it is 
>> embodied in a group rather than an individual. She gives specific 
>> details about how she was discouraged, discredited and discounted as a 
>> working class organizer. She has a great intersectional analysis. Check 
>> it out.
>>  
>> Susan
>>  
>>
>>
>>
>> *
>>
>> Susan G. S. McGee*
>> Instructor
>> Education for /ACTION!/ (Educ 313/WS 313)
>> 707-445-1340
>> 707-616-7898
>> Office: Library (lower level) 051
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Colist maillist  - send messages to Colist at comm-org.wisc.edu
>>
>> To change your subscription, go to http://comm-org.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/colist
>>
>> All messages are archived at http://comm-org.wisc.edu/pipermail/colist/
>>
>> Please contact original message authors to request permission to forward messages. 
>>
>>   
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> Colist maillist  - send messages to Colist at comm-org.wisc.edu
>
> To change your subscription, go to http://comm-org.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/colist
>
> All messages are archived at http://comm-org.wisc.edu/pipermail/colist/
>
> Please contact original message authors to request permission to forward messages. 
>
>   