[COMM-ORG] Building the Obama and community organizing collection

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

Hi COMM-ORG,

I am still trying to overcome my speechlessness at the momentous events 
of yesterday, even after having had two months to get used to the idea 
of an African American first family.  It is a time, at the very least, 
for all of us to recommit ourselves to a sense of possibility and 
imagination.  It is also a time to reflect with an urgency like never 
before.  Somehow, tens of millions of people got mobilized to make 
history.  How did that happen?  How can we keep it happening?  What 
stands in the way of it continuing to happen? 

This is not just a transition of color in the White House.  It is also a 
transition of generation, of technology, and of strategy, in the 
organizing world.  Charles Tilly, a sociologist, once wrote a book where 
he talked about historical epochs characterized by changes in the 
"repertoire of collective action."  We can understand history, he 
argued, by looking for changes in how people organize and mobilize.  Is 
this one of those periods?  Or is it a sign that what we've always done 
works?

What this profound election has done for me, perhaps more than anything, 
is re-inspired my curiosity.  I know of no one who was more skeptical 
than I that Obama could ever ascend to the presidency.  Now that I have 
been proven wrong, wrong, wrong, I want to know why.  And in learning 
why, I want to learn what to do next.

One of ways you can help me pursue my curiosity is to keep sending stuff 
you are reading and, if you are willing, writing about community 
organizing in the wake of the Obama campaign.  You may recall that some 
of you have already been sending those things.  I hope to keep them 
coming, and will put together a page of links to stuff already out 
there, and add to the papers collection with the new stuff.

And thanks, as always, for all your participation and continuing 
contributions.

Randy Stoecker
moderator/editor, COMM-ORG
rstoecker at wisc.edu