1.Bridging vs. Bonding 2.Trends Impacting Low-Income Communities

Approaches to Community Organizing and Their Relationship to Consensus Organizing

Discussion Questions

1. What are some examples of bridging and bonding social capital from your everyday experiences? How is an understanding of bridging and bonding social capital helpful in understanding social networks? How would you explain social capital to someone else?

2. Which of the community organizing approaches explained in this chapter appeals the most to you? Which one would you be more likely to use and why?

3. Briefly explain the main differences between consensus organizing and the community organizing models presented in this chapter. What are the main similarities?

4. How might you utilize consensus organizing in solving problems and issues that you are aware of through your own experiences (e.g., personal, work, volunteer)?

5.What are the main activities involved in consensus organizing? What experiences have you had in carrying out similar types of activities? What outcomes resulted from your activities? How were your outcomes similar to and/or different from the outcomes of consensus organizing?

Case Study A: Social Action/Power-Based Organizing: ACORN-Organizing Workfare Workers in Los Angeles, CA

Questions About the ACORN Case Study

1. What were the goals of ACORN's organizing campaign?

2. How were members of the external power structure viewed? Did these views change during the course of the campaign?

3. What was the problem? What were the strategies and tactics used to solve the problem?

4. Do you think that social capital/networks were developed as a result of this organizing campaign? If so, explain.

5. What were the outcomes of this organizing campaign?

6. What other issues would be suitable for a social action/power-based organizing approach? Please give one example and explain why.

Case Study B: The Evolution of Consensus Organizing: Perry Hilltop Citizens Council, Pittsburgh, PA

Questions About the Consensus Organizing Case Study

1. What were the initial goals in solving the "blockbusting" problem in Perry Hilltop? How similar and/or different were these goals after the lawsuit was successfully won?

2. How were power and members of the external power structure viewed initially? After the lawsuit?

3. What was the problem? What were the initial strategies and tactics used to solve the problem? How did the definition of the problem and the initial strategies and tactics change after the lawsuit?

4. What social capital/networks were developed using the initial strategies to solve the blockbusting problem? What social capital/networks were developed later using consensus organizing strategies?

5. What were the outcomes of the initial campaign to solve the blockbusting problem? How did these outcomes differ from the outcomes achieved using consensus organizing strategies?

6. What other issues would be suitable for a consensus organizing approach? Please give one example and explain why.

Field Exercise

Instructions: Choose one of the following exercises to conduct in the field. You will build on and continue this exercise in the next two chapters of the workbook. Please answer the questions that follow for the field exercise you have chosen.
Interview a community resident to find out about their community and an issue or challenge their community is currently facing. Choose an appropriate community organizing approach that you believe would be most helpful in intervening to address this problem or issue and describe why.

Find an article from your local newspaper on a problem in a poor neighborhood. Choose an appropriate community organizing approach that you believe would be most helpful in intervening to address this problem or issue in this neighborhood and describe why.

Answer the following questions to guide you in completing this exercise:

1. What issue, challenge, or problem did you discover?

2. What has been done so far to address this issue? How do the efforts used to address this problem so far fit with the community organizing models you've learned about in this chapter? For example, are the strategies being used similar to any of the strategies that might be used by any of the models?

3. What community organizing approach would you use to address this problem? Is it different that what is being done now? If so, how? Why would you use this strategy?

Attachment:- conflict.rar