WPHS #565497, VOL 22, ISS 1

Book Review
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Book Review
Progressive Community Organizing: A Critical Approach for a Globalizing
World by Loretta Pyles
Benjamin Shepard
Journal of Progressive Human Services, 22:111, 2011
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1042-8232 print/1540-7616 online
DOI: 10.1080/10428232.2011.565497
Book Review
Loretta Pyles, (2009). Progressive Community Organizing: A Critical
Approach for a Globalizing World. XX: Routledge, Hardcover.
Q1
Q2
Progressive Community Organizing is that most unusual and welcome of
contributions to the world of social work scholarship. It is a volume about 5
community organizing and public policy framed by the experience of a prac-
tice with inuences ranging from disaster relief to anarchism, feminism to
Buddhism, nonviolent civil disobedience to Zapatismo. Pulsing with contem-
porary and historical examples, from the Chicago Woodlawn Organization
to the Greyston Foundation and from community economic development to 10
anti-capitalism, with anarchists building dual power by squatting in build-
ings and religious groups ghting the powers and principalities, Progressive
Community Organizing represents a new and vital direction for social work
based on community practice and scholarship.
Pyless work begins with a central recognition of the importance of 15
social movements in helping those in local communities organize to address
their collective needs, grievances, and unmet problems, especially when
formal political channels have dried up or offered little but closed doors.
Organizing is about democracy and resistance as well as human rights. Social
policies are commonly informed by enlightened principles, but they are 20
often born of a desire to create something better for ones life and commu-
nity. There are those who are called social activists who have been ghting
all their lives for exploited people, Pyles notes, quoting the Zapatista Army
of National Liberation. [T]hey are the same ones who participated in the
great strikes and workers actions, in the great citizens mobilizations, in 25
the great campesino movements, and who support great repression, and
who even though some are old now, continue on without surrendering,
and they go everywhere, looking for the great struggle and seeking justice
(p. 43).
Unlike many writers of social work texts, Pyles wisely grounds her 30
narrative in the stories of those who have participated in these struggles, con-
sidering the strategies and tactics as well as the spiritual and philosophical
approaches to the practice of progressive community organizing.
Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the
point, however, is to change it, she says, quoting Marx in his Thesis 35
on Feuerback (p. 27). Supported by an eclectic and pulsing range of
1
2 Book Review
perspectives, Pyles begins her work with an exploration of the concept
of praxis. Central to change, the concept is best understood as being gen-
uinely free, self-conscious, authentic activity as opposed to alienated labor
demanded by capitalism (p. 30). Viewing the world from the perspective 40
of those displaced by storms, evicted from their homes, dislocated by social
policies and economic forces that favor privatization over all else, Pyles
looks to Marx as resource for understanding a world in which workers are
isolated from their work, be it in a factory or even a nonprot agency. It
is not necessary to be a revolutionary, communist, or socialist to appreciate 45
the ideas and contributions of Marx, Pyles explains. His critique of capi-
talism and the recognition that it necessitates that a working class tends to
be marginalized is a relevant contribution to the world of progressive social
ideas. These ideas have been very relevant for union organizers throughout
the world for over a century and likely will continue to be relevant in the 50
future (p. 30).
Throughout an honest exploration of ideas, Pyles highlights a central
conict of current practice: mutual aid versus formal organizational practice.
Much of the books case examples are born of the authors experiences in
New Orleans, Louisiana, where she witnessed the innovation born of neces- 55
sity after the ood of August 2005. With the Lower Ninth Ward loaded with
dilapidated houses, the city has smiled on efforts of activists to revitalize and
homestead these spaces. Much of this do-it-yourself tradition has been born
of squatting and anarchism. Here, activists favor a concept understood as
mutual aid or sharing of resources with each other. The result is the creation 60
of new resources. Through such exchanges, those involved create new
spaces and networks (p. 36). And activists provide resources where there
was little else. No matter how hard we worked or how many donations
we received, our efforts could never match the lack of effort on the part of
the government, explains Roger Benham of the Common Ground Health 65
Clinic in New Orleans (p. 36). Such tradition harkens back to the Black
Panther food and survival programs of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which
included medical services, free breakfasts for kids, clothing, education, and
prison support. Such efforts are important because they emphasize the
empowerment of marginalized people and a social change agenda aimed 70
at dislocating mechanisms of power that place an undue burden on the
poor and those with mental illness. Here, social services overlap, with
approaches to social change that support the needs and desires of those
using the services. Social services are seen as tools that provide essentials
to those in need, yet they are not ends in and of themselves. Instead, they 75
are seen as rst steps in care in a process that emphasizes social change
by challenging causes of oppression, exploitation, and degradation (p. 8).
Part of the appeal of anti-authoritarian organizing is its open rejection of
administrative social controls in favor of a politics of freedom, the creation
Book Review 3
of new social relations and direct democracy. In this way, activists cultivate 80
alternatives to social spaces based on domination and hierarchy (p. 37).
Much of this ambition is explored in chapter seven, Toward
Empowering Organizations. Unfortunately, many human service and social
movement organizations are anything but empowering. Instead, many favor
social controls rather than liberation and human relatedness. [O]rganizations 85
that come into being to address social oppressions, a result of critiques
of societal power structures, are also creating new power structures as
an organization, Pyles notes. Here the author hints at the all-too-familiar
pattern of mission slip, which so often consumes once-promising organiza-
tions. Unfortunately, sometimes the survival of organizations misguidedly 90
becomes the end of organizing efforts rather than the means (p. 97).
The unintended consequences of the bureaucratization of a movement can
often minimize the voices the organization once aimed to amplify. At their
worst, such organizations come emphasize mechanisms of social control
while reinforcing status quo. Modeled by corporations and state bureaucra- 95
cies, organizations originally intended for social change can easily succumb
to maintenance (Pyles, p. 98). Many borrow from market ideas, echoing
corporate for-prot organizations rather than entities designed to advance
the ends of social movements. In this respect, community organizing is
thought to be counter to the function of human service organizations. 100
Yet it is not a zero-sum game. And a number of human service orga-
nizations have come to emphasize both their movements character and
their focus on service provision. What distinguishes such approaches from
calcied organizations is their emphasis on community and on capacity
building. 105
Part of the utility of Progressive Community Organizing is its capacity
to highlight the elements of a major organizing campaign, using both theory
and case examples. A few of these elements include a clear task, research
around the task, mobilization, direct action, use of the media, short- and
long-term legal strategies, and a little fun to sustain a campaign. 110
Many campaigns take shape when a major issue falls in peoples laps
(or on their heads). Yet the identication of an issue and a proposed solu-
tion to that issue take shape in any number of ways. Issue identication
entails making critical choices and setting priorities balancing what is most
prescient with what is most feasible (p. 116). Ideally, constituents are the 115
driving force behind any organizing campaign, and this includes the practice
of issue identication. The Zapatismo philosophy of madar obedeciendo,
which translates as leading by obeying, reects a belief in direct accountabil-
ity to the people, a kind of horizontal representation (p. 116). To choose an
issue, Pyles suggests that organizers pay close attention to what people are 120
saying on the ground. This may be achieved by gathering stories through
individual conversations or focus groups (p. 117).
4 Book Review
Saul Alinski suggested that issues drive a campaign. A few basic factors
are worth considering when choosing an issue for a campaign, Pyles says.
For example, a well chosen issue should: 125
1. Result in a real improvement in peoples lives
2. Give people a sense of their own power
3. Alter the relations of power
4. Be worthwhile
5. Be winnable 130
6. Be widely felt
7. Be deeply felt
8. Be easy to understand
9. Have a clear target decision maker (p. 117).
This leads to the next element of a major campaign. 135
As a campaign moves forward, organizers strive to answer some of
the basic questions asked by any good detective, anthropologist, or social
scientist: Who is involved? What is the scope of the problem? What must
be done to address the issue and in what timeframe? A case example
is useful. Social work pioneer and Settlement House Movement founder 140
Jane Addams rst framed the practice of social work and community orga-
nizing in a Chicago social science research tradition based on data and
evidence. After a visit to Samuel Barnett and Henrietta Barnetts reform-
modeled Toynbee Hall in London, Addams helped to found the Settlement
House in Chicago in 1889. There she brought immigrants to live and adjust 145
to their new lives in the United States. Anticipating Maslows Hierarchy of
Needs, she provided care for those staying with her based on a hierar-
chy: rst, food and shelter; and then higher-order needs, including work,
organization, and participation in democratic living. Noting that many of
the children who lived in Hull House were involved in sweat-shop labor, 150
Addams started asking more questions and collecting data about the prob-
lem. She also sent residents out into the community to gure out what
was going on. Hearing more and more stories, she approached the Illinois
State Bureau of Labor and suggested that they investigate the issue of
child labor in a more systematic way (p. 125). The bureau put together 155
a report that called for signicant labor reforms. With data in hand to
conrm that what shed witnessed was more than an anecdotal problem,
Addams started organizing and mobilizing, connecting the work of the set-
tlement and the labor movements. Together, the intersecting movements
helped to educate and inform people as well as generate supporters for 160
the benets of reform. And the state of Illinois would pass strict child
labor laws that would regulate sanitary conditions in factories while estab-
lishing minimum age limits for those working in them for the rst time
(p. 125).
Book Review 5
Coming out of a campaign, evaluation is a cornerstone of the orga- 165
nizing process. Research, action, reection . . . action is the middle term
. . . between moments of hard reection. . . . Saul Alinskis protg Ed
Chambers (p. 15) is known to have said. This reection of the self and
community in action helps to keep such campaigns moving forward and
honest about their work on given issues. Citing Mondros and Wilson, Pyles 170
looks to four questions organizers may ask themselves as they consider their
work in a given campaign. What are the effects of the campaign in terms
of instrumental changes in the environment, leadership development,
an organizations resources and capabilities and, nally, increasing public
awareness of a given issue (p. 197). Here organizers ask whether they are 175
they asking the right questions and, if so, are they taking the right steps to
answer those questions. What is succeeding and what has produced limited
results? If results are positive, where and how have they been achieved?
Data are vital resources for a given organizing campaign, but it is essen-
tial to recognize that process counts in social movements. Social movements, 180
like social work itself, are supported by a paradigm framed in social justice,
which favors horizontal sharing of ideas and leadership, rather than a med-
ical model that favors a top-down approach to knowledge development
and dissemination. Social movements aim to democratize social knowledge.
So although organizers support evidence-based practice (EBP), they do so 185
with an eye to method procurement as well as philosophy. Interventions are
based on evidence and ndings from research, but many are quick to note
that social work is not medicine; it is not based on a medical model but
seeks to create knowledge in accordance with its own values. Pyles notes
that practitioners who work from a post-modernist perspective, as many 190
do in the eld, worry that the elds turn toward EBP emulates and even
repeats discourses that perpetuate social inequalities. Concepts, variables,
and methodologies are all a function of a meta-narrative about social work
and social change (p. 108). In this way, it reinforces aspirations for greater
central control. . . . It is consistent with attempts to manufacture a sense of 195
certainly in an increasingly uncertain world (Parton, 2007, p. 155, quoted
in Pyles, p. xx). With its emphasis on quantitative methods and statistics, the
Q3
voices of consumers and those most heavily impacted by distinct problems
nd their voices obfuscated or marginalized from the process in EBP.
One way to get away from this trend is to make use of the methods 200
of participatory action research (PAR). Just as Jane Addams looked to the
residents of Hull House to outline the problems and establish questions
about child labor issues, PAR suggests that those impacted by the problem
should be most involved in the ongoing challenge of generating questions
and supporting research efforts about their lives and the challenges they 205
face. With PAR, the process of asking questions and creating solutions is
taken out of the exclusive province of researchers and placed in the hands
of the regular people, who are challenged to generate questions about and
6 Book Review
solutions for their own lives. Such thinking supports research aimed not just
at social knowledge but also at social justice. Such knowledge is based on 210
information generated by rst-hand experience and life in the community.
Rather than repeat the well-worn path of positivist knowledge production,
which applies the lessons of the physical sciences in a social milieu, such a
model emphasizes dialogue among those with different kinds of knowledge.
Instead of the researchers observing, querying, and studying the research 215
subject, here community members work in collaboration with researchers as
questions are followed by data collection, action, analysis, and even more
questions (p. 109).
With the data and the clear task in mind, Pyles helps us navigate through
a world of mobilization and direct action. Pyles begins her discussion of 220
Tactics for Change with a lovely quote from movement scholar George
Katsiacas (2004, p. 8), who notes, Diversity of tactics, organizations, and
beliefs is one of the great strengths of autonomous social movements.
Anyone who has ever worked in a group that does not favor autonomy or a
respect for different approaches is quick to concur. When one walks into a 225
room and is told there only one way to get to the bottom of creating change
or creating results, spirits crash and conicts arise. Such a disposition usually
stems from a lack of appreciation for different kinds of community change.
Many of the best organizers I know favor a more exible approach to cre-
ating change. Here methods are linked with approaches and circumstances. 230
As many have pointed out, there is not much point in elevating one tactic
to the point of strategy. Strategy is used to think about the steps needed
to move a campaign forward. Various different types of tactics are neces-
sary to ignite a campaign with vitality and action. Sometimes those involved
with campaigns make use of an inside-outside strategy in which those at the 235
negotiating table are beneting from the work of activists on the street, and
vice versa. The point of organizing is to create change. To do so, activists
must access a sense of their own power. Pyles identies four types of power
available to create change: political/legislative; consumer; legal/regulatory;
and strike/disruptive (p. 126). By engaging in critical thinking and group 240
dialogue, organizers can identify the types of power for change that may lie
behind their issue and then consider the power mechanisms that are feasible
to pursue (p. 126). In recent years, particularly in the era of devolution and
corporate inuence on the federal government, policy advocacy on city and
state levels has become particularly important. 245
When looking at what is needed to mobilize so as to create change,
one particularly important strategy is to look to the strengths of a given
community. Here, organizers tap into one of the greatest assets in a given
neighborhood: its people, history, and culture. Different communities have
different strengths. For some, they are cultural; for others they have more 250
to do with social and nancial assets. Every community has them, whether
they are individuals, groups, networks, or associations. The challenge for
Book Review 7
organizers is to nd these assets. Instead of the needs-driven dead end
employed by many non-government organizations, Pyles looks to the work
of Kretzan and McNight (1997) to call for organizers and social workers 255
to search beyond a decit-based model, which sees people as problems
in need of social services, and look at communities in terms of negative
statistics such as unemployment. In this way, those organizing break down
the lines between expert and non-expert, focusing instead on alternatives
and agency, rather than on expert paradigms that exclude pathologies. 260
There are other ways to conceive of community life; people can still be
seen as active agents rather than as clients. The decit-based model views
community in terms of pathology and illness in need of correction; it leads to
fragmentation and a rejection or obfuscation of local knowledge or expertise,
shifting funding toward services as opposed to local leadership. Along the 265
way, communities have been invaded by and colonized by professionalized
services that have disempowered citizens and interfered with ways people
can engage one another (p. 129). But there is a way out of this dead end.
The alternative path, asset-based or capacity-focused community develop-
ment, can lead toward the development of policies and activities based on 270
the capacities, skills and assets of lower-income people, Pyles explains (p.
129). Wonderful things happen when regular people access their own power
and seek to create change in their own communities. A case in point is the
story of the community gardens in New York. This is just one of any number
of examples. The point is that when local people nd their voice, expres- 275
sion, and collective power, great things tend to take shape. The key to
neighborhood regeneration is to locate all the available local assets to begin
connecting them with one another in ways that multiply their power and
effectiveness and then to begin harnessing those local institutions that are
not yet available for local development purposes (p. 129). Much of this 280
process takes shape through the capacities of people involved in the current
moment, the agendas they create, and the networks of informal and formal
ties and relationships they bring to bear on the issues at hand (p. 130).
Through such networks, people gain access to their own collective
strength and power. And a campaign gains vitality. 285
Perhaps the driving force behind the work of such community projects
and campaigns is direct action. Direct action is an activity which counters
the normal ow of everyday society, notes Pyles (p. 130). There is an
old expression from the International Workers of the World: Direct Action
gets the Goods. People pay attention when people stand up for what they 290
believe in. Sometimes this process involves preguring what one wants with
the world. For housing activists, direct action may mean creating squats or
homesteads for people to live in, as people have done in New Orleans.
For community gardeners, it means planting more gardens. For Ghandi,
it meant creating salt. For environmental activists, it means creating more 295
non-polluting transportation such as more bike rides to and from work and
8 Book Review
play. For Rosa Parks, it meant sitting at the front of the bus, even in violation
of local laws or conventions. Activists who engage in direct action may be
initially marginalized by society and only later appreciated, notes Pyles
(p. 130). After her gesture of direct action, Parks found herself in jail. Today, 300
her image appears on a national postage stamp.
In a world of unjust laws, it is the moral person who ends up in jail,
argued Henry David Thoreau. More than a press release or a policy report,
direct action helps convey what is wrong or right with a given policy, usually
in a theatrical way, which creates media attention for a given issue. Yet it 305
must be part of a coordinated campaign. There are others who engaged in
civil disobedience around segregation and even busing. Bayard Rustin deed
the apartheid system of bus seating, attempting to sit at the front of a bus
years before Parks did it and was beaten, without the worlds knowing about
his action. Yet when Parks did so, her gesture of freedom was connected 310
with a well-coordinated campaign that propelled the action, so its message
reverberated, pushing the movement forward.
When thinking about direct action, Pyles suggests one consider four cri-
teria vis--vis a campaign. The rst consideration is the campaigns goals: will
a gesture of direct action move a campaign closer to its goals or set it back- 315
ward? Other considerations include organizational dynamics, constituents,
allies, opponents, targets, and tactics. Who is one going after, and why?
And if it is on the offensive, does the group have the capacity to pull off the
action in question? And what tactics should the group employ in their bag of
tricks? The process should include an analysis of the types of power mech- 320
anisms that are in play, such as consumer power or strike/disruptive power,
keeping in mind that targeting specic individuals can be very effective
(pp. 130131).
The purpose of a direct action is to engage in a gesture of freedom,
which may disrupt mechanisms of everyday living and power; the aim is 325
to create the kind of creative tension, which Martin Luther King suggested
was necessary to unsettle the status quo, waking up those in government to
think or behave in different ways. In some campaigns the goal is to compel
government to move. This is why there is such a strong link between direct
action and direct services for those in need. In other cases it may mean 330
bringing attention to a long dormant problem or case of government neglect
(p. 131).
For example, when the City of Chicago started back-peddling from
promises made to the Woodlawn Organization in Chicago, Saul Alinski pro-
posed that the group respond in kind. He suggested that the group use 335
some direct action to convey their sentiment about Mayor Daleys foot drag-
ging. In this case, he proposed a shit-in at OHare International Airport in
Chicago. The plan was for members of the group to occupy all the bath-
rooms, causing no small bit of chaos at the airport. When the mayors aides
got word of the action, they let the mayor know, and he conceded to most 340
Book Review 9
of the groups demands. Direct action does tend to get the goods, but only
when it is part of a well-coordinated campaign.
But perhaps the most important element of direct action is its capacity to
establish the afrmative in a campaign. Pyles suggests such gestures support
alternative forms of community and cultural development. While advocacy 345
within the system is one part of social change work, another part is to resist
oppressive structures and create new ways of doing things both socially and
culturally, she explains, listing examples, including consumer-run drop-
in centers in Philadelphia, organic farms in India, anarchist relief efforts
in post-Katrina New Orleans and peer-led support for battered women in 350
Thailand (p. 132). Such gestures create spaces where regular people come
together in their communities in a way that resists traditional social service
models and cultures of control, while creating what has been described as
communities of the heart, rather than mere institutions (p. 132).
One of the most important elements of a direct-action campaign is the 355
coordination of the actions with the groups message. Chapter eight of Pyles
study, Language Matters: Issues Framing and Communication, highlights
the importance of language and messaging. Much of the process, of course,
begins with stories, particularly those told from the point of view of the com-
munity in need. In telling those stories, regular members start to reconstruct 360
social reality from their own perspectives, histories, and points of view.
[R]eframing social issues is a fundamental element of any kind of social
change activity, Pyles argues. Developing critical thinking skills that can
facilitate a persons capacities to deconstruct narratives and rhetoric about
social issues . . . is a fundamental part of creating change. Much of this 365
begins with stories and messages. Reality is in the eye of the beholder,
post-modernists argue, with relativity theory and modern media in mind
to support their claim. Whether one is a social constructionist or not, lan-
guage still matters. Words are reality-creating machines. So the language
that one utilized in organizing work may be the most critical component 370
of community organizing practice, notes Pyles. Language frames issues
and communicates messages to constituents, targets, and the general public
(p. 114). It also informs how social problems and policies are dened, under-
stood and implemented. When homelessness is dened by social workers,
it is understood in terms of service provision; when it is dened in terms of 375
loitering, the result is usually a correctional solution involving jail time.
Countless social policies, from welfare (personal responsibility and
work opportunity) to tax policy, are framed with similar conicts in terms
of language and policy. Citing linguist George Lakoff, Pyles notes that con-
servative think-tanks have spent more than $3 billion since 1970 to inuence 380
social policies and the ways people understand them. Part of this messaging
involves the framing of social issues. Lakoff argues that conservatives win
with their approach to framing issues around family and values. In this way,
they generate support even when the data and political support for issues
10 Book Review
such as global warming appear to be on the progressive side of things. For 385
this reason conservatives frame issues using feel-good terms such as health,
clean and safe, terms favorable to their interests and stakeholders (p. 115).
Hence the support for the 2003 Clean Skies Act, which gained support even
though it proposed to increase pollution. For this reason, Pyles cautions that
activists challenge Orwellian uses of language that turn the meanings of poli- 390
cies on their heads, supporting the opposite of what they appear to mean.
Part of the goal of social activism is to subvert many of these predominant
paradigms. Rather than prostitution advocates favor the term sex work;
instead of promiscuous, sexual civil liberties activists favor the term sex-
ual generous. Hence the global-justice chant Unemployment and ination 395
are not the result of immigration. Stop it! Get off it, the real problem is
prot! This statement reframes immigration policy, removing it from indi-
vidual stigma toward a more systemic understating. This is what is meant
by break the frame, explains Pyles. Once the old frame was broken, par-
ticipants constructed a new frame to explain events . . . these reframing 400
acts are the rst steps in calling attention to injustice and as a prelude to
collective action (p. 114). Framing acts should be strategic, with an eye
toward a larger social change agenda with attention to potential coalition-
building opportunities, Pyles argues. This can be facilitated by developing
an understanding of social problems as interconnected rather than sepa- 405
rate, isolated problems, (p. 114). Hence the impulse toward multi-issue
organizing witnessed in the new social movements.
Although direct action and framing are vital, a long-term approach to
organizing must involve both short-term and long-term legal solutions and
strategies. In this way, organizers collaborate with researchers and legal 410
minds. For organizers, much of the process begins with research and con-
sumer advocacy. Such an approach is based in both legal scholarship and
a sleuthlike approach to getting information when little was available or
immediately available. In order to become the hero/pain-in-the-ass of an
environmental saga, it is only necessary to be obsessive, compulsive, and 415
workaholic, to have the instincts of a trained investigator, the dispossession
of a trained bloodhound, and the skill of a research librarian; here Pyles
quotes Ivans and Dubose (p. 129). Combining plodding research and inves-
tigation with gonzo activism . . . part Ralph Nader and part Abbie Hoffman
(p. 129). 420
Finally, most campaigners need a little fun to sustain themselves. Pyles
is sufciently astute to highlight the importance of joy in the process of social
change. The reasons for this are many. Sometimes social change work can
appear quite lineargetting funding, identifying issues, developing a tactical
plan, engaging in actions, evaluating actions, and then onto the next issue, 425
the author warns. This approach can unfortunately block out creative and
innovative issues that can inuence organizing. Thus, making space for art
and creativity in social change work is very important (p. 24). To support
Book Review 11
her claim, Pyles astutely highlights the work of activists who have integrated
play and culture into their organizing efforts: This creativity and joy has 430
been a hallmark of organizing in post-Katrina New Orleans (p. 24). It is part
of organizing around the world. The play helps connect hearts and minds,
while injecting a pulse into often docile or occasionally cynical bodies. The
utility of Pyless work is to highlight such contributions and rambunctious
realities of organizing even in the darkest of spaces and the most tragicomic 435
of circumstances.
If you read one book on organizing this year, I would recommend
that you consider Pyless pulsing work. Putting the social back into social
work, the book helps us understand the joy of creating a better world while
connecting local organizing with global forces and movements to create 440
change around the world.
Benjamin Shepard, PhD, LMSW
Assistant Professor of Human Service
New York College of Technology/City University of New York
Brooklyn, NY, USA 445