Conflicting Logics of Social Change: Community Organizing vs/and Civil Resistance (original) (raw)

2022

Abstract

Throughout history, groups have sought to “empower” themselves collectively to resist oppression (or what they experience as oppressive) in myriad ways. They have grounded their different approaches in a wide range of different conceptions of power and empowerment. In this chapter I focus on two especially prominent traditions of collective action in the United States, community organizing and civil resistance (the latter also called social movements), that embody different bundles of concepts and practices that fit together in a coherent vision about how different visions of how people can come together in solidarity contest injustice. These two traditions are helpful to compare and contrast because although both use collective action and conflict to produce social change, each frames what they are doing in very different ways, looking to their own foundational texts and experiences. While proponents of each tradition have critiqued the other, both sides have a lot to learn from each other. Understanding these divergent conceptions of power, action, and social change can foster creativity and unsettle simple convictions, allowing scholars and actors to view their own practices and commitments from an alien and yet complementary perspective.

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