Black Power At Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry

{Excerpt} As the contributors to this book show, confrontations with the building trades unions became a critical axis for the rise of Black Power and community control politics, and provide a means for us to rethink the history of Black Power through the fusion by the movement of community control and labor organizing. By tracing the evolution of these activists\u27 organizing methods and analysis, we show that African American grassroots struggles to desegregate the construction industry provided a major, and in some cities the, means through which Black Power movements became ascendant in African American urban politics. Only through close attention to local politics are these profound cultural and political shifts visible. Because of their decentralized quality, the movements for community control of the construction industry varied by city, based on the idiosyncratic nature of the specific African American communities and political networks from which they emerged. These differences were accentuated by weak federal enforcement of affirmative action plans, which relied on a strategy of localism that placed the origin, evolution, and fate of construction industry affirmative action plans primarily in the hands of local actors and courts

Living with Privatization: At Work and in the Community

Jerry L. Marshaw moderates this panel discussion with Cathlin Baker, Sheryll D. Cashin, John D. Donahue, Hon. Floyd Flake, Eugene W. Harper Jr. and Kerry Korpi

The Re-invention of Sociology of Community

In today’s society the term ‘Community’ is frequently used. Politicians, religious leaders, policy makers and the media are repeatedly utilizing the concept to describe a particular scenario. Traditionally, sociologists have been fascinated with community, within a theoretical and geographical context. At the centre of the community is the debate of how external agencies work with the local community and how social policy can work at a local level. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the debate around community and how the subject has re-established itself within the discipline of sociology. To justify the arguments surrounding the Sociology of Community the author uses a case study of The United Kingdom

Beckettian pain, in the flesh: singularity, community and 'the work'

This essay argues that the representation of pain in Beckett’s writing exposes the paradox in his work concerning the relationship of the individual suffering subject and the community. Making reference to studies of pain and literature generally and to salient studies of Beckett, the essay shows how the narration of pain in Beckett’s prose works in particular is closely linked to its more general interrogation of subject-object relations. As the preeminent agent, source as well as repository of pain, writing in Beckett itself comes to occupy, in a transpositional manner, the poles of subject, object and work. If ‘pain’ names the subject-object continuum (and thus a community of subject and object), that very conjunction exposes the co-habitants to their own mutual espacement – qua subject and object. The common feeling (of pain, of pains at each of the poles) is countermanded in advance by separation. The conjunction gives rise to a sapping, devastating and agonising attempt to conjure an image (of and as the object), an image which holds out the possibility of the felicity, or at least palliation, offered by community (and the work). The image is, however, both a wounding regime (which impedes utterance) and a generative regime (in that the thwarting of utterance restores the compulsion to continue to attempt to conjure the image through writing). The two components, pain and community, are illustrated with specific reference to Texts for Nothing, through an analysis of which a new conjuncture of the themes of pain, community and the role of the work of art is proposed

Faculty perspectives on rewards and incentives for community-engaged work: A multinational exploratory study

Universities around the world are grappling with the challenge of how to best recognise and support community-engaged teaching, research and scholarship. The status quo reveals two major problems: many faculty members express the sentiment that such work is often discounted, and there is a dearth of available information on faculty perspectives at non-US, especially non-Western, institutions. Understanding faculty needs and perceptions may help institutions improve reward systems and community research and engagement. Also, filling the information gap between the Global North and Global South may help policy-makers and educators make higher education more civically engaged and socially responsible. As a global coalition of universities moving beyond the ivory tower, the Talloires Network (TN) is uniquely positioned to provide support for and conduct research on community-engaged work. To better understand engaged faculty attitudes about rewards and incentives, TN launched a pilot survey involving 14 institutions in 11 countries. All of these institutions are members of TN, an international association of 368 institutions in 77 countries committed to strengthening civic engagement. Thirty-eight respondents were chosen based on diverse recruiting requirements. This exploratory study highlights some common opinions about what kind of faculty work is encouraged; whether institutional policies regarding engaged work exist; and how community-engaged work is perceived by colleagues. More importantly, this study contributes to the design and administration of larger surveys on community-engaged work

Operating and Managing Street Outreach Services

Increasingly, cities have added street outreach to the mix of strategies used in comprehensive gang reduction efforts, drawing upon mounting evidence of impact. Street outreach relies on street workers to support and advocate on behalf of gang members, or those at high risk of joining gang, to change behavior patterns and link them to needed services and institutions. Street outreach workers work day and night to link marginalized and hard-to-serve individuals in communities with high levels of gang activity to social services, and play an important role in diffusing and stopping violence (Decker, Bynum, McDevitt, Farrell, & Varano, 2008; Spergel, 1966; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP], 2002). These workers reach out to targeted community members at their homes, community events, on street corners, in parks, and in any neighborhood spaces where community members in gangs or at risk of joining gangs spend time (OJJDP, 2002, p. 54). Outreach workers often possess intimate familiarity with the communities in which they work. Their knowledge and skills allow them to work with individuals whom traditional service providers cannot access or support. California Cities Gang Prevention Network cities (the Network or CCGPN) note that street outreach services are an important piece of their cities' primary intervention strategies, with ties to prevention and enforcement. This bulletin identifies ways outreach programs can strategically support, care for, and hire outreach workers

Jolly Good Fellows

Two recent graduates, who received prestigious national fellowships, are following in Professor Stan Herr\u27s footsteps. Their work at the Maryland Disability Law Center will benefit Baltimore\u27s handicapped community

Graduating a Community of Civic Scholars

From committing to service on their first day as students to a deep dive into community-engaged work and real-world research projects, the Class of 2018 embodies civic scholarship at RWU

As Civic Scholars, RWU Graduates Ready to Change the World

From committing to service on their first day as students to a deep dive into community-engaged work and real-world research projects, the Class of 2019 embodies civic scholarship at RWU