La guerre contre la pauvreté : de la pornographie politique

Ce texte inédit en français de Saul Alinsky et publié en 1965 s'insère dans le contexte de la « guerre contre la pauvreté » menée par Lyndon Johnson aux États-Unis dès 1964. Cette politique, souvent considérée comme progressiste car étendant le champ de l'État social au travers de la création d'importants programmes de protection sociale, sera pourtant l'objet d'une critique acerbe d'Alinsky. En effet, l'organisateur critique les effets d'une politique qui est essentiellement pensée « par le haut » sans une réflexion sur les conditions dans lesquelles les pauvres reçoivent les politiques sociales. Il ouvre ainsi une réflexion stimulante sur les conditions de possibilité des politiques sociales.This text of Saul Alinsky never before published in french was first printed in 1965 during the famous “war on poverty” led by of Lyndon Johnson since 1964. If this famous program is mainly considered as a progress for his expansion of the welfare state, it will be strongly criticized by Alinsky. In his view, this policy is exclusively thought “top-down” without any consideration for the way it is implemented on the poor. The work of Alinsky is here a stimulating discussion on the condition for a social policy to succeed

Training teachers for and through citizenship : learning from citizenship experiences

This article illustrates how one university-based initial teacher education (ITE) course sought to develop links with civil society organisations to develop meaningful active citizenship education. The purpose of the project was to enhance citizenship education for ITE students preparing to become secondary school teachers. The article discusses recent developments in theorising teacher education 3.0 to ensure teachers are empowered to engage with a wide range of social and political challenges affecting young people and their communities. It then describes a small project that involved university staff and students in a local community organising project, bringing together a range of local community groups to work together for social justice. The article explores how student teachers working within that community organising group developed an increasingly politicised view of their role—as public sector workers in a politicised policy landscape; as potential agents for the promotion of democracy; and as political actors in their own right. The article concludes that these insights into practice illustrate the potential for a broader conception of teacher education, involving civil society partners beyond schools and universitie

Organising migrant workers: the living wage campaign at the University of East London

This critical case study looks at the campaign led by Citizens UK and Unison to get the University of East London (UEL) to sign up to the London Living wage (LLW). UEL agreed to pay the LLW after a brief campaign in November 2010 and it was subsequently implemented in August 2011. The study charts the course of the campaign and draws on mobilisation theory and new primary research to account for its success. What our findings suggest is that community organisers and union activists were able to organise and mobilise a largely apolitical group of migrant workers. This, we suggest, can be explained by the successful mobilisation of the community and augurs well for future broad-based campaigns

Abortion in the United States' bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment

Over the last 30 years, conservative power in the United States, financed and organized by Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church, and conservative corporate and political leadership, has become more threatening and potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political, financial and social forces are arrayed against women in many Southern and Western states. They are having destructive effects on women's ability to control their fertility and maintain bodily integrity and health. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. Strategically developed interventions must be initiated and managed at every level in these localities. It is urgent to coordinate and empower individuals, multiple organizations and communities to engender effective changes in attitudes, norms, behavior and policies that will enable women to obtain reproductive health services, including abortion care. This paper describes contextual factors that continue to decimate U.S. women's right to health and, then, describes a community organizing-social action project in a number of US' states aimed at reversing the erosion of women's right to have or not to have children

Preentry issues in consultation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44078/1/10464_2004_Article_BF00880998.pd

Elucidating the Power in Empowerment and the Participation in Participatory Action Research: A Story About Research Team and Elementary School Change

Community psychologists are increasingly using Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a way to promote social justice by creating conditions that foster empowerment. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences between the power structure that PAR advocates and the local community power structures. This paper seeks to evaluate the level of participation in a PAR project for multiple stakeholder groups, determine how PAR was adjusted to better fit community norms, and whether our research team was able to facilitate the emergence of PAR by adopting an approach that was relevant to the existing power relations. We conclude that power differences should not be seen as roadblocks to participation, but rather as moments of opportunity for the researchers to refine their methods and for the community and the community psychologist to challenge existing power structures