Community Organizing in Britain: The Political Engagement of Faith–Based Social Capital

Abstract

Faith-based community organizing in the United States has emerged as one of the most effective ways to rebuild democratic life in urban communities. Scholars have argued that the success of modern community organizing lies in its ability to engage the social capital embedded in religious congregations. I examine this claim through a comparatively set case study of the effort to apply an American community organizing strategy in Britain. Using interviews, observations, and documentary sources, I analyze the experience of the British Citizens Organizing Foundation (COF), which is affiliated to the U.S.-based Industrial Areas Foundation. I find that the COF has attained more national influence than its American counterpart, but its local foundations remain much weaker. The relative weakness of faith-based social capital in Britain only partly explains this result. The orientations of religious institutions toward political engagement also matter, and so does the relative power of local versus national political institutions. I argue for bringing a more institutional approach to our theoretical understanding of community organizing and of the role of social capital in revitalizing democratic life more broadly.Faith-based community organizing has become recognized as an effective way to generate political participation and empower low-income communities of color in the United States (Warren, 2001;Wood, 2002). This American style organizing strategy is beginning to be tried outside of the United States, in places like Germany, South Africa, Central America, and Canada. Most of these efforts are quite young and have not been the subject of research. 1 In this article I present a case study of the longest running of such experiments, that is, the organizing efforts of the Citizens Organising Foundation (COF) in Britain, which started in the late 1980s. I set out to discover how an American organizing strategy has worked in the very different social and political context of Britain. As I show in this article, a comparative case study can yield important lessons for our understanding of community organizing and of the political engagement of faith-based social capital more broadly.

Local Community Organizers and Activists Encountering Globalization: An Exploratory Study of their Perceptions and Adaptations

“…These are needed not only in global cities, (those with agglomerations of producer services and foreign direct investment) (Aneesh, 2012; Sassen, 2001), but also in cities and regions that do not house the command and control functions of the global economy (e.g., Hodos, 2002; Lloyd & Christens, 2012). Studies on globalization's impact on different forms of political action across national boundaries are needed (Flanagan, Martínez, & Cumsille, 2011) as are studies of models for local action that are transplanted to different countries (Warren, 2009). In addition, further study is needed on globalization's impacts on ideology (Nafstad, Blakar, Carlquist, Phelps, & Rand‐Hendrickse, 2009), particularly among younger generations coming of age in a globalized world (Flanagan & Christens, 2011; Jensen & Arnett, 2012).…”

The Organizational Context of Faith-Based Community Organizing: Effects on Member Civic Engagement

“…The process of FBCO builds grassroots networks of citizens and organizations in an effort to increase social capital (i.e., relationship connections within and between social networks) (Bourdieu, 1985;Coleman, 1988), build power out of the voluntary sector (Smock, 2004;Speer et al, 2003;Warren, 2001;Wood, 2002), and make social change at the local (Keating, Krumholz, & Star, 1996;Slessarev-Jamir, 2004), regional (Kleidman, 2004), state, and more recently, national (Warren, 2009) levels. Congregations involved in FBCO are engaged in processes of outreach aimed at improving their communities.…”

A Movement’s Legacy: Southern Echo and the Continued Struggle for Racial Justice in the Delta

“…Context clearly matters, yet it is less clear why and how (Alinsky 1969;Warren and Mapp 2011). A small body of research has begun to identify and explore the variety of contextual factors that can shape organizing efforts (Stall and Stoecker 1998;Warren 2009;Warren and Mapp 2011): demographics, economic and social conditions, or a particular organizing philosophy. This work suggests that historical context, as a dimension underlying all of these other contextual elements, might also influence organizing efforts: how a group understands its local historical context-and understands this context as evolving and enduring-will probably shape both the issues it addresses and the strategies it adopts.…”