Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy (Paperback)

~ (Author), Kim Klein (Series Editor) "If we are to shift power, our organizing has to be grounded in a clear and common understanding of how the world works..." (more)
Key Phrases: most community organizations, living wage ordinance, tactical allies, Working Partnerships, Workplace Project, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book offers more than simply a best practice manual for community activism and social organizing." (Feminist Academic Press Column, May 2003)

Product Description

Stir It Up — written by renowned activist and trainer Rinku Sen— identifies the key priorities and strategies that can help advance the mission of any social change group. This groundbreaking book addresses the unique challenges and opportunities the new global economy poses for activist groups and provides concrete guidance for community organizations of all orientations.
Sponsored by the Ms. Foundation, Stir It Up draws on lessons learned from Sen's groundbreaking work with women's groups organizing for economic justice. Throughout the book, Sen walks readers through the steps of building and mobilizing a constituency and implementing key strategies that can effect social change. The book is filled with illustrative case studies that highlight best organizing practices in action and each chapter contains tools that can help groups tailor Sen's model for their own organizational needs. Stir It Up will show your organization how to

• Design and conduct actions that further campaign goals
• Develop effective leaders
• Build strong alliances and networks
• Generate and use solid research
• Design an effective media strategy
• Put in place a plan for internal political education and consciousness-raising

With the information, tools, and suggestions outlined in this book your organization can use your "good idea" to change the world.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787965332
• ISBN-13: 978-0787965334
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #217,603 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must-have book for social change organizers!, June 8, 2003

By	James Mumm (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Given the critical importance of social change today, it is stunning that most of the recent books on community organizing focus on personal reflections and sociological analyses instead of giving us the whole package. In "Stir It Up," Rinku Sen manages to squeeze a powerful vision, racial and social justice analysis, profiles of organizing groups, a detailed contact list of organizations and networks, and tools for creating real change into two hundred pages. This is a watershed book for the social justice organizing movement, illuminating the principles and practices that ground multi-racial, social justice, racial justice, and direct action organizations that have developed in the past twenty-five years.

If you are serious about systemic change that addresses the root causes of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia, then this book offers you a framework and process for creating real change. Sections of the book go through the identification and selection of issues using a social justic lens, working with emerging constituencies, running campaigns and taking action, research, and, most critically, framing our struggles and organizations to address systemic oppression. Readers will get a clear sense of the unrelenting human movement toward freedom through profiles of extraordinary groups that continue to win both concrete change and a reordering of power in our society. Kudos to Rinku Sen for taking the time to describe the growth, development, and work of the racial and social justice movement to the world!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensible manual for social change today, January 7, 2004

By A Customer

This book, full of anecdotes from successful community organizations, is chockful of helpful advice, whether you're part of an organization seeking social change, or you are an individual interested in how people are effecting change in today's political climate. The worksheets on campaign planning and the chapter on media are particularly helpful. I highly recommend it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Puttin' the Active Back in Activism, March 10, 2003

By	Jess (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Passion & pragmatism don't always come together in community organzing -- kudos to Ms. Sen for showing us how to balance the two! I'm so glad that someone has finally written a comprehensive book on the strategy & practice of organizing...considering where our nation is headed, this comes not a moment too soon.