ABSTRACT
In the first part of this book I told the story of community organizing on both sides of the Atlantic, explored its core values and methodology and the role that faith groups play within broad-based community organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom. I have suggested that community organizing can benefit from the development of a more constructive relationship with broader models of political activism and, in particular, social movement politics. I now want to build on this foundation in order to establish a dialogue between the practice of community organizing and social and political theory. Over the last decade, Citizens UK has forged strategic relationships with the social geographer Jane Wills and the political theologian Luke Bretherton. This dialogue needs to be broadened. Consequently, in this chapter I bring community organizing into a critical dialogue with a wider range of debates and ideas, thereby building a more solid foundation for the ‘new politics’ it is forging. This discussion will revolve around analyses of six key themes:
Social space and third space thinking
The public sphere and the political turn to civil society
Faith in the public square
The cultural politics of difference
Social and religious capital
The role of the ‘intellectual’ community organizer within struggles for social justice
