1. Creative Commons Attribution License
This presentation and the accompanying notes were created by Hannah Jones during an undergraduate student internship (Summer 2015) jointly funded by the University of Exeter and Anglo American PLC. They are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. You are free to:
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2. Definition, History and theory
Community Organising
Definition, History and theory

3. What is Community Organising?
Four important things to consider:
How can we define Community Organising? What does it involve?
How did Community Organising start?
What theories or beliefs are important in Community Organising?
How is it useful and important?

4. How can we define Community Organising?
What is it?
Focus on people and how communities can engage in social change
Individuals uniting to build power, tackle issues, seek solutions and celebrate positives that directly affect their community
United by their shared community and common causes
“Grassroots” change – it does not rely on those with existing status or power, but rather creating change from local, ordinary people with a desire to make a difference

5. How can we define Community Organising?
What is it not?
Rallying, activism or protesting without an ultimate aim or a plan for making a difference
It is not exclusive to any one group of people, it is not closed to those who are often marginalised or left out of decision making
It is not community development, which does not focus on the realistic understanding of a necessary power shift for change to occur

6. How can we define Community Organising?
How does the process work?
A Community Organiser begins outreach in the community
The Organiser has meaningful conversations with those they meet about what really concerns them or what they love about their community
Relationships are built, founded on listening and trust
The Organiser may identify a common cause which could unite the individuals they have met, whether they want to set up a new project, fundraise or have their concerns heard over decisions being made in their community
The Organiser encourages these people to meet together, unify and to spend time approaching decision-makers in the community in order to achieve solutions to their issues or to ensure the good aspects in their locality remain good. This is the beginning of social change – to be heard and noticed.

7. How did Community Organising start?
The term “Community Organiser” was coined by Saul Alinsky in 1946
Began neighbourhood work in Chicago, working to unify those with little in common, and often hostile to each other
Wrote “Reveille for Radicals” in 1946, and “Rules for Radicals” in 1971
“Rules for Radicals” outlined his model for Community Organising, which involved unorthodox methods.
Focus on nonviolent conflict, “direct action” and targeting “enemies”
Radical view but still has much to teach us
Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr followed his career path and became Organisers

8. What principles, theories or beliefs are important in Community Organising?
Anyone has the ability to make a difference, regardless of their status
Everyone has something they can contribute
People are often best motivated by issues which concern or affect them
The Community Organiser is not “in charge” of the group, but rather the group must lead itself and the Organiser supports their action
Positivity mobilises people just as much as negativity does
People who have given their time and efforts should be celebrated even if the outcome they are hoping for does not come to fruition

9. How is it useful and important?
Social change
Challenging decisions made by those of importance in self-interest
Community Organising is a model about action, finding solutions
Inclusive model
Challenging injustice

10. Further material
On the principles of Community Organising: Si Kahn - Creative Community Organising, (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010) On the work of Saul Alinsky: Alinsky, Saul D. - Reveille for Radicals (1946), (New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1989) Alinsky, Saul D. – Rules for Radicals (1971), (New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1989) Seal, Mike – Saul Alinsky, Community Organizing and Rules for Radicals, accessed at

11. Further material
On contemporary Community Organising: - A government funded programme in England training up Community Organisers and creating social and political change Beck, David & Purcell, Rod – International Community Organising, (Bristol: Policy Press, 2013) - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) International is “a federation of member-based community organizations that is active in Canada, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, India, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, South Korea, Czech Republic and Italy with partners in the Philippines and emerging affiliates in Trinidad & Tobago”.

12. Thank you for listening
Community Organising - Definition, History and theory