About The Book
Conventionally, analysts of social change perceive Organizational initiatives in binary terms: projects are seen as being either top-down or bottom-up; local culture is seen as being either modern or traditional. Challenging this restrictive dualism, this important book argues that social change emerges in a nonlinear, circuitous, and dialectic process of struggle. In support of their approach, the authors :
1. Identify four dialectic tensions as being central to the process of organizing for social change: control and emancipation, oppression and empowerment, dissemination and dialogue, and fragmentation and unity
2. Argue for a dialectic approach which acknowledges that contradictory tensions can and do co-exist (for example, a project can control beneficiaries with tough conditionalities even as it emancipates them)
3. Draw upon cases set in various contexts-social justice, academic, corporate, artistic, and others-from both developing and developed countries.
About the Author
Michael J. Papa is Professor and Chair, Department of Speech Communication and Dramatic Arts, Central Michigan University, U.S.A.
Arvind Singhal is Professor and Presidential Research Scholar, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, U.S.A.
Wendy H. Papa is Associate Professor, Department of Speech Communication and Dramatic Arts, Central Michigan University, U.S.A. Cover Design : Bharati Mirchandani
Contents
I. A DIALECTIC APPROACH TO ORGANIZING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE :
1. Organizing for Social Change :
i. What is Organizing?
Box 1 : Organizing a Holiday Feast
ii. Organizing for What Purpose
Box 2 : Stickball in the Bronx : Playing as Organizing
2. Dialectical Tensions :
Box 3 : Leonardo da Vinci : Embracing Dialectics
i. Dualisms versus Dialectics
ii. Elements of Dialectics
iii. A Short History of the Dialectical Perspective
iv. Dialectics and Social Change
3. Contexts of Organizing for Social Change :
i. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh
ii. Dairy Cooperatives of India's National Dairy Development Board
iii. Entertainment-Education and Community Organizing in India
iv. Community Suppers in Appalachia, U.S.A.
4. Dialectics in Social Change Processes :
i. Dialectic of Control and Emancipation
ii. Dialectic of Oppression and Empowerment
iii. Dialectic of Dissemination and Dialogue
iv. Dialectic of Fragmentation and Unity
Box 4 : An Adhesive that Does not Stick
Conclusions
Notes
II. DIALECTIC OF CONTROL AND EMANCIPATION IN BANGLADESH'S GRAMEEN Bank :
Box 1 : Muhammad Yunus : The Poor Man's Banker
1. Grameen Bank : Organizing the Poor for Social Change :
Box 2 : Global Moneylenders
2. Theory of Concertive Control :
i. Empowerment in Organizations
ii. Identification in Organizations
iii. Disciplinary Techniques in Organizations
Box 3 : Concertive Control in Academia
iv. Rationale for Studying Concertive Control in the Grameen Bank
3. Methods of Data-Collection :
i. Analyzing Data
4. Dialectic of Control and Emancipation in the Grameen Bank :
i. Concertive Control among Grameen Bank Workers :
a. The Team Metaphor and Identification
Box 4 : Atiquar Rahman : Unquestioned Dedication
b. Worker Empowerment
Box 5 : Muhammad Sarhar : Self-imposed Pressure
c. Paradox of Sociality and Control
d. Worker Discipline
ii. Concertive Control among Grameen Bank Members :
a. Mutual Accountability, Identification, and Control
Box 6 : Shokhina and Rehana : Peer Pressure in Action Relief from Oppression
b. Paradoxes of Representation, Identification, and Control
c. Member Discipline
Box 7 : The Grameen Social Change Conglomerate
Conclusions
Notes
III. DIALECTIC OF OPPRESSION AND EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA'S DAIRY COOPERATIVES :
1. Social Change through Dairy Cooperatives in India :
Box 1 : Verghese Kurien, India's Dudhwalla
i. NDDB's Programs for Empowering Women Dairy Fanners
2. Theoretical Framing of Communicative Empowerment :
i. Interaction and Empowerment
ii. Democracy, Cooperatives, and Empowerment
iii. Power and Resistance
iv. Empowerment through Dialogue
Box 2 : India's Women : How Equal?
3. Feminist Perspectives on Empowerment :
i. Cooperative Enactment, Integrative Thinking, and Connectedness
Box 3 : Cabot Creamery in Vermont : Cooperative Enactment beyond Dairying
ii. Hegemony, Domination, and Resistance
4. Data Collection through Interviews
5. The Oppression and Empowerment of Women Dairy Farmers in India :
i. Women Dairy Farmers' Empowerment as a Communication Process :
a. Communication and Health
b. Family Decision-Making and Task Allocation
c. Communicative Dynamics of Economic Empowerment
ii. Women Dairy Farmers' Unity and Organizing Activities :
a. Women Connecting with One Another
b. Women Helping One Another
c. Forming Women's Clubs
d. Collective Action
iii. Women Dairy Farmers' Empowerment in Democratic Processes :
a. Making Decisions in Groups and Families
b. Hegemony, Power, and Resistance
iv. Dialectic of Oppression and Empowerment among Women Dairy Farmers :
a. The Simultaneous Experience of Empowerment and Oppression
b. Paradox and Contradiction in Social Change
c. The Compatibility Paradox
d. Internalizing a Belief of Incompetence
e. Paradox of Design
Box 4 : The Mondragon Cooperative Corporation
Conclusions
Notes
IV. DIALECTIC OF DISSEMINATION AND Dialogue IN Rural INDIA :
Box 1 : Martin Luther King Jr. 's "I Have a Dream " Speech
1. Dissemination and Dialogue :
i. Characteristics of Dissemination and Dialogue
ii. Dissemination and Dialogue in Mass-Mediated Contexts
iii. Dissemination and Dialogue in Small Group Contexts
2. Dialogic Action in Social Change :
Box 2 : Paulo Freire : A Believer in Dialogue
3. Entertainment-Education and Social Change :
i. Disseminating Models, Sparking Community Action
4. The Taru Project in India :
i. Historical Background : From Tinka to Thru
ii. On-Air and On-Ground Interventions
iii. Tarn's, Story
iv. Researching Taru
5. The Dialectic of Dissemination and Dialogue in Taru :
i. Parasocial Interaction and Modeling in Taru
ii. Dialogue and Conversations
iii. Collective Efficacy and Actions Stimulated through Dialogue
iv. The Reflexive Turn from Dialogue to Dissemination
v. Power, Resistance, and Paradoxical Behaviors
Box 3 : Minga Peru : Dissemination and Dialogue in the Amazonian Rainforest
Conclusions
Notes
V. DIALECTIC OF FRAGMENTATION AND UNITY IN RURAL APPALACHIA :
1. Poverty, Hunger, and Homelessness in America :
i. Hunger in America
Box 1 : Micky Weiss and Food Recovery
ii. Homelessness in America
Box 2 : Barbara Ehrenreich : On Not Getting by in America
2. Fragmentation and Unity in Organizing the Poor :
i. Community
ii. Fragmentation
iii. Unity
3. Our Research Site and Data :
i. Interviews and Informal Conversations
ii. Good Works' Community Suppers
Box 3 : Keith Washerman and Good Works
4. The Dialectic of Fragmentation and Unity in Community Suppers :
i. Communication and Unity
ii. Selfless Service and Unity
iii. Spirituality and Unity
iv. Reconnecting the Isolated
v. Building Networks of Support among the Homeless
Box 4 : Street Wise : Empowering the Homeless in Chicago
5. Communication and Fragmentation :
i. Communication and Disconnection
ii. Communication and Disconsolation
Box 5 : Fragmentation and Unity in Soup Kitchens
Conclusions
Notes
VI. A DIALECTIC JOURNEY OF THEORY AND PRAXIS :
1. Co-Existing Dialectics in the Grameen Bank
2. Organizing in Complex Social Systems :
i. Mutual Causality : Negotiating Peace or Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease
ii. The Butterfly Effect : Hunterdon Medical Center
iii. Valuing Outliers : Positive Deviance in Vietnam
iv. Celebrating Paradox : Posing Wicked Questions, Managing Polarity
3. Implications for Praxis :
i. Re-framing Freire : Viewing Deposits as Investments
ii. Amplifying Discourses of Dignity
Box 1 : Rush Limbaugh : Promoting Hypocrisy and Denying Dignity
iii. Centering Struggle as Necessary to Social Change
iv. Creating Spaces and Opportunities for Dialogue
Box 2 : Safe Comfortable Spaces to Reduce Aids Stigma
v. Introducing Counter Narratives
vi. Putting the Last First
Box 3 : Whose Reality Counts in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala?
Conclusions
Notes
List of Plates
1.1. Kolkata's commercial sex workers organize for social change
1.2. A flock of geese flying in a V-formation provides important lessons for collective organizing
1.3. The practice of purdah is empowering and oppressing for Rajasthani village women in India
2.1. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, at a United Nations event in New York
2.2. Grameen Bank members chanting the Sixteen Decisions during their weekly center meetings
2.3. A Village Telephone Lady in Chaklagram village of Bangladesh with other village women
3.1. Women dairy farmers in Mamtori-Kalan village, Rajasthan line up to pour milk at an all-women dairy cooperative society
3.2. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri inaugurating the cattle-feed factory in Kanjari, near Anand in 1964
3.3. Women in India carry out 85 percent of the dairying work but constitute only 25 percent of the membership in dairy cooperative societies
3.4. NDDB instructors carry out village-based empowerment training programs for women dairy farmers in the Kolhapur Milk Union
3.5. Men in rural India enjoy special privileges in a system steeped in patriarchy
3.6. None of these women dairy farmers in Rajasthan have undergone the women's empowerment program of the NDDB
3.7. Only one of these women dairy farmers in Rajasthan has undergone the women's empowerment program of the NDDB
4.1. Sunita Singh, the wife of rural health practitioner Shailendra Singh, facilitating an adult literacy class for lower-caste women in Kamtaul village
4.2. Shailendra Singh, rural health practitioner in Kamtaul village, standing next to a Taru poster
4.3. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire championed a dialogic approach to social change
4.4. Inspired by modeled behavior on Soul City, women of Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, South Africa, march down Matthew Goniwe Street, banging pots and pans to demonstrate how they stop domestic violence in their community
4.5. A Janani-trained husband-wife team of rural health providers
4.6. Young women members of the Taru listening group in Abirpur village of India's Bihar State
4.7. Thru listening club members engage in dialogue to develop the scripts of the participatory theater performances
4.8. Audience members "respond" to the performers "call" during a Taru participatory theater performance in Chandrahatti village, Bihar
5.1. Men line up outside a soup kitchen in Chicago during the Great Depression of the 1930s
5.2. Keith Wasserman, founder of Good Works with "Kermit the Frog" during a 2005 Friday Night Community Supper in Appalachian Ohio
5.3. The Good Works Friday Night Community Supper creates a comfortable space for the poor and the homeless to connect with other community members
5.4. Street Wise vendors in Chicago proudly holding their newspaper while donning their organization's sweatshirts and hats
6.1. Jerry Sternin with a Vietnamese community elder who strongly supported the positive deviance nutrition program in his village
6.2. Monique sternin and health volunteers create a nutritious meal based on foods used by positive deviants in Quang Vong, Vietnam, 1995
6.3. Mahatma Gandhi, wearing his hand-spun Khadi loin cloth, sitting behind his spinning wheel
6.4. Dr. Carroll Behrhorst treating a Mayan Indian child in Chimaltenango, Guatemala
List of Tables
1.1. The dialectics of romance in Smokey Robinson's song
2.1. The Sixteen Decisions representing the Social Welfare Constitution of the Grameen Bank
2.2. Grameen Bank's reach and impact in Bangladesh
2.3. The Grameen social change conglomerate
2.4. Dimensions of control and emancipation
3.1. Dimensions of oppression and empowerment
4.1. Participatory versus non-participatory strategies for social change
5.1. Dimensions of fragmentation and unity
List of Figures
1.1. Rising condom use and declining STD rates among Sonagachi commercial sex workers
1.2. The decline of child prostitution in Sonagachi, Kolkata's commercial sex district
1.3. Organizing for social change processes embody multiple, co-existing dialectical tensions
2.1. The growth in the number of Grameen Bank members
3.1. The growth of farmer members in India's dairy cooperative societies
3.2. The growth in the number of village-level dairy cooperative societies in India
5.1. The racial profile of homeless people in the United States
Review
"The body of work this book represents is clearly important both theoretically and in terms of encouraging scholars and practitioners in continuing efforts of large-scale change and social justice. The cases considered are fascinating, and the authors` analyses of them are enlightening." - Katherine Miller, Texas A&M University
"In Organizing for Social Change, one rediscovers the value of dialectics within a theoretically complex story of empowerment and transformation that is told in a very personal tone with careful attention to detail." - Patrice M Buzzanell, Purdue University
"Scholars and practitioners will find this book theoretically sound, methodologically rigorous, and rich with poignant narratives. The book models engaged scholarship; it is truly refreshing to encounter scholarship that matters to various stakeholders, academic and otherwise." - Lynn M Harter, Ohio University