"The world is changing rapidly and the practice of community organizing needs to change with it. Representing both an homage to, and a departure from the "alinsky traditions" of organizing, Consensus Organizing offers techniques that are specifically designed for urban and rural communities struggling to succeed in the global economy and the information age. Ohmer and DeMasi are experienced organizers who offer a relentlessly thorough examination of the process of bringing diverse communities together to make change and to bridge the ethnic and economic divisions that keep many communities from succeeding."
—Bill Traynor Executive Director, Lawrence CommunityWorks Inc.
A person doesn't have to be a consensus organizer to think like one. Consensus Organizing: A Community Development Workbook—A Comprehensive Guide to Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Community Change Initiatives helps students and practitioners begin to think like consensus organizers and incorporate this way of strategic thinking into their lives and their work. Through a wide range of exercises, role-play activities, case scenarios, and discussion questions, this workbook presents the conceptual framework for consensus organizing and provides a practical and experiential approach to understanding and applying consensus organizing to address a range of issues. This workbook is designed to be used by itself or along with Mike Eichler's text Consensus Organizing: Building Communities of Mutual Self Interest (SAGE, 2007).
Key Features and Benefits
- Provides a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a community analysis of both internal and external neighborhood resources
- Brings consensus organizing to life through case studies based on the real-life experiences of the authors
- Offers field exercises that engage the reader in applying and practicing consensus organizing
- Provides practical tools that community organizers and practitioners can use in their daily work
- Includes a sample job description, work plan, monitoring report, and field report for hiring and supervising consensus organizers
- Presents tools for describing and evaluating consensus organizing and community-level interventions
Accompanying Website
Instructors and students have access to the many activities and cases on the accompanying website.
Industry Reviews
"The world is changing rapidly and the practice of Community Organizing needs to change with it. Representing both an homage to, and a departure from the "alinsky traditions" of organizing, Consensus Organizing offers techniques that are specifically designed for urban and rural communities struggling to succeed in the global economy and the information age. Ohmer and DeMasi are experienced organizers who offer a relentlessly thorough examination of the process of bringing diverse communities together to make change and to bridge the ethnic and economic divisions that keep many communities from succeeding." -- Bill Traynor, Executive Director "The case studies and class activities are excellent. The concise summary of consensus organizing would be useful." -- Gary Paul Green * American Sociological Association * "Mary Ohmer and Karen DeMasi have carefully (and possibly lovingly) written a book that can be used as a workbook and/or a resource in both the classroom and for staff trainings, and with some adjustments, in community settings to enhance resident capacity and skills." -- Patricia W. Murphy
