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Community Development Journal Advance Access published online on October 24, 2008
Community Development Journal, doi:10.1093/cdj/bsn034
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© Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2008 All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Broad-based organizing in the UK: reasserting the centrality of political activity in community development

Paul Bunyan

Address for correspondence: School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Cumbria, Bowerham, Lancaster, LA1 3JD. Tel: 01524 384685; Fax: 01524 384352; email: Paul.Bunyan{at}Cumbria.ac.uk

This article examines the emergence of broad-based organizing in the UK and the importance given to political activity within community development. Popularly associated with Saul Alinsky and the work of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the translation from the USA has been problematic. With the emergence and sustained growth of ‘London Citizens’, now one of the largest citizen-based organizations in the country, a firmer foothold has been established. The article examines the central concepts underpinning the political and philosophical basis of broad-based organizing and explores some of the challenges involved in developing and sustaining an approach that is overtly political and utilizes conflict and direct action to engage and negotiate with established power. At a time when the neo-liberal agenda has had a depoliticizing effect upon community development, this provides a model that challenges current orthodoxy associated with ‘partnership’ and ‘empowerment’ and reasserts the centrality of power and politics in promoting change and social reform.


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