Grassroots Social Action : Lessons in People Power Movements

Willie and his colleagues analyze social action from the bottom up. The focus is on how people outside the traditional circuits of authority exercise power and how their actions relate to bureaucratic social action from the top down. All told, the contributors offer a critical and empowering assessment of how change occurs in communities.

With the ever-expanding boom of grassroots organizations and their growing importance for public policy, many organizations have been forced to rethink the effects of social, economic, and political disparities in society. This collection of essential essays and case studies will help activists, researchers, and students engage in this process of reevaluation and strategizing. Grassroots Social Action explores power negotiations and examines effective and ineffective community actions from the bottom up. Willie and his colleagues focus on the influence of common people in relation to hierarchical forms of social order. Paying special attention to nine case studies, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the chapters show the complementary relationship between dominant and subdominant people in public policymaking. Grassroots Social Action offers a critical and empowering assessment of how change occurs in communities.