Eric Shragge

From Montreal's grassroots activists, city planners, and engaged citizens, a guide to building radical municipal power from the ground up. World cities face persistent tension between the pull of globalization and the needs of citizens. Conventional political parties present milquetoast solutions that accommodate the interests of business. Meanwhile, citizens in cafes, meeting halls, on the streets, and now in virtual forums are rising to the challenge of imagining new and radical municipal policy from the ground up. This book explores the future of Montreal's citizen lead movements at a moment defined by the threats of pandemic, austerity, housing speculation and insecurity, and racism. It pairs contemporary analysis with an exploration of Montreal's rich municipal history. The editors of A Citizen's Guide to City Politics gathered more than twenty activists, urban planners, and thinkers to address the major problems facing Montrealers and propose alternatives from a citizen's perspective. Municipal movements everywhere will see their own struggles reflected in this guide and will find inspiration for debate and action.

From Montreal's grassroots activists, city planners, and engaged citizens, a guide to building radical municipal power from the ground up. World cities face persistent tension between the pull of globalization and the needs of citizens. While conventional political parties present milquetoast solutions that accommodate the interests of business, citizens in cafes, meeting halls, on the streets, and now in virtual forums are rising to the challenge of imagining new and radical municipal policy from the ground up. This book explores the future of Montreal's citizens' movements at a moment defined by the threats of pandemic, austerity, housing speculation and insecurity, and racism. It pairs contemporary analysis with an exploration of Montreal's rich municipal history. The editors of A Citizen's Guide to City Politics gathered more than twenty activists, urban planners, and thinkers to address the major problems facing Montrealers and propose alternatives from a citizen's perspective. Municipal movements everywhere will see their own struggles reflected in this guide and will find inspiration for debate and action.

Drawing on over thirty years of experience in community development practice, Eric Shragge offers a unique historical perspective on activism, linking various forms of local organizing to the broader goal of fundamental social change. This new edition places contemporary community organizing in a post-9/11 context and includes a discussion of national and international organizing efforts-in the Middle East, in the Occupy movement, in European resistance to austerity measures, and in recent student protests in Quebec. A new chapter-length case study covering Shragge's long-term involvement with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal offers one of the few English-language discussions of community organizing in Quebec. Activism and Social Change is an excellent core or supplementary text in courses on social movements, community organizing, or community development.

What do community organizations and organizers do, and what should they do? For the past thirty years politicians, academics, advocates, and activists have heralded community as a site and strategy for social change. In contrast, Contesting Community paints a more critical picture of community work which, according to the authors--in both theory and practice--has amounted to less than the sum of its parts. Their comparative study of efforts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada describes and analyzes the limits and potential of this work. Covering dozens of groups, including ACORN, Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Committee, and the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, and discussing alternative models, this book is at once historical and contemporary, global and local. Contesting Community addresses one of the vital issues of our day--the role and meaning of community in people's lives and in the larger political economy.

Examining immigration within an international context, this discussion explores the complex issues surrounding immigrant workers. Based on the collaboration between a group of university-affiliated researchers and community organizations, this detailed study explores the policies regarding immigrants and presents an account of an advocacy group constantly striving to improve their rights. Documenting actual experiences in a variety of workplaces, this is a valuable guide to fighting against injustice without jeopardizing the status of international employees.