Discreet fermenters: Community organising, professional ethos, and ‘grassroots lobbying’ in Chicago

ABSTRACT

Community organising in the United States is often hailed for its ability to enhance the public visibility and political influence of marginalised social actors. This article contends that discreet. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chicago, the article demonstrates that discretion is a core element in community organisers’ professional ethos of stepping back behind the volunteer, often low-income community spokespersons that they select, train and advise. The article then shows how organisers’ professionally-powered fermentation work unfolds through state-level grassroots lobbying, in a complex dialectic between discretion and visibility, between accommodating with the rules of the game and subverting them.

KEYWORDS:

• Community organising
• fermentation
• grassroots lobbying
• advocacy
• Chicago

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The articulation of direct-action campaigns and lobbying has been addressed by professional practitioners, however. See for instance (Ben Asher & bat Sarah, 2018).

2 All the informants’ names have been anonymised.