Majority-Based Neighborhood Organizing and Its Role in Contemporary Community Practice

ABSTRACT

Neighborhood organizing has been an important aspect of community organization over the last 50 years. However, as individuals identify less with geographic communities and community organizing efforts become issue-as opposed to locality-based, the viability of neighborhood-focused organizing efforts becomes more uncertain. This article describes one model of neighborhood organizing which uses a majority-based approach that is being implemented in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The philosophy and methodology of this approach are described and examples of specific organizing efforts are included. The article concludes with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this model.

Key Words:

• Community organizing
• majority-based models
• democratic institutions
• neighborhood-focused organization