Challenging the myth that personal fulfillment undermines commitment to the common good, the author utilizes extensive ethnographic research on various environmentalist groups. Paul Lichterman presents a compelling argument that individualism can, in fact, strengthen public and political engagement, revealing a complex relationship between personal values and collective action.
The book challenges the belief that a focus on personal fulfillment undermines dedication to the common good. Through extensive ethnographic research on various environmentalist groups, Paul Lichterman demonstrates how individualism can actually strengthen public and political commitment, offering a nuanced perspective on the interplay between personal aspirations and collective action.
The book explores the role of faith-based civic groups in fostering social connections within diverse and unequal communities. It examines whether these religious organizations can effectively extend their influence and create empowering ties as government involvement diminishes. By questioning the outreach efforts of civic groups, the study delves into their potential impact on society, highlighting the interplay between faith, community engagement, and social cohesion.
"This book develops a new way to think about how social advocacy works in everyday life. Varied scholarly approaches to social advocacy over the past four decades have tended to highlight skilled actors who craft rhetorical appeals and pursue resources and opportunities strategically to win their ends. Lichterman argues that this approach presents a thin view of culture and oversimplifies action as a product of collective actors whose speech and action do not vary by setting. In this study of housing advocacy, he turns the analytic lens away from the actors to the social settings and the cultural contexts of unfolding action, which allows him to develop a more precise explanation of success and failure. Lichterman draws on four years of ethnographic research on four campaigns, three coalitions, and twelve organizations that took up affordable housing, homelessness, and related problems in Los Angeles. The author follows how the actors' identities, claims and strategies unfold in specific settings as they promote new legislation, oppose gentrification, build affordable housing, and pursue health and environmental issues alongside housing problems. He finds that the discursive fields are crucial contexts that influence the work and that organization style powerfully shapes civic action. How Civic Action Works offers a new conceptual framework and research agenda for studies of social advocacy"--