Full Description
This book portrays how small, geographically dispersed, and progressive social change and social service organizations working within a coalition can influence national-level social policies. Based on extensive empirical research on two national organizations and their local affiliates, one focusing on affordable housing and the other working to protect lower-income communities, this book shows the ways in which professionally staffed organizations that coordinate coalitions come about, and describes their work to mobilize coalition members to lobby and advocate, providing information, analysis and instruction to facilitate such action and, in so doing, becoming the public voice for the social change efforts of coalitions. Advocacy for Social Change details the characteristics of these organizations that the author has labeled as focal catalytic coalition organizations and then provides numerous examples of campaigns led by them on affordable housing and economic justice; campaigns that illustrate tactics that other social change organizations can emulate. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social problems, social action, political sociology, urban studies, community development and organizing while extending the literature on interest group lobbying.
Contents
Preface Abbreviations, acronyms or shorthand expressions PART I The focal catalytic coalition model 1 Advocating for the poor through state and national coalitions 2 NCRC and the issues that emerge from defending the Community Reinvestment Act 3 NLIHC and issues on affordable housing for lower-income individuals PART II Mobilizing and informing members 4 Mobilization: building a foundation for coalition action 5 The power of information and information as power PART III Advocacy and lobbying efforts to bring about policy changes 6 The tools of coalition advocacy: working with the mass media to frame issues 7 Techniques for influencing legislators and regulators 8 Lobbying in person 9 Legislative and regulatory agency hearings 10 Other forms of political pressure PART IV Bringing it all together at the annual meeting 11 What annual conferences accomplish 12 Encounters with elected and regulatory officials at the national conference Conclusion: reflections on the theory and models for coalition advocacy and suggestions for progressive activism Appendix: methodological approach Index
