The event will air a new study revealing the geographic spread of organizing and its growing influence in state and national political arenas.
Only a few social movements have ever surpassed the threshold of engaging more than 1% of the U.S. population. Those movements have historically played central roles in advancing societal reform. New research documents the impressive growth in the scope, scale, and ambition of the progressive social movement and organizational field often termed “faith-based community organizing” – so that it now arguably attains that threshold.
On Wednesday, September 19th at NYU Wagner, Brad Fulton (Duke University) and Richard Wood (University of New Mexico), in collaboration with Interfaith Funders, will present the findings from a new national census of all institution-based community organizing efforts in the United States. The study reveals the geographic spread of organizing, its growing influence in state and national political arenas, and the complex changes occurring in the religious and racial/ethnic diversity of its institutional base, leadership core, and professional staff. Panelists will explore what this research says about the role of religion in public life and how this organizing fits into current social movements.
The findings will be aired and discussed beginning at 6 p.m. at the Wagner school’s home in the Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St, 2nd Floor (at the corner of Houston Street), New York, N.Y.
The presenters will include: Brad Fulton, doctoral candidate, Duke University; and Dr. Richard L. Wood, Director of the Southwest Institute on Religion and Society, The University of New Mexico.
The panelists will consist of: Patricia Jerido, Program Officer, Democracy Fund, Open Society Foundation; Ai-Jen Poo, Labor Organizer, National Domestic Workers Alliance, named one of "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time Magazine; Richard Healey, Director, Grassroots Policy Project; Dorian Warren, Associate Professor, Politics and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.
RSVP is required at http://wagner.nyu.edu/events/community-09-19-2012. For further information, please call 212 998 7400.