Faith-based community organizers have spent decades working for greater equality in American society, and more recently have become significant players in shaping health care, finance, and immigration reform at the highest levels of government. In "A Shared Future", Richard L. Wood and Brad R. Fulton draw on a new national study of community organizing coalitions and in-depth interviews of key leaders in this field to show how faith-based organizing is creatively navigating the competing aspirations of America's universalist and multiculturalist democratic ideals, even as it confronts three demons bedeviling American politics: economic inequality, federal policy paralysis, and racial inequity. With a broad view of the entire field and a distinct empirical focus on the PICO National Network, Wood and Fulton's analysis illuminates the tensions, struggles, and deep rewards that come with pursuing racial equity within a social change organization and in society. Ultimately, "A Shared Future" offers a vision for how we might build a future that embodies the ethical democracy of the best American dreams.
About the Author
Richard L. Wood is associate professor and chair in the department of sociology at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of "Faith in Action", also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Brad R. Fulton is a PhD candidate in sociology at Duke University with more than fifteen years of experience with faith-based organizations in the nonprofit sector.
Reviews
"'A Shared Future' is a very important and exciting book. Wood and Fulton have written a state-of-the-art treatment of the field of faith-based community organizing with a focus on two important developments: local-state-federal organizing and the emergence of a racial equity analysis at the heart of the organizing. These two developments, alongside the provocative yet careful analysis of the authors, make this a critically important book. It will be widely read and debated" – Mark R. Warren, author of "A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform"
"In 'A Shared Future', Wood and Fulton bring alive the triumphs and dilemmas of contemporary faith-based community organizing. They describe how vibrant networks of community organizations based in churches, unions, schools, and other community groups have won victories at state and national scales as well as in local communities. Interviews with organizers and a large-scale survey show how these dynamic coalitions have become one of the most ethnically and racially diverse forces in contemporary American politics, retaining a commitment to universal justice while confronting the realities of racialized exclusion. This book offers not only careful evidence and analysis, but also hope that faith-based organizing, grounded in moral commitments that bind a diverse society together, can contribute to the ethical democracy we so badly need" – Ann Swidler, author of "Talk of Love: How Culture Matters"
"'A Shared Future' tackles the crises of our time – rising economic inequality, racial injustice, and policy paralysis – by examining the efforts of faith-based community organizing to create an ethical democracy. This is scholarship at its best, combining empirical research with a vision for the possibility of a shared future within our increasingly multiethnic society" – Donald E. Miller, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California
"This book is both a distinctive achievement in terms of the comprehensive new data it provides on the evolving field of faith-based community organizing, and a major contribution for those who work at the intersections of religion and politics as well as theory and practice. Wood and Fulton's rich account will be the starting point for the next generation of democratically engaged scholars and thoughtful activists who want to play a role in movements toward a more ethical democracy" – Andre C. Willis, author of "Towards a Humean True Religion: Genuine Theism, Moderate Hope, and Practical Morality"
