Going Public Summary

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In Going Public: An Organizer’s Guide to Citizen Action, Michael Gecan, long-time organizer for the non-profit Industrial Areas Foundation, gives unique insight into the challenges and successes of a community organizer who gathers and collaborates individuals and small local organizations to foster community change both in the public and within a polity, the latter of which gives the IAF some characteristics of an advocacy/interest group as well. Gecan describes the IAF as a power organization rather than a community development organization, which empowers citizens with “the ability to act—on a whole range of issues, in a variety of ways”. Through examples of his twenty-five years of experience, Gecan illustrates the processes of relating,…show more content…
One in particular actually begins to expand upon other facets of this power but then fails to bridge the gap between said facet and the action that followed. He describes a meeting with the East Brooklyn Congregation and several construction project coordinators. The concern involved the pending renovation of a community recreation center deemed to be a vital resource for inducing community pride, as well as a channel away from more destructive community patterns, particularly drug-dealing and gang violence. During this meeting, members of the EBC bluntly channeled any attempts at vague answers and ambiguity from the construction director by repeatedly demanding to know when the renovation would be complete and refusing to acknowledge any statements that didn’t directly address this question. They flustered the director to the point of raised voices, the meeting terminated unresolved, and yet the renovation was complete in several months. This instance demonstrates a subset of the power of public relations: the power of shame transferred within a network of public officials and organizations. This power manipulates the personal political interest of a group or individual by shedding light on their shortcomings and is doubtlessly effective. Surely, however, the power of shame does not work in every instance; in some, I imagine that it would destroy the relationship between the non-profit and the political or corporate leader with whom they are attempting to negotiate. So how did EBC effectively spin an uncomfortable social and political situation in their favor and preserve the public relationship with the construction company, a relationship that Gecan deems to be incredibly important in preserving community power? An explanation on this gap between the tense meeting and the completion of the project would provide a much more
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