ORGANIZING FOR POWER - A COMPARATIVE CASE-STUDY

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of two conceptual ly similar community organizing efforts that highlights commonalities and important differences. This study first presents a qualitative ana lysis of two approaches to community organizing for power. Our analysi s was made possible by participation and collaboration with members of community organizations which opened the way for access to documents, events, interviews, and settings that formed the basis of our case st udy. We also present some quantitative data concerning participant per ceptions of organizing experiences and outcomes. These data highlight important differences in community organizing approaches, differences we believe can be useful to our field as we struggle with the importan t concepts of empowerment and power.