Democratic Organization for Social Change: Latin American Christian Base Communities and Literacy Campaigns

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

How is a local level democratic organization cultivated so that members, who were previously disenfranchised, are empowered to oppose an oppressive central authority and participate in a revolutionary reconstruction of society Having spent many years researching this question, Johannes P Van Vugt applies a model of democratic organization for social change to his findings regarding the way literacy campaigns and Christian Base communities were organized in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Brazil. His study is valuable as an example of a scientific methodology for studying and cultivating democratic organization for social change, and as a clarification of the controversy over the role of specific campaigns and organizations. Van Vugt approaches his study from an interdisciplinary perspective using a methodolgy that is qualitative, historical, and comparative. He blends the cultural insights of ethnography with the structural understanding of how ideologies and organizations motivate and mobilize people.

Reviews

"An extremely valuable look at the grass-roots making of revolutions. Van Vugt takes theories of revolution down to the level of the revolutionary organization and the revolutionary actor. This book makes a novel and important contribution to the comparative study of revolutions."-Dr. Jack Goldstone, Director and Professor Center for Comparative Research in History, Society and Culture University of California, Davis
"Christian Base Communities have become the popular means of revolutionary social transformation in Central and Latin America. Van Vugt's careful study provides the sociological grounding for understanding how these communities actually function in social change."- Rosemary Radford Ruether Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology Garrett Theological Seminary Northwestern University
"One of the book's strengths is its emphasis on the choices that ordinary Latin Americans are constantly making between the conflicting forces which bear on their lives....This is a timely corrective to the tendency to see Church Base Communities as merely the pawns in a game of international power politics. It is also a positive contribution toward the development of practical organizations for democratic change."- Dr. James Beckford, President Association for the Sociology of Religion Professor of Sociology Warwick University, England
"This book joins together very deftly streams of investigation and reflection that often flow too separately--the sociological analysis of religious movements and the debate about what democracy requires....[An] excellent book...."- Harvey Cox The Divinity School Harvard University
"While there have been a number of descriptions of how people can organize and educate themselves to act against oppression, there have been few attempts at building a theory that would enable us to understand how and why they succeed. By comparing the daily realities of Christian Base Community movements and literacy campaigns in a number of countries, Van Vugt is able to combine rich descriptions of the ways they built a participatory democracy in all of their tensions and contradictions. At the same time, he provides us with an insightful model of the ideological, political, organizational, and educational elements that are necessary for successful democratic social transformation at the local level. This is a significant book for all of us who want to understand, and act on, an emancipatory cultural politics."- Dr. Michael W. Apple Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Wisconsin, Madison Author of Ideology and Curriculum; Education and Power; and Teachers and Texts
Those with interests in religion, social movements, political sociology, and Latin America should read it. For the undergraduate classroom, it offers an accessible account of an important contemporary process of social conflict and change.-Contemporary Sociology
"Those with interests in religion, social movements, political sociology, and Latin America should read it. For the undergraduate classroom, it offers an accessible account of an important contemporary process of social conflict and change."-Contemporary Sociology

Author Bio

JOHANNES P. VAN VUGT is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham University. He is versed and credentialed in a wide range of disciplines, including history, education, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology.