Marshall Ganz
“In democratic
countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of
all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends
that of all the others.”--De Tocqueville
To fulfill its promise, democracy must meet the
challenges of equity, accountability and responsiveness.
This requires an "organized" citizenry with the power to
articulate and assert its interests effectively.
Unfortunately, in the United States, the concerns of
many citizens remain muted because of sharp declines in
civic organization and citizen participation. Marshall
Ganz’s course on organizing focuses on how to build
organizations through which people can turn their values
into action.
He has published
in the American Prospect, American Journal of
Sociology, American Political Science Review,
Social Science and History Journal and elsewhere.
He is co-author of his first book What a Mighty Power
We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the
Struggle for Racial Equality, which was published in
2006. His new book, Why David Sometimes Wins:
leadership, organization and strategy in the
unionization of California agriculture will be
published late in 2007. He serves as a Lecturer in
Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University.
Ganz teaches graduate and undergraduate students
organizing, public narrative and moral leadership;
trains practitioners with community based organizations,
advocacy groups, faith communities and unions; and
researches leadership, organization and strategy in
social movements, civic associations, and unions and
their role in public life.
As voluntary associations fade from
our cultural landscape, political participation is
threatened, especially on the left, says sociologist
Marshall Ganz. And, he says, that trend is undermining
the environmental movement, which has long depended on
engaged members to carry its banner.
Ganz entered Harvard College in the fall of 1960. In
1964, a year before graduating, he left to volunteer as
a civil rights organizer in Mississippi. In 1965, he
joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers; over
the next 16 years he gained experience in union,
community, issue and political organizing and became
Director of Organizing. During the 1980s, he worked with
grassroots groups to develop effective organizing
programs, designing innovative voter mobilization
strategies for local, state, and national electoral
campaigns.
Ganz is a student of the sociology of social movements,
concerned with a lack of focus on the actor centered
aspects of the work, especially the influence of agents
- leaders and participants - in making motivational and
strategic meaning [through storytelling] of why they
should and how they can mobilize resources to take
advantage of opportunities. "Stories move us to act,” he
writes in his essay Notes on Storytelling,
“Action requires risk and our willingness to take risks
is rooted in our emotions, themselves rooted in our
values. One way we can translate our values into the
emotions that can inspire action is by telling a story.
"
His background led Ganz to the
study of social movements, and the ways in which
leadership and direction are nurtured. Now he focuses on
finding ways to revitalize democratic organizations,
develop their leadership, and engage their members --
work that he says is critical to rebuilding a base of
political power on the left. To that end, he has worked
with the Howard Dean campaign and the national
Democratic Party, as well as in local campaigns around
the country. His two-year project for the Sierra Club
examined the group's organizational effectiveness,
pointing the way toward energizing its 750,000 members
as the core of a revitalized environmental movement.
In 1991, in order to deepen his
intellectual understanding of his work, he returned to
Harvard College and, after a 28-year leave of absence,
completed his undergraduate degree in history and
government. He was awarded an MPA by the Kennedy School
in 1993 and completed his PhD in sociology in 2000. He
teaches, researches, and writes on leadership,
organization, and strategy in social movements, civic
associations, and politics.
Syllabi link:
http://www.cpn.org/tools/syllabi/ganz.html
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