Accountability Through Diversity: Challenges for Congregation-Based Community Organizing in Detroit.

Abstract

Accountability Through Diversity: Challenges for Congregation-Based Community Organizing in Detroit

By Lara C. Rusch

Advisor: Gregory Markus

Social capital theory suggests that bonding institutions such as religious congregations provide unique resources for civic engagement, especially for resource-poor groups, but the translation of those resources into political action is problematic for democracy. As a resource for collective action social capital seems to operate duplicitously, reifying some inequalities even while challenging others. How can religious institutions support democratic or “public-spirited” collective action, in addition to their contributions to associational life? What challenges must be overcome? More broadly, how can private social capital lead to political action for public goods? The dissertation approaches these questions through analysis of the history and organizing strategy of MOSES, a congregation-based community organizing project in Detroit. Through in-depth interviews with organizers, lay leaders and clergy, participant observation, and archival research, this study investigates challenges facing MOSES from 1989 to 2006. Observation of MOSES suggests two kinds of problems for collective action among congregations: external pressures and internal priorities. First, the political and economic context matters for the translation of civic energies into democratic political action. Congregations’ political capacity is constrained by the pressures to adapt, by political dynamics that discourage interracial collaboration, and by the legacies of segregation and mistrust in Detroit. Second, the tendency of congregations to be inward-looking and to maintain internal power arrangements can undermine leadership development, depending on actors’ interpretation and enactment of religious authority. Community organizers overcome these limitations through the development of bridging social capital, though bridging relationships also bring new challenges and tensions for political collaboration. The practical challenges faced by the organizing model suggest need for a more grounded theory of bridging that attends to the power relations inherent to any bridging relationship. This research elaborates the theory of bridging by distinguishing it as more purposefully instrumental than bonding and acknowledging the unequal risks of bridging relationships for diverse participants. Organizing practices provide a means by which private institutions can contribute to public-spirited collective action and act accountably to diverse collaborators.