A01=Paul Lichterman
Activism
Americans
Anti-racism
Association of churches
Associationalism
Author_Paul Lichterman
Bread for the World
Category=JHMC
Category=QRA
Christian Identity
Civic engagement
Civil society
Collaboration
Community development
Community organizing
Community service
Criticism
Criticism of capitalism
Culture war
Definition of religion
Education
Elephant in the room
Empowerment
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Equal opportunity
Eviction
Family resemblance
Gray Panthers
Homeless shelter
Homeschooling
Ideology
Institution
Interfaith dialogue
Jane Addams
Jr.
Just society
Liberal religion
Liberalism
Liberation theology
Mainline Protestant
Martin Luther King
Meal
Monthly meeting
Mores
Oppression
Outreach
People of the Book
Politics
Poverty
Prayer meeting
Protestant work ethic
Protestantism
Public sphere
Racism
Religion
Religious identity
Religious image
Ron Sider
Secularism
Social capital
Social criticism
Social Gospel
Social issue
Social justice
Social map
Social movement
Social safety net
Social theory
Society
Sociology
Symbolic power
Vocabulary
Volunteering
Welfare
Welfare reform
Product details
- ISBN 9780691096513
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 25 Jul 2005
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Many scholars and citizens alike have counted on civic groups to create broad ties that bind society. Some hope that faith-based civic groups will spread their reach as government retreats. Yet few studies ask how, if at all, civic groups reach out to their wider community. Can religious groups--long central in civic America--create broad, empowering social ties in an unequal, diverse society? Over three years, Paul Lichterman studied nine liberal and conservative Protestant-based volunteering and advocacy projects in a mid-sized American city. He listened as these groups tried to create bridges with other community groups, social service agencies, and low-income people, just as the 1996 welfare reforms were taking effect. Counter to long-standing arguments, Lichterman discovered that powerful customs of interaction inside the groups often stunted external ties and even shaped religion's impact on the groups. Comparing groups, he found that successful bridges outward depend on group customs which invite reflective, critical discussion about a group's place amid surrounding groups and institutions.
Combining insights from Alexis de Tocqueville, John Dewey, and Jane Addams with contemporary sociology, Elusive Togetherness addresses enduring questions about civic and religious life that elude the popular "social capital" concept. To create broad civic relationships, groups need more than the right religious values, political beliefs, or resources. They must learn new ways of being groups.
Paul Lichterman has been Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion at the University of Southern California. He is the author of "The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment".
