No. 1 (2025): Reimagining the Scholarship and Practice of Community Organizing

Community Organizing Journal (COJ) is a new journal dedicated to advancing the scholarship and practice of community organizing. COJ focuses on the importance of democratic and relational work that enables leadership development, community power, and structural change. Because community organizing exists in many different contexts and settings around the world, taking on a wide variety of forms, we prioritize critical analysis that is grounded in a range of traditions, approaches, and academic disciplines. The journal seeks to engage scholars and practitioners together in analyzing and reflecting on the diversity of approaches and definitions in the field.

The inaugural issue of COJ explores how the scholarship and practice of community organizing can be reimagined. Papers were solicited from community organizers and scholars in 2023 and developed over two years. Each paper considers what organizing practices can and should endure and what practices need disruption. The issue opens with two essays, including an Issue Introduction by long-time community organizers, Alexandra Piñeros Shields and Jocelyn Vicente-Angeles, and a framing essay by issue editors, Robert Kleidman and Margaret Post. Many of the peer reviewed articles and the concluding reflection are authored by scholar-practitioner teams from Europe, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. We view these essays, articles and reflections as an exciting first step in strengthening an international dialogue about the future of community organizing.