Overview

Many activists worry about the same few problems in their groups: low turnout, inactive members, conflicting views on racism, overtalking, and offensive violations of group norms. But in searching for solutions to these predictable and intractable troubles, progressive social movement groups overlook class culture differences. In Missing Class, Betsy Leondar-Wright uses a class-focused lens to show that members with different class life experiences tend to approach these problems differently. This perspective enables readers to envision new solutions that draw on the strengths of all class cultures to form the basis of stronger cross-class and multiracial movements. The first comprehensive empirical study of US activist class cultures, Missing Class looks at class dynamics in 25 groups that span the gamut of social movement organizations in the United States today, including the labor movement, grassroots community organizing, and groups working on global causes in the anarchist and progressive traditions. Leondar-Wright applies Pierre Bourdieu's theories of cultural capital and habitus to four class trajectories: lifelong working-class and poor; lifelong professional middle class; voluntarily downwardly mobile; and upwardly mobile. Compellingly written for both activists and social scientists, this book describes class differences in paths to activism, attitudes toward leadership, methods of conflict resolution, ways of using language, diversity practices, use of humor, methods of recruiting, and group process preferences. Too often, we miss class. Missing Class makes a persuasive case that seeing class culture differences could enable activists to strengthen their own groups and build more durable cross-class alliances for social justice.

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9780801479205

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Reviews

I cannot recommend Missing Class too highly. Some books stimulate you intellectually...Some books deepen awareness...Some books are practical...It's rare to find a book that does one of these things well. A book that does all three, brilliantly, is beyond rare. It's a historical event. - Milan Rai, Peace News (August-September 2014) Leondar-Wright'sMissing Classis by far the best book available on the touchy subject of 'classism' since her own previous work,Class Matters: Cross-class Alliance Building for Middle Class Activist, and Fred Rose's incisive 1999 study,Coalitions across the Class Divide: Lessons from the Labor, Peace, and Environmental Movements, also published by Cornell. Like Rose before her, the author illustrates what bridges the divide-and what doesn't-within left-liberal groups and the broader, more diverse coalitions we need to alter power relationships in the United States. -The Labor Studies Journal Organizing for change is hard work, but it gets easier when there's honest talk about difference and solidarity. This groundbreaking book will likely start some transformative conversations! -Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org Betsy Leondar-Wright can always be counted on to raise class from the mist of myth in U.S. society. She reaffirms the critical need for a class framework in understanding the fundamental political, economic, and social inequities of our time. -Bill Fletcher Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided Betsy Leondar-Wright brings fancy French theory down to earth in this important study of why class cultures talk past each other. Anyone who has sat through the jargon of a professional consultant or read obscure tracts by activist-scholars and said, 'Huh?' will enjoy this book. Take it to the next meeting you go to. -James M. Jasper, CUNY Graduate Center Class-the one thing most Americans never discuss and really don't understand-impacts the outcome of collective efforts to accomplish social change. If you want to really understand both the successes and the conflicts within the movements you care about, you must read this book! It is brilliant, fascinating, and incredibly readable. -Thom Hartmann, author of Rebooting the American Dream, host of the nationally syndicated Thom Hartmann Program Betsy Leondar-Wright's book is crucially important for social justice activists. She offers much-needed advice about how to acknowledge your class background and harness it for the greater good. Eye-opening and insightful, this book provides a new way forward. -Matthew Rothschild, Senior Editor, The Progressive Missing Class is an essential primer for building cross-class relationships for social justice. It contains keen insight and practical suggestions for activists and organizers on how to bridge class differences and to tap the resources within all class cultures for solutions to group challenges. -Paul Kivel, author of Uprooting Racism, www.paulkivel.com Among the many things that shape organizations, the class identities of principal players are among the least examined. In this insightful and often funny book, accomplished activist and thinker Betsy Leondar-Wright enables us to understand how class affects our ways of organizational being, and what we can do to create truly inviting, radical organizational culture. -Rinku Sen, president of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and publisher of Colorlines

Missing Class is an essential primer for building cross-class relationships for social justice. It contains keen insight and practical suggestions for activists and organizers on how to bridge class differences and to tap the resources within all class cultures for solutions to group challenges. Paul Kivel, author of Uprooting Racism, www.paulkivel.com

Author Information

Betsy Leondar-Wright is the Program Director of Class Action (www.classism.org). She is the author of Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists and coauthor of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide.

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