The Search for Political Community: American Activists Reinventing Commitment

by Paul Lichterman

• ISBN13: 9780521483438
• ISBN10: 0521483433
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book challenges the myth that Americans' emphasis on personal fulfilment necessarily weakens commitment to the common good. Drawing on extensive participant-observation with a variety of environmentalist groups, Paul Lichterman argues that individualism sometimes enhances public, political commitment and that a shared respect for individual inspiration enables activists with diverse political backgrounds to work together. This personalised culture of commitment has sustained activists working long-term for social change. The book contrasts 'personalised politics' in mainly white environmental groups with a more traditional, community-centred culture of commitment in an African-American group. The untraditional, personalised politics of many recent social movements invites us to rethink common understandings of commitment, community, and individualism in a post-traditional world.

Table of Contents

1. Personalism and political commitment

2. Personalized politics: the case of the US Greens

3. Speaking out in suburbia

4. Imagining community, organizing community

5. Culture, class, and life-ways of activism

6. Personalized politics and cultural radicalism since the 1960s

7. The search for political community

Appendices.