RUTGERS UNIVERSITY CAMDEN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

PROGRAM IN URBAN STUDIES AND COMMUNITY PLANNING

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

975:451 FALL 2003

Prof. Jon Van Til

PHONE: 856-225-6223, FAX: 856-225-6500, EMAIL: vantil@camden.rutgers.edu

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION

This seminar is open to advanced undergraduate students who wish to examine processes of community leadership and development at first-hand. The course is organized as a field-based, web-enhanced seminar in which the primary activity is to develop and conduct applied field studies within the urban community.

Working together as members of the seminar, we will analyze how the principal groups at work in one or more Camden neighborhoods mobilize their assets and access larger systems of power and resources. We will listen to the concerns of residents as to the current struggles they face in their daily lives in the neighborhoods. We will offer observations and a willingness to work with these groups in clarifying and advancing their goals. And we will give our particular attention to the ways in which leadership is structured and advanced in these organizations.

Ours is thus an agenda of “action” or “transparent” research, combining the reflective observations and generalized theories of social science with the imperatives to make things better of the practitioner and activist. It is an approach that rests on the belief that individuals organized in patterns of community organization can make a difference in the quality of their lives.

TEXTS FOR THE COURSE

As participants in a web-enhanced course, we will rely on a combination of printed and web-based materials as texts for the course. Basic texts for the course will be:

Michael Gecan, AN ORGANIZER’S GUIDE TO CITIZEN ACTION (Anchor, 2004)

Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, BETTER TOGETHER; RESTORING THE URBAN COMMUNITY (Simon and Schuster, 2003)

John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, BUILDING COMMUNITIES FROM THE INSIDE OUT (Northwestern University, 1993) (available on the web for individual purchase).

NAVIGATING THE COURSE

Members of the seminar will meet each Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 at the Urban Studies office at 321 Cooper Street, Camden. Students may participate in this project by registering for course 50:975:451. Upon completion of that course, they may participate for an additional term of study (earning from between 2 to 6 credits) by registering for Special Topics in Urban Studies, course 50:975: 499 (spring term).

Members of the course will choose a community-based organization with which they may work and within which they may observe leadership patterns. Support will be available, under certain circumstances, for members of the seminar to serve as Community Fellows, with financial support provided by the Department of Community Affairs and the PNC Bank. In such cases, students will be assigned to pre-approved community organizations for their service and observation.