The Social Construction of Transformation

Abstract

Ten Industrial Areas Foundation national community organizers were interviewed about their experiences of organizing in broad-based organizations. All were trainers and all shared stories of how participation in action facilitated transformation personally and socially. Three stories were chosen as exemplars for how transformation occurs in relationship-based organizing. They illustrate three themes: freedom from victimization, freedom from slavery, and use of controlled anger. Imagination, relationships, disequilibrium, internalization, and changes in consciousness are processes that seemed to bridge the rational with the emotional as the social is constructed in participative action.