Journal of Community Power Building

The first volume of the Journal of Community Power Building was published in the spring of 2004 under the RHICO (Ricanne Hadriane Initiative for Community Organizing) program at MACDC. CDCs participating in RHICO noted many challenges of building and exercising power to make changes in there neighborhoods. These challenges have many dimensions. They are personal, organizational, political and structural. Our perspectives on both building and using power are strongly affected by our personal feelings about power, the context of our communities and our organizations, our language and our varied cultural contexts.

For CDCs and other member MACDC organizations, our power-building metric is further complicated by the placed-based nature of our work, the broad set of community change agendas that we collectively represent, and our general commitment to building forms of collective, rather than unilateral power. The Journal, now commonly know as the Power Journal, is an endeavor to create and sustain dialogue where we, as practitioners, can explore all the various dimensions of our struggles with the many personal, professional and structural issues related to the building and use of power in our communities. The Power Journal is an on-going exposition and exploration of the issues of power building among CDCs who are working to effect significant changes in urban and rural communities throughout Massachusetts by building strong constituencies of (a) those most affected by persistent poverty and decline, and (b) those whose interests are not represented in existing public policy.

The Journal Production Process

Our goal is to publish a one edition each year. The Journal is a bound, themed collection of five to ten short articles, poems, and art on an aspect of building power or the use of power within a community development context. View past editions on line: http://www.macdc.org/docs/res_publications.html

Articles are solicited through a call for papers written by CDC practitioners in Massachusetts. The call for papers seeks answers to a series of provocative questions posited by the Editorial Committee. Those interested in submitting an article are asked to submit a one-page abstract. The Editorial Committee reviews the abstracts and select a number of contributors. Each contributor is given two months and a stipend of $150.00 with which to submit an edited 2500-word article. Editorial and/or interpretation assistance is available on request. Non-English articles are eligible for submission and will be printed along with an English translation.

The Editorial Committee

The editorial process is stewarded by the Editorial Committee. Membership on the Editorial Committee is voluntary. The core of this committee will be comprised of people from CDCs. All staff, board, and core leaders are eligible to participate. The Committee has seven to ten members, but hopefully will have an odd number of members. An open call to join the Editorial Committee is made annually to MACDC members. The Committee will ideally have among its members at least one CDC executive director, one community organizer, and one other program staff person (e.g., from real estate, property management, economic development, human services). Ideally it will maintain a balance of male and female participants, and a balance of the major racial and ethnic populations served by or impacted by the work of MACDC member CDCs and associate members.

Committee responsibilities

Ensuring that a high-quality Journal be produced and disseminated at least once per year
Ensuring that there exists an editorial policy for the Journal that is reflective of the goals and values of MACDC
Establishing the power-related theme and question for each edition of the Journal
Issuing the call for papers for each edition of the Journal
Reviewing submitted abstracts and selecting contributors for each edition
Reviewing contributions and selecting final submissions for each edition
Providing a one-page introduction or preamble for each edition
Ensuring that Journal’s content reflects the diversity of views and experiences of the CDC community

Each volume there are two or three Co-Editors-In-Chief chosen from the Editorial Committee. Co-Editors are responsible for writing the Journal’s introduction and safeguard the policies and procedures set by the Editorial Committee. Other members of the Editorial Committee may submit abstracts, may be selected as contributors, and can be published in an edition. However, if they choose to submit abstracts, they must remove themselves from any deliberations of the Committee related to the selection of contributors or the selection of published works.

The writing process

All staff, board and leaders of MACDC member organizations are invited to contribute abstracts. Once an abstract is accepted, a contributor may request writing support assistance from a volunteer TA provider.

Distribution

Complimentary copies of the Journal are disseminated to all contributors, sponsors, MACDC members, and selected allies and funders of MACDC. In addition, the Journal is sent to the major community development and organizing intermediaries in the

United States

Possible Power-Related Themes to be explored

Contributors are encouraged to explore a range of issues related to power, such as:

Building institutional versus personal power
Analyzing how racism impacts our community development work
Power as it relates to confrontation vs. collaboration
Our ambivalence or fear of power and its effect on our work
Processes of building power and process of using power
How to share power without giving up power
Can we be powerful but not political?