Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy

by Mark R. Warren

Dry Bones Rattling offers the first in-depth treatment of how to rebuild the social capital of America's communities while promoting racially inclusive, democratic participation. The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) network in Texas and the Southwest is gaining national attention as a model for reviving democratic life in the inner city--and beyond. This richly drawn study shows how the IAF network works with religious congregations and other community-based institutions to cultivate the participation and leadership of Americans most left out of our elite-centered politics. Interfaith leaders from poor communities of color collaborate with those from more affluent communities to build organizations with the power to construct affordable housing, create job-training programs, improve schools, expand public services, and increase neighborhood safety.


In clear and accessible prose, Mark Warren argues that the key to revitalizing democracy lies in connecting politics to community institutions and the values that sustain them. By doing so, the IAF network builds an organized, multiracial constituency with the power to advance desperately needed social policies. While Americans are most aware of the religious right, Warren documents the growth of progressive faith-based politics in America. He offers a realistic yet hopeful account of how this rising trend can transform the lives of people in our most troubled neighborhoods. Drawing upon six years of original fieldwork, Dry Bones Rattling proposes new answers to the problems of American democracy, community life, race relations, and the urban crisis.

Genres: Academic

344 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2001

About the author

Mark R. Warren is a sociologist concerned with the revitalization of American democratic and community life. He studies efforts to strengthen institutions that anchor inner city communities—churches, schools, and other community-based organizations — and to build broad-based alliances among these institutions and across race and social class. Warren is interested in the development of community leaders through involvement in multiracial political action as well as the outcomes of such efforts in fostering community development, social justice, and school transformation; and is committed to using the results of scholarly research to advance democratic practice.

Warren is the author of several books, including Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice and Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy, a book on the Texas/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation’s most prominent faith-based community organizing network. He is coeditor of a book on social capital-based strategies for combating poverty called Social Capital and Poor Communities. Warren also published a lead article in the Harvard Educational Review on the relationship between community development and school improvement, entitled “Communities and Schools: A New View of Urban Education Reform.” He currently codirects a large scale study of community organizing efforts at school reform and educational justice in six localities across the country.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a little biased on this one. This book was written by my advisor at school, and someone I work very closely with. That said, this book is a necessary read if you're learning about or engaged in community organizing. It raises important questions about the role of faith in organizing. The book focuses on the Industrial Areas Foundation in the Southwest, where it has been particularly strong, and where some of the best organizing for school reform has taken place.

[Zahreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those interested in grassroots community organizing - and it complements Putnam's research in that it shows how we can fight the community/civic relations malaise that our country seems to be suffering from.

[Carl Johnson]

What I have gleaned so far is the importance of involving the churches and their active congregations in any attempt at community activism. In center city Millville we have three active congregations with committed pastors willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work that must be done.