The Troublemaker's Teaparty: A Manual for Effective Citizen Action

by Charles Dobson

Thousands of small groups with few resources spend large amounts of time trying to influence decision-makers. For the most part, these groups are made up of ordinary citizens driven by a desire to make a difference beyond their own lives. Governments and corporations call these people "troublemakers." Those who study complex problems ranging from health care to global warming say we need far more troublemakers, far more active citizens. Unlike similar books that are aimed at non–profits with paid staff, The Troublemaker’s Teaparty is specifically designed to help small, volunteer citizen groups. An invaluable resource, it answers the basic questions of citizen How to get others involved? How to respect different views, but work cooperatively? How to make progress when decision-makers refuse to listen? How to find the time and resources? The Troublemaker’s Teaparty starts where most people start—on small actions focused on local improvement—then shifts to larger actions that transcend place. It
How to create healthy group relationships.
How to build local community.
-How to avoid the pitfalls that drive people back into private life.
How to put the screws on government.
How to use the media to get results.
How to think strategically. It also
Project design, planning and evaluation.
Negotiating, campaign, and confrontational tactics.
A summary of what works in social movements.
New possibilities for direct action and web action. Clear, concise, accessible, and down-to-earth, this will become the definitive citizen guide. Charles Dobson has authored one of the best on-line organizing manuals available. He teaches creative problem solving at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and lives in Vancouver, BC.

Genres: Activism, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more the type of book one should read as you're actually carrying out a citizen campaign, to get ideas about what to do and how to do it. I chose to read it straight through, to try and get an idea of what an effective project might look like in its entirety, which was perhaps less helpful because I didn't necessarily have concrete items to apply it to for myself right away. But overall, I think it would be an excellent guide to use during a project/campaign.

The book has a ring of honesty to it, and isn't super optimistic about everything, or overly focused on encouraging people into action. Instead, it talks a lot about pitfalls that organizers can run into (say, the different ways a group can experience burnout) and ways to avoid them, which seems to me more useful.
There were a couple places where I thought it fell a little short. The author's examples were focused largely on what organizing might look like in a city of a particular density, (really, it sounded more suburban, with a few houses to each block) and nothing about how to deal with incredibly dense urban areas. Is organizing by blocks really feasible if you have several hundred units (meaning possibly several thousand people) in a single apartment complex? How do you do effective canvassing when apartments, as opposed to single-family homes, are the main living arrangement for an entire neighborhood?

Still, overall, I would recommend it.