A Study On The Urban Community Organization Model Of Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky is referred to as the father of American community organizing, he was the strongest influence on neighborhood-based and non-ideological community organizing, which is the practice of bringing people together face to face to solve local problems. The place as one of community organization pioneers guaranteed through ongoing social practice, discussing and analyzing community theories. His viewpoint of the community is still being used to to deal with urban unrest and impact on urban development in the United States.This paper interprets the Alinsky model of community organizing, aiming at analyzing the relationship between community organizing and neighborhood planning, as well as the close connection between citizen participation and the right to the city, and then in order to point out the significance of Alinsky’s view to urban study.This paper is composed of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introduction introduces Alinsky’s life, academic experience and activities as well as domestic and foreign scholars’ research states on Alinsky’s viewpoint. The body is divided into three chapters, the first chapter introduces the historical background and the shaping of Alinsky’s model. The second chapter discusses the connotation of Alinsky-style organization, including the idea of community which based on his training at the University of Chicago and its features. The third chapter assesses the influence of Alinsky’s model on the neighborhood planning, taking Back of the Yards neighborhood as an example to research his contribution to urban studies and urban politics. In the end, the author reveals the meaning of the Alinsky model of community organizing to city development.The Alinsky model of community organizing shaped between the 1930 s and late 20 th century, he provided a groundbreaking idea from the perspective of citizen participation for many problems of urbanization in the United States, researching Alinsky’s viewpoint of the community organizing today has great realistic meaning as well.