Episode 9: Community Organizing, Equity, and Place
Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, University of Southern California, and Director of USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII)
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Manuel Pastor spoke at Rail~Volution 2018 in Pittsburgh in a session focused on the Los Angeles Equity Platform Network (see the Monday 2pm lineup). On the podcast, he describes the role of both research and community organizing in passing the law (SB35) that dedicates revenue from California’s carbon cap and trade program to disadvantaged communities. He sees this as one example of the ways that solutions now bubble up from the local to the state level and beyond. His new book, State of Resistance, delves deeper into the ways that California’s record of organizing in every community led to gains in diversity, inclusion and equity – and is being replicated around the country. Manuel describes the ways that both conservatives and progressives have worked to create a social base of support for their policies.
Also on the podcast:
- a definition of place-based organizing (including some of the leaders who started in community-based organizations, including Karin Bass, Kevin De León, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez);
- how California and Texas differ;
- serendipity and the “ease with mixing” in Los Angeles; and
- why most Economics 101 classes need to update the way they teach about minimum wage and rent regulation.
When we are disconnected, we are not able to grow together. And when we’re not growing together, we’re not able to grow at all. – Manuel Pastor