SW 230—Theories and Policies of Community Organizing and Development

This course will explore legal and policy developments pertaining to climate change. Approaches considered will range in jurisdictional scale, temporal scope, policy orientation, regulatory target, and regulatory objective. Although course readings and discussion will focus on existing and proposed responses to climate change, the overarching aim of the course will be to anticipate how the climate change problem will affect our laws, our organizations, and our lives in the long run. This course provides students with an understanding of the ways in which the history of community organizing and development informs community theory and policy across urban and rural settings. With an emphasis on group development theory, students will be introduced to the major theories and policies that impact neighborhood/community capacity, including but not limited to theories of poverty, inequality, human rights, urban and rural community organizing and development, and neighborhood organizing. A particular focus is the intersection of these theories and policies within this framework that can create social capital and foster entrepreneurship, social innovation, and cross-sector collaboration.