Readings in community organization practice

One of the paradoxes of human existence is found in the recurrent experience whereby "that which enables, also disables and for the same reason." This observation applies to the hazards of preparing a reader dealing with a subject as fluid as community organization, particularly the timing of such a venture. What is the most propitious time for such a task, assuming there is some merit in it??

Ostensibly, the best of times for the publication of a reader in community organiaztion would be when a sufficient number of concepts and methodologies had emerged so that their collection in book form might provide the basis for a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the art. By this standard, the end of the 1960's marks such an era.. In the past decade, new ideas and experiences proliferated, stretching the boundaries of community organization practice and creating the desirability for an overview and evaluation.

On the other hand, an unsettling period of ferment may well constitute the worst of times in which to try to determine what is the best thinking about an emerging yet amorphous practice that is deeply involved in the rapid and profound changes occurring in American communities. During the five years that have passed since this volume was first conceived, it became increasingly difficult to sort out more enduring contributions from those which were topical or ephemeral, and to distinguish the useful from the primarily polemical. These tasks were made even more complicated by the persistent paucity of suitable theoretical frameworks for the analysis of community organization practice.