The History of the Alinsky Organizing Model and Its Practice within Community and Organized Labor

Saul Alinsky was a native of Chicago, a vital manufacturing and transportation hub for the country in the 1930s. Scores of meat packing companies, warehouses, and train lines converged on the Second City and employed thousands of...

Organizing, Power Building, and Bridging

If progressives are to win, transformative change in the long run, we will not do so by achieving piecemeal policy victories for individual target groups. Rather, victory will be in shifting people’s worldview about themselves and the kind of society they want...

Belonging Design Principles

Design Principles for Building Belonging Across our planet, people are looking for effective ways to build just, equitable, and inclusive institutions that serve and support everyone. Even more challenging, we’re looking for ways to do so without...

Climate Refugees

Facts, Findings, and Strategies for ‘Loss and Damage.’ - Despite the growing consensus among climate scientists and international governing bodies that forced migration is an effect of climate change, and although the expression “climate refugees” is often used to describe climate-induced migration across ...

Single-Family Zoning in the Monterey Region

Introduction The authors would like to thank Joshua Cantong, Data Analyst at the Othering and Belonging Institute for their valuable insights and contributions. This brief report continues our series investigating the extent of restrictive and...

Advancing Racial Equity: Legal Guidance for Advocates

In the wake of greater attention and awareness brought to continuing racial injustice in society, and in the wake of the Supreme Court's June 29, 2023 decision curtailing affirmative action, many communities, organizations and institutions are struggling to figure out how to advance racial equity in different realms.

Racial Disparities

This project provides data on critical life outcomes for American society, and highlights areas of progress and regress in closing disparities.

African Just Transitions

In our research for this paper, we focus on how African climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are combating the drivers of the climate crisis, managing the impacts of the climate crisis, and forging strategies to build climate resilience.

Forging a Progressive Response to Fragmentation

For some, the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and the prosecution of January 6th insurrectionists might suggest that US democracy has remained strong through years of social and political instability. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden claimed that US democracy is “unbowed and unbroken.” However, it would be remiss to believe that the threat of authoritarianism has abated.

Zoning Reform Tracker

The Othering & Belonging Institute is proud to launch the Zoning Reform Tracker, which is meant to serve as a hub for documenting zoning reform efforts across the United States. There are two components to the Zoning Reform Tracker: a sortable database, and an interactive webmap.

The History of Corporate Power

This article is derived from, but not a synopsis of, " Beyond Public/Private: Understanding Excessive Corporate Prerogative" by john a. powell and Stephen Menendian, which makes the case that corporations have overstepped their appropriate role in...

Structural Racism Explained

The “Structural Racism Explained” video draws upon many varied sources in formulating specific definitions for different types of racism. The video and prompts provided in this video and teaching guide are designed primarily for teachers to help students clarify and sharpen their understanding of the material.

Single-Family Zoning in the San Diego Region

Introduction The authors would like to thank Joshua Cantong, Data Analyst at the Othering and Belonging Institute for their valuable insights and contributions. This brief report continues our series investigating the extent of restrictive and...

Deconstructing the 'Housing Crisis'

For a several years now I’ve observed with growing alarm, then despair, as California’s housing woes—astronomical prices, skyrocketing rents and rates of annual appreciation, knee-jerk opposition to new housing, an epidemic of displacement and...

Community Land Trusts as Stewards of Public Land

California’s affordability crisis has reached every corner of the state, and local governments are examining their assets to find ways to support the preservation and development of affordable housing. This guide documents how local governments can...

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Transformative Research Toolkit

Introduction We have seen and participated in transformative research strategies that defeated proposed jail expansions, won millions of dollars for community-prioritized programs, and built new community-led organizations that changed a political...
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Depolarization Day

Want a chance to hear from experts studying the root of what’s driving us apart and how we come back together? Eager to build the skills to listen empathetically, elicit narratives of connection, and interview professionally? Looking for a chance...

Book Talk: Before Gentrification, with Tanya Golash-Boza

Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza's book Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC's Racial Wealth Gap explores how redlining, incarceration, anti-blackness, and gentrification have resulted in DC becoming an extremely unequal city. She presented her book...