Not everyone can come to Harvard and to the Hauser Center. And even for those who do, there is the ongoing challenge of how best to continue learning. This Networks page was created to show some ways in which Hauser faculty are engaging with the world beyond.

Practicing Democracy Network

Building Movements

Practicing Democracy Network

The Practicing Democracy Network is an on-line forum for students, educators and practitioners to form relationships, share experiences, foster learning, and collaborate - developing the field and practice of organizing. Marshall Ganz launched this site in February 2002 to create a “community of learning” for alumni of his courses to connect in meaningful ways to continue their learning. Since then our membership has grown to includes educators, students, alumni, and practitioners, based in colleges, universities, and community based organizations across the country. Our mission is to develop leaders committed to practicing democracy - engaging fellow citizens in collective action.  We have three goals for the site: 1) to form relationships, compare experience, and support learning through collaboration and reflection;  2) to expand opportunities to learn leadership skills in higher education by supporting instructors, courses, etc;  3) to develop effective community organizations by recruiting potential organizers through internships, sharing job opportunities, and enhancing training programs.

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The Building Movement in the Nonprofit Sector project was developed to look closely at the role of US-based nonprofits in building democracy by offering weight, voice and scale to marginalized and disenfranchised populations through social change organizations.

The project was designed as a vehicle to pose questions about the role of nonprofits in building movements for progressive social change, the impending change in leadership from the ‘baby boom’ generation who founded many of the current nonprofit organizations to a younger generation, and how funding and the need for resources influence the work of social change.  

Findings from the first phase of the project result from conversations with directors and staff in social change/justice nonprofits around the country, in-depth interviews with directors and staff in sixteen social change/justice nonprofits, information from work done in the field by steering committee members and others, and review of relevant literature.  Not surprisingly, there were many contradictions that those working in social change/justice nonprofits faced as they tried to build movement for change and run their organizations.

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