Social Policy magazine

Social Policy is a quarterly magazine focused on labor and community organizing around the world. Its contributors are a mixture of academics, activists, leaders, and organizers.

Social Policy is published by the Labor Neighbor Research and Training Center. Publisher and editor-in-chief is Wade Rathke, veteran community and labor organizer, and founder of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and ACORN International.

The magazine serves as a forum for dialog about a wide range of activities involving policy and social change both globally and domestically. Regular columns discuss global events, technology, campaign and corporate research, and historical trends in organizing and development. Each issue usually includes substantial excerpts of important new contributions in the literature. There are regular, annual reports on international dialogs to various countries that are written by members of the delegation traveling with the Organizers’ Forum. These reports have been filed from Turkey, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam, for example.

Recent special issues have examined the state of organizing in the labor movement, the background of Barack Obama as a community organizer, the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after Katrina, and the progress towards immigration reform in the United States. A program begun in 2011 also includes special on-line only features on topics of interest by authors such as Drummond Pike and Mike Miller and excerpts from Social Policy Press books.

The magazine was established in 1970 by Frank Reisman of Columbia University who served as the initial publisher and editor. He was succeeded by Mike Miller, who in turn was succeeded by Rathke in 2004.

Social Policy Press, an imprint created by Social Policy magazine and LNRTC, has issued three books: Lessons from the Field: Organizing in Rural Communities (edited by Joe Szakos and Kristin Layng Szakos, 2008), Global Grassroots: Perspectives on International Organizing (edited by Wade Rathke, 2011), and Battle for the Ninth Ward: ACORN, Rebuilding New Orleans, and Lessons from Disaster (by Wade Rathke, 2011).

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