Syllabus
Over the course of the semester will be exploring how change occurs in different problem areas and contexts, and how people with legal training initiate, facilitate, or lead change. We will be cultivating some of the skills that enable change agents to develop strategic capacity needed to effectively address difficult and complex problems. We will be exploring the different roles that people with legal training occupy, and their relationship to these theories and strategies for change.
Section I: Orientating our inquiry:
Class 1: Situating Law in the Project of Social and Institutional Change
Stoddard, Bleeding Heart, Reflections on Using the Law to Create Social Change
Robert Cover, Nomos and Narrative, 1-10
Lopez, Changing Systems, Changing Ourselves
Class 2: What is a theory of change? How does it relate to law and lawyering?
Xavier de Souza Briggs, Community Building: The New and Old Politics of Urban Problem Solving
Foster Fishman, Nowell & Yang, Putting the Systems Back in Systems Change
Haglund and Aggarwal, Test of Our Progress: The Translation of Economic and Social Rights Norms into Practice
Heifetz, Mobilizing Adaptive Work (optional)
Section 2: Education as a Change Arena
Class 3: Litigation in context: law reform vs. systems mobilization
Michael Paris, Framing Equal Opportunity: Law and the Politics of School Finance Reform
Bell, Brown v. Board of Education and The Interest Convergence Dilemma
Class 4: Transformation in the wake of retrenchment: Institutional redesign and systems change.
Sturm, Building the Architecture of Inclusion in Higher Education
Sturm, Law and the Practice of Workplace Equity
Class 5: Transforming criminal justice and education through collective impact
Kania and Kramer, Collective impact
Corcoran et al, Collective Impact for Opportunity Youth
Class 6: Community mobilization strategies
The Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy: What the Research Says
Community Resilience: A Social Organization Theory of Action and Change, in Pathways of Human Development
Michael Grinthal, "Power With: Practice Models for Social Justice Lawyering
Guests: Oona Chatterjee, Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Section 3: Criminal Justice as a Change Arena
Class 6: Connecting individual and systemic change
Schein, Understanding Culture
Kim Taylor-Thompson, “Individual Actor v. Institutional Player: Alternating Visions of the Public Defender,” 84 Geo. L.J. 2419 (1996)
Center for Court Innovation, "Adolescent Diversion Program in New York"
Class 8 Theater, policy advocacy and media as a transformative strategy:
Jan Cohen Cruz, Cultural organizing: Multiple modes of communication
What I Want My Words to Do To You
Theater for Social Change Group to come to class/Vivian Nixon, Allan Rosenthal
Innocence project
Section 4 – Strategies in Context
Class 9 Health and Transformation
Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems (Book to be purchased)
Louise Trubek: Public Interest Lawyers and New Governance: Advocating for Healthcare
Class 10: Accountability/Data driven change initiatives: examples from employment and child welfare
Noonan, Sabel, and Simon, Legal Accountability in the Service-Based Welfare State: Lessons from Child Welfare
Olati Johnson, Disparity Rules
Archon Fung, The effectiveness of regulatory disclosure policies
Community health assessment and change: An action guide
Class 11: Backlash, Conflict and Social Change
Peter Coleman, The Five Percent Solution: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts
Jane Mansbridge, Toward a Theory of Backlash
Reva Siegel and Linda Greenhouse, Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions
About Backlash
Justice Ginsburg: Roe v. Wade Decision Came Too Soon
Class 12: Immigration: the politics of change
Lawyers and Linkages: Promoting Access to Education for Undocumented Students by Facilitating Multi-Level Change
Monforti, Guarding our Borders with Gardasil: Immigrant Women and Physical Autonomy
Reich, G., & Mendoza, A. A. (2008). “Educating kids” versus “coddling criminals”: Framing the debate over instate tuition for undocumented students in Kansas. State Politics and Policy Quarterly
Bloemraad, I., & Trost, C. (2008). It’s a family affair: Inter-generational mobilization in the spring 2006 protests. http://www.russellsage.org/research/reports/family-affair-intergenerational-mobilization
Gonzales, R. G. (2008). Left out but not shut down: Political activism and the undocumented Latino student movement. Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy (attached)
Week 13: Bring a race/class/gender lens to policy change
Section I: Orientating our inquiry:
Class 1: Situating Law in the Project of Social and Institutional Change
Stoddard, Bleeding Heart, Reflections on Using the Law to Create Social Change
Robert Cover, Nomos and Narrative, 1-10
Lopez, Changing Systems, Changing Ourselves
Class 2: What is a theory of change? How does it relate to law and lawyering?
Xavier de Souza Briggs, Community Building: The New and Old Politics of Urban Problem Solving
Foster Fishman, Nowell & Yang, Putting the Systems Back in Systems Change
Haglund and Aggarwal, Test of Our Progress: The Translation of Economic and Social Rights Norms into Practice
Heifetz, Mobilizing Adaptive Work (optional)
Section 2: Education as a Change Arena
Class 3: Litigation in context: law reform vs. systems mobilization
Michael Paris, Framing Equal Opportunity: Law and the Politics of School Finance Reform
Bell, Brown v. Board of Education and The Interest Convergence Dilemma
Class 4: Transformation in the wake of retrenchment: Institutional redesign and systems change.
Sturm, Building the Architecture of Inclusion in Higher Education
Sturm, Law and the Practice of Workplace Equity
Class 5: Transforming criminal justice and education through collective impact
Kania and Kramer, Collective impact
Corcoran et al, Collective Impact for Opportunity Youth
Class 6: Community mobilization strategies
The Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy: What the Research Says
Community Resilience: A Social Organization Theory of Action and Change, in Pathways of Human Development
Michael Grinthal, "Power With: Practice Models for Social Justice Lawyering
Guests: Oona Chatterjee, Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Section 3: Criminal Justice as a Change Arena
Class 6: Connecting individual and systemic change
Schein, Understanding Culture
Kim Taylor-Thompson, “Individual Actor v. Institutional Player: Alternating Visions of the Public Defender,” 84 Geo. L.J. 2419 (1996)
Center for Court Innovation, "Adolescent Diversion Program in New York"
Class 8 Theater, policy advocacy and media as a transformative strategy:
Jan Cohen Cruz, Cultural organizing: Multiple modes of communication
What I Want My Words to Do To You
Theater for Social Change Group to come to class/Vivian Nixon, Allan Rosenthal
Innocence project
Section 4 – Strategies in Context
Class 9 Health and Transformation
Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems (Book to be purchased)
Louise Trubek: Public Interest Lawyers and New Governance: Advocating for Healthcare
Class 10: Accountability/Data driven change initiatives: examples from employment and child welfare
Noonan, Sabel, and Simon, Legal Accountability in the Service-Based Welfare State: Lessons from Child Welfare
Olati Johnson, Disparity Rules
Archon Fung, The effectiveness of regulatory disclosure policies
Community health assessment and change: An action guide
Class 11: Backlash, Conflict and Social Change
Peter Coleman, The Five Percent Solution: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts
Jane Mansbridge, Toward a Theory of Backlash
Reva Siegel and Linda Greenhouse, Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions
About Backlash
Justice Ginsburg: Roe v. Wade Decision Came Too Soon
Class 12: Immigration: the politics of change
Lawyers and Linkages: Promoting Access to Education for Undocumented Students by Facilitating Multi-Level Change
Monforti, Guarding our Borders with Gardasil: Immigrant Women and Physical Autonomy
Reich, G., & Mendoza, A. A. (2008). “Educating kids” versus “coddling criminals”: Framing the debate over instate tuition for undocumented students in Kansas. State Politics and Policy Quarterly
Bloemraad, I., & Trost, C. (2008). It’s a family affair: Inter-generational mobilization in the spring 2006 protests. http://www.russellsage.org/research/reports/family-affair-intergenerational-mobilization
Gonzales, R. G. (2008). Left out but not shut down: Political activism and the undocumented Latino student movement. Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy (attached)
Week 13: Bring a race/class/gender lens to policy change