event

People, Power, Change: Book Talk with Marshall Ganz

November 13th, 2024 - 4:00 pm to 6:15 pm PST

EVGR Pavilion Room 716 Serra St, 3rd Floor
Stanford, CA 94305

Register Here

Join us for an engaging conversation with Marshall Ganz and Tomás R. Jiménez.

Join the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), Cyber Policy Center, Democracy Hub, Haas Center for Public Service, and the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life for an engaging conversation with Marshall Ganz, one of the world’s leading authorities on democratic organizing, and Tomás R. Jiménez, Professor of Sociology and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the founding co-director of Stanford’s Institute for Advancing Just Societies. In People, Power, Change, Ganz draws from decades of teaching, research, and organizing to provide invaluable insights for students, practitioners, and activists on how to create collective action for lasting change.

Marshall Ganz has spent his life dedicated to the craft of organizing people to enact the change they want to see in the world. Just a few of his experiences include advocating for civil rights with Bob Moses and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 16 years organizing with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, Nancy Pelosi’s first Campaign and Jerry Brown’s Campaign, developing the grassroots strategy for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign, and training future leaders for over 20 years at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Now, as democracy teeters on a precarious edge in this upcoming election, and as political, economic, and technological forces have weakened nearly all capacity for collective action, Ganz has distilled a half-century’s worth of insights into an urgent call for strengthening democracy, People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal. Written in the tradition of classics like Saul Alinsky’s 1972 Rules for Radicals, Ganz’s transformational book is at once a practical guide on how to reclaim democratic power and an inspiring manifesto for collective organizing as an essential driver of democracy.

Whether it’s a political campaign, community organization, trade union, social movement, advocacy group, or workplace, Ganz argues, lasting and meaningful change only happens if people come together for a shared purpose, deliberate together, and act together. Through real-world examples, political theory, and illustrative diagrams, Ganz breaks down the organizing craft into six chapters that describe its essential components: relationship building, storytelling, strategizing, acting, structuring, and developing leadership.

Today’s threats—the climate crisis, the housing crisis, racism, xenophobia, socioeconomic inequality, transphobia, gun violence, and more—demand that we go back to the basics of how to work together to achieve change and shape a better world. With People, Power, Change, Marshall Ganz compellingly demonstrates that the only way through is by building power together.

Special thanks to our campus marketing partners, Stanford in Government and Coalition for a Ture School of Sustainability, for supporting this event.

Please note: RSVP is required but does not guarantee a seat. Seating is limited and is first come, first serve.

We are committed to making this a zero-waste event. Attendees are encouraged to take public transportation and bring their own to-go boxes for any leftover food. The Stanford Marguerite Shuttle map and schedule can be found here.

Request disability accommodations and access information here.