Community Action: Past, Present and Future

What’s on offer?

This roundtable event will mark the official launch of a new digital archive of Community Action magazine, which makes an important historical resource on community campaigns and protest movements of the 1970s and 1980s freely available online for the first time. Published from 1972-1990, Community Action played an important role in connecting grassroots struggles across the UK. The event begins with a short introduction to Community Action magazine, before bringing members of the original editorial collective into conversation with contemporary activists, and offers an opportunity to reflect on the role Community Action played within wider movements for social justice and to consider the lessons that might be learned for struggles today.

What’s it about?

Community Action (CA) magazine is a rich resource documenting two decades of social struggle that spanned major economic and social change in the UK. The magazine documented and sought to connect a range of community-led activism and campaigning in the UK, including but not limited to: tenant organising, opposition to slum clearance, alternative plans, advice centres, the women’s movement, workplace activism, disability rights and community transport. In addition to thinking through the role of grassroots initiatives in oppositional politics over the last 50 years, the event will also reflect on the role of DIY publication and how this has changed with the onset of the internet age.

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Jason Slade, Department for Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield

Open to

All welcome