David J. O’Brien – författare

Why do some groups retain their ethnicity as they become assimilated into mainstream American life while others do not? This study employs both historical sources and contemporary survey data to explain the seeming paradox of why Japanese Americans have maintained high levels of ethnic community involvement while becoming structurally assimilated. Most traditional approaches to the study of ethnicity in the United States are based on the European immigrant experience and conclude that a zero-sum relationship exists between assimilation and retention of ethnicity: community solidarity weakens as structural assimilation grows stronger. Japanese Americans, however, like American Jews, do not fit this pattern.The basic thesis of this book is that the maintenance of ethnic community solidarity, the process of assimilation, and the reactions of an ethnic group to outside forces must be understood in light of the internal social organization of the ethnic group, which can be traced to core cultural orientations that predate immigration. Though frequently excluded from mainstream economic opportunities, Japanese Americans were able to form quasi-kin relationships of trust, upon which enduring group economic relations could be based. The resultant ethnic economy and petit bourgeois family experience fostered the values of hard work, deferred gratification, and other perspectives conductive to success in mainstream society.This book will be of interest to sociologist and psychologist studying ethnicity, community organization, and intergenerational change; and to anyone interested in the Japanese American experience from an economic or political perspective, Asian American studies, or social history of the United States.

Since the end of the civil rights era in the sixties it has become increasingly clear that social and political conflicts cannot be resolved entirely at the national level. Struggles between residents of poor neighborhoods and local interest groups or public authorities present some of our most explosive domestic political problems today. This study seeks insight into these problems through an analysis of efforts during the sixties to organize the poor to pursue their interests in local decision-making processes. David J. O'Brien holds that both organizers and scholarly observers of the grass-roots movement have failed to understand properly the process by which interest groups are formed. Arguing that the demise of neighborhood organization cannot be attributed to supposedly unique social, psychological, or cultural characteristics of the poor, he develops an analytical framework that emphasizes the strategic role of incentives and organizational resource problems.This framework helps explain not only the failure of organizers in the sixties to grasp the problems of interest group formation, but also the assumptions that prevented them from identifying the source of their frustration. The author assesses the different approaches that have been taken to neighborhood organization, and outlines a model for future efforts. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Since the end of the civil rights era in the sixties it has become increasingly clear that social and political conflicts cannot be resolved entirely at the national level. Struggles between residents of poor neighborhoods and local interest groups or public authorities present some of our most explosive domestic political problems today. This study seeks insight into these problems through an analysis of efforts during the sixties to organize the poor to pursue their interests in local decision-making processes. David J. O'Brien holds that both organizers and scholarly observers of the grass-roots movement have failed to understand properly the process by which interest groups are formed. Arguing that the demise of neighborhood organization cannot be attributed to supposedly unique social, psychological, or cultural characteristics of the poor, he develops an analytical framework that emphasizes the strategic role of incentives and organizational resource problems.This framework helps explain not only the failure of organizers in the sixties to grasp the problems of interest group formation, but also the assumptions that prevented them from identifying the source of their frustration. The author assesses the different approaches that have been taken to neighborhood organization, and outlines a model for future efforts. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Urban Catholic Education: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times is a sequel to a 2010 work with the similar title, Urban Catholic Education: Tales of Twelve American Cities. Together, these works explore the historical contours of the Catholic parochial school movement in America’s divergent urban centers from colonial times to the present. The first volume covers the years of growth and expansion up to 1970 and the second volume continues the story and discusses the years of decline and retrenchment over the past forty years. In this second volume, ten scholars – many affiliated with Catholic schools and universities – address the recent history of parish schools in as many cities across the country. Not only do the essays address common themes, they also articulate the elements that make Catholic education distinctive in each city. The book is a valuable touchstone for Catholic educators and scholars who work in and for a national Catholic educational establishment; that establishment includes 238 colleges and universities and several thousand Catholic high schools among other institutions.

Urban Catholic Education: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times is a sequel to a 2010 work with the similar title, Urban Catholic Education: Tales of Twelve American Cities. Together, these works explore the historical contours of the Catholic parochial school movement in America’s divergent urban centers from colonial times to the present. The first volume covers the years of growth and expansion up to 1970 and the second volume continues the story and discusses the years of decline and retrenchment over the past forty years. In this second volume, ten scholars – many affiliated with Catholic schools and universities – address the recent history of parish schools in as many cities across the country. Not only do the essays address common themes, they also articulate the elements that make Catholic education distinctive in each city. The book is a valuable touchstone for Catholic educators and scholars who work in and for a national Catholic educational establishment; that establishment includes 238 colleges and universities and several thousand Catholic high schools among other institutions.

Best practices for nonprofits for long-term success in a rapidly changing world. Building Smart Nonprofits: A Roadmap for Mission Success is a handbook of best practices nonprofits can use to improve sustainability - a book of knowledge and know-how distilled from interviews with over 60 industry leaders who are in the nonprofit trenches every day—as executives, leaders, board members, funders, publishers, and service providers. David J. O’Brien and Matthew D. Craig provide real-life examples of nonprofits deploying best practices and emerging industry trends – such as the rise of socially conscious investing – to position their organizations for the long term. Topics include, among others, funding models, impact investing, compensation, strategic restructuring, leadership, full-cost grantmaking, program evaluation, storytelling, and financing. Readers learn how to best position their non-profit organization for a sustainable and long-term future.

Through the lens of an economist’s notion of public goods, David J. O’Brien analyzes the dual problems of declining communities and polarizing conflicts between metropolitan and rural communities. This macro-level institutional approach requires a precise definition of the specific ways in which community-level challenges can negatively affect a larger voting public.The author describes in detail how seemingly intractable community-level problems and inter-community conflicts have been substantially reduced by framing them in terms of the self-interest of a larger polity. Examples include The Federalist Papers, written in defense of the US Constitution, New Deal institutions created during the Great Depression, the post-World War II European Union, and more recent macro-level institutional changes that are assisting, in varying degrees, rural community sustainability in the US, Kenya, Rwanda and Russia.O’Brien’s extensive community-level research experience in urban and rural communities that covers multiple historical periods, will appeal to inter-disciplinary social scientists, development specialists and persons looking for a hopeful, practical approach to solving the challenges of globalization.