"What Petitjean's book offers...is the importance of being alert to, and shifting away from, the anti-political tendencies of both horizontalism and management consulting, and towards a clearer practice of political representation and contestation." -Emma Tai, Convergence
"In left-wing circles and right-wing fever dreams, the professional organizer has recently been a key protagonist. Occupation: Organizer casts a sympathetic yet rigorously critical light on that position. Petitjean's contribution is vital to figuring out what the barriers are to remaking our world into the more democratic, just, and peaceful place we know it can be." -Micah Uetricht, coauthor of Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism
"An essential read for everybody interested in the history and contradictions of community organizing in the US." -Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics
"Occupation: Organizer is a deeply thought-provoking book that approaches community organizing-and critically, the role of the organizer-from the standpoint of the development of a profession, with all the ironies and difficulties that entails. With a sharp and unsparing sociological eye, Cl.ment Petitjean asks how the job of "community organizer" emerged over decades and how identifiable but unstable boundaries formed around it. It is a story that highlights both key figures and strategies in the professionalization process and the movements and institutions that made them effective. Petitjean leaves the reader with both an appreciation of the work organizers do and a deep unease about the profession itself. Occupation: Organizer brings new perspectives to current thinking about nonprofits, foundations, and the weakening of grassroots movements and challenges us to think more clearly about present contradictions and the real futures that may emerge from them." -John Krinsky, City College of New York Occupation
