I was talking to a group of seven or eight older people the other day, who were all active in social and civic roles in an area where most had lived for more than ten years (some more than thirty years).
There was clear consensus among the group that local people were neither more nor less likely to get involved now than they were 20 years ago. 'It's still five per cent,' was one man's way of summing it up.
People spoke about barriers to participation, and got quite worked up about the impact of CRB checks, the amount of documentation you have to read to be an active citizen, and the compensation culture:
There's far more stuff you have to read. Strategies and risk analyses. Society can be so litigious, that keeps people back a bit. People are generally wary of this compensation culture, the blame culture...
It was noted that scout groups, for example, have great difficulty recruiting volunteers, and village fetes are in decline because of the insurance costs.
So there are powerful forces working against participation, and yet these experienced folk felt that levels of involvement had not really changed. What's going on then?
Perhaps previously the barriers to participation were lower but the opportunities and calls for involvement were fewer. Was there more social and cultural participation (local societies, faith group involvement, sports clubs) and less civic participation? Or does it just seem that way now because we're trying to force civic participation and finding levels of social involvement inadequate? Presumably there were also higher levels of union and political party membership, which could more readily be mobilised into political participation.
These questions highlight the need to understand if people progress from social to political participation (which seems the more likely direction, if there is one); and if so, how and why they do so. Wouldn't it be good if there was some well-funded research going on, which might give us insights into such questions? Ooh look, that's handy, Involve have announced just such a project. Presumably they'll be talking to older people.
