Neighbourhoods

A new age of collective action?

 

According to a reporter on R4’s Today programme this morning, one trade union has seen membership increase by 11,000 in the past three months. So while the coalition government is determinedly polarising British life, by making no effort to constrain the vulgar greed of the wealthy while patronisingly clobbering the least well off, it’s proving quite efficient at stimulating collective action.

So this ‘rebuke to an elite that gives money to banks at the expense of the poor’ might just be an unanticipated manifestation of big society, for those who remember it. And there’s nowt like a bit of class confrontation to help take your mind off the niceties of economic forecasting.

Meanwhile it’s fun to scan through the 102 things not to do if you hate taxes – for example, ‘Do not walk or run on sidewalks… Do not expect to be able to vote on election days.’ (Via Diane Dyson).

Maybe those of us who believe in the importance for civilisation of some things being public, and who resent the systematic erosion of that principle by the Haves, should keep a short version of this list in our pockets as a handout for those moments when we encounter these people – which is always in public space of course.

 

Space in the home

BSHF have started some interesting-looking research into what constitutes a ‘decent’ amount of domestic space.

‘A range of different standards are used by central and local government to measure aspects of space in the home, like overcrowding and under occupation.  There is also a range of space standards available as guides for new housing development. But the assumptions behind these standards are not always clear. And there is little information on what the general public thinks is acceptable when it comes to space in the home, and what not.’  

 

'Added public value'? FE colleges

Further education colleges have long played important roles in community development and citizenship in the local context, and they've been subject to a lot of shortsighted central government manipulation over the past 20 years or so. Like libraries, they represent a tradition that implies democratic engagement, and mutual-support for empowered, purposeful citizenship.

Now NIACE have published the final report of the Independent Commission on Colleges in their Communities, which was set up to investigate the role that FE colleges play locally, and the added public value that they bring to their communities as 'leaders of learning'.

Judging from the summary, the report is far from hard-hitting. It seems to be super-sensitive to the likelihood that any criticism would invite more awkwardness from government. Well, the commissioners are closer to policy than I am, so perhaps it's the right approach, but it hardly inspires fringe supporters like me. If nothing else, I'd want to see some assertive upfront demonstration of that 'added public value' that is claimed.

Previously: Shifting institutions

Pavement parking: time for windscreen stickers?

As a pedestrian and experienced buggy-pusher living in an outer urban area that has a high car population, I'm pleased to see this: the good folk at Living Streets are cranking up their campaign against pavement parking.

I know parking options are a problem for a lot of people - inadequate housing supply often means several people in the same household who depend on their car (or think they do) for work, living in houses not designed for multiple car ownership. But there are two far worse problems I suspect - unnecessary use which suggests possible unnecessary ownership, and downright inconsiderate parking.

Because authorities have been so slow to crack down on the habit, it is seen as acceptable. What effect will the campaign have?

I suggest it needs universally available stickers issued to all buggy-pushers, wheelchair users and pedestrians with mobility problems, with a legend saying 'please show more consideration to pavement users'. The stickers could be applied to the windscreen and should not be too easy to remove: it should take at least as long for an inconsiderate driver to remove the sticker as it does for a buggy-pusher to wait for a safe moment to go into the road, around the vehicle and regain the safety of the pavement.

Another option of course would be a website with geo-located and time-stamped images - and forget that stuff about blanking out the registration plates.

 

Online, local social capital, and network diversity

Some years ago there was interest in the possibility of what was known as ‘cyber-balkanisation’ – the expectation that online activity would create silos of communities of interest at the expense of diversity of networks; and perhaps that local communities based on face-to-face contact might atrophy as a direct consequence. I even wrote an article for the New Statesman about it, it must have been at least ten years ago.

Now here’s research to confirm that social networks are not less diverse when mediated online, and that online use makes a ‘positive and substantive total contribution’ to network diversity and hence to the social capital that is accessible through personal networks.

This is the most recent output from Keith Hampton and his colleagues based on the data collected for the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

I've just posted a summary review of the paper over on the Networked Neighbourhoods blog. The journal article linked above is subscription only, but Keith offers a draft here.

 

Picnic, the launch

And so my little essay about picnic and community was launched on Monday this week, with a small invited gathering at the Wellcome Collection. I started this project more than two years ago, collaborating with artist Gemma Orton since the early summer this year, and benefitting hugely from the advice and support of Giles Lane, using the Bookleteer process.

It’s been an entirely unfunded project - which gave me freedom to write what I wanted to, but of course has made it inevitably loss-making (yes I know, I’m a lousy capitalist).

No matter. Gemma and I had some friends and interested parties round for a little swigging, guzzling, and networking with the opportunity to buy copies and some of her striking images. Gemma had taken several of the designs used in the book, printed them digitally onto fabric, and added stitching. (Examples and still a few pieces available here). We also had the chance to hear some songs from the delightful Ije Amaechi – a special moment for me as I have known Ije since she was tiny - and a few poems from Kim Morrissey of the Purple Poets, who contributed to the 2009 Wellcome community picnic.

By way of setting the tone for the evening, we had invited people @PicnicLaunch to suggest ‘late arrivals’ at the picnic event. You know the kind of thing – ‘Will you welcome please... Mr and Mrs Got the Mayonnaise and their son Ivor Got the Mayonnaise.‘ I’m pleased to say that some offerings were quite excruciating, naming no names Richard, and will not be reproduced here.

More on the booklet here, and you can help keep economically-incompetent artists going a little longer by clicking in the right place on this page. The standard edition costs just £10.00 and the special limited edition, sold in aid of the homelessness charity Crisis, is £30.00. Think Christmas.

The pic of Gemma and myself above was taken by Rebekah Franklin; the pic of Kim Morrissey reading at the launch event was taken by Ben Harris.

Previously: Picnic and community.

See also: this post with video interviews, by David Wilcox.

Community: it's no picnic - Julian Dobson.

 

Local open spaces

The National Housing Federation have published a new guide on Greener neighbourhoods:

This publication sets out ideas for developing partnerships and improving green spaces to meet the needs and aspirations of communities now and in the future. It presents a number of ways in which housing green space can be used and managed to facilitate local involvement and increase resident satisfaction.

The guide includes a useful short summary of a detailed literature review, Living green: evidence to support the provision of green space around social housing, carried out by Helen Woolley and Alison Somerset-Ward from the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield. At the time of writing I was not able to find it online.

 

The cleansing of community development

The other day I attended the launch of the Church Urban Fund’s new programme called Near Neighbours. The programme will disburse central government money in small grants through local parishes. There are strong themes of cohesion and working with faith groups:

‘This fund will help local initiatives that build cross-community relationships i.e. people of different faith groups and those of no faith, working together through social action in their community to form closer relationships.’

The scheme is focused in the north of England (Bradford, Burnley and Oldham); Leicester; areas of London, and areas of Birmingham ‘which are diverse and multi-faith.’

There are already impressive stories of collective endeavour in Near Neighbours projects. Judging from conversations about the kind of project that is being funded, it’s apparent that the work that will be supported is community development work or community action. As is the fashion, the language is dominated more by the N words ‘neighbourhoods’ and ‘neighbours’ than by the C word, which is taking a breather after a really hard decade.

There is no attempt to anchor this initiative in the principles and experience of established community development. Indeed, the programme fits the emerging pattern of new community-development-that-is-not-quite-community-development –

• National funding with a local orientation, that conveniently ignores local democratic structures and roots itself in traditional philanthropic soil. People in positions of power don’t want ordinary people to be political, but stuff needs doing in society. So it’s obvious - invent and fund a de-politicised form of CD.
• A high expectation of voluntary involvement that stimulates other local voluntary involvement, which won’t (in Julian Dobson’s words) ‘frighten the horses,’ and which arguably ‘will leave most of society pretty much as it is’.  
• No allegiance to or even recognition paid to a tradition of such work, known as community development, that also acknowledges inequalities and power structures as part of the problem.

So in its humble way, the Near Neighbours programme fits tidily alongside Nesta’s Neighbourhood Challenge and the Big Lottery’s People Powered Change in the contemporary cleansing of community development.

Much good will come from this strange form of air conditioning, but you gotta wonder about what gets shut out. What happens to people who only breathe filtered air? I guess they get ill if they have to go outside.

Get used to plenty of branding but not much about process or values – and yet a form of community development will have taken place. Get used to a diet of neat success stories, and bright shiny case studies, and people in positions of power queuing up to take the credit while blessing the peasants. And yet a form of community development will have taken place.

It needs to be pointed out that any substantial CD programme with a very weak grasp of the principles and values of CD is rather vulnerable to capture, distortion and misrepresentation.

In spite of these reservations, there are several reasons why I think these programmes will be beneficial. For a start, on a superficial level, CD really did need brightening up: how did any set of practitioners who work with human beings come to be so characterised by humourlessness and dour ruggedness? Like the stereotype under which librarians suffer, it may be exaggerated but it’s there and is counter-productive.

More importantly, I don’t think any attempt to suppress the politics in CD is likely to be successful for long. I think of Marx’s well-known remark, referring to the final emergence of revolution: ‘well-burrowed old mole!’ (OK, perhaps it’s best not to dwell too closely on that analogy).

And most interestingly, what these programmes may do best is to shake up the power structures at the micro-level, more effectively than has happened before. If all the blather about ‘innovation’ can be made to mean anything, it should be about this: developing recognisably-effective relationships at local level that are independent of pre-existing power relationships. (Incidentally, if someone from the coalition government tries to tell you that that’s why they bypass local government, take a moment to examine their motives). That’s where the social media comes in, to help make processes and actions transparent: it could serve to transform the power relations between the people who get things done and the people who stop things being done.

 

 

Seasonal uncertainty

At the weekend I saw my first outdoor Christmas house decorations of the year. Today, out for a run on the trails, I saw a couple of people picking blackberries.

All potential puns in the title of this post have been rejected

Many years ago I had a conversation with someone in which I remember saying I took value from preparing food and handling vegetables. She responded with a look of utter incomprehension: as a modern urbanite she seldom prepared food and couldn't see the point. Why would you do that if you didn't have to? She ate out. As it happens, she went on to become a fairly well-known writer, albeit, you might think, with a fairly limited breadth of experience.

I would be ashamed to have so little connection, on a routine basis, with what I was eating. It’s fair to ask how urban cultures have helped millions of people detach themselves from the biologically ineluctable need to convert plant and animal matter into food.

For all the fashions of food cultures, there remain questions about a wealthy elite who can’t even service their own bodies.

What about the rest of us, facing forecasts of austerity? To the allotments, comrades! Or how about a little animal husbandry?

I like this post by Scott Doyon on the New Urban Network blog, referring to US government efforts in 1918 to encourage people to farm chickens in their backyard.

Easy to look after with predictable yields, how come David Cameron hasn’t spotted the enormous economic potential here? We should have a UK-wide government campaign immediately.

People might start to covet their neighbour’s chickens, but hey, that’s a small price to pay. You can even begin to see a justification for gated communities. The foxes round here would vote for it. And the chickens too, because in so many cases, owners wouldn’t have the heart to do what they’re supposed to do, so the birds might grow old gracefully. They don’t want to be in a pie, they don’t like gravy.

 

 

Connected neighbours-to-be

Here's a little story (with more behind a paywall) from Singapore, reporting online interaction between neighbours-to-be. A handful of the future occupants of a 680-unit development have already met up through a community Facebook group. And they don't move in until 2014.

Picnic and community

About ten or twelve years ago I stopped using the word ‘community’ on its own, a slightly fussy but I think justifiable reaction to the way it is abused. That abuse is not neutral or harmless, but is often part of the contaminated media rhetoric that sustains power relations.

I must have been building up for a binge. Later this month I’ll be publishing a quirky essay on the nature of community - Picnic: order, ambiguity and community - which may seem to compensate fully for the years of abstention.

In 2009 I was asked to evaluate a ‘community picnic’ organised for the Wellcome Trust in north London. As I spoke to some of the older participants about their experience of organising small-scale social events and issues like eating in public, I was struck by the way the practice of picnic and attitudes to ‘community’ have changed.

A bit of historical research allowed me to reflect on the theme of order and disorder, using picnic as a sort of metaphor. The essay uses reportage, social history, sociology, and poetic imagination to explore the problematic way that contemporary understandings of social life try to suppress disorder and present antiseptic, highly-organised models of community, insisting on some mythology of unbreakable harmony.

And I got lucky. Mentioning to one or two people that I was writing a text that was crying out for illustration, I got a virtual introduction to a young artist, Gemma Orton. I was astonished at Gemma's light-touch treatment of some of the main tensions – organisation and disorder, comfort and inconvenience, control and expression - that I was skirting around. Each new version of the images sent me back to the text to try and improve it. This collaboration has been a new and very rewarding experience for me.

I also took advantage of my connection with Diffusion, and we’ve used their marvellous Bookleteer publishing process. It allows the publication of crafty handmades, high quality printed booklets, and electronic versions.

We’re selling a standard edition for £10.00 and a signed limited edition in aid of Crisis, for £30.00. I chose Crisis because I want to point out the tasteless irony that homeless people eat out of doors much of the time, but are denied the pleasures of picnic (and often the benefits of community as well).

More here about the publication, and you can order copies here.

 

 

 

Selective localism

The government’s localism champion, Eric Pickles, appears to have the support of the High Court for his anti-localist decision that the residents of the village of Kings Cliffe should put up with having radioactive waste dumped in the vicinity.

According to a Public Service article published just now,

'The case was seen as an example of how the government may speak of encouraging localism in one breath but in the next force communities to accept decisions that they have opposed through democratic means.'

Some of the background here. Kings Cliffe Wastewatchers site is here.

Sooner or later, those who got over-excited about localism were bound to have to face up to the fact that some decisions affecting localities have to be taken at levels beyond the most local. It didn’t seem to occur to Mr Pickles and his advisors though, so we get the rhetoric of localism when it suits them but not when it doesn’t. I hope it turns out that the government has picked a bad example here.

Whatever next?

Somebody asked me if I feel like I’m being stalked. It might seem like the Young Foundation, bless them, are following me. First it was on the subject of neighbouring, then neighbourhood online networks, now civility. (There may be others, I’m really not interested in keeping a score).

Of course they’re not, they’re a think-tank.

I’ve been scanning the latest report, Charm offensive: cultivating civility in 21^st century Britain, and I’m well-impressed. I’m happy to give this modest publicity to their cause.

I look forward to their forthcoming work on young people looked after.