Neighbourhoods

Social mix and attachment

The debate over social mix continues, which in itself is not a bad thing. Here's something from a report on The influence of neighbourhood deprivation on people's attachment to places, published by JRF and the Chartered Institute of Housing today:

'In general, high levels of mix of various sorts do not have much of a negative effect upon attachment. Indeed, some dimensions of mix (notably tenure and education) can be good for attachment. Where policy creates new communities, this research suggests that the most beneficial form of mix to consider is a mix of educational levels.'

(Attachment is assumed to be a Good Thing). The summary points out that:

'Higher levels of social mix are not generally associated with lower levels of attachment'

and also suggests that

'it might be useful to find ways of recognising or valuing local connections when assessing applications for social housing, since this may help to strengthen existing networks.'

Indeed - noting that suggestions like this tend to get made in a tentative way, I'm gathering a little collection because I suspect/hope that there is some momentum building, and we'll gradually start whispering more loudly. Summary. Full report.

Meanwhile, yesterday we had a report from the Dept for Work and Pensions, on
Social housing and worklessness: key policy messages, coming a little while after this literature review.

I still wonder about the government's new-found purpose in addressing 'worklessness' wherever it thinks it can be hit. I was struck by this paragraph:

'It is questionable whether interventions intended to diversify the social mix in existing areas of social housing will have a substantial impact on levels of worklessness for two key reasons. First, there are various practical challenges associated with the creation of more mixed-income communities. Second, it is questionable whether the promotion of social mix will effectively address social polarisation and concentrations of worklessness in areas of social housing. Disadvantage in the labour market was far more commonly associated with personal disadvantages and roles and responsibilities that were incompatible with work, rather than anything intrinsic about where people were living. This is not to suggest that gains might not be forthcoming from the promotion of social mix, but to point to the importance of such activities being complementary to efforts to improve the incomes and support the livelihoods of existing residents of disadvantaged areas.'

Neighbouring and older people

My text about older people and neighbouring will be published shortly by Community Development Foundation.

There will be a launch, or to put it more technically, an excuse to gather and guzzle, at Shared Intelligence in London on Tuesday 27 May 2008, which happens to be National (wait, make that European) Neighbours Day. (Thanks to Ben Lee from the National Neighbourhood Management Network for providing the venue).

Speakers include David Sillito from BBC News, Chris Gittins from Streets Alive, and Ryan Campbell from Age Concern England. If you'd like to come along, please register as places are limited. Further information is here.

Learning from the local: engagement and cohesion

A quick note about yesterday's Learning from the Local conference organised by the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths.

The main purpose was to report on a recent local project, the Newtown Neighbourhood Project (report will be linked here when I'm told it is available). This material was well contextualised with other presentations, including an update from Marj Mayo on a current JRF project on community engagement, governance and ethnic diversity - 'fluid communities, solid structures'; and a session on researching and working with gypsy-traveller groups.

The Newtown Neighbourhood Project worked in a predominantly white area with a sizeable proportion of residents of gypsy/traveller origin. The partnership (a housing association, a community engagement consultant, and CUCR, with Housing Corporation funding) seems to have worked really well, so that participative research was possible and small specific actions followed from consultative exercises.

The event got me thinking about the ways in which the community engagement agenda may be merging with (or coming into collision with) the community cohesion agenda.

My take on it at the moment, FWIW, is that the two agendas come from different drivers but just because there are tensions between them - for example, there are practices of engagement which might seem to contribute to segregation; and at the same time, as Michael Keith pointed out in response to a question, there's a politics of cohesion which is fairly reactionary - I don't see why there should not be a natural combining process here.

I'd like to live in a society where people incontestably have the right to informed participation in decision-making processes that affect them, and where at the same time people from different backgrounds get on well together. Doesn't sound too much to ask.

Living library: take out a prejudice

Ronni Abergel, one of the originators of the 'living library' idea, is in London next week launching a new guide at this event -

Local Level is currently organising a series of public library-based Living Library events, so we were struck by the slogan 'take out a prejudice'.

It will be interesting to try and find out whether this challenging approach (developed in the context of youth work, I believe) attracts people who might otherwise not be encouraged to explore experiences that are new to them, or whether they might be put off.

Our Living Library events will take place as follows:

Norton Canes Library, Staffordshire

Sat 26 April, 1000-1200; Wed 7 May, 1000-1200 & 1330-1500, Thurs 15 May, 1700-1900.

Bradford Central Library

Wed 14 May, 1500-1900, Thurs 15 May, am, Sat 17 May, am.

Bournemouth Library

Sat 3 May, 1000-1200, Wed 7 May, 1400-1700, Mon 12 May, 1000-1300.

Sevenoaks Library, Kent 

Tues 29 April, pm, Sat 10 May, am, Wed 14th May, am.

Cohesion and inequalities

'I do not think you can get community cohesion unless you tackle the basic inequalities at the same time... I do not think it is possible to have cohesion where you have got such a stark set of differences between people competing in the same area. Part of cohesion and part of the original definition of cohesion was to tackle inequalities at the same time... I do not see them as being two different things. Of course, if you do tackle some of the inequalities, then the chances are that people are going to end up in the same workplace and are going to interact with each other. They are going to end up at universities and in schools in order to interact. The process of measuring inequalities means that you are also maximising the opportunities for people to relate to each other as well on an equal footing.'

Ted Cantle, Institute of Community Cohesion, speaking to the communities and local government committee on community cohesion and migration, 25 February 2008, uncorrected transcript.

Platform 2: VSO meets community action

I think this looks like a really good scheme. It's partly about community cohesion, partly social inclusion, partly good old-fashioned volunteering:

A new Government-backed global volunteering scheme is being launched for 18 to 25 year-olds. 'Platform2' will offer young adults from less advantaged backgrounds the opportunity to live, work and learn about life in poorer countries while making a real difference to peoples lives.

Volunteers will spend 10 weeks overseas. On return to UK they will go on weekends away to prepare personal activity plans of how they want to raise awareness in the UK.

This scheme aims to give young British adults who wouldn't normally have an opportunity the chance to make a valuable contribution to the lives of people overseas who are blighted by poverty.

By living and working with people from very different backgrounds, facing very different challenges, they will learn new skills and help unlock the potential within them to become better global citizens. And on return they'll be applying what they've learned to activities in their own local communities.

BBC coverage.

DFID news page.

Public libraries and multicultural relationships

Helen Carpenter, who managed the Welcome to Your Library project, has just published a very readable report about her international study tour on the role of public libraries in multicultural relationships.

She considers the relationships in terms of:

• how public libraries connect as institutions with all relevant stakeholders
• how they plan and deliver services that reflect, support and promote diversity
• how they enable inter-cultural dialogue and encourage active citizenship in a rapidly changing environment.

Helen visisted Canada, the USA, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, and the report offers numerous little snapshots of good practice with professional reflections. More insights on her travel blog.

Community cohesion: stimulating more interaction

The government's response to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, published today, anounces new actions including guidance for local authorities to consider how funding can better be used to support greater interaction between people from different backgrounds.

The proposed actions are:

* Specialist cohesion teams to be established by central government to provide advice on conflict resolution, mediation, leadership and on the steps that local leaders might take when new people arrive in their area.

* Local authority twinning - between areas of the country experiencing similar issues in order to share ideas and solutions to inspire innovation to respond to these challenges.

* New guidance for local authorities on developing Information Packs for migrants.

* Consultation on cohesion guidance for funders - to encourage local authorities to consider how funding can better be used to support greater interaction, and reducing funding for single groups.

* All local authorities will have access to an impact assessment tool to assess whether the activities they are planning will have a positive impact on cohesion in their neighbourhoods.

Press release.

Local Links - let's hear it for informal networks

Last night saw the launch of the Local Links report, following a joint Common Purpose / JRF project run by Susie Hay. The project worked in four areas of West Yorkshire, stimulating active networks with the aim of uniting people and energising them 'to make networks more productive, worthwhile and sustainable.'

The project injected a lot of energy into local networks over a relatively short period, based on the assumptions that (i) there is often insufficient connection between existing active networks in a locality, and (ii) informal ineraction can make a massive difference to people's perceptions, confidence and contribution.

It's an important project but a difficult one to describe because it examines the benefit of informal networking at local level -

'meeting other people who are active and involved in the area, knowing what they do, talking and working together and forging stronger links.'

All credit to JRF and Common Purpose for making the case for what too many funders would see as 'talk shops,' too wishy-washy to justify resources.

To me, Local Links is an important contribution to the growing pressure to assert informality and the value of conversations in local life. This is not just about saying 'conversations around community action are a good thing' (ho-hum) but saying that culturally we should place more emphasis and value on them as indicators of engagement, participation and a healthy democracy. Thanks Susie.

Report.
Evaluation report by Icarus Collective.
Findings summary.

Friends Out There - 15 Feb in Watford

Here's my friend Bev Carter promoting a crazy event she's roped me into - the launch event for a charity which will run arts based projects with residents of Umulogho Village, Nigeria.

Friends Out There takes place at Watford Colosseum (WD17 3EX - just 20 mins from London) on 15 February. Map. Further details and ticket prices. It's going to be a blazing celebration of African dance, art and music.

• African drumming, dance, juggling and art workshops for children and adults
• Matt the Statue
• Food, refreshments and craft stalls
• Art exhibition and information about links made between Umulogho Village and schools in Watford.

Doors open at 6pm with live performances from 7.45pm until 00.45am, featuring -

• Kakatsitsi, Master Drummers from Ghana
• Chimanimani from Zimbabwe, music to which apparently even I could not remain seated
• Fire juggling and stilt walking by Area 51, the Masters of Breathtaking
• and Rolf Harris has kindly agreed to perform live, accompanied by his friend Shining Bear on didgeridoo.

More details and tickets available from the box office: 01923 225671, or contact Bev Carter on 0208 387 0483, bevalittlesomething (at) hotmail.co.uk

The main aim of the event is to raise funds to improve facilities in Umulogho village and establish a new school building. We also expect to have an outrageously good time. I'm helping with event management so if you are able to come, ask for me and come and say hello. But be warned, I may be on the lookout for volunteers.

Older refugees

The Refugee Council and Age Concern England today ran a conference about their work with older refugees, which has included a set of interviews and three regional 'listening days.'

Key points I got from the presentations I heard:

• Older refugees define integration in terms of their labour market experiences and their local social interactions.
• Many refugees feel isolated and this is related to the sense that neighbours are seldom welcoming.
• Service providers tend to assume that older refugees are invariably cared for by their extended families, which is often not the case.
• There are intergenerational aspects to integration - being accepted by people of different ages is important, and having all generations of one's family accepted is important.
• The lack of (unconditional) respect shown to older people in the UK is very offputting to many people from other cultures and can seem a barrier to integration. (There's a nicety here, which I tried to bring out in Respect in the neighbourhood, about distinguishing between respect for others as a default value of human relations, and unconditional respect for an office or status, such as being a teacher or being old. It may be that we have lamentably low levels of both kinds in the UK, but seeking to re-establish the latter may not be the way forward...)

Copies of reports are available via Age Concern on this page.

Refugees and libraries

The Welcome to Your Library project, which worked on connecting public libraries and refugee communities in five areas around England, has come to an end.

The evaluation is primarily oriented towards library services, although it also points to some interesting case study material. Most strikingly, it suggests that, even in this outstanding project, the libraries' contribution to community cohesion cannot be described as embedded practice. The researchers note:

• a pattern of delivery where services predominantly continue to be delivered “to” refugees rather than “with” them
• conclusions from the refugee environmental testing exercise, which reported there were no visible signs of refugees being an integrated part of the overall library user group
• rare examples of the project advocating on behalf of refugees and raising awareness in the wider community of refugees’ contribution to the community.

This comes across as negative but I think it's a clear indication of just how long some of this stuff takes. As we'd expect from the library sector, achievements in more 'internally focussed' themes, such as reading and learning, were more consistently embedded into practice.

One hopes the momentum from practical initiatives such as conversation clubs, when extended from refugee communities to the general public, will cause a significant benefit spillover. As usual, the message is 'we're not done yet.'

Social capital in schools

Social capital continues to make a comeback. Last month the Department for Children Families and Schools published research into 'the development and impact of young people's social capital in schools.'

Drawing on survey and qualitative interview data from two inner London schools, the researchers looked at the sense of school belonging, access to social support networks, and attitudes to diversity.

As we'd expect, their conclusions assert the importance of the school context in the social life of young people. They emphasise the uneven distribution of social capital (with white boys from lower socio-economic backgrounds having the lowest levels of social capital, and white girls having the lowest levels of socio-psychological resources).

They also point to the need to relate the citizenship curriculum to the neighbourhood context and build extended services that promote collaborative relationships between different social groups.

The report refers to the new duty on schools to promote community cohesion, and I noted one striking finding described in the summary:

The schools in this study were highly ethnically diverse and, on average, students tended to hold positive attitudes to cultural and racial diversity... However, in both schools gay people were perceived as a small minority, and students seemed much less positive to diversity in terms of sexual orientation. Hence, while cultural diversity appeared to be valued, or at least regarded as a non-controversial issue within school, the data suggest that homophobia was a considerable problem in our two secondary schools.

Banal encounters?

It could be that the cohesion movement is discovering the importance of informality. A report by the Institute of Community Cohesion on divisions among young people in the London Borough of Hounslow has apparently floated the idea of creating more 'banal encounters' where children and young people from different communities meet.

This gradual recognition is very welcome. I recall some background unofficial conversations around the work of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, which indicated how difficult it was to get even those who are very familiar with the issues to appreciate the significance of everyday unstructured encounters with diverse others. If I go on about it a lot (eg ephemeral relationships; or respecting informality as a principle) it's because I'm persuaded that it's under-appreciated.

The point surely is not whether this makes sense, because it's attention which is obviously overdue; but how to ensure (i) that the occasions and opportunities for encounters are constantly there, maintained and reinforced, and (ii) that people have the confidence and competence in social interaction to manage and benefit from encounters with diverse others.

Source: Children and young people now. (Thanks to John Vincent of The Network).

Everyone's welcome

From a cracking new resource on migration just launched by our excellent National Archives.

Online game about being a refugee

UNHCR has just launched the English language version of an online game created to increase students' awareness and knowledge about refugee situations, by putting them in the position of a refugee.

In Against all odds, the player is interrogated, hears the sound of guards' footsteps approaching, and senses the urgency in finding safety while racing against the clock.

Press release. Via Welcome to Your Library digest.

Out in the open

Many neighbourhoods in England experience occasional or persistent tensions due to the lack of adequate and appropriate sites for Romany gypsies and Irish travellers.

This year's Building and Social Housing Foundation consultation report is on the theme of providing accommodation, promoting understanding and recognising the rights of gypsies and travellers. In 2006, it says here, 21 per cent of gypsies and travellers had no legal place to park their caravan. (Although we're also told that estimates of the numbers of gypsies and travellers in Britain vary widely, with nothing like a definitive answer; so take that as 21% of roughly 100%).

Out in the open - full text download and summary available .

Interwoven freedom

One of the most striking features in the long anti-slavery campaign was the role of women and the degree to which this involved local networks and highly organised community action (Adam Hochschild, Bury the chains). Local responses to global issues are nothing new.

Now here's an attractive exhibition put together by English Heritage and the Sparkbrook African and Caribbean Women’s Development Initiative (SCAWDI) in the west Midlands.

Interwoven Freedom enabled a group of women to explore slavery and abolition in Birmingham. They visited archives, exhibitions and historic sites with links to slavery and worked with creative writer Ava Ming and textile artist Karina Thompson. Taking inspiration from Birmingham’s abolitionist women and Black enslaved women who campaigned for the end of slavery – they have interwoven their own personal response with the story of freedom.

Drawing on the tradition of abolitionist women who created and distributed workbags filled with anti-slavery manifestos, the participants have written their own manifestos which mix historical facts with vivid fictional stories and powerful poems. They have made workbags from fair trade cotton and African cloth. Woven into their bags are integrated references from their past and personal histories, images of slave ships, photographs and Jamaican and Ghanaian flags.

Various locations in the west Midlands until 19 May 2008.

Halloween, bonfires and diversity

Halloween last week was a disappointment for me. Having invested in the usual disgusting sweets as I thought was my duty, no-one called. Did I give the wrong stuff last year? Did I scare them with my smile? Are they getting picky?

So it's bonfire night, no neighbourhood responsiblities, I can reflect on the way these occasions can get hijacked and, er, inflamed, in unpleasant ways; most depressingly, in 2003 when an effigy of a gypsy caravan was burned (see below). And it seems a good time to note down a couple of interesting articles in a detached sort of way.

Unmasking racism: halloween costuming and engagement of the racial other / Jennifer C. Mueller, Danielle Dirks and Leslie Houts Picca, Qualitative sociology, published online: 11 April 2007.

Abstract

We explore Halloween as a uniquely constructive space for engaging racial concepts and identities, particularly through ritual costuming. Data were collected using 663 participant observation journals from college students across the U.S. During Halloween, many individuals actively engage the racial other in costuming across racial/ethnic lines. Although some recognize the significance of racial stereotyping in costuming, it is often dismissed as being part of the holiday's social context. We explore the costumes worn, as well as responses to cross-racial costuming, analyzing how “playing” with racialized concepts and making light of them in the “safe” context of Halloween allows students to trivialize and reproduce racial stereotypes while supporting the racial hierarchy. We argue that unlike traditional “rituals of rebellion,” wherein subjugated groups temporarily assume powerful roles, whites contemporarily engage Halloween as a sort of “ritual of rebellion” in response to the seemingly restrictive social context of the post-Civil Rights era, and in a way that ultimately reinforces white dominance.

Burning issues: whiteness, rurality and the politics of difference / Sarah L. Holloway, Geoforum 38 (2007) 7–20.

(This is a cracker, I may have refered to it before but make no apology for referring to it again).

Extract from abstract

This paper examines how the concepts of race, racism and rurality are deployed by different commentators as they debate the place of one specific minority ethnic group in the English countryside. The route taken into this is a consideration of print-media reporting of events in Firle, Sussex, where, in 2003, some white rural residents symbolically purged their village of Gypsy-Travellers by burning a mock caravan complete with effigies at their annual bonfire celebrations.

Conversation: everyone's talking about it

Yesterday we held what's thought to be the the first practical experience of 'living library' in the UK. The idea of Living Library is that you can get direct access to experience or knowledge by borrowing a person, for a conversation about some aspect of their lives, personality or role.

It was a tentative start - a gathering of interested folk at CILIP (formerly the Library Association) with a presentation by Martin Field from New South Wales about how the scheme has been run at Lismore Library: followed by an experimental practical session in which participants volunteered to be 'books' or 'borrowed' someone. So we had nine or ten books, from the recently bereaved, the new grandparent, a person of faith, a vegetarian, a refugee, a gardener, living in a village in Nigeria, and so on.

There was unanimous satisfaction with the exercise and a lot of discussion about how it fits into efforts to contribute to community cohesion and contemporary calls for a more conversational democracy. There seems no reason why living library could not be run in places other than a public library (although I think being in the public realm will help to make it work); and it could be organised around a specific theme (such as a child health issue or wartime reminiscences) as well as being general. In a way it reminds me of telephone conferences, being a simple but effective communication device for achieving certain ends, celebrated by those who've tried it but curiously not widely adopted.

Community cohesion and affordable housing

On the back of the recent report of the Integration and Cohesion Commission, the Housing Corporation has published its community cohesion strategy, Shared places.

The document takes a lead and gives a strong steer for affordable housing providers, particularly in:

• giving impetus to the principle of 'mixed communities', with a view to avoiding the concentration of deprivation, and
• emphasising the requirement for all stakeholders in affordable housing to assess the impact of measures and decisions on cohesion and integration.

That second point comes across as a little dull and won't make headlines, but I fancy it could have quite a significant effect.

There should be an accompanying good practice guide, published by the Chartered Insitutute of Housing, available soon.

Cohesion and civic participation

Communities and Local Government last week published some headline findings from the first quarter of the 2007-08 Citizenship Survey, covering April-June 2007.

From which I note:

• As in the last survey (2003), 81% of people agreed that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together.
• Among those aged 16-24, the proportion of people who agree that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their area has increased from 73% to 82% since 2003.
• In April-June 2007, 77% of people felt that they 'strongly belonged to their neighbourhood.' Figures were higher among some ethnic groups - Pakistani (85%), Bangladeshi (83%) and Indian (83%).
• In April-June 2007, 37% of people in England agreed that they could influence decisions in their local area. In 2001 the proportion was 44%.

Seminar about Living Library

The idea of ‘Living Library’ originated in Scandinavia. It's a scheme that gives direct access to someone else’s experience, by allowing people to ‘borrow’ someone who is an expert in their field, has significant experience to share, or is passionate about a hobby.

‘Loans’ take the form of a conversation, and can last for half an hour, a morning or an afternoon.

Living Library has been developed in a number of countries and experience seems to illustrate the contribution that library, museum and archive services can make to community cohesion. I've been working with the Community Services Group of CILIP and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to organise a seminar in London which will share experiences from Australia and Belgium.

Among the questions we hope to explore are:

What ways can be found to link the topic ‘borrowed’ with existing, more permanent, resources?

Should Living Library be mainstreamed?

Is the MLA sector the appropriate place for such initiatives?

Here's the line-up:

Chair: Catherine Max, Head of Policy Development, MLA

Speakers:

Martin Field, Director, Richmond-Tweed Regional Library, New South Wales, Australia

Katleen Van der Straeten, Jeugd Rode Kruis, Belgium

Helen Carpenter, Project Co-ordinator, Welcome To Your Library

Cost: £45 including coffee/tea (CSG members £40).

Blurb and booking form. The pic above is taken from Lismore's Living Library, New South Wales.

Back to school: a context for intergenerational interaction

Many years ago I recall my old mum going to talk to a class at my son's school, about what life was like as a young woman during the war. I was struck at the time by how rewarding the experience seemed to be for all participants - the pupils, the teacher, and the older person herself.

More recently, a few focus groups I ran with older people highlighted a perceived problem of generations just not ‘being around’ each other, in the most informal, shoulder-rubbing mutually accommodating ways, in ways that reflect the give-and-take necessities of getting by. Younger people commonly are able to opt-out of spending time with older people. For many, the requirements of many situations that previously called for compromised and adjusted behaviour have been overcome. Indeed, in many ways we would not wish to revisit the conditions in which they flourished – conditions which might have been characterised by gender inequalities, poverty, overcrowding, and the bullying of children, for instance.

But it does appear that the freedom that many more of us now have, to choose not to be among people who are different – by age, ethnicity, socio-economic class, or whatever – presents our society with a new set of problems, the problems of cohesion, of living with difference.

So in my draft report I noted that while many older people could enliven young people’s understanding of history or geography, for example, and facilitate learning broadly, their knowledge is culturally devalued: they are too seldom invited into schools to talk about their childhood or war-time experiences, for instance.

So here's news: today's Observer reports that Ivan Lewis, the minister for older people, wants to see older people acting as role models for schoolchildren by going into classrooms to teach them about local history, British identity and values such as patience and hard work.

'I would like to see older people having their lunch at a local school, acting as role models and mentors for the kids, and then perhaps local families "adopting" older people to tackle the scourge of loneliness and isolation,' he said. 'At lunchtime in every school in the country, why couldn't older people be sitting down with pupils and sharing lunch instead of doing it at an older person's lunch club or at home?'

Putting the inevitable new labour moralism to one side, this kind of thinking is to be welcomed, if sadly overdue. Older people have had their hands up at the back for a long time without being noticed.

Existing schemes need to be publicised, evaluated, imitated. If this government has finally understood that social cohesion is not just about race, but also about age differences, it's time to pick up the pace a bit.

Public space, diversity, and social interaction

Back on the theme of public space, I just found out that Demos have published a report on public space and interaction between diverse communities, by Joost Beunderman and Hannah Lownsbrough, about the extent to which public spaces can foster everyday positive interaction between people.

It's hard on a quick reading to say what this report adds to the recent glut of material on this theme, particularly following the rich stack of JRF work published last year. It looks to me like it brings together some key threads from all over the place concisely and, as we would expect from Demos, there's the customary intriguing list to provoke us:

• Exchange spaces: places where people exchange ideas, information and goods
• Productive spaces: used by people engaged in activities to grow or create goods
• Spaces of services provision: support services are run from these spaces, either by statutory or voluntary providers
• Activity spaces: where people gather for leisure, such as for play, sport or informal events
• Democratic / participative spaces: for shared decision-making or governance
• Staged spaces: ‘one-off’ special occasions where people are brought together for a specific purpose
• In-between spaces: places which are located between communities
• Virtual spaces: non-physical spaces, such as those created online by social networking sites.

The authors also note that the number of spaces which fall unambiguously into the category of ‘public’ is dwindling; and that 'many seemingly "public" spaces have implicit barriers to entry that diminish their truly public character.' The lessons put forward, however, don't feel as if they are going to transform practice:

1. be flexible in the use of space, understand the grain of people’s everyday lives and reflect it in the design of public space;
2. aim to create the setting for ‘trusted’ spaces, where people feel secure to take part in unfamiliar interactions;
3. foster positive interactions but don’t promote them: take an indirect approach to changing behaviour;
4. embrace creativity and innovation in finding new and imaginative uses for spaces that will transform interactions between people.

As so often I think the missing voices in this debate are the community and social psychologists. I'd like to learn more about how we associate value or non-value or distrust with confused or neglected spaces, especially those leftover spaces of uncertainty that attract some and repel others. I can't believe that the psychology of space doesn't have a refreshing contribution to make to the issues of cohesion and integration, towards which this report and others (eg Dines and Cattell) have been groping.

This report was prepared for the Commission for Racial Equality, referring to diversity in its sub-title, and Beunderman and Lownsbrough have woven-in some interesting points about territoriality and segregation both in general terms and with reference to their case studies. As the list of lessons above suggests, however (at least to me) we still don't have the confidence to make clear statements about the way some spaces seem to promote and some discourage interactions with people from different backgrounds.

And I do wonder if we don't have too much emphasis on the engineering of sociability, as in phrases like 'the design of public space.' As I've argued often enough, sometimes the first principle is for professionals to make sure they're not doing damage to social networks, and to respect informality as a principle. But then, me putting it like that isn't going to transform practice either.

Residential segregation and community cohesion

The recent report of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion was important partly in giving new policy emphasis to what's known as the 'isolation thesis' - the notion that residential segregation restricts social ties between minority ethnic groupings and the host population, and that these ties are important.

I've just been reading some research based on survey analysis in the Netherlands which appears to confirm the first part of the argument:

spatial segregation hampers the social inclusion of ethnic minorities, as it stands in the way of contacts between ethnic minorities and native Dutch.

Perhaps surprisingly, this conclusion was found to apply more clearly to 'non-deprived ethnic minorities' than to deprived.

van der Laan Bouma-Doff, W. Confined contact: residential segregation and ethnic bridges in the Netherlands. Urban studies, 44(5-6), May 2007, 997-1017.

_________

Update

Meanwhile, guidance published today sets out what schools in England will have to do under a new duty to promote community cohesion. The press release includes a broad definition of community cohesion which I haven't seen before.

A youth centre in every neighbourhood?

If like me you found the Respect agenda and its media coverage uncomfortably closely associated with young people, it's time for a rethink. That agenda is now being subsumed under the responsibilities of the Department for children, schools and families, the 'children's ministry'.

But Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian urges us not to be sceptical, regarding this as 'one of the best changes' in the brief for Ed Balls, the minister in question.

As the emphasis shifts from punishment to prevention, expect a breath of fresh air. Balls says: "Respect goes both ways - respect by young people for others goes together with respect for them by the wider community." He talks enthusiastically about plans for a good youth centre in every neighbourhood, started up with £150m taken from defunct bank accounts.

I don't know anything about these defunct bank accounts, although I can think of another budget, a small matter of £20bn, from which a fraction might have been handy.

But I do think that a youth facility in every neighbourhood - and a 'good' one at that - is far closer to common sense than a single nuclear submarine farting around somewhere in the ocean.

Curiously enough, I was in a workshop about neighbourhood care for older people the other day, where there was discussion about funding for quality neighbourhood schemes like the one in Brighton and Hove. Asked why there seemed to be no government funding, one of the members of the scheme said with quiet irony, 'I think it's all gone to Trident.'

And if I'm sceptical about anything at the moment, it's the government's ability to include older people in its agenda. In the meantime, with regard to the future of the Respect agenda and policy for young people, I'll trust Polly's optimism.

Home improvement: women on housing estates

Yesterday I was at a really cracking event organised by the London Women and Planning Forum, on 'Home improvement: women on housing estates.' There were presentations by Lynsey Hanley, Rebecca Tunstall and Jess Steele - which frankly ought to have been a good enough line-up to attract many more than the 30 or so of us who took part in an informative and absorbing discussion. (Where was everyone?)

Lynsey Hanley offered a presentation on 'estates and women's mental health' based on her book, Estates. She talked in passing about 'the wall in the head' - the idea that once you're there, on an estate such as that where she grew up, you’re not expected to leave. With sensitive reference to family and social history she talked about how, after the war, the class system was reinforced through housing policy.

Lynsey also spoke about how the estate on the edge of Birmingham had no clear identity. It wasn't a town, it was described by planners as a township, but people who live there describe it as an ‘estate', a term which has a lot of negative connotations. She talked about the 'siege mentality,' the negative sense of community, and the lack of available 'talking therapies' for women, describing their experience with the sense of being cast away and cut off.

Becky Tunstall reported on her research into 25 years on twenty estates (which I also covered previously). There's a huge amount of detail in the research to which I can't do justice, but her conclusions seemed to be that improvements in the conditions of our least popular estates were more down to basic housing (allocations) policy than to regeneration policy, and to the national context of an upbeat economy, rather than to estate-based factors.

I was struck by Becky's identification of a 'dilution of decentralisation' on these estates, from estate offices to area offices - ie previously there was a move to provide highly localised services in a selection of estates, whereas now the trend is to provide such services area-wide but more comprehensively.

Jess Steele, now Head of Consultancy at the Development Trusts Association, made some big points about community action and community development on housing estates, stressing how the relationship of poor women with the state is particular, very intense and often fraught.

Her main point was about the need to recognise that estates house concentrations of claimaints, and she called for their needs to be linked to the creation of work in the 'phantom economy' of everyday local tasks ('mini-jobs' like low-level care and support, shopping, cleaning, school crossings, basic warden roles and so on) which are not part of the standard labour market. (Some of this of course is estate management with added social care, as practised very succesfully for example at Pembroke Street in Devonport). Jess wants a system of ‘community allowance’ which would allow people to do these jobs under contract to community organisations without losing their benefit entitlement.

Each of the speakers referred to the importance of community action on estates and women’s dominant role in that. Becky for instance, reviewing the twenty estates covered in her research with Alice Coulter, said that ‘community activity has been extremely important in the way these estates have developed’. While we touched on the question of whether or not practitioners have learned from the mistakes of the past, it was striking that there is a huge gap between the significance of community action and its influence on policy. Will that really change, in our looming age of localism?

Another major theme to emerge was a widely-shared scepticism about planned mixed tenure as a policy. Becky Tunstall, who is currently researching this theme, confirmed that there is no evidence to suggest that it ‘works’. (Hopefully, her research will clarify what we mean when we say it works or doesn’t). (LSE have a lunchtime seminar on this theme coming up, London 6 July 2007, with Susan Popkin from the Urban Institute, Washington DC: for details 020 7955 6562, a.tamas(at)lse.ac.uk).

This is essentially about living with difference, and I note that the theme is touched on, without a great sense of authority, in the recent report of the Integration and Cohesion Commission:

Cohesive and integrated communities are more easily achieved where there is a mix of housing types and tenures, and where people are able to move between tenure types and between sizes of home as they move through life and face different personal demands. (para 8.30)

I keep returning to this question of living with difference because it feels like an iceberg social problem and we’re on a collision course. That doesn't mean I'm into rearranging deckchairs when I say I look forward to future events organised by the forum: I'm told current plans include seminars on art in public places; and gardens.

Rural rides

While the Carnegie Commission report on Rural Community Development, just published,
turns up the volume for local rural interests in relation to community assets, governance and empowerment, I've been pottering round parts of rural and coastal Dorset this past week. I took particular delight in a few bus rides, fascinated at the frequency of cheerful semi-routine encounters between people who knew one another, whether or not they were neighbours. Rural isolation leaves many people dependent on, and spending a lot of time on, this transport.

I also picked up some interesting insights into rural community politics - same as everywhere, ie those who have wealth and power will do all they can to keep it to themselves, including co-option of as much of the media as possible and ceaselessly shoring-up the structures that defend what they have - what the law exerts itself to protect.

That may or may not help explain comic oddities like this - a call by the traders of Lyme Regis for CCTV on their streets. I've visited many localities around the UK and beyond, some of them quite difficult places to inhabit or even to visit, and IMHO Lyme Regis is one of the very last places that needs CCTV. And (though it's not the same thing) I suggest that CCTV is one of the last things the town needs - after a modest list which glaringly includes more opportunities for young people, and some concerted economic development that should emerge from the latest community plan.

Meanwhile, I love the quirky anomalies you pick up sometimes in rural craft shops - like this bizarre figure which would possibly have stopped me in my tracks in London or in an airport gift store, let alone a quiet rural settlement.

Integration and Cohesion: the report

The report of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion is published today, with a strong emphasis on improving cohesion through local action. If you work in or around community development in the UK, you won't be able to escape the significance of this document and I hope you wouldn't want to. If you are outside the UK but interested in cohesion issues, I think this could still be an important document for you.

'Some of the key influences on poor cohesion are low satisfaction with an area as a place to live, high perceptions of levels of anti-social behaviour and a high level of deprivation – all issues which can be addressed locally, or be tackled by local institutions. Our analysis also found that there was no simple link between poor cohesion and any of these factors; or good cohesion and the reverse. Local history, trends or events are also important... Improving cohesion in the long term is about local action: local areas have the expert knowledge about particular local circumstances; and local actions are what will result in integration and cohesion.'

Here's my first, undeniably positive reaction from a quick skim, as I won't have much time to deal with this in the next few days.

The report is structured around four principles:

• shared futures - this is about 'an emphasis on articulating what binds communities together – rather than the differences that might divide them – and is about prioritising a shared future over divided legacies';
• strengthened rights and responsibilities;
• mutual respect and civility, also referred to as 'an ethics of hospitality';
• visible social justice.

The chapter on respect and civility is of particular interest to me and I may post about it separately in due course. I picked out the following:

There is a call for government to take integration and cohesion seriously in relation to youth services provision, but I get the impression that the role of intergenerational work in promoting community cohesion is not given nearly enough momentum in this report.

The Commission proposes a nationally sponsored Community Week (I suppose continued abuse of the C word is inevitable) 'with a focus on celebrating all communities and inter-community engagement'.

The Commission has also acknowledged the dearth of evidence on the most effective ways of stimulating meaningful interaction and building cross-cultural friendships, and it calls for a programme of research, hurrah, 'to explore more closely what works' (in this respect) 'in different neighbourhoods and why.'

There's a healthy emphasis on education and citizenship and the promised and needed support for ESOL classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is there, plus an interesting recommendation that authorities should reduce the amount of language translation they do: 'translation should be reduced except where it builds integration and cohesion.' There also seems to be a sensible detachment from media over-excitement about notions of 'Britishness'.

Annex B looks like a very useful categorisation of what seems to work well and less well in five types of area (unhelpfully called 'family groups'). They are: changing, less affluent rural areas; stable less affluent urban areas with manufacturing decline; stable less affluent urban areas without manufacturing decline; changing, less affluent urban areas; and areas with tensions arising from a single issue.

Article by Madeleine Bunting in yesterday's Guardian. More in today's Guardian including comments by Ed Cox on the point that cohesion needs to be considered everywhere, not just in urban areas with a visible ethnic mix: 'cohesion tensions in the future are more likely to be experienced in unexpected places where 'diversity' is new.'

'As local diversity becomes more complex, we think mutual respect and civility should underpin the way we as communities navigate a shared course through different understandings of what is acceptable or normal.'