'50 Ways to Meet Your Neighbour'

Last night to a somewhat exploratory Big Society event - as Tim Davies has noted, 'a rather chaotic open space event packed into a small space in the DCLG offices' (pic by Paul Clarke).

Lots of ideas spilling out, some specific, many at a high level of generality as we all experiment with this new syntax of not-quite-policy. Even I was surprised at some of the determined theoretical pondering and the persistence of conceptual bullet-pointing. I've been told I could conceptualise for Britain; but for once I came over all practical. Perhaps it was just that I'm still creaky and wembly from the weekend's flu-blast, perhaps partly it was the reassuring first half of Paul Twivy's introductory speech (the second drifted into social enterprise land and I lost the path, no matter).

First, a general point. About five years ago there were some evangelical jamboree-style events around the new Labour notion of 'Together We Can'. They were characterised by a refreshing if puzzling sense of welcome suddenly offered to the community sector, without any relinquishing of the agenda by the centre. I was struck last night by the comparison. The language and issues have not really changed: the style, however, couldn't be much different. Whereas TWC events were anti-septic, anti-sceptic, and highly-orchestrated, last night's open session - albeit inevitably dominated by the London twitterati - was fluid, confusing, creative - and consciously, almost riskily, under-managed.

I stood in a corner with Roxanne Persaud and Nick Buckley for a conversation about how neighbouring is a fundamental ingredient of Big Society, given the principles of local connection and involvement in issues of common interest. I asked how we overcome the shyness/privacy barriers that constrain people from making those initial connections that result in neighbourly behaviour. We seem to need more devices like street parties and clean-ups that will just get folk started; and I argue that for neighbouring to work, we don't need much more than basic recognition (but we do need fewer cars on our pavements).

The forthcoming Gumtree research (to be launched next week, trailed here) makes the point that shyness is a big barrier and people don't like to impose themselves. Can Big Society help us raise awareness large-scale, and bring the inhibition bar down a notch or two? Nick came up with the phrase '50 Ways to Meet Your Neighbour' and we kicked things off with the first few... pavement freecycling, bench in the front garden, communal wheelie bins etc. And this from Roxanne - networked multi-user games in temporary public wifi spaces.

Working on the idea later today.

Comments

[Chris Gittins, Streets Alive]

Thanks for your blogging keeping us a bit up to date with the London twitterati in Big Society. Fresh energy and 'branding' of community building is always welcome for a new generation. May be a few new good things will come from this.
But brands can only suit some social markets as opposed to common parlance of 'community spirit' and 'my neighbourhood'. E.g. The Big Lunch is clearly and usefully middle class and for one day in the year, but most people just call it a 'street party' which is more universal cultural brand.

[Jane Owen]

Picking up on Kevin's earlier post - I liked the concepts Nudge and Think, preferring to consider them in terms of social processes that complement one another (and not as opposing models underpinned by different theories of human social behaviour).

I think of the work that Streets Alive does in training neighbourhood workers to support residents to organise street parties as belonging to the "nudge" approaches.

In its followup survey, Streets Alive does a bit of "think" stuff - you've tried out a bit of neighbourliness, now let's talk about what has come out of it. Consciousness raising.

And... I'd see the glossy-media-lifestyle-branded Big Lunch as going in on the "think" end ("we've been thinking of/reading about the advantages of knowing our neighbours, and we decided we agree so we'll organise a shared meal").

I think we need the whole lot, branded and unbranded, nudge and think. Society is, neighbourhoods are, multiple, interconnected "social markets".

I don't think it matters too much if there are branded approaches and if one brand works well for one particular "social market" and another for another. The important thing is whether neighbourhoods can take ownership of the activity and turn it into something that works for them.

[Kevin Harris]

Nicely put Jane, thanks, but it makes me want to ask a question. I agree that maybe it doesn't matter too much if there are branded approaches: but what happens when one branded approach crowds out any others, along with all non-branded approaches? If the monopoly brand (Big Society or Big Lunch) fails to accommodate for example home-brewed radical community action, then either the latter's values, or its connections to other social proecesses, become endangered.

[Jane Owen]

Aha, well the answer to that.. is that by squeezing out all the other approaches, the monopoly brand has shown that it doesn't properly understand the nature of community development... it has actively contravened its remit.

[Mike Lanza]

Hello, Kevin, from the Playborhood (note the spelling... ; > )

I have sooo much to say on this issue, but I'll just make two points here. First, people need physical hangouts - Ray Oldenburg calls them "Third Places" - to socialize. For various reasons, these have largely vanished in recent decades, but I have been part of an effort to get people to create these in the front of their houses. Here's my effort (http://playborhood.com/site/article/our_front_yard_family_room/), and here's an innovative effort in Portland, Oregon (http://playborhood.com/site/article/when_communities_take_over_their_own_streets/).

Second, one person in a neighborhood can lead an effort to get neighbors outside, talking to each other. Of course, kids make for a convenient excuse. My own story in my neighborhood is a good one. I've been playing in our front yard or in the street with my boys a few nights a week for almost two years. We also knock on a lot of doors. When we first started this, we were quite lonely, but we seem to have changed the culture in our neighborhood a fair amount. I'd say at least a kid or two ends up dropping by our house impromptu every night we're out there. Last night, six came over, and they and my two older boys played until the sun went down. This sort of thing absolutely did not happen two years ago.