Following the election of a Conservative - Liberal Democrat Government in the U.K., there's a raft of initiative and discussion just now on the role, value and opportunity of putting ordinary people and civil society at the centre of Government.
In a paper called Building the Big Society, the Government says that
Only when people and communities are given more power and take more responsibility can we achieve fairness and opportunity for all.
And in an article on The Big Society blog, social entrepreneur Nat Wei outlines five key challenges that are going to have to be overcome in order to encourage genuine people power that has a real impact on society.
Six years ago, in support of an area-based urban renewal programme in Yorkshire, England, graphic artist Peter Anderson printed the opinions of local people on the quality of life of their town on yellow ribbon and, with the approval of local authorities we posted them in the town square.
The idea was cute - but just one of many many different things that a cast of hundreds cooked in the town to build community power and enable local groups to assume the role of client/director of the process of revitalization. (See case study: Regeneration as Social Innovation, not a War Game)
One of the inspirational elements of the Big Society policy initiative is that several key pennies seem to be dropping, evidenced by the process in Castleford (evaluated by The Young Foundation) but also, more importantly, countless area-based community regeneration programmes across the U.K.
An understanding that
- 'People power' is not about 'community consultation' - i.e. sampling opinion or asking people what they think - but initiating economic and social initiative that supports their needs and so draws their involvement
- It is proactive engagement by people in the future of their communities that enables a robust planning system, a system which as Gary Porter of the Local Government Association points out is capable of dealing with the significant challenges we face
- And cutting-edge innovation - as cited in Asheem Singh's The Venture Society - is about creating platforms that are places where a culture, not just a strategy is created (to paraphrase Google CEO Eric Schmidt)
But how to encourage 'people power'?
How to stimulate it in a way that supports economic growth without - and let's make an assumption here - triggering a new Angry Brigade, Weather Underground or Symbionese Liberation Army - nihilists who run counter to the consensus that neo-liberal markets and politicians require?
Over the last few years, we've designed, advised and helped organize many public projects with real estate developers, local government and communities in towns and cities like Middlesbrough, Cardiff, Moscow and now London - always committed to project delivery, not architecting blah, i.e. "social infrastructure master planning" or the like.
In the spirit of a sharing economy - but withholding critical choreography - here's an eight-step plan to cure addiction to command-and-control 'consultation' and transfer power to a more self-sustaining Big Society:
- Network local networks
- Find a medium that invites 'militant optimism', such as public space, food, consumer lifestyle
- Co-design a process with local people that they will join because it enables them to be who they want to be and supports, rather than co-opts their personal struggle
- Read up on what the military calls an inkspot strategy - you may need it
- Design a strategy based on 88p bath plug projects, not executive bathroom suites, inspired in part by the fact that there's now a rising value to products with lower life-cycle emissions
- Become a hermit and read ALL relevant national, regional and local government strategies and sync what you're planning up with them
- Commit entirely to self-sufficiency - the ability to fund the future through earned revenue alone - though you might end up combining it with philanthropy and government subsidy
- Create a business plan. Write it. Rewrite it. Write it again. Then just when you're the right side of suicidal, hesitate, try to make a start, hesitate again, and then
- Jump
Sound expensive? Well, it's not.
It just demands that leaders of corporations and institutions banish from their heads the idea that they don't get the citizens they deserve.
And they commit to action, not words - something entrepreneurs are up to every waking moment of the day.
Images: all mine, other than Viktor Vauthier graffiti (lost web reference but just RSS the site - he's amazing)
