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Getting practical: your ideas can help develop Our Society priorities

We don't have to wait for more speeches and articles on Big Society theory - we can set our own priorities on how to sustain and develop our communities. After another round of ideas gathering, we can look at ways to put some of them into practice, together. Here's how we started the process ... and here's where you can add more ideas.

We've now had a couple of weeks discussion on our Ideas Platform on how members of the Our Society Network - and any organisation that might emerge from it - could contribute to development in local communities. So far some 60 people generated 37 ideas, voted or commented.

That adds to the scores of blog posts and comments on this site - which now has over 330 members - and the rich discussion at the co-design event in Leeds on January 20, reported here.

While there has been a storm of activity in the the mainstream media, and in blogs and Twitter, on the general policies and politics of Big Society, I think it is fair to say that Our Society is the only network and forum attempting a structured discussion about putting ideas into practice.

Here's some of the ideas and themes to emerge from the ideas platform: you can also download a file that brings them together.

This summary can act as the basis for another round of ideas generation and voting, to involve more people who have joined the site.

Overall, I suggested that we need a framework for thinking about what has worked well in the past, and how we blend that with ideas for the future. How then, in practice could we develop a vision of getting from here to "more socially dense" communities, as Simon Burall put it. It's what's sometime known as a theory of change.

Some principles were suggested: Don't put technology first, from Paul Webster, and speak truth to power, challenging actions that diminish society, from Julian Dobson.

We had ideas on developing skills through social media surgeries (Sophie Ballinger); community coaches (Mike Chitty), and from Simon Burall - skilling people up to be constructively critical of engagement.

Ideas for networks figured strongly: on wellbeing from Katie Brown, as subscription service for community organisers, from Andy Gibson, and to support peet-to-peer learning from Paul Webster.

Among methods for sharing experience, storytelling was a favourite, with ideas from Julian Dobson, me, DB Caulfield and Steve Bridger ... who suggested "a humungous aggregator of all the positive good that millions of people have done today".

Graham came up with couple of ideas for local news and literature: guerilla newsletters, and local literature on local web-based "bookshelves".

Maps of local activity were proposed by Paul Webster, and by Noel Hatch who has a method for doing this through treasurer hunts "in a fun and inclusive way".

We need libraries, toolkits, and online resources: Julian Dobson, Paul Webster and Andy Gibson had ideas on how to do that.

Lorna Prescott took a whole community approach, and suggested that local areas could adopt a set of Our Society principles. These summarise many of the ideas on the platform, and so build a bridge between the higher-level discussions and practicalities on the ground.

Lorna suggested: The aim is to provide spaces and activities where people can:

• share their stories and struggles as they see them

• be inspired by their peers’ successes and achievements

• keep a record of good work that may be lost through spending cuts

• highlight the ‘forgotten society’ of those left behind in an unequal nation

• make connections with others who are engaged in related activities

• learn from others’ experiences

• ask for help or advice

• support those who are isolated or under pressure

• meet up

• share expertise and offer valued services

• explore new opportunities

• lay the foundations for new approaches to social action

More detailed suggestions included online notice-boards from Ben Toombs; investing in "boring but necessary services that make a sustained difference from day-to-day" from Tim Davies; and squeezing extra value out of energy subsidies to fund or drive community projects from Oliver Roberts. Toby Blume earned top votes for "letting citizens assess public services - eBay style performance management", while Jeff Mowatt proposed a "people-centered framework for local economic development" with back-up evidence and documentation.

Cathy Aitchison advocated finding ways to change attitudes towards unpaid activities like caring, so that they are recognised as valid work.

Steve Day proposes developing commissioning for local services: "drop cash to community level and commission up"

Paul Webster suggested that services that are facing closure could co-locate ... and Anne McCrossan proposed putting decisions into the hands of local people, reflecting much of the rest of the discussion:

"Run a series of local polls to see what things are the priorities to sort out in each area: Our Society needs to create solutions - and when people have consensus and are focused they'll have the energy to find them, whether it's through reskilling, hacking or convening".

I posted an earlier version of this note in the Co-designing Our Society group, which you might like to join for further discussion ... or do drop a comment below.

Meanwhile, I'll post a message to everyone on this site, and promote the Ideas Platform via twitter for a final round of ideas in this phase. After that we can set some priorities

Tags: ideas

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Comment by Paul Webster on February 20, 2011 at 23:07: Phil,

I think you can reassign your votes, so you could always change a "3" vote to a "0" vote if a new idea come along that you felt stronger about.

Of course there is nothing wrong with leaving a comment under a suggestion if you agree with it.

Please do!

Thanks

Comment by Phil Green on February 20, 2011 at 19:17: One of the limitations of uservoice is that each person only gets 10 votes. With 40 / 50 plus ideas there's a considerable likelihood that several more than ten appeal. Would a comment such as "I'd support this if I had any votes left /cheat#1" be reasonable or would that be too much like cheating?

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on February 20, 2011 at 17:32: David T,

You third point about the influence of 'Big Business' is something well understood here and has much to do with the efforts we make as a social business and in the presentations we give for the Economics for Ecology conferences. It is where our own advocacy for localism is grounded, starting with a critique of free market capitalism and its inclination to disenfranchise the poorest. In the Forest of Dean where I live, local community resistance has won the first round, but when it comes to the NHS we face bigger players and bigger stakes.

Comment by David Wilcox on February 20, 2011 at 14:38: David - thanks for teasing out some of the principles that could inform development of Our Society. Some of our earlier ideas are here.

Sorry about the comment box cut-off - it seems to be a bug, which we have reported to the hosting platform, Ning.com

Comment by David Towell on February 20, 2011 at 13:46: Continued
The box didn't seem to like my last two paragraphs (missing below) but quickly offered a second chance! So...

Third and not so easy to express simply, is the relationship between economy and society. It is instructive here that the coalition's rhetoric puts much emphasis on rolling back 'Big Government' in favour of something else which is 'Big', but completely ignores the impact of 'Big Business' (except perhaps in its new 'philanthropic' role) on local communities, whether at the macro-level (non-replacement of traditional industries, growing youth unemployment) or in the destruction of community infrastructure (supermarkets undermining the high street, pubs closing or going 'up-market', post-offices closing in rural areas etc.) on which many of the associational processes identified in Lorna's list in part depend. Strengthening 'Our Society' requires attention to sustainable economic development.

Finally here, it is difficult to see how we can strengthen 'Our Society' in current political conditions without mobilising community resistance: resistance to the colonisation of the great wealth of community effort we already have by the 'Big Society' ideology and resistance to the efforts of the financial elite and their allies to make ordinary people pay the full cost of the elite's economic folly.

Comment by David Towell on February 20, 2011 at 13:30: I am encouraged by the 'Our Society' story so far, as concretely reflected in the Ideas Platform and David's helpful effort to summarise this for busy readers who are not so good with long lists!

Complementing the practical suggestions I am especially attracted by Lorna's efforts to set out a simple framework of 'Our Society' principles ('Without vision the people will perish' etc.). Of course any set of principles will always be the subject of further debate and efforts at better formulation but in the local complexities we face, having a more-or-less agreed 'compass' should contribute to building alliances, shaping priority action and reviewing progress.

In this context there are three themes - all of which are already present in existing postings - which I think need stronger emphasis, including in Lorna's list.

The first is sustainability. This is itself a complex concept but the idea that 'Our Society' puts a high value on ensuring that our children and grandchildren (and those in other, more vulnerable places) have at least as good a chance of living rich and fulfilling lives as our generation(s) should have wide appeal - and is actually critical to the survival of the biological world as we have known this. Of course there are already some strong local networks, notably 'Transition Towns' for whom this is the priority.

The second is valuing diversity. 'Our society' values the diversity in our communites, sees that everyone brings 'assets' to the party and seeks to ensure the conditions for everyone's full participation/inclusion. For most if not all the concrete proposals we have on the Ideas Platform it is instructive to ask 'And are there people who might be left out of this?' Put more postively, the concrete question is 'what would we need to do to ensure everyone who wants to has the opportunities and support to contribute their talents to (this aspect of) 'Our Society'.