Forum:A role for ordinary citizens in UK sustainable development

(This is a draft for posting to the current Defra wiki.)

The idea of an environmental contract may open up possibilities. Expressed as an understanding between government and citizens, it explicitly involves the latter. Whether or not it genuinely opens up possibilities depends on what type of role the government can envisage for citizens.

Since the contraction of Local Agenda 21, the field of sustainable development in the UK seems to have been dominated by professional and expert, remote and establishment elites.

To ordinary citizens and community groups interested in sustainability, recent government and establishment initiatives can seem like forever rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. No matter how cleverly experts talk amongst themselves, there won't be enough progress till there's genuine involvement and inclusion of ordinary citizens.

This is most apparent at local level, but the good thing is that it's here that there's probably the greatest potential to turn things around.

There's been a lot of rhetoric recently about devolution and localism, but much practice can seem to remain top down - however much people may object to that term. (Perhaps people object to it because it hits the nail on the head?)

For ordinary people and community groups to get genuine involvement and so achieve genuine influence, there must be fewer and fewer no-go areas - specifically the joined-up and the strategic. Because genuine sustainability must be about both of these, shallow, superficial, single-issue, piecemeal, tokenistic, short term or otherwise unsustained community involvement initiatives just won't be enough.

"Our central recommendation is that communications should be redefined across government to mean a continuous dialogue with all interested parties, encompassing a broader range of skills and techniques than those associated with media relations. The focus of attention should be the general public" - Recommendation no. 1 of the Phillis report.

Reference

 * The Phillis report can be accesssed via Cabinet Office news

The original version of this article was first published on the Sustainable Community Action wiki.