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Forum:Will Gordon Brown be remembered for fiddling with community involvement while the planet burns?

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Forums: Index > Tea rooms > Will Gordon Brown be remembered for fiddling with community involvement while the planet burns?



The announcement about participatory budgeting [1] [2] [3] was a very good start. But communities need to be involved also in discussions about values and the kinds of futures we want. Futures which take account of climate change and very different pictures of where we'll be getting our energy from. Discussion about all aspects of more sustainable communities.

The challenge for government is to find a way to take the 'we-think' [4] phenomenon seriously. The challenge for the rest of us is to persuade government, at all levels, to stop toying with those of us who would be involved.

Throwing public money at the latest fashion accessory of a scheme or program, has got to be replaced by a more open, inclusive, transparent and long term approach. More government with the people than government over the people.

  • Open means letting the public in at the design stage of any program or initiative, including the 'how will we judge success' bit.
  • Inclusive of course means going beyond the government's favoured few.
  • Transparent means enabling the wisdom of crowds to counteract control freakery from wherever it might come
  • Long term means continuous dialogue.

Of course there may be a lot more to it than this, but getting these 4 things would show substance supplanting spin. Philralph 16:01, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


Comment

2012

  • An imaginary open letter: To those who would ‘engage’ us…, August 9, 2012 By Mike realisedevelopment.net
  • Exposing the lie, 26th July 2012, by John Houghton, cles.org.uk

2011

Westminster World Heritage Site and Parliament Square a national disgrace, Hansard Society, October 25 [5] New vision putting citizen and visitor at its heart needed. place, topic


High Speed 2 consultation "a train wreck", say CPRE, 28 February [6]

Councils and hyperlocal ‘bloggers’: It’s the council system which needs changing, not how people are allowed to cover them, David Higgerson, February 23 [7]


Eric Pickles: Citizen journalists and bloggers should be let in to public council meetings, 23 February [8]


"If nothing else the transparency that the social web embodies and that government says it wants to deliver with #opendata means that we will no longer be able to hide our policy programmes in big black boxes that we only open up on launch day" Catherine Howe, January 23 [9]


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Extra comments[]

Comment in response to first posting: I agree with the need for some version of face to face stuff. But it really isn't a case of one or the other but how to do both so that they are actually mutually reinforcing.

Comment in response to second posting: It may be just me, but I can't help feeling that there's a tension between openness, wholism, inclusivity and constant lauding the likes of "very high level" and "leaders".

Comment in response to third posting: The sooner we make a proper job of envisioning a sustainable future for the world of (paid) work, the sooner everything else, including sense of community will fall into place.


As the Phillis report (January 2004) said, we need continuous dialogue. Consultation is not this. Genuine community involvement if done properly could become it. The more open, transparent and inclusive any such dialogue is, the more likely it will nuture the necessary trust, and repair any damage limited and cynical consultations continue to store up. This comment was first published on the Sustainable Community Action wiki.

Citizens' Juries[]

The thing about Citizens' juries is that there is no convincing argument why whatever happens in them can't be done more openly so that more people are afforded the opportunity to be involved.

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References

  1. ↑ Local people to have greater say on spending, July 5 - Communities and Local Government, News Release 2007/0124, 5 July 2007
  2. ↑ BBC News, July 5
  3. ↑ The Guardian, Voters to get direct say on local spending, July 5
  4. ↑ We-think project initiated by Charles Leadbeater
  5. ↑ hansardsociety.org.uk,
  6. ↑ cpre.org.uk, 28 February 2011
  7. ↑ davidhiggerson, February 23, 2011
  8. ↑ communities.gov.uk, 23 February 2011
  9. ↑ curiouscatherine, January 23, 2011
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