The 'Big Society'

One of the (dare I say it) 'big ideas' of the Conservative Party's election campaign, now incorporated into the new UK coalition government thinking, is the replacement of 'big government' by the 'big society'.   Although not explained much at the time of the election, and dismissed subsequently by the opposition as the 'do-it-yourself-society', necessitated as a consequence of severe cuts in public expenditure,  the policies behind the slogan are beginning to emerge.  David Cameron spoke recently of devolving power from central government to local government and to communities through public service reform,   a plan to establish a 'bank' to help support locally run projects, a web-based local information facility and designated some community-led projects as initial pilot projects, to be taken forward assisted 'with advice of civil servants'. 

All of this looks very top-down as formulated so far,  but implies a huge cultural shift in communities if  people are expected to support third sector organisations, develop social enterprises, increase volunteering, and embrace social action.  Policy announcements so far are still very short on how such a change will be facilitated,  and indeed on what will change public expectations of the respective roles of government and community, and from where  community strength will be derived to enable the enhanced community action.

The focus of PASCAL on place, social capital and the role of learning are central to these latter questions and it seems we have a ready-made opportunity to present a policy analysis relevant to this change, drawing on international perspectives. The close relationship between learning, place, social capital and innovation has been explored in several of the PASCAL publications (eg Duke et al 2005 and Doyle et al 2008).  The reduced availability of public funds will force some kind of adaptation in communities.  Current debates about 'de-growth',  the emergence of 'transition towns' in response to 'peak oil' and environmental challenges,  the growth of community-based social networking,  and emerging learning communities all offer perspectives on strengthening communities and community action in the context of 21st century urban (and sometimes more rural) locations which can be drawn upon to develop a policy agenda which can make this adaption positive for individuals and communities, and maybe even for the national economy more broadly.

With some PASCAL Associates I am starting to try to do this now.   Please contribute to this process.

References:

Duke C, Osborne M & Wilson B (eds),(2005): Rebalancing the social and the economic: Learning Patnership and Place [2], Leicester, NIACE 

Doyle L, Adams D, Tibbitt J and Welsh P (eds) (2008): Building Stronger Communities: Connecting research policy and practice [3], Leicester, NIACE