Category Archives: Politics, Policies And Process
A Civil Society University For The U.K.?
The place where non-state, non-business public activities challenge the assumptions of wealthy organisations and the ruling classes or prevailing consensus is often referred to as ‘civil society’. A proposal that this place have its own university in the U.K., to scrutinise and develop the core skills and specialist knowledge base of the ‘third sector’ of the economy, is now being taken seriously.
PrimeTimers is a London-based social enterprise promoting cross-sector transfers of people, ideas and methods. In Autumn 2005 they held a conference, Agenda for Change, from which emerged the idea of a ‘Civil Society University’. This idea is also a response to the UK Government’s review of the Future Role of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration.
A key concept underlying the idea is that third sector values and practices should be submitted to rigorous testing in terms of intellectual integrity, reasoned debate and scientific research. Such an approach has welcome and important implications for how civil society might develop over the next few decades and beyond.
Multiple conceptualisation, multiple benefits
Like many other good ideas, the Civil Society University concept
has also emerged in other places – for instance, at a Council of Europe conference in September 2005 and in a submission dated December 2005 to the Organisation of American States from the Permanent Forum of Civil Society Organisations.
Civil society is the arena where the right of free speech and association is exercised to promote many and diverse causes for what their proponents believe to be the greater good. Often these beliefs challenge the prevailing or most powerful consensus; yet rarely is attention given to the skills and knowledge which could best support such a challenge.
The benefits which might accrue from rigorous scrutiny by the academy, by those who practise their skills in higher education, are what make the idea of a Civil Society University appeal to many involved in widely diverse parts of the third sector.
Education, not ‘just’ training
There is a real need for parts of the third sector to move away from its historic philanthropic roots towards a sharper professional focus. Volunteers (nonetheless, preferably trained) will always be at the heart of at least some third sector activities; but they usually cannot provide the hard headedness which is required in running large-scale or complex modern organisations.
Indeed, thus far it would be difficult even to estimate what added value (or not?) would derive from a more fully functioning and defined third sector key skills ‘toolbox’. And the same applies to issues around third sector career structure and professional development. This is where the Civil Society University fits in.
Challenge and opportunity
For some the proposal to subject the third sector and its operation could pose a perceived threat, but that does not do the idea justice.
Those who share a concern to ‘make things better’ will more likely welcome the chance to support a move to do exactly that, to ‘make good things more effective still’.
What could be better than to subject our ideas and practices to a form of scrutiny – always itself open to scrutiny and challenge – intended to make the very best of the resources, people and commitment available to effect a more equitable and civil society?
Contacts
The Civil Society University is proposed by Professor Martin Albrow, Dr Mary Chadwick and Brent Thomas, all of PrimeTimers.
They can be contacted at info@primetimers.org.uk.
Water, Water….
Will water be the next compelling commodity? It’s one of the most fundamentally important things in life, yet the connections between water and ‘sustainability’ (economic, political or even simply physical) are rarely at the front of our minds. Perhaps 2007 will be the year when we begin to think more aquatically. But first, the political will to deliver must be helped to be there.
My conscience has been jolted.
For several months I’ve had a WaterAid leaflet on my desk, reminding me, horrifically, that a child somewhere in the world dies every 15 seconds from ghastly illnesses connected with contaminated water. And alongside this leaflet has lain an article by John Vidal of the Guardian, written on 17 August ’06, reporting on assessments by forecasters from some of the world’s leading corporate users of fresh water – which will, they predict, be the source of widespread conflict by 2015.
Neither of these publications makes easy reading.
Two personal tales to tell
This week my sister, a doctor, told me about a recent visit to India, when she had seen for herself the incredibly pressing need for clean water – both to drink, and to improve overall hygiene in some very challenging locations, where people are trying as hard
as they possibly can to make decent lives for themselves and their families.
Then, yesterday, I heard the response from a colleague to the question: ‘What has been your greatest personal achievement?’
Without hesitation he replied it was installing a clean water supply in a distant part of Africa where, until the tap of his engineering water-supply project was ceremonially turned on, and his glass filled crystal-clear with this precious commodity, there had never before been drinkable running water….. Well, as personal achievements go, that has to be pretty good.
The Great Stench
And I have also just read Larry Elliott’s piece in the Guardian of 15 January ’07, in which he refers to London’s Great Stench of 1858 – the year Thames effluent so got up
the noses of Parliamentarians that public health measures finally came into their own. Elliott then reminds us, as does my WaterAid leaflet, that poor sanitation still kills millions every year.
Perhaps we begin to see an emerging pattern here. Politicians can make a real difference, but they need a seriously heavy public nudge to feel they are politically safe to do so.
Action as well as words
Firstly, to avoid huge conflicts in the fairly near future, we need to think right now about conserving water and about climate change and its affects on water. David Milliband is obviously our man there, as Secretary of State for Defra; and the evidence is that he and his colleagues are working very hard on this.
Secondly, as Larry Elliott this week makes clear, water is simply
not at the top of the aid agenda – but Chancellor Gordon Brown, a politician who really does try to make things better in the developing world , has said he would welcome more public pressure to do just that.
Making progress
So let’s see if we can move things on. We can all talk about climate change, and ‘save’ water where we can in our own lives; but the facts as they stand for many people in parts of the developing world are too horrible for most of us even to contemplate. The future, however, could be so much better.
WaterAid works in 17 countries (Bangladesh, Burkina, Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Uganda and Zambia) providing water, sanitation and
hygiene education to some of the world’s poorest people. …..
Taking water to people who need it
If you can give a donation – however large or small (even £2 really helps) – to WaterAid, please click here.
And if you would like to expand on why the Chancellor and others should be supported 100% in telling us all how very important access for people everywhere to clean water is, the Comments box below is yours to write in.
All of us together can make it possible for our leaders to do what must be done to deliver clean water for everyone. Thank you!
See also: World Water Day (22 March 2007)
Seven Reasons For Optimism In 2007
The cynics will always be with us ;and they have a point. Nonetheless, for many people things are as good as, if not better than, they have ever been. We can – and should – take a responsible view of events, but without denying that in many ways 2007 could be very positive for almost all of us. Here are some reasons to be optimistic as we enter the new year.
The media, as ever, is full of reasons to be gloomy as we enter 2007. But in reality we all know that looking on the bright side at least some of the time is good for us.
So here are some reasons to be optimistic in 2007:
1. The Environment
Global warming and climate change are at last receiving the attention they should – and most commentators still reckon we have a good chance of doing something about it if we all make the effort, right now. [And in the meantime, the weather in Britain is being very kind at a time of year when freezing fog – ‘pea-soupers‘, remember them? – used to be the norm.]
2. Health
Life expectancy (in the U.K.) is the highest it has ever been, and people are healthier than ever before. 60 is the new 40, so it is said; and you won’t have to retire at a set age any more if you don’t want to. [But if you do retire early, you’ll still have lots to do, now that expectations have risen so much.]
3. The Economy
Inflation and interest rates are still relatively low (remember 18% mortgages?) and employment is still high, after a long period before the Millennium of horrendous worklessness for millions. [And wages are going up, or have been levelled out more fairly, for many ‘ordinary’ worlers now.]
4. Life-long Learning
Opportunities for education and training for everyone have never been more wide-open and accessible. [You may need to take a student loan, but in many countries that’s how it’s always been – and the loan interest rate is amazingly low, plus you don’t have to pay at all if you don’t earn a reasonable wage; and for many vocational courses there are no fees – so everyone can benefit.]
5. Housing
Houses are warmer, more energy-efficient and better designed
than at any previous time. [And more people in the UK own their own homes than ever before.]
6. Open Society
If you need to find something out, the chances of doing so have improved greatly with Freedom of Information. [And the internet gives you a view of the world which can open doors on cultures, knowledge and ideas which previous generations couldn’t even dare to dream about.]
7. Laughter
At long last, it is being recognised that it’s OK to enjoy yourself – laughter and fun are now officially good for you!
The glass is half full
Yes, I know each of these points has downsides, and it’s always easier (and less effort) to see the glass as half empty rather than
half full. But I bet there are few people who recall life as it was many years ago who would actually choose to turn the clock back on a lot of things. And there remain, sadly, many people in other parts of the world than the West to whom our way of life seems to be unimaginably privileged.
Let’s make 2007 a year when we explore how much better still things can be if we perceive what’s good about our lives, as well as what’s in need of improvement. Why not ‘count our blessings’, if we’re lucky enough to be able to? Then we can concentrate on helping to make things good for other people too.
Maybe it’s time to be brave, to stop the criticism from the sidelines and to start having the courage to take active responsibility for at least some of what happens. Let’s try being positive, and see where it takes us.
Monday Women ’06: Liverpool’s No-Cost Mutual Support Group Relocates
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Monday Women is a no-cost group, open to all, which meets and has an e-group. With affliliation of hundreds, it welcomes discussion and activities around topics of interest to women from all walks of life. After four years, the meetings are re-locating.
Please see also the Monday Women section of this website for up-to-date inormation on meetings etc.
Monday Women meetings for early 2007 are moving to the Heart and Soul Cafe-Restaurant in Liverpool.
Monday Women (Liverpool) is an open-access social and e-group for women to share views and news. ‘Members’ keep in touch in two ways: via open meetings-cum-social-events on the first Monday of the month (except Bank Holidays) and through the e-group. Women attending face-to-face events do not need to ‘belong’ to the e-group, nor do e-group members necessarily attend Monday Women events. (N.B. Children are welcome at the social events where this allows their mother / carer to attend the group.)
The Monday Women e-group has just one aim: to facilitate contact and networking between women from all walks of life, some of whom will be able to attend our events and others of
whom may not be able to. The intention is quite simply to encourage the sharing of news, views and companionship.
A no-cost, informal and open-minded network
There is no formal membership for the Group and no Officers, or agenda. There are no costs, fees or admission charges for meetings or for ‘joining’ the e-group, which are both open to all on a no-obligation basis. This is simply a relaxed and informal meeting arrangement for women in Liverpool and Merseyside.
Topics for discussion and exchange of information between individuals attending / joining in the e-group might be anything from the possible need for a
playgroup, traffic crossing or bank in a particular area, to considering plans for regeneration and renewal of the city, to informing people about a special event, or enquiring who else might be interested in setting up a business or community group!
The group also occasionally shares ‘outside events’ such as the recent highly successful visit to the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth and two other adjacent sites of great civic and historical interest. There is in addition an annual Christmas celebratory event on the first Monday in December, organised, like every other occasion, by volunteer members of the group.
Relocating for 2007
The group was inaugurated on Monday 3 March 2003 in the Liverpool Everyman Bistro, where it has met every month since until the end of 2006. We are much indebted to Paddy Byrne, Geoff Hale and colleagues, the Bistro owners and staff, for their generous support over the past almost four years, as we now move on to new premises for early 2007 – the upstairs room of Chumki Banerjee’s Heart and Soul Cafe-Restaurant , and then from 2 April to Dragon in Berry Street. ‘Meetings’ will be from 5.45 pm until about 7.30 pm (some people stay later), although people come and go within this time span, arriving and attending for as long as they wish.
Each person joining a Monday Women event at our 2007 venues will (as before) select and buy her own refreshments – if required – in the actual cafe and then take them into the ‘meeting’ with
her. This enables everyone to choose items of food and / or drink which suit individual tastes and budgets.
PS Monday 5 February 2007:
Our meeting at Heart & Soul was a big success (thanks, Chumki!!), as the photo below shows….
Becoming a ‘member’ of Monday Women
All women are welcome to ‘join’ Monday Women (Liverpool). To become a ‘member’ all that is required is that women turn up for a meeting – a warm welcome is assured! – or that they join the e-group. To join the e-group women are invited to email Monday Women, or to contact Hilary Burrage direct via this website.
Or perhaps, if you’re a woman reading this away from Liverpool, you’d like to set up a Monday Women group too? If so, do let us know about your plans. There’s room for Monday Women everywhere….
Science And Regeneration
Science may sometimes be difficult for people in regeneration to understand; and perhaps this doesn’t always matter. But we do all need to see what science in its operation and applications has to offer. For optimal outcomes at every level dialogue between scientists and regeneration practitioners is critical.
Why is science important in regeneration? And why, if so, is it invisible?
There are many answers both these questions, but three of the most straightforward are:
* Science is a huge part of the knowledge economy, which in turn is a critical part modern western life; we have moved on from standard production to an ideas based economy.
* Science in its applications is both a ‘cause’ of and a ‘cure’ for the environmental issues which are by the day becoming more pressing.
* Science is often invisible because many of us find it incomprehensible and, in any case, it tends to be tucked away in universities, industrial laboratories, business parks and at the more daunting end of the quality media. (We won’t even think here about science and the popular press…)
Plus of course science is as incomprehensible to significant numbers of journalists and politicians as it is to many members of the general public.
Science policy
But science is not the same as science policy. The former tends (though probably less so than in the past) towards more theoretical research, even if often externally funded; the latter is about the intentional influence and impact of scientific (and technological) knowledge on our lives.
The incomprehension of many about science is unsurprising. But impressive scientific knowledge in itself is less important for regeneration strategies than is an understanding of where the application of science can take us, and how to get there. I can drive a car, and I know where I would like it to take me, but I would be hard pressed to construct one.
And science can offer not one destination but several if it is ‘driven’ well…. How about large-scale construction and investment opportunities, enhancement of the skills base, graduate retention and synergy with existing enterprise, plus the kudos of internationally significant research, for a start?
Is there a downside?
It would be foolish to suggest that all science is ‘good’. Publicly contentious work is another reason why understanding what science can do is important – the GM food and MMR vaccination debates, however well-informed or not, come to mind and are frequently confused issues for the non-specialist. But even disallowing for these sort of concerns there are still costs to the advancement of science and technology, not least environmental.
What science and technology ‘cause’ they can also however often mitigate. If we know, say, how ‘expensive’ in carbon terms a particular innovation or development is, we also usually know what to do to mitigate or turn around that cost. Planning and design, for instance, are frequently critical. to best practice.
In a regeneration proposal, has economy of energy been a major consideration? Is the infrastructure connected in ways which reduce negative environmental impact? Are the plans sustainable in all the ways, environmental, economic and at the human level, that they should be? Science of many sorts can help us towards the answers.
Moving away from traditional perspectives
Science and technology are not respectful of the public-private boundaries which have traditionally shaped regeneration. Knowledge, once that genie has emerged, cannot be put back in the bottle. Like water, it will flow wherever it meets least resistance or most encouragement.
Given the gargantuan sums of money which some science and technology require in their developmental phases and application, it is surprising that so little public attention is generally given to where Big Science facilities are located. (The Daresbury Laboratory in the North West of England is a good example of enhanced regeneration when world-class science is secured by active regional lobbying.)
It’s time to move away from the idea that all regeneration requires is a science park tucked away in a corner of our strategic plan, and we need also to think big about what it all means. For the best regeneration outcomes scientists and regeneration policy makers must to be in communication with each other all the time – even if they need an active ‘translator’ to achieve this. Neither is likely to procure the very best opportunities from the other, if no-one is talking.
A version of this article was published, as ‘The appliance of science affects us all’, in New Start magazine on 24 November 2006.
‘Second Generation’ Web-logging: This Journal’s Double Century Is Just One Tiny Step
There are now two hundred ‘article’ postings on this website. Over the past year the style has changed and so has the emphasis. Are we, as Tim Berners-Lee has said, at the beginning of the ‘second generation’ of web-logging – perhaps a phase in which not only the technicals but also the social networks will change fundamentally? This journey takes us from CERN all the way to Six Apart.
It’s always difficult to recall what things looked like when one’s been involved in them for a while; and for me, this weblog is no exception to the rule. There are some two hundred posted blogs on this website now, and the terrain has changed.
Certainly, we can all see that the ‘product’ is now sometimes crisper and often more colourful (in the literal sense..) than the original, but that’s different from remembering what it felt like when I embarked on this adventure.
Perhaps on reflection what intuitively attracted me to web-logging is the idea of universal space which, as long as we remember the ‘rules’ of sensible evidence and behaviour, we can all share and use together.
Anyway, I’m glad that I decided to go ahead with my weblog / journal.
Thinking things through
I’ve mentioned before how I feel that writing about things in this quite abbreviated (for me) way is helpful in getting my thoughts together, and how I enjoy taking the photographs and finding appropriate books to illustrate and animate my text. This, to my mind, is much more interesting than just a quick blast at something and a half-finished comment without back-up.
And now, fifteen years after Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web (WWW), I am reading that others too are getting into web-logging in a more formal way. It seems that a lot of web-writers (if that’s what we are) are beginning to acknowledge that there’s something to be said, as Berners-Lee also emphasises, for using weblogs to make the ‘argument’ as well as just the odd comment.
More structured debate
Good. I always hoped that weblogs like mine could become the focus of debate amongst people who have thoughtful things to say. I don’t mind at all if someone disagrees with what I say, as long as they can back up their argument with reasons, and can also recognise why I / others have adopted whatever position is in dispute. That’s how we all learn.
It would be a disaster if the WWW became, as its inventor and many others fear, a place simply of scurrilous half-truths or worse – though I recognise of course that sometimes news and views have to emerge in roundabout ways, and the WWW is ideal for this strategy where it’s needed.
But in the end, something which can’t be substantiated is often of less value than something that can. That’s why in academia we have peer-review, referees and gatekeepers, to ensure the quality of published work. (Yes, I know that process sometimes backfires, but reasoned and / or evidence-based debate is fundamentally still a good, positive way to proceed.)
Everyone can have a say
So now we have Wikipedia (‘What I Know Is…’), first launched in the original English version on 15 January 2001, and other recent e-inventions which allow everyone a say – on the condition that they don’t mind being challenged or put right if someone else thinks that should happen. The pros and cons of how successful Wikipedia can be remain to be seen, but the admirable concept behind the idea is now established.
This is knowledge democracy in action, open to all. In a way it’s the dialectic of learning by discussing – a method previously available to those of us who went on to higher education, but less so to everyone else. Now virtually everyone who wants to can find out about things and join in the discussion. How much better is that?
Business, commercial and community, too
Nor ultimately does it matter that interactive blogging is becoming a business and commercial activity, as well as a voluntary one; either way, people are connecting. The massive market leaders, companies like YouTube, MySpace and Flickr, have their part to play in the engagement process, as do the newly e-friendly business interests which now offer interactive websites – BT amongst them.
Of course there are issues around the strategies used for ‘fooling’ the search engines, so that certain names and topics rise to the top of the list; but that probably applies as much, say, to film and book sales as to the web itself. (My own website designer, Nick Prior, offers a valuable insight into how search engine interest can be attracted legitimately.)
And now we have an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) report telling us that smaller community groups should do the same. I think they’re right. The more ideas are shared, the better. Being on the WWW doesn’t, after all, preclude also being on the radar of the local newspaper or even just the local gossip.
But still there are people, such those discussed in Mike Ion‘s blog, who doubt the web has relevance to the lives of others ‘in the community’.
‘Good’ weblogs vs ‘bad’ ones
The race is now on between those who could damage the good intent of Tim Berners-Lee, who gave us all the WWW for free because he believed it should be available to everyone, and the rest of us, who admire this generosity and vision.
Very few can achieve a great impact in going for a positive future for the WWW, but it’s nonetheless an ambition for many of us in our own small, often minutely small, ways to do what we can. The more people ‘connect’ in this activity, the better, as far as I can see. And don’t just ask me. Look at the way innovations like Mena Trott’s Six Apart (which ‘owns’ the Moveable Type facility which I’m using here) are developing….
Agree only this…
This is just the beginning of what could be a very long debate. Being ‘accessible’ may not mean being ‘free at the point of delivery’; that could even become impossible if there is to be any proper regulation of quality – without which access is in any case of little value. Nor does a new emphasis on social connection eclipse the technical aspects of the semantic web and e-intelligence. These are critically important matters for future consideration.
For now the only thing we have to agree to agree about as a general principle is, as Berners-Lee says, that “We’re not going to be trying to make a web that will be better for people who vote in a particular way, or better for people who think like we do…..The really important thing about the web, which will continue through any future technology, is that it is a universal space.”
Liverpool Hope Street Farmers’ Market Gets Going
The regular calendar of Farmers’ Markets in Hope Street has at last begun. From now on the third Sunday every month is scheduled as Market Day for Hope Street Quarter. Farmers’ Markets are something different to look forward to: a great day out for adults and children alike, with fun opportunities to learn where our food comes from and who grows it.
After a false start in October, yesterday was the long-awaited commencement of the regular calendar [see schedule at the end of this article] of Hope Street Farmers’ Markets. At last, with luck, we have lift-off, and not a moment too soon.
And we were incredibly lucky with the weather, brilliant sunshine for the duration, not even really cold. The atmosphere of the event was cheerful and relaxed, just the right ambiance for a happy family Sunday outing – though I have to say I was surprised just how few children were actually around….
It’s really good to see the grown-ups enjoying themselves in such a time-honoured and positive way, but are we missing a bit of a trick here if we don’t bring the kids? Perhaps someone will begin now to think how this could be an occasion for them as well. It’s not often the opportunity arises naturally in the city centre for youngsters to meet people who have themselves grown the food and prepared the produce displayed before us.
Varied and fresh
Having said that, here was produce for everyone. Vegetable and fruit – including a variety of cauliflower (romanesca, a brassica with stunning tiny, spiral green florets) that I’d never seen before – plus cheeses, food of all sorts to eat right now, and much else, including candles and preserves for the coming festive season. Judging from the public response, everyone loves this sort of browsing and shopping.
One of the many attractions of farmers’ markets is that much of this produce had been grown or made by the actual people who were selling it – not a connection which is often so direct these days, when much of what we buy comes shrink-wrapped and complete with a fair number of attached food miles.
This was an opportunity for locally-based people to purvey their wares; hand-made goods and food which may well still have been in the field a few hours before.
Trading busily
The people running the stalls were pleased to be there, trade was brisk. I suspect that over time the current size of the market will grow considerably, if the regulations allow – already it stretches all the way along the Hope Street wall of Blackburne House.
We know of course that, locals though some of the growers and sellers may be, Geraud Markets, the organisation behind the venture, is big business; but someone has to organise all the detailed arrangements which these events entail. It seems Geraud now have a contract with Liverpool Council to do just that on several sites around the city.
Knowing more and feeling good
That however is only part of the story. This is the sort of enjoyable meeting-friends event that offers, especially, young people in the city a chance to see that fruit and vegetables don’t of necessity arrive covered in plastic.
It gives us a feel, too, for seasonal food. It reminds us, walking out in the open air as we make our purchases, that there is a cycle to things; we can eat for a whole year without bringing produce from across the world, should we decide to do avoid doing so. We can be ‘eco-‘, and enjoy, at the same time.
The market reminds us about nutritional quality – seeing produce presented so directly perhaps also helps us to think more carefully about what we are actually eating. Of course, food sold in supermarkets can also be fresh and nutritious – canned can be as good as ‘fresh’ – but the connection with its production is less overt.
Encouraging a healthy life-style
By a strange co-incidence, just today there have been articles in the local Daily Post about vegetables and health -the local Primary Care Trust has a Taste for Health campaign -and The Guardian, which offers thoughts by Zoe Williams on <a href="‘Vegetables and how to survive them’).
Liverpool people have the worst health in England and we owe it to our children to make sure their diet is as good as it can possibly be, encouraging them to understand the connection between what they eat and where it comes from. How better could we do it than by bringing them to a farmers’ market where they can see for themselves what it’s all about?
Liverpool City Council have contracted with Geraud to provide farmers’ markets. Perhaps they can now follow the example of the authorities in continental Europe (where Geraud began) such as Valencia and Aix-en-Provence, where, as I have seen for myself, the local markets make children really welcome?
It would do us all good, in every sense of the word.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Calendar of Geraud Farmers’ Markets in Liverpool [subject to change, please contact to check as below]:
Monument Place Farmers’ Market (Lord Street) ~ Every 1st & 3rd Saturday of the month
Lark Lane Farmers’ Market ~ Every 4th Saturday of the month
Hope Street Farmers’ Market (Blackburne House end) ~ Every 3rd Sunday of the month
Other Geraud Markets in Liverpool:
Broadway (Indoor) Monday ~ Saturday
Garston ~ Friday
Great Homer Street ~ Saturday
Monument Place ~ Thursday, Friday & Saturday
Speke ~ Thursday
St Johns’ (Indoor) Monday ~ Saturday
Tuebrook ~ Thursday & Saturday
Toxteth ~ Tuesday
For more information contact: 0151 233 2165 / info@geraudmarkets.co.uk
Where’s The Soul In Regeneration, Renewal And Renaissance?
Are ‘regeneration’, ‘renewal’ and ‘renaissance’ different? Perhaps they are. Regeneration is predominantly a physical thing, whilst ‘renewal’ and ‘renaissance’ are increasingly about the real meaning, the ‘soul’ of the regenerational process. The journey from one to the other is a transition from the literal to the artistic and cultural. But how best to get there?
How can regeneration work so that it is in the end more than just developing markets for investors, important though that financial interface is?
Experience of regeneration and renewal in the UK tells us that it is a mixture of positive and negative. As numerous reports (including Lord Rogers’) have shown, there are things which have been done well, and things which have had seriously unfortunate outcomes. Both sorts of experience need to be recognised for the valuable lessons they offer.
The different ‘voices’ of regeneration, renewal and renaissance
There are several perspectives here: those of the community activist, the politician, the business operator, the planner, the economic strategist. Only rarely however is the voice of the artist heard; and this is where it may be possible to make a difference. Arts and culture, ‘high’ or less so, can give people common cause, something in which, if presented positively, they can all share and become involved.
From that can arise also a common sense of purpose and direction. People who feel involved feel a stakehold and ownership. This is what makes regeneration into renewal, and then into renaissance. This is the essence of the journey from bricks and mortar to genuine community.
Hope Street Liverpool
An example of this approach is the renaissance of Liverpool’s Hope Street. This process, over more than a decade, evolved from a deeply held ‘grass-roots’ conviction that Hope Street deserved the very best of public realms, to give everyone a sense of pride in what was slowly estabished as the Hope Street Quarter. Hope Street is home of the city’s two great cathedrals, two universities and of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Everyman Theatre, not to mention the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), Blackburne House and much, much more.
Yet on first acquaintance Hope Street looked tired, dirty and possibly unsafe. Hardly an appropriate ambience for world-class cultural institutions which are found from one end to the other of this historic thoroughfare. HOPES: The Hope Street Association, a voluntary ‘arts and regeneration’ charity, was therefore formed to change this sad state of affairs.
Nonetheless, it took enormous focus and years of hard work by volunteers to move the authorities (and even some of the major institutions) to perceive what was evident to those with eyes to see: Hope Street is a place with soul, a place for creative and exciting people with ideas. In other words, it was and is the ideal place from which to nurture renaissance and renewal, to the benefit of both local people (more visitors and customers, more jobs, more fun, more sense of community…) and the city’s wider economy.
The soul of renewal
There has to be a way to get to the ‘soul’ of renewal, to its ownership by people in a way that enables economic benefit but does not preclude the human reality which lies behind the more formal contexts of the action.
Again, Hope Street offers a (cautionary) example. The Summer of 2006 at last saw the completion of the long-sought £3 m. public realm works programme. Everyone was delighted and, after delays on the part of some authorities, eventually there was the opportunity to celebrate in the biggest street festival since the Silver Jubilee visit of H.M. the Queen in 1977. But at the very same time those who had worked so hard as volunteers to bring the transformation about found they had in many ways been displaced by new commercial and corporate interests who now at last saw the potential of the Hope Street Quarter.
The immediate parallel which springs to mind here is with Hoxton and Shoreditch in London, where many creative people say they have been driven out, ‘displaced‘ by high prices. The parallel, though valid, is not however exact. In this instance it is those who who give their activities voluntarily who are at risk of displacement, perhaps at least as much as individual artists and non-corporate creative professionals.
Regeneration for whom?
The jury remains out on the extent to which those grass-roots visionaries who dreamed of a great future for Hope Street Quarter will continue to be central to the area’s destiny. What sort of ‘community’ involvement there will be in years to come remains to be seen.
How often do regeneration proposals move beyond the physically visible in any real way, to what it actually means to everyone concerned – whether those who live in the area, those who work or visit there, those who invest there, or those who are concerned for its conservation, historically or environmentally?
And, if the claim is made that getting to the real soul of renewal does happen, why are the people entrusted to do it so often the same team who draw up the physical plans? This is a hugely different task.
Is it business-like?
But the question of soul alone is not enough. It is also necessary to demonstrate actually to those who invest large amounts in regeneration (a) that ‘soul’ is critical to meaningful renewal, (b) that it makes business sense in the best meaning of the term, and (c) that it is of itself business-like, that it can create value for the people who talk about ‘soul’, as well as for others.
Without evidence of these things, it is difficult to ensure this deeper aspect of renewal will ever happen at all.
For this is a far cry from the way that most regeneration and renewal is conducted, and it requires a constructively critical approach of a kind only rarely encountered, the courage to articulate vision and show leadership in facing up to difficulties and opportunities openly.
Case studies, honesty and imagination
One challenge for those who believe in this wider vision, collaboratively, is to find a way to nurture such a new emphasis, probably through a combination of case studies, disarming honesty and imaginative leaps. Perhaps this is most importantly where that artistic voice is needed.
What certainly won’t work on its own in sharing this ‘message’ is the conventional conference, addressing the usual suspects…. But neither perhaps would suddenly challenging everyone’s expectations in too dramatic a way.
The next question is therefore, what balance in the greater scheme of things can be made between strictly ‘regenerational’ activities and more meaningful, longer term, ‘renewal and renaissance’ ones?
And should we expect that balance to change over time?
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This article is also published (as Regeneration, Renewal And Renaissance: Where’s The Soul Of The Enterprise?), with Jim Greenhalf’s response, on the European Renaissance website.
SaveOurDaylight: Victor Keegan’s Pledge-Petition
An online pledge-petition has just been created in support of lobbying MPs for the experimental introduction of ‘daylight saving’. Twenty-first century climate change, with its requirement that we save energy wherever possible, makes the need for this proposed three-year experiment even more pressing.
I’ve timed this blog to come on-stream at a very particular point in the year – the exact date and time (in 2006, Sunday 29 October at 2 a.m.) when the clocks go back one hour for the duration of the Winter. It’s an hour when I hope I shall not be paying much attention, but also one that many of us anticipate at best with unease. The extra hour in bed tomorrow morning is great; the prospects daylight-wise from now until the end of March are not.
Rethinking daylight for the 21st Century
There are various moves afoot to keep this issue in the public eye. There’s a bill (probably about to expire) in the Lords, and just this morning (Saturday 28th October ’06) there was news that the Local Government Association has joined the Policy Studies Institute in predicting a reduction in accidents
and other unpleasant things if we moved the entire day forward by one hour throughout the year – which would mean one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the Winter, and two hours ahead (‘Double Summer Time’) for the rest of the year.
And now we have the blog-petition: SaveOurDaylight is an extension of the debate which surprises me not at all. It’s organised by Victor Keegan, who has also written a piece for The Guardian’s Comment is Free on the issue.
Mr Keegan has pledged to write to his MP about this if 50 other people sign up to do the same. My guess on the basis of the enormous interest in the ‘clocks go forward / back’ entries on this website is that he will need to be looking for his pen and paper before too long at all.
The benefits are real
Of course there are a few people in any situation for whom change brings problems, but the evidence favouring change so far is overwhelming. And that’s before we even seriously get to the environmental advantages -now critical, but not much factored in during previous examinations of the benefits of so-called ‘daylight saving’. In my books the challenges of climate change really have to be the clincher.
The petition is there to be signed. Go for it!
As I keep saying, it really is a win-win.
The full debate about BST is in the section of this website entitled BST: British Summer Time & ‘Daylight Saving’ (The Clocks Go Back & Forward)…..
Pollution, Politics And Practicality: Where Do The Scientists Fit In?
It’s a big distance from the mythical Northlands of Noggin the Nog, to the brutal facts of global warming, but Noggin’s creator, Oliver Postgate, is doing his bit to help. The next step is to try to understand the realities of the complex connections between science, politics and people. Then we really shall begin to see how to establish sustainable living, and how to deliver on the ground what we know in theory is required.
Oliver Postgate is a name which takes me back many years….. it turns out because he’s the author of the wonderful Sagas of Noggin the Nog which were so enjoyed by us all at a point where little bedtime stories featured large in our lives.
But now Mr Postgate is appearing in another guise, in The Guardian advertisements (the latest on 16 October), bringing news of potential environmental doom for our planet.
Good for Oliver Postgate. He has seen how urgent is the task of acting to control (or hopefully reverse) environmental damage, and he is doing something about it. This position may be a very long way from the gentle Northlands of Noggin the Nog, but, in the real world we actually live in, where Oliver Postgate now finds himself is an extremely apposite and important place to be. If Al Gore can go there, why not, I ask quite sincerely, also Oliver Postgate?
Science and politics
I’m one hundred percent with Mr Postgate in his assertion that:
As nobody can pretend to know for certain what is going to happen to the climate, the only safe and sensible thing to do is to deal with it now.
But I’m not sure Oliver Postgate is also correct when he tells us that:
The present government has been making a show of tackling [environmental issues], but the task it has given to its scientists is not simply to find a way to end global warming – they could do that at once – but to do so “without cuttimg either our economic growth or our living standards”.
As these are the two main causes of global warming, this task does, as they say: ‘present some difficulties’ in that, from among the many different specultaive predictions on offer, the scientists are being expected to seek and select, as definitive, the most ‘politically practical’.
A confusion somewhere?
To unpick all the understandings in these two brief statements would take some while. Questions of scientific direction, funding, feasibility, cost, the connections between science and government and, ultimately, political deliverability would all need to be examined in a way which is beyond even a detailed weblog posting. Each of these is an enormous topic in its own right.
Perhaps we shall return to these themes in the future.
Political reality
But there a few matters which we can address immediately. These are:
1. Scientists advise government, on the basis of the best available evidence. Their reputations depend on giving guidance which will withstand the scrutiny of both their colleagues and wider stakeholders. It is important to accept and endorse scientists’ professional independence.
2. What is done by government with scientific advice is a political, not a scientific, matter. The grim reality is that politicians can only take forward policies which, even after they have factored in leadership, example, costs and so forth, still seem to have a chance of success, of being accepted by the voting public.
3. We can all, therefore, help the Government by letting them know we really and truly want to see global warming reversed (or at least arrested) and, critically, that we are also genuinely willing both to take the consequences, and to argue the toss with others who resist this challenge to their routine and expectations.
4. To do this we would have to stop just cynically criticising politicians who want to do more but believe it would be political suicide, and start having the courage to praise them for what they are already doing right. Not a cool thing to do, but nonetheless essential if we sincerely want to see real progress.
What to do now?
So who’s up for it? The spirit of Oliver Postgate’s Noggin the Nog, a good and cheerful childhood example for anyonel, will surely be with us if we choose positively to help bring about the difficult political changes required.
In the meantime we need to remember that scientists have shown change is incremental. We may not be doing absolutely everything right in our own eco-lives, but doing what we can to reverse damage keeps the issues very much alive, and is a lot better than doing nothing.
As one significant, successful but not always best loved trader keeps reminding us, Every Little does indeed Help.
Dreaming Realist 