Community organising in the “Big Society”

We hosted our third Future Communities action learning seminar this week with speakers from The Community Development Foundation, University College London and Citizens UK coming into our Bethnal Green offices to discuss their thoughts on localism, the Big Society and community organising. These events are a great way for us to share ideas, experiences and alternatives with other community practitioners, and always spark some really engaging and important exchanges. A summary of the session notes can be accessed here and are well worth a read.

Ruhana Ali (Citizens UK) showed us an interesting video documenting the development of a community land trust in Tower Hamlets (link). Michael Edwards’ (UCL) also delivered a fantastic presentation on the practice of community engagement in planning processes, which is availible here.

Making Just Space – networks of support for active communities

How do we begin to construct a more inclusive approach to civic engagement in the analysis of spatial policy? Speakers at a seminar hosted by Urban Salon last week set out to address this question, drawing on the lessons from their involvement in the London Plan Examination in Public (EiP), a 32 day ‘open’ review of Boris Johnson’s alterations to the capital’s Spatial Development Strategy.

Representatives from the London Forum and the London Tenants Federation joined Richard Lee and Michael Edwards of the Just Space network (an alliance of community groups and voluntary sector organisations set up to facilitate mutual support among EiP participants) to consider how co-operation between grassroots activists and researchers can be best developed, drawing on their practical experience with the London Plan process.

A number of barriers to an inclusive and effective framework for public consultation were identified:

• Processes of active participation are complicated, inflexible and time-consuming.
• Limited awareness of the public consultation process among some social groups (i.e. sections of the community are still not adequately represented).
• Complexity of wording in planning documents.
• Link between specific policy commitments and achieving practical outcomes is weak.
• Multi scale nature of planning guidance in London (i.e. where does this process fit in with the broader spatial policy agenda?).
• Emphasis on market evidence and economic development above other concerns about land management.
• Community organisations still need more practical guidance to be in a position to challenge competing interest groups backed up by vast support structures (i.e. key role for universities and third sector research bodies).

But it was also noted that the number of representations made by community organisations this time around had vastly increased since previous London Plan EiPs. In this context, Just Space highlight the importance of engaging with the mangers of existing consultation frameworks (in this case the GLA) to encourage amendments to the process that place community groups in a better position to review and challenge spatial policy; developing practical solutions to the issue of engaging local people in the formulation of planning priorities.

The Future Communities project works from this same start point; setting out to identify the role community involvement plays in creating successful and flourishing new places. In our upcoming action learning seminar on Localism, The Big Society and Community Organising – scheduled to take place on Feb 24^th – we will be discussing some of the issues raised by Just Space, thinking about how the government’s approach to spatial policy will be experienced by planning practitioners, community activists and local people.

Posted by Douglas Cochrane

What makes a city buzz? Lessons for building new communities

The social life of cities and what makes a city a dynamic, creative and livable place was a recurring theme in workshops, presentations and informal coffee break chats at SIX in the City, the 2010 SIX Summer School held in Singapore last month.

For the Future Communities team the most interesting ideas explored the informal networks, relationship and systems that connect people and make places work – captured brilliantly in Anab Jain’s work on street level networks in Mumbai; investigated in a lively workshop about designing resource-friendly, alternative systems for city living, covering everything from local food production bringing under-used resources like balconies, streets and parks into productive use, to new forms of energy and waste disposal.
There was a strong undercurrent in all these discussions about the need for local and collective responses to the problems of 21st century cities; itself a response to the feeling that governments can’t tackle alone all the challenges of ageing, housing, global economic crisis, population growth, immigration, climate change, sustainable transport and reducing poverty.

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The mood seemed to be towards seeing cities on a human scale. As networks of people, not just architecture and infrastructure; and finding ways to give people the freedom to experiment with their own ideas and create solutions that address multiple problems; like ideas for creating local food networks to address the need for healthy food in deprived areas, low impact transport, and community networks to support isolated elderly people.
Cities need new, innovative approaches. Perhaps a return to Henri Lefebvre’s “Right to the City”, encouraging a reshaping of power in urban spaces in favour of the rights of residents to decide how spaces are used and meaning created, away from the formality of government and business dictating how cities function?   “Forget architecture: the city is a collective cultural space. We need to reclaim individual expression and collective imagination” say Urbz, working in Mumbai to turn the voices of residents into essential intelligence for urban planners, policymakers and developers.
There are many practical lessons for Future Communities that resonate with our new work on understanding how to build new communities that are socially sustainable in the long-term; not least direct experience from people who are involved in, or affected by, the rapid creation of new communities and cities in China, Korea and India, whose ideas and suggestions were invaluable.
We are working now to build on these lessons with our local partners.  A paper setting out our framework for social sustainability will be published soon.

Post by Saffron Woodcraft, Young Foundation

Should every development have a community garden?

It seems like every week we hear about another community garden or urban farming project that is transforming a neighbourhood: bringing together people of all ages and different backgrounds who wouldn’t normally meet and creating a network of passionate local growers.

This week our favourites are:

• Growing Newsome in Huddersfield, which is planting 1,000 fruit trees in public places around the community and has set up a scheme to get experienced growers to give a plant to a neighbour who is new to gardening
• Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, NY, where farmers have set up a bicycle delivery scheme to supply local restaurants
• the Bradford Urban Garden is a temporary public space  created on the abandoned site of a future Westfield shopping centre
• and Whitecross Street  community garden where residents of the Peabody estate have become actively involved in looking after their outdoor communal spaces

Talk to a community gardener and the benefits of these projects are abundantly clear – new friendships, healthy food, shared interests, pride in the community, and sometimes the opportunity for local enterprise as well. Start up costs are low because the essential ingredient is volunteer time and the smallest unused space can become productive, even if it’s just for a season.  We have heard reports of gardeners using gro-bags to turn derelict urban spaces into temporary tomato patches.  While at the other end of the scale, the Union Street Urban Orchard is a temporary fruit garden created by volunteers for London’s Festival of Architecture, that will be dismantled at the end of September and the trees replanted on neighbouring estates.

To read this post in full, go to: On_Community_Gardens_by_Saffron_Woodcraft_july2010

The Young Foundation’s Geoff Mulgan reports from Shanghai on recent international insights about urban innovation

Last weeks conference in Shanghai brought together mayors, developers, architects, academics and planners from across the globe to share cutting edge ideas on urban innovation as part of the World Expo 2010 and the launch of the Smart and Connected Communities Institute.    

Saudi Arabian pavillion, World Expo 2010   

The conference explored some of the big ideas in creating cities that are physically, economically and socially sustainable, such as the role of networks, of technology, and of nurturing and growing innovation. 

One of the key messages that arose was that although a good deal of progress has been made in thinking about IT infrastructures and how to lower carbon emissions from cities, thinking on social design is lagging behind 

 Many of today’s developments are repeating the mistakes of the past, employing designs that are repetitive, soulless and disconnected – potentially the sink estates of the future. History has shown us that without appropriate design, design that takes account of social needs, new built environments can all too easily lead to depression and isolation for communities. And if we make it an explicit goal of cities to improve the happiness and wellbeing of their inhabitants very different design principles start to become relevant….   

 To read this post in full go to: G.Mulgan blogpost 01.07.10

The latest from the coalition, from Kate Dalzell

More information about the coalition government’s approach to housing and sustainable communities emerges every day.  The context for our future communities work is changing. Attached is a useful snapshot of recent policy developments– this is up-to-date at 3 June 2010, but may be subject to change.

Coalition policy brief 3 6 10

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Future Communities blog.

We will be using this space to let you know about the work we are doing on Future Communities, as well as related projects and events that we think you will find interesting and useful.

This blog complements our Future Communities website – have a look at the site which is a great resource for information and case studies on the development of sustainable communities.

The blog is still in its early stages so feel free to let us know your comments – by emailing us or here on the blog. And please do share your own thoughts and knowledge by contributing to posts or contacting us direct.

If you want to get in touch with us directly you can email Nicola Bacon at: Nicola.bacon@youngfoundation.org, or Saffron Woodcraft at: saffron.woodcraft@youngfoundation.org.