In its key list of articles about what’s coming in 2021, Fast Company says that ‘The office as we know it is over… and that’s a good thing‘.  The piece says that alongside workplaces becoming more equitable and companies becoming more resilient and productive, we can also hope to be seeing cities and towns becoming more liveable as a result.  We think they’re right.

Part of the result of a move to ‘remote-first’ working, where work from home becomes a default and trips to the office are an occasional treat/imposition (depending on how you look at it) is that people will be spending more time, and giving more attention to, their neighbourhood.  It won’t just be a place to sleep and catch the train any more, it will be the place where people spend their time and money to build a better life.

We are already seeing this move happening, albeit with some reluctance, in the pandemic lockdowns of course.  What happens when the office-workers of yesterday don’t have to spend an hour or two on the train or in the car?  They have more time to enjoy and enhance their lives where they live.  And because it’s the place where they now work, rest and play then it’s well worth getting involved to start making some small yet potentially significant things happen on your block or in your neighbourhood.

Village In The City is here to support people who want to make their lives and their communities better, want to do it in a way which draws on what we know already and helps them to share the journey with other like-minded folk around the world.  Get started by putting your neighbourhood on the map and joining our international community of ordinary people doing quite ordinary things – to make an extraordinary difference to themselves, their families and their neighbours.

We had a super discussion with Jenny Bimpson about the Chatty Cafe Scheme, how it came about, how it works, how it’s expanding and all kinds of other ways to gently help strangers to connect in urban settings.  The call recording is online now.

The Carnegie UK Trust are always at the forefront of creative thinking about the future of society and improving Wellbeing. Their recent report Building Back for the Better (2020) is admirably clear in outlining six propositions, all based on the Trust’s decades of research, about how ‘Building Back Better’ can not just be a catchy slogan for the post-pandemic world but can actually be delivered in the medium term. These six propositions are:

1. National Wellbeing can be the goal
2. The relationship between citizens and state can be reset
3. The future can be local (as well as global)
4. Our relationship with work can be remodelled
5. We can build a new level of financial resilience
6. Technology can be for all.

I think that an initiative like Village In The City can help with all of these rather lofty-sounding goals. Indeed, making these things live and breathe at a micro-local level is key to their meaning much at all.  My career in solution-focused consulting and coaching has been all about helping people turn their hopes (I’d like to feel better…) into small and meaningful signs and steps in their everyday lives. Let’s see how a similar strategy might be useful in connecting micro-local community development with these six propositions.

1. National Wellbeing can be the goal

This shift in attention from merely financial goals (Gross Domestic Product etc) to a more overall focus on Wellbeing is already being championed by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, of which Village In The City is proud to be a member.  We envisage a future where the economy serves society – rather than the other way around.  The Reith Lecture by former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney is very good on this point, as is the recent Carnegie report on Gross Domestic Wellbeing. So much vital work in a healthy society is not primarily economic – community building, neighbourhood relations, helping others, building resilience all happen primarily through people rather than money.  Creating a healthy society comes first through people acting together, and for each other.  Yes, money can help – but if people stop caring or participating if they are not paid, then that’s not really very sustainable.

2. The relationship between citizens and state can be reset

The Carnegie report talks about moving towards an Enabling State, where the state acts to enable and facilitate the actions of citizens rather then either prohibiting them or trying (and failing) to do it for them.  This also requires efforts to level up social capital; the amount of enabling may need to be greater in some areas than others, with focused seeding of opportunities and skill-building.  It also involves making sure that people know they have permission to act.  (We could argue that they already have it, but sometimes it’s easier if things are clearly understood.) The report also talks about supporting people to participate fully (not the same as participating for them) and building in radical kindness. Our core commitment to inclusivity points in this direction, and we will be exploring the notion of radical kindness and its predecessor radical acceptance in the near future.

3. The future can be local (as well as global)

The UK is the most centralised state in the G7 and one of the most centralised in Europe, says the report.  The heart has been ripped out of local government here since the Thatcher years of the 1980s, and even though UK devolution has made a dent in this policy at a high level, the extent to which local communities can raise finance and make their own decisions is very limited.  This must change.  However, at Village In The City we are less concerned with local government and more focused on redressing the global/local balance.  50 years ago we could telephone people internationally (at great expense).  20 years ago the likes of Skype were appearing, offering jerky video and unreliable connections.  Now in the Zoom era we can talk to and see just about anyone on the planet at a moment’s notice.  That’s amazing. And, it means that it is even more important that we also talk to the people who live within a couple of hundred metres of us.  We share the same piece of ground, and that gives us something important in common, irrespective of differences in age, politics, outlook, background and so on. The future is both global AND micro-local!

4. Our relationship with work can be remodelled

The pandemic has seen the most dramatic reshaping of expectations about work since the industrial revolution.  Rather than slogging in to office workplaces reflecting factories, many people have tasted working from home for the first time.  This has some drawbacks; not every home is well suited to work, it can feel like ‘sleeping at work’, and creative interactions can be more challenging.  However, working from home, or perhaps from a local shared workspace, has huge advantages in terms of connections with family and local community. While the city centre coffee shops are struggling, those on suburban high street have never been busier.  It seems most likely that greater flexibility about working away from the office will become the norm.  In terms of local communities, that makes for some good people with time and effort to spend on their localities, and new opportunities for more widespread provision of entertainment, connection and activity as part of a commitment to a ‘15-minute city’.

5. We can build a new level of financial resilience

There are moves afoot to explore things like universal basic income and other ways to help people not fall off the bottom of the financial security ladder.  Village In The City quietly supports these initiatives. However, we are more focused on helping to build very local resilience by putting people in touch with each other in ways that enable sharing of resources and Skills. Perhaps you don’t need to spend money on a ladder if you can borrow one from along the street? Perhaps you can offer some Skills or effort in exchange for time from others (timebanking). Financial resilience is part of a wider societal support.

6. Technology can be for all.

Digital inclusion is as important as social inclusion – online provision of services is a key way in which regional and national infrastructure can be delivered to all, as well as shopping and entertainment.  Technology can also play a part in facilitating local connection and community, as witnessed by local websites, Facebook groups and so on.  This requires developments in both broadband services, the availability of devices to access it, and also improved online security – helping people engage digitally is a matter of them trusting the systems as well as simply being able to access them.

At Village In The City we are championing bottom-up initiatives, often simple but effective, carried out by community members.  In his book Rekindling Democracy, Cormac Russell talks about the importance of this kind of work, where the local community is in the driving seat and professionals come in from time to time, when invited, to help with specific elements.  Anyone can be a village-builder, whether your local community is well-established or as yet invisible.  Come and join us to play a part in building back better.

Cormac Russell is joining Mark McKergow for the next Village In The City call, Wednesday 9^th December 2020, at 4pm UK time. Join us free and hear more about how bottom-up community development is the way forward. 

More news from my activities in Edinburgh’s West End.  Part 1 of this diary had me getting started here by making contact with a Facebook group, helping to promote it and starting conversations with residents and traders.  That was at the start of August 2020, and the Facebook group had 200 members.  It’s now mid-October and our Facebook group has grown to around 650 members!  This is great news – we have definitely reached a critical mass in terms of being a known presence in the area, and people are continuing to apply to join every day.

Communication

It’s been very interesting to see the group evolving from its original 19 members in June. Here are some things I have learned having been a moderator and admin for the group in that time.

• We’ve been very clear that it’s for local residents, workers and businesses, and we only accept membership requests from people in those categories. We ask specifically where folk live/work in the West End when they join. My colleague Paul has worked very hard on contacting people who don’t seem to be here, to clarify the situation.  We have had requests from as far afield as Australia!  It seems to be a good thing to be clear, specific and rigorous on the membership.
• We have had good success with a ‘photo of the month’ competition. We encourage members to post their photos of the area, and one of them gets selected (by the group admins) to be our header photo for the month. And of course all the pics can be seen in the group. This month’s pic is a dramatic shot of a local square by a 15-year-old photographer! (See it on the right.)
• A lot of local business understandably want to be present and promote themselves. We are OK with this as long as it’s specifically written for locals, stresses the neighbourhood aspects and is not too frequent (one or two a month, no more).  What we don’t allow is thoughtless reposts, banner ads, regurgitated material from elsewhere.  It’s a balance we are learning and most of our members seem to have the hang of it.  For those that don’t, their posts are moderated and deleted.
• We had a admins meeting in August (outside and distanced of course!) and sat around to have a chat in person, say hello, talk about future developments and ideas. This was very useful to get to know each other.  We have since added another moderator to share the workload and enable quick responses if the others are tied up (thanks Stevie!).

Another aspect of connection is to use the public channels available.  Paul has been touch with our local council, and as a result I now have keys to the official notice boards!  These had been unopened for months due to the pandemic, and the department who looked after them have been dissolved in a reorganisation.  I have tidied them up and create some new information pointing people to local shopping areas, beauty spots and hidden parks, adding QR codes so that visitors can immediately get more information on their phones. ‘Notice board monitor’ sounds like something you might be at primary school, but it’s certainly another way of getting information out to locals and visitors alike.

Meeting places

This is one area where the West End has not been historically well served.  There is little in the way of traffic-free spaces that is publicly available outside, apart from a well-used grassy area by the cathedral for exercising dogs.  Our local traders were planning an outside market there in August but sadly it fell through due to licensing restrictions.  We’ve had more luck on the ‘inside’ front though – one of our local bars has offered a space for a monthly ‘newcomers meet-up’ with wine and snacks which is super and very generous of them.  It’s a shame that our current COVID restrictions prevent them opening at the moment… Indeed, we are not permitted to meet up other than in very small two-household groups in cafes right now, so any kind of physical meetings are off the agenda. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t offer things to get folks working together – see the next section.

Inclusive events

We had plans for an ‘open weekend’ around the end of September/start of October to encourage people to get out and about. In the end this didn’t feel right with an uptick in COVID cases, so it was shelved. One thing we have put into place is a ‘Treasure Trail’ walk, a self-guided expedition taking around 90 minutes with a downloadable/printable instruction sheet.  It was written by a local Blue Badge guide and is aimed at family groups to do together as a way of getting out and exploring the area.  The route points out local cafes and shops as well, to try to create a bit more trade in these difficult times. Local businesses have offered some prizes, and it’s in full swing at the moment.  At least it’s a way to encourage people out into some part of our patch they might not visit normally (who knew there was a cathedral music school hidden away?).

Next steps

It feels like we are already in a much more engaged and involving place then in June!  I am thinking about getting some local conversation going around the six elements of a Village In The City and getting more views on where we are, what we have and what folks might contribute. These elements are in the Manifesto and are:

• Inclusivity
• Communication
• Hosts
• Meeting spaces
• Inclusive events
• Identity – what makes this place special?

Interested to help your own ‘village’ to be a better place? Join me on our new monthly calls for new and existing Village-Builders – whether you are new to this and want to make your life and your place better, or whether you’ve been doing it for years and want to share your experience and pick up a new idea or two.  The first will be on Wednesday 18 November 2020 at 4pm UK time.  Register free by emailing me at mark@villageinthecity.net to join in and we can talk village-building. Whether you’re new to it (like me) or been at it for years, I’d love to talk with you.

Next Village In The City call: Wednesday 11 November 2020, 4pm UK time – engaging with churches, with special guest Rev Nick Bowry.  More details and registration here.

Next village-building call: Wed 18 November 2020, 4pm UK time – all welcome, email me at mark@villageinthecity.net to get the call link. Hope to hear from you soon.