My demon diary

November 27, 2009 by
Filed under: Credit crunch, Public policy 

I used to take great pride in posting a blog every day. But now I seem to fail at least once a week. It isn’t a loss of enthusiasm; merely that my diary has become a voracious beast from which I can neither run nor hide. I’ve also been tardy in responding to comments even though I am always rather touched that people take the time to respond to my ramblings.

In a desperate attempt to fight back I have written a piece for today’s Times which should relieve at least some of the pressure by discouraging any speaking invite for a public sector conference.

I am writing this at Heathrow on my way to give a lecture in Northern Ireland.

My long term reader (sorry mum, we really must book up a drink after work soon) may remember my enthusiasm for cultural theory and its four paradigms of social change; the egalitarian, the individualistic, the hierarchical and fatalist.

A few months ago, after a conversation with RSA Trustee Lord Richard Best, I foolishly asserted that I could use cultural theory as a useful way of thinking about the continuing problem of social segregation in Northern Ireland.

Actually, I might even have been right. The theory can be applied; seeing segregation driven primarily by egalitarian solidarity within the different religiously affiliated based communities, suggesting that individualism might be the most powerful force driving against segregation (if, for example, the only new build homes are in integrated neighbourhoods), and recognising that there is little hierarchical drive behind greater integration.

The problem is that the whole thesis can be summed up in five minutes and I’ve got thirty to fill. At this point my lack of detailed (OK, ‘any’) knowledge about the nature of segregation, or of past attempts to solve it, come into play. ‘Ah’ I say to myself ‘looks like I’m going to have to do some research’. At which point, with a malicious sparkle in its eye, my diary (which has by now become an imaginary demon with gap teeth, red eyes and bad breath) replies ‘jolly good, you’ve got a window in June 2010’.

Fortunately for me I fastened like a barnacle on to a patient and wise advisor at the Northern Ireland office of the Chartered Institute of Housing. When I first explained my predicament she recommended books, then, as my appeals became more pathetic it was articles, and then finally she started to send me selected quotations (not long complicated ones, mind you).

I have no idea how it will go. I could ask you to remind me to tell you next week. But my diary tells me that by Monday I will have to have become an expert on parenting policy (thankfully, my sons don’t read my blog) and how the civil service should manage the transition between administrations.

I don’t even have time to develop my new idea for a film; (working title ‘Appointment book with the devil’, about a man who despite his external show of self confidence and control has become demonically possessed by his own diary.

Share

No related posts.

Tags: , , ,

Comments

2 Comments on My demon diary

  1. Livy on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 1:22 pm

    2. The Mary Douglas work is great, and often applicable to so many real life situations.

    This isn’t a facetious question, but do you ever take the bus? If you do then try out the following experiment and you’ll find amazingly different results to the barrier coming down at Vauxhall tube.

    Queue up for the bus in rush hour but with a depleted oyster card. Attempt to scan it when its your turn, when it says out of money try scrambling for your spare change as fast as you can to pay the driver his two pounds. No matter how quick you are, quicker, more self satisfied, irritated people behind you will push you out of the way, jump ahead, scan their oyster cards and get on the bus. Even though you are taking up a whole seven seconds they will do that to you.

    The queue does not change from an authoritarian queue to an egalitarian queue in the sense that 50 people behind you will collectively wait and understand your plight, as we all want to work together, hold hands and sing kumbaya while you pay your bus fare. What happens is (nearly) everybody adopts an individualistic approach because you are now a minority. At Vauxhall, the chap who first ducked the barrier was the minority. That’s why everybody waited. Group think.

    After all, what fool doesn’t top up his oyster? His fault right…he doesn’t have enough common sense / self worth / hard work / individual responsibility, and he needs to pull himself up by his bootstraps in order top up that oyster and not expect society to pick up the social and financial bill that is his lack of oyster credit.

  2. TimHood on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 1:47 pm

    3. Great article in The Times today, Matthew. You might like to read this account of a recent ‘Digital Engagement’ event organised by Ten Alps. So many aspects of it were plain wrong and it really showed just how quickly these events have become unviable.
    http://tiny.cc/0I6fR

    I think there is another cost to these large conferences: the negative impact they have on innovation and particularly the way they shut out small companies. If you don’t mind, I’m going to grind my axe for a bit….

    As an entrepreneur, I’m expected to pay thousands to exhibit alongside the large public sector suppliers. This means that public sector managers tend to mix continually with the larger, less innovative companies, all of which provide services that are widely acknowledged to be overpriced. The big conference circuit shuts out new market entrants, suppresses competition and reinforces the problems that exist in public sector procurement.

    A second problem lies in the value the speakers deliver: even though entrepreneurs may be far more knowledgeable in our area than the usual suspects who are wheeled out (the author of this post excepted!), the only way we can usually get to speak is by ‘sponsoring’ the event. A paid slot, in other words, which is prohibitively expensive.

    So the people who are talking to customers, day in, day out, listening to their views and translating this into service improvements are shut out of the debate. Instead, the platform is dominated by academics, the (highly competitive) heads of NGOs and representatives of the bigger companies.

    There is an alternative model emerging very quickly- the barcamp or unconference. It’s only a matter of time until these approaches are mainstreamed.

    @davidwilcox writes about just such an event here:
    http://socialreporter.com/?p=690

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!