Comments on: ‘The market is bust but so is the state’

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:05:19 +0000

Hi INdy

One source may be ‘Building Jurusalem’ by Tristram Hunt, history of the Victorian municipalism which created the democratic, cultural and physical infrastructure of the 20th century city.

Best

Matthew

By: Indy

Indy — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:10:12 +0000

Matthew – I do have some ideas brewing, but I need to do some background reading before I make some (possibly controversial) statements. Is there a good source (book/papers/etc.) you’d recommend on the history of “civic capacity” or “civic engagement” in the UK?

I have a sense of the history and it propels my ideas, but to make the argument needs some evidence on when “civic capacity” increased and declined – correlation is not causation, but in social history it’s all we’re going to get as pointers to what is happening and how to fix it…

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:24:28 +0000

Thanks Indy. This is a really important point. I mention this in my final point in today;s blog. Of course, companies will claim that they are protecting their civic and CSR programmes and the truth will be hard to get at. It needs someone brave from within business to raise the issue if we are to get a good debate. Any ideas?

By: George Osborne: new ideas and new questions | Matthew Taylor's blog

George Osborne: new ideas and new questions | Matthew Taylor's blog — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:38:23 +0000

[...] echoing my blog yesterday, I asked how economic policy might contribute to building civic capacity; how can we [...]

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:27:21 +0000

Hi Alan

But how would we give consent apart from using the routes already open to us – such as voting. And on recycling, it might have been mandated but we wouldn’t have agreed to do it unless most of us saw the point and shared the objetives. Few people in my experience resent recycling