Big Society – ideas but no washing line

July 13, 2010 by
Filed under: Public policy, The RSA 

 The RSA published the second in our new pamphlet series today. It is by Ben Rogers and called ‘The Woolwich model: Can citizens tackle anti-social behaviour’. The pamphlet has had some media profile including an excellent interview with Ben on the Today programme. We had an interesting launch event this morning, including a response from Policing Minister, Nick Herbert.

I have done a few media interviews on the pamphlet and have found a theme emerging. On the one hand, there is support for the idea that citizens should be more willing to intervene when they see behaviour like vandalism or rowdiness, along with a recognition that in times of austerity we need the police to focus on the harder end of crime. On the other hand, there is scepticism that people will intervene and alarmism about the possible consequences of ‘having a go’.

In fact, this makes the case for Ben’s main recommendation which is for more people to undertake training which improves their capacity to read situations, to intervene safely and to know how best to deal with people who are agitated. Having these skills will give people some of the confidence they currently lack, a deficit which means that most of us err on the side of caution when faced with anti-social behaviour.

In my introduction to this morning’s event I described the RSA as the Big Society think tank. This is not because I wish to sacrifice the RSA’s political independence but because we have been talking about issues of citizen engagement for several years (ever since my 2007 lecture when I coined the inelegant phrase ‘the social aspiration gap’).

As the New Economics Foundation have highlighted in a recent report, the Big Society remains opaque both as a concept and as a policy framework. The longer this is the case the less likely it is to be taken seriously in Whitehall and town hall, and the more sceptical will become the public and key institutions. The converse danger is that the Big Society becomes a coat of gloss paint that is applied to all initiatives to try to repel criticism. So yesterday, for example, I heard a Conservative say that because the collectives of GPs hiring private sector commissioning agencies under the new NHS plan might be social enterprises, this was an example of the Big Society.

This implies either that the BS is a rather mechanistic concept which is simply about more economic activity being in the not for profit sector, or that the criteria for what enhances social capacity is so elastic as to be almost meaningless. Peter Mandelson used to talk about a washing line or narrative on which policy initiatives could be pinned to make them legible. The Big Society needs a washing line. 

I am going this afternoon to a Big Society reception at Number Ten (it will feel strange going back as a visitor). I expect that the PM will make some comments so I may report back later on whether further light has been shed on where the idea is going next.

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5 Comments on Big Society – ideas but no washing line

  1. joe on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 2:15 pm

    2. Seems to me you’re getting close to encouraging vigilantes (not sure if vigilantism is a word, but I mean the concept rather than the people in particular).

    Similar to having National Service, I’d think there is a good chance that training people to ‘get stuck in’ would have more adverse than positive outcomes.

    By the way, I was at a charity where I do a bit of voluntary work the other week and we heard a load of noise, looked out the window and saw a crowd of more than 100 schoolchildren crowding around a small group fighting. Almost instinctively (and mostly because we were a lot bigger than the kids), a friend and I wade into the crowd to stand between those fighting. When they heard the police siren, the kids legged it – so when the police finally ran up the only people still there were a few bemused adults.

    The thing is that I’m not sure that was a safe thing to do even if I’d had the training and a knife-proof jacket.

  2. Patrick Woodman on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 4:38 pm

    3. Matthew

    Isn’t your final comment about the need for a washing line rather the wrong way round? In most of this post you argue that there already IS a washing line or narrative (the Big Society) but precious little actual policy – the clothes – to hang on the line. Training to support greater confidence to ‘have a go’ looks like clothing, not an overarching narrative. (Perhaps some comfortable, supportive underwear – which is about as far as the metaphor should be taken, if not too far already!)

    Best wishes

    Patrick

  3. John on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 7:49 pm

    4. I don’t see this as encouraging vigilantes, in the same way the learning first aid or CPR techniques encourages people to set off in their cars looking for people to treat.

    Rather I see this as encouraging the responsibility that we owe each other. It is also consistent with Peel’s original Principles of Policing, one of which says something like “the police are the public and the public the police, the difference being that the police are paid to do something which is incumbent on every citizen.” [sic]

    I think that there is a big difference between “walking by” and “having a go”. Something I would guess that the Woolwich Model would cover.

  4. Jeff Mowatt on Wed, 14th Jul 2010 3:09 pm

    5. Matthew, you may recall I raised a question with you after the Yunus broadvcast

    The celebratory atmosphere of the launch reminded me of that scene from Bonnie and Clyde where the brothers meet up and get all fired up about the great time they’ll have together.

    “What are we going to do then?”

    In the BS dialogue (unfortunate choice of acronym) I noted a comment about NEF

    “The central principle underpinning the vision for a Big Society – that power should be decentralised and people enabled run their own affairs locally – should be extended to the economy”

    Well yes, but that’s what we’ve been active in doing for more than a decade. Why are they just talking about it – it’s already happening as people-centered economics. Do people get paid to think and not act. lest they do something harmful?

    Here’ s where its at now with reforming capitalism

    http://people-centered.net/Capitalism.aspx

    As for action, well we’re trying to go toe to toe with mafia on this one

    http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_abandoned_children_of_ukraine

  5. Further thoughts on welfare and the state « Policy Progress on Mon, 13th Sep 2010 6:02 pm

    6. [...] outlined his critical engagement with the Big Society on his blog in a number of posts including Big Society – ideas but no washing line, The Big Society – news from Downing Street, Big Society – Fair Society and The night [...]

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