Hippocratic Oath For Community Workers
“First, do no harm.” This dictum is frequently but mistakenly associated with the Hippocratic Oath. Although community activator, Jim Diers, was disconcerted to learn that physicians are not guided by this rule, he’s suggesting that it be adopted by community workers as the basis for a code of conduct. Diers finds that we need to acknowledge the ways in which we often inadvertently harm the very communities we are trying to help and pledge to work in ways that contribute to their health.
“First, do no harm.” This dictum is frequently but mistakenly associated with the Hippocratic Oath. Although community activator, Jim Diers, was disconcerted to learn that physicians are not guided by this rule, he’s suggesting that it be adopted by community workers as the basis for a code of conduct. Diers finds that we need to acknowledge the ways in which we often inadvertently harm the very communities we are trying to help and pledge to work in ways that contribute to their health. Here is an outline of principles Diers would like to see included in a Hippocratic Oath for community workers whether they are social workers, recreation coordinators, clergy, community police, public health workers, planners, educators, service learning students, outreach staff, organizers or other community-based professionals.
Photo: Jesse Orrico/Unsplash
Do No Harm
Don’t usurp the community’s power
“Never do for people what they can do for themselves.” That’s the iron rule of community organizing. It was drilled into me by my mentor, Tom Gaudette, who received his training from Saul Alinsky.
After my first week of work as a community organizer, I met with Gaudette. “Tell me what you did not do this week,” he began. I was highly offended because I had put in long hours and felt that I hadn’t neglected anything. “I knocked on hundreds of doors, researched the issues, designed a flier, and even wrote a press release. I did everything,” I concluded. “You’ve got it all wrong,” Gaudette responded. “Your job isn’t to speak or do for the community. Your job is to develop the capacity of community to do and speak for itself. So every week, I want you to tell me one more thing you are not doing.”
The iron rule is especially difficult for community workers to obey. We do this work because we care deeply about the community. But, in our rush to help the community, we often deny them their own agency. We usurp the power of the people.
Don’t make the community dependent
A related principle is to refrain from making the community dependent on you, funding or other external resources. After all, none of us will be around forever and neither will our organizations, programs or services. We must always ask ourselves: Will the community be better or worse off because I was here? Have I built more capacity or created more dependence?
Don’t define people by their needs
We make people dependent when we focus exclusively on their needs. We emphasize people’s deficiencies when we label them as disabled, at-risk, non-English speaking, poor, homeless, etc. While there is truth to every one of these labels, it is only part of the truth. Everyone has needs, but everyone also has gifts. When we focus on people’s needs, they are clients in a service system. When we focus on people’s gifts, they are citizens in a community.
Don’t fragment the community
The main reason I love neighborhoods is because they provide the context for building inclusive community. It’s in our neighborhoods that people with diverse identities and interests reside. Unfortunately, many so-called community workers contribute to keeping people divided.
Most community workers aren’t focused on the whole community. Instead, they work with the narrow segment of the population that relates to the mission of their agency or association. That mission is typically limited to a specific topic or category of people.
There are community workers who focus on a particular segment of the population. Separate organizations, programs and services segregate people who are old, young, disabled, refugee, etc. The people are organized the way that community workers are organized rather than by the neighborhood where they live. This raises the question: Who is serving whom? Confining people to separate silos makes inclusive community impossible.
Other community workers are in agencies organized around a special interest whether that is public safety, health, the environment, emergency preparedness, affordable housing, transportation, recreation, etc. Dozens if not hundreds of agencies are reaching out to the same neighborhood. Their community workers are trying to recruit individuals to their separate causes. Not only does this divide the community, but it fails to recognize the unique opportunity for a holistic approach that place-based work makes possible.
Don’t distract the community from its own priorities
In addition to dividing neighbors, community workers who push particular agendas provide little opportunity for the community to address its own priorities. The community is always being engaged around what the community workers think is most important or what their agency or grant requires of them. When people fail to engage, we call them apathetic. No one is apathetic. Everyone cares deeply about something. If the true objective is to engage and empower the community, it would be much better to start not with answers, but with questions: What are you most passionate about? What are your fears? What are your dreams?
Don’t take people’s time without showing results
While most community workers I know take their jobs seriously and try to be as productive as possible, we often take the community’s time for granted. We may think of it as free time, because there is no cost to our organization. We fail to recognize that time is precious to the people with whom we work. Time they spend with us is time when they could be earning an income, interacting with family and friends, or simply relaxing and having fun. If people don’t see some value to their participation, they’ll soon learn that it doesn’t pay to be involved. Yet, community workers often invite people to meetings or subject them to surveys or interviews that produce no visible outcome to those involved.
Don’t treat non-profit organizations as the surrogate for community
Oftentimes, it is the staff of non-profit organizations who are called on the represent the community. After all, they work the same hours, speak the same professionalized language, and get paid for their time so they are more likely to participate. Non-profit organizations can play a valuable role, but their role is not to be the surrogate for the community. Most are less accountable to the community than are the local elected officials. The role of the community worker is to reach beyond the people who are being paid.
Do Some Good
I’ve used the word “we” in this article because my entire career has been as a community worker. I’ve been employed by large agencies as well as by small, grassroots associations. I know how difficult it is to follow the principles I’ve outlined and I haven’t consistently done so. Our training, funding, organizations and other systems often push us in the opposite direction. But I’ve also learned some principles that will enable us to do good in the community.
Get out of your cubicle and into the community
When I started organizing 43 years ago, I was nervous about approaching strangers. I walked around my assigned neighborhood for a long time trying to identify the most welcoming house and work up my nerve to knock on the door. I was less embarrassed to admit this shortcoming when I read that Cesar Chavez experienced a similar discomfort when he facilitated his first house meeting.
Today, community workers have an alternative. They can use a computer. It feels so much safer and much more comfortable to work out of a secure, climate-controlled office.
But, you can’t be effective if you aren’t in the neighborhood. You need to see the neighborhood, its opportunities and challenges, with your own eyes. You need to make personal contact with people. There are so many individuals who will never access your website or respond to your e-mail blasts. You need to go where the people are, listen to them and build relationships. Only then, a computer might be helpful for staying in touch.
Listen and learn from the community
A good community worker brings new knowledge and perspectives to the community, but the best community worker values the knowledge and perspectives of the residents. They are the experts on their neighborhood – its history, strengths and challenges. The neighbors already have relationships with one another and know the local formal and informal associations. They also know what their perspectives and priorities are. Community workers would be well advised to listen to the community before sharing their own insights. Listening will generate trust and give the community worker access to the information that will make their work effective.
Help the community to discover its resources and power
While every place and everyone has abundant resources, they often go unrecognized. Needs assessments and media coverage cause whole neighborhoods to be known as nothing more than low-income, high-crime, distressed, blighted or some other negative description. In these same neighborhoods, professionals have labelled most of the individuals by their deficiencies. The residents typically internalize this characterization of their neighborhood and themselves. Lacking a sense of their own capacity, they feel powerless and dependent on external resources. The most valuable perspective that the community worker can bring is to shine light on the strengths of the people and their neighborhood. That’s the basis for community empowerment.
Help the community to identify common interests and root causes
Another valuable perspective that the community worker can bring is to help the community see the big picture. Too often, individuals are overwhelmed and paralyzed by what they think are their personal problems. The role of the community worker in this case is to make private pain public. The idea is to bring individuals with similar concerns together so that they can realize they aren’t alone, identify their common societal issue, and work collectively to address it. A similar approach is needed to act on people’s dreams. As New Zealand artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser noted: “When we dream alone it is only a dream, but when many dream together it is the beginning of a new reality.”
Seeing the big picture also involves digging below the symptoms to discover the root causes. For example, rather than complain about at-risk youth, it would be more useful to identify and act on the unjust systems that put young people at risk. The best way to educate people about the systemic issues isn’t by lecturing them but by taking a Freirian approach of asking questions (often whys) that cause the community to reflect deeply on its own experience.
Share tools that enable the community to take the lead and share their gifts with one another
The community worker, like any other tradesperson, should have a full toolbox. Some of my favorite tools are learning conversations, storytelling, appreciative inquiry, asset mapping, block connectors, placemaking, matching grants, microlending, time banks, visioning, open space, and accountability sessions. There are different tools for different situations, and the community worker must know how best to use them. They should share their tools with community leaders and train them to be proficient in their application. There are no trade secrets for community workers.
Assist associations and agencies to network with one another
Through listening, the community worker will quickly discover that the neighborhood is already organized. There are dozens if not hundreds of formal and informal associations in every neighborhood. There is no one association that can adequately represent the community. Most associations consist primarily of one type of people whether they are homeowners, businesspeople, or residents with a particular culture, religion, politics, age, gender, school, address or interest. An inclusive community voice can be created by bringing these many networks together for regular forums, social events, visioning, planning, etc. but few neighbors can afford the time to organize such gatherings on top of their other community commitments. More problematic, there are often tensions between associations and it would be difficult to find any active neighbor who is trusted by all of them. The more neutral community worker could play a valuable role in facilitating the associations to network with one another.
As described earlier, the community’s fragmentation mirrors the siloed nature of the agencies that work in the neighborhood. Another way that community workers could help unify the community would be to assist the staff of local agencies to network with one another. If they can work together as one set of agencies with a focus on place, outreach would be more efficient, community-friendly and effective.
This was the approach we took with the Department of Neighborhoods in the City of Seattle. Thirteen Neighborhood Coordinators helped associations network with one another through representation on District Councils and participation in neighborhood planning. The Coordinators also facilitated communication between the community and other City departments as well as non-profit organizations. They thought of themselves as “overt double agents.”
Pay attention to segments of the community that are being excluded and find ways to engage them
Most community associations claim that they would like to be more inclusive, but they aren’t very good at it. The leadership, agenda, language and relationships have already been established, so newcomers and especially those who are different don’t feel very welcome. The community worker should constantly assess who is underrepresented in community life and find ways to engage them. The best place to start might be in assisting marginalized individuals with a shared identity to establish their own association, so that they can support one another, build power, and interact with other associations and agencies on their own terms.
Develop new leaders
Community leadership tends to become entrenched, stale and out of touch over time. That’s because some leaders won’t step aside, but it’s also because people are reluctant to step up to this role that can be overwhelming for a volunteer. The community worker should constantly be on the lookout for potential new leaders especially from those segments of the population that are underrepresented. The availability of leadership training will give more people the confidence to step up. The training should emphasize collective leadership that makes an association more sustainable, utilizes the different skills of many people, and doesn’t place a burden on any one individual.
Raise objections when you encounter discrimination
While it is essential that the community worker listen to the community and follow its lead, the community worker shouldn’t be a blank slate. The community doesn’t always get it right especially if its membership isn’t inclusive. When the community acts in ways that are discriminatory, the community worker has a responsibility to object. This could be done directly, by raising pointed questions and/or by redirecting their support to those who are being discriminated against.
Practice what you preach by being active in your own community
Too often, when we refer to community, we’re talking about the communities of others – the ones we are helping as an outsider. We fail to recognize that we need to have our own community. Sometimes our excuse is that we are too busy to be involved in our community. But, isn’t that the excuse that we hear and dismiss so often in our work? How can we argue that everyone else needs community but not us? We can’t be credible and effective community workers unless we are active in community outside of work. That’s the only way we can fully understand the joys and challenges of living in community. Moreover, it is our community that will sustain us in this rewarding but sometimes difficult work.
Photo: Jesse Orrico/Unsplash
Bumping Places
“My favorite bumping places are the ones that are designed and built by the neighbors. These places are most likely to reflect what is special about the residents and their neighborhood, and they are designed to work for the people who live there. Through creating the place, neighbors feel a sense of ownership. They are more likely to use, maintain and program it.” Jim Diers, community activator, explores the art of creating bumping places.
“My favorite bumping places are the ones that are designed and built by the neighbors. These places are most likely to reflect what is special about the residents and their neighborhood, and they are designed to work for the people who live there. Through creating the place, neighbors feel a sense of ownership. They are more likely to use, maintain and program it.” Jim Diers, community activator, explores the art of creating bumping places.
By Jim Diers, community activator
Photo: Beth Macdonald/Unsplash
You Can’t Build Community Without Doing the Bump
Community is built on relationships and people develop relationships through frequent contact with others. So, if you want to build community, you need places to bump into other people. The closer those places are to where you live, the more likely you are to bump into the same people over and over again.
Most neighborhoods have an abundance of bumping places. There are public places such as community centers, libraries, schools, parks, athletic facilities, sidewalks and trails. Local business districts with their pubs, coffee shops, grocery stores and other bumping places can be equally effective. There are also collectively owned gathering spaces such as clubhouses and places of worship.
Unfortunately, neighborhoods have been losing their traditional bumping places. Benches have been removed and access to parks and other public spaces has been restricted out of a concern that the “wrong people” have been using them. Online shopping, big box retail and gigantic malls have led to a decline in many neighborhood business districts. Regional so-called community centers are replacing those that were neighborhood-based. The large scale of many new recreation and retail facilities leaves people lost in the crowd and anonymous. An increasingly mobile population often shops, works, recreates, worships, and attends school outside of the neighborhood where they live. People have many different communities, and in a sense, they have no community at all. They seldom bump into the same people in more than one place.
Some neighborhoods were never designed for bumping into other people. Bedroom communities are often more friendly to cars than pedestrians. There are no places to shop, eat or drink within walking distance even if there are the rare sidewalks. Residents drive in and out of a garage adjoining their house and have little opportunity to bump into neighbors. Likewise, there is a dearth of bumping places in rural areas, and long distances between houses make it difficult to connect.
People are social creatures, however, so there has been a growing interest in placemaking. Rather than trying to prevent people from using public spaces, the new thinking is that safety is better achieved by attracting more people from all walks of life. Business districts are being revitalized by creating a distinctive experience that malls can’t replicate – small scale gathering places, shops and restaurants with a local flavor, personalized service, and community-based events such as art walks, heritage days and parades. The local food movement is bringing us community gardens, community kitchens, farmers markets and other prime bumping places. At the block level, neighbors are reclaiming their streets by painting murals in the intersections, installing street furniture, and periodically closing the street for parties and play. Apartment buildings and condos sometimes have rooms for common use, but when they don’t, a sofa or a table with a teapot might be placed in the lobby or next to the elevator to spark interaction. Some people are turning their homes into bumping places by installing a little free library, moving their barbeque to the front lawn, staging concerts on their front porch, or hosting welcome dinners for new neighbors.
Creating bumping places in suburban and rural areas can be more challenging, but they also have homes and yards that could be used for gatherings of neighbors. Practically everywhere has a closed or underutilized school, church, grange hall, or other facility that could serve as a venue for community dinners, educational programs, concerts, dances, movies, swap meets, cider making, game nights, holiday parties and all sorts of other events that would attract the neighbors. Portable bumping spaces are another option; some communities operate a wood-fired pizza oven, tea station or espresso cart that can be driven or pedaled to a prominent intersection, popular trail, cul de sac, or other location where people are likely to congregate around it.
Sometimes, though, the only option is to start with virtual bumping. In new suburbs where the housing is being developed more quickly than the public infrastructure, communities have effectively used a Facebook page as their initial bumping place. Contact on the internet can lead to relationships in real life. I’ve heard many stories of Facebook friends helping one another in times of need even though they had not previously met one another physically.
If you want to develop an inclusive community, you need to have inclusive bumping spaces. While neighbors typically have all kinds of differences in terms of age, income, culture, religion, politics, interests, etc. they tend to gather with people who are like themselves. To be inclusive, a place should be accessible to those with differing abilities and incomes. To the extent that the place includes signage and art, it should reflect the full range of languages and cultures in the neighborhood.
A key reason why places aren’t sufficiently inclusive is because so many are single purpose. They only attract gardeners, basketball players, seniors or whomever the space was specifically designed for. An inclusive place will be multi-purpose. Project for Public Spaces, the premier placemaking organization, calls this the Power of 10. They assert that every place should accommodate at least ten different kinds of activities. Not only will this make the place more inviting to a wide range of users, but it will make it more likely that the place will be used more extensively, at all times of the day and during all seasons of the year making it safer for everyone.
Having an inclusive space isn’t sufficient, however. We’ve all experienced elevators, bus stops and other public places that are crowded with people doing their best not to make eye contact with anyone else. Sometimes an intervention is needed to get people off of their smartphones and interacting with one another.
Public libraries are a good example. They attract neighbors from all walks of life, but the diverse readers seldom interact except for families during Saturday morning story hours. Increasingly, though, libraries are trying to serve as the neighborhood’s living room. Many libraries have incorporated coffee shops or other spaces where people aren’t shushed. Some have living book programs through which a person can spend time getting to know someone who is different than themself. After hours, libraries have hosted sleepovers, concerts and even miniature golf where people putt their way through the stacks of the Dewey decimal system.
My favorite bumping places are the ones that are designed and built by the neighbors. These places are most likely to reflect what is special about the residents and their neighborhood, and they are designed to work for the people who live there. Through creating the place, neighbors feel a sense of ownership. They are more likely to use, maintain and program it.
Of course, it is critical that the design/build process is inclusive as well. All of the potential users, whether they are young or old, business or homeless people, have a valuable perspective to bring to the design process and everyone has contributions they can make to creating a place that makes it possible to do the bump together.
Photo: Egor Myznik/Unsplash
We Need Fewer Volunteers And More Community
Community activator Jim Diers was invited to speak at a conference of not-for-profit organizations on the topic of “How to Recruit More Volunteers.” The conference organizers must have been distressed when he began his remarks by asserting: “What we need is fewer volunteers and more community.” Read Jim’s view on the difference between the two.
Community activator Jim Diers was invited to speak at a conference of not-for-profit organizations on the topic of “How to Recruit More Volunteers.” The conference organizers must have been distressed when he began his remarks by asserting: “What we need is fewer volunteers and more community.” Read Jim’s view on the difference between the two.
By Jim Diers, community activator
Photo: Christine Kozak/Unsplash
Volunteers are well-intentioned individuals who take time from their daily routine in order to be of service. Community, on the other hand, isn’t a departure from routine. It’s a way of life focused on the common good. A valued community member might welcome strangers, join a time bank, host a block party, shop locally, raise responsible children, carpool to work, plant street trees, coach a youth soccer team, vote, advocate for the homeless, be a buddy to a housebound neighbor, and graciously accept a gift of zucchini from another neighbor’s garden. Few people have the time to engage in so many community activities and everyone’s menu of activities will look different, but whether at work, home, in their neighborhood or the larger world, all people have the opportunity to be welcoming, generous in giving and open to receiving, and act as if their welfare is tied to everyone else’s. That’s what it means to be in community.
Volunteering tends to be a one-way relationship in which someone is providing services to clients. Those clients are labelled by what they are missing – poor, unemployed, uneducated, homeless, single parent, non-English speaking, at-risk, disabled, etc. With service delivery, there are two classes of people – the volunteers with the gifts and the clients with the needs. In community, we recognize that everyone has both needs and gifts. Community is all about mutual support – meeting one another’s needs with one another’s gifts.
Volunteers often provide services that offer some relief for problems but don’t address the underlying causes. Such was the case with the Ontario Church Ladies who had been volunteering in their local food bank for decades only to see the lines grow ever longer. They finally called a press conference to announce that they were going on strike. Rather than volunteering in the food bank, they were going to join with fellow community members in advocating for social justice.
Ironically, the not-for-profits and other agencies in which people volunteer are inadvertently contributing to the breakdown of the very communities that they claim to support. Agencies are organized into silos defined by each one’s own narrow mission. There are separate silos for the young, old, disabled, refugees, and all sorts of other categories and subcategories of clients. Each client group is assigned its own facilities, programs and services. This way of organizing people is antithetical to community. Consequently, volunteers are often being of more service to agencies than they are to the community.
Likewise, the top-down nature of agencies is not conducive to community. People volunteer in programs and services designed and managed by professional staff. These staff have an important role to play, but they are no substitute for community. Communities have their own unique and more holistic ways of caring for one another and the planet, promoting health and happiness, preventing crime, responding to disaster, creating great places, strengthening democracy, and advancing social justice. The more people are involved as community members, the less need there will be for volunteers.
Of course, some volunteers will always be necessary and, in my talk, I did go on to describe ways in which not-for-profit organizations could attract and retain more of them. That includes the common techniques of outreach and volunteer recognition, but the most powerful methods are those that adopt the practices of community – cultivate and build on relationships; identify and utilize everyone’s skills, passions and knowledge; work collaboratively with other agencies in focusing on whole places rather than separate functions; and give people a sense of ownership by empowering them to determine their own priorities and plan or co-design their own responses. When agencies do this, volunteers and clients are transformed into citizens and stronger communities result.
Photo: Christine Kozak/Unsplash
La Comunal
The architectural collective of Lacol examines the power of community. The collective’s new office is siuated on top of La Comunal, a project designed by Lacol in Barcelona’s neighbourhood of Sants. Underneath the offices lies La Ciutat Invisible (The Invisible City), a bookshop and cultural project exploring new ideas of working and living in communities and in resistance to the capitalist system.
The architectural collective of Lacol examines the power of community. The collective’s new office is siuated on top of La Comunal, a project designed by Lacol in Barcelona’s neighbourhood of Sants. Underneath the offices lies La Ciutat Invisible (The Invisible City), a bookshop and cultural project exploring new ideas of working and living in communities and in resistance to the capitalist system. La Comunal came to life as an examination of buildings from the early 20th century used for the manufacture of sailing textiles. Today, the project stands as a vision of a future based on social cohesion and human bonds.
By Lacol, a cooperative of architects
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
1 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
La Comunal occupies half of the block between the streets of En Blanco, Tenor Masini and Riera d’Escuder. It is a cataloged building by the town hall, and urbanistically it is misaligned with the urban fabric of the place. In 1926, it was three years before Barcelona received the 1929 Universal Exposition. That same year, line 1 of the metro was inaugurated. These are the years leading up to an important time for a city in its way to be infrastructured. This is the context in which La Comunal was built, first to be a warehouse and later, a textile industry.
1 SUBTRACTION AND RECOVERY OF ORIGINAL GEOMETRY
The volumetry prior to the work had blurred the original shape. What is now a courtyard, walkways and accesses was a fully built and enclosed ground floor. The first phase of the intervention was to recover the initial geometry.
2 MITGERA EQUIPADA
The party walls of the neighboring building become a façade when the common spaces are built at its end shaping the patio.
3 REHABILITATIONT OF SPACES
The warehouses, except for the restaurant and the concert hall, receive a minimum treatment where the priority is to consolidate the whole structurally and to make flexible the possible ways of occupying them with modular and adaptable facilities. On the outside, it has been important to study the original composition of the façades to intervene respectfully.
4 PATIO AND CIRCULATIONS
The new work gives up an optimal floor plan to achieve a courtyard and circulations that follow the original alignment of the complex. The courtyard, with the multipurpose room that forms a unit, is understood as the stage of a theater where the walkways, which act as balconies, surround it.
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
2 USE PROGRAM
La Comunal has always been a place of labor, before manufacturing and storage and now services, it has never ceased to be a professional facility in its 95-year history.
USES
The uses for which the original buildings were designed were housing, shop and warehouse and the uses for those who have been rehabilitated are store, offices, concert hall, restaurant and common areas. The flexibility afforded by such a clear separation of the spaces served by the servers has been key to accommodating a greater number of uses. The creation of a third strip of server spaces that arises from the north corner organizes the courtyard, the new building and makes the circulations follow a rhythm with server spaces between spaces served.
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
3 HERITAGE STRATEGY
It is a small size factory of which very few remain standing. We extend its life cycle and reconvert the manufacturing industry into cooperative culture linked to the neighborhood.
VOLUMETRY
It is necessary to respect the original shape of the warehouses in the same way that it is necessary to apply an energy criterion to the heritage. The result of this debate has been the greenhouses located on the interstitial spaces where the accesses and the server spaces are located. While blurring the outline achieve emphasize the sequence of three parts separated them using bioclimatic elements.
Emptying the courtyard is another fact that allows us to recover and recognize what the warehouse were like in the past. In addition to allowing ventilation and good light conditions of all the spaces that surround it, it provides an element of centrality and versatility where we can meet and where everything that is beyond work can happen.
ACCES
The main façades remind us that the principal street, still in the 1920s, was En Blanco street. Today, motorized transport has made the animal disappear and the slopes of the streets are no longer a problem, so the main access is through Sants street. However, the urban fabric has changed and the buildings, out of alignment, cause widening of the street marking the accesses to the complex.
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
FACADES
Composed as an eclectic ornament in times of political darkness, we have found facades with two superimposed stuccoes from 1926, the first and the 1940s, the second. Advised by restoration specialists, we have chosen to recover the first style, with a palette of colors and shapes closer to modernism. This process is called facade impoverishment.
ROOFS
After removing the fiber cement pieces with asbestos and with the intention of obtaining a light roof, we placed corrugated galvanized steel sheet and thus differentiate those materials added in the project from the existing ones. On the other hand and with the desire to reuse those materials that were in good condition, we have been able to reuse more than 1,200 linear meters of the beams that supported the ceiling in order to grow the 15 cm of insulation on the decking cover.
4 CLIMATE, ECOLOGICAL AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGY
We have divided the sustainability strategy of the project into different axis related to material and climatic issues directly affecting energy demands and consumption.
AIR
Greenhouses and the reduction of heated square meters have been the lines of action that have structured this axis.
Renewal air is pre-treated in greenhouses before entering offices, preheating it in the winter and cooling it in the summer.
The server spaces have been left outside the heated enclosures. Circulations, office, toilets and accesses do not receive thermal comfort treatment and in some cases there is not even protection from the rain.
Building less in all those places considered transitory has been the result of a debate that sought to minimize impacts at all levels.
WATER (blue and green)
Given the dichotomy of using drinking water for irrigation or cleaning of spaces, the use of rainwater seemed the best option to address this second axis. Under the courtyard we will find a tank of 5,000 liters of water that is filled with water collected from the roofs of the building. In a second phase, the new building and the courtyard will receive a greening process with climbing vegetation and automatic irrigation systems connected to the tank.
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
MATERIALS (grey)
Materially, the intervention of the warehouses has focused, above all, on their structural consolidation and on the improvement of their energy and bioclimatic behavior. The possibility of insulating the walls on the outside, avoiding thermal bridges and achieving the highest thermal inertia on the inside has been possible thanks to lime and cork mortars. The beams that supported the reed ceiling have been reused as rakes with which to grow 15 cm where the roof insulation is placed. Floors and other elements in contact with the ground have been insulated with rigid foams from the sandwich panel industry.
URBANISM
Advised by the team of sustainability consultants and with the climate shelters (green, blue and gray) as references, the courtyard of La Comunal, after the second phase of greening, will become a safe space in terms of urban planning and climate change. Proper disposal of the lights, humid shade when it is hot, security, accessibility and human attention are some of the characteristics with which the space has been designed.
La Borda - Communal Living For The 21st Century
Lacol worked closely with the future residents of La Borda in Barcelona. The community’s 28 residential units were completed in October 2018 after a participatory process. La Borda sits on the edge of Can Batlló, a former industrial zone. The first discussions of La Borda emerged in 2012 as residents and activists began discussing Barcelona’s housing crisis and sought for novel ways of living communally. Here’s an architectural blueprint of the project.
Lacol worked closely with the future residents of La Borda in Barcelona. The community’s 28 residential units were completed in October 2018 after a participatory process. La Borda sits on the edge of Can Batlló, a former industrial zone. The first discussions of La Borda emerged in 2012 as residents and activists began discussing Barcelona’s housing crisis and sought for novel ways of living communally. Here’s an architectural blueprint of the project.
By Lacol, a cooperative of architects
Photo: Lacol
La Borda housing cooperative is a development self-organized by its users to access decent, non-speculative housing that places its use value in the center, through a collective structure. The idea of a housing cooperative was born in 2012 as a project of Can Batlló driven by the community in the process of recovery of the industrial premises, and the neighborhood and cooperative fabric of the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona.
The project is located on a public land of social housing, with a leasehold of 75 years. Located in Constitució Street, in a bordering position of the industrial area of Can Batlló with a facade to the existing neighborhood of La Bordeta.
Photo: Lacol
There are three fundamental and cross-sectional principles of the project,
(1) redefine the collective housing program
The building program proposes 28 units (40, 60 and 75m²) and community spaces that allow stretching the fact of living, from the private space to the public space to enhance the community life. These spaces are: kitchen-dining room, laundry, multipurpose space, space for guests, health and care space, storage in each plant, and exterior and semi-exterior spaces such as the patio and roofs. All of them articulated around a central courtyard, a large relationship space reminiscent of the "corralas", a typology of popular housing in central and southern parts of Spain.
Photo: Baku Akazawa/info@bakuakazawa.com
(2) sustainability and environmental quality
The objective is to build with the lowest environmental impact possible, both in the construction work and during its life and, above all, achieve comfort in homes with minimum consumption, to reduce the overall costs of access to housing and eliminate the possibility of energy poverty among users. We started from the conviction that the best strategy is to reduce the initial demand of all the environmental vectors of the building (energy, water, materials and waste), especially at the energy level, where we prioritized passive strategies to achieve maximum use of existing resources.
Photo: Lacol
(3) user participation
Self-promotion and subsequent collective management implies that the participation of future users in the process (design, construction and use) is the most important and differential variable of the project, generating an opportunity to meet and project with them and their specific needs.
Photo: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona
Five Keys To Broad And Inclusive Community Engagement
Building strong communities is not easy. In “Bowling Alone”, Robert Putnam documents the decline of community life in North America. He blames poverty, suburbanization, television, and more time spent at work. Others have added fear, mobility, globalization and increased professionalization and specialization to the list of culprits. Jim Diers, community activator, reflects on 37 years in community building. He offers simple rules of engagement that still hold true today.
Building strong communities is not easy. In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam
documents the decline of community life in North America. He blames poverty,
suburbanization, television, and more time spent at work. Others have added fear,
mobility, globalization and increased professionalization and specialization to the list of
culprits. Even so, my 37 year background in community building has taught me some
simple rules of engagement that still hold true today.
By Jim Diers, community activator
Photo: Frank McKenna/Unsplash
Have Fun!
Of all the forces that are eroding community, Putnam claims that television is the
greatest threat. That may be true, but if television is our main competition and we’re
losing, we’re doing something terribly wrong. It shouldn’t be that difficult to make
community more compelling than television.
Cesar Cala, a community activist in the Philippines and now in Calgary, told me,
“The problem is those GD activists.” “GD activists?” I inquired. “Yes,” he said, “the
grim and determined.”
We all know those sour activists who act like civic engagement is their cross to
bear. They love to complain. Who would want to get involved with them? The key is to
make community life fun again. As my friend Jeff Bercuwitz says, “Why have a meeting
when you can have a party?” After all, the purpose is to get people involved and not to
see who can endure the most suffering.
Start Where People Are
Saul Alinsky, who is often described as the father of modern community
organizing, complained that too many activists start with the world as they would like it
to be rather than the world as it is. If you want to get people engaged, he advised, you
need to start where they are. This is true on several levels.
First, the closer the action is to where people live, the more likely they are to get
engaged. While there will undoubtedly be a larger turnout for a citywide event, there will
never be a higher percentage of participation than if the meeting (or party) is held at the
block level. A more localized event makes transportation and child care much easier. It
also gives people a greater sense that their participation is important. After all, if they
don’t attend, who will? And, if they aren’t present, they might be in trouble with their
neighbours.
Second, if you want to get people involved, you need to be cognizant of their
language and culture. This seems obvious in working with immigrants, but even when
communicating with people who speak the same language as you, it is important to use
words that are familiar to them. Too often, we use jargon or acronyms that comprise a
sort of secret code known only by members of a particular profession or by hard core
activists. Not only do we fail to communicate, but those whom we are trying to reach
come to believe that they lack the expertise required for participation.
Third, in trying to recruit people, it is important to start with the networks to
which they already belong. Too often, we think that people aren’t organized simply
because they don’t belong to our organization. In fact, just about everyone belongs to at least one network, either formal or informal. They likely don’t have time to join yet
another group. Besides, they have developed relationships within their existing network
that make them comfortable.
It is especially difficult to recruit people whose age, income, ethnicity or other
characteristics set them apart from the existing members of your organization. If you
want to create a multi-cultural community effort, it generally works best to identify and
build alliances with the key networks involving people who are underrepresented in your
membership. These local networks could be centered on neighbourhood, culture, faith,
education, business, recreation, environment, history, art, crime prevention, service, a
hobby, or something else. There are literally dozens of networks in every neighbourhood.
When these networks are aligned, the community can exercise tremendous power.
Fourth, we need to focus on people’s passions. Too often, we try to convince
people to care about our cause - what we are passionate about or what we are paid to
promote. When people don’t join us, we call them apathetic. In fact, no one is apathetic.
Everyone cares deeply about something. People will get involved to the extent that we
can tap into their passion. The key is to start, not with an answer or with a program, but
with a question: “What is your dream or what keeps you up at night?”
Finally, in order to start where people are, you need to know their call. I learned
this lesson from John McKnight, Director of the Asset-Based Community Development
Institute. McKnight taught me that different kinds of people respond to different kinds of
calls, just like ducks. Too often, though, we only use the loon call and wonder why only
the loons show up.
Typically, the meeting call is the one that we use. For most people, this is the
worst possible call. They’re afraid to come to the first meeting because they know they
will be on the sign-in sheet and be sentenced to meetings for the remainder of their life.
Those who have come to meetings usually see few if any results. And, many people are
shy. They may attend meetings because it is the only option they are given, but they don’t
feel like they are making a contribution.
In fact, everyone will get involved if they hear their call. Most people respond to
the social call of community meals, parties and festivals. Shy people may respond to the
volunteer call as a tutor or mentor. And, everyone seems to love the project call. With
projects, unlike with meetings, people make a short term commitment and they see
results. There’s a role for everyone - young people, elders, people with disabilities,
architects, artists, construction workers, etc. The more varied the calls they utilize, the
more broad-based and inclusive the organization will be.
Once people are connected, then they are more likely to go to some meetings
because we need a few of those as well. But, we tend to lead with the meetings and
wonder why the same people keep turning out. We’re often trying to engage community
before we’ve built it.
Strive for Results
While it is important to start where the people are, it is crucial not to leave them
there. This is especially true of people who have felt powerless and are getting involved
for the first time. They need to see results if they are going to stay involved. So, you
probably don’t want to start by working on world peace or global warming. Alinsky
talked about the importance of focusing on issues that are immediate, concrete and realizable. Once people have a sense that they can make a difference, they will be more
ready to tackle the larger issues.
Utilize People’s Strengths
Activists tend to focus on the problems in their community. As a result, they look
outside the community for the solutions and overlook the abundant assets that exist in
every neighbourhood and in every individual. Everyone has gifts of the head
(knowledge), heart (passion), and hands (skills). Identifying ways in which people can
contribute those gifts to the community is a wonderful way to get them engaged. This is
especially true for people referred to as at-risk youth, old people, non-English speaking,
and homeless and disabled individuals. When we label people by their needs, they
become clients in a service system, and when we focus on their gifts they become citizens
of our community.
Celebrate Success and Recognize Caring Neighbours
Getting results is important, but much of the potential value is lost if you fail to
celebrate your success and thank those who made it possible. Neighbours need to know
that people like themselves were responsible. The sharing of such stories inspires people
about what is possible when they work together and build on their assets. Social media
presents us with a wonderful opportunity to tell the positive stories that are seldom found
in the mainstream press
Photo: Frank McKenna/Unsplash
Understanding Scottish Places
How do we measure the strenghts and weaknesses of towns and help residents gain a deeper understanding of their homes? Understanding Scottish Places is a tool which helps towns practitioners and communities better understand the function of the towns they live and work in. The platform functions as a diagnostic tool while providing the opportunity to compare and contrast data about places across the country.
How do we measure the strenghts and weaknesses of towns and help residents gain a deeper understanding of their homes? Understanding Scottish Places is a tool which helps towns practitioners and communities better understand the function of the towns they live and work in. The platform functions as a diagnostic tool while providing the opportunity to compare and contrast data about places across the country.
Photo: Robbie McDonaldUnsplash
Understanding Scottish Places (USP) has been developed by a consortium involving Scotland's Towns Partnership, Carnegie UK Trust, the University of Stirling and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. The project has been funded by the Scottish Government and Carnegie UK Trust.
Understanding Scottish Places is an online platform for towns' practitioners and communities. It is designed to help us better understand the function of the towns that we live and work in and provides the opportunity to compare and contrast towns across Scotland.
USP combines a typology of Scottish towns and an assessment of inter-relationships to find towns from across Scotland which share socio-demographic characteristics and score similarly on an independence to dependence scale. It also houses a tool designed to help users gather locally available information about towns to complement the national data presented within USP.
About the USP Audit:
The USP Audit has been developed to complement the national data available about your town through the Understanding Scottish Places data platform. Created by STP and EKOS, it offers a simple way of capturing locally available data on towns. The USP Audit Manual guides you through the process of gathering a range of 50 relevant indicators across 7 KPI themes:
1. Locality Data
2. Accessibility
3. Local Services
4. Activity/Events
5. Development Capacity
6. Tourism and Visitor Profile
7. Place/Quality Impression
These can be collated on the USP Audit Template which is also provided on the USP site. By collating this data in one place, you can draw analysis and easily compare results year on year. USP Audits can also be used to compare with other towns in your region and nationally.
We hope that over time USP Audits will be gathered, shared and visualised as part of the Understanding Scottish Places website, enabling easy comparison. For the time being, there are several USP Audit case studies available for you to view on the site – these are also cited below.
About the USP Your Town Audit:
The STP Add-On to your Understanding Scottish Places (USP) report is a comprehensive study which builds upon the USP output to give the town a much wider appreciation and understanding of its role, function and performance. Importantly a user manual will be included to allow participants to undertake their own future audits.
USP Your Town Audit is the standard benchmark for measuring the health of a Scottish Town. It is designed to be the next step after practitioners have analysed their town using tools such as USP (Understanding Scottish Places) or the Place Standard.
Developed after wide consultation and collaboration, it captures the relevant KPI's to ensure you can develop a comprehensive benchmark and baseline.
The audit, prepared by socio-economic development professionals from EKOS and STP, will use a combination of data gathered through local place audits, business surveys, stakeholder consultations and official government sources.
“The audit process and outcomes have been praised by everyone who has seen them so far, your product deserves promotion!”
For more information please contact Ewan Robertson.
Photo: Mathias P.R. Reding/Unsplash
ASeedlingPlace* Digital Repository
ASeedlingPlace* will act as a connection of the global network of people or groups that are taking actions to green spaces in their respective cities in a collaborative manner.
Urban Gorillas are glad to announce the launch of a Digital Planting Repository called ASeedlingPlace*. ASeedlingPlace* is an initiative created by Urban Gorillas as part of the A-Place project that is co-funded by the CE Program of the European Commission
Photo: Gabriel Jimenez/Unsplash
ASeedlingPlace* inspires to create a digital community of urban visionaries that aim to positively transform their - urban and rural - environment starting from the simple act of planting a seed and tendering a garden. The Digital Platform will be a point of reference for innovative urban greening initiatives that involve communities.
The scope is to showcase community engaged planting initiatives in Europe and beyond. The purpose of these online presentations is to present, inspire, connect to other organisations, and share ideas on the positive effects of collective greening actions in the city and society at large.
The platform will act as a connection of the global network of people or groups that are taking actions to green spaces in their respective cities in a collaborative manner.
In order to explore some amazing planting initiatives from around the globe subscribe to the SeedlingPlace* channels below:
For further info you can contact Urban Gorillas.
Photo: 1st row: Project Title: “Enclosure for dialogue”, project by : Colab - 19 Location: Bogota, Colombia, Date: September 2021. 2nd row: Organisation: Gardens of the Future Location: Nicosia, Cyprus. 3rd row, left: Project Title: “Vertical Gardens”Project by: Urban Gorillas Location: Nicosia, Cyprus Date: September 2020. 3rd row right: Project Title: MÁQUINAS BIÓTICAS | mico-friganista BIOTIC MACHINES | mico-freeganist Project by: Aga Estudio Location: Mexico City
European Creative Rooftop Network: A collective European effort to maximise creative use of rooftops
How can we utilise the space above our heads?
How can we utilise the space above our heads?
In densely populated areas in Europe, thousands of square kilometres of potential (public) space lie under-utilised and unrecognised as a great urban resource. This realisation joins organisations from nine different cities in a collective effort to unlock the potential of the European ‘roofscape’ (i.e. the combined area of flat rooftops in cities). The European Creative Rooftop Network (ECRN) – supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Commision until 2024 – seeks ways in which rooftops can incubate creative solutions for the social, economic and environmental challenges faced by Europe in the near-future. Urban Gorillas from Nicosia is proud to be one of the founding partners.
The Urban Gorillas is an interdisciplinary team of urban enthusiasts who aim to activate community spaces, inviting the local and international community to reimagine Cyprus' capital from the rooftop level and create alternative spaces for social interaction and creative expression on top of the buildings as well as in them. The interconnectivity of the ECRN ensures the benefit of international inspiration for Nicosia’s development and enables the sharing of the Urban Gorillas’ local knowledge with European counterparts.
On December 1st 2021, the partner organisations met in Antwerpen on top of the MAS-building, a publicly accessible rooftop. The nine partner cities differ in culture, climate and city planning but seek the similarities within the European roofscape and exchange their knowledge of this shared heritage. Next to Nicosia, the ECRN partners are (alphabetically): Amsterdam, Antwerpen, Barcelona, Belfast, Chemnitz, Faro, Göteborg and Rotterdam.
Photo: Urban Gorillas
Cultural Streets: An Approach To Lively Public Spaces In Downtown Juarez, Mexico
“At the end of 2020, the "Cultural Streets" project was created. The main objective was to contribute to the urban recovery of the city and the gradual reactivation of public life in the historic center of Juarez, using open space, urban art and tactical urbanism as allies.” Miguel Mendoza tells the story of how Mexican Juarez is finding its way to a more rooted way of living.
“The COVID-19 pandemic caused in the border region a series of devastating humanitarian, social and economic consequences. From the health crisis, to the closure of international crossings to the United States, the canceling of public life and the deterioration of public spaces. One of the most affected sectors was the historic center of Juarez with the low influx of visitors and the reduction of business and cross-border trade. At the end of 2020, the "Cultural Streets" project was created. The main objective was to contribute to the urban recovery of the city and the gradual reactivation of public life in the historic center of Juarez, using open space, urban art and tactical urbanism as allies.” Miguel Mendoza tells the story of how Mexican Juarez is finding its way to a more rooted way of living.
Photo: Miguel Mendoza
To understand the social and urban context of Juarez, one must begin by explaining its border location. Juarez is an industrial city located in the north of Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua and in direct proximity to the city of El Paso, Texas in the United States.
The 2020 Socioeconomic Radiography of the Municipality of Juarez from the Municipal Institute for Research and Planning indicates that Juarez has a population of 1,499,445 inhabitants and together with the Doña Ana and El Paso counties, sums a total binational population of 2,556,878 people. The population within the municipality of Juarez is made up of 50.12% men and 49.88% women. The average age among the community is 30 years old and one out of every three inhabitants is an immigrant, having been born in another state or country.
Juarez as an industrial city began to stand out in the 1960s, through the PRONAF / National Border Program promoted by former President of Mexico Adolfo Lopez Mateos. This program aimed to promote the economic and social development of the border regions through the export and manufacturing industry. To this day, the manufacturing industry continues to represent the economic core and engine of the city and borderland.
On the other hand, since the 1960s and as an effect of the industrial boom, Juarez has experienced marginal growth under irregular land appropriation schemes far from an urban development system. Towards the 1980s, the irregular growth took over the west of the city, on rough terrain near the Sierra de Juarez. In recent decades, urban sprawl has migrated southward with the development of social interest housing, leaving the complementary urban infrastructure in oblivion: schools, hospitals, libraries, parks, museums, public transportation among other examples.
Under this historical context, we can highlight that since 2014 our practice has focused on being an urban and cultural laboratory that seeks the dignity of communities and the creation of participatory public spaces, which are often non-existent or found in a regime of underuse and decay. By defining ourselves as a nomadic laboratory, we allow ourselves to act in the great diversity of communities and urban nodes that exist in Juarez. One of these important nodes is the historic center of the city.
The historic center of Juarez is by itself a phenomenon that requires particular attention. At one point in history, it could have been consolidated alongside that of the sister city of El Paso, Texas, but political and social events such as the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) led to upheaval and deterioration in the area. Over the decades, this space has suffered from real estate speculation, population abandonment and the lack of public policies to reinject investment and dynamics aimed at sustainable development and the formulation of a city identity.
In the last two decades, governments and institutions have tried to implement a series of urban strategies to reactivate the historic center. However, these plans have constantly been undermined by a lack of future vision and budget continuity. One of the few battles won was in 2014 with the partial pedestrianization of 16 de Septiembre Avenue, the main street in the downtown area. This transformation at the time meant a milestone in urban recovery by providing free movement and pedestrian access to the main square, the cathedral and the few historic buildings in this sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused in the border region a series of devastating humanitarian, social and economic consequences. From the health crisis, to the closure of international crossings to the United States, the canceling of public life and the deterioration of public spaces. One of the most affected sectors was the historic center of Juarez with the low influx of visitors and the reduction of business and cross-border trade.
At the end of 2020, in collaboration with the Placemaking Mexico Foundation, the Coordination of Resilience in Juarez and the Municipal Institute of Culture, the "Cultural Streets" project was created. The main objective was to contribute to the urban recovery of the city and the gradual reactivation of public life in the historic center of Juarez, using open space, urban art and tactical urbanism as allies.
Photo: Miguel Mendoza
In May 2021, two months after the community vaccination began, we decided to carry out the first activation of the "Cultural Streets" project. The exact location was on the 16 de Septiembre pedestrian street, at the intersection of the Municipal Institute of Culture headquarters. After a series of participatory online workshops, a pocket park prototype was co-designed hoping to deliver a new post-COVID recreation alternative.
The result of "Cultural Streets" was the transformation of 300 square meters into a multifunctional common space and pocket park that promotes healthy coexistence, cultural exchange and the presence of new audiences, essential elements to elevate and reactivate downtown Juarez. Although a pedestrian street was already a victory, when equipped with urban amenities, landmarks and activities, the regeneration of public space becomes more feasible.
From May to the present November, this post-COVID urban intervention has been maintained thanks to the responsible occupation of its users and the support of various organizations and local government. The "Cultural Streets" project has managed to host three cultural festivals, circular economy bazaars and has also impacted the mentality of entrepreneurs in the area, showing the transformation of their immediate public space.
Photo: Miguel Mendoza
And now, what’s the next step? With the results that the "Cultural Streets" project has produced, we have been in charge of promoting the agenda of rescuing the historic center of Juarez from the perspective of its streets and public spaces. It is necessary to expand the strategy into an integral master plan that projects the transformation of urban voids to lively places with the help of international and local organizations, citizens, private initiative and the local government. The challenge is not only to create spaces, but to create the social, economic and cultural conditions that may permit spaces that are truly alive.
Photo:Miguel Mendoza
What Social Enterprises in Aotearoa Can Learn From Māoritanga
“While the term ‘social enterprise’ itself is relatively new, the fundamental concepts behind it are not. We are still at the early stages of the growth of the social enterprise sector here in Aotearoa. What better time to think about how Māoritanga – Māori culture, practices and beliefs and way of life – can help flavour our particular recipe?” The authors dive into a country’s past to find a way forward.
“While the term ‘social enterprise’ itself is relatively new, the fundamental concepts behind it are not. We are still at the early stages of the growth of the social enterprise sector here in Aotearoa. What better time to think about how Māoritanga – Māori culture, practices and beliefs and way of life – can help flavour our particular recipe?” The authors dive into a country’s past to find a way forward.
By Steven Moe and Wayne Tukiri
Photo: Phil Botha/Unsplash
Until recently, not many people knew what a social enterprise even was. But in the last few years there’s been a growing awareness of companies that pursue “for purpose” objectives beyond the traditional profit motive. Often, these companies are able to reinforce and grow the communities they operate in, often meeting social needs which might otherwise have resulted in state-sponsored intervention or social programmes. Simply put, they do good.
While the term ‘social enterprise’ itself is relatively new, the fundamental concepts behind it are not. We are still at the early stages of the growth of the social enterprise sector here in Aotearoa. What better time to think about how Māoritanga – Māori culture, practices and beliefs and way of life – can help flavour our particular recipe?
By examining some of the key principles of Māoritanga, we can better understand what social enterprises are – and what they could be. Here are some examples:
Kaitiakitanga
Kaitiakitanga is the guarding of treasures and the concept of reciprocity and giving back. When creating a social enterprise it is vital that the purpose is well defined, understood and articulated for others. That purpose then needs to be closely guarded so that there is not a slow creep away from the core values in the midst of either success or failure – either extreme lends itself to a reframing of what the entity stands for. Keeping a sharp focus on the purpose of a social enterprise is a discipline: guarding the treasure.
Mōhiotanga
Mōhiotanga is the sharing of information, the building up of knowledge, and the provision of new information and strategies. In order for a business to succeed there is a lot of information which needs to be absorbed – and this is particularly true of social enterprise, which challenges the traditional way of doing things. The early days of a social enterprise are critical as the right structures are chosen, the team is assembled and the vision cast.
Tuakana/Teina
Tuakana/teina refers to relationships between older and younger people, and in particular the experienced helping those who are less experienced. This is reflected in many social enterprises with community elements where more experienced people work alongside – and support the career growth of – those who have less experience.
Manaakitanga
Hospitality, kindness, generosity and support. The process of showing respect and care for others directly relates to the altruistic and community focus of social enterprises. Often these social enterprises exist to meet some need in society through the business operation itself – for example, the type of person who is employed or the kind of product made.
Wairua
Wairua is spiritual well-being that involves a connection to our whenua (land), ngahere (forests), moana (sea), maunga (mountains) and awa (rivers). Many social enterprises consider natural resources and how they use them (or don’t). From the first, they focus on their impact on the environment and how they can operate in a sustainable way.
Mātātoa
Mātātoa is the Māori concept of being fearless, courageous and energetic. In a similar way, social enterprises need to be open to embracing new and innovative ideas that generally go against an established way of doing things. They often challenge the inbuilt assumption that a business is all about making a profit as they strive to also fulfil their purpose, which is usually the real driver.
Social enterprises have a unique opportunity to do something different here in Aotearoa; embracing the perspectives of Māoritanga and understanding their full breadth and impact could help us achieve just that. Instead of doing things the same way as every other country, we should try a new way of operating. The result could be a truly homegrown version of social enterprise which acknowledges and learns from our own rich cultural heritage and embraces it fully as a means to explain what we do and why we do it.
Tihei mauri ora!
Photo: Phil Botha/Unsplash
Published as Opinion piece in Spinoff on 21 August 2018 co-written with Wayne Tukiri of RSM. Thank you Wayne for collaborating on this piece with me.
Seven Reasons Local Government is F***ed - And Seven Simple Nudges To Make Them More Functional
“When it comes to local government, there are some really big elephants in the room which no one is willing to name or discuss. We tip-toe around them, and pretend they don’t exist because we really want to believe that local government is “democracy at work at the community level” and we turn a blind eye to any evidence to the contrary.” David Engwicht, CEO of Creative Communities International, has a first-hand experience with the flaws of local government. In this article, he suggests seven nudges to make communities work better.
“When it comes to local government, there are some really big elephants in the room which no one is willing to name or discuss. We tip-toe around them, and pretend they don’t exist because we really want to believe that local government is “democracy at work at the community level” and we turn a blind eye to any evidence to the contrary.” David Engwicht, CEO of Creative Communities International, has a first-hand experience with the flaws of local government. In this essay, he suggests seven nudges to make communities work better.
By David Engwicht, CEO of Creative Communities International
Fourteen years ago I took a job working inside Local Government in a small rural city. I was mystified by how the entire system worked - or to be more accurate, didn’t work.
This experience gave me a first-hand insight into why local government, as a system, is f***ed.
When it comes to local government, there are some really big elephants in the room which no one is willing to name or discuss. We tip-toe around them, and pretend they don’t exist because we really want to believe that local government is “democracy at work at the community level” and we turn a blind eye to any evidence to the contrary.
So lets start with seven of those deep flaws and then discuss some simple, transformative “nudges” (like putting kids’ hats in all the meeting rooms). These initiatives can be implemented within the current structures of local government. (I’m a realist, and there is no way we can scrap the existing structure and start from scratch.)
1. Two arms - a marriage made in hell
Local government has two independent but connected arms: political and administration. The administration gives fearless advice to the elected officials who then make a decision. The administration then action that decision, even if they disagree with it.
Well that’s the dream.
In reality, this relationship between elected officials and the administration is more like a deeply dysfunctional marriage in which both parties engage in manipulation, coercion, and even outright bullying.
On any given day, the admin staff are looking at the elected officials saying to themselves, “How the hell did he/she get elected? They are a complete novice who knows nothing about the area in which I’m an expert. How can I convince them to adopt the policy I know is best for the community?”
At the same time, the elected officials are looking at the staff and saying to themselves, “I need to get X done in my community if I’m to get reelected. Why is the bureaucracy standing in my way? How do I convince them to make X happen for me?”
There is often a high level of disdain in the relationship. The admin staff believe they have superior knowledge, and are not driven by ego. The elected officials often see the bureaucrats as stick-in-the-mud, risk-adverse, pencil pushers.
The problem is that both parties in this marriage never sit down and discuss the dysfunctional nature of the relationship. They put on a show to the world that they are a rock-solid united team. But behind closed doors, the toxic nature of the relationship is tearing the family apart.
2. How the “board of directors” is selected
Let’s unpack some of the reasons this relationship is so dysfunctional.
The elected officials are, in effect, the “board of directors” guiding the corporate ship. But how are they selected? Well certainly not on the basis of expertise in running a city, or understanding of community development, or how to build social capital. We do it by popular vote.
The result is that we often end up with a board of directors composed of:
• Famous nay-sayers who gained a public profile fighting something. Their underlying predisposition is to say no to everything. Any change frightens them.
• Single issue people who know a lot about their issue, but little outside this area.
• Axe-grinders who have a pet project they have been pushing for the past twenty years.
• People who have gained a public profile in a completely unrelated field - e.g. sports star or media personality.
• Utopian dreamers.
• Political hacks (where party politics has become part of the equation).
• People who need reassurance that they are loved.
I am in no way implying that ALL elected officials fall into these categories. There are some who have earned their profile through genuine service to the community. But the danger of the existing structure is that we too often end up with an unqualified board of directors, some of whom are driven by deep psychological needs.
This further inflames the toxic state of the marriage.
3. Risk-adverse nature of admin
So it’s no secret that bureaucracies attract people with a certain psychological profile. They love certainty, and hate risk. And there is nothing more risky than making a decision that potentially impacts the lives of hundreds or thousands of residents. So their are some standard tactics for looking competent, without taking the risk of making a decision or actually doing anything.
• Commission another study
• Better still, have a plan to make a plan
• Organise another meeting
• Organise some community consultation.
Again, not all people working for LGAs fall into this category. But I have observed that the people who actually make things happen inside LGAs, are the staff who do not see themselves working for the organisation in two or three years time. This frees them from the fear of making the wrong decision. They’ll be gone in the near future, so if it happens a little sooner, so what? However, these people are the minority, and the culture of local government avoids risk which means looking productive without producing anything. And that drives the elected officials bananas.
“I have observed that the people who actually make things happen inside LGAs, are the staff who do not see themselves working for the organisation in two or three years time.”
4. Master planning addiction
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, cities and things were made in a much more agile and iterative way. Post the Industrial Revolution, master-planing took over the more agile approach. To design a car that could be mass produced you had to design everything in advance, right down to the last screw. This master-planning mentality crept into every aspect of our lives, including how we designed our towns and cities. This required plans with every minute detail fleshed out. We had to be able to foresee every opportunity and potential problem that lay just beyond the horizon.
So we needed lots of consultants (who had this X ray vision) and lots of community consultation. The more information we could gather, the more likely we would get the plan right.
But there’s never enough information (particularly for those addicted to certainty). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with Council staff that goes something like this: “Well we can’t finalise the street makeover plan until the cycling strategy has been completed.” You ask when that will be done and they will tell you that it can’t be finished until the engineering department decides how to solve the storm-water problem. Ask when the engineering department will have this done, and they will say the engineers are waiting for the cycling strategy and the street design to be finalised.
Master-planning only works in a relatively stable environment. In an ever-changing world (such as a city or town) it is impossible to master-plan most things because the ground is constantly changing under your feet.
We treat the city like a giant machine that can be master planned.
Yes, somethings have to be master-planned, like the location of a rail line. But when this mentality seeps into the way we try, for example, to revitalise a town centre it becomes a recipe for paralysis.
Master-planning feeds wonderfully into the psychological need of the admin staff (and some of the elected officials). It is a very convenient way to look like you’re taking action when you are really procrastinating making a decision or acting on that decision.
“Yes, somethings have to be master-planned, like the location of a rail line. But when this mentality seeps into the way we try, for example, to revitalise a town centre it becomes a recipe for paralysis.”
5. Shallow thinking about risk
LGAs are in the grip of some kind of group-think about risk: “Risk leads to accidents and accidents lead to law suits. Therefore it is our job to remove risk.” But this is faulty logic on two fronts.
Firstly, all risks contain a reward. Remove risk and you remove the reward - read, impoverish some section of the community. You deal with risk, not by removing it, but by asking, “how can we increase the benefits while minimising the risk?”
Many of the things we do in the name of safety make environments less safe. We treat risk too simplistically.
Secondly, the perception of risk causes people to act with more caution (technically called “Risk Compensation Theory”). In other words, if I’m driving my car down the street and there is a high fence between me and the pedestrians on the footpath, I will drive faster because I perceive that the city engineers have reduced the risk of a pedestrian running out in front of me. However, if a drunk 18 year old jumps the fence, I’m not in the right head space to deal with this unexpected event. Because the engineer has seduced me into driving faster by reducing perceived risk, I seriously maim or kill this person rather than cause minor injuries.
Taken to its extreme, this group-think about risk will result in removing all the branches from all the trees. It is extremely dangerous to climb out on the twigs at the top of the tree.
6. The customer model
Most LGAs have officially moved to a customer model. Residents of the town or city are treated as “customers” and the job of both arms of the LGA is to deliver a product to the customers – the best quality of life possible for the rates and taxes paid by the customer.
However, this model is sending our LGAs broke and results in social-capital bankruptcy.
In the past, towns and cities were based on a “citizen model” – each citizen makes their contribution to civic and economic life and as a result, everyone is richer than if they acted alone. It’s a kind of magic pudding where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Civic richness is not something that can be manufactured as a product that can be sold to consumers.
The customer model encourages residents to outsource their civic responsibility to the LGA. I once worked with a group of residents in Auckland, designing a traffic calming scheme for their street. Council had allocated $250K for the works. However, when I asked the residents in the street why they had spent years lobbing Council for traffic calming, they told me it was to stop the youth from doing donuts in the street at 2am. When I asked how many of these youth there were, an elderly man said, “Five, and I can tell you where every single one of them lives.” Now under the citizen model, these residents would have knocked on those five doors and negotiated a peace deal with the youth (at zero cost to the LGA). But under the customer model, they outsourced this to the LGA at a cost of $250K – which ultimately came out of their pocket. By the way, this equated to $50k per young person.
When you analyse what a LGA is spending its energy and time on, most of it is accepting responsibility for fixing problems that citizens should be fixing themselves. However, this outsourcing of civic responsibility is a two way street. By adopting a customer model, the LGA puts systems in place which dis-empower citizens and turns them into passive consumers. These passive consumers demand more and more from the magic pudding which is gradually shrinking. And if they choke on a mouthful, they do what any consumer would do – sue.
“The customer model encourages residents to outsource their civic responsibility to the LGA.”
7. Solutions-focused group think
As the magic pudding shrinks and the quality of civic life declines, residents and LGA officials start searching for silver bullets, which results in a solutions-focused group think.
Early in my career, I visited Traverse City in the USA. They had just been involved in a three year battle over a multi-story car park downtown. A group of residents had opposed the development and gained enough signatures to force a citizen referendum in which the original decision to proceed was overturned. For the three years that this all-consuming battle raged, decision-making in Traverse City was paralysed.
What went wrong? Well, downtown Traverse City was in decline. One retailer thought the solution to this was more car parking. They shared this thought with others. Soon the entire group of retailers believed this was the solution to boosting their businesses, and they began lobbying the LGA for more parking. The city officials bought into this group-think, and commissioned a study, which showed, that according to the computer modeling, there was indeed a shortage of parking. (Come on, what else was it going to say? The consultants who programmed it knew exactly what answer the city wanted.)
At no point did anyone in the city say to the businesses, “But why do you need more car parking?” If they had drilled down by asking “But Why?” enough times, they would have discovered that the real problem that the retailers were trying to solve was how to get more money in the till, not how to get more cars downtown. Somehow the businesses had made an unconscious conceptual leap that having more parking would magically increase their turnover.
Not asking this one simple question resulted in the city wasting three years of creative energy. And if they had built the multi-story car park, they would have wasted millions of dollars on a silver bullet that would not have improved the bottom line for a single business.
So much of the energy burned by LGAs is on group-think solutions to problems that have never been properly defined. In some cases I would say it is as high as 99%.
Seven simple nudges
I’m a realist. The LGA structures we have today are not likely to change. In any case, regardless of how we restructured them, they would soon fall into the same traps as I’ve outlined above. The defects are not caused by the system but rather by human psychology and cultural norms. I am a great believer that change happens through “triggers” and “nudges”, not revolutions. Nudges are achievable. Revolutions are pipe-dreams. However, nudges can trigger revolutions.
Nudge 1: Rules for the Fight Club
Hold a workshop with the elected officials and senior management where the dysfunctional nature of the marriage is discussed openly. In particular discuss the power relationship and in what ways both parties try to manipulate, cajole or bully the other. Put it all on the table. Discuss how this is impacting the kids (the residents). Discuss how the relationship could become more productive, and the rules for fighting fairer. I’d suggest using a very skilled marriage counselor to facilitate this.
Nudge 2: Reversed roles
At the start of each meeting of elected officials, the name plaques that sit in front of each official are put in a bag and shaken up. Each person then draws a name plaque and puts it in front of them. For the rest of the meeting they must step into the shoes of that person and argue as if they were that person.
Too often elected officials find themselves in an alliance of like-minded people and these alliances then get caught up in adversarial politics, which often results in lowest-common-denominator solutions. Swapping identities forces everyone to consider a multi-faceted world full of complexity and nuances. I’ve used it in conflict resolutions sessions and instead of the parties trying to grind each other down, they end up working together to find a solution that is a win-win-win for everyone.
Nudge 3: The kids hat test
Before any proposed “solution” goes past the suggestion stage, it must pass the kids hat test. This involves a minimum of six people sitting down to discuss the proposed solution. (Every action a LGA considers is a perceived solution to something – whether that’s speed bumps in a street or a stop sign.) Three people are the “solution proposers” and the other three are “inquisitive kids” (wearing a kid’s hat to get them in the role). The solution proposers explain their solution (like building a multi-story car park, or doing a makeover of the main street) and the job of the kids is to ask, “But why?” a minimum of five times. Their job is to drill down to the “base need” - what is the real problem you’re trying to solve here?
The entire group then brainstorm other ways of potentially meeting this base need. Are there other ways that may be more cost effective?
No money can be spent investigating a proposed solution until this exercise has been done and a Kid’s Hat Report attached. Budget line items that do not have this report attached are automatically removed from the decision making process.
‘So, retailers, but why do you need a parking structure?’
‘Because there is a parking shortage.’
‘But why do you see a shortage of parking as a problem?’
‘Well, the plaza on the edge of town has unlimited free parking, and we need more free parking to compete with the mall.’
‘But why do you want to compete with the mall?’
‘Well, our customer base has dwindled since the plaza opened. We need more customers.’
‘But why do you want more customers?’
‘We are going broke! We can’t feed our families.’
‘Ah! So you don’t need more parking. You need more money in your till!’
Nudge 4: No money for studies unless implementation budget attached
No money can be spent on design processes (internal or by a consultant) unless there is a transparent implementation budget attached. I’d also suggest some guidelines for this, for example, a minimum design-to-build-ratio.
Nudge 5: Ban community consultation/engagement
Community consultation is a key corner-stone of the customer model and the master-planning mentality. It should be replaced by an “informed community doing” model. (For more details see my article, “Five reasons community consultation should be banned”.)
Nudge 6: Ban risk assessments
The underlying assumption in risk assessments is that any risk identified needs to be eliminated or ring-fenced with expensive insurances. All risk assessments should be banned and replaced with risk/benefit analysis.
The goal of a risk/benefit analysis is to document both the risks and the benefits of a particular action. For example, there are risks of letting kids climb trees. But there are also huge benefits, including an increasing capacity to know their own capabilities and the skill to judge the level of risk. The key question then becomes, “How do we reduce the risks, without diminishing the benefits or killing them altogether?”
Nudge 7: Set up a Red Tape Reduction Group and move to a permissions framework
If you want to cut through some of the bureaucratic BS, then set up a Red Tape Reduction Group (a cross-department working group) and give community leaders and business leaders the name and contact details of the leader or members of that group. Tell them that the mission of this group is to reduce red tape where it is strangling social and economic life. The LGA wants to say “yes” more often and not use “no” as a default position.
Often the biggest roadblock to volunteers participating in something like a 7 Day Makeover is all the regulations around volunteers working on Council land. The LGA wants endless training, forms filled out, risk assessments, insurance, etc. But at the same time, the LGA requires almost every resident to act as a volunteer and maintain the grass verge in front of their house, using a very dangerous piece of equipment, right next to traffic. The LGA does not require these people to have any training in using mower equipment, nor do they require a traffic management plan. They have no public liability insurance, and are not compelled to wear PPE. (They can mow with no protective footwear and can mow in the blazing sun in a singlet with no sunscreen.) The moral of this story is that there is always a precedent that an LGA can use to say yes and always a precedent that allows them to say no. It all depends on the stance and culture of the organisation, and a Red Tape Reduction Group shifts that basic starting point.
Conclusion
No system of local government is perfect, because there are humans involved, with all their fears, insecurities and foibles.
In 1987 I was elected to a committee established to fight a road widening through our neighbourhood. I had never been involved in anything like this and was shocked by the amount of infighting, political maneuvering, and back-stabbing that went on among this group of volunteers. If this happens at a micro-level where people with a common cause come together, imagine how much it is magnified at all levels of government.
I have pointed out some of the inherent weaknesses in the current model of local government, weaknesses that currently bring down the entire house of cards. Attempts to reform this system, like doing a restructure, is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. What is needed is tiny nudges that are like small pebbles thrown into the pond. Some of those pebbles (like kid’s hats in all the meeting rooms, or swapping identities at the Council meetings) may seem trivial and even ridiculous - beneath our dignity.
But that’s exactly why they are so powerful. They unconsciously subvert entrenched thinking patterns. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Nudges can re-balance power relationships that have got out of whack. We are conditioned to look for silver bullets, like an organisation restructure, or a whole new system.
But instead I dare you to throw a tiny pebble in the pond.
A Toolkit For Successful Town Centres
A new guide has been launched to empower and inspire all those determined to make Scotland’s towns stronger and more attractive. Scotland’s Towns Partnership presents a tool designed to nurture community building.
A new guide has been launched to empower and inspire all those determined to make Scotland’s towns stronger and more attractive. Scotland’s Towns Partnership presents a tool designed to nurture community building.
Photo: Gary Ellis/Unsplash
A new guide has been launched to empower and inspire all those determined to make Scotland’s towns stronger and more attractive.
Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) has unveiled its Town Toolkit to help local authorities, community groups, social enterprises and businesses take action to build better communities.
And it is hoped that the www.towntoolkit.scot website will prove a particularly powerful resource for towns as they recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Developed with support from the Scottish Government, the Town Toolkit highlights the best of what’s being done to build more sustainable futures for towns, with practical examples of what can make them active, attractive and accessible.
STP Chief Officer Phil Prentice said: “In the world in which we find ourselves, inaction is not an excuse. We have all got to think about what we can do to make our towns better - and we hope this toolkit will help inspire people.
“We have all got to think about what we can do to make our towns better - and we hope this toolkit will help inspire people.”
It’s an unfortunate reality that we are likely to see more town centre buildings become vacant because of Covid-19. As we reshape and rebuild, we need to be on the front foot about what these can be converted into. The toolkit will help this.
By highlighting where and how things have been improved for people and places, our hope is that this will become a leading asset in helping to build a stronger, greener, more resilient Scotland with greater inclusion and collaboration.”
The guide includes advice on - and examples of - how to enhance arts and culture, buildings and spaces, clean and green credentials, enterprise and business as well as streets and spaces to the betterment of the economy and the environment.
Town planner Nick Wright, who developed the toolkit for STP, taking hundreds of suggestions into account, said: “There are tremendous examples of innovation which are taking towns across Scotland to the next level and which should inspire us all.
This toolkit is about sharing that wealth of experience from across the country - showing that you can do it because it’s been done before. It’s about how to make things happen - a one-stop-shop on how to make towns the best they can be.”
It highlights how a £100m regeneration of Paisley is taking shape, the resident-led renaissance of Dumfries town centre, the power of arts and community projects in Huntly and the investment which has revitalised buildings and businesses in Stromness.
While inspiring communities and groups, it is also hoped that the toolkit will prove useful for local authority officials working in planning, community development, leisure, transport and the economy when considering developments in their region, as well as for politicians at every level.
Mr Prentice added: “The aim of the toolkit is to allow people to see Scotland’s policies on towns in action, showing how individuals and organisations can work collaboratively to create a stronger future for our people and places.
By using this toolkit in your town centre, you will be doing your bit to contribute to Scotland’s big future challenges - the climate emergency, health and wellbeing, inclusive growth, inequalities and community empowerment.”
For more information, go to www.towntoolkit.scot.
Does The City Center Have A Future?
“The city center is in fact a result of all the changes throughout history and will survive through adaptation. We decide together what it will look like and what role it will play in the future, by engaging in collaboration, harnessing our consumer power, and influencing politically.” Björn Bergman, CEO at The Swedish Association of Towns and Cities, asks an essential question: What kind of city center - and future - do we want?
“The city center is in fact a result of all the changes throughout history and will survive through adaptation. We decide together what it will look like and what role it will play in the future, by engaging in collaboration, harnessing our consumer power, and influencing politically.” Björn Bergman, CEO at The Swedish Association of Towns and Cities, asks an essential question: What kind of city center - and future - do we want?
Photo: Victor Theo/Unsplash
The city center is in fact a result of all the changes throughout history and will survive through adaptation. We decide together what it will look like and what role it will play in the future, by engaging in collaboration, harnessing our consumer power, and influencing politically.
The city center is important to all of us. It is our emotional attachment to a city and how we show the attractiveness of the city. It creates belonging and togetherness. It attracts investment and talent, as well as laying the foundation for growth. Therefore, it also requires our attention, care, and our common focus. No party alone can take responsibility for the city center as it is determined by areas as diverse as commercial supply, environment, architecture, history, security, sanitation, accessibility, culture, entertainment, service, etc. The city center should be for everyone, always and in all parts.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a structural change of the city center had already begun. Large parts of the retail sector have been moved out to external shopping centers and trading venues for several decades. More recently digital commerce has also led to a decrease in sales of mainly infrequently purchased goods in city centers. Instead, restaurants, cafés and commercial services have replaced the stores, which has meant that the overall economic impact has continued to increase. The development of the city center from being the only trading venue to an important meeting place is clear, and it’s been accelerated by the increasing digitalization that has gained extra power through the restrictions of the pandemic. Trade will continue to be an important reason for visitors, along with many other activities. We will continue to find the local and completely unique entrepreneurs here, those who make their mark on the place and will be an important contribution to the city's identity.
The city center is undergoing a renaissance because it has the quality to meet the demands of the new era for sustainability and authenticity. It offers both commercial and non-commercial activities, but we must create new reasons to come to the center if trade no longer will fulfill the important social function. What attracts visitors to the city center and what should we fill the empty premises with in the future? Is it culture, entertainment, housing, offices, social care and service facilities, educational activities, or associations that will be our answer?
The city center will continue to be important to us and perhaps now is the right time, during the pandemic, to think about what type of city center we want to see? Time to formulate our common goals and visions, organize ourselves, draw up the plans for realization and gather resources to be able to carry out the actions! Collaboration between public and private actors will continue to be the only possible way to create attractive city centers.
Is there a Role For Face-To-Face Post-Covid?
“The most common reply was that people intended to dine out in the city, the second was to meet with friends/family, and the third was to have a drink with friends, while the fourth most common reply was to shop for clothes/accessories. While these uses of the city are not unprecedented what they showed was the increasing association of the city centre with socialising and meeting. The thing that most people missed when in lockdown was human interaction.” Richard Guiney, CEO of DublinTown, reflects on the importance of trust and meetings in community building post-Covid.
“The most common reply was that people intended to dine out in the city, the second was to meet with friends/family, and the third was to have a drink with friends, while the fourth most common reply was to shop for clothes/accessories. While these uses of the city are not unprecedented what they showed was the increasing association of the city centre with socialising and meeting. The thing that most people missed when in lockdown was human interaction.” Richard Guiney, CEO of Dublintown BID, reflects on the importance of trust and meetings in community building post-Covid.
Photo: Dominik Lalic/Unsplash
The world has changed, or so we are told. The narrative is that in the Post-Covid-19 world the ‘new normal’ will replace much of what went before.
How true this is and what it means for our work and social interaction remains to be seen.
Personally, I don’t see humanity fundamentally changing. We have experienced the impacts of a dangerous, transmissible and disruptive virus. However, the virus has not managed to change our DNA. We are all still human and we will continue to act and behave according to our nature.
It is fundamental to our humanity that we use our thought process and communication to protect ourselves from harm and to exploit opportunities that present themselves to us. We form teams to get things done, we pool our talents and allocate responsibilities based on skillsets. Within the workplace and wider society we co-ordinate and join the output of various groups through dialogue and create synergies between various groups. This is the essence of human nature. Our ability to combine our efforts to greatest effect has been central to our domination of the planet over a very short time. In the history of the world the 60,000 years since humans first left Africa is not even the shortest of heartbeats.
Humans will continue to meet and collaborate, it’s what we do.
However, the nature and form of this communication may change. This is not so much a product of the Covid Crisis but rather the technological revolution that we are living through. Covid has served as a catalyst event which has accelerated change rather than creating new trajectories. Change that would have happened over 10 years, happened in 10 months.
The easy ability to transfer to Work From Home, and the dramatic increase in on-line shopping simply would not have been possible if technology had not already created those opportunities. The question then arises, what comes next for the meeting place.
In line with the hybrid balance between work from home and return to the office, I envisage that meetings will also take on a hybrid model. The building of trust is an essential element of team building and in deciding who we will or will not do business with. Ascertaining whether or not we will trust another, is rooted in our animal instinct, speaking to someone observing their body language, listening to their tone of voice, seeing if they look you in the eye when they speak. We can have all the technology in the world and all the technology that is to come but it will never result in our losing what makes us human nor the animal instincts that allowed our ancestors to prosper and have their DNA handed down to us.
On the other hand I see routine and transactional engagement continuing in the virtual space. Frankly this is convenient and efficient. While most people will see virtual as second best, it suffices for the routine. We have a precedent here. The telephone allows us to communicate but it was never going to prevent us meeting in person.
Photo: Henry Be/Unsplash
I envisage change deriving from two main sources in the 21st century, the technology revolution and responses to climate change. The former will facilitate change required by the latter and I believe that all aspects of our lives will be impacted, from where we live to how we live, to how we earn our living to how we spend our time and money. There is a longer conversation as to the total impacts that these changes will bring to our towns and cities but suffice to say that we can expect less space devoted to retail and more to entertainment, leisure and opportunities to meet, together with residential uses.
As human beings the most basic of animal behaviour is still evident in the building of trust and creation of business and social partnerships. We share a meal before we sign the deal. It may be a social event but the sharing of a meal is often the precursor to bringing a business or social relationship to the next level or the consolidation of friendship. Can anyone realistically see this changing?
And so to the social aspect of meeting. As we exited lockdown in Dublin, we researched whether or not people intended returning to the city and where they indicated the intention to return what they intended to do here. The most common reply was that people intended to dine out in the city, the second was to meet with friends/family, and the third was to have a drink with friends, while the fourth most common reply was to shop for clothes/accessories. While these uses of the city are not unprecedented what they showed was the increasing association of the city centre with socialising and meeting. The thing that most people missed when in lockdown was human interaction. The thing they most want to do when freed from confinement was to resume human engagement.
Statistics clearly demonstrate the toll the pandemic has had on physical health. What will become clearer as the months progress is the toll on mental health, the impacts on our overall wellbeing when we put our humanity on hold. While many will maintain an element of remote working, most have expressed the desire to the return to the office, at least on a hybrid basis, something that it is commonly accepted is essential for the training and development of younger and newer staff.
As vaccines curtail the most harmful effects of the pandemic and we feel safe to venture back into the real world, I believe that our humanity will again prevail. It may be the case that we will actively shun the lives that we led during the pandemic. Let’s be frank, how many people will look back on 2020 and 2021 as the best time in their lives? Perhaps we will be only too happy to leave the laptop meeting to one side and get out and meet real people face to face. Perhaps we will return to the store to purchase, time will tell. However, it is unlikely that we will cease to learn from each other or cease seeking out new and interesting people to meet. We will not quell our curiosity and desire to find new experiences.
We can increasingly substitute face to face engagement with on-line formats but as human beings surely we will ultimately find this the second best option. Perhaps it’s a product of my age, but I cannot see us confining face to face contact to the box labelled things we used to do.
Photo: Fabrízio Severo/Unsplash
Owning The City: An Interview With Peter Schultz Jørgensen
Who owns the city? Which underlying systems determine the development of cities? And are they the right ones? Do they create the best possible places and communities?
Who owns the city? Which underlying systems determine the development of cities? And are they the right ones? Do they create the best possible places and communities?
By The Empty Square
Peter Schultz Jørgensen. Photo: The Empty Square
According to Danish author and urbanist, Peter Schultz Jørgensen, the need for systemic changes is urgent. In an era where the economy, the ecology, and everything in between is under pressure, we must dare to qualify the ideological discussions and invest in the research of alternative societal models.
Mr. Jaffe, We Miss You
Does your city encourage independent retailers and shop owners with a community spirit?
Does your city encourage independent retailers and shop owners with a community spirit?
By The Empty Square
Photo: Vania Rivalta/Unsplash
Does your city encourage independent retailers and shop owners with a community spirit?
Ever heard of Mr. Jaffe? Apart from selling snacks, drinks, and newspapers, this is what Mr. Jaffe, who used to be a kiosk owner in Greenwich, NYC, typically did on a Monday morning:
”[he]… supervised the small children crossing at the corner (…); lent an umbrella to one customer and a dollar to another; took custody of two keys; took in some packages for people in the next building who were away; lectured two youngsters who asked for cigarettes; gave street directions; took custody of a watch to give the repairman across the street when he opened later; gave out information in the range of rents in the neighbourhood to an apartment seeker; listened to a tale of domestic difficulty and offered reassurance; told some rowdies they could not come in unless they behaved and then defined (and got) good behaviour; provided an incidental forum for half a dozen conversations among customers who dropped in for oddments; set aside certain newly arrived papers and magazines for regular customers who would depend on getting them; advised a mother who came for a birthday present not to get the ship-model kit because another child going to the same birthday party was giving that…”.*
“[He]provided an incidental forum for half a dozen conversations among customers who dropped in for oddments ...”
Photo: Jason Leung/Unsplash
Mr. Jaffe, who lives on in Jane Jacobs’ book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, constitutes a person and a function that can hardly be overvalued when it comes to community creation.
If you have a Mr. or a Mrs. Jaffe in your neighbourhood, consider yourself lucky. Remember to pay him or her a visit – soon!
Where we live, they are a dying breed.
*Read – or read it again: Jane Jacobs’ classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Penguin Books, 1961)
From Church To Common Living Room
Absalon can be seen as an antithesis to the general individualization and as a cure for the rising loneliness, isolation, and experience of powerlessness. Here, at this local level, you can make a difference and find your place in a wider whole.
Absalon can be seen as an antithesis to the general individualization and as a cure for the rising loneliness, isolation, and experience of powerlessness. Here, at this local level, you can make a difference and find your place in a wider whole.
By The Empty Square
Photo: Anand Kulkarni/Unsplash
Absalon used to be a church in central Copenhagen, but in 2015 it was sold to a family that made a local community space out of it. A common living room for all passers-by, based on the values of connectedness and common activities.
It opens up in the early morning, offering breakfast, morning dance, yoga classes, or just a place to sit and work, study, relax, meet with friends or play board games. Occasionally, you’ll see a 90-year-old play table tennis with a 10-year-old.
Lunch is ready at noon, followed by afternoon activities, more games, and ongoing open courses.
At 6 PM, homemade dinner, arranged on common platters, is served at shared tables for only €6. You eat with strangers and take out your own plate. Afterwards, you can join a small event, a philosophical talk, the bridge players in the tower room, or just relax with a cup of coffee in the couches.
Music on Saturday nights and markets on Sundays are also part of the place.
Photo: Jon Tyson/Unsplash
Absalon has become an abundant success. It can be seen as an antithesis to the general individualization and as a cure to the rising loneliness, isolation, and experience of powerlessness. Here, at a local level, you can make a difference and find your place.
An open, inviting, casual atmosphere combined with a wide range of non-binding activities and good food at low prices seem - not surprisingly - to be a winner cocktail. It’s a combo of a living room and a great public space.
Did you know that social integration is far more important to our health than fresh air and exercise?
The Essence Of Strong Communities
It’s not geography. It’s not history. It’s neither great leadership nor economic advantage. Though it is all connected, the single most important thing is social capital: The quality of the relations and the cohesion that exists among citizens.
It’s not geography. It’s not history. It’s not great leadership, fine programs, or economic advantage. Though it is all connected, the single most important thing is social capital: The quality of the relations and the cohesion that exists among citizens.
By The Empty Square
Photo: Juan Di Nella/Unsplash
It’s not geography. It’s not history. It’s not great leadership, fine programs, or economic advantage. Though it is all connected, the single most important thing is social capital: The quality of the relations and the cohesion that exists among citizens.
“Social capital is about acting on and valuing our interdependence and sense of belonging. It is measured by how much we trust each other and how much we cooperate to make a place better. It is the extent to which we extend hospitality and affection to one another.”*
In order to improve the common measures of community health (economy, education, health, safety, the environment), we need to create communities where all citizens have the experience of being connected to those around them. Where everybody knows that their own safety and success are dependent on the success of all others.
Strong communities are built on strong social infrastructure, which constitutes all the formal and informal public and semi-public meeting places: Wide sidewalks, shops, parks, playgrounds, libraries, eateries, beaches, markets etc. Not just ‘public space’ but places that invite people in. These, therefore, might be the most important thing to consider when planning for a new neighborhood or reinventing an old one.
How can we prioritize the planning of meeting places (type, location, people in charge) much more than we do?
Did you know that places with a strong social infrastructure turn out to be 5-10 times more resilient than others?**
* Peter Block: Community – the Structure of Belonging (Berett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2018, first ed.2008)
**Eric Klinenberg: Palaces for the People – How to Build a More Equal and United Society, Penguin Random House, UK, 2018) in which he investigates the essential role of social infrastructure.
See also Robert D. Putnam: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster, 2000).
The Very First Restaurant
The possibility of going out to eat is at the core of every living city. The concept of restaurants goes back to 1767 where an eatery in Paris was named after its consommé, a restorative meat bouillon, known as a restaurant.
The possibility of going out to eat is at the core of every living city. The concept of restaurants goes back to 1767 where an eatery in Paris was named after its consommé, a restorative meat bouillon, known as a restaurant.
By The Empty Square
Photo: Barthelemy de Mazenod/Unsplash
The possibility of going out to eat is at the core of every living city.
The concept of restaurants goes back to 1767 as an eatery in Paris was named after its consommé, a restorative meat bouillon, known as a restaurant.
Serving such a light meal was totally new in a city where the only option used to be eating heavy food in bigger groups at the traditional eating-houses, les traiteurs, that enjoyed a state monopoly over the sale of cooked meats.
Introducing a restaurant – and other light foods catering to sensitive Parisians – was the beginning of a new eating culture, “destined to change the face of public dining for ever”, according to architect and writer Carolyn Steel.
Photo: Barna Bartis/Unsplash
Anyone, including women, could go there at any time of the day, sit at their own table, order what they liked off a menu and pay for it separately. Individual, independent, anonymous – the new restaurant was hugely attractive and can be seen as a very precise indicator of the upcoming urban culture.
It took one hundred years for restaurants to catch on outside Paris. For many years, visitors were shocked by the new establishments. This is a typical account, told by Anthony Rosny, who visited Paris in 1901:
“… my surprise was greatest when I saw people enter without greeting each other and without seeming to know each other, seat themselves without looking at each other, and eat separately without speaking to each other, or even offering to share their food.”
Today, it’s the other way around. Only a few restaurants have reintroduced the sharing and the common seating.
Will the face of public dining be changed again? For the moment, due to Covid-19, the scene has for sure been changed. The question is: What will it look like when it reopens?
We warmly recommend Carolyn Steel: Hungry City (Chatto & Windus, Random House, 2008). Quote p. 231.