Notes from a Big Society Romantic

I want to start this post by declaring an interest. Indeed it is a special interest. I love the concept of the Big Society. Unequivocally love it. Striving to build better, stronger more vibrant communities is a supremely noble political ambition. Empowering people to have more influence within the their local communities and institutions? Yes, agree with that without hesitation. Making the delivery of local public services more accountable to people who use them? You bet! Re balancing the power between professionals and bureaucrats to strengthen the hand of the former? With the right framework of accountability in place, why not? Establishing a Big Society Bank to provide new investment opportunities for the growing number of brilliant social entrepreneurs? Oh yes, very excited about that to. Creating legislation that enables teachers, parents and local people to bid to set up and run schools? Yes, why not, if the tough criteria for taking on the responsibility are met and the local community are backing it? More community organisers, mutuals and neighbourhood groups? Yes, yes and yes. A national citizen’s service bringing school leavers from different backgrounds across the country together? I wish it had existed when I left school.

A Big Society which includes all these policies and more is one I can easily sign up to and support. At a time when the Coalition is charged with both dealing with the deficit and planning for economic growth it strike me as an act of bold political imagination to make strengthening the hand of local people and communities so central to the Government’s narrative.

Most of all I like the ambition of building a Big Society founded upon an optimism about human nature and a faith in people’s ability to take more responsibility for their lives and those of others. Moreover, it has the potential to restore civic mindedness to its proper central position in our public life.

So a big generous idea, supported by lots of policies it would be hard for most people to disagree with,  and yet day by day over the last few weeks the assault on the Big Society has become more visceral as charities bear the brunt of local authority cuts.

On this I agree with Danny Kruger ‘Charity heads squealing about their funding, are engaged not only in special pleading. There is a problem with the way cuts are being passed on to charities by councils and quangos, which find it easier to end a grant than to fire an employee’

But for me the Big Society is about more than any politician’s ambition and vision and about more than any single policy initiative, no matter how symbolic.

As I have argued repeatedly the Big Society cannot and will not be exhorted into being by Government – though of course they can help it on its way – any more can it be built on the exceptionalism of a thousands of people who already give up time and resources without questioning to contribute to charities, good causes and civil society. Instead the ambitions of the Big Society must be built on the actions of everyone and will largely be the product of the small acts of millions.

At the Big Society Network we are starting to explore how other actors outside the public sphere can play their part. Our sense, our ambition is that we need to create the opportunities where people become the heroes of the Big Society. People making little sacrifices, taking small risks and doing things just a little bit differently.

We are starting to work with social innovators, community entrepreneurs, creative businesses, designers, campaigners and technologists who share with us this notion of new possibilities.; a sense that together we can use tools and technologies to make the process of giving time and resources more motivating, rewarding and stimulating.

Every day we are meeting new social entrepreneurs who are developing new ideas to make it more engaging and delightful for people for people to give of their time and money, businesses who are developing community programmes not as part of a “Corporate Responsibility” programme but as fundamental to the positioning of their brand and technologists who are building applications, platforms and widgets that allow people to convene, share and collaborate in ways that would have astounded us as recently as the turn of the new millennium

We see our role as bringing those people together, showcasing and working their ideas harder, investing in the innovations that have the potential to be used by millions and constantly and constantly giving them and the people they help a chance to tell their stories.

For us the Big Society will always make more sense as a series of little stories rather than grand narratives. For us a Big Society will make sense when millions of people start doing things differently not because they believe in a Big Society but because the experience of doing is delightful.

We make no apology for believing that a Big Society can only be built at the start of the 21st century by making it easier for people to come together and to contribute positively to their local communities by using new networked technologies. It is by no means the whole story but it will never be anything other than a critical part of the narrative.

Politicians have to win their arguments on the Today programme, on Newsnight and the front page of The Times, but the heroes of the Big Society will be the people.

Governments can give up power, indeed force it downwards but it will only ever work if the people step up and take responsibility

The work of the Big Society Network is to make that step easier, more rewarding and an experience that people will want to weave into the fabric of their lives, share with others and replicate.

Let me know if you share our ambition and have ideas that can support them.

Related posts:

1. Nat Wei: What Big Society means
2. Knowing about the good as well as the bad
3. Chris White MP’s Big Society Bill
4. Is the Big Society exceptional?
5. The Little Blue Book