Thriving too

Surfacing the good stuff - and then showing it to everyone ...

Some conversations this week have reminded me of some projects that I thought I would share with you,  All of the projects below  have used photography to highlight people and activities in communities.  Photography is used a lot for this purpose - and you may have done something similiar yourself - these projects just stand out a little in terms of showing different ways of doing it.

Hello Neighbour

"Students from ten middle schools across Portland and Central Oregon are participating in Caldera's Hello Neighbor project. Along with photographer Julie Keefe, the students have begun to identify, interview and photograph diverse people of all ages in their neighborhoods. 

From their work, the Caldera students will create photo-and-word portraits to be displayed on large, 7 foot by 5 foot banners throughout their communities."

Rotterdam de Zuiderlingen

In 2008, 155 portraits with between 4,000 and 5,000 residents of Southern Rotterdam were shown through a book and an (outside) exhibition. They also mapped all the groups.

Birmingham Community Tea Room - I am Stirchley

I did a workshop/surgery in Birmingham last year in a pop-up community cafe arranged by Inhabit - they had been featuring local people in their exhibition - really beautiful stuff.

JR

And of course all the amazing work of photographer JR.

 

Do these sorts of projects make a difference to a community?  I think that they do. Work around 'social norms marketing' would suggest that by revealing actual activities in a community you can alter a community's perception of where they live.  Social norms marketing (different from 'social marketing') came out of research that showed that young people at colleges in the US perceived that other people drank more alcohol than they really did... and this exagerated perception of what others were drinking made them drink more.  So they went into a community, did quantative research into the real drinking patterns and then promoted those real figures, instead of the inflated ones that students were imagining.  This reduced alcohol consumption.  Rather than broadcasting, revealing the reality has powerful effects.

There is a common perception that people are disinterested in getting involved in their communities, that they 'don't care anymore'. Another is that there 'isn't that much going on around here'.  This is where these sorts of projects become invaluable.  They don't broadcast a false 'this place is great'.... but instead they show good stuff that is just a bit hidden from view.

It is one the great things about the Collaborative 3D Asset Mapping activity we do in workshops - people are pretty thrilled when they discover that when all their collective knowledge is pooled to make the map their neighbourhood is full of activities and opportunities that they didn't know about.  The act of revealing these people, ideas, spaces and other opportunities means there is much more chance they will be connected and built on.

Community Lover's Guide to Rotterdam

This revealing process is what we are doing with the Community Lover's Guide to the Universe project.  Yesteday I had the thrill of seeing the hard copy of the first of the series to be published.  Edited by Maurice Specht, the Community Lover's Guide to Rotterdam is launching with a 3 day event on the 8/9/10 March - in an old laundomat in Rotterdam.

 

How many radicals do you know?

It was very exciting to see the new list of 50 Radicals published by NESTA and the Observer on Sunday as I think that radical thinking can create important social change. The published list is of course brilliant – full of incredibly clever people, original thinkers and a real inspiration to everyone in the sector. Congratulations to everyone that made the list!

I am also very appreciate of the list on a conceptual level as it gives people doing important work a platform that challenge in some part superficial celebrity culture and also served to highlight the growth and importance of this sort of work.  So overall the idea is great, the people listed are great, the projects are great.  What’s also great is that, as Yvonne Roberts has said, it’s a starting point and way to begin a new conversation about this topic.

It occurred to me that not all radical people are strongly in the public eye (perhaps they never will be), nor do all racial efforts have a strong supporting project that can be evaluated in this light … and unfortunately even those in the public eye can often have their most radical efforts unnoticed or forgotten - we have very short memories - particularly in remembering the context that new things started in.  I have often noticed that you have to get to know someone personally to fully appreciate their thinking and work.

This list is of people I know ...living the UK only .... I hope that it will encourage other people to talk about the radical thinkers that they know personally so that can collectively build on the very good platform for this discussion that the Observer and NESTA have kindly started.

My definition of radical

Radical thinking has to challenge the status quo of an organisation, society or common wisdom in some substantial, imaginative or collaborative way. Radical thinking often starts small, and isn’t always recognisable immediately.

A radical person, or group of people, has to be bold enough to challenge the current situation with confidence about of an idea or vision,without any certainty of the outcome. Its generall an intellectually high risk endevour.

And of course collaboration is very radical - if you try it you will know what I mean ....

This isn’t an exhaustive list – so please forgive me if you aren’t mentioned here.  If you aren’t listed, and you think you should be, the most likely thing is that we haven’t seen each other for a while, or I don’t know about your radical actions. Let me know ...

Richard Gerver and Co - for radical imagination at Grangeton.  Richard transformed his Primary School in Long Eaton into a working virtual town – Grangeton – with working businesses, councils,  a mayor, a radio station etc. The curriculum was changed to work in 4 streams culture, enterprise, communications and wellbeing.  

Anthony Seldon, Ian Morris and Co - For radical boldness at Wellington College. When Anthony announced in 2007 that he was introducing happiness classes at Wellington College, it was pretty radical.  

Michael Coughlin and Co - for radical collaboration at Reading Council.  Consistently finding ways to promote a new collaborative conversation with local citizens.  

Carrie Bishop and Dominic Campbell and Co - for radical innovation at FutureGov.  Designing imaginative digital tools in some of the tightest systems spaces in local government e.g. Patchwork .. and for creating remarkably effective collaborative thinking events to tackle difficult problems.

Matthew Taylor and all of the RSA - for radical persistence.  Transforming the RSA into a lively exciting membership institution in the face of natural difficulties inherent in changing organisational culture.

Indy Johar, Alice Fung, Joost Beunderman, Tim Ahrensbach and Co -  for Hub Westminster and The Compendium for the Civic Economy

Cassie Robinson- for Our Intimate Lives

Anab Jain and Co -  for Superflux

Tim Smit and Co  - for The Big Lunch

Deborah Szebeko – for Think Public

Melanie Bryan - for work with women and enterprise 

Louise Macdonald – for Young Scot

Lesley James and Co – for RSA Opening Minds curriculum

Lloyd Davis – for Tuttle Club and for being the first ever Artist in Residence!

Mike Chitty – for Elsie

Heather Ring – for Union Street Orchard

Kristina Glushkova and Karen Martin – for Makerhood

Anthony McCann - for Hedgeschool21

Sarah Drummond and Lauren Currie and Co - for My Police

Jocelyn Cunningham, Sam McLean and Co - RSA Citizen Power Peterborough

Lucie Akerman and Co – for The Motorcycle Showroom

Julian Dobson – for Living with Rats

Stephen Frankel, Harry Wild, Shayne House and Co – For Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network

Dan Thompson – For @riotclearup and Artists and Makers

Scilla Elworthy – For Peace Direct

Anne-Marie Culhane – for Grow Sheffield

Ty Goddard and Co  - for The Education Foundation

Karl James and Co – for The Dialogue Project

Anthony Zacharzewski - for Demoncracy Society 

Daniel Snell and Co – for Arrival Education

Tracey Todhunter and Co – For Low Carbon Communities

Henry Playfoot - Stealth Education

Jonathan Rowson and Co – for RSA Social Brain Project

Caspar Lampkin – for work at Aberdeen University

Richard Tyrie – for Good People

Clare White – for her work in Burslem

Amisha Ghadiali – for Think Act Vote

Nick Booth, John Popham and Co  – for Social Media Surgeries 

Dougald Hine - for The University Project

Casper ter Kuile – for UK Youth Climate Coalition

David Gauntlett – for Making is Connecting 

Jonathan Robinson – for The Hub and for helping make The Mountain of Hope happen in Soweto in 2002 

David Barrie and Co – for Middlesbrough Urban Farming and The People’s Supermarket

Paul Smyth, Andy Merritt, Sam Henderson, Kristen Cheng, Laura Billings, Lucinda Gosling, Courtney Erwin, Laura Ellison, Lindsay Noble and Co – for FARM:shop

Ivo Gormley, Mark Herbert and Co – for The Good Gym

Nick Gardner and Co - Project Dirt 

Tracy Currer and Meriel Lenfestey – for Ecomodo

Russell Collins - for Community Lover's Guide to Jewish Community

Roland Harwood and Co – for 100% Open

David Robinson and Co – for Community Links

Keith Kahn-Harris - For Conversations and Dinners

Dan McQuillan, Paul Miller, Anna Maybank and Co - for Social Innovation Camp

Anna Pearson and Co – for Spots of Time

Lambeth Council - for the Co-operative Council

Vinay Gupta – for Hexayurt Project and the 500 of them that popped up at Burning Man last year....

Noel Hatch – for We Do What We See

Simon Berry - for Colalife

Alice Osborne - for The Nan Project

Toby Blume and Co – for Groundswell and Urban Forum

David Wilcox – for creating the practice of Social Reporting

Trudy Thompson – for Bricks and Bread

Eileen Conn – for Community Engagement and the Social Eco-system Dance

Sophie Howarth – for School of Life

Jane Mason and Co – for Virtuous Bread

How many do you know? And what do you think makes for 'radical'?

 (Image from Stichting NAC - Rotterdam)

Social Brain Lab: Introduction to Social Cognition

Last week I introduced the Social Brain Lab, and our intention to work with others to create some helpful tools based on selective, condensed knowledge about how people function.

The key points from the learning models I described from my research is that firstly, when knowledge is applied well it can make our interpretations of situations more accurate and interpersonal exchanges more positive … and secondly, that the knowledge itself can trigger an ongoing learning process of self-observation and self-direction.

In a series of posts I wanted to focus on some aspects of social brain research, which might help a person working in a community achieve more positive results. 

What is social cognition?

Today I am going to introduce social cognition, a term used in a few different ways.  The social cognition I am referring to here is the ability to understand another person’s mental states and thought processes.  From the age of 5 children start to understand that other people may think differently from them… this natural phenomena is labelled Theory of Mind.  This whole area of study has become very intricate and over recent years a number of extremely detailed and interconnected disciplines have emerged, many resulting from the application of new research from neuroscience. An example of this is 'social neuroscience' which is a relatively new field first developed by John Cacioppo at Chicago University.

Although I am personally fascinated with the academic research, what I am most interested in is the key pieces of knowledge that a regular person might find helpful in managing themselves and navigating interpersonal relationships. In the Social Brain Lab we are intent on focusing on how key pieces of knowledge might be helpful in community/social settings.

The community scenario

The scenario you could imagine is that you are regular person who is interested in making your community a nicer place to live.  You know that this will require a great deal of collaboration and co-operation, with groups of people working together to make positive things happen.  Your motivation for getting involved in such community building activity is that you would like to see divisions between age or culture bridged… and believe that a genuine opportunity now exists among residents to make and shape their social and physical environment of the neighbourhood.  You are realistic however, and understand that this can be difficult. New community activity often challenges existing social and professional structures and hierarchies and even the most positive activities can create controversy – in turn possibly leading to difficult conversations.  

In these complex situations you want to be able to communicate well.  You want people to understand what you are saying in substance, but also clearly understand your intentions and motivations.  You also want to be able to understand other people well, not misinterpreting what people say, or making negative assumptions about their intentions. As well as the diplomattic communication burdens you recognise that communicating ideas, stimulating ideas in other people and helping groups work together productively is very important in achieving your aims. 

In his important the new book Together, sociolist Richard Sennett is very persuasive in his argument that co-operation requires skill as well as goodwill - particularly when trying to work with people who aren't of the same mindset or background as ourselves - the type of co-operation that puts a much higher burdern on social cognition. You can listen to his recent RSA talk here.

Understanding what is going on in your own head is difficult.  Monitoring a conversation in a live situation to ensure that what you say is an accurate reflection of what you mean, is even more difficult.  Then when you add ‘social cognition’  - trying to understanding what is happening in the other person’s head as they process what you are saying… is very challenging indeed … but not impossible.

Communicating well in every single situation we find ourselves in is too much to ask of any undividual in my opinion, there are simply too many stresses in daily life to demand that degree of concentration of ourselves.  But we can learn to communicate well regularly with some practice, improving our social cognition abilities over time, but not without understanding how our minds work - particularly many minds together.

A practical example to demonstrate

I mentioned in the previous post that the research showed that knowledge helped to trigger self-observation.  So I am going to give you a single practical example to demonstrate.

The piece of knowledge is this: 

Between us hearing what someone has said  … and responding ourselves, your mind interprets what that person has said.

We interpret what is being said using a whole set of beliefs, attitudes and world views we have acquired.  Not all these beliefs and frames that we use to interpret what people say are accurate or helpful. The sort of things that effect how we interpret could include our perception of the other person's motivations, how knowledgable they are ... even how much we respect or like them ….

Below is one of my favourite clips for observing social cognition. It is one of the boardroom scenes from The Apprentice.   I encourage you to pay attention to how interpretation works - in particular how lightening fast the interpretation phase is.  There is a lack of social cognition going on in this situation i.e. people are failing to anticipate how other people will received what they are saying… and despite an urgent need to present themselves well (so as not to be removed from the contest) they are failing to see how other people will perceive their behaviours negatively.  

If you have embedded your observartions in your mind from this exercise, you will start to make similar sorts of interpretation observations during or after social or work exchanges over the next few days.  

 

Apprentice clip from Social Spaces on Vimeo.

Applying social cognition to workshop activities

We use this understanding of social cognition thinking and Theory of Mind in some of the activities we have designed for workshops already.  We call them ‘talking tools’, but basically they are activities to help a group of individuals surface and share their mindsets.  We used these activities in public workshops with Reading Council, and are about to test a similar new health related activity later this month.  Our experience is that these tools perform an interesting function – people are genuinely surprised to discover that people think differently from them, that they have differing attitudes to the role of the council vs the potential role of local residents., and the way the conversation is structured through the activity leads people to be intrigued to find these differences.

What to learn more?

There are two ways you can explore social cognition in more detail if this topic interests you.

Firstly, you can start to delve into the academic research.  A good place to start would be to listen to some of the free lectures from Berkeley that you can get from iTunes U – I would recommend as a good starting point lectures 19, 20 and 21 from this series of lectures by John Kihlstrom. 

Secondly, you can look at the more practical literature on communication.  I am a very big fan of business books and read at least 15 of them every year. The two best books I have read on communication are Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations. Better than pixie dust ...

In summary

High level communications are incredibly valuable. They can be learned, with knowledge and practice, but the type of good communication that I am promoting here is not the same as masterful manipulation - smooth talking attempts are often designed to get people to do what others want them to do - and thankfully they regularly and predictably get exposed for what they are. 

In my experience, important collaborative relationships, creating genuine mutual understanding and dialogue, can only be developed with completely ruthless self-honestly. We need to challenge ourselves constantly to avoid getting stuck in our own group mindsets, defensive, inaccurate or unhelpful narratives. Genuine dialogue also requires endless amounts of intelligent empathy and generosity of thought - ingredients for understanding the frames and perspectives of other people.

Which leads me neatly onto the next post on the Social Brain Lab .... where I will talk about trust building. 

Have you witnessed important community situations where communication skills were vital  to success or failure - please share these with us ....

Knowledge, learning and the Social Brain Lab

We have started the Social Brain Lab to develop some practical tools to use in communities.  

All the projects we study at Social Spaces involve connecting people at local level. The projects often have multiple effects: raising awareness of environmental issues, introducing new ways to encourage informal learning or starting enterprises. 

However, we know that connection itself is important for two primary reasons:

 1. Positive relationships, trust and denser networks lead to new things happening

2. Creating social connection is valuable in itself.

More detail on this here.

Drawing on our existing research and knowledge in metacognition, collaboration and learning... plus our long running study of emergent community projects which, by design, fundamentally change how people interact face-to-face, the Social Brain Lab aims to collaborate with others to condense the large volume of research and data (social capital, social neuroscience, wellbeing etc) into a number of tools designed specifically to give a practical working knowledge of these important insights and stimulate further project ideas in a community workshop setting.

My interest in knowledge really grew doing the research and analysis for my MA Ed.  I used Lewin’s Equation to describe the overarching question “does knowledge about how we function change the way we behave?”.  Lewin’s Equation states that

B=ƒ(P,E)  Behaviour = Function of (Personality in their Environment). 

Do specific pieces of knowledge add to the influences of personality and environment? 

Are there automated human responses that can be drawn into more conscious decision-making processes with knowledge? 

Does knowledge help us to interpret life situations more accurately to inform our choices and subsequent behaviours?

Tracking knowledge through cognitive processes is a pretty complex and time consuming process. The research that I undertook involved teaching 200 teenagers over 2 years in a number of very different schools a set of experiential lessons on human functioning from many different disciplines.  I interviewed students at various stages, looking for cognitive patterns and learning processes in the analysis.

I took my emergent results to a number of specialists to help understand what the analysis was revealing, including long time friend and inspiration Colleen McLaughlin from Cambridge University… and Ian Morris, Head of Wellbeing at Wellington College, who had worked with me with the original student lessons.

The final learning model that emerged is described in the diagram below which I called Informed Autonomy, a model which I believe to be original in this type of research and strongly supports the idea of teaching young people about human functioning, as I expressed in this RSA article in 2008. 

The most significant results of the research were as follows:

-       Knowledge matters – knowing about how we function can change behaviour firstly on a conscious level .. eventually at a judgement level.

-       Knowledge matters more when you process it fully, connecting it to your personal experiences. Knowledge + cognitive processes + experience is the essential combination required for learning.

-       Knowledge triggers self-observation, repeated instances of self-observation lead to building personal knowledge.

-       You don’t need to use therapeutic methods (such as group self-disclosure) to build personal knowledge.

-       Higher level cognitive processes are required. In Blooms Taxonomy terms this equates to ‘Applying’ upwards… which comes after ‘remembering’ and ‘understanding’.

Worth noting here is the brilliant work of the RSA's Social Brain project who have also done some work since on the value of teaching people about how their brains work.

So what has all this got to do with the Social Brain Lab?

In the same way that knowledge was condenced into the most relevant elements for the original research we are hoping to do the same for people designing community social projects. What knowledge from neuroscience and social neuroscience could help when applied to this setting? Can this type of knowledge help people collaborate better, design projects better ...?

We would like to develop these new tools in collaboration with other people because we know there is a lot of deep understanding out there about what knowledge is most up-to-date in research terms, and what tried and tested methods and social processes continue to work. We think that mixing this up with some design thinking could create some really helpful open source tools for communities to use.  

There is an open invitation to take part in this work, so if you are interested please do get in touch!

If you are interested in new ways of building knowledge, and want to see how this might work in a social context, please join us in the Ad Hoc Enquiries!

{NB If you are an organisation that would like to use the learning models above in your work, for non commercial purposes only, please do get in touch for permissions and more detail on the research process}

 

Dance Willesden

Taking a little break in editing the Community Lover's Guide to Hackney, and reviewing plans for workshops and activities with parents at Furness Primary in Willesden. I've already been enjoying watching the sun rise above Willesden Junction station on my early morning trips to the school breakfast club. But I just came across Dance Willesden by Rose Rouse. Apart from the fact that watching a group of people dressed in bright red dance up and down the side of Willesden station is bound to bring a smile to your face, i think there are some interesting and important things going on here.

Dance Willesden Junction from Rose Rouse on Vimeo.

A lot of the projects that fascinate me are the ones where people don't wait for permission, or funds, or services - but who take small actions to change the world around them for the better. And do it in a way that keeps the door open for others to experience, collaborate and join in.

There is something quite magical about the moment a guy in a flourescent jacket does a tiny dance move, hanging back a little. And just wait until you see the bus driver let loose!

Rose notes something key to this way of doing things: "breaking down the wall between participants and audience dissolves the wall of criticism"

It's often the case that we see an 'us and them' situation - with services, us the taxpayers, them the council. With campaigner, us the downtrodden, them the ones holding power. With companies, us the consumer, them the producer. Dancing in the street might not be your thing, but there are a lot of other ways we can work together in a more equal and open manner.

Thank you Rose for being brave enough to dance in the streets and share it.

The Ad Hoc Enquiries: Do you have a new theory?

Starting in February 2012 Social Spaces will be running a series of 12 exploratory new events at Hub Westminster.

The primary assumption for the project is that there is new knowledge to be built and that we need to find new collaborative ways of building it.

These weekly Enquiries are structured events designed to give people who have designed and implemented innovation local projects an opportunity to describe their work and their emerging insights to a group of interested and experienced peers. These innovation projects are required to be working specifically in the participatory paradigm where creative and strategic solution seeking and collaborative working are their most evident characteristics. 

What happens at an Enquiry?

The evenings will begin with a sociable supper, during which the ‘theorist(s)’ will present their project, their theory of change and new emergent theory - followed by a number pieces of evidence to support their theory. 

Each participant in turn will state their core disciplinary perspective e.g. science, philosophy, design etc and offers either a supporting or challenging statement for the theory, connecting with other knowledge bases to understand and interpret the new theory. 

How will the Enquiries be documented?

Each week the event will ‘extreme’ recorded to a structured and pre-set format and set into a large format digital/on demand book including all participants names and responses. The events will be audio live streamed - and later converted into podcasts.

Why are they called The Ad Hoc Enquiries?

Enquiry

The name ‘enquiry’ goes some way to describe the format for the evenings. The name implies that the answers to our new questions are not currently evident and that some specific process is needed to draw out the ideas and examine the evidence.

The purpose of these events is a serious one, and the idea of calling it an ‘enquiry’ implies that some noteworthy and important work will take place during these evenings.   ‘Enquiry’ is also an academic term to describe an investigation into a specific topic or question.

Ad Hoc

The word ‘ad hoc’ is a term used in a number of contexts including scientific and philosophical theory; national investigations; technology systems and networks theory. There is also a link to the term Adhocracy, described by Alvin Toffler in the book Future Shock to mean an organisational structure working in the opposite way to a bureauracy.

How have we developed the format?

We have used understanding of how thinking in a new type of social setting might take place to develop this new format.  The events are structured to achieve knowledge creation through social and intellectual interaction and to be respectful of people’s ideas and the time they are offering to the project through the documentation and sharing process. 

The format takes account of the different phases individual and collective cognition might take place: stimulation/processing/connection/discussion/synthesis/building further on emergent ideas. 

The structure secures the serious aspects of the project's aims, and will therefor also allow a great deal of playfulness and fun to be injected into the evenings. We will be running these events in *very* strict order... possibly even using a gavel....

Call for new theories - do you have one?

 The first stage in preparing for these events is to ask people to submit their ideas for a theory they would like to present.

1. Have you developed an innovative local project?

2. Does this project work in the Creative/Collaborative paradigm?  

What we mean here is the work should not work in the Consumer, Representative, Charity or Challenge participatory paradigms.  There may be some of these in the mixture - but overall the project needs to work more collaboratively with communities and local authorities, possibly reconfiguring existing systems and fundamentally changing the way the community interacts in some way (See here and here for more details on how we see the Creative/Collaborative paradigm)

Apply here!

Deadline for applications to present a theory: 25 January 2012 

Register early interest to attend and participate in an Ad Hoc Enquiry here!

More pics of our cubes

 

Social Business: A response to the Portas Review on highstreet revival

(Photo credit London Shop Fronts blog by Emily Webber)

Over the Christmas break I read the Portas Review into the future of our highstreets - and I agree with the sentiment expressed that highstreets seem to be an often under-used or under-respected asset; and that in order for high streets and communities to thrive that we need a mix of commercial retail, with other cultural and social experiences; and that we would benefit from people making the shift from consumer to more active co-creator.

However, I found myself questioning some of the methods or solutions proposed - and here is some of my thinking why.

Representative 'Town Teams' to create shared vision of high street 

I like the idea of a group of passionate people working together for the benefit of the whole high street. Bringing together retailers, building owners, Council and residents to collaborate and develop new possibilities. But I think that as we make the shift to 'co-creators' we are learning new roles, and new ways of working together that are unlikely to happen spontaneously in a classic meeting or planning setting. As Portas notes later in the report "quite often it is only the noisy minority that contribute" which can sometimes be an issue with small groups claiming to be representative of a whole community. We've seen the positive impact of leaving things 'unfinished' so that people can contribute in meaningful ways - perhaps if the whole vision is completed and curated by a small representative group this may hamper wider involvement and co-creation. I think that because we need a more sophisticated shift in thinking and acting, we need to move past getting people together to problem solve, and employ both new meeting techniques and some creative ways for people to engage in different ways. See Tessy's post for more on the differences between representative and creative collaborative paradigm.

Serving a community's needs and community consultation

The report states the role of a town centre is to serve a communities needs. But what if the role of a town centre were to be an asset, a resource for a communities aspirations, and a source of inspiration? It also says that people should be consulted on town centre development - with big corporates putting money behind a campaign to get more people involved in town planning. Getting more people involved is something I would agree with - but again I think that it needs to be more nuanced than traditional consultation (we listen and go and design what you want, then bring it back as a finished product for you to consume). What if instead of 'consulting' local councils were there to encourage and facilitate involvement, create connections and help make ideas a reality.  

Community use of vacant properties and short term 'meanwhile' uses

While I agree with the need for highstreets to enable innovative, creative activities I think that hosting this solely in vacant or temporary spaces is perhaps not the best way forward. Why are we reducing the social uses to short term animation and temporary spaces? If we acknowledge that the high street needs to be a 'dynamic social place with a sense of belonging' we need to give people time to get to know each other, give the social elements time to bed down and be a permanent part of the mix. And by viewing the social simply as a colonisation method that can then be transplanted by 'real' business and full rates when it's successful in bringing in more people, new ideas and connections -  begins to price the social out again, and keeps the current competitive profit driven model at top of hierarchy, potentially loosing the extra social value found in supportive co-creation methods.

Social as a secondary effect of economic activity

The report says that the high street is social space: people interact by chatting in the market place, or sharing an enjoyable consumer experience. Social connections and the positive benefits from this are seen as an important secondary effect of shopping on the local highstreet. I wouldn't disagree with this - knowing the name of my local green grocer feels like something important to my sense of place (but I'll be honest, in a decade or more of local shopping I've not made new friends through the experience, because a straight transactional relationship is not really conducive to this). So if the secondary (perhaps unintended) social benefits are clearly a valuable thing then why are we stopping there? Imagine the secondary effects of a truly co-created high street experience - what if people had the opportunity to meet over baking, growing, building, making. Building lasting relationships through shared activities - rather than chance greetings over transient commercial transactions.

The individual's role to shop locally

The report highlights our responsibility to 'meet, trade and shop in high streets' in order for them to thrive. I don't disagree - I personally chose to support local businesses as much as I can and feel much happier about my contribution going to Hassan and his family up the road, that the bottomless pockets of Tesco. But as noted above, I think that this consumer model that we know so well reduces us to simply economic players in the town centre. It is our role to be there and shop. We aren't expected to, and largely don't have the opportunity to create, or build it. We are there to consume - and it could be argued that is is this pattern of behaviour that created the out of town shopping phenomena, largely responsible for the decline in high street success, in the first place.

 

Shops can be more than just shops

I read through 55 pages to find the bit that most interested me, right at the end...There is a suggestion that an ideal would be "big shops being more than just shops" and the examples cited are book shops in cafes, or a running club meeting point in a sports shop. And perhaps a 'swap shop' for different skills, and work hubs.
This sounds more like it to me... we need to bring back the social to the highstreet in an integrated, co-created way. From the grass roots up, skillfully facilitatied by those who know their way round the red tape and systems - be that local authorities, landlords, or retailers.

What's the alternative?
I think that if we are a bit braver in our expectations of the high street, more critical of the impact of our current repeated patterns of behaviour, and made the best of our opportunities to reimaging the assets and resources contained in it, we could begin to create a much richer social space ogether. 

If instead of another service that is provided for us to consume, (albeit by a new wider group of players than previously) we could be genuinely involved in the creation of social, cultural, and educational experiences. Instead of reducing the social to occasional spaces or secondary effects, I think we should aspire to create a truly integrated social high street. 

Putting it into practise
Mary Portas ends by recommending that several trials and pilots are initiated to take this report forward. If anyone would like to offer a highstreet to start putting this into practise, do get in touch - we'd be more than happy to get stuck in...