The document discusses 12 domains that are uniquely within the power of people to change through grassroots, community-led solutions. These domains include health and well-being, safety and security, the environment, nurturing the local economy, mindful food consumption and production, and raising children. The document argues that community connections and social networks are more important determinants of health outcomes than access to healthcare. It provides examples of grassroots environmental initiatives and emphasizes that local economic development is fueled by small, community-based enterprises. Overall, the document advocates for community empowerment and people-powered change as a way to positively impact many important areas of society.
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
This paper describes how communities can contribute to the sustainability cause
1. Communities, communication and sustainability: what’s the purpose of this paper?
2. Online communities, why are they relevant?
3. How to communicate to achieve political goals?
4. What can politics learn from commercial communication?
5. What’s the proposed solution?
Shocks and stresses are growing in frequency, impact and scale, with the ability to ripple across systems
and geographies. But cities are largely unprepared to respond, withstand, and rebound when disaster
strikes. The greatest burden of these increasing shocks, such as the impacts of climate change or public
health threats, often falls on poor and vulnerable people who have limited resources to cope with disaster
and who take longer to recover from it, disrupting livelihoods and increasing inequality.
Just as cities are hubs for innovations and investments that expand opportunities, they are also living laboratories forced to confront challenges of increasing complexity. What, and who, makes a city resilient—and not just livable in the short-term—has become an increasingly critical question, one we set out to answer in late 2012 with our partners at Arup through the creation of a City Resilience Index.
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
This paper describes how communities can contribute to the sustainability cause
1. Communities, communication and sustainability: what’s the purpose of this paper?
2. Online communities, why are they relevant?
3. How to communicate to achieve political goals?
4. What can politics learn from commercial communication?
5. What’s the proposed solution?
Shocks and stresses are growing in frequency, impact and scale, with the ability to ripple across systems
and geographies. But cities are largely unprepared to respond, withstand, and rebound when disaster
strikes. The greatest burden of these increasing shocks, such as the impacts of climate change or public
health threats, often falls on poor and vulnerable people who have limited resources to cope with disaster
and who take longer to recover from it, disrupting livelihoods and increasing inequality.
Just as cities are hubs for innovations and investments that expand opportunities, they are also living laboratories forced to confront challenges of increasing complexity. What, and who, makes a city resilient—and not just livable in the short-term—has become an increasingly critical question, one we set out to answer in late 2012 with our partners at Arup through the creation of a City Resilience Index.
Nikolas byous universal basic income midterm project unm crp 275 community ch...Dr. J
Can you imagine what your community would accomplish if everyone who lived there had financial security? Would the citizens of that community have the time as well as the mental and emotional space to be more engaged in their community? An engaged community is a community which solves local issues that adversely affect the citizens of that locality. If all communities had this same level of engagement, could we overcome global issues? Finding a solution to poverty and financial insecurity is key to attaining greater community engagement. Universal Basic Income is a solution to poverty and financial insecurity, and ultimately, greater community engagement.
This paper very clearly outline the vision of my two companies. This is the kind of holistic economic development we work to create.
This paper outlines eight challenges facing cities and the communities they encompass, based on experience in the United States. The authors provide examples of practices and programs led by both government and nonprofit organizations, many technology-enabled, that point the way to solutions, and they conclude with a call for leaders to embrace an agenda for change.
The private sector is a logical player to help coordinate
and calibrate resilience-building actions. In the course of their commercial activities, companies may interact with a wide range of city departments—from law-enforcement agencies to public utilities—and therefore have the potential to act as broker, involving a broad range of government players in urban resilience discussions.
IN THIS SUMMARY
The earth today suffers from many problems ranging from climate change, insufficient food, dwindling energy resources, biodiversity, and poverty. Although the vast majority of human action is based on competition, many of the challenges faced by society could be solved through cooperation. In Co-opportunity, John Grant describes different cooperative solutions to sustainability problems. He focuses on five “bottlenecks” to sustainability, including representative democracy, how people define the “good life,” the relationship between buyers and sellers, the current free market model, and using return on investment as a measure of productivity. Through case studies of different people and organizations, Grant illustrates how social innovators can implement cooperative solutions.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
http://www.bizsum.com/summaries/co-opportunity
Presentation delivered by Dr Jon Bridle, University of Bristol, at Communicate, 3rd November 2011. Communicate is hosted by the Bristol Natural History Consortium www.communicatenow.org
How Integration of Systems Will Bring Concrete Benefits to the Earth and to M...Stephen Lee
Presentation made to the Hong Kong Bio- and Eco-Energy Industry Assocation, Dec 14, 2011. The world is at an uncertain divide, with the East on the rise and the West on the decline. Excesses of capitalism, and escalating costs of social benefits brought imbalances to the world, potentially pitching the young generation against the old. Will the vision of a green planet be shattered because it is unaffordable and too much of an economic burden on mankind? It is more imperative than ever that efforts to clean up the planet be based on the idea of integrating, automating and optimizing past systems which were operated in isolation from one another. New and concrete benefits will be turned up by innovative ways to explore synergistic relationships among proximate systems and to optimize their joint operation. An example can be found in bringing together systems of waste treatment, electricity production, and steam or heat production. However, real benefits must exceed real costs before the world will remain committed to the path of a green planet.
Equity workshop: Balancing equity and efficiency in Payments for Ecosystem Se...IIED
Balancing equity and efficiency in PES.
A presentation given at the Expert Workshop on Equity, Justice and Well-being in Ecosystem Governance, held at IIED in London, March, 2015.
A presentation by Meine van Noordwijk, Beria Leimona, Sara Namirembe, Peter Minang.
The City Resilience Index, developed by Arup with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, provides a comprehensive, technically robust, globally applicable basis for measuring city resilience. It is comprised of 52 indicators, which are assessed based on responses to 156 questions; through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. The responses are aggregated and presented in relation to the 12 goals (or indices) in the Framework.
The Index has been piloted in 5 cities: Shimla, India, Concepcion, Chile, Arusha, Tanzania, Hong Kong, China and Liverpool, UK. We are encouraging policy makers and other city stakeholders to use the interactive on-line assessment tool at www.cityresilienceindex.org and begin this vital analysis.
Cities have long birthed advances in the sciences, arts, human rights, business and government. Millions of people have moved to cities for better lives or services unavailable elsewhere.
But as cities grow, so are problems stemming from stretched transportation, energy and water infrastructure.
Urban Climate Change Resilience in Action: Lessons from Projects in 10 ACCCRN...The Rockefeller Foundation
This paper presents key insights emerging from an analysis of the 36 intervention projects,totaling approximately $15.5 million, which have been funded and are beingimplemented under the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cities Climate Change ResilienceNetwork (ACCCRN) in ten initial cities1. As a pioneering effort to advance on-the-groundactions aimed at building urban climate change resilience (UCCR), this portfolio ofprojects2 provides a ‘first generation’ view of how a set of cities have interpreted UCCRchallenges and translated their understanding into targeted priorities and actions. Oneof the intentions of the ACCCRN initiative was to advance the still young field of UCCRwith practical actions that substantiate the growing number of theoretical frameworks.
Nikolas byous universal basic income midterm project unm crp 275 community ch...Dr. J
Can you imagine what your community would accomplish if everyone who lived there had financial security? Would the citizens of that community have the time as well as the mental and emotional space to be more engaged in their community? An engaged community is a community which solves local issues that adversely affect the citizens of that locality. If all communities had this same level of engagement, could we overcome global issues? Finding a solution to poverty and financial insecurity is key to attaining greater community engagement. Universal Basic Income is a solution to poverty and financial insecurity, and ultimately, greater community engagement.
This paper very clearly outline the vision of my two companies. This is the kind of holistic economic development we work to create.
This paper outlines eight challenges facing cities and the communities they encompass, based on experience in the United States. The authors provide examples of practices and programs led by both government and nonprofit organizations, many technology-enabled, that point the way to solutions, and they conclude with a call for leaders to embrace an agenda for change.
The private sector is a logical player to help coordinate
and calibrate resilience-building actions. In the course of their commercial activities, companies may interact with a wide range of city departments—from law-enforcement agencies to public utilities—and therefore have the potential to act as broker, involving a broad range of government players in urban resilience discussions.
IN THIS SUMMARY
The earth today suffers from many problems ranging from climate change, insufficient food, dwindling energy resources, biodiversity, and poverty. Although the vast majority of human action is based on competition, many of the challenges faced by society could be solved through cooperation. In Co-opportunity, John Grant describes different cooperative solutions to sustainability problems. He focuses on five “bottlenecks” to sustainability, including representative democracy, how people define the “good life,” the relationship between buyers and sellers, the current free market model, and using return on investment as a measure of productivity. Through case studies of different people and organizations, Grant illustrates how social innovators can implement cooperative solutions.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
http://www.bizsum.com/summaries/co-opportunity
Presentation delivered by Dr Jon Bridle, University of Bristol, at Communicate, 3rd November 2011. Communicate is hosted by the Bristol Natural History Consortium www.communicatenow.org
How Integration of Systems Will Bring Concrete Benefits to the Earth and to M...Stephen Lee
Presentation made to the Hong Kong Bio- and Eco-Energy Industry Assocation, Dec 14, 2011. The world is at an uncertain divide, with the East on the rise and the West on the decline. Excesses of capitalism, and escalating costs of social benefits brought imbalances to the world, potentially pitching the young generation against the old. Will the vision of a green planet be shattered because it is unaffordable and too much of an economic burden on mankind? It is more imperative than ever that efforts to clean up the planet be based on the idea of integrating, automating and optimizing past systems which were operated in isolation from one another. New and concrete benefits will be turned up by innovative ways to explore synergistic relationships among proximate systems and to optimize their joint operation. An example can be found in bringing together systems of waste treatment, electricity production, and steam or heat production. However, real benefits must exceed real costs before the world will remain committed to the path of a green planet.
Equity workshop: Balancing equity and efficiency in Payments for Ecosystem Se...IIED
Balancing equity and efficiency in PES.
A presentation given at the Expert Workshop on Equity, Justice and Well-being in Ecosystem Governance, held at IIED in London, March, 2015.
A presentation by Meine van Noordwijk, Beria Leimona, Sara Namirembe, Peter Minang.
The City Resilience Index, developed by Arup with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, provides a comprehensive, technically robust, globally applicable basis for measuring city resilience. It is comprised of 52 indicators, which are assessed based on responses to 156 questions; through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. The responses are aggregated and presented in relation to the 12 goals (or indices) in the Framework.
The Index has been piloted in 5 cities: Shimla, India, Concepcion, Chile, Arusha, Tanzania, Hong Kong, China and Liverpool, UK. We are encouraging policy makers and other city stakeholders to use the interactive on-line assessment tool at www.cityresilienceindex.org and begin this vital analysis.
Cities have long birthed advances in the sciences, arts, human rights, business and government. Millions of people have moved to cities for better lives or services unavailable elsewhere.
But as cities grow, so are problems stemming from stretched transportation, energy and water infrastructure.
Urban Climate Change Resilience in Action: Lessons from Projects in 10 ACCCRN...The Rockefeller Foundation
This paper presents key insights emerging from an analysis of the 36 intervention projects,totaling approximately $15.5 million, which have been funded and are beingimplemented under the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cities Climate Change ResilienceNetwork (ACCCRN) in ten initial cities1. As a pioneering effort to advance on-the-groundactions aimed at building urban climate change resilience (UCCR), this portfolio ofprojects2 provides a ‘first generation’ view of how a set of cities have interpreted UCCRchallenges and translated their understanding into targeted priorities and actions. Oneof the intentions of the ACCCRN initiative was to advance the still young field of UCCRwith practical actions that substantiate the growing number of theoretical frameworks.
Small Scale Industry You Can Start on Your Own- Business Ideas for Beginners Ajjay Kumar Gupta
Small Scale Industry You Can Start on Your Own- Business Ideas for Beginners (Aluminium Fabrications, Aluminium Shots and Knotched Bars, Bed Sheet With Pillow Covers Set, Cry Data Display Monitor (Colour), Cashew Feni, Computer Key Boards (Membrane Type), Copper Coated M.S. Wire, Cotton Lycra, Crimped Wire Connectors, Electronic Weighting Scales, Infant Garments, Jackfruit Products, Leather Sandals With P.U. Sole, Leather Travelling Bag, Modem, Mustard Oil, Nickel Alloy Wires, R.C.C. Spun Pipe, Rotogravure Printing, Tyre Retreading (By Cold Process))
Process))
Starting your own business is one of the few remaining paths to wealth. Everyone wants to do something that gives them chance to earn more money and it is possible by becoming an entrepreneur. Hundreds of thousands of people start their own businesses every year, and untold more dream about the possibility of becoming their own bosses. While entrepreneurship has its many potential rewards, it also carries unique challenges. Entrepreneurship is one of the critical decisions to be made and it involves number of risk and has its own advantages also. But the charm of being a master of you is always above any other form of work. To start your own venture you have to decide on many things. Making a choice of the right project is a difficult decision for an entrepreneur and is an imperative decision.
See more
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Niir Project Consultancy Services
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New Delhi-110007, India.
Email: npcs.ei@gmail.com , info@entrepreneurindia.co
Tel: +91-11-23843955, 23845654, 23845886, 8800733955
Mobile: +91-9811043595
Website: www.entrepreneurindia.co , www.niir.org
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This is the introduction chapter extracted from the Manual “The Teacher´s Guide-Design for Sustainability” by Gaia Education. This is a practical manual for sustainability teachers, ecovillage and community design educators and facilitators who are conducting courses on the broad sustainability agenda.
A new vision of Economics will not emerge from the economic powers and mainstream capitalist systems alone. It is not a vision to be realized only by economists or business interests. This new vision will emerge instead from the bottom up in country after country and village after village around the world as people learn to build and take control of their own economic futures, find new ways to measure their own sense of well-being, learn to manage how the Earth’s limited natural resources are to be protected and nurtured for future generations -- after all these are our and their commons -- establish new ways to distribute wealth and secure basic living standards and dignity for all, protect the health of labour, and develop a sense of unique cultural and regional identity not dictated by global trends and political strong arms.
Over 38,000 people have taken the Gross National Happiness Index and over 120 cities, communities and campuses are using the Gross National Happiness. They have their happiness scores and are asking - now what? The Happiness Data Playbook offers ideas for policy makers and community activists to use the data for the happiness, sustainability and wellbeing of all. Inspired by the World Happiness Report, Legatum Institute Wellbeing and Policy report, and other documents, this document includes links to examples and resources.
The emerging challenges within the area of Secure Livelihoods were covered in a recent collaboration between the Foundation and Accenture Development Partnerships and included in the recently-released Accenture report, “A Critical Scan of Four Key Topics for the Philanthropic Sector.”
Presentation defines Sustainability, Sustainability Management, and presents some basic tools the Sustainability Professional can use to design and implement a Sustainability strategy.
Service design in government, conference, edinburgh, 2019Cormac Russell
"Shifting the focus from quality of services to quality of life": An Asset-Based Community Development perspective on the challenges in service Design in Local Government. Cormac Russell, ABCD Institute
West Yorkshire & Harrogate STP, NHS England. Cormac Russell
This was delivered at a facilitated one day workshop/conversation with West Yorkshire & Harrogate STP (NHS England supported event), opened by Olivia Butterworth. The focus was on getting in 'right relationship' with communities, in an asset-based community development way. Facilitated by Cormac Russell, Nurture Development supported by Chris Chinnock, Nurture Development. Asset-based Community Development approach was used as the primary lens through which to progress the conversation and explorations. Attached is the morning presentation which was used to stimulate discussion and some searching debate.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Executive Directors Chat Leveraging AI for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTechSoup
Let’s explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
MASS MEDIA STUDIES-835-CLASS XI Resource Material.pdf
12 domains of people powered change
1. PEOPLE
POWERED
CHANGE
12
Twelve domains that people are uniquely
able to change through handmade and
homemade solutions.
Cormac Russell
Nurture Development
2. INTRODUCTION
The question: ‘what is within the hands of people, and is within their power alone to
change?’ is central to understanding what we mean by Big Society, Our Society and People
Powered Change. Based on the work and research findings of the Asset Based Community
Development Institute and others in and with communities throughout the world, I believe
there are at least twelve domains that are uniquely within the competencies of people, and
by implication, cannot happen without People Powered Change.
Our health, safety, care for the environment, safe food production and consumption, local
economic development, raising our young people, ageing well in place/locale, building
strong communities, civic action towards deeper democracy and a more just society,
response to natural disaster and emergencies, co-producing knowledge and ultimately the
capacity to change the world, all call on handmade and homemade solutions, all of which
are uniquely within the domain of people powered change. “Restoring bonds among people
can be a cost effective and practical point of leverage for solving some of most pressing
social problems’. Cacioppo & Patrick (authors of Loneliness – Human nature and the need
for social connection)
‘Paradoxically we will achieve the change we seek, when we
change the way we seek it; when we become more active
doing only what we can with what we have to produce a
sustaining and sustainable society, we will discover we have
all we need to change the world.’
Cormac Russell
3. 1 HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Epidemiologists are largely agreed that there are five main determinants of health and
wellbeing. These include our personal behaviours, the extent of our social networks, our
physical environment, our economic security, and access to professional healthcare. In other
words, the extent to which we as people are positively connected to each other, our
environment and local economic opportunities determines our respective health outcomes
(how long we live and how often we are sick), more so than our level of access to
professional healthcare, by a ratio of 9:1. [1]
Not surprising given that medical systems cannot produce relatedness, mutuality or love. It
would be interesting therefore to know what ratio of the current health budget in Britain is
invested in supporting people to use their power to grow healthier and support their friends
and neighbours to do the same. By focusing on health, not disease, and supporting positive
behaviours and human connectedness, more can be done to ensure positive health outcomes.
[1] The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, McKnight, J, & Block, P. (2010)
4. 2 SAFETY & SECURITY
Our research points to two major determinants of our local safety:
1. How many neighbors we know by name.
2. How often we are present and together with one another in the public areas outside
our houses.
The empirical evidence may be counter intuitive, but nonetheless, increasing police
presence, or the number of surveillance cameras, or the height of speed bumps for the most
part does not lead to enhanced safety and security in the same way that a connected
community can. Security is a feeling; as such, no government crime figures, no matter how
positive, can rival in someone’s imagination the spectre of a thief or attacker. Knowing that
there are other people, nearby, vigilant and sympathetic towards us, is more reassuring than
the distant and delayed reactions of professionals.
5. 3 THE ENVIRONMENT
While the energy savings of just one person turning off the lights, unplugging switches,
or even switching from a petrol-guzzler to a more energy efficient motor may seem
inconsequential, if millions of people take such action, then the cumulative positive
impact would change the world. That action must be local and people powered, fueled
by personal and sometimes by collective choices made by communities that have
decided to aggregate their power to change the way they relate to their environment.
The village of Kamikatsu [2] is a fine example of the extent to which people can
collectivise their responses to environmental challeneges. They recycle everything. The
immediate impetus for the villagers to move in that direction, was the state requirement
to shut down incinerators – a problem you would think, but through people power they
generated a local solution to a local problem and secured a big local buy-in. Closer to
home, in January of this year, eight people in Wadebridge, Cornwall launched the
WREN initiative – securing an agreement from energy companies to collectively create
a community fund from the renewable energy the town sends back to the grid.
NESTA’s Mass Localism report [3], as well as framing the case for local solutions to
environmental challenges, offers some excellent examples of what is possible when
people become more intentional and collective about their decisions around transport,
heating and lighting their homes and communities, and how they manage their waste.
The report also charts a pathway towards scaling local solutions for mass impact. These
actions are critical to saving the planet. This does not exclude Government or big
Business, since they have a major and equally critical role to play, but even if they were
to fulfill this role completely, without people powered change, the planet would still be
in peril.
[2] Japan’s first zero waste village, see www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/.../recycling.japan..
[3] http://www.nesta.org.uk/home1/assets/features/mass_localism
6. 4 NURTURING THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Most enterprises start as innovations at the edge of mainstream society. They start small and
local, in garden sheds, attics and at the kitchen table. They are fuelled by people power, and it
is that same power that sustains entrepreneurs as they go from ideas stage to business
development and implementation. Those small and medium enterprises are the heart blood of
local economies and one of the most reliable sources of employment, especially in low
income neighbourhoods.
People also have purchase and investment/saving power and can use these intentionally to
ensure through what they buy and where they save that money circulates within the local
economy in a way that benefits local people and sustains local businesses. Aside from the
money economy there is the core economy which facilitates non-monetary exchange of
goods, and services, and naturally clears the way for collaborative consumption and a shift
from the mantra of ‘growth at any cost’ to one of ‘enough’. [4]
Martin Simon’s recent book ‘Your Money or Your Life: Time for Both’ [5], is an important
reminder that every human being has something extremely valuable to contribute, and that all
too often the money economy prohibits those contributions. Alternative currencies such as
time credit, redress such imbalances. Timebanking provides a wonderful framework within
which everyone can ‘give and take’, in a way that is mutually nourishing.
As a side bar to this discussion, larger businesses, NGOs, and governmental institutions that
wish to make a marked and lasting difference to local economies and the people that depend
on them could do so simply by ensuring that their procurement policies and sourcing
arrangements for goods and services are ‘locally-facing’. Where the capacity to provide
required goods and services does not exist locally, then such institutions could behave like
good ‘resource-full’ neighbours, and support the growth in capacity of local enterprises
capable of meeting their requirements.
[4] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-Breaking-free-world-more/dp/0340935901 (Naish, J, Enough, Breaking free of the World of
More, 2008)
[5] http://www.timebanking.org/documents/Publications/FS057-sampler_for_supporters.pdf
7. 5 MINDFUL FOOD CONSUMPTION
AND PRODUCTION
It is not possible to speak about nurturing local economies or local purchasing without
referring to the local food movement. The local food movement endeavours to reunite
producers and consumers, who are typically separated through a chain of processors/
manufacturers, shippers and retailers. The rationale for redeveloping these relationships is
to return the power (quality control over products and methods of production) back to the
consumer and the producer respectively. The more complex and distant the food supply
chain the more monetary relationships are involved. This makes food, or what some
nutritionists dare to call ‘food-like substances’, less nutritious and more expensive. Local
food chains reduce the time, distance and number of relationships in the supply of seasonal,
cheaper and more nutritious food. By adding the element of relationship and ritual to food
gathering and preparation there is the added bonus of making eating about celebration and
connection and not simply a ‘fuel-stop’ in a hectic day.
Collaboration between local farmers and producers in the UK, to provide on-line farmers
markets has meant that consumers who can not make it to the local farmers market can still
buy locally. [6] Bringing people powered change to the relationship we have with the food
we produce and consume has the potential to enhance outcomes in the areas of health,
environment (mitigating the impacts of methods of food production, energy consumption
and transportation) and local economic well being.
[6] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article3483774.ece
8. 6 RAISING POWERFUL CONNECTED
CHILDREN
John McKnight and Peter Block argue that “we all say that it takes a village to raise a child.
And yet, in modernized societies, this is rarely true. Instead, we pay systems to raise our
children -- teachers, counselors, coaches, youth workers, probation officers, nutritionists,
doctors, McDonald's and MTV. There is no "youth problem" here. There is a village
problem of adults who have forgone their responsibility and capacity to join their neighbors
in raising the young. Our children do not need school reform, they need neighbors who
know their names and teach them to be citizens”.
In other words, children need their significant others and adults immediately around them
to believe they have something of value to offer children as they grow. Professional
interventions that promote a narrative that says to children, albeit unintentionally: ‘your
parents and the adults around you are inadequate and incompetent when it comes to raising
you, we are the experts in this area and we will help you grow up properly’, work in the
opposite direction; by inflating their own capacities, they negate the power of communities
to play a central role in raising powerful and connected children. Children do not grow
powerful in institutions; their power grows the closer they are to the centre of family and
community life.
Needless to say some children and families need professional support, but they also need
the power of other people within their communities, since as the African proverbs reminds
us: ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.
9. 7 AGEING WELL IN PLACE/LOCALE
Across the life course regardless of age, everyone needs to give and receive care. When I
work in communities and speak to people on their door steps, the issue that people say they
care about most is the well being of older people in their neighbourhoods. When I speak
with older people, all too often they feel isolated and ‘useless’, and say that the issue that
concerns them most is their safety. They are afraid, and they are alone; surrounded by a
community with a reservoir of care and support waiting to be released.
I think that isolation and the feeling of being useless are killing a significant number of
older people. The appropriate anodyne for such conditions does not come in the form of
services, but through care. Care is the freely given gift of the heart from one person to
another; you can not manage it, nor can you buy it, it is not a service that you can package.
The sort of care required, is the kind that sees older people both for their gifts and needs, in
that order. This kind of care is only located among communities of people who recognise
that a community that does not have a central place for older people has a place for no one.
More attention needs to be given to connecting people across the life course so that people
power can be amplified by the wisdom and giftedness of older people, and so that in turn
we can all expect to age well in place as part of a community of people powered change.
10. 8 BUILDING COMMUNITIES
A community is best defined as a group of people who, regardless of the diversity of their
backgrounds, have been able to accept and transcend their differences, enabling them to
communicate effectively and openly and to work together toward goals that they
themselves have identified as being for their common good. While getting to such a place
often requires skilled facilitation and organisation, nevertheless, communities grow from
inside out, evolving from the place where ‘I’ live, to the community where ‘we’ grow.
Mike Green notes that ‘When people discover what they have, they find power. When
people join together in new connections and relationships they build power. When people
become more productive together, they exercise their power to address problems and realise
dreams.’ [7] Where better to build people power than in community? Community Building
and the nurturing of people powered change are interconnected endeavours.
[7] When People Care Enough To Act, Mike Green with Henry Moore & John O’Brien (2006) Inclusion Press
11. 9 CIVIC ACTION FOR DEEPER
DEMOCRACY & JUST SOCIETY
Civic action for social, environmental and economic justice provides the rudder for keeping
governments honest and on track, and democracy meaningful. Without civic action driven
by people powered change the promise of democracy rings hollow and the act of casting
one’s vote becomes no more than handing your power over to another.
12. 10 RESPOND TO NATURAL DISASTERS
No where is people power more apparent than in the face of natural disasters; as human
being when put to the pin of our collar we dig deep, pull together (self organise), and
respond. One of the reasons people power becomes so apparent at such times is because
natural disasters tend to strip away system supports, and inhibit institutional responses.
In the 2011 T!hoku earthquake and tsunami 12,259 people died, 2,858 were injured, and
15,315 people are currently reported missing, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or
destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage,
particularly to road and rail infrastructure. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern
Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. What has also became
clear in the days and weeks immediately following the earthquake and tsunami is the
immense capacity of the Japanese people to ‘endure the seemingly unbearable’, what they
explicitly and proudly refer to as ‘Gaman’. [8] Gaman, like yeast in baking, is the rising
agent of people powered change, and it needs to be intentionally added if we are to ensure
we are sufficiently resilient to do what only we can in times of great challenge.
Intimate local knowledge and flexible response are two of the more important features of
people powered change; evident in all twelve domains, but nowhere more evident than in
the face of climate change. During the recent bout of heavy snow fall a local network of
residences from Newcastle shared with me how when going door to door to check on their
older neighbours they paid special attention to their neighbours who had no ‘footprints in
the snow’ on their driveways. Since of course that indicated to them that no one else was
visiting. It’s that level of local intimate knowledge that only people power can generate.
[8] A Japanese term derived from Zen Buddhism, meaning fortitude in times of unbearable challenge.
13. 11 CO-PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE &
SHARING WISDOM
Knowledge and wisdom are hatched in the nest of everyday life and more particularly in
associational life, not in educational, commercial or professional institutions. What
concepts such as collectivism, learning society, learning organisations, and the digital
learning commons -with their shared ethos around open source learning and shared
wisdom- all point towards, is the importance of collective intelligence.
Knowledge need no longer be bottle necked within institutions, or siloed into narrow
disciplines, nor need it be thought of as the ‘solitary affair’. Despite the endeavours of
many educational commercial and professional institutions to make it so, knowledge is not
a commodity, and cannot be effectively packaged, or consumed as such. The production of
knowledge is uniquely within the competencies of a community of people, who
consensually come together to make sense of the world they share. While it may
subsequently be curricularised and general access restricted, this does not change the fact
that it was first co-produced by a community of citizens.
The pursuit of knowledge, calls on citizens to access their collective intelligence, and
‘hidden wealth’, to create the futures they want rather than settling for the futures they get,
or are thought to seek. It is this collective or democratic intelligence that will and should
ultimately define what is meant by Big Society.
W.B. Yeats said ‘Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire’. The
more progressive of our educational systems, and other institutions- designed for a by-gone
Industrial age- have come to realise that they cannot unilaterally light that fire. Instead they
are reshaping themselves into learning organisations, where conversations are how
actionable change is brought about, and the lines between learner and teacher, customer and
expert are becoming ever more blurred.
14. 11 CO-PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE &
SHARING WISDOM
Online social networking, and open source learning platforms, not to mention parent run
schools [9] have prompted me to look again at the words of Socrates (469 BC–399 BC), ‘as
for me, all I know is that I know nothing’. I now take these words to mean that no one
individual or institution holds a monopoly on knowledge, since knowledge is symphonic,
and only rings true when everyone is enabled to participate in its co-production. We are, I
think, approaching a time when everyone will get to play and no-ones talents will be cast
aside. People power, online and in real time, will determine the pace of this change.
[9] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23874688-campaigners-and-parents-to-run-six-schools-in-london.do
15. 12 CHANGING THE WORLD
The above, eleven domains of people powered change, all highlight the unique
competencies of people to use personal and collective power to deepen care, wisdom,
democracy, and justice, and to enhance safety, nutrition and health. If these are not done by
people then systems no matter how well funded will not be able to provide an adequate
substitute. There are many wonderful out of the ordinary examples of people powered
change, all of which ought to be acknowledged and celebrated. However the extent and
severity of the social fabric issues that we face, suggests that people powered change has
not yet reached its tipping point.
“Change doesn’t happen because of how we invest our money. Change happens because of
how we invest our human energy, and it always has since we came down from the trees.
Everyone’s got a margin of discretionary energy – ten percent, twenty percent – that isn’t
used up making their way in the world. That’s the energy that’s available for social
change.” Daniel Taylor – Future Generations
Paradoxically we will achieve the change we seek, when we change the way we seek it;
when we become more active doing only what we can with what we have to produce a
sustaining and sustainable society, we will discover we have all we need to change the
world.
16. CONCLUSION
All twelve are uniquely within the domain of people powered change, and if people do not
bring their power to bear on them, they will not happen. What nourishes people powered
change is the intentional will to identify, connect and mobilise people’s power, with people
firmly in the driving seat of that three step process. For that process to be effective people
powered change must be place based, relationship centred, strengths focused, citizen-led
and have at its bedrock a commitment to equality and social justice.
The next piece in this series of three contributions to a reflection on People Powered
Change, Big Society and Our Society, will consider the optimum process by which citizen-
led action within these 12 domains can be nurtured, also highlighting what puts a ‘drag’ on
people power. It will suggest that one of the main things that inhibits people powered
change is that institutions have learned how to intervene in people’s lives but not to support
them to do what only they could do with people power. The challenge to such institutions is
to ask:
1. Where are we replacing, controlling, overwhelming the power of people to be
producers and co-producer?
2. How can we listen better to what people in citizen and community space think they
can do, and what they think would be helpful from the outside?
Cormac Russell is the Managing Director of Nurture Development
www.nurturedevelopment.ie, and faculty member of the ABCD Institute, Northwestern
University, Illinois.