Social Capital Innovation Network

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Comment by Michelle Baharier on October 12, 2011 at 21:00

simple help needed I AM only £150 away from raising £1,000  please help CoolTan FEATURED IN THE Guardian at the weekend sponsored walk, PLEASE donate minim of £2 NHS cuts! http://www.justgiving.com/Michelle-Baharier0

 

Comment by Maureen Kendal on July 26, 2011 at 10:26

Hi 

I am available to meet at the RSALONDON John Adam St - this Friday morning

29th July 2011

for networking - activities and actions.

Maureen Kendal -

Providing education for employability

Knowledge transfer - skills - computing, maths, multimedia, communication technologies plus

Developing integrated virtual, mobile and augmented technologies including animation, games, interactive interfaces.

 

Comment by David Floyd on June 29, 2011 at 14:26

Thought you might be interested in this interview with Jess Steele of Locality on the community organisers programme: http://t.co/eNdnXIK

Comment by Thomas Neumark Jones on June 15, 2011 at 10:47

Hi All,

 

We recently published a new report looking at local influence and social networks. Here is a brief summary. If there is interest I could convene a meeting to discuss the implications of this report.

 

Power Lines

 

More often than not, participation is defined too narrowly. Consequently, there is a focus on so-called ‘active’ citizens (typically labelled the ‘usual suspects’), identified through their contacts with local councillors, voting behaviour in elections, vocal membership of local groups, or written responses to local consultations. Such citizens represent our vision of what it is to be empowered and to have influence. This paper argues that to increase access to local power — understood as the ability to get things done and change one’s circumstances and local community — the focus must first be on fostering overall social connections and neighbourliness.
 
The Coalition government has declared that:

 

"We need to create communities with 'oomph' - neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them."

With the publication of the Localism Bill we now have some idea of how they intend to go about creating these communities. Sadly, the vision of how to empower communities is far too focused on engaging members of the public in the delivery of public services.
 
A better - and possibly complementary - strategy for fostering neighbourhoods that are in charge of their own destiny would be to focus on building denser and more varied connections within these neighbourhoods. This is difficult, unpredictable work, but the potential returns are enormous. There are structural reasons why certain people currently have fewer or more uniform connections than others. As this paper will show, those who are unemployed, retired, or who live in areas that have thinner social networks overall, all tend to have fewer local connections. These groups, who are at risk of isolation, need to be a particular focus in efforts to build more empowered communities.
 
The prospect of running a school or a library or even a community pub can leave most people nonplussed. Ipsos MORI’s polling has found that only about 5 percent of people express even a nominal interest in becoming actively involved in the delivery of public services.

On the other hand our research has found that even those who are currently poorly connected show an interest in being able to shape their networks and connect more when given the appropriate tools and forum. 
 
Attempting to get more people and community groups involved in the provision of public services will not, by itself, create neighbourhoods where people feel that they can shape the world around them. Fostering support and exchange through informal connections may be an important way to 'achieve' outcomes that many public services aim for. We have found that the more connected someone is, the more likely they are to believe in neighbourliness. The less connected someone is, the less likely they are to perceive their connections as being of use to them in effecting the change they would like to see.
 
Further complicating matters, those who do participate in this way - the so-called 'civic core' of predominantly well educated, middle-aged professionals - do not feel in charge of their own destiny: the majority of community activists say that they cannot influence decisions in their local area. This is compounded by our research that has shown that these so-called 'usual suspects' often feel used by local services as 'free labour' or to legitimise a particular policy or action.

 

Comment by Max St John on June 1, 2011 at 14:54

Hi all, I'm a newbie here but I've been aware of the social capital innovation network for a while. For the past couple of years I've been working on the Virgin Media Pioneers project, aiming to help young people turn entrepreneurial aspirations into businesses by generating 'entrepreneurial social capital', focussing on a social network as the main platform.

 

I've just blogged some of the results of the first social capital report, and I wondered if this was of interest or use to the group. It's an overview, but I'd be happy to talk further if anyone had any questions.

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on December 21, 2010 at 10:57

Today I'm blogging my reflections on the impact of social media on spreading the profit for purpose concept on the web. From where I came in to assist a human rights activist and how his work went on to influence others.