Community Organising for the Big Society

One of the ideas for developing the Big Society is to train a new generation of Community Organisers, see Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude's June speech
 
Community Organising is based on the ideas of the American radical, Saul Alinsky. President Barack Obama, is probably the most well know Community Organiser, but in Britain, the London Citizens organisation has been using Community Organising techniques since the early 1990s. http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/pages/whatwedo.html  
 
Faith based groups have always played a prominent role in Community Organising both in Britain and in the UK. The 2006 Joseph Rowntree Foundation publication Faith as Social Capital: Connecting or Dividing? used faith groups’ involvement in London Citizens as one of its case studies http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/faith-social-capital
 
What seems to be missing from the current talk about using Community Organising to build the Big Society, it that:
  • it does not organise individuals, but relies on already existing community groups and organisations – therefore it is not an alternative way of growing communities, it needs a pre-existing vibrant community sector in order to be successful
  • it seeks change by organising around campaigns or issues, and uses confrontation and oppositional tactics – it has an extremely useful and dynamic function, but its range is limited
  • it uses a zero sum view of power, that is, for the communities to gain power, someone else has to give it up - while this might be the case in some circumstances, it is a restrictive model for society; community groups working together with Government, and other stakeholders, can build a dynamic that in the long term, creates more power and energy for change.
While there is certainly an important role for Community Organising in a vibrant and robust civil society. It will not itself deliver the healthy Community Sector that it needs to thrive.
 
Doreen Finneron
12th June 2010

 

Dr Doreen Finneron's blogs
Where next for faith in the public sphere? Thu 5th Aug
Community Organising for the Big Society Mon 14th Jun
Can we co-create the Big Society? Mon 7th Jun
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