Category Archives for "Mutuality"

7 Citizens’ Organising

[amazon_link asins=’0679721134′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’markettogether’ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’4e0b520e-5dad-11e8-9735-af4bb1fcb2fa’] [amazon_link asins=’0679721126′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’markettogether’ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’66f0ea4d-5dad-11e8-aad2-d12c714ba9fc’]

Citizens’ Organising is an approach to community development from the United States and an effective mutual method. It can be traced back to the work of Saul Alinsky in the 1970s. His books “Rules for Radicals” and “Reveille for Radicals” are still worth reading. The Industrial Areas Foundation, who organise across cities in the United States, built upon his work after his death in the early 1970s.

Citizens’ Organising in the UK

Attempts  to introduce organising to the UK from the early 1990s were not very successful.  Whilst a few groups still struggle on it never really took root in the UK. However, organising is worth considering and it is possible to add elements into community development practice.

One essential element is power analysis. This means we need to understand who actually has power in a given situation. Sometimes it is important to name the powerful and target them for effective change.

Equally important is its understanding of activism and indeed, if we are to take activism seriously, then organising is essential to community development. Anger, seen as a positive emotion, powers activism. It is important no one person becomes essential to the organisation; power is held collectively, not concentrated in the hands of any one person.  So, roles are held for no more than one year.  This means everyone had opportunities to increase their experience of a range of roles, building a pool of capable people, enhancing  the organisation’s capacity.

The emphasis is upon building relationships and applying pressure to key power-holders.  Activists claim you have “no permanent friends and no permanent enemies”.  The pressure applied to power-holders aims to bring them around to supporting the interests of the citizens’ organisation.  If no-one within the organisation holds power, it is harder to buy out the organisation.

Learning More About Citizens’ Organising

[amazon_link asins=’1932805516′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’markettogether’ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’5027fa6c-5dae-11e8-bed1-a7680b584912′]The Citizens’ Organising movement is reluctant to write text books, preferring to pass on their methods through training. They have a point but it is also important to understand what they offer and so a few helpful texts have emerged over the years. One I have found helpful is “Building a People of Power: Equipping Churches to Transform Their Communities” by Robert C Linthicum.

Organising has traditionally involved churches because they are often the organisations that stay in neighbourhoods once everyone else has moved out.  Their persistence means they guarantee income through paying their dues and so the organisation is able to plan ahead.  Many other types of organisation can and do join citizens’ organisations, including other faith groups.

Have you used organising as a part of your development work or experienced a citizens’ organisation in your city?  What have you found helpful about their approach?

1 Mutual Methods: Community Development

Community development is a recurring theme on this blog because it is a fundamental approach to supporting transformative change.  The big difference between neighbourhood work and other third sector work, is neighbourhoods often lack access to resources.  They have little access to political power that can bring about change.  Very often resources are not available and so the only recourse they have is to organise, by building solidarity or community between local residents.  This is not always easy because neighbourhoods, divided by race, faith or politics, lack common interest.

My aim here, as part of a review of mutual methods, is to point to a few resources.  Community development in the UK has been systematically under-valued, not least by many of its practitioners.  Its role and purpose is sometimes highly contested by practitioners and the upshot has been its devaluation to the extent that most funding for development work has been withdrawn.

Community Development Standards

One result of conflicting approaches is community development workers have never agreed on standards for community development and have never had a representative body.  Whilst the Association of Community Workers and the Community Development Exchange, are examples of attempts to represent the interests of community development workers, there is nothing like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, for example.  This has had a devastating effect because without a career structure, experienced workers have had to move into other roles if they needed to increase their income.  This means there has never been effective mentoring of new workers or recognition of their expertise as development workers.

Community Development and Activism

One major issue is confusion between development and activism. Some people think this distinction favours development (as an activity carried out by middle class professionals) over activism (carried out by local residents). This is nonsense. Both roles are important but they are different and need different approaches. I do both and find remembering which role I’m playing is really important.

Activism is issue or task driven. The activist’s focus is upon social change or transformation. They take responsibility for seeing a change through. The development workers’ role is to equip activists for their tasks. This is partly knowhow but also understanding how things work and so inevitably has an ideological dimension.

Should the development worker be a local person? Community development can work where the worker is local although local commitment can make the work more difficult where the development worker identifies with the cause. I’ve found it helps to have a little distance from the activists. But each worker needs to understand the dynamic of their particular role.

The model of a development worker in every neighbourhood is not necessarily the best approach. A small team could easily cover a city and equip activists to take on more of the role traditionally taken up by a local development worker. In my experience, a good administrator is of more value than a local development worker.  Indeed, many development workers find they are doing administration because they have the time to do it!  City wide development work reflects the model of citizens’ organising (see next week).

A Community Development Resource

There are loads of books about community development. One of the oldest, still worth reading, is “Skills in Neighbourhood Work “ by Paul Henderson and David N Thomas. The first edition came out in 1980 and the fourth in 2013. The new edition reflects major changes since the first and includes new case studies.

1 World Cafe

Perhaps World Cafe is the most flexible of the mutual methods I’m covering in this sequence. I’ve found this can be the easiest to explain and to adapt to circumstances.

People meet around small tables. So groups of four to six people work best. Round tables are best and as there may be issues with noise levels, smaller tables are better.However, it is easy to worry too much about furniture.  I’ve found I can usually manage with whatever is available.

It is easy to combine World Café with other types of participatory leadership. So, for example, follow a speaker with debate around tables.

Some Guidelines

The reason for the tables is people need to draw their ideas with pens and large sheets of paper. So Participatory Appraisal tools can be used. The 2 methods work well together. Depending on the time you have, you can at intervals move people around. Work out a method that leaves 1 person at the original table, who can explain the paperwork to newcomers, and split the rest around other tables. (I once managed to accidentally bring everyone back to their original table groups, so you need to be careful!)  The next session begins with the person who stays explaining the thinking of the original group and then the others bring insights from their tables.

This works best, as do all participatory methods, where you have a clear question to discuss at the beginning. This is why a speaker may not be the best option as they’re liable to introduce too much information.  The focus with all these methods is sharing of knowledge and experience.

Usually the session ends with some sort of plenary sharing, perhaps by pinning the papers to the walls. People can look at them over coffee and then share impressions and agree action steps.  Notes can be produced and circulated to all participants.

The best text, written by the people who originated the method is “The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter” by Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Cafe Community World and Margaret J. Wheatley.  The World Café website summarises the method under “Useful Information” in the primary navigation.

0 Five Best Intermediate Body Websites

This is my second ever video and part of a short series.  The first looked at the five worst Intermediate Body websites and this one reviews the five best.

One issue I’m aware of is negativity.  The truth is these sites are disappointing and this video reflects my disappointment.  I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, when I reviewed feedback about the first video and suggested these sites share a lack of soul.  I don’t mean no time and effort goes into them.  I’m sure a lot of effort has gone into some of them but they seem arms length, peripheral to these organisations’ activity.

They have a low priority.  There is little awareness of what a good website can do for an organisation and how simple it is to transform the way the site functions.  I’m hoping to follow-up these two videos with another to show how websites can have soul.  I reviewed these sites seeking inspiration.  I’ve found inspiration of sorts!  How can organisations such as these, with limited resources create websites with soul?

Anyway, watch the video and see what you think!

One innovation is the captions.  I’m not sure about the speech bubble effect on reflection but captions can be used to underline learning points.  Do you think they work?

Here are the 12 captions for easy reference.  If you haven’t watched the video, you need to see where the captions come up to understand the context of these remarks.

1. Use WordPress.  Free use and full functionality.
2. Use your own images!
3. Avoid acronyms, especially in headings.
4. Address your visitors, say what your site aims to do for them.
5. Honour your promises.
6. A call to action on every page.
7. Follow conventions.  Start with an informative heading.
8. Think about what your visitor will want to know and give it to them.
9. Always have a heading and explanatory text on the home page.
10. Think about how the eye moves around the page.
11. Avoid sliders and other distractions.
12. Text should be in high contrast to its background.

Stop Press:  Black Country Churches Engaged has a new website that seems to be running alongside the old one featured in the video.  It’s worth a look and I may review it in the near future.  I would have expected the old site to include a prominent link to the new.  Presumably it is still active because some contacts have the old url.

Please leave your comments on the video here or on YouTube.

1 Open Space Technology

Open Space Technology (OST) is a more accessible mutual method than participatory appraisal. I first experienced OST with a local NHS Primary Care Trust who ran sessions in a couple of hours. I think it works better over 2 – 3 days, when you have time to develop ideas. However, in my experience, a group of people prepared to dedicate this amount to time without input from experts can be hard to find.

Practicalities

Informed Consent

The real problem is getting informed consent from the participants. The chances are they will have experienced nothing like it before and so informed consent is not always possible. Many simply do not believe a group of people can generate sufficient activity and creative insight without an agenda.  Done properly OST is an opportunity for generative dialogue.

Common Ground

Participants set the agenda themselves and so they need some common ground, some shared understanding of the topic of the meeting.  I’ve found explaining the method can take a long time.  Once people get going they usually find it works better than they expected.  But there’s a lot to explain about bumblebees and butterflies, the law of two feet and a whole load of process related issues.

Holding the Space

The role of the person who holds the session together needs to be understood.  It is a subtle role.  A lot of the time you don’t feel like you’re doing anything at all!  And yet your presence is essential.  You may be answering questions, reassuring people about their role, helping to resolve disputes, ensuring groups write and post reports; but a lot of the time you simply have to be present.

Long Workshop Sessions

One thing I have learned from using OST is the value of long workshop sessions.  At conventional conferences, allowing 90 minutes for group work often results in positive feedback.  People want opportunities to confer at conferences (who would have thought it?).  OST began with the observation that the best conference business happens during coffee breaks and so asked why not have one long coffee break?  This observation can be acted upon in many ways and OST is one highly developed approach.

Perhaps it’s best to start with short sessions and then offer an opportunity to meet for a longer period as participants experience the power of the method. This might work if you are operating locally. The method can also work with communities of interest across a country or internationally but obviously it is harder to get them together for preliminary meetings.

“Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide” by Harrison Owen, the person who invented the method and is the best introduction to the method I have found. It is still in print.

Have you used OST or anything like it?  How effective did you find it was at generating new ideas and insights?

2 Participatory Appraisal

Participatory appraisal is the first of the mutual methods I’m planning to explore in detail.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who can recommend a course in participatory appraisal (PA) in the UK. Some years ago, a group called Hull DOC (Developing Our Communities) offered an excellent 5 day course. Hull DOC is still going strong but does not appear to offer the course today.

I’ve reviewed online resources and although a few places offer 1 or 2 day courses I have not so far been able to find anything comparable to the 5 day course. So, I’m not able to recommend any of the courses on offer.

Outline of a Course

The old Hull DOC course had three major elements and I strongly recommend you seek courses that offer all three.

1. Background theory (1 day). It is essential practitioners understand PA, so they can test each other’s performance. No-one is so brilliant at PA they cannot benefit from constructive criticism but to do this there needs to be a shared understanding of effective PA. It is a research method that handled properly can help engage with and develop community in a neighbourhood. The joint approach to objective research and building relationships is very demanding.
2. Everyone raves about PA tools (1 day) although in practice they are a small part of PA training. The tools are research methods used to engage with local residents. Most of them are visual, using pens and paper. So, someone may be asked to draw a map of their neighbourhood. Then record the following conversation about the map.
3. The best courses include practical application (3 days), using visitors to the course or ventures onto the street and into community centres, schools, etc. The tools can be practiced and the participants can test their own and each other’s performance.

This is the least I would expect if I was going to use this method in a neighbourhood. Yes, it is expensive both financially and in time taken. It is also difficult to hold together teams of local people for a five-day training session followed by perhaps a couple of months to do the research.  Difficult but not impossible.  Ten years ago this is what we did to develop the Maltby community plan.

The costs are a drawback but where you can get it to work, PA is well worth the effort.

Some Texts

There are very few texts that touch on this approach. The best I am aware of is “Training for Transformation”, edited by Anne Hope and Sally Timmel. This is in four volumes and the first three seem to be out of print although you may be able to pick up second-hand copies.

If you have experience of this method, how effective did you find it?

1 Feedback About My First Video

I’ve had a little feedback about my first video.

Amy

Amy responded with one word, “Ouch!” She went on to say she wouldn’t let me review her website. (I’m not convinced she has a website but that’s not terribly relevant.)

Ouch is actually a good point. Most of my reviews come across as negative. Whilst I’m sure there are some excellent sites around the problem is finding them! The voluntary sector often has poor sites because they can’t afford good advice. The designers who work in the sector tend to be amateurs and few people seem prepared to research the basics.

Last night I attended a talk about poetry.  The speaker talked about criticism and said he always started with positive comments because however poor a poem is, it has soul.  It means something to the person who wrote it.  I think the problem with many websites is they lack soul.  When I look at them my impression is their owners don’t care.

Maybe many owners are overawed by the technology.  Whilst it can be daunting, so much is a lot easier than it was a few years ago.  There’s no excuse any more for an unloved website.  In the end it is disrespectful to those who visit it.  Whether or not they are people with a long term interest in what a site offers, they deserve to at least have a clear explanation of what the site offers.

This is why spirituality is relevant.  The online world is not the preserve of geeks.  It is a marketplace where all sorts of people search for help and for relationships.  A careless website is worst than no website.  If you can’t be bothered to maintain it, then take it down.  But before you do that it is always worth considering whether you can find a way to look after it.  With the right technology it is easier than you think.

I’d like to be write or record reviews of a good third sector websites.  There are plenty of good commercial sites.  So far, I haven’t found anything suitable in the third sector.

So, my question for readers is, can you recommend a good third sector website for me to review. I promise I’ll try to be positive but I want to see improvement and so I do feel obliged to point out weaknesses!

Penuel

Penuel made the following comments:

Observation. You need to make a link for videos now that you have one. Probably would be good to have it linked up to the navigation bar. Also it cuts off you saying bye at the end. If you can extend the video by a second or so that would be good. Other than that it seems very informative and it is clear and gets your point across which is the main thing. But for your next video you might want to change the PowerPoint design. It feels a bit dated. The simpler the better. The colour fade really isn’t great.

I had some issues with YouTube to begin with and they are now resolved. If you go back to the original post, you’ll find it is now a YouTube video. I have a lot of work to do optimising my videos for search engines and it will take me a while to work through this. They will need more prominence on my site once I’ve worked out all the details.

I hadn’t noticed the problem at the end. I had a lot of empty space at the end because I couldn’t work out how to stop the recording! I removed a couple of minutes from the end and perhaps was a bit sharp with the scalpel. I’ll watch that in future.

The colour fade or gradient may be an issue. I’ve recorded the

Mark

Mark wrote:

I have watched and listened to your video – or at least some of it.

It is only some way into the video that it becomes clear that these ‘intermediate bodies’ you are talking about are church bodies – rather than other things that might be called intermediate bodies such as CVSs.

You claim that you prefer laughing to crying. Really?

Your phrases about learning from mistakes – a good and valid and perhaps important point, but I think Robert Chambers, in his work on participatory appraisal/participatory learning and action, puts it more pithily and memorably – it goes something like this – ‘we’ve made a mistake. Good. What can we learn from it?’

What fun

Mark’s comments are more concerned with the content. The term ‘intermediate bodies’ is a pain. It says nothing about what they are and very few church people have heard of them. If the CVSs want to lay claim to the term it is fine by me.

If you refer to the cartoon at the top of my website, you will see I prefer a quizzical look to either laughter or tears. My tears will flow in the next, 5 best websites, video. When you see how poor the best sites the intermediate bodies can produce are, most people would weep profusely.

I may use Robert Chambers’ quote in my next video.

That’s all the comments I’ve had so far. What do you think?

4 Mutual Methods

This Mutual Methods category describes participative approaches with the values of self-interest, mutuality or co-operation. The sequence describes several approaches in the context of community development, exploring resources for learning more about them. I shall return to this category as I find new methods using a mutual or co-operative approach.

These methods are best learned by doing. Consequently, there are limits to what you can learn from books, videos or websites. However it is equally important to understand these methods. It is too easy to drift away from a mutual approach.

Perhaps learning resources are most helpful for those who are already practitioners to help them reflect on their experiences. I’ve found Praxis to be a useful concept. Briefly, Praxis is “action-reflection”. I act, reflect on my action, adjust what I’m doing and then act again. This is a cycle or circulation. It avoids the twin errors of activism (action without reflection) and intellectualisation (reflection without action). There are any number of action-reflection models around.

Here are the first six approaches I shall describe in the coming weeks.

Participative Methods

There are other approaches and I welcome suggestions for future topics. If you have used a method and would like to write a guest post about it, let me know. Otherwise I’ll follow up your suggestions as best I can.

0 Producing a Screencast Video

I shared my first screencast video last Friday and today I shall write about the technical side of video production.

Video is a lot easier to produce than it used to be and if you plan to offer quality information on your website, it is worth considering using it.  The people who use it say that the best way to improve the quality of videos is to produce them.  So, my advice is strive for a good video but don’t worry if your first efforts fall short.  You will improve.

I’ve just started and today I’ll write about my experience and encourage you to experiment.

There are two main types of video, screencast and live action.  The latter is where you have a camera and film somebody or something.  This is more complex than screencast because you have to think about technical issues such as lighting .  I shall write more about it when I try it.  Screencast is the type I used.  This is where you record what is happening on your computer screen with a voice-over.

If you have a modern lap top or tablet you have almost everything you need.  The only extra bits of equipment I used were:

I knew what I wanted to say, rehearsed a couple of times and then got going.  Camtasia interfaces with PowerPoint and so the first part of the video was straightforward.  Camtasia than offers the option to leave PowerPoint and continue the screencast.  I lined up the five websites on a browser and moved across.  I cut out the transition.

Once the video is complete it needs to be produced.  Camtasia takes care of production.  I’m still ironing out a few issues, particularly the interface with YouTube but overall it was not too difficult.  I can see video production will become easier now that I’ve made a start.  The main constraint is finding time!

I’m happy to answer questions and try new things, so do ask if you want to know anything about video production.

2 Experimental Projects in the Economy

Alternative economic systems include everything else that follows the principles of self-interest or mutuality.  These are usually experimental projects, although some have been around for many years.

Credit Unions

Credit Unions are a mutual bank that makes loans to people who need small amounts of money. Small loans are very expensive and so conventional banks are not interested.

Credit Unions also find small loans expensive and their interest rates show this. However, they are nowhere near as high as rates charged by loan sharks, the amounts owed are low because the principles are small and the way they administer their loans supports the person who takes out the loan.  Consequently, credit union repayment rates are frequently higher than conventional banks.

Micro-credit

[amazon_link asins=’B01JXT2MD6′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’markettogether’ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’186ff57c-0034-11e8-b421-dbf57a1e2b03′]Micro-credit is similar to credit unions and found in disadvantaged parts of the world. Usually, the bank makes a single loan to a small group of business start-ups. The members are jointly and severally responsible for the loan and so it is in their interest that all the participants are successful. Mohammed Yunus is the founder of micro-credit and his auto-biography, “Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank” is a good introduction to the topic.

The Grameen Bank, founded by Mohammed Yunus has made significant inroads into poorer communities.  However, I find it difficult to see how micro-credit might work in the UK.  I’ve heard of a few attempts but nothing that has proved significant.  One major problem is equipment and raw materials are more expensive in the west.

Local Economic Trading Schemes

Local Economic Trading Schemes (LETS) are an alternative currency. In Sheffield, where I live, they trade in Stones, which sadly were not named after the late lamented local Stones brewery! A group of people who know each other, trade in stones. You gain them for offering a product or service and give them away for receiving a product or service. A healthy LETS is where most members often cross zero stones. There is no central bank (apart from a record of transactions) and everyone starts with zero stones. Accumulation of stones in either direction tends to reduce the activity in the LETS.

I’m sceptical about similar alternative online currencies. Once people don’t know the others involved and the currency can be converted into conventional currency, I think it is much easier for trust to be lost.

However, LETS might work online, so long as it is within a small group of people who trust one another. For example, website designers might meet online for mutual support. A LETS might work where they do work for one another. I’ve no idea whether any groups of designers have tried this.

Do let me know of other alternative economic systems you encounter, off or online.