Three things to ask yourself before doing community engagement
Community engagement is the involvement of citizens in the decision-making of government. It is essential to the future of good decision-making, but its rise as an industry has done little to curb the current collapse in trust in government. This may be because it is increasingly a method without a clear underpinning public sector purpose, and it often asks citizens to deliberate on issues they would rather leaders lead on. Here are three question’s you should ask yourself b
Bringing the community into local government: 4 things we learned from a expert citizen hack
I recently wrote about the four things local government should do about collapsing trust in government. This included replacing some of their expensive community consultation with methods that bring citizen experts into problem-solving. Last night we tried it out in our inaugural, and highly engaging, “Arts Hack”. Here’s the four things we learned: 1. THE FIRST RULE OF ARTS HACK … The first thing was the importance of putting real problems on the table. For the Arts Hack thi
Declining trust in government: 4 things councils should do right now
Trust in government is collapsing. A drop from from 45% to 37% last year, reflects our doubt in governments’ capacity to deal with the biggest challenges we face, such as climate change and inequality. It also demonstrates we are experiencing politics as something external to us, increasingly handed down by establishment elites from above. What can councils do become trusted institutions in their communities? 1. SUPPORT PARTICIPATORY (COLLABORATIVE) NETWORKS The first thing
