Embargo: 00.01hrs Thursday 16 Novemeber 2006
Change in local governance needed to benefit whole community
Tenants associations, school boards and community projects are being dominated by the same small group of well-connected members, risking maximum benefit to the wider community through routine decisions they make. This is according to a new report on community participation in governance by Demos for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Recently, the Government has made significant investment in community participation suggesting that all residents are benefiting from stronger community links.Community participation: Who benefits? questions this idea and looks at whether good governance is really achieved through current practices and if community participation really does work for anyone.
Report co-author, Paul Skidmore said:
“Whilst it makes sense that social networks encourage communities to tackle problems themselves and access external resources such as money or support that traditional public services perhaps wouldn’t achieve; the reality is that the school governor is the same person as the chair of resident’s association.
“It is these already well-connected people that are making all of the decisions and as a result becoming even better connected.”
In its current state, there are a number of barriers that make participation in local governance difficult for those not already involved. The study identified inequity – the small, dominating group; exclusivity – not what you know but who you know; and dependency - the tendency to over-use key people, as the main influencing factors of participation.
Existing practices are unlikely to ensure stronger links between community participation in governance and social capital. Participation needs to extend beyond the current small group to reflect a much wider range of type of participant. This is also more important than getting everyone to participate.
Governance structures need to fit people’s participation rather than people fitting existing structures. For example, mothers gather in the school playground every morning; governance opportunities should be taken to them rather than assuming that if they don’t turn up to meetings they are not interested.
True devolution of power would also be an incentive for participation. Participants need to know that the power they have will make a difference to the whole community.
“We need to change the culture of participation rather than invent more structures of participation. The long-term goal would be both to increase and to diversify the pool of people involved in governance. Participation should be something we expect of all communities, and the government should reward neighbourhoods with the appropriate funding and support,” concluded Skidmore.
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Nasreen Memon, JRF Head of Media Relations: 020 7278 9665 / 01904 615 958 / nasreen.memon@jrf.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
- The full report,Community participation: Who benefits? by Paul Skidmore, Kirsten Bound and Hannah Lownsbrough, is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (ISBN 978 1 85935 521 3, price £7.95).
- The research for this report took place between July 2004 and May 2005. The researchers designed an intensive case-study process, focusing on two demographically similar wards - Ely and Careau in Cardiff, and Benchill in Wythenshawe, Manchester. They spoke to people involved in community projects in a range of different ways, drawing out the key themes affecting governance in each area. The two wards are amongst the poorest in the UK, according to the EU Indices of Deprivation. Both have high levels of economic and social deprivation and have been the target of initiatives aiming to tackle the resulting challenges.
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK. It supports a research and development programme that seeks to understand the causes of social difficulties and explore ways of overcoming them.
- Read the Findings summary
Issued by Nasreen Memon, JRF Head of Media Relations.