When I think about how we develop the London Policy and Strategy Network, I think about what I can learn from the communities I’m a member of, starting with a day in my life.
I’m part of my street community, where we help each other in different ways, whether that’s looking out for each other’s cats, doing a street cleanup, closing the street so kids can play, swapping second-hand furniture or clothes, organising a choir and even hosting backyard cinema. We do that because we live side by side and trust each other, but also because the street design creates that sense of proximity. People have different roles; some are very good at connecting newcomers to the street’s activities, others organise activities, and most participate regularly in the conversation. Beyond my street, I’m a resident of West Norwood, where I feel part of a community through involvement in the West Norwood Feast, but maybe I wouldn’t think that if it didn’t exist. I’m a resident of Lambeth. I used to work for Lambeth Council, even running a programme to get people and organisations to work more cooperatively. Still, I feel the neighbourhood is my community more than the borough. I’m a member of the community of London, and I viscerally feel a Londoner, not just because of the diversity and multiculturalism of the city but because it’s a place where identity is constantly shifting and being recreated. I’m a member of two national communities, the UK and France, through having both nationalities, and I feel both English and French, but more European than either, but let’s not talk about Brexit!
While I walk to work in the morning, I often get the tube or train to call home. Are my fellow commuters a community of sorts? Like my street, we’re all side by side (we couldn’t be any closer!), but hardly anyone I recognise the day in and day out, and the train doesn’t create any opportunities for connection — everyone is focused on their phone or paper. While working at Demos, I researched how to create new forms of deliberative democracy by sparking conversation on the tube. It’s fair to say that the citizen assemblies I’m involved with are both more representative and more enjoyable! However, temporary ad-hoc communities can work! I’ve organised various “camps” from Visual Camp, Creative Campaigns Camp, Transformed by You or Outcomes Fest and participated in even more like Social Innovation Camp or City Camp, and these create communities around a common cause and a sense of urgency & passion for collaborating with other people to make & test stuff to specific issues.
When I get to work, I’m part of several communities. My team, my management team and various boards & initiatives I’m part of. I’ve chosen to be a member of these communities because of their values and where everyone has a defined role. In my team, I’ve tried to create a sense of community by getting people to showcase their skills by organising different activities, whether exploring the other levers of change, styles of action, emotional threats & benefits or visits to inspirational spaces or organisations. The methods they use and how they facilitate are all ways for each person to demonstrate their distinctive personality…and leadership style.
What’s most exciting is when I help shape new collaborations which create their communities, often connecting existing ones, whether that’s the Loneliness Lab, between people collaborating to develop a masterplan, people from the local community, those tackling loneliness and others creating new forms of art in public spaces, or whether it’s Think & Do Camden, between people who’ve got skills in helping people live more sustainability, groups who are tackling the climate crisis, local groups for specific communities and people from outside Camden who come to provide an external challenge (whether it’s citizen scientists, complexity thinkers or carers). In these examples, people form a community because of a common cause but then shape & evolve it through the way they collaborate. Through that, people take on new roles, whether it’s the organiser, the connector, the storyteller, the maker or the critical friend.
Outside of work, I’m involved in other communities, including one that shares similar characteristics to the ones I talked about above, that was Transeuropa Festival and European Alternatives, where we’ve shaped and pivoted the way we organise as a community across Europe to imagine, enact and demand new ways of collaborating across borders in creative ways.
The communities I’m not part of yet, but am inspired by in their way of doing and being, include One Team Gov, from how it galvanised people to come together, take micro-actions to improve government, enable different people to play a variety of roles that empower them and be able to scale in different ways — to other regions or countries and specific issues — like One Green Gov.
What communities are you part of?
How do you participate in those communities?
What has changed in those communities since Covid 19?
