The Big Society and “Easy” Engagement...by Phil Teece
I have many concerns about the current policy agenda, but one of my principle fears is the temptation councils, partnerships and others might feel to sacrifice meaningful engagement with their communities for something quick and easy; specifically online budget consultation.
I can understand the attraction of engaging with potentially large numbers of residents, without the cost of officer time and of promoting and supporting face-to-face events. I am even prepared to accept that the majority of councils planning to go down this road will sincerely factor the views expressed into the decisions they make. But in doing so, no-one should kid themselves that this will empower communities or result in greater transparency and accountability. Nor will it promote cohesion or build citizen capacity or do anything to build trust between statutory bodies and local people. Those outcomes are only achievable through proper deliberation, bringing different sections of a community together, listening to the perspectives of others, a genuine dialogue about which services are most important to people and how they can best be delivered and, ultimately, collective decision making. All this might be harder and takes a bit more time and effort, but anything else is tokenism and will do nothing to contribute to the “Big Society”.
