Interesting questions raised here around community responsibility. I think research such as the JRF work on Bradford’s estates, and projects such as Pathways through Participation can really help to explore not only the possible reasons for changing attitudes towards community responsibility, but crucially begin to help policymakers and practitioners shape solutions.
The JRF work, in illustrating residents’ perceptions and understandings of their communities, demonstrates the diminishing sense of community responsibility that you speak of, but also tells us a bit more about why. I found it interesting that the researchers found that ‘community’ still had meaning on the estates, however the physical appearance of the estates, fear, disrespect, and a sense that the outside world perceived them as ‘lowest of the low’ all contributed to reduced sense of community and thus responsibility for others in it. Interestingly, the residents also spoke of tokenistic consultations in the area, disregard for residents’ knowledge and opinion, and disillusionment about participation in the community, all of which arguably impacts on local attitudes of collective responsibility. It’s certainly understandable (and we’ve heard it plenty of times before!) that if people do not feel they are given the responsibility to make a worthwhile impact when they give up their time, then they are unlikely to continue to volunteer that time and energy.
The Pathways through Participation project on the other hand, which is exploring how and why individuals participate throughout their lives, is beginning to get an understanding of differing perspectives of ‘community responsibility’ from three different case-study areas (inner-city, suburban and rural communities). As the fieldwork continues the research team will attempt to unearth how individual attitudes to responsibility compare and translate into action, or indeed non-action!
Eddie
Hi there Kathryn,
Interesting questions raised here around community responsibility. I think research such as the JRF work on Bradford’s estates, and projects such as Pathways through Participation can really help to explore not only the possible reasons for changing attitudes towards community responsibility, but crucially begin to help policymakers and practitioners shape solutions.
The JRF work, in illustrating residents’ perceptions and understandings of their communities, demonstrates the diminishing sense of community responsibility that you speak of, but also tells us a bit more about why. I found it interesting that the researchers found that ‘community’ still had meaning on the estates, however the physical appearance of the estates, fear, disrespect, and a sense that the outside world perceived them as ‘lowest of the low’ all contributed to reduced sense of community and thus responsibility for others in it. Interestingly, the residents also spoke of tokenistic consultations in the area, disregard for residents’ knowledge and opinion, and disillusionment about participation in the community, all of which arguably impacts on local attitudes of collective responsibility. It’s certainly understandable (and we’ve heard it plenty of times before!) that if people do not feel they are given the responsibility to make a worthwhile impact when they give up their time, then they are unlikely to continue to volunteer that time and energy.
The Pathways through Participation project on the other hand, which is exploring how and why individuals participate throughout their lives, is beginning to get an understanding of differing perspectives of ‘community responsibility’ from three different case-study areas (inner-city, suburban and rural communities). As the fieldwork continues the research team will attempt to unearth how individual attitudes to responsibility compare and translate into action, or indeed non-action!
Look forward to hearing more,
Eddie