Véronique Jochum

A little while ago I posted something about the 'Pathways through Participation' publication Understanding review: a literature review.

We have now completed 4 summaries outlining the review's key points:

• Briefing paper 1: What is participation?
• Briefing paper 2: What are the drivers of participation?
• Briefing paper 3: Who participates?
• Briefing paper 4: Why participate?

For those interested in changing trends in volunteering and more broadly in how people are participating, you might want to have a look at an interesting discussion that is take place on the NCVO website about micro-volunteering, i.e. ‘volunteering in bite size chunks – from your own home and when you want to’.

Reactions to micro-volunteering have been somewhat mixed, but on the whole there is recognition that it responds to a need and addresses a gap in the ‘market’.

The OECD has just published Pensions at Glance.

Chapter 1 which focuses on the impact of the financial crisis on pensions looks particularly interesting and has been summarised in a media briefing. Another media briefing summarises current trends and policy topics in retirement-income provision in OECD countries.

On the same webpage you can download short country profiles. Unfortunately the one on Britain is still to come.

The Generations Together programme has just announced that “it will fund 12 projects across the country where young and older people can engage with each other on equal terms, break down barriers and challenge negative stereotypes”. The prospectus for the fund, the application form and a question and answer document can be found on the OTS website .

The summary report of the seminar on changing governance, jointly organised by NCVO and the ESRC NGPA research programme, is now available.

These are some of the key findings in the report:

I have found this whole discussion really fascinating.

I was particularly interested in Dal’s comment about his own engagement. It’s really relevant to a research project that NCVO
along with IVR and Involve will be working called Pathways through Participation which aims to explore people’s pathways into participation and of the factors that shape this over time.

On 15 January 2009 the Government published the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill.

According to Jacqui Smith the Bill has a number of benefits including to enable a new approach to citizenship:“Earned citizenship provisions will ensure that migrants earn the right to stay – implementing our new path to citizenship and requiring all migrants on that path to speak English and obey the law. We will speed up the path to citizenship for those who actively contribute to the community”.

The report by a new coalition of leading UK environmental and social justice groups Tackling climate change, reducing poverty is worth looking at too:

This report is just the first in a series of activities bringing together organisations working on the issues of poverty and the environment to try and encourage coordinated thinking and to show that the right policies can and must advance both causes at once.

Demos have just published Network citizens: power and responsibility at work which looks at the growing power of networks and online communities.

The report explores how the principles of social networks intersect with the interests of traditionally structured organisations and examines how organisations are responding to the increasing importance of social networks.

I remembered seeing Natalie’s post quite a few months ago when I read last week media comments on the latest immigration figures published by the Office of National Statistics.

Andy Travis from the Guardian wrote in the article Immigration falls and set to decline further in recession: A decline in immigration is starting to accelerate as the recession bites, with a 36% fall in the number of Poles and other east Europeans coming to work in Britain recorded so far this year.

I’m really pleased that individualism has been integrated to the 3s4 list of drivers. It’s very helpful to look at individualism when trying to understand how people engage. The new version of the Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis and particularly the chapter on changing participation shows how individualism is impacting on patterns of participation.

If you’re interesting in finding out more about what was said on diversity and social cohesion at this seminar and you were unable to attend, the presentations of both speakers have now been uploaded on the NCVO webpage on social capital.

JRF are hosting a series of debates to further explore the issues discussed in their report What are today’s social evils?.

The events will look at 5 themes: A decline of values; Distrusting and fearful society; The absence of society; Individualism and Equality. Each of these events will be broadcast live on the JRF social evils website with recordings of the debate available to download afterwards.

NCVO and the ESRC NGPA programme is organising an event similar to the one I was talking about in my last post on public participation in decision-making.

The event is on 9 October. It’s a lunchtime seminar at NCVO focusing on changing governance and how voluntary and community organisations and other civil society organisations in the UK and several aborad are experiencing the shift from government to governance.

The speakers are:

For those interested by this agenda, NCVO and Carnegie are organising on 29th September a free seminar on social cohesion and diversity. It’s the third seminar in a series of seminar on bridging social capital. So far the seminars have been really stimulating and provided a good opportunity for practitioners, academics and policymakers to share insights. This is reflected in the report for the first seminar on building bridges, now available online.

Speakers for this seminar will be:

You’re absolutely right, Richard. I’m really interested in considering how organisations could tap into the enthusiasm and motivation of ethical consumers. Ethical consumerism is clearly a fantastic opportunity for organisations in the sector, even though many people who buy fair-trade or organic products may not want to engage more. I guess for me it’s about linking individualised forms of action to more collective ones.

Complex engagements are probably mostly seen as a threat by organisations, partly because this challenges their existing approaches and processes. I guess more sophisticated citizens and activists mean that organisations need to be really flexible and offer a range of options. But in terms of management and planning this is of course very challenging and demanding. It would be great to learn from people’s experience and the responses of their organisations.

NCVO / Carnegie UK Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society

‘Bridging’ Social Capital Seminar Series

Seminar 1: Building Bridges

Date: 12 June 2008 (4.00 to 5.30)

Venue: NCVO

What can UK voluntary organisations learn about collaboration from international NGOs?

Date: 4 June 2008 (12.00 to 2.15)

Venue: NCVO

In a publication on ICT and localism, Edward Andersson of Involve explores whether the information society is a community catalyst or a community liability. He believes that the internet represents a key resource for local participation and drawing from many local initiatives, has developed six key lessons which are worth thinking about:

Demos has just started a new project on radicalism looking at the relationship between violent and non-violent radicalisation. Should be interesting.

ESRC/NCVO seminar: Human rights, a tool for change (31st October 2007, 12.00 – 2.00, at NCVO)

In the recent ‘Helping Out’ report there’s quite a lot of interesting data on how time is hugely influential in encouraging and discouraging people to volunteer. But what has often puzzled me is why some people always seem to have the time or make the time to do things…surely it’s not just a question of personality.While having these fantastic people on board is hugely valuable to organisations, how can we avoid being too dependent on them?

I think it’s really important for organisations to consider how their stakeholders might not have access to the internet. The internet is obviously a very hot topic at the moment and will probably continue to be a hot topic for a long time, but it’s important not to loose sight of the other ways organisations communicate and reach people. I guess it’s about being diverse…and strategic.

Lots has already been said about ICT and social capital. I thought this article was interesting. Apparently social networking websites will become more and more specialised, and be aimed at very specific communities of interest.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2176765,00.html