Mobilising Civil Society

The Carnegie UK report Making Good Society contains the statement that liberal democracy is a three-legged stool comprising government, market, and civil society with the civil society role important in providing social capital and bonding society.

The report further asserts that to get things in balance, civil society needs to be strengthened.[1]

The Making Good Society report concluded that “civil society may be on the cusp of remarkable change”[2] The debate in some countries on concepts such as the “Big Society” and “Good Society” attests to a search for alternatives to the paradigms that have underpinned society in recent years. This assertion is relevant to approaches to developing and sustaining inclusive and cohesive learning communities, so that careful consideration of the civil society role in learning community initiatives is warranted[3].

In this context, this paper discusses strategies adopted by cities participating in PIE, and some other places, to mobilize and strengthen civil society for learning and community building purposes, and to strengthen responsible citizenship in communities. The question is posed: what more might be done?

Civil society is the arena in which active citizenship and a sense of common purpose is forged. Ways of strengthening civic values and citizenship provide a necessary underpinning for sustaining learning city initiatives and for addressing the question “what kind of society do we want for the future”

However, strengthening the role of civil society in liberal democratic societies runs counter, in a number of respects, to trends towards individualism and the loosening of social bonds which have been evident in OECD countries for some time.

For a generation, no matter who was in power, the prevailing winds have been blowing in the direction of autonomy, individualism, and personal freedom, not in the direction of society, social obligations, and communal bonds.[4] 

The long term sustainability of learning city initiatives depends on government, market, and civil society influences and relationships. Mobilizing civil society to support learning and community building initiatives is a key factor in the sustainability of these initiatives. Whether sustainability can be achieved through the evolution of current approaches, or whether new paradigms are required to govern these relationships is a core issues where the experience of PIE cities may provide some insights.

The Concept

Civil society is usually seen as comprising the totality of voluntary social relationships and social organisations in society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of government and the commercial operations of the market. It is sometimes taken to refer to, as for example by the Australian Centre for Civil Society, the grassroots levels of society, in families, neighbourhoods, and voluntary associations, independent of both government and the commercial world of the market. 

A definition used by the London School of Economics former Centre for Civil Society[5]  has a focus on “uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes, and values”.  A useful simple definition is given by the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) in the following terms.

The arena outside the family, the state, and the market where people associate to advance common causes.[6]

The concept of civil society therefore embraces a number of things that are important for the development and sustainability of learning city initiatives. These include, volunteering, philanthropy, civic values and responsible citizenship, the extent of altruism in a community, and social capital and underpinning values such as trust. The nature of good citizenship is an important issue for all learning city initiatives.

Civil society forms an important place in the chain that links the individual to society so that the roles and relationships of various links in this chain – including the family, neighbourhood, town, region, and country should be considered in planning for learning city initiatives that are sustainable and which express the underpinning values of the community.

This is clearly a period of fundamental socio-economic change with various concepts such as the Big Society and Good Society competing with traditional paradigms and the market philosophies of recent years, and being debated as many of the traditional pillars of society appear less relevant to the world we inhabit. There are grounds for believing that the notion of a learning city should be re-conceptualised in this context, with the role of civil society one of the foundations for a renewal and revitalisation of the concept relevant to addressing the big issues confronting communities.

Strengthening Responsible Citizenship

The civil society role in society depends fundamentally on the civic values present in the society and their expression in social capital and such features as volunteering and philanthropy. Fostering good citizenship in a community is a basic challenge for learning city initiatives with indicators such as the extent of volunteering and the strength of philanthropy useful indicators of this key characteristic of democratic societies.

However, as noted above, various trends in recent decades appear to operate against civic values and a collective sense of the good society.  Mathew Taylor in a cover story for New Statesman saw broad trends leading to the current prevailing ideology of possessive individualism.      

But by the end of the 20^th Century, a combination of ideas (notably free market economics) and changes in society (including the perceived failure of the post war settlement and the rise of consumer capitalism) had led to the apparent triumph of an individualistic concept of autonomy and an highly rationalist view of human nature.[7]

In his analysis of necessary responses to these trends to bring about “a 21^st Century Enlightenment”, Taylor argues for ethical humanism with ethical thinking much more embedded in society.

Mature ethical discussion is the foundation of multiculturalism, mutual respect, and conflict resolution.[8]

A further key foundation for mature ethical discussion was seen by developmental psychologist Robert Kegan as the need for a higher, more empathic level of functioning required by 21st century citizenship.[9]  There is a good case that learning city initiatives to be sustainable should build empathic levels of human functioning through activities that foster human understanding and partnership, and which build trust and social capital. 

Successful learning cities recognise the connections between lifelong learning objectives and active citizenship and have strategies in place to forge and strengthen these connections.

This requirement was well expressed by Professor Bob Fryer in views put to the recent UK enquiry into lifelong learning:

Arrangements need to be in place - organisation, opportunity, funding and support – for learning throughout life and active citizenship increasingly to become mutually influential, each strengthening and enriching the other.  Both have at their head the objectives of enhancing people’s autonomy, developing their sense of themselves and their identity, enabling them to contribute with confidence to a wide range of personal and shared goals, and both to dream imaginatively and act decisively for improvement in their own lives and in those of their loved ones and the wider communities in which they live and work.[10]

This plea for active responsible citizenship, linked to a vision of lifelong learning in an inclusive, cohesive society is central to the concept of 21^st Century learning cities.  How to advance such a vision through practical strategies is a key issue for cities.  There is little doubt that strong, flexible adult learning strategies reaching out to families and communities in many contexts is part of the necessary response.

Recognition of the rights of others and understanding and tolerance of differences, is also relevant to addressing cultural differences in building cohesive, intercultural cities.  This requirement is well put by Wood and Landry in their book on The Intercultural City:

As any society would, the intercultural society contains core beliefs to govern relations between people, yet it is not as prescriptive at the level of detail as fundamentalism.  It allows for people to grow together and to create and recreate the society within which they live.  It privileges civic values that in essence seek to foster competent, confident and engaged citizenship.[11]

This vision of a humane and cohesive intercultural city, like the views of Fryer, recognises the link between responsible citizenship and lifelong learning in a view of society where people learn and grow together and create, and recreate, the society they would wish to inhabit.  This is surely a basic statement on a 21^st Century learning city.

Some Strategies for Progressing Civil Society and Lifelong Learning

The PIE Stimulus Papers illustrate a number of ways in which participating cities have mobilised civil society.  In addition, other examples exist that are drawn on in the discussion below of some strategies for progressing civil society in a context of lifelong learning.  While useful developments exist in the initiatives of PIE cities and elsewhere, the challenge to foster civic values, a sense of the collective good, and responsible citizenship remains.

1. The role of intermediary bodies in mobilising civil society

A wide range of intermediary bodies exist to serve as catalysts to developing relationships between civil society organisations, and to build a sense of common purpose and trust.  This role may be undertaken by local government bodies and projects initiated by local government councils.

A good example in the PIE cities exists in the role of the Cork Learning Festival in building relationships between the large number of community organisations participating in the Festival.  As the Festival has grown from 65 activities in 2004 to 325 activities in 2010, an increasing number of community organisations have become involved and developed relationships between themselves linked to an evolving understanding of lifelong learning and their role in it.

The role of foundations in Bielefeld provides a further example of organisations with a catalytic role in partnering civil society and fostering civic values and shared responsibility.  This is discussed below.  An English example of the role of foundations is provided by the Surrey Community Foundation[12].

An international example in the cultural field is provided by the role of the Arterial Network, a South Africa based organisation that liaised with arts and cultural organisations in a range of African countries, and individual artists, as well as other sponsors such as the Commonwealth Foundation, in the development of a cultural policy template for African countries.

Linking and growing networks is a key strategy in fostering key values and active citizenship, and is central to building sustainable learning cities.

2. Developing understanding and support

If building understanding and support for responsible citizenship and lifelong learning objectives are seen as intertwined, dual objectives, initiatives can be taken in learning cities to advance both objectives simultaneously.  The example given above of the Cork Learning Festival illustrates this potential.  Support for these objectives can be provided in a range of informal ways, as well as through formal training programs.

Monitoring and advancing volunteering is an area of development often progressed through learning city initiatives.  The Hume Global Learning Village, for example, monitors these statistics carefully and promotes volunteering through various activities of the Village, including projects and publications.

Open-air museums in Sweden, such as Jamtli in Östersund, build a sense of collective heritage, identity and foster volunteering and active citizenship. 

Beyond individual initiatives, the conceptual underpinning of a learning city draws attention to imperatives for shared responsibility and community building, including the notion of empowering the community which carries the corollary that empowering carries responsibilities to the whole community.  Cultural change of this nature is a long-term undertaking that requires step by step progress connected to a well articulated shared vision.

At the formal end of the spectrum, the recent UK NIACE Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning proposed a “citizen’s curriculum” involving four key capabilities as a “C21 survival kit” while also recognising that civic capability required both informal and formal learning[13].

The proposed “citizen’s curriculum” proposed digital, financial, health, and civic capability.  Civic capability can be developed in a wide range of ways, including the work of cultural institutions, projects undertaking by learning cities, and initiatives taken by groups of citizens in responding to issues such as global warming[14]. 

The link between civic capability and building a sense of identity and heritage in a community is noted by Schuller and Watson (2009, p178) in their report:

Civic capability for us includes making sense of and shaping one’s own and other cultures.

This connection is important in suggesting ways learning cities can draw on cultural activities (including the work of cultural institutions) in progressing a sense of heritage and identity in a community with shared civic values and capability harnessed in serving the whole community.  Increased volunteering, philanthropy, altruism, and social cohesion are likely to be the result of such a concerted approach.

3. Supporting civil society initiatives

Initiatives taken by civil society organisations can sometimes be brought into a collective partnership framework, such as a learning city initiative or the Bielefeld>>Pakt framework, where this exists. A good current example is provided by Vancouver’s Green City Action Plan  where grassroots initiatives with “bright green ideas” are encouraged within the framework provided by Vancouver’s  Action Plan for Becoming the World’s Greenest City by 2020. There are similar initiatives in other Green Cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, and Nantes.[15]

In the UK, Surrey’s Bigger Society concept links initiatives such as fostering social enterprises for young people and extending social action and volunteering to an evolving framework facilitated, in a number of ways, by the Community Foundation for Surrey. [16]

4. The role of joint projects

Joint projects initiated by learning cities, or other frameworks, can have considerable value in mobilizing civil society for common purposes. Various examples exist in the PIE cities.

A current example is provided by the Intercultural project of the Hume Global Learning Village. This three=year project has involved community organisations in the planning and implementation of activities, and so aims to build understanding of intercultural issues and to mobilize resources existing in community organisations.

Various Bielefeld initiatives under the Bielefeld>>Pakt in areas such as climate change and education also illustrate the potential of joint projects in enhancing the role of civil society in building inclusive, cohesive, and sustainable cities.

The arts and cultural institutions offer much potential for joint projects, in some cases crossing national boundaries. A good example given in a paper at the PASCAL Östersund Conference in 2010 involved collaboration between three museums in adjacent border areas of Slovenia and Hungary with considerable ethnic diversity.[17]  This cross-border project in several languages harnessed a range of approaches, including multimedia applications in fostering educational and cultural objectives. There would seem to be considerable potential for projects of this nature involving cultural institutions, schools, history and heritage organisations and other partners to evolve and build dense networks of relationships that develop social capital.

5. Developing local neighbourhood coalitions

The important role of the neighbourhood as the connector between families and towns and cities has been recognised in several developments in PIE cities. In some cases, schools and community learning centres have been recognised as the hub for building relationships with community organisations. The Hume Global Learning Village is progressing towards a three hub approach to development as a “learning village” with community learning centres at Broadmeadows, Craigieburn and Sunbury having this key locality role.[18]

This is an area for further development in learning city initiatives with the neighbourhood partnership role crucial in linking families to the wider locality in building civic values and advancing a sense of the collective good. Involving schools in building civic values and responsible citizenship is a key area for development.

6. Promoting volunteering and active citizenship

The strategies discussed above can all contribute to promoting volunteering, civic values, and active citizenship in a community. Promoting volunteering is an important dimension in building a learning and community service culture in a community. The City stimulus papers are generally silent on this aspect, so that this is an area that needs discussion in the current Major Themes phase of PIE development.

While there is little in the stimulus papers, various PIE cities are nevertheless active in promoting volunteering. Hume City Council is active in this respect, with progress monitored and statistics regularly provided for the Advisory Board of the Global Learning Village.

A paper delivered at the PASCAL Östersund Conference in June 2010 raised the question of whether community volunteers should be regarded as unpaid staff or as a group of learners.[19] There is much to be gained from the latter approach with volunteering seen as building civic values and capital in a community while also contributing to the lifelong learning and personal development of volunteers.

An interesting development in some countries is the growing social role of foundations, in some cases established by businesses. Good examples exist in Bielefeld and in the neighbouring city of Gütersloh where the Bertelsmann Stiftung has supported a range of educational and social projects, including sponsoring the 2010 European Lifelong Learning Indicators Project (ELLI). A short paper on the role of foundations in Bielefeld has been prepared and will be posted with this paper.

7. The role of foundations

An interesting development in some countries is the growing social role of foundations, in some cases established by foundations. Good examples exist in Bielefeld, and in the neighbouring city of Gutersloh where the Bertelsmann Stiftung has supported a range of educational and social projects, including sponsoring the 2010 European Lifelong Learning Indicators project.[20] A short paper on the work of foundations in Bielefeld has been prepared and will be posted on this site.

The role of foundations reflects civic values in supporting the common good in communities. The growing importance of this role provides a useful indicator of progress in developing a culture that fosters responsible citizenship in the community.

The work of the Commonwealth Foundation provides an interesting international example of collaboration to strengthen the role of civil society which is discussed below. Some aspects of the approach adopted may be relevant to the further development of PIE.

The work of the Commonwealth Foundation, including the strategies discussed above illustrates an attempt to bridge the gap between governments and civil society and to find ways to strengthen the interface through international exchanges.  The question follows as to whether strategies such as these have any relevance to the role of civil society in PIE exchanges between participating cities.

8. Harnessing the potential of the internet

Up to now, the role of the internet in mobilising civil society has not been a theme in PIE development, and city stimulus papers are generally silent on this subject.  However, the role of ICT and media is now one of the five Major Themes chosen for this new stage of PIE development, and it is likely that this subject will now figure in the PIE dialogue.

Much will now be gained if some contributions take up the important question of ways in which the internet can be harnessed in building responsible citizenship and generally enhancing the role of civil society in successful cities adapting to the challenges they face.

General Comment

This paper points to the key role of strategies to mobilise civil society in building inclusive, cohesive, and sustainable learning cities.  While the role of partnership and social capital has always been recognised in the learning community concept, 21^st Century conditions are giving enhanced significance to this role in a context where many questions exist about the capacity of government and market to address fundamental challenges – economic, environment, and social – confronting society.  A good example is provided by the way some leading cities are involving civil society in a strategic action being taken to address global warming and preserve the environment.

Mobilising civil society is a central challenge for learning cities with the sustainability of these initiatives substantially dependent on success in this objective.  While government, especially local government, has a framework role in establishing the conditions that favour collaborative civil society development, much depends on local enterprise and the values that drive a broader sense of the common good and which builds trust and social capital in communities.

Fostering a sense of responsible citizenship is central to building an ethic of contribution which drives people to look beyond their own personal and organisational goals and to find ways to advance the common good.  Growth of volunteering and philanthropy in communities are useful indicators of progress in this objective.

Addressing the major challenges confronting cities, such as preserving the environment and responding to climate change, provides arenas to test the progress of cities in mobilising civil society for the collective good.  The interesting initiative taken by Vancouver to become the Greenest City in the World by 2020 provides a good example of the ways in which civil society is contributing in innovative ways within a framework of collective action established by local government.  Similar environment initiatives being taken by cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg and Nantes further illustrate this development.

Strengthening the role of civil society in cities may be seen as going along with a revitalisation of location/place as a key factor in development.  The mix of civil society organisations is one of the main factors that give a community its distinctive character and which reflects the heritage and culture of the community and its sense of common good.  Responding to the dictates of location will inevitably draw attention to the civil society role and point to ways of energising “the grass roots” of communities.  Learning to be good, responsible citizens is a core challenge for learning strategies in cities.

A growing recognition of the significance of the role of civil society is reflected in the emergence of debate and advocacy of concepts such as the Big Society and Good Society.  The complex issues confronting societies everywhere are beyond the capacity of governments and markets to solve alone.  Mobilising civil society so that collaboration and partnership is the foundation of joint action, as in the Vancouver Greenest City cited above, is the way of the future in building inclusive, cohesive, and successful cities.  This is a central challenge for learning cities everywhere, and the ultimate justification for their existence.

The enhanced interest in the role of civil society in the socio-economic development and sustainability of cities provides new opportunities for learning community initiatives in demonstrating how community learning and building strategies can serve to strengthen the civil society role and contribute to building communities that are inclusive, cohesive, and sustainable – and fundamentally democratic.  This will require, of course, initiatives addressing the big issues such as climate change, large scale migration and growing diversity in communities, and structural economic change, and demonstrating what can be achieved in policies and strategies that empower communities to build a shared vision of the future.  The search for a Good Society has never been more pressing.  This will require citizenship that is at once strongly local and richly global.