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Rise of the Brixton Pound

Rise of the Brixton Pound

The Brixton pound is the latest local currency to be launched under the umbrella of the Transition Town Network, a rapidly growing global movement that urges local communities to "respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of peak oil and climate change".

"The Brixton pounds could be a catalyst for both interaction and exclusion. Will it be seen by the black community as white, middle-class liberals doing their stuff? It could act as a wedge between the communities if not done right. Community cohesion is about creating shared spaces and values . The Brixton pounds scheme will need the black community to buy into it, or else it will be seen as a white pursuit."

GLA-LSE research on the impact of an amnesty for irregular migrants

Economic impact on the London and UK economy of an earned regularisation of irregular migrants 

In 2007, the UK provided a home to an estimated 618,000 irregular migrants - of these 442,000 live in London. GLA Economics commissioned the London School of Economics to research the potential economic impact of allowing those with an irregular status to become regularised.

Summary

The Corrosion of Character

Monday 30 March, 7pm
Hall One, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU

In the third and final part of The Guardian: Capitalism in Crisis  series, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the sociologist Richard Sennett discuss whether a devotion to the free-market model has weakened community ties, created a moral vacuum and left us more vulnerable to the recession.

Tickets: £11.50 (£9.50 online)
Available from the Kings Place box office on 020 7520 1490 or visit kingsplace.co.uk/spoken-word/words-on-monday/guardian-debate-part-three

Woolies: The Cantle Challenge

From The Times

January 17, 2009

Woolies’ demise is a community opportunity

Woolworths was at the heart of communities and must be replaced by local businesses not more faceless brands

Sir, The tragic demise of Woolworths has left a huge gap to fill. In market towns all across the country “the wonder of Woolies” was that it provided a heart to our high streets. Instead of refilling all of the 800 shop premises with yet another “brand”, we believe there is the opportunity to do things differently: to help to remake the high street and to create local community/business networks to harness entrepreneurial talent, foster resilience, build local sustainability and create a new and productive bond between people, business and the community.

A number of reports have already drawn attention to the homogenisation of our high street — a handful of national and local brands dominate every shopping centre from Truro to Tynemouth. Moreover, for once, let’s anticipate the impact of recession on communities and intervene before tensions arise, and we all pay the price in loss of cohesion. If the money is there to underwrite the financial system, there must surely be enough for the modest intervention in the renewal of our communities.

We propose that the former Woolworths stores be converted into modern market halls, owned and controlled at a local level, providing space and support for local grown produce and locally produced goods. The first occupants could be the local farmers who presently have to contend with all weathers on windswept car parks. They could share refrigeration, storage, cash handling and marketing, gaining a prominent daily foothold in the high street, benefiting from the economies of scale.

But other local products could also be brought to market, again sharing many services and with access to business support and business development.

Each local store could be run by local chambers of commerce or other community groups with support from local authorities, using their economic development powers and, just as importantly, by networking local producers and business services to reconnect with the retail industry in local communities. We hear a lot about the importance of building social capital and the role of civil society. Rarely do we get the chance to invest in their renewal to the benefit of people and community.

It would be a tragedy to waste this once in a generation opportunity.

Ted Cantle

Executive Chair, Institute of Community Cohesion

Future of Cities

A collection of Guardian pieces on urban futures.

Spark of inspirationBritain's cities are trying to be distinctive, but too many are doing so by copying each other. Beyond boutiques and public art, is there any fresh thinking?

Knowledge is power Just 10 years ago, cities were seen as vital contributors to the global economy. That's no longer true.

Blears and Pickles on urban leadership.

URBAN REPORT for LAMBETH CONFERENCE

The Anglican Urban Network lead an event for bishops attending the Lambeth Conference last Friday. Discussion emphasised the need to keep the urban challenges of the next decade firmly on the agenda of the conference.

Download newscolour.pdf

Moral, But No Compass

Government, Church and the Future of Welfare
This new major study  draws on hundreds of interviews and survey questionnaires, describes the modern setting in which the government's welfare and related voluntary sector policies often are experienced as “discriminatory”, inadequately rooted in evidence and at risk of failing the faith communities.

produced by the von Hugel Centre for the Study of Faith in Society

Francis Davis in The Tablet

Lectures mark Temple anniversary

A series of nationwide events has been announced to  celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
William Temple Foundation.

13th May The demise of Prophecy or Reinventing Governance? – Faith and the Welfare State Dr Francis Davis at University of Manchester, Lecture Theatre A7 16.00

Download ronald_preston_lecture.pdf

25th June Economics in a postscarcity age – the contribution of faith and economics
Dr John Atherton at Church House, London, Room 3 – 16.00

5th November From Welfare State to Welfare Society – the contribution of faiths to happiness and wellbeing in a pluralised civil society Rt Revd & Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams  at St James Church, Piccadilly, London   17.00

One London?

Change and cohesion in three London boroughs

IPPR / Government Office for London report explores the nature of the contemporary challenges to community cohesion in London and sets out how local actors have responded to them.

"...the capital faces its own very particular challenges to community cohesion, including lower levels of neighbourliness and inter-personal trust, families in the same street living on very different incomes and lacking shared experiences, and a very rapidly changing demographic make-up in a context of growing pressures on basic resources, especially housing."

BRIDGING & BONDING

Putnam on diversity and social capital

Social capital guru Robert Putnam has published his initial findings concerning immigration, diversity and citizenship. Read the article.

"Bonding social capital can ...be a prelude to bridging social capital, rather than precluding it. To force civic and religious groups who work with immigrants to serve as enforcement tools for immigration laws, as some have suggested, would be exceptionally counterproductive to the goal of creating an integrated nation of immigrants."

Also Madeleine Bunting's commentary in The Guardian.

"Putnam is not talking about a top-down set of instructions on nationalism, but a much broader social process in which the host country changes as much as it, changes its new arrivals: through a collaborative effort of imagination and myriad individual experiences, new solidarity is forged. "