How do we ensure that diversity flourishes in collaborations and partnerships? What Works Scotland co-director Ken Gibb reflects on the argument of applied economist Tim Hartford in his January 2017 book, Messy, on creativity and resilience.
Blog: Why Place?
What does ‘place’ offer to public service development? in this blog from December 2016 What Works Scotland’s Claire Bynner examines the role of place-based approaches – what works and what doesn’t.
Blog: What’s the Matter with Asset-Based Community Development?
Guest blogger Dr Akwugo Emejulu reflects on the relevance of asset-based community development in April 2015. She argues that ABCD, perhaps inadvertently, directly contributes to ‘privatising’ social problems by shifting the responsibility for tackling inequality and injustice from the state to individuals and communities using the rhetoric of ‘community empowerment’.
Blog: How can place-based approaches be used in rural Scotland?
In this guest post, Jane Atterton from Scotland’s Rural College (SRC) examines what a ‘place-based approach’ means for Scotland’s rural areas.
Blog: Facilitative Leadership – Involving citizens and communities in local decision-making
Claire Bynner, Oliver Escobar and Wendy Faulkner describe a What Works Scotland project to create a training course that would develop and cascade skills in facilitative leadership.
Blog: Participation and representation in Scotland’s third sector interfaces – a new model?
Jane Cullingworth, a What Works Scotland PhD candidate, reports in November 2016 on work to develop a vision that re-imagines community planning in Scotland.
Blog: Better Place – Communities, Citizens and Consumers & New Approaches to Social Policy & Public Services
Alistair Stoddart of The Democratic Society, shares some initial thoughts in March 2015 from the Better Place forum, a gathering of community development workers, academics, campaigners, public service managers, and local and national senior officials to look at ways to allow greater citizen involvement in public service decisions and delivery.
The community sector and its relevance to public service reform
The community sector, including community anchors, can have a key role to play in the development of public service reform in Scotland – partnering, leading and challenging. Here we outline why we think the community sector has that potential and prompt further reflections from others as to what that means in actual practice.
Hope for Democracy: Participatory Budgeting in Scotland
Book chapter about participatory budgeting in Scotland and its interplay with public service reform, community empowerment and social justice in a global survey of 30 years of participatory budgeting.
Transforming communities? Exploring the roles of community anchor organisations in public service reform, local democracy, community resilience and social change
Report, summary and policy briefing which explores the developing role of key independent community sector organisations known as community anchors. Using six exemplars, it identifies characteristics of a community anchor organisations and their roles in engaging with, leading and challenging public service reform, local democracy, community resilience and social change.