Big Society, the RSA, and those pesky dysfunctional small community groups who just won't work together

At a recent Green Alliance event on the Big Society at which both minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, and RSA CEO Matthew Taylor spoke at, we had a rare moment of candour, albeit a deeply disturbing and partial tone was struck, as reported here


There are at least two immediate concerns, that make the work of those who want to see the community sector thrive, just that bit harder

Firstly - what exactly gives Matthew Taylor the right to lable small groups 'dysfunctional'? And what are the implications of shooting from the hip in this way

Secondly - whilst Nick Hurd is right that there are 'hundreds and thosands of civil society organisations that don't rely on statutory income at all'. It does not follow that they do not need funding or the support that funding gives - quite the reverse

This was in fact a central point of CSC's 'Unleashing the Potential' call to arms before the general election, which we put to Nick Hurd, the Big Society Network and many others, in order to underline the added value and the need to support that part of the sector - hence our 5 asks.

http://www.communitysectorcoalition.org.uk/policy

Taken together it is an impressive double whammy - on the one hand groups are run by tyrants who fall out with each other (people in glass houses etc) and on the other hand, a lot of these small groups do it for nothing, so bring on the cuts, they won't notice...

Where to begin with such destructive and willful misunderstandings of our sector?

On the first salvo, aimed at casting the sector in the role of hopeless self saboteurs, of course dyfunctionality does break out. The crooked timber of humanity never ran smooth. But hardly more so than the dynamics elsewhere in society; indeed I would argue much less. The egalitarian and non hierarchical principles of real community work and grassroots endeavour, where people don't hide behind status and are not allowed to give themselves airs and graces, is a welcome relief from some of the public and private sector cultures.

In passing, we might want to note what comes to mind when thinking about dysfunctional behaviours - might it extend to irresponsible banking practice, MPs expenses, tax avoidance on a massive scale and how this might offset a significant part of the public sector cuts as per recent Newsnight reports (I won't do the link because Paxman turned the air blue, what is it with the BBC these days...)

The issue of dynfunctionality must be seen in a 360 degree way. In particular the work of Erving Goffman is highly pertinent:

Erv puts his finger on an inconvenient truth - large organsations have a strong tendency to adopt overtly oppressive operational behaviours that damage people. Note this is large organisations, and not small community groups.

There is a vested interest in a large organisation bemoaning the shortcomings and unfortunate psyche of the great unwashed. The trouble is, if we start using cod psychology terms like 'dysfunctionality' we end up arriving at terms like 'displacement' or 'projection', and the whole thing gets a bit silly. We should not be making moral and or ill informed psychological judgements in the first place.

If it becomes necessary to challenge oppressive behaviour within communities, and this is something community and youth workers have long experience doing, disparaging homilies tends not to cut it. You'd have to demonstrate real commitment to listening and working the problem through

Finally, it is so easy to knock the more informal parts of the sector and many people have made a good living out of doing so. Those pesky small groups, they are not skilled, they need their capacity built (for a fee), their governance, polices and procedures are inadequate etc etc. Ignoring the fact that small groups work best when fleet of foot and rightly choose not to mimic the bureaucratic behaviours of larger VCS and other bodies (something Nick Hurd identifies but then does not go on to develop re the need for some kind of support and investment).

Segway to Nick Hurd, who does a good line in playing off competing wings of the sector, not without some validity, but with a not-so-hidden agenda of amelorirating the brutalism of cuts

The problem with Nick's comment at Green Alliance is that it seems to suggest that just because these smaller community groups are unfunded, they wil be unaffected by what is going on, notably by the slash and burn of existing VCS infrastructure. In fact the plight of these small unfunded groups will now be harder, because, whilst it might be true that sometimes funded VCS groups didn't reach into the community, it is also true that there are many examples of strong support that now won't be there, hence unfunded civil society action, as supported by funded VCS groups just got that bit harder, at a time when Big Society was hoping to see more people volunteering

If we look at what is actually likely to happen: there may well be less people volunteering and less small groups or civil society organisations. This is because the sector is an ecosystem (aka Nat Wei) which is on the receiving end of some pretty toxic treatment - note the council cuts to the VCS, all too often wildly disproportionate and short term. If these small batallions of community groups can't take advantage of the 'new markets' government is keen to open up - assets, libraries, personalisation of services etc - well people like SERCO and lean mean highly 'functional' brands in the charity world will make an intervention.

At the same time something called civil society will get smaller and poorer as a result. This doesn't have to happen but it is increasingly likely - not least when small groups are pathologised or seemingly not prioritised any level of funding support (to repeat for the benefit of those with selective politically nuanced hearing): the fact that many groups don't rely on statutory income does not mean they would not benefit from it

Rather than blame small community groups, and sharpen the next round of excuses for why the policy didn't work this time, for the good of all in society, we should put aside the mentality that says it didn't work because 'they' were 'dyfunctional' and instead accentuate the positives of what small groups do, get behind it, support it and resource it. What part of 'we're all in it together' and localism / decentralisation are we not yet grasping?