Big Society in brief
So Big Society, a lot of discussion regarding the subject. Will it be a good idea that will revolution our ability to govern ourself or is it just a wash to cover up government cuts?
The obvious advantage if your disastisfied with a local service – which if you’ve ever had to deal with local council services is understandable, therefore why not run it ourself? The Conservatives are using Big Society as a rallying cry against Labour and there adoption of nanny state methods using the slogan ‘Big Society, Not Big Government’
The disadvantage is that the Big Society has a chance of marginalising poorer communities, who are less educated and have to work 40 hours a week to make ends meet compared to a retired public administrator, who has no family commitments?
Big society in theory seems a sound idea to me, I would rather see the option for public to run services rather than fall victim to privatisation. Of course volunteering for running a football team, is a lot more fun than say organising refuse collections.
This brings me to further concerns as an environmentalist will the sustainable agenda be ignored?
There has been a lot of discussion about the protection of libraries yet concern to push the environmental agenda forward seems limited apart from discussion of the future of British forests, environmentalism does not seem to be considered a major part for communities.
In order to achieve sustainablity it needs to be mentioned – responsible action need to be included in all outlets of society.
A similiar bottom up scheme to governance can be seen in Oregon, if you want an idea of how public involvement can help or hinder the process. Problems have been found with certain members of the community dominating the process and so many additional voices makes decision making hard to pass.
This is my final point I wanted to make on the Big Society, it is still a control by government, setting budgets, telling communities what services they are running, rather than the Oregon situation which originated from community activism who were concerned with protecting old neighbourhoods from urban development.
The future of the Big Society is therefore ambigious, only time will note of its success, I think its clear to say that implementing the use of community in governance is not a simple overnight process which for success may require continued support from whoever the next government is.
