Ways of neighbourhood working and knowing

本次系列研讨会的背景在于2011年地方主义法案的出台。从那时起，在没有教区委员会的地方，当地人民（或企业）可以建立邻里论坛，共同合作。正如大卫卡梅隆在2010年关于“大社会”的演讲中所说：“我们需要创造一个充满活力的社区--一个能掌握自己命运的社区，一个能感觉到如果他们团结起来并参与其中，就能塑造周围世界的社区。”一旦这些正式的分组到位，居民就可以制定一个邻里规划，并有一个框架（尽管这不是必需的），以允许建造新住房（“建造权”）或投标经营地方当局服务的合同（“质疑权”）。在这种地方主义下，邻里有权“塑造自己的地方”。在许多方面，这些倡议扩展了以前的政策，以解决社区发展和基于地方的不利条件。例如，工党的旗舰方案"社区新政“促进公民参与治理和积极的公民意识，让社区成员参与每项计划的设计和实施。然而，这些倡议得到了非常慷慨的资助，而且是针对最贫穷的人。总共有39个相对较小的地区平均每个获得5 000万英镑，针对的是贫困的多个指标，包括就业前景差、犯罪率高、教育成绩差、健康状况差以及住房质量和物质环境差。目前的“紧缩地方主义”提法没有提供如此广泛的资金，也没有针对最需要的社区。它适用于所有地方。例如，最近提供的955万英镑用于支持2013-2025年的邻里规划举措，可供任何邻里或教区理事会使用。到目前为止，利用这些资金和可用的专业帮助与社区合作制定邻里计划的“领跑者”社区，都是网络良好、社会资源丰富的社区，同样，根据新引入的“投标权”，当地居民可以申请将“社区资产”列入清单，使他们能够筹集资金自己购买房产。这一权利让一些社区通过社区分享和公共资金筹集资金来拯救酒吧，包括建筑遗产基金和社会投资商业集团（在Nunhead的常春藤案例中）。相比之下，在Borehamwood，最近，Hertsmere Borough理事会在拥有皇冠酒吧的开发商的上诉中将其“除名”，称该上市未能满足促进当地社区社会福祉和利益的必要要求，质疑“拯救皇冠”团体是否代表社区，更重要的是，没有证据表明该组织能够筹集到足够的资金来维持其运作。开发商，伍德霍尔有限责任公司，现在能够出售酒吧的任何用途的最高价格。这是一个全国性趋势的一部分。真实的啤酒运动（CAMRA）表明，自2008年初以来，已有5,500多家酒吧关门，目前每周有18家酒吧关门。然而，这也让人怀疑皇冠附近的居民是否有能力像卡梅隆所建议的那样“塑造他们的地方”。然而，尽管对邻里工作和地方主义有这些担忧，但也有乐观的情绪。社区也有机会利用这一邻里框架制定新的举措，共同提供当地服务或促进在公有土地上的自建计划。社区中以艺术为基础的举措找到了建立复原力和促进社区参与的方法，这些方法不太正式，参与者的声音较小。这一系列研讨会将探讨邻里工作方式所带来的批评和机会。

The background for this seminar series lies in the introduction of Localism Act 2011. Since then, wherever parish councils do not exist, local people (or businesses) can set up neighbourhood forums to work collaboratively. As David Cameron put it in a 2010 speech on the Big Society: "We need to create communities with oomph - neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them". Once these formal groupings are in place, residents can prepare a neighbourhood plan and have a framework (though this is not required) to permit the building of new houses ("the right to build") or to bid for the contract to run local authority services ("the right to challenge"). Under this version of localism, neighbourhoods are empowered to "shape their place". In many ways these initiatives extend previous policies to address community development and place-based disadvantage. Labour's flagship programme, the New Deal for Communities, for example, promoted citizen involvement in governance and active citizenship, involving community members in each scheme's design and delivery. However, these initiatives were very generously funded and were aimed at the poorest. In all, 39 relatively small areas received an average of £50 million each, targeting multiple indicators of deprivation including poor job prospects, high crime rates, educational-underachievement, poor health as well as poor quality housing and physical environment.The current formulation of "austerity localism" does not provide such extensive funding and is not targeted at the neighbourhoods most in need. It applies to all places. For example, the £9.5million, which has recently been made available to support neighbourhood planning initiatives in 2013-2025, is available to any neighbourhood or parish council. So far, the "frontrunner" communities who have used these funds and the professional help available to work with their community, drawing up their neighbourhood plan, have been communities that are well networked and socially resourced.Similarly, under the newly introduced "right to bid", local residents can apply to have a "community asset" listed, enabling them to raise the money to buy the property themselves. This right has let some communities to raise money to save pubs, both through community share offers and through public funding including from the Architecture Heritage Fund and the Social Investment Business Group (in the case of The Ivy, at Nunhead). In contrast, in Borehamwood, recently, Hertsmere Borough Council 'de-listed' the Crown pub on an appeal by the developers who owned it, saying both that the listing failed to meet the necessary requirement of furthering the social wellbeing and interests of the local community, questioning whether the "Save the Crown" group were representative of the community and, more significantly, that there was no evidence that the group would be able to raise enough money to keep it up and running. The developers, Woodhall LLP, are now able to sell the pub for any use for the highest price. This is part of a national trend. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), suggest that over 5,500 pubs have closed since start of 2008, with 18 currently closing a week. It also, however, casts doubt on the ability of the residents near the Crown to "shape their place" as Cameron suggests.Yet despite these concerns about neighbourhood working and localism, there is also optimism. There are also opportunities for communities to use this framework for neighbourhoods to develop new initiatives, co-produce local services or promote self-build schemes on publicly owned land. Arts-based initiatives in communities have found ways to build resilience and promote community engagement in less formal ways, bringing in less vocal participants. This series of seminars will explore both the criticisms and the opportunities offered by neighbourhood ways of working.