• Big Society: blogs
• Big Society: comment, articles

Big society: blogs

• Thriving too   Haringey's neighbourhood website  
• Our Kingdom Blog - Big Society dilemmas - a challenge for Tories as well as for Labour
• Nat Wei - Official blog of the government's chief advisor on the Big Society.
• Brierley Hill - A good example from Dudley of how a blog can be used to rally a community.
• The Big Society Blog - catch up with ideas being talked about: Right now, people are blogging about 'grandmentoring', the role of the internet in the Big Society, and other issues... join in and have your say.
• The Local Democracy Blog
• Joe Public Blog at the Guardian
• Living with rats: Big society - small change -  Julian Dobson's blog (he's the guy in the cellar who can still see the sun...)
• The Social Reporter - David Wilcox's blog
• The Blue Blog - What does Samantha Cameron think about a Big Society?

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Big Society: articles, comment

• High society and celebritocracy backs the big society   Four out of five philanthropists support local charities, and the government wants more of the highest earners doing the same.
• Faith communities and the Big Society   Simon Lee wonders if faith could be the saving grace of the initiative.
• Phillip Blond, Big Society papa, is not happy   Read this Evening Standard article by Alison Roberts. (30 June)
• The ‘Big Society’ is dead, long live big society   Nick Denys argues that the branding has been a successful launchpad but we now need to leave the baggage-laden term behind.
• One year on - has it worked? (17 May) Jonathan Lewis from The Social Investment Business looks at the fall out, both good and bad.
• Time to reclaim the Big Society?   Can unions reclaim the Big Society agenda as their own? After after all, they have long espoused the principles of empowerment and social responsibility - which are said to be cornerstones of the, so far ill-defined, Big Society.  Read what Chris Weavers said at the Unions21 conference recently.
• Christians will build the 'big society' - if they are allowed   John Hayward writes in The Guardian's Comment is Free
• Is the Big Society Bank just a short-term fix?   Sajid Hashmi, chief executive of VAST, gives his opinion in Third Sector.
• Huge increases in ground rent for Scout groups: Respublica's blog
• Big Society: Texas-style    Volunteers clocked up 89,634 hours last year, helping to run the the Texas city of Plano's fire service, monitoring parking and teaching children about energy conservation, for example. Their work amounted to a value of around $1.66m (£1.02m). But the scheme's organisers maintain that volunteers have to be free to take time off as and when they want, and that volunteers cannot provide consistency in services the way that staff can. Also, they need to be supervised. So, if city budgets are cut, it can mean there's less volunteering. However, Dame Elizabeth Hoodless says the scheme could be adapted to work here. 
• Big Society vs Good Society   A write-up of the debate held last week with Jesse Norman MP, Anna Coote from the New Economics Foundation and others.
• The Good Society   A document outlining the ideas of Compass, a group which is focusing on finding new directions for politics and society.
• The Social Stock Exchange   With its own exchange about to launch, is social finance set for a game-changing boost?
• Will the Big Society Bank boost social enterprise?   Randeep Ramesh of The Guardian belives that if private equity guru Sir Ronald Cohen has faith in it, then so should the rest of us.
• How we will release the grip of state control   The Prime Minister writes in The Telegraph about the new public services white paper and his mission to devolve power away from the public sector.
• Big society relaunch needs a rethink   The Wall Street Journal analyses why despite Cameron's intentions, he may need a different angle to keep the project in a positive light.
• Is the Big Society Bank a small-state bank?   The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, shows why unanswered questions may cause the bank difficulty when getting approval from the European Union.
• Death by a thousand cuts   An article from The Independent on why Liverpool's enthusiasm for the Big Society has been crushed.
• 'This is the Big Society, you see. It must be big, to contain so many volunteers'   Celebrated author Philip Pullman gives an impassioned speech at Oxford's town hall on the county council's plan to close just under half of Oxfordshire's libraries.
• A tidal wave of philanthropy?   Philip Booth (Institute of Economic Affairs) blogs that the Big Society won't start to appear until the government stops trying to create it, rolls back the state to 'unleash a tidal wave of philanthropy'. We're wondering who it will sweep away in its path.
• The Big Society debate must move on   Matthew Taylor from the RSA says it's make or break time for the credibility of the Big Society project.
• Charities on the frontline   Having been forced to serve her successful team redundancies, Debra Pattinson warns that the rush to build a new Big Society risks destroying the one that already exists.
• The message that won't sell and the conversation that won't stop   After many months of involvement with the Big Society, Julian Dobson reflects honestly on the difference between government branding and community reality.
• The Big Society: Next Practice and Public Service Futures   This pamphlet contains fourteen commentaries from key figures who explain how they wish to put the Big Society into effect.   
• Community development sector: organising for the Big Society   In the Guardian's JoePublic blog, John Benington, emeritus professor at Warwick Business School's Institute of Governance and Public Management outlines steps that will help the community development sector be effective in the Big Society. Among these are: community development sector must identify what works, what doesn't, and why; the community development infrastructure needs 'clear, trusted channels of communication, reliable sources of information and analysis, effective informal networks for sharing and learning from experience in various settings', plus high-quality training, development and accredited qualifications. (Also in Library: Community cohesion; community access; communities for learning; social capital; neighbourhood renewal)
• A new social contract?   Julia Unwin, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says, if we are redrawing the terms and conditions within the social contract between state, the individual and communities: 'Any new social contract needs to meet a number of conditions: it needs to enhance autonomy without resulting in abandonment; it needs to enable us all to be protected against our own vulnerability, and it needs to feed the springs of social solidarity to make it possible for us to live together.'
• 4Children's Big society in practice event: You can listen to the contributions from the pop-up panels at this event, held last month. In particular, listen to Vanessa Walker's description of asking people in Hull about the Big Society. Thanks to member Pauline Phillips for pointing these out to us.
• Well, he does have a point...   Ally Fogg in the Guardian on 18 November says the big society is in fact here already - but it's being torn down by the cuts. What do you think?
• The Localism Bill and the lack of first refusal   Julian Dobson worries that the forthcoming legislation may not empower community groups to the degree it is hoped.
• Lessons in success from a community group in Glasgow   Fare has been going from strength to strength for 21 years and even influenced Iain Duncan Smith's understanding of community.
• The Big Society and local austerity   Matthew Taylor, the RSA's CEO, notes only one mention of the term in the Spending Review, and asks: how will heavily-cut local authorities join in?
• Cabinet members tell how they're helping the Big Society   BBC Newsnight asked 20 cabinet members what they are doing for the movement.
• Beauty and the Big Society   This RSA opinion piece asks how to get local people involved in shaping the look and feel of their neighbourhoods.
• Priceless or Worthless: The role of volunteering in the Big Society   Helen Walker from Time Bank gives a talk on the Big Society in this ten minute video from the Open Thinking event.
• Whatever happened to David Cameron's 'broken society'?   A look at the change in rhetoric used by the new Prime Minister.
• Innovation hub concept   David Wilcox has come up with a flowchart of how the Big Society's infrastructure could work.
• Balsall Heath forum   The website for the 25-year-old community project in Birmingham that ministers have called the perfect example of Big Society.
• How does local government join the Big Society?   Simon Burall, director of Involve, asks how local authorities can adapt to the new plan of action.
• Think Big Society   Six leading public sector figures explain what they think the Big Society will mean.
• The man making Big Society happen   The Guardian talks to Greg Clark, minister of decentralisation.
• Was David Davis right about the Big Society?   The Co-operative News examines the accuracy of the former Tory leadership contender's comments that included the line 'The corollary of the big society is the smaller state'.
• Can the Big Society tackle the problem of binge drinking?   Chris Sorek, CEO of Drinkaware, asks if perhaps social engagement can change the outlook of hardcore drinkers.
• Investing in Social Growth: Can the Big Society be more than a slogan?   The Young Foundation's report contains a ten-point plan with practical examples on how the Big Society can be made tangible and useful, and warns that grassroots groups are likely to bear the brunt of public spending cutbacks unless their budgets are ring-fenced.
• Will social enterprise be the Big Society's fall guy?    The 'big society' could end up making public services feel more engaged in deciding how those service are to be run, staff more committed to the services they provide, the public more in control and less alienated from society. But it could just as easily create a two-tiered system of services...  Read what Paul Gosling wrote in co-operative News on 31 August 2010.
• It must be more than a professional feelgood exercise   Ryan Shorthouse in The Guardian looks at how affluence may effect who will volunteer in the Big Society.
• Standing on the corner, watchin' all the volunteers go by...?    Well, we hope not just watching! Watch out for the Street Talk people, who'll be taking the Big Society conversation to the people in the streets of London, Manchester etc etc to gather their  opinions, values and hopefully, harness their passion.
• The Big Society and the parish council   Could the village hall become a shining example for community involvement?
• Ten Big Questions about the Big Society   The New Economics Foundation's document also proposes ten ways to make the best of it.
• Somerset is doing it for itself... already   However, 'Big Society' isn't exactly thriving - and communities' 'right to build' may stifle rural life.
• Radical action needed to tackle countryside issues   A new countryside group, backed by councils, says rural communities must tackle housing, employment and low wage issues if countryside communities are to survive. But communities need 'Big Society' muscle. Chris Smith reports on LocalGov.co.uk.
• CitySafe: the self-help plan to make streets safer   A look at the innovative self-policing community project developed by London Citizens that is catching on further afield.
• Ipsos Mori Poll   Around half of the public (52 per cent) have heard of the Big Society; of these, two fifths have heard at least a fair amount (44 per cent). Some people think it's a good idea - others remain sceptical.
• The clock is ticking on Cameron's Big Society   Are local authorities creative, flexible and innovative enough to bring the Big Society vision to life? Here's a quote from Dai Powell's 4 August article in Public, www.guardian.co.uk: 'The vision of social enterprises and community organisations becoming an integral part of the Big Society will only be fully realised in the delivery of public services if the innovation and passion of these organisations is allowed to flourish.' (Dai is CEO of public transport company, HCT, which has social justice and equality for all built into its company vision.)
  The Public Services (Social Enterprise And Social Value) Bill   This is a private member's bill put before parliament by Chris White, newly-elected Conservative MP for Warwick & Leamington. If passed, it will require central government and each local authority to clearly state the social good behind all their social enterprise strategies and to consult communities when forming those strategies. An intention behind the Bill is to ensure public sector procurement is decided not just on price, but on social value. Chris White believes factoring in social value would help social enterprises and charities to win contracts from central and local government. Read a Third Sector article about the Bill here.
• Health and safety gone mad...?   'Don't cut the grass, it's dangerous!': a council that stopped cutting grass banks to save money has told residents they should not do it themselves in case they get hurt.
• Big Society in the North   Listen to what some of the speakers said about the launch of the Big Society away from Whitehall.
• The thin red? blue? yellow? line... where does the role of government end and the role of ‘society’ begin?    And where does charitable giving fit in? Read Hannah Pavey's blog on New Philanthropy Capital.
• Can charities build a big society?   Hear what people in the charity sector think about the Big Society.
• Democratic control in the Big Society? Quality assurance?   Stephen Brooks, information and development officer at Mind, a charity helping people with mental health issues wonders who will be responsible.
• Got an hour to spare?   Some 40 per cent of people polled by Hansard in 2009 said lack of time is the main reason stopping them being more involved in decision-making. 
• The Challenge   Three week summer course for 15 and 16 year olds consisting of activities designed to show them and others what they're capable of. Their alumni programme offers apprenticeships and leadership workshops.
• The Big Society begins in Dalston   London's Evening Standard article about the bottom-up projects that have been transforming this area.
• A video: Stourbridge: in search of the Big Society   Here, John Harris (The Guardian) listens to what the current army of volunteer footsoldiers in the Stourbridge community thinks of the Big Society idea. Is it a convincing idea or just a 'flimsy bit of branding' asks Harris. 
• Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.
• Couch Surfing - a new worldwide network where travellers can make connections with the local communities they visit.
• Mumsnet - a website where parents and parents-to-be can share their know-how
• Video: Starting to stock the Good/Big Society DIY store: by David Wilcox (Social Reporter blog - see below, under Blogs)
• Co-operatives should be a template for the big society   Larry Elliott in the Guardian discusses practical examples from other sectors where co-participation has garnered results.
• Coping with cuts   Advice and support from the NCVO for voluntary organisations
• How might your organisation identify and respond to additional social and economic need created by local inequality?   It is the view of the NCVO's Third Sector Foresight team (expressed on their Inequality between local areas page) that inequalities between local areas may worsen under the localism agenda due to more neighbourhood empowerment and local decision-making. Keep your eye on this page on the Third Sector Foresight website, which will be updated.
• NCVO Third Sector Foresight    Here is a small selection of key strategy 'drivers' identified by NCVO, which could influence the UK voluntary sector.
• Volunteering: Key facts (England) 
• Active young citizens   Interview with Sophie Livingstone, chief executive of City Year London.
• Is the 'Big Society' another way of 'rolling back the frontiers of the state' a bit further?   Read what Seumas Milne (The Guardian) thinks in his article published on 15 April.
• Arthur Miller's big society   Even if you haven't seen or read Arthur Miller's play All my sons, Will Gompertz, the BBC's arts editor, has an interesting take on the Big Society.
  A quote:  'It's impossible to tell if Arthur Miller and David Cameron would have got along, but on one thing they would have agreed and that's the idea of a big society, where the limit of a person's responsibility doesn't stop at the boundary of their own interests.'
• Big Society: what happen to joint-working for children?     An article by Emily Watson, in Children and Young People Now (25 May 2010)
• Oldies rescue teens: welcome to the original big society  - by Rosemary Bennett in The Times, June 12 2010
• Here's what some children's services professionals think- Children and Young People Now (25 May 2010)
• Dame Elizabeth Hoodless, chair of the National Network of Volunteer-Involving Agencies (NNVIA), asks if the doors to the Big Society are wide open enough for young people to enter it and be part of it. Read what she says in Ross Watson's article in Children and Young People Now, 25 May 2010.

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