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NotesPhysical

Raw material from blogs, news, thoughts:

http://neighbourhoods.typepad.com/neighbourhoods/2010/01/community-contracts.html

Community contracts (sometimes called neighbourhood or community agreements or charters) are voluntary agreements between residents, local service providers and elected representatives that aim to improve conditions in a defined area.

Some of the findings of the first evaluation of the idea based on a pilot programme, with management support from the National Association for Neighbourhood Management, include the following:

    * for contracts to be successful, neighbourhood or locality based working 
      needed to be in place
    * a history of partnership working contributed to the development of contracts 
    * the absence of accessible and smooth running routes for reporting by residents 
      of service and neighbourhood issues to service providers presented a barrier to 
      the effective operation of contracts 
    * a core group of active residents was needed to develop and deliver contracts
    * there was a clear correlation between effective governance and effective contracts.

http://neighbourhoods.typepad.com/neighbourhoods/2009/12/participation-in-milton-keynes.html

Here are some of the main points:

• Cohesion and stability among existing groups has to precede participative integration into broader civic structures. If young people feel despised and unwanted, or Somalis feel unsupported and victimised, those claims have to be addressed before we can raise expectations about integrated participation.
• Perhaps partly because of the town's geography, people seem to be lacking association with a defined, distinctive neighbourhood which offers them something to be proud of, to defend and develop.
• We noted a shift in the areas where young people can or cannot exercise autonomy; and an apparent general decline in their experience of organisation. We think that most young people have no difficulty understanding the nuances of democracy and the value of participation. The problem is more about policy-makers appreciating the importance of social participation in everyday life at local level. It doesn't help that participation principles are not reinforced consistently in the adult world, and loyalty of any kind appears not to be valued.
• Popular participation does not just create connections, it also depends on connections - between citizens, agencies and representatives. A healthy variety of connections is of massive, barely-noticed social significance. Without them we cannot develop a participative politics that resolves social problems by involving all kinds of people collectively in addressing them.

http://www.citizensmk.org.uk/

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Why each local community is different:

Nature: things that are given and cannot be changed: geography, climate, etc.

Infrastructure: things that are built and cannot be replaced easily

Politics: laws, finance, etc.

Culture/Ethnography mix: Different types of people, cultures, etc.