Insider Blog: The Collaborative Production of Social Change

The Collaborative Production of Social Change Guest blogger Martin Simon, Founding Advisor of Timebanking UK, writes about the power of collaborative production to strengthen our communities.

I first experienced the power of ‘collaborative production’ when I managed a project for young people who were at risk of offending. We had a fully equipped residential centre, a healthy budget and a dedicated staff team at our disposal but by far the greatest assets we had were the young people themselves. After all, who knew better than them what it would take for them to go straight? Once we had gained their trust, our role was to set some boundaries and then support them as they designed and delivered the programme - with training, some of them even co-ran the evening group therapy sessions. It was a ‘collaborative production’ of an effective crime reduction service.

We know that social problems are more likely to be resolved when ordinary people collaborate with each other and with the relevant professionals. For example, when parents, pupils and local people work together with teachers and police to eradicate things like bullying, things change for the better - when patients, their families, friends and self-help groups support health workers and doctors in encouraging healthier lifestyles and community wellbeing, then the general health of everyone is improved.

See Cormac Russell’s - “Twelve domains that people are uniquely able to change through handmade and homemade solutions”.

Why then don’t we just give resources directly to the people who live in our troubled and fragile communities to ‘collaboratively produce’ solutions? Governments, who evidently do not trust us with our own money, tell us that there are no mechanisms by which they can do this, but there are. See here for examples of inner city neighbourhoods where people even voted for tax rises in order to extend the co-designed and co-delivered public services that they wanted. I believe the real reason for the collective amnesia suffered by politicians and policy makers, when they fail to allocate any meaningful resources to collaborative production, is buried deep within our modern competitive psyches and that, just like them, we are all in danger of forgetting what it means to collaborate.

5 things you may have forgotten about collaboration:

1) Letting others know about what you are willing to share with them and finding out what they might be prepared to share with you is not actually collaboration. It is straight forward networking and makes good common sense as everyone benefits and it is driven by enlightened self interest.

2) Actual collaboration requires us to change the way we do things to bring our activities in line with the way others do things, and vice versa, in order to make us all more effective. Between organisations, the question we need to ask of each other when we want to collaborate is, “how can what we do enhance what you do”. Whenever I suggest this, I am often met with a blank expression, so wedded have we all become to a competitive way of working. All this takes time, openness and trust.

3) If any collaboration is to last a significant length of time, all parties involved will, at some point, have to identify some sort of statement of shared purpose and a ‘community brand’, (see “What’s Mine is Yours”), that they can all sign up to. Within communities this means restoring the time and space for social networks to engage in the art of collective reflection.

4) Each individual and group involved needs to feel appreciated and respected for the unique gifts that they bring to the collaboration and be responsible for making sure they contribute whatever they can in return.

5) Finally, we have to free ourselves up and take some risks together. This critical fifth step is needed to counteract the negative influence of the three toxic ‘scarcity’ myths that plague our money-centred cultures*:

A There is not enough to around
B More is always better
C That’s just the way it is

These myths need replacing with a common understanding that:

You have )
We are ) enough
There is )

“When you let go of trying to get more of what you don’t really need it frees up energy to make a difference with what you have - then what you have expands before your eyes”. Lynne Twist * (www.soulofmoney.org)

We have a strap line in the Timebanking movement - We have what we need if we use what we have. Timebanking is the ultimate tool for ‘collaborative production’. Communities worked best when people pooled risk and helped neighbours out, as and when they could, knowing that when they did, others were more likely to be there for them. As these circles of mutual support expanded and people came to know each other better their quality of life was enhanced and they were motivated to do even more for others. They would have been insulted by the suggestion that they charge each other for their care or hospitality - collaborative production brought enough rewards.

The world has changed but people have not changed that much. Some say that isolation and a weak social fabric is a price worth paying for a more convenient, consumer lifestyle. We disagree and say to them that we can have both, a life as a consumer and a life as a social activist. All that is needed are new safe mechanisms to bring people together to get on with what they do best - ‘collaborative production’.

Timebanking is growing fast, it is now in 33 countries and in the UK, Timebanking UK is leading the way - see www.timebanking.org

At timebanks, people collaborate to:

• make sure everyone is protected and safe
• save money and share their knowledge and skills locally
• provide care and mutual support without exploiting anyone
• tap into local know-how and connect with like-minded people
• have more time for their family and make new friends
• build a local reputation for their generosity and kindness
• provide a broad-based platform for community organising

I have been privileged to be a part of the Timebanking story from the very beginning and have just written a book about all that we have achieved to bring people together to change their neighbourhoods. In the UK, Local Authorities have taken a great deal of interest in Timebanking. They use Elinor Ostrom’s term ‘co-production’ to describe a very similar process to mine, ‘collaborative production for social change’, that is also tied to place and to relationships and views the community as an asset. However, if politicians, civil servants and council staff are to become valued partners in collaborative production for social change they will have to undergo a complete cultural metamorphosis and give up some power, listen to what people want, learn to collaborate and allow citizens to lead the way. This will mean some really hard work, in collaboration with the media, restoring the legitimacy, capacity and authority of local communities to resolve their own problems. This work has hardly started as yet, but we know how to support it wherever we see it happening and the book is full of the real stories of how a few local authorities and communities have paved the way for others to follow.

This collaboratively produced book is about the emergence of a powerful social movement that is reconnecting thousands of people with each other and to the places where they live.

Read a sample from Martin Simon’s Your Money or Your Life: Time for Both

The book reminds us just how much we need each other. It shows us that as human beings we are ‘hard-wired’ to co-operate and it also explores many of the different approaches that people are now using to break free from an ill-advised dependency on money. It is an invitation to change your life and that of those around you, to enjoy a richer and happier life and to become a ‘collaborative producer’. See www.freedomfavours.com

Martin Simon is a social activist and author. He was the founder of Timebanking in the UK and is co-leader of a social movement for strengths-based approaches to people powered change that is now active in 33 countries across the world.

Freedom Favours is an independent clearing house for new thinking about social change and a public platform for the inspiring stories of social innovations that are bringing people together to exchange their time, knowledge, skills, care and resources for the common good of everyone.

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