The Social Business

The challenge for early adopters

I visited the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macynnleth today.

I first visited around ten years ago and I remember feeling inspired and excited by what I saw.

I enjoyed the visit today but it felt different. I'm ten years older. The world feels a very different place.

Where CAT felt visionary ten years ago, it felt of its time today. Their three key themes, climate change, biodiversity and social equity are nearly in the mainstream (even if there's a long way to go before we take them seriously enough).

But somehow today it felt a bit like it wasn't as sure-footed as it was back then. That's partly because to my eye it's lacking investment - too many tired exhibits. But I'm not wholly sure it knows it's place any more (as a visitor centre at least - its programme of courses is still fantastic).

Gone are the days when these things were only discussed by a radical few. CAT has been a brilliant beacon of (solar powered) light for more than thirty years, and it still points to (and lives, as a community) such a different way of life.

Yet I wonder if it needs to reinvent itself again if it's going to have the impact we need it to have in the future. All early adopters face that challenge once the mainstream starts to catch up.

Sent from my iPhone

Rob Greenland
Social Business Consulting
07905 800 710
rob@socialbusinessconsulting.co.uk

Benefit Busters

I wrote a while back about the Government's plans for welfare reform - and my concerns about the category captain approach that they were adopting.   So I was keen to watch last night's programme on Channel 4 about A4E and their back to work schemes.

I found it very uncomfortable to watch.  The programme followed a group of unemployed single parents (all women) who were on a 6 week course, which was being trialled in Doncaster (seemingly South Yorkshire is Channel 4's it's grim up north place of choice these days).

The star of the show was a tough-love toting group leader who will now doubt be standing in for Jeremy Kyle next time he goes on holiday.  To my eye (and of course this is TV) it was mainly pop psychology and group bonding, strengthened by regular public bursts into tears.  I'm not saying that there isn't some merit in that, but I still was left feeling like the people, who were all in challenging circumstances, were being belittled and patronised as much as they were being given a confidence boost.  

I'm keen to see the other programmes.  I think there's another one on A4E, whilst others look at other initiatives to get people back to work - including one in Leeds.  

I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  I was brought up by my mum in a middle-of-the-road inner city area of Liverpool.  We weren't really poor - but it was a struggle for my mum to make ends meet - two jobs, being a catalogue agent and family allowance kept the wolves from the door.  We also had good support from an extended family.   I'm telling you this because I don't want it to appear that I'm peering down into the gutter from my elevated position of lifelong wealth and privilege.  

But having said that, whenever I see programmes like this - or visit inner-city estates - like I did in Bradford yesterday - I am genuinely shocked by what I see.  The poverty that still exists in Britain is unbelievable.  This is why, it is said,  we need tough love like that shown by A4E to help to change things.  

I didn't like the approach that was portrayed on the television yesterday, yet I bet it's better than the bureaucratic indifference that was previously offered by the State.  What bothers me more is that the situation that so many people are in, ingrained, generations-long unemployment and underemployment, where your best offer is a two-week unpaid placement at Poundland - means that initiatives like that are deemed necessary and acceptable.  

Conditional #love

It's been interesting to follow the #we love the nhs twitter campaign.

I love the way web 2.0 can support and stimulate quick, powerful campaigns like this, and how it can take the wind out the sails of expensive right wing campaigns.

But I also wonder why things always end up so polarised, and why people have to talk in extremes.  You'd think the NHS was perfect, the way that a lot of people are talking about it.  If your life has been saved, or the life of someone close to you, then you have every right to be eternally grateful, and perhaps slightly over-the-top in your assessment of the service as a whole.

But it's far from perfect.  Anyone can see that.  And I believe you can make a stronger case for the NHS by being as frank about its failings as you are about its massive upsides.  Let's not forget it costs us a bloody fortune, and I for one have not been happy with a good amount of the service that I've had from the NHS.  

My doctors, my dentist, pre-natal care, children's A & E - all of those experiences have been average to unacceptable.  Yet other services - notably how my sister was looked after time and again with childhood asthma - were outstanding.  And, importantly, "free".  

I think you can win debates more easily if you're honest about your weak points as well as your strengths.  

Shooting and social capital

Today is the Glorious Twelfth, so I finally have the opportunity to share this image with you:

It's the cover of a magazine which was in our room at a Melton Mowbray bed and breakfast a few weeks ago.

Melton and the surrounding area is prime shooting territory, and our hosts at the B and B were keen shooters.  I know as much about shooting as I do about astrophysics, except that I know that astrophysics isn't an indicator of the rigid class boundaries that exist in our country.

That, at least, is my assumption, my prejudice.  The people who ran the B and B were perhaps the poshest people I've ever met.  They had a picture of one set of parents on the wall and they could well have been minor royals, all pearls and smart knitwear.  They were charming and made us very welcome, but might as well have been from another planet, not just another part of the country, and another social class.  All of our cultural reference points were miles apart.  

As you'll guess by the fact that I'm writing about this, this kind of thing bothers me, although not as much as it once did.  It goes beyond whether the last meal of your day is supper or tea.  It's about social mobility, and about the rigid boundaries that still persist in our country - which are partly to do with money, but are more to do with more subtle barriers - who you know, how you perceive your place in the country etc etc.  Witness the ongoing debates about social mobility, public schools and Oxbridge admissions.

Yet I couldn't help but be impressed, and be slightly envious, of what people like me would call social capital. And shooting appears to be one of the principal ways to build that social capital, with the Glorious 12th at its heart.     Our hosts never tired of telling us stories of their friends and acquaintances, and how one thing led to another - a job offer for the husband, some work experience for their daughter, and an invite out to a villa in Portugal for the family.  I know it's a terrible generalisation, but the upper classes look after each other.  (Maybe we all do - but the stakes are higher when you have more money and power)  This, of course, is part of the problem we have in society, as social capital turns to nepotism.  

As someone into wild food and the idea of taking responsibility for the food that I eat, I should be into shooting.  I'm more likely to do a part-time degree in astrophysics.  What does that say about me?  And what does that say about our country?

Food security and Community Supported Agriculture

Here's an interview I did recently with Kirstin Glendinning from Swillington Organic Farm, about their Community Supported Agriculture Scheme.  Kirstin also works for the Soil Association, supporting the development of other CSA's.

CSA is interesting in the context of yesterday's UK Food Security Assessment.   It's pretty clear that we need to produce food in ways that is less reliant on fossil fuels.  Community Supported Agriculture schemes, which by their nature are usually local, and often look to produce food in less intensive ways, can be an important part of that future.  

The Swillington CSA is popular but there are still shares available - if you want to know more you can contact them.  They also have a pig and chicken CSA, run in association with Headingley Development Trust.  

Down in the mouth

If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that I've just been to the dentist.  And you'll know that it didn't all go to plan.

The "you are no more than a number" welcome from the receptionists is par for the course.  As is the 15 minute wait.  As is the new dentist - the third new dentist in three visits.  As is me having to ask the dentist his name, rather than him introducing himself to me.  And let's not even dare to suggest anything as ridiculous as the dentist addressing me by my name.

The bit I wasn't ready for (having psyched myself up for a bit of discomfort) was that I'd only be in there two minutes, and would have to come back next week.

The scale and polish machine is broken.  So I have to come back.  I suggested to the dentist that I'd wasted my time.  He ignored me.  I asked the receptionist why someone couldn't have rung me to re-arrange the appointment.  She looked down at her keyboard.  I asked her again.  She ignored me again.  So I asked her a third time.  She said that I was due to just have a check up.  But one glance at my records would show that every check up includes a scale and polish.  No-one, at any stage, said sorry.  

What's the wider point here?  I read yesterday that dentists are doing rather well, since they re-negotiated their contracts.  Average income is around £90k.  Not bad.  

It's easy to have a go at them about their income, as I have just done.  But I actually don't mind people earning decent money.  I recognise that dentists take risks - buying equipment, renting premises, employing staff.  

But what I do mind is people earning good money and giving crap service.  And today I got crap service.  I'll wait til after next thursday's appointment, and then contact Patient Opinion.  After all, you don't want someone with a drill in their hand offering you feedback on the complaint you've just made.  

A strange coincidence

A weird thing happened today.  I was cycling to nursery with Francis this morning when a car shot out from a blind junction and was a foot or so from hitting us.  There's carelessness, then there's utter stupidity.  This was the latter.  Let's just say Francis's vocabulary has been enriched.

Then when we were cycling home this evening I approached the same junction, and the same car was approaching the junction from the other direction.  This time he stopped.  We looked at each other through the windscreen.  We carried on.  I'd like to think he'll be more careful from now on.  

More on Organic food

I've had a bit more of a think about all of this over the weekend and
read a few things and shouted at a few scientists (via the newspaper
not face to face).

My main reflection is that organic production should not be seen in
isolation. It's not just about nutrition - in fact it's about a lot
more than nutrition.

I'm actually not wholly wedded to organic production, but what I'm
interested in is a different kind of food production, which often
includes organic principles, because it makes sense in that context.

So, for example, Swillington grow organically but what's much more
interesting is the stuff that goes on around that. The relationships
between local people and the farm. The community that's built up
around it. The wildlife that thrives on a diverse farm. The money
that gets spent locally.

And lets not forget in the nutrition debate that for veg to have any
nutritional value you have to actually eat the stuff. Buying from
Swillington, or from my local (non organic) farm shop is a wholly
different experience to buying veg at the supermarket. This may be sad
but it's actually quite exciting. In comparison supermarkets are
rubbish at selling veg.

The result? I buy more veg if I feel "connected" to it. Therefore I
eat more veg. I benefit nutritionally. Which is kind of the point.

Sent from my iPhone

Rob Greenland Social Business Consulting 07905 800 710 rob@socialbusinessconsulting.co.uk