Inspiring Communities

Future of Community editors, Martin Earnshaw and Dave Clements will be leading a discussion of social mobility and deprived communities on Tuesday 17th February. http://www.instituteofideas.com/events/socialpolicy.html

The discussion will be looking at the Government's strategy of trying to inspire young people in deprived communities as set out in the White Paper 'New Opportunities' http://www.hmg.gov.uk/newopportunities.aspx

The most interesting aspect of the White Paper are the studies that accompany it. A study for the Cabinet Office concluded that young people who lived in deprived communities located in traditional Northern towns had lower aspirations than their counterparts in inner city communities.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force/short_studies/aspirations.aspx

This has interesting implications. Firstly, are they saying that Northern communities are too strong? The paper points out that such communities still have strong social bonds. The suggestion, however, is that they have the "wrong" type of social capital because nobody works and there is a collective memory of being a locality that lost out on the last 30 years.

Inner city areas, at least their non-white portion, sometimes have strong community bonds too, but according to the report are more aspirational. Hence the conclusion that the problem is one of attitude and culture. But will more government sponsored mentors raise young people's aspirations? More to the point, should they? An approach that concentrates on young people and aspirations implies that the parent community is somewhat beyond hope. This probably isn't the intention, the idea is that the newly aspiring young person will try to improve their community. But if the message is sent out that they can't rely on the people around them (which is what the wrong social capital argument does say) they might simply leave.

There's a further complication. The Northern communities the report talks about are predominantly white. While diversity is celebrated as bringing new forms of community and interaction, the old white monoculture is pathologised and seen as outmoded. Could this be why it is seen as the wrong type of community?