'Underclass bashing impedes fight against culture of dependency'

Dave Clements, co-author of The Future of Community' examines how the low expectations of the so-called underclass has both perpetuated a culture of dependency and legitimised intervention into people's lives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2009/mar/12/broken-britain-dependency-culture

'Politicians twitter while the country burns'

An astute and amusing article on the take-up of 'Twittering' by the political class. Rachel Sylvester argues that this use of web 2.0 technology exposes the politicians' insecurity rather than bringing them closer to the people. It's worth adding a corrective note to this article. Social networking sites like twitter can be used very effectively to organise within society. Barak Obama used internet technology very effectively in his presidential campaign, managing to organise at a community level. However, this article shows that much of the twittering of politicians is shorn of even this limited point of connection.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rachel_sylvester/article5877318.ece

Broken Communities: Is state intervention part of the cause or the solution?

Dave Clements, co-editor of the Future of Community gave this speech at the Huddersfield Salon http://www.futurecities.org.uk/review/rev070309.html

For details of the Huddersfield Salon please go to http://huddersfieldsalon.blogspot.com/