Good Local Economics

Crowd-based tools have the power to put citizens at the heart of urban renewal. In the second instalment based on his new book, Recivilising: The Rise of the Renewal Renegades, Storm Cunningham looks at the impact

In the first article in this series I talked about the growth in crowdfunding tools and how they were helping citizen-led projects to get off the ground. However, it’s not just a lack of tools that’s been holding back effective public engagement in renewal projects. Low standards and expectations play a major role. The level of citizen involvement in the future of their communities and regions has traditionally been so low (almost non-existent) that institutions quickly reach a level of pride and satisfaction when even the smallest amount of progress is made in citizen engagement.

We need to start fighting back against the rhetoric of ‘welfare scroungers’ and ‘work shirkers’ and start working for an increasingly demonised poor. As these crude caricatures rise, we need to gather evidence and convey the real statistical and human story.