Sometimes a city can be a victim of its own public perception. Wolverhampton has a strong global reputation, yet among its citizens there is a tendency to view the city as a place where things used to happen, whose glory days are over, not only on the football field.
In reality, the opposite is true of Wolverhampton; it retains a strong manufacturing base, one which produces parts for every plane that flies in the sky worldwide. It has a diverse and creative population, with an ideal demographic composition and size on which to test new ideas and service solutions. But in order to spread an identity among citizens that promotes dynamic enterprise and social innovation, residents need to play a bigger part in strategic planning of their services and social infrastructure. Change has to be met by a new approach and a collective shift in mindset.
We need a collective re-imagination of place and the chance for communities to identify new opportunities based on the needs of many. In order to plan for sustainable growing communities and neighbourhoods, we must collaborate more and more often and with as varied a group of contributors as possible to ensure we are making the most from our shared resources.
Participatory design has a chequered past in the context of urban regeneration and place-making, however. It usually involves consultation with communities about how they could improve their built environment, but rarely goes deep enough to uncover the root causes of what was damaging to their neighbourhood. Although the value of an engagement-led approach to planning is widely recognised, in practice it can amount to little more than box ticking exercise to allow for top down decisions to appear more democratic and populist.
Real engagement means opening up a conversation with stakeholders from the very beginning of a project – questioning the brief and the programme – and testing with users what is it that they really need from a civic space or service.
In the current financial context, the public can no longer rely on the state to provide. People must come together to actively conceive and manage their public services, leveraging the local business knowledge and acumen to underpin social enterprise.
Local authorities are starting to recognise their position as a platform for democratic, devolved governance in cooperation with wider society. Places are setting up conversations to galvanise communities and catalyse social projects and change. Building a Better Bristol and Changing Chelmsford are great examples of this. Dublin City Council has even set up an in-house social innovation lab, DCC Beta Projects, to prototype ideas and initiatives that have come out of discussions that began at the Designing Dublin series of events – including an open-air cinema for the homeless.
Wolverhampton Council has asked FutureGov to produce an event set to change the course of the city forever. MAKE:shift is a two-day ideas festival to be held at the Lighthouse on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 September. Local people are being challenged to come up with new ideas that will bring lasting change to their communities.
Inspired by events like CityCamp London and Google Interactivism hack days – mixing inspiration and idea development (with creative workshops, business clinics, and rapid prototyping), we will transform the Light House’s atrium area into an ideas exchange marketplace – with stalls hosted by local creative and public sector organisations – offering mentoring, advice and support for those with ideas and the passion for change.
MAKE:shift is a chance to harness ideas big and small, and create great things for Wulfrunians by Wulfrunians, making use of the great resources already in the city. The Belbroughton phone box library is a fantastic example of this – where locals proactively transformed a phone-box into a pop-up library. Local people and groups in and around Wolverhampton are knocking heads together to submit great ideas like these.
Ultimately, in our emerging civic economy, it is up to the community on the ground and organisations at the grassroots to drive the renewal of cities and to unite around a collective vision. With a common purpose and clear mutual goals, people can make a shift, growing and modernising our neighbourhoods in the way that fits their lives. Wolverhampton is set to lead the next revolution – as big as the industrial revolution so famously recreated at the Olympic opening ceremony – yet again, powered by the people.