Songs of Anger and Hate

Not angry, just frustrated Photo: Rooners/Flickr

 What do you do when you're having a frustrating time of it at work? Perhaps you reach for an extra beer in the evening. But what if that's not enough? Where do you and your sense of righteous indignation go next? Well, if you're an ever so slightly sad music fan like me a good option can be to dig deep into your collection for some tunes that speak to your situation and maybe even give you some encouragement to keep on keeping on.

To paraphrase everyone's favourite Canadian poet, and in no particular order, here are my songs of anger and hate.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Wet Night in Birmingham: from one of my recent Photo School assignments

 (Please excuse me for giving this post such a hackneyed title. I blame Rod Stewart's recent whirlwind of activity to promote his latest Christmas wares. I can't promise things will get better from here on in but I will certainly try.)

I am writing this post on a wet Saturday afternoon in Birmingham. What light there was earlier is beating a hasty retreat, leaving in its wake nothing but a grey and dreary expanse. Despite the weather's best efforts, however, am feeling upbeat and energised. What can explain this state of affairs? I can only put it down to having got myself along to Matt & Pete's Photo School this morning.

Since moving to Birmingham earlier this year I've attended Photo School several times already and have learned something new about photography each time. I'd like to use the rest of this post to show you some of the photos I've taken at Photo School and share what I've learned from Matt & Pete.

Getting n0ticed in Birmingham

Since I left you

As part of my ongoing efforts to get out more and feel more connected in Birmingham I got along last month to Birmingham Social Media Cafe, a regular get together of people interested in exploring creative uses of  blogging, Twitter, Facebook and other tools. At the meeting I was introduced to n0tice, a digital update on the trusty community noticeboard which is aiming to be the place where you share "what's happening near you?". Since then, I've been playing with n0tice to see what it has to offer. Here's what I've learned so far.

First Impressions: what did I n0tice?

The first thing to say about n0tice is that is there is a lot going on. While the stated ambition of n0tice may be laudably simple, to allow you to share what's happening near you, the way it approaches this task is multi-faceted. From what I have learned so far , n0tice consist of:

• A public-facing n0ticeboard service, Here people can share and discover local observations, events and secrets in much the same way they might post an update on Twitter or Facebook, only with discovery being primarily driven by locality. People can access n0tice via a regular web browser but the service really comes into its own on the iPhone and Android mobile apps.
• A developer-focused API. Over at n0tice.org there are plentiful examples of the various different ways the technology behind n0tice can be used to power other services and activities. n0tice.org currently focuses on crowdmapping, community noticeboards and using n0tice to host a social classified business.   

Getting to grips with n0tice

 So far, I've had a bash at using both the public-facing and the developer-focused sides of n0tice. Of the two, I would say the developer side feels the most well-considered. Using the helpful 'how to' guides provided, I was able to quickly set up my own n0tice board dedicated to street art in Birmingham. With a minimum of trial and error I was also able to link my n0ticeboard to Google maps so that posts were rather niftily pinned to various locations around Birmigham. Embedded below are the fruits of my afternoon's labour, which I was really quite proud of.

From little acorns.... my first n0tice board

View Larger Map

My first crowdmap of Birmingham Street Art (the crowd so far consists of my posts  but I can hope)

Reflections on n0tice

While I was quick to understand n0tice's potential as a web infrastructure tool, I was less clear on what everyday users would make of n0tice as a mainstream service offering. Given the fact that I and most of my friends already spend a sizeable proportion of our free time on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I am not convinced people's desire to know what's happening nearby is make n0tice, in its current form at least, an essential destination.

 Right now the immediate user experience for those who do venture upon the service is also a little uneven. For starters, it would be quite easy for people to confuse no0tice.org, the home of n0tice's developer resources, with the public-facing n0tice.com site.

Once you're on the main site, n0tice.com, it's not immediately obvious what to make of the various posts, as initially they are not filtered according to your location. Of course there is a button you can press to filter by your location but it doesn't immediately strike you as something you should need to do.  I experienced a similar kind of confusion when I went to post a report on n0tice, as a result of if not being immediately obvious whether my post would be visible to the whole n0tice community or restricted to a particular n0tice board. In themselves, these points of confusion may seem pretty trivial (I'm working on the whole pedantry thing) but the service design will need to be sharpened if n0tice is to expand beyond the ranks of social media practitioners and early adopters.

The good news is the issues I have is much to like about n0tice, particularly for developers and those wishing to incorporate n0tice technology within websites. I was chuffed at how easy it was to put together my own n0tice board for street art in Birmingham. I was even more chuffed when I was able to follow the clear instructions on n0tice.org and overlay my posts onto a Google Map, something which I had previously considered to be the preserve of out and out techies.

n0te to future self

 Looking to the future, I feel n0tice should focus on developing its offerings to developers and publishers. By doing so I believe n0tice technology could become part  of the everyday infrastructure of the web. I'd love to see n0tice technology incorporated within the social networks that I already use, so that I easily share and discover local content without having to invest additional time and effort. Doing so would, I hope support n0tice financially and enable the refinement of the service's consumer offering.

Two weeks or so after being introduced to n0tice, I remain intrigued by the service and the possibilities it offers. I will continue to experiment with it, both in my spare time as well as in a work capacity at Groundwork UK. I look forward to seeing how the service continues to evolve and improve.

Morrisons: The Rose that grew from Concrete

A bright future for Hagley Road beckons?

Since moving to Birmingham in May I've found myself strangely fascinated by the rapid development of the new Morrisons supermarket on Hagley Road, next to the Five Ways roundabout I pass everyday on my way home from work. Today, the supermarket threw open its doors to customers for the first time. Like some Z-list celebrity, I got myself along first thing this morning to witness this momentous occasion. This is my story.


Supermarkets: the endless love affair

Readers who know me will know that I've got something of a soft spot for supermarkets in general and Sainsbury's in particular. I know, I know, supermarkets are perhaps the ultimate expression of late capitalism's empty consumerism and environmental destruction in pursuit of profit.

And yes, arguably given my first career was in local government I suppose I should care more about the undue influence supermarkets with their (allegedly) vast land banks have on the Planning system and functioning competition in this country.

Luckily, however, all of these feelings of mild unease fade away as soon as I cross the threshold an am bathed in the perpetual daylight of supermarkets' brutally efficient lighting. Then, all of a sudden my years spent as a student trolley-wally and checkout assistant at Sainsbury's somehow collude to make me turn a blind eye to the emptiness of modern capitalism and enjoy the rush that can only come from a trip around a supermarket with a footprint of a small developing country.


Morrisons on Hagley Road: The Rose that Grew from Concrete?

Given the soft spot I carry for supermarkets, my expectations for the new Morrisons were reasonably high. I believe it was the late Tupac Shakur who described in his poetry the rose that grew from concrete.Without wishing to reach for the pseud card so early into a post, it's only mildly hyperbolic to suggest that as I witnessed the store's emergence over the summer and into the autumn I believed it could very well be that rose.

While it's fair to say I am writing this post with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, for those of you who aren't familiar with Birmingham, it's worth pointing out that Morrisons doesn't exactly have much competition in the roses stakes. Hagley Road is, after all, (in)famous as the home of Spearmint Rhino, not to mention the most randomly laid out Tesco known to man. Still, I'm told it's important to have hope.

First Impressions of the new Store

The hottest ticket in town: 10 minutes to go until the official opening

After queuing patiently with around 30 or so my fellow citizens I was allowed into the store at just gone 9 o'clock. First impressions of the store were good. I'd heard Morrisons knew a thing or two about how to run a deli counter but nobody had told me their fresh fruit and veg game was this strong. Forget everything you thought you knew about refrigeration, it turns out fresh vegetables should be kept at their best with a fine mist of water vapour. I don't know if this is an environmentally friendly method but who cares when it looks this (literally) cool?

Greenery in the Mist

My sense of wonderment didn't stop at the fresh fruit and veg area. Like a Zombie in Dawn in the Dead I shuffled along to the brightly lit counters offering all manner of freshly prepared foods. By now most of us will act faux-nonchalant at the magnificent sight of a row of freshly prepared in-store pizzas but one thing you positively can't front on is a bar serving fresh fruit salad. Sadly, I'd already breakfasted otherwise I dare say I would have been tempted to dig deep and make a real and lasting contribution to my 5-a-day target.

Fresh fruit, fresh thinking

Sadly, my first visit to the new Morrisons was not entirely care-free. After spending too much time in the company of designers at thinkpublic I'm sorry to say I've become something of a font snob. And as much as I enjoyed my Monday morning visit to Morrisions, the supermarket giant's approach to the written word cut me deep. Upon leaving the store my eyes were burned by the sight of a 'see you later' sign, written in a handwritten style that wouldn't be out of place next to Comic Sans. After reading a brilliant book on the groundbreaking work of the Sainsbury's in-house design studio, the sight of this sign made me question the concept of progress.

Sign of the Times: Had Morrisons not read Just My Type?

Moving On

With my curiosity over the new Morrisons now sated I am hoping I won't ever feel the need to blog about a supermarket visit in this much depth again. Nevertheless, I hope my paean to Hagley Road's renaissance has piqued your interest in the new Morrisons enough to make you want to pay a visit to the store. And if for any reason you can't make it to Hagley Road, I'm sure there'll be a supermarket near to you that's equally deserving of your time and attention.

Social Media Gets Sociable in Birmingham

The Atrium Bar @ The Studio, home to Birmingham Central Social Media Surgery Photo: The Studio

 Since moving to Birmingham in May and starting in my new(ish) full-time role at Groundwork UK I've been what you might call a lapsed blogger. Hopefully this blog post should stop the rot and, you never know, it might be the start of something beautiful.

It may be a cliché but I've usually found it's a good idea to write about what you know (hence my three-part tribute to the late, great MCA). With this in mind I'd like to share with you my  experience of volunteering at the Birmingham Central Social Media Surgery after work on Tuesday.

No Sleep 'Til Birmingham

My new city showing some pride

 It's become a bit of a cliche/increasingly trite opening (delete according to your disposition) for me to start off any post with an apology for not keeping my blog up-to-date. You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to go down that route today. Instead, I'll like to tell you a bit about what I've been up to over the past couple of months.

Those of you who know me in real life or from Twitter are probably aware that back in May I undertook a pretty major life change and moved with my girlfriend from glorious South East London to England's second city, otherwise known as Birmingham.

The Tipping Point

Sadly the South Circular did not offer any such reassurance

We decided to make the switch for a few different reasons but probably the biggest one was quality of life. For the past couple of years it has seemed as though every weekend has involved travelling the length of the country to visit friends and family who lived outside of London. After a particularly nerve-shredding trip back along the South Circular after a friend's wedding in Stockton something inside us clicked. Wouldn't we be better off finding a way of living (and working) that didn't so closely resemble planes, trains and automobiles?

It was at this point that we started to seriously consider the possibility of moving out of London. To galvanise ourselves we made a pact; whoever landed a job first would determine where we ended up and the other would hand in their notice. Seeing as I was working freelance at the time I'm not sure it was the fairest of deals. Still, who am I to quibble when it give us the push to start believing we really could get our act together?

By some miracle, in next to no time I saw (well, technically it was Sarah ) a role going at Groundwork, the community charity with the green heart. Located in Birmingham and with the suitably on-trend words Innovation and Collaboration in the job title, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I'm pleased to say I was called for an interview and, on the day, managed to woo the panel with my experience of social innovation and my fondness for all things Web 2.0 (I'm afraid to say I may even have bandied about this term ). All of a sudden, our dream of starting a new life outside of London was actually happening.

Keep It Moving

Moving day in Forest Hill. Note the Sainsbury's elephant bag.

 In the interests of brevity and out of respect for you the reader it's probably best that I gloss over the shenanigans of our move. Sufficed to say, I'm very grateful to my big sister, who also lives in Birmingham, for letting us stay with her while we looked for a flat. I'm even more grateful to Sarah for the amazing work she did researching and viewing flats.

Since I Left You

London 2012 fever hits Birmingham

 So what's been happening since I bid farewell to SE23? Mainly, I've been focused on settling into my new role at Groundwork. I'm still settling in  but overall I love working for an organisation which has such a positive impact on local communities. If you're not a regular Gardener's World viewer (and if not, why not?), I highly recommend you check out the award-winning work superstar horticulturist Chris Beardshaw  has been doing with Groundwork, as part of our Urban Oasis campaign.

Cliff working the crowd at the Olympic torch relay in Edgbaston

Other than work, I've been settling into life in Birmingham and taking advantage of the fact that both my sisters live in the city to enjoy more family time. So far, I'm finding Birmingham agrees with me. I can walk to work in the morning rather than squeeze onto the Overground And after work, I'm but a stone's throw a way from any number of lovely bars and restaurants. And while I'm not going to suggest Birmingham can match London for cultural happenings, I've already been able to get along to see some great live music, attended a design expo and an abstract photography course, saw Cliff light the Olympic torch and,  just last night, an amazing British Reggae evening featuring the likes of Dennis Bovell and Steel Pulse. Not bad for Birmingham, eh?

Part of the Art In The Dancehall exhibition at The Drum in Aston, where I also saw Steel Pulse, Dennis Bovell and Tippa Irie

Looking ahead, I'm hopeful Sarah and I will settle into life in Birmingham and will be able to enjoy a good quality of life while still doing rewarding work. Now that I'm feeling more settled in Birmingham I hope to blog more frequently about the work I'm involved with at Groundwork and life in England's second city.

Adam Yauch, aka MCA, 1964-2012, pt. 3

Beastie Boys on cracking form at Wembley Arena, September 2004

 The Hiatus is back off again

Last Wednesday when I posted the first of my three-part tribute to MCA and the Beastie Boys I said that parts two and three would follow by the end of the week. Clearly things haven't quite run to plan however rather than 'fess up I would prefer to believe I was subconsciously echoing the Beasties' unhurried approach to their career. Anyone who remembers the half decade+ between the release of Hello Nasty and To The 5 Boroughs will know where I'm coming from.

Back to the programme, I'd like to use this last post to say thanks to MCA and the Beastie Boys for providing me with my favourite gig memory ever and to reflect on how, even after that highpoint in my fandom, the Beasties have continued to give me the confidence to approach music and life in a way that is true to me. For those of you who read the last post I promise I will try harder this time not to write so much.

Adam Yauch, aka MCA, 1964-2012, pt. 2

Welcome back to the second part of my three-part tribute to MCA and the Beastie Boys.

Yesterday I tried to express my gratitude to MCA and the Beastie Boys for rescuing me from Indie rock and introducing me to a whole new world of music through their 1998 opus, Hello Nasty. Today I would like to explain how Hello Nasty led me not only to other music from the Beasties’ back catalogue but to have the confidence to go out and figure what music I really loved, irrespective of the vagaries of taste, fashion or musical boundaries.

Adam Yauch, aka MCA, 1964-2012

Adam Yauch, aka MCA, 1964-2012. Photo BeastieBoys.com

 Dedication

Last Friday I was deeply saddened to discover that Adam Yauch had died, aged 47, after a three-year battle with cancer. Readers in their 20s and 30s might know him better as MCA, founding member of groundbreaking hip-hop group the Beastie Boys. The Beastie Boys’ music and their approach to life in general had a profound effect on me.

I’d like to pay my respects to MCA and to express my gratitude to him and his band for making the world a better place. As I began to write this post I quickly realised I had more things I wanted to say than would fit in a regular post. To make things more digestible I have broken this post into three parts (which is kinda fitting), with parts two and three to follow later this week.

The New Style

King of Indie and gatekeeper and my one-time musical guide, Steve Lamacq. Photo: Guardian

I first became aware of the Beasties Boys in early 1999. These were the days before broadband and Radio 1’s Steve Lamacq was the (not all that) Cool Ruler of the post-Britpop Indie music scene.

The song which hooked me was Remote Control, off of the Beasties’ chart-topping 1998 album, Hello Nasty. Listening to the song again following the news of MCA’s death I can see now that it is a quintessential Beastie Boys song. Shouty delivery? Check. Obscure pop culture references? Check. Funky instrumentation, including fuzzed out basslines courtesy of MCA? Yes indeed, this song has it all. While I would go on to discover other Beastie Boys songs that I am fonder of today, Remote Control showed me that you could be true to yourself musically and still have fun. In short, the Beastie Boys led me to realise there was more to life than Indie music and its all-too-often musical conservatism.

Hello Nasty

3 MCs and 1Sardine Can. Photo: Nah Right

After hearing Remote Control on the radio I made my way to my local Our Price to pick up Hello Nasty. After stumping up paying nearly £20 for an import copy of the album, I set about getting my money’s worth by familiarising myself in all 22 of the album’s tracks.

At the risk of sounding cheesy, Hello Nasty was a revelation. Even before listening to the album I was drawn into the Beastie Boys world by the album’s sleeve. On the front cover there’s a picture of the three Beastie Boys in a sardine can, seemingly hurtling towards the sun. But it was the reverse and inner artwork which really drew me in, with the retro design representing each of the album’s 22 songs as studio sound channels and school textbook-style illustrations of the Beastie Boys’ studio/space station helping create a self-contained universe for the band.

The future of retro-inspired design, circa 1998. Photo: hhv

Out of this world music. The Beastie Boys at work/play recording Hello Nasty. Photo: Snurfer

The music didn’t disappoint either. Opening track Super Disco Breakin’ sets the template, with lyrics chiefly focused on the importance of rocking the party and dense, multi layered sounds in support. You’ve probably heard of and danced to the hit singles off the album such as Body Movin’ and Intergalactic but over the space of 67 minutes the Beasties also do a nice job of instrumental jazz, Brazilian grooves and reggae (Dr Lee, PhD featuring the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry). Re-visiting the album over the weekend, I was especially struck by the Bossa Nova homage of I don’t know, which tenderly sung by Yauch.

There’s so much more I could say about Hello Nasty and the world it opened up to me but I think I’ll take Ice Cube’s evergreen advice and check myself before I wreck myself. I would like to end by once again thanking Yauch and the Beastie Boys for opening my ears to a whole new world of music and helping me keep my teenage angst in check. MCA, you will be sorely missed.

For more information about Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys, visit the official Beastie Boys website. 

There is also a thoughtful obituary and archive materials on The Guardian.

Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans (to blog about stuff) Pt. 2

Sly and Jasper relaxing on the set of Sly and Reggie's Dub Save The Queen video shoot

Okay, so I realised today that it's been the best part of a month since I last blogged on Intensely Relaxed. Appropriately enough, my last post was about life being what happens to you while you're making other plans (to blog about stuff). True to form, just as things have gotten interested I've gone quiet on the personal blogging front. So what's been happening, I hear you ask?

Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans (to blog about stuff)

  

'Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans'. Photo: Swerdlow

 The other Lennon

I believe it was John Lennon who sang ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans to blog about stuff’. Regardless of who said it, it would seem a universally acknowledged truth that the more blog-worthy stuff you’re up to, the less inclined you are to find the time to blog about it. All of which is a very round-about way of apologising for failing to keep this blog up-to-date in recent weeks. (What do you mean you hadn’t noticed?)

Policymaking in the Cloud: Increasing the Quality of Citizen Engagement

Clouds: a metaphor for our increasingly connected lives, apparently. Photo: Jhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/48813704@N02/5740160774/in

Since attending my first Political Innovation event earlier this month I've been thinking about the potential new technology such as social media and other digital engagement tools have to transform the way policy is made.

So far , much of the debate has tended to focus on how technology will change the way policy professionals (politicians, civil servants and assorted policy wonks) engage with citizens from static consultation windows to a more dynamic, conversational form of engagement. You can read a good summary of these developments by Dr Andy Williamson on the Political Innovation website.

While any progress towards  a more conversational form of engagement in policymaking should be celebrated, I feel in our excitement to 'do' crowdsourced policymaking we must not lose sight of the need for an attendant increase in policy literacy. Without us as citizens having a mature understanding of the wider context in which policy is developed and how our views on different issues relate to each other, there is a danger that new technology will simply add to the 'noise' which already surrounds policymakers.

Meeting People is Easy: The World of Innovation beyond SE23

The Plan ZHeroes team at City Hall, 15th Feb 2012

February is traditionally the time of year when New Year's Resolutions, if they haven't done so already, fall by the wayside. With this thought in mind, and inspired by the great work my friend Craig Ennis is still doing on his New Year's Resolution (Cinema Scraggadiso), over the past couple of weeks I've made a concerted to keep my commitment to get out more and connect with at least some of the mind-boggling number of events that are always taking place in London.

Being Amazing

To make things easier on myself, I started off by getting along to events that were in my comfort zone. To that end,  On the evening of 1st February I braved the cold chill and got myself along to Side Kick Studios in Old Street for an informal meeting of The Amazings' Street Team.

I've previously blogged about The Amazings before so I won't say too much more. In a nutshell, The Amazings is a  great (amazing?) social enterprise that helps people who are about to retire or have retired create (and sell) amazing experiences with the skills, knowledge and passion they’ve picked up throughout their life. Last year I had a lot of fun helping out by serving on market stalls, introducing people to the service and selling tickets for the experiences on offer. I'm very pleased to say the The Amazings is doing really well and, after successfully securing funding from NESTA, has big plans to expand its reach across London. I for one am particularly looking forward to helping bring The Amazings to Forest Hill. The Amazings is always looking for new street team members, If this is something you'd like to be involved with, do get in touch by clicking here.

Policy Innovation in a reassuringly traditional setting

Adam Street: Reassuringly Traditional

 My confidence buoyed by a successful social outing, in no time at all I found myself signed up to an after work event on the 9th February. The event had the racy title 'co-design and policymaking' and was organised by an organisation called Political Innovation. Given my love of all things political, policy and social innovation how could I say no?

At first glance, the contrast between The Amazings and the Political Innovation event couldn't have been more stark. Whereas The Amazings hosted us at their tastefully scruffy design studio in trendy East London (see picture of Side Kick's kitchen for evidence), the Political Innovation event was held in the type of venue which had its heyday when Macmillan was still Prime Minister: Adam Street Private Members Club, situated just off The Strand.

Side Kick's kitchen: sweet

Thankfully, first impressions were deceiving and I found the evening largely unstuffy, with some excellent presentations and off the cuff presentations from people looking at ways of opening up traditional policymaking in order to increase trust in the political system and deliver improved outcomes. The only real downside of the evening was that I felt that sometimes there was an unhelpful ‘us and them’ attitude expressed, with people involved in innovation projects taking the moral high ground and criticising others for being ‘political’ as though this were intrinsically a dirty word.

As someone who has worked ‘on the inside’ of policymaking I understand how challenging politics can be and, at their best, how hard elected politicians work. If we are serious about wanting to reform the political system as a minimum there needs to be mutual respect for both sides. And proponents of opening up policy making (myself included) need to recognise that while all of us, either as individuals or collectively as ‘the people’, can provide our views, ultimately deciding which priorities to pursue at any given time will always be an inherently ‘political’ judgement, regardless of who makes it.

There were many excellent contributions made at last week’s event. I recommend you visit the Political Innovation website to find out more and to book your place at the next event. I would like to give a special mention to Paul Evans for setting up Political Innovation and arranging the event and to Steph Gray (@lesteph) for his excellent overview of the various tools available to help increase involvement in policymaking.

You can read a blog post from Political Innovation on the evening here.

Swapping Forest Hill for City Hall

The view from inside City Hall at the Plan ZHeroes Launch

Last but by no means least I’d like to end this post by telling you about my latest social venture (geddit?), which last night took me to the political heart of London, City Hall, for the Plan ZHeroes launch event.

Plan ZHeroes is a civil society group based in London with a mission to reduce food waste to zero. In the long term it plans to do this by lobbying for action to reduce waste at every level of the ‘food pyramid’, from farm to plate. More immediately, however, it is focusing its efforts on connecting the people who cannot feed themselves and their families properly with the millions of tonnes of food that is wasted every year.

To achieve their goal Plan ZHeroes has created an interactive map which allows food charities and other community organisations to easily connect with businesses such as cafes with spare food that would otherwise go to waste. The idea of a food waste map is such a simple one and is a great example of how digital technology can support social action. Now the challenge is to get people using the map.

Plan ZHeroes' interactive map in action

Although Plan ZHeroes’ launch event was held at City Hall and featured contributions from prominent commentators such as Rosie Boycott the organisers successfully managed to combine serious intent with a sense of fun. Most memorably, they had hired student actors to role play an apocalyptic food crisis scenarios in a near-future London, which led on to some group working to come up with ideas to solve the crisis by promoting the interactive map. It may sound lame but because everyone involved approached it in the right spirit, it turned out to be a fun, creative way of getting people thinking about how we  can make the map a success.

Plan ZHeroes is asking for help to spread the word about food waste and the interactive map.and pledge to introduce the map to 10 organisations you know. This could mean telling your local supermarket about the map or perhaps a church or community group you attend. To find out more about you can do to help, click here.

What has being sociable taught me?

Looking back at the three events, I feel there are opportunities for each group to learn from one another and to improve. Future events by The Amazings and Political Innovation would benefit from the interaction of the Plan ZHeroes. Political Innovation could learn from the relaxed atmosphere of the Amazings. Political Innovation benefited from the quality and diversity of its attendees and is all organisations putting on events should look to emulate their approach.

Mind the Gap

The Great Wealth Divide. Photo: BBC World Service

Updated: 06/02/2012

Last week I had the good fortune to stumble across a great little two-part radio documentary on the BBC World Service called The Wealth Gap: The View from London. The programme vividly brought to life how our lives are shaped by inequality. It also succeeded in conveying the complex nature of inequality and the challenge it presents to policy-makers wishing to take steps to reduce it. 

2012: a year defined by inequality?

Inequality and the widening gap between the richest and the poorest in our society has hardly been out headlines of late. Wherever you look, from the recent political jockeying over the size of Stephen Hester's bonus to the ongoing high-profile protests organisers by the likes of Occupy movement and UK Uncut, it seems, at a rhetorical level at least, everyone is agreed that 'something has to be done' about inequality.

Throw in some added economic gloom for good measure and the timing of The Wealth Gap's broadcast starts to look like an inspired move on the part of the BBC World Service (itself a victim of deep reductions in public funding).

Love thy neighbour

The Chi-Lites: they recognised the importance of neighbourliness early on.

Neighbourhoods: More than building blocks of the Big Society?

This week at work I found myself exploring the concept of neighbourliness, what it means, and its potential for promoting both individual and community wellbeing.

 

To paraphrase psychedelic-soul exponents The Chambers Brothers, in many ways the neighbourhood is a concept whose time has come today. After all, the Government's stated ambition with its Big Society agenda is to create neighbourhoods that are strong, attractive and thriving. It even goes as far as to describe neighbourhoods as the 'building blocks' for action to respond to challenging economic, social and cultural trends. Support for the neighbourhood is not limited to one political party, either. Lambeth Council, a Labour flagship, has been active in promoting its vision of  'the co-operative council', where citizens are encouraged to play a much greater role in their local communities.

 

And yet despite neighbourhoods and local communities being lauded by politicians from across the political spectrum speaking, their thinking on neighbourhoods seems to me under-developed. In the main, attention has tended to focus on the neighbourhood as a vehicle for achieving decentralisation of power from state to citizens and communities. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for citizens playing a more active role in their communities. I am also a great believer in the power of co-design to produce solutions to the complex social challenges our society faces. Nonetheless, as we seek to expand the role of the neighbourhood in decision-making policy, I believe it is important that we do not take for granted that most basic benefit a neighbourhood provides, a sense of neighbourliness.

What London's B&B bill tells us about the housing market

Sign of the times:  Councils' use of Bed & Breakfasts as temporary accommodation remains high. Image: TripAdvisor.com

Yesterday I found myself working for thinkpublic on a research project exploring people's experiences of homelessness. It's still early days for the project so I can't say too much about the fine-detail of the project. I can however share with you my thoughts on a an interesting (by Policy standards, anyway) fact I learned.

Fact of the day

I learned that one London local authority spent approximately £300,000 last year on nightly paid or 'Bed & Breakfast' temporary accommodation for homeless people. If this sounds like a lot of money that's because it is. And yet compared to neighbouring boroughs, this authority is actually pretty good at placing its homeless residents in more appropriate and more cost effective forms of temporary accommodation.

High times living in the city

The high figure for Bed & Breakfast payments is, in large part, an expression of the pressures the London housing market is under. It doesn't take a genius to work out that demand for housing in London vastly outstrips supply. This means private landlords can nearly always find people with jobs ready to snap up their rental properties. Local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to persuade private landlords to lease their properties on a long-term basis for use as temporary accommodation. Consequently, local authorities are finding that the feel there is no other option available to them other than to rely on more expensive, short term Bed & Breakfast accommodation.

Working 9 to 5, not a way to make a living

Not enough hours in the day? That could be a thing of the past. Photo: Nick J Webb

Self improvement: It's about time

 January is traditionally a time of New Year resolutions. It’s the time when we tell ourselves (and anyone around who will listen) that this is the year that we’ll mend some of our less noble personal traits and finally  commit ourselves to ‘the good life’ through a programme that combines equal measures of self denial and dogged self improvement.

It was this happy-go-lucky outlook that I got myself along to the LSE public discussion, ‘About Time: examining the case for a shorter working week’. What I discovered both reactivated my love of policy and induced a severe bout of self-loathing. Allow me to explain...

21 is the magic number

For those of you lucky enough to have avoided my pun-heavy Tweeting on the subject, About Time was an in-depth look at the case for a shorter working week, as set out by the New Economics Foundation (or nef) last year in their report, 21 hours. The report sets out a case for how a ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.

An impressive selection of speakers had been assembled for Wednesday’s event. In addition to 21 hour’s co-author and nef’s head of social policy, Anna Coote, who chaired proceedings, we heard from three notable academics with expertise in this field. First up was Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, and author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, and The Overworked American. Next up was Lord Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. Lastly, Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at Surrey University, and author of Prosperity without Growth, reflected on the discussion.