URBACT: Co-responsibility and Well-being: the Thinking Explained. Presentation by Jon Bloomfield, January 2011

1. Co-responsibility and
Well-being: the Thinking
Explained.
Presentation
Jon Bloomfield
January 2011

2. Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 2
The Changing Context
Last two decades have seen lots of experiments
with devolution and de-centralisation.
Reworking relation of national, regional and
local state
And relations of government, society and
citizen.
Being done by parts of Left, Right and Green

3. Council of Europe thinking
 Council of Europe offers a new model of citizen
engagement: co-responsibility
 Very wide-ranging approach
 Designed to re-think the concept of progress; go beyond
just measuring Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
 Seeks to construct knowledge and well-being in a new
way.
 More reflecting the reality of people’s lives
 Achieves this by systematic engagement with citizens
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 3

4. The Co-responsibility approach
Starts with the citizen.
It is an open-ended approach based on the use
of focus groups
Asks about well-being and its opposite
Avoids danger of a problem-driven approach,
which knows issues before you start
Council of Europe have piloted this method
widely
It has thrown up 8 broad themes/dimensions
and over 40 topics where indicators can be
developed
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 4

5. Eight Dimensions
Arising from all the trials and pilots 8 key themes
Access to essential resources
Living environment
Social balances and sense of belonging
Personal balance
Relations between people
Relations with institutions
Feelings
Commitment/participation
A broader range of topics and issues than come
from a problem-driven approach. This is more
comprehensive.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 5

6. Applying the method in TOGETHER
Council of Europe’s canvas is wide
It is a very ambitious project
TOGETHER seeks to draw on and apply its
principles
But within the means available to each
municipality
And adapted to our local circumstances
This application made more difficult by current
financial circumstances
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 6

7. The Social Crisis within Europe
Serious collapse of financial system 2008-9
Major knock-on consequences for government
spending.
Now seeing huge cuts in public spending
Big impact on local authorities – and worse is
yet to come.
A tough background in which to introduce new
thinking.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 7

8. Initial Focus Group Work
 8 municipalities. Different sizes and at varying levels of
engagement and consultation with their citizens.
 Mulhouse started in 2006/7;
 Three others in 2010.
 four others in 2011, including Botkyrka
 In Braine l’Alleud 14 groups 2170 responses, all coded.
 In Salaspils 25 groups.
 Looking to complete by September.
 An open-ended process
 Qualitative – not a scientific sample
 Aim: get some bottom-up perspectives and supplement
other survey, questionnaire work
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 8

9. What are we learning?
The breadth of issues and concerns
The all-round nature of politics and policy.
Need to move beyond a traditional Welfare
State approach
Approach can also be used with school
children.
For councillors and politicians the initial stages
of this method will:
 Highlight key topics in their area
 Reach the issues that other approaches miss out
 Indicate possible priorities for action
 Show the need to work in new ways with local citizens
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 9

10. The New ‘Triangle’
 Co-responsibility means an end to the idea of
‘the Council alone.’
 Must always work in partnership
 Either with civil society organisations, associations, the
voluntary and community sector
 Or with citizens e.g. users of services, parents, carers,
school students, tenants, beneficiaries.
 Co-responsible Pilot actions: putting this model of
partnership into practice.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 10

11. Co-responsibility is a new method of
working
 It involves a new relationship between public authorities
and their users.
 It is a much more participative method which treats users
as equals rather than passive clients of the public
authority.
 This demands changes in the working style and
professional practice of the staff of many public
authorities.
 Staff have to be convinced about these new methods of
citizen engagement.
 This is absolutely necessary, if the city is to be able to
transfer the co-responsibility approach from the margins
to the mainstream.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 11

12. Engaging with staff
 The approach works best where this is significant input
from staff.
 The pilot actions show that this is time-consuming and at
times challenging.
 This strongly reinforces the view that the move to a co-
responsibility method is not a cheap option.
 Its success requires the active and sustained
involvement of public authorities and their staff, albeit
often working in new ways.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 12

13. Involving all stakeholders
 The move from pilots to mainstreaming requires that all
the major stakeholders within the conurbation need to be
engaged with the co-responsibility initiative.
 They must all be represented at a senior level on the
ULSG.
 The involvement of all stakeholders in the co-ordinating
team is crucial, since it needs clear leadership from all
the public agencies to drive these changes through.
Title of presentation I Thursday 25 July 2013 I Page 13

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www.urbact.eu