Transcript Social Economy & Social Justice

Centre for Local Economic Strategies
Marrying social and economic growth
Adrian Nolan, Associate Director
About•About
CLES CLES
Focus - influencing economic development & regeneration
policy
Membership - local authorities, private, social enterprise
Publications - informing policy & effective practice
Training & events - to support the sector
Independent research - to understand challenges &
influence policy
Consultancy trading arm
About•About
CLES CLES
Our work/interests includes:
Economic & social tools & methodologies
Economic policy work
Financing economies/regeneration
Futures work
Poverty/economic inclusion
Place resilience
Economic
•Economic
GrowthGrowth
is clearlyisof importance
clearly of importance
‘Economic growth is important’ – major assumption in current
economic thinking at a national regional & local level
Higher incomes, increase well-being & lead to prosperity for all
Indeed much of CLES’ everyday work is based around the five
‘drivers’ of productivity that underpin growth:
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
Skills
Enterprise
Innovation
Investment
Competition
•
But thereBut
are there
limits to
relentlessly
are
limits to going after
growth
relentlessly going
after growth
Growth is not going to cure all of our problems: it may end up
reinforcing longstanding issues
Issue 1:
•
Improvements in health, feelings of satisfaction & happiness are
not necessarily synonymous with income or wealth
GDP is not necessarily an effective measure of progress &
prosperity in society
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Issue 2:
Benefits of growth have been delivered ‘unequally’
‘Good times’ didn’t deliver improvements for everyone, e.g.
poorest areas in Northern England 20 years ago – still poorest
Towards the notion of a
‘Civil Economy’: an
economy that works for
people and place
What is meant by a civil economy?
Collaborative, sharing, civil economy: growing importance in
academic literature
Some cities have moved towards this principle in recent decades: e.g.
Portland, Barcelona
Place’s economic, business and social growth as three equally,
mutually reinforcing aspects of success:
 Strong communities and social inclusion as inputs to and outcomes
of economic and business success
 An economy which works for all the people in it
 Refocusing on how economic success is perceived around the
experiences of people and communities
Civil focus has a ‘hard’ economic reality behind it: polarisation of
communities undermines overall economic prosperity
The outcomes
Civil
•The
outcomes ofofaaCivil
Economy
Economy
Economic policy will be guided by a much more joined up approach
Policies will be built upon the dual ambitions of economic prosperity and
social wellbeing
Local inequalities will be less pronounced
Communities will be stronger, with access to support from a wide range
of cross sector actors
Businesses anchored in the city will reap the benefits of a competitive
local labour pool
Places do some or all of the above now – the challenge is to take it to
the next level
Case studies: approaches from
elsewhere – key trends
Similar challenges across cities:
Decreasing public spending
Need to simplify commissioning processes
Reduce bureaucracy towards the social sector
The need to find alternative forms of finance
Social sector not always strategically ‘plugged’ in
Difficulties in proving value for money and quality of delivery
Case studies: approaches from
elsewhere – key trends
But a number of differences in approaches:
Variation in move towards ‘people first’ models
Variations in extent to which economic and social development
is entwined
Engaging the social sector in different ways
Realisation of the social sector importance in supporting job
creation
Understand the need for local social entrepreneurs
Understanding of the wider importance of volunteering
Collaboration has different meanings
Barcelona: the ‘city that puts people
first’
Ethos of Strategic Framework 2012-15 - city that ‘puts the
people first’
Economic and social progress highlighted as two sides of the
same coin
Economic and Social Council of Barcelona set up in 1992
Understanding of importance of social sector ingrained
Collaboration between public, social, private: based on
shared responsibility
Good links between social and commercial
Specific reference towards a ‘civil economy’
Lille: the ‘eco social’ city
Commitment to ensure that all redevelopment benefits ‘Lillois’
Resulted in efforts to create an ‘eco-social’ city
Quality of life viewed more important than gathering of wealth
Have a long term view of economic, social, and environmental
all as one
Demonstrated by approach to young people to become leaders
in sustainable development and communities
Developed an urban contract for social cohesion based
around cross sector local approaches
Actively seeking social entrepreneurs and supportive of
social enterprise
Copenhagen: quality of life combined
with growth
A strong ‘bottom up’ up with a robust strategic framework
Inclusion and quality of life links directly with job creation
Range of local programmes with strong collaboration
Social Zones in disadvantaged areas: local platforms for
cooperation and co-production and supporting growth
Emphasis on generation of local solutions to area’s needs
Strong local delivery based on collaboration that actions policy
(not just rhetoric)
Specific social enterprise strategy in place highlighting levels of
social entrepreneurship
Arrasate–Mondragon, Spain:
cooperative model defies recession
Home to the world renowned successful cooperative corporation –
Mondragon. One of Spain’s top ten corporations
Comprises factories, a multibillion dollar bank, housing, insurance
agencies, a grocery store chain and a network of retail stores
20% of the profit goes to the workers, 70% is reinvested within the
corporation, 10% goes to community projects which include the
Mondragon university
Cooperative’s pay equity rules contribute to the city’s far greater income
and wealth equality – unemployment in the Basque country is 15%
compared to 25% in Spain as a whole
Community survival and job creation are Mondragon’s explicit public
purpose
EU Commissioner for Employment advocates expanding and exporting
the cooperative model
Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy:
cooperative culture brings economic
success
One of richest regions in Europe, known for end manufacturing
Also one of the most cooperative regions in the world
Two thirds of citizens members of a cooperative
Large scale cooperative economy: 30% of GDP by cooperatives
Cooperative economy strongly bolstered by dense networks
This results in low unemployment and high productivity
High levels of social capital has developed alongside economic
gains
Councils run in a cooperative way, providing policy framework for
deep public, private and social collaboration which is central to
area’s success
Portland, Oregon: marrying social and
economic growth
A strong ‘bottom up’ up within a robust strategic framework
City understands social and environmental vitality is critical
Neighbourhoods at the core of the vision for citywide growth
Use community cross sector partnerships to drive job creation
Sectors are mutually influential and a strong model of
collaborative governance has been developed
Integrated drivers for neighbourhood development (all viewed
as mutually dependent on one another)
Business growth
Commercial growth
Community capacity
Bristol: focus on community
Strategic thinking understands strong overlap of social and
economic
Focus upon social and community focused goals
Led to a culture of volunteering across the city
Understand value of VCS in employability and skills
But levels of collaboration are not as advanced as other
examples
Implementing development of ward based Community
Partnerships
Like other UK cities, major focus on commissioning and service
delivery
Scope for us to to do more?
Foreign case studies show the potential of a Civil Economy: value
of people and communities: but how much is transferable?
Case studies show advanced thinking around a ‘whole place’
approach
Key is recognition of social sector’s input and support into both
social and economic growth: particularly job creation
On a wider scale, shows that the UK approach to economic
development is narrow
Case studies show that it is not about ploughing money into social
sector
Rather integrating it in top down and bottom up approaches
•In summary
In summary
Growth does matter – it is central to the prosperity of people and
places
However it needs to be managed right – growth at the expense
of everything else is following a dated model and will further
entrench other social and economic problems
Policy needs to be highly sensitive to local circumstances
What about those places that have not grown, even during the
good times?
Perceiving economic and social growth as two sides of the same
coin is critical for future prosperity for people, places and
business: notion of a Civil Economy
•In summary
Workshop discussion
Where is the sector involved in your area in
economic activity currently?
Going forward: Making the case for change?
 Who to influence?
 What evidence?
 What proposals/pilots for moving forward?