Post by Mitch on May 20, 2006 11:49:10 GMT
I've been dipping into this book over the last few weeks, and am taking much from it. First published in 1973, there's still much that is fresh, and usable on the ground.
I think there are additional complications now for community groups challenging local issues, planners and so on - and this is to do with the appropriation of community groups, and indeed the very term 'Action Group' by local government representatives and central government led initiatives, and by extension the challenge can become contained, paternalistically controlled, then essentially benign - the waters are a bit muddy these days on the 'Action Group' scene and independence (by this I mean a focus on the issue alone, with no political motivation to promote this or that party involved) is hard to maintain.
Here's a snippet from Ward's book which I highly recommend,
Chap 6, 'Who is the Plan?'
"Professional Planners of highways, of redevelopment housing, of inner-city renewal projects have treated challenges from displaced communities or community groups as a threat to the value of their plans rather than as a natural part of the effort at social reconstruction. Over and over again one can hear in planning circles a fear expressed when the human beings affected by planning changes become even slightly interested in the remedies proposed for their lives. 'Interference', 'blocking', and 'interruption of work' - these are the terms by which social challengers or divergencies from the planners' projections are interpreted. What has really happened is that the planners have wanted to take the plan, the projection in advance, as more 'true' than the historical turns, the unforseen movements in the real time of human lives.........
"We already have examples, both in Britain and in the United States, of community groups (with no 'official' status) developing their own rehousing plans, just as feasible as those of the local authority, but more in tune with the desires of tenants, and capable, even under present-day conditions, of financial viability through housing society finance. The next step is the Neighbourhood Council idea, and the step after that is for neighbourhoods to achieve real control of neighbourhood facilities. After that comes the federation of neighbourhoods.
The paradox here is that you can see the usual indifference and low electoral turn-out for the local authority elections and, at the same time, widespread support for and interest in an ad hoc community action group which devotes much of its time to fighting the local authority. From an anarchist point of view this is not surprising. The council, polarised on political party lines, remote from the neighbourhood, dominated by its professional officials who, as Chris Holmes said, operate the machinery in such a way as to make local initiative fruitless, is the descendent of nineteenth-century squirearchical paternalism. The Community Association, springing up from real concern over real issues, operates on the scale of face-to-face groups, and for this very reason is invested with a kind of popular legitimacy".
(Anarchy in Action, Colin Ward, First Published 1973, George Allen & Unwin Ltd)
I think there are additional complications now for community groups challenging local issues, planners and so on - and this is to do with the appropriation of community groups, and indeed the very term 'Action Group' by local government representatives and central government led initiatives, and by extension the challenge can become contained, paternalistically controlled, then essentially benign - the waters are a bit muddy these days on the 'Action Group' scene and independence (by this I mean a focus on the issue alone, with no political motivation to promote this or that party involved) is hard to maintain.
Here's a snippet from Ward's book which I highly recommend,
Chap 6, 'Who is the Plan?'
"Professional Planners of highways, of redevelopment housing, of inner-city renewal projects have treated challenges from displaced communities or community groups as a threat to the value of their plans rather than as a natural part of the effort at social reconstruction. Over and over again one can hear in planning circles a fear expressed when the human beings affected by planning changes become even slightly interested in the remedies proposed for their lives. 'Interference', 'blocking', and 'interruption of work' - these are the terms by which social challengers or divergencies from the planners' projections are interpreted. What has really happened is that the planners have wanted to take the plan, the projection in advance, as more 'true' than the historical turns, the unforseen movements in the real time of human lives.........
"We already have examples, both in Britain and in the United States, of community groups (with no 'official' status) developing their own rehousing plans, just as feasible as those of the local authority, but more in tune with the desires of tenants, and capable, even under present-day conditions, of financial viability through housing society finance. The next step is the Neighbourhood Council idea, and the step after that is for neighbourhoods to achieve real control of neighbourhood facilities. After that comes the federation of neighbourhoods.
The paradox here is that you can see the usual indifference and low electoral turn-out for the local authority elections and, at the same time, widespread support for and interest in an ad hoc community action group which devotes much of its time to fighting the local authority. From an anarchist point of view this is not surprising. The council, polarised on political party lines, remote from the neighbourhood, dominated by its professional officials who, as Chris Holmes said, operate the machinery in such a way as to make local initiative fruitless, is the descendent of nineteenth-century squirearchical paternalism. The Community Association, springing up from real concern over real issues, operates on the scale of face-to-face groups, and for this very reason is invested with a kind of popular legitimacy".
(Anarchy in Action, Colin Ward, First Published 1973, George Allen & Unwin Ltd)