Western society now consists of two types of key structure - the networked, non-geographically tied social group, and geograpic communities of people who co-exist but rarely communicate. We live our lives in the former, but most civic institutions exist in the latter. By all rights this should cause some pretty serious policy problems. But they're not obvious. What are they?
« mySociety.org | Main | Interview with F/A 18 Interceptor Author Bob Dinnerman »
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.
The views on this blog's are mine - not mySociety's or anyone else's.
Recent Posts
- Publishing policy papers I wrote for politicians & advisors, some regrets, and a statement about my personal politics
- Changing the meaning of 'a good data visualisation'
- The Two Types of Data Visualisation, and Why it Matters to Understand the Difference
- How to get unlimited mobile data for your phone if you're visiting the USA
- Yes to AV - Because it's all about the message
- Asking the wrong question about Data.gov
- Open Data: How Not To Cock It Up
- Yes, I'm going to be advising the Opposition on IT
- Government responds to the Power of Information Review
- The Power of Information Review launches
Recent Comments
- Pigsonthewing on Publishing policy papers I wrote for politicians & advisors, some regrets, and a statement about my personal politics
- Robinhouston on Changing the meaning of 'a good data visualisation'
- ChrisT_alive on The Two Types of Data Visualisation, and Why it Matters to Understand the Difference
- ShaneMcC on The Two Types of Data Visualisation, and Why it Matters to Understand the Difference
- Account Deleted on How to get unlimited mobile data for your phone if you're visiting the USA
- Tomp2 on How to get unlimited mobile data for your phone if you're visiting the USA
- gerv on Yes to AV - Because it's all about the message
- twitter.com/jcukier on Asking the wrong question about Data.gov
- Kraykray on Asking the wrong question about Data.gov
- Paulgeraghty on Asking the wrong question about Data.gov
How about social exclusion? The point about the gulf between floating 'spaces' and rooted 'places' is (as Castells puts it) "elites are global; people are local". Crabtree and I have a piece in Renewal next month, explaining what the internet can do about this.
Posted by: Will Davies | December 19, 2003 at 10:44 PM
For me, this is one of the most pressing questions of our age and may, it occurs to me now, be something to do with age itself, and the age/stage of policy-makers.
The problems associated with geographical space become much more apparent the older you become - even if you're elderly with a computer to hand, you're still a material being ever more rooted to the spot and increasingly unsupported by the 'floating' nature of community and ever more dependent on a material world which is diminishing in different ways.
One way to influence policy might be to make sure policy-makers live 'as though they are old' for a bit - that means sheltered accommodation, limited mobility, limited income, a great deal of time to fill. You could see this as the literal 'end-product' of our societal activities at the moment - but many of us would rather age were a 'richer' experience.
This is one reason why we believe that 'computer clubs' (one of hairnet.org's new ventures) should be rooted in the physical community. In my home virtual community, the end result of all our computer activity is often (still) a tombola stall outside Safeway's or something similar.
There was some work done by Harvard University years ago looking at indicators of community 'health' measured in various ways, eg crime stats, illnesses, etc. The only common indicator (a global project) was that 'healthy' communities had loads of clubs - whether bowls, snooker, crochet, political, faith - the type didn't matter. Their financial status was not an indicator!
Anyway, sorry for rambling a bit...I suppose I just agree with you both!
Posted by: Gill Adams | December 30, 2003 at 09:52 PM