BSc Social Sciences Annual Lecture 2014
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
No booking required
This is the first in what we hope will be a series of yearly lectures in which top professors share their research on matters related to the core concerns of the BSc.
This year, Professor Jane Wills from Queen Mary, University of London, in her talk 'Power to the People?' will be discussing community activism and comparing/contrasting the Coalition government's idea of the 'Big Society'.
Power to the people?
The coalition agreement includes an ambitious agenda to devolve power to the people via localism and the creation of a Big Society. The Labour Party is similarly determined to empower the populace to get more involved in the provision of services and community-level improvements. Our politicians appear increasingly determined to reconfigure the geo-politics of citizen-state relations in the UK.
This presentation will consider these ambitions in relation to the history and practice of institutional community organising. This form of organising was developed by Saul Alinsky in 1930s Chicago and subsequently practised by the Industrial Areas Foundation in the USA before being introduced to the UK in 1989 by the movement now called Citizens UK. In brief, this model advocates building territorial institutional networks between civil society groups (faith, educational, labour and community) to develop political capacity by working together for the common good. This model of organising is based on the belief that people need to organise themselves and develop their own political voice and agency to deal with the state and the market on their own terms. This poses a provocation to the Government's agenda to promote localism and the Big Society; it also provides a mechanism to achieve a more genuine redistribution of power.
The presentation will explore the practices of community organising and their wider significance for contemporary debate about community, geo-citizenship and democracy - localism and the Big Society.
Prof Wills' work has always involved activism, and has focussed in particular on social inequality in London, including the Living Wage campaign. You can find out more about her research here: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/staff/willsj.html
The lecture will be followed by a wine reception.
The event is free, but registration is required: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bsc-annual-lecture-power-to-the-people-prof-jane-wills-qmul-tickets-11168969689?utm_campaign=new_eventv2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb_email&utm_term=eventurl_text
Contact name:
Kate Maclean