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Re: Beginning the search for civil society

Given that the majority of civic society organsiations are hidden like an iceberg below the water line because they are not registered, and many have short lives, how are you getting the message round that you are looking for people to let you know about their groups. Unless I have missed it I cannot find a list on your website. How can people add names. e.g. the North East Slavery & Abolition Group and the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Network, both of which I co-ordinate?

Re: Beginning the search for civil society

I'm very interested in you current mapping... I have been considering trying to map the hidden arts sector on a county level. In the current economic climate funding cuts will hit the professional sector and decrease the opportunities for people to explore a range of creative skills. I feel there is a need to raise the profile of the informal sector to offer an alternative creative outlet. Whilst there may be opportunities to strengthen the sector finding them presents a challenge. I would be interested in hearing the most successful methods you have found.

let us get together to share ideas

i represent business in the community (bitc) as an assistant to steve fitzgerald. we both promote the prince of wales programme of MAYDAY as part of bitc's work bitc. this was discussed at our office in bournville earlier in the year, with your pete alcock. a positive meeting and one which provided a link with TSRC regarding newsletters and updates.

from your work at grassroots, plus the operational list of third sector /voluntary TSRC has collated, is it possible for a meeting with yourself to be arranged. i think that this would be most useful for both parties, as i feel that there is a huge amount for us to share and utilise, for the benefit of the community - specifically the groups that you are constatnly meeting below the radar.

bitc has many programmes related to help and add value within the community.
from our data base we may be able to add value to your community work.

i look forward to your considered reply

regards

michael

Re: Beginning the search for civil society

Hi all
Just back from holidays and chuffed to see a few responses to my first blog.... some answers for your questions:
Sean - yes, it's tough trying to find the 'iceberg'. My work is based on two very small areas in England - no more than a square mile for each one. I'm finding that walking around and talking to people, dropping into public areas such as centres and building networks with people in groups is helping to get the word round that I am out and about... having said this, I doubt this method alone would work if I was doing a large-scale mapping exercise. Thanks for the name of the groups you mention - unfortunately, neither of these operate in the local areas that I am working in ... but who knows, if we extend the geographical areas of our work we'll get back in touch to collect more info from you.

Sue - for me it's been the very mix of searches that have made the exercise successful - I really don't think I can choose one search over another ... I notice you want to find arts groups at county level. If you were to try and replicate the approach I have used, this would be a huge task! This is because I have literally been walking the streets, dropping into public areas where people meet, looking at adverts on shop windows and talking to people with local knowledge .... all of which takes an enormous amount of time even in the small geographical areas that I am working in. All said and done, I thought it might be helpful for you to know how I have found arts groups (beyond contacting umbrella organisations) ... I've found them by browsing adverts on notice boards in libraries and community centres (in my own neighbourhood some of these are advertised in coffee shops), it might also be useful to look through local newspapers. Once you have list, you could visit or talk to the group to find out about other groups .... it can all spiral out of control very quickly, so beware!
Good luck with it all

Michael - thanks for this. I've noticed you've also sent me an email ... I'll get an update from Pete Alcock when I am next in the office (tomorrow) and will get back to you to talk further.

Keep on blogging
Andri

Re: Beginning the search for civil society

Hi Andri,

I saw you present at the ESRC's research methods festival earlier this summer and asked you a question about how effectively mapping (a tool that tends to represent a rather static version of place) can capture groups and organisations which can appear, disappear, and change quite quickly. You responded that not all of the organisations you came across were new and transient, which was a good reminder that many 'below the radar' groups can be highly organised and have long histories. Still, I wonder whether there is a need for a mapping tool (perhaps an online tool?) that can make it easy to capture and represent change over time, not just present a snapshot of a place and its organisational landscape at a particular moment in time. I wonder if you have come across anything like this in your research?

I will look forward to reading future blogs. The project I am involved with - Pathways through Participation - has also involved a form of mapping. In our case, we facilitated participatory mapping workshops in three areas across England - Enfield, Leeds, and Suffolk - to learn more about where and how people participate in their local areas. We wrote up some reflections on the workshop findings and the mapping process itself in a report, which is available at our website: www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk.

Best wishes,
Sarah Miller
Institute for Volunteering Research

Re: Beginning the search for civil society

Hi Sarah

I recall your question at the ESRC's research methods festival earlier this year on how effectively can our mapping tools be used to capture groups and organisations which can appear, disappear, and change quite quickly. Whilst it is possible to adapt the tools to understand aspects of change, as they stand I would advise against this. Ultimately, they were developed to help identify different types of 'below-the-radar' groups and activity with the specific aim to engage with debates on definitions and approaches used to understand ‘BtR’ activities and groups and to examine the policy implications of these.

You also ask whether there is a need for mapping tools, such as an on-line one, that can make it easy to capture and represent change over time. If the essence of your interest is on understanding change, are you interested in the changes to the landscape or to the organisations? If it is the landscape, theoretically the use of an on-line tool could be one (of many) ways to do this. Nevertheless, you will be relying on ‘BtR’ activities and groups to sign up to this. Further, I wonder how such a tool in-and-of-itself could capture change? It would still raise methodological and practical questions on how one would interpret the landscape at different points in time. How, for example, would you know whether an activity or group has folded? Moved elsewhere? changed form? I recall similar (and other) problems in a project I worked on for the Women's Resource Centre and the Centre of Institutional Studies (University of East London) more than ten years ago in which we tried to make sense of a collation of databases on London women’s organisations (several of which might now be referred to as BtR groups and activities).

If you are interested in understanding change in organisations – again there are many ways to do this, including: retrospective interviewing, ethnographic approaches, longitudinal work and a combination of these and other tools. It is by no means a comprehensive approach, but for the Real Times project that Rob Macmillan is coordinating at the TSRC, four of the 16 core cases have a 'below-the-radar' dimension to them. Two of these cases constitute villages in rural areas and the other two cases consist of centres that support BtR activities in urban areas. For these, as with the other 12 cases, we will be following them over time to understand different aspects of their development.

Ultimately there are many options open to you. The irresponsibly curious part of me would like to see further developments in mapping the BTR landscape at a national scale and over time. This would, however, be incredibly resource- and labour-intensive and I can't think of any reason that would justify such an expense; especially in the current economic climate. Perhaps there is potential for a selection of areas in which a study could be carried out using a combination of tools. I would like to see an adaptation of the methods I am using, perhaps with an on-line tool, in which snapshot intervals are taken with depth interviews to understand the extent, if any, and nature of change to the BtR landscape and to the activities and groups themselves.

I am not aware of on-line mapping tools that have been used specifically to understand change; nevertheless, that doesn’t mean they are not out-there. If anyone reading this knows of such work, or is doing this, please post information here.

Best
Andri

Re: Beginning the search for civil society

Interesting work, and sensible approach to locate the complex of 'below the radar' community activity. I was surprised that your six types of group didn't include 'place-based' -- eg residents associations, community gardening, friends of local parks, etc -- though you highlight two such groups (city farm, community garden) as left out by your typology. This probably comes down to your report looking at just two places. Where I live -- inner city multi-ethnic densely-built up -- such 'place-based' community activity is quite a prominent part of the informal community sector, though probably fairly insignificant or invisible in the 'formal voluntary sector' here.