Almere pilot ecovillage in the Netherlands: these communities are designed to be sustainable, using technology to grow food, generate energy, recycle water and manage wasteGoing local with inclusive communities
Will adversity make us look at how we live together? Could people collectively take on responsibility for the welfare of everyone living in their area? Robin Jackson calls for a radical rethink
In the years ahead, there will be a significant reduction in the amount the state can spend on health and social care. Regardless of the effects of a possible Brexit, the industrial and commercial sectors are contracting, with a consequent loss in tax revenues.
Declining personal income will increase pressure on individuals and families to seek various ways to supplement reduced incomes or to replace earnings that are no longer available. This may lead to the establishment of locally based enterprises, which would reduce commuting costs and lower atmospheric pollution caused by using private or public transport.
Already there is a growing trend for people to work from home and be directly linked via the internet to a hub somewhere in the UK or abroad. Significant increases in the cost of food and drink at out-of-town shopping centres may encourage the creation of local community projects supplying the immediate neighbourhood with affordable, fresh food.
One possible consequence of these various trends is the growth of a sense of identity with the locality in which the residents live and a greater willingness to engage in local community activities, whether of a recreational, social, commercial or political nature.
At some point, this growing sense of identification with the local community may encourage residents to conclude it is their responsibility to provide or support different patterns of local health and social care, whether for young children, older people or those with a disability.
What is important here is that health and social care would no longer be seen as services or commodities but as efforts to strengthen the fabric of community life.
Big problems, small solutions
A problem has been that successive governments of all political persuasions have misguidedly placed their faith in solving problems relating to the provision of health and social services by attempting macro solutions, none of which have worked. If a caring society is to be created, we need to seek micro solutions that foster localism and community endeavour and enable people to truly ‘take back control’ of their lives.
If no appropriate action is taken, there is a strong probability that an American-style health and social care system will emerge, which is answerable to no one.
Regardless of whether governments intervene, economic, social, environmental and political pressures are going to force individuals and organisations to explore ways of adjusting to the rapid changes with which they are confronted.
The changing character of work, the growing obligation to be more closely involved with one’s immediate community, the need to develop more harmonious relations with one’s immediate physical environment,
the assumption by the individual of greater personal responsibility for one’s actions; all these will require considerable readjustments.
As a society, we are going to have to face the negative consequences of climate change, resource depletion, failing political institutions and the globalisation of services….
In addition to these global problems, we will have to confront the consequences of the greater use of robotics and the application of artificial intelligence (AI), which will lead to a dramatic contraction in employment in the industrial and commercial sectors.
Devolved responsibility
What I would like to see – circumstances may well dictate it – is a decentralisation of democratic structures, where the role of the state is significantly diminished and a greater role is played by regional governments (possibly 12 in England).
Most critically of all, local government should be given greater responsibilities and resources for health, social care and education. Such a process could be characterised as a ‘cantonisation’ of democratic structures.
The system is already used in Switzerland. The key to its success here is not from natural resources (which are in extremely short supply) but in the country’s distinctive political institutions, which ensure that ordinary citizens are involved in political decision making, and that no one interest group is able to benefit unduly at the expense of another.
While the Swiss central government is responsible for foreign policy, defence, federal railways and the mint, all other issues – education, labour, economic and welfare policies – are determined by the governments of the cantons and communes.
Each canton has its own parliament and constitution. The communes, which vary in size from a few hundred to more than a million people, have their own legislative and executive councils. Cantonal and communal governments are elected by the citizens living in their areas.
The cantonal system has served the ethnically diverse people of Switzerland for more than 700 years. We could learn to our benefit from the example set by Switzerland and adopt similar systems of local, citizen-based government here.
Eco communities
It is also relevant here to explore the development of eco communities where residents, as individuals and in groups, seek to become as self-supporting as possible. In various parts of Europe, large eco communities are being created.
In an eco community, there are:
- A greater chance for the development of a sense of communal wellbeing
- The possibility of a reduction in physical and mental health problems and
- Less of a need for expensive, professional health and social care support.
Because of the nature of changes in the employment market, an increasing number of jobs are becoming based in the home or the immediate area, such as consultancy, commerce, finance, crafts and building maintenance.
Most important of all is the opportunity for people to experience a genuine sense of belonging to and of being cared for in a community. In such an environment, people with a learning disability and their families could be more fully integrated.
“In this environment, people with a learning disability
and their families could be more fully integrated”
Several pressures are leading to the growth of eco communities, including:
- Ecological pressures, such as climate change and pollution (of the air, land, river and sea) and their impact on quality of life
- Depletion of resources, such as fresh water, fossil fuel and forests
- Technological pressures, such as the impact of robotics and AI.
Characteristics of eco communities include:
- Power generated from a variety of sources, such as wind, solar, water, geothermal and waste
- Growing as wide a range of food as possible from activities such as agriculture, horticulture and viticulture
- A range of jobs in mini industrial and commercial areas, such as engineering, crafts and repairs
- Local provision of social, educational and recreational facilities.
Paralleling the growth of eco communities is the increasing adoption in some Western European countries of the concept of rewilding. This is where communities assume responsibility for the quality of the physical environment and acknowledges humanity’s link to and dependence on this.
Rewilding involves changing to less expensive agricultural practices that lead to the regeneration of soil quality and productiveness, a reduction in use of fertilisers and pesticides, an improvement in air and water quality and a greater diversification in local wildlife, including insects, birds, mammals and fish.
In short, rewilding leads to a return to a natural balance and the creation of complementary habitats, where different species coexist.
An alternative way
Let us be under no illusion as to how serious the current situation this. The number of local authorities in England – including Northamptonshire and Somerset – which are being forced to abandon critical services for those most in need will increase.
If one combines recent forecasts that a further financial crash comparable to that of 2008 is in the offing with the damaging economic consequences of a possible Brexit, then we need as a matter of urgency to explore alternative ways to make provision for the most vulnerable in our society.
The past three decades have provided unambiguous proof that the national government is incapable of providing effective services for those most in need….
Robin Jackson is an author and social commentator on social care and learning disability and a visiting research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire.
Do you agree profound change is needed to the way we live? What kind of changes would you recommend? To respond to Robin Jackson’s article, email the editor: simonj@jarr.demon.co.uk
