PinnedDon’t/DO buy this book — CITIZENS — How The Key To Fixing Everything Is All Of Us #CitizensNotConsumersIn case you hadn’t heard — I wrote a book, ‘CITIZENS — Why The Key To Fixing Everything Is All Of Us’. It’s OUT NOW! If you’ve followed my journey in any way over the last year. 💚I want to thank you all for your help so far, but as…Book Recommendations2 min readBook Recommendations2 min read
Published inNew Citizenship Project·May 23#CouncilCulture: How can we really shift the relationship between councils and citizens?A new collaborative innovation project from the New Citizenship Project aimed at breaking the gravitational pull of business-as-usual in local government As COVID-19 swept through the United Kingdom and the country went into lockdown, something extraordinary happened within the realm of local government. In their tens of thousands, council officers…Community7 min readCommunity7 min read
Published inNew Citizenship Project·Jan 30What if democracy was RAPID?Note: This is a 2023 updated version of a more exploratory Medium post I first wrote in 2018. Since then, my thinking on it has firmed up, and the New Citizenship Project team have had a couple of chances to put RAPID democracy into practice… The concept of RAPID democracy…Politics4 min readPolitics4 min read
Apr 8, 2022How can Local Government embrace the Citizen-led energy that came with the 2020 Lockdowns?On 14 March 2020 — nearly two weeks before the first lockdown was imposed in Britain — a postcard dropped through my door. It read ‘Hello! If you are self-isolating, I can help.’ It gave the name, address and mobile number of someone who lived around the corner. A second…Local Governmnet7 min readLocal Governmnet7 min read
Apr 5, 2022In light of yesterday’s IPCC report, can we unfuck ourselves?I’ve heard the different IPCC reports referred to as: Report 1. How fucked are we? Report 2 . How did we get this fucked? Report 3. How do we unfuck ourselves? (Also the format for the wonderful Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts podcast series) So, in light of the publication of IPCC report 3 , and with everything else going on in the world right now, I suspect you’re asking: can we unfuck ourselves?Climate Change2 min readClimate Change2 min read
Apr 2, 2022What if organisations and nations focused less on “satisfaction” or even trust among customers/employees/people, and more on building AGENCY?I talked about this last week in front 800+ people at the New Local Stronger Things conference, at London’s magnificent Guildhall — and I wanted to share it here. I define agency as “power to act on a scale commensurate with the task or challenge.” …Democracy2 min readDemocracy2 min read
Mar 25, 2022What if no one ever had to make impossible decisions?The headlines this week in the UK are all about “security for working people” — but as the cost of living crisis intensifies, and with food prices in particular set only to rise further, more and more people are facing what The Trussell Trust rightly calls “impossible decisions”. 😣 The…Economic Security2 min readEconomic Security2 min read
Mar 8, 2022There is something potentially seismic and painfully, almost hopeful happening in Ukraine. The stories of Subject, Consumer and Citizen help us see it for what it is.There is something potentially seismic and painfully, almost incredibly hopeful happening in Ukraine right now. The stories of Subject, Consumer and Citizen help us see it for what it is. Putin’s attack was pure Subject Story: raw autocrat power and imperial domination, straight out of the 19th century (if not…Ukraine2 min readUkraine2 min read
Mar 5, 2022What if the leaders of “the West” were to follow Zelenskyy’s lead — and involve us?A few days ago, I wrote a LinkedIn post offering a way of seeing hope in this darkest time through the lens of the three “deep stories” I work with. …Ukraine6 min readUkraine6 min read
Jul 21, 2021Summer reading for CitizensI’m in the process of writing a book called CITIZENS, due for release early 2022, and tapping into the insights of a growing mailing list as I do so. …Citizenship5 min readCitizenship5 min read
