Community participation - Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Network dynamics: explaining the pattern
around; for example, those with more wealth consume more products, which causes
wealth to flow out to others in the network. But investments cause wealth to be
concentrated, because those who get lucky then have more to invest and the chance
to make even greater gains. It turns out that the concentrating ‘rich get richer’ effect
produced by investments is always the stronger of the two and always cancels out
the distributive effect that transactions might have. This is why the ‘trickle-down’
economics fashionable in the US and the UK in the 1980s proved so wrong. 8
What are the implications for community participation in governance? There is no
reason to suppose that what is true of financial capital will not be true of social
capital. 9 Our contention is that, in key respects, Bouchaud and Mézard’s ‘rich get
richer’ model holds true for social capital too. Gaining linking social capital through
participation in governance increases the likelihood of gaining more linking social
capital. Participation confers benefits that do not necessarily ‘trickle down’ to nonparticipants.
One plausible explanation for why this should be so is that the benefits of
participation tend to take the form of ‘investments’ that concentrate social capital
rather than ‘transactions’ that spread it around.
First, participants invest in their human capital – their knowledge, skills and, crucially,
the confidence in using them. ‘You don’t realise you’re changing’, said one
interviewee, ‘but you do become more confident. You get used to questioning.’
Another described how, at the first meeting of a new committee, she had had to
explain what her community group was:
I nearly had a heart attack. But I did it, I got through it, I came back and
explained I’d done it and I felt more confident to do it again.
One of the first things they learn is about the protocols of formal meetings (minutes,
agendas, speaking through the chair and so on). Jim took on a governance role in
the residents’ association because of his experience with running meetings in the
local Labour Party. Brenda explained how, through her experience in different
forums, she had learnt not to be outfoxed by jargon or pedantic rules about how and
when to have her say. More subtly, participants learn about how the system really
works – about navigating the organisational politics affecting decisions; about
advocacy, negotiation, persuasion and deal making; above all, they learn the
confidence to apply this knowledge and skill in governance settings. ‘Once you’re on
the inside you learn how things work and that you can’t always get what you want’,
says Tracey. ‘But the trick is to learn to compromise and fight your corner – I can still
stand up for my principles.’
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