A force of nature

According to Third Sector, the Big Society Network “have abandoned their programme of 'town hall tours' after a turbulent first event in Stockport, Greater Manchester”.

According to Third Sector, the Big Society Network “have abandoned their programme of 'town hall tours' after a turbulent first event in Stockport, Greater Manchester”.

Paul Twivy, chief executive of the network, is quoted as saying "At the moment, if you try to do any public meetings about the big society, everything is completely driven by anger, anxiety and nervousness about what cuts the spending review will produce,"

On the blogosphere there has been a bit of debate about this first event and the amount of anger on display. Julian Dobson, co-founder of New Start, wrote on his blog that understanding this anger is a vital process for anyone wishing to build the Big Society.

Nat Wei, the government’s senior advisor on the Big Society,responded on his blog, on the need to harness anger and “direct it to finding solutions”.

Many words have been written on the value of involving the public in decisions which affect them, but I cannot help but think that there is still a somewhat naïve view of human nature which underlies a lot of practice in this area.

The fact is that community engagement activities which are run by public sector bodies will always risk being met with anger, confusion, mistrust and resentment.

Community engagement activities which are run by public sector bodies will always risk being met with anger, confusion, mistrust and resentment 

Our chief executive has argued that policy makers need to take into account new insights into human nature, but there is also a case for policy makers and practitioners to take into account quite old accounts of human nature, such as the fact that people do not trust politicians and that party politics and vested interests are inseparable from the process of decision making.

Or am I just being naïve?