A BBC documentary called the 'Great Storm That Saved a City' provides a fascinating insight not only into the storm itself, but how it played its part in transforming Glasgow’s housing and in particular how it sowed the seeds of the city’s community controlled housing associations. These tenant-led organisations have consistently argued for their governance to … Continue reading The power of the volunteer
Governance
#democracymatters
The way we live our lives is constantly changing; democracy is changing too. Increasingly people want to share in making decisions, or at least have a greater understanding as to why certain decisions have been made on their behalf. In order to make democracy work better for everyone, and especially for those who feel left … Continue reading #democracymatters
How can people who have been excluded from power play an equal role?
Claire Ainsley suggests three ideas for reforming democracy. New plans have been published by the UK Government to give local residents more say in decisions affecting their lives, as part of a wider strategy to strengthen communities and introduce participatory democracy. These are long overdue: we know 14 million people are locked in poverty and a daily … Continue reading How can people who have been excluded from power play an equal role?
Map reading
Over the past decade or so, significant investment has come from Scottish Government in support of social enterprise and in that time a complex array of supporting infrastructure has evolved - all of it intended to help the sector grow. At times it’s been referred to as a ‘pipeline’ of support – inferring that an … Continue reading Map reading
Ostrum public services
Elinor Ostrum is probably best well known for being the first and, to date, the only woman to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. Her most important work, backed up by a huge amount of empirical research, was aimed at proving that communities were more than capable of taking control of their own … Continue reading Ostrum public services
Good governance
At the recent Third Sector Interface (CVS and Volunteer Centres in old money) conference, I sat next to someone whose job it is to help very early stage, grass roots groups through the bureaucratic minefield of sorting out constitutions, understanding committee roles and responsibilities, charitable law, finance and so on. She described some pretty dire … Continue reading Good governance
The experiences of diversegender tertiary students: Structural discrimination and microaggressions
Abstract This paper documents forms of discrimination that stufents with diversegender identities face within New Zealand tertiary enviroment, and reports on students suggestions for strategies to support the normalisation of gender diversity. Findings from this qualitative study are based on data collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven participants. They indicate that although participants did … Continue reading The experiences of diversegender tertiary students: Structural discrimination and microaggressions
