Communities in crisis

The riots over the summer put things into perspective and highlighted the need for community spaces. For me, the riots served as a very harsh reminder of the lack of tight-knit community in our country.

It was sad to see those cases where looting and rioting spread to local community shops, because of the realisation that those involved didn’t feel they were attacking their own community. This is important because it means they don’t share any ownership or have any relationship to their local community in the first place. This surely needs to be addressed before putting lots of people in prison.

In Leeds one day this summer, a group of people gathered to discuss the theme of ‘Communities in Crisis’. The aim was to explore from a variety of perspectives and contexts how and why communities develop qualities of self-reliance, resilience and empowerment in times of crisis. The discussions formed part of a research project led by Paul Chatterton, a lecturer at Leeds University who runs an MA in Activism and Social Change, which is attempting to understand contemporary communities within the dynamics of crisis.

It is now widely accepted that we are currently facing a time of converging crises – a climate crisis, peak oil, and an ever deepening financial crisis. The ‘Communities in crisis’ project defines crisis as “a crucial or decisive point or situation, a moment of ‘creative destruction’ where the dismantling of old infrastructures creates a space for social innovation.” The present moment in UK society, characterised by austerity cuts following a major crisis of capitalism, is creating crises for many communities. However, although lots of people are struggling and being hit hard it’s not all doom and gloom. These moments of “creative destruction” give opportunities for people to discover new ways of being and new ways of claiming power over their everyday lives. Many communities are starting to do this – according to the ‘Communities in Crisis’ research project – “seeking out of necessity or intent, new coping mechanisms based on greater resilience, self-help and participation.”

An Occupy LSX banner on the steps of St Pauls Catherdral

The Occupy movement which continues to grow both globally and in the UK after the occupation of an old disused bank, are leading the way by opening the space for important discussions that need to take place. But what happens when these moments of convergence end? What steps do we take next when we go back to our own communities? This is something which the Climate Camp movement failed to work out and this is where in my opinion long term and sustainable community organising is a necessity.

Starting up a Transition Town has got to be one solution but there are others too. Squatting in the middle of a housing crisis makes sense when there are over 700,000 properties lying empty across the UK. Social centres, info-shops, community gardens – anything which offers an alternative space for communities to gather in times of crises is going to be useful heading into the future. These spaces also build excitement – an excitement that shows we can organise differently.

'Grow Heathrow' photo campaign

On a very basic level this is one of the things we are trying to do with Transition Heathrow. Grow Heathrow – a squatted community garden space, is at its heart a community experiment in action. Everything that happens at Grow Heathrow is an experiment and we are always trying and learning new ways of doing things and new ways of relating to each other. We might not get it right all the time but what is most exciting is the creation of new ways of organising.

Our participation in a ‘Fireworks and Fun Day’ event recently, organised in one of the local Heathrow Villages, may at first appear unrelated to our goal of “building resilient Heathrow communities, capable of collectively coping with the injustices and threats of climate change and peak oil”. However this would be to miss the essential connectedness of our various aims. Events such as these which bring communities together couldn’t be more essential for building resilience and we had a great day with our local community hosting a conker championships and planting up bulbs on the village green. And without strong local communities, we cannot develop the grassroots solutions necessary for combating the global challenges that we face.

This blog was taken from the Transition Network website as part of their social reporting pilot project.