Civic Participation

Social cohesion, social mobility and civic participation are under threat from rising inequalities, tied to health and wellbeing. During the pandemic, civic culture was radically relocated both into local communities and away from them (online), prompting optimistic predictions of increased growth and economic resilience along different economic models as well as a large appetite to develop community development models. At the same time, the shift online prompted serious questions in the third sector around the need for digital development and take up. We ask what a digitally mature third sector should look like as well as how digital innovation might support asset-based community development. Exploring the lived experiences of civic culture, through work with public and third sector partners, we also ask what collective transformations of people can sustainably build and promote civic culture? Can we develop these practices and collective transformations to structurally respond to inequalities? What would this look like – to whom, for whom?