Alan Johnson: Captured by our thinking: reframing the poverty debate

 (Powerpoint presentation here)

 

• With George Lakoff's "framing" and Linda Smith's State of the Nation, here are 14 lessons of resistance:
  • Struggle is useful for theorising
  • Important for communities to have an ideal vision or idea of themselves
  • Communities need to define themselves in their own language and terminology
  • Communities need to build something together to nourish social cohesion
  • Mediating radical social change for communities requires a mix of skills eg to translate policy implications, synthesize ideas, identify, and mobilize
  • There is a real role for community entrepreneurs and for activists
  • Social inclusion is a constant process of translation, negotiation, mediation, reciprocity, consent, and readiness
  • In the face of disorganisation and no leadership, sing the same song
  • "Science of muddling through". Solutions don't have to be perfect as improved along the way
  • Solutions are frightening because they impose the risk of the unknown
  • Incremental change will not transform lives or overturn legacies so accelerate the speed of change and use multiple strategies
  • State agencies constantly constitute, target and peel off new groups of the socially excluded and marginalised
  • Communities constantly peel off risky troublemakers
  • If given some capacity, communities tend to work things out on grounds that policy makers often see as irresolvable

This inspiring foundation is for an open forum or "open space technology", where we have a chance to work together in small groups to address issues raised by participants.