Exploring the future of civil society
29th October 2007, 2:32 pm
A report on the results of the first phase of Carnegie UK’s ‘Inquiry into the future of civil society in UK and Ireland’ has been published. It explores the possible future threats to or opportunities for civil society, in 20 years time.
An article by inquiry chair Geoff Mulgan in Society Guardian (http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,2197394,00.html) gives an overview, but acknowledges that ‘most organisations have to live hand to mouth’ and have limited time to look at the bigger picture. A ‘Toolkit -Using scenarios and futures thinking’ provides a short guide to the subject with some useful ideas and is worth a read, as is ‘Futures for civil society - Summary’, if the full documents are too much. All downloadable in pdf format via http://democracy.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/civil_society.
For a sample, a diagram of drivers of change gives four Uncertainties Drivers: Limits of economics (such as growing socio-economic divides and pressure on global resources), Personal values (such as rising individualism and shifting identities), Shifting activism (such as disengagement with formal politics and the rise of ‘digital natives’), State and individual (such as the visibility of the security state and the regulation of civil life).
The definition of civil society used draws from Michael Edwards (see http://www.infed.org/association/civil_society.htm), with three dimensions - civil society as associational life, as the good society and as arenas for public deliberation.