Engaging Citizens: Communities for the 21st Century August 27, 2007
Posted by David Gilmour in : Research, Scotland's Futures Forum, eduBuzz, social software , 1 comment so far
Today Matthew Taylor, former chief adviser on political strategy to the Prime Minister and current head of the RSA, gave a lecture to Scotland’s Future Forum on:
how best to encourage communities and citizens to become fully engaged in progressing matters that are important to them and society at large.
I was particularly interested to hear his views on how this might relate to our attempts to increase engagement in education by parents, carers and others in the school communities.
His main argument:
- It’s not about getting policy right - there is no right answer to many modern problems
- It’s not about “Who do we choose to run things?” - the question now is “How can we become the people we need to be to create the future we want?”
- The role of politicians is to support this citizen-centric process - there’s broad agreement on the kind of future we now want: free, fair, decent and environmentally sustainable.
It was interesting that he took the time to explain to the group the huge difference between “Web 1.0″ technologies, which he described as just speeding up existing relationships, and “Web 2.0“, which he described as having “immense scope”.
He raised a number of points in relation to education, in particular what he saw as a “vital need for change in the nature of schooling“. (more…)
