11 - Developing the well-connected Community

Summary

Only connect! That was the whole sum of her sermon.

E.M. Forster, Howards End, 1910, p 188

This book has sought to demonstrate the value of networks and the importance of networking practices for community development. It has argued that community workers can play an active role in weaving and repairing the fabric of society: creating new ties and consolidating relationships. This contributes to the development of well-connected communities through nurturing internal bonds and associations, while also setting up and strengthening ties that bridge across community boundaries and link up with external agencies.

Over the years since this book was first published (2004) the significance of connectedness has been recognised increasingly as contributing to individual wellbeing, promoting community health and ensuring that civil society functions more or less democratically and coherently. Being well connected is not just about the number of links in our networks but about the quality of those relationships and how interactions help us to ‘get by’ and to ‘get on’. The idea of social solidarity rejects the spurious dichotomy between the individual citizen or resident and ‘community’ belonging. Rather, it is based on combining emotional and political dimensions of rights, civic responsibilities, mutuality and emotional attachments (Lawrence, 2018; 2019). Many forms of social and community capital are needed for people to thrive.

As earlier chapters have demonstrated, the ‘bonding’ capital of interpersonal networks provides internal structure, enabling information sharing, mutual support and collective action at grassroots level. A community with good ‘bridging’ connections is likely to be more cohesive: able to adapt to change and deal with differences more effectively. But communities cannot flourish if they are not also well connected with effective links to outside influences and resources.

The latest government strategy for the future of civil society (Cabinet Office, 2018) shapes its vision around a ‘connected, resourceful society’. It sets direction and principles for policies that it hopes will decentralise power and create conditions for the creation of ‘social value’ and thriving communities. Like much government thinking before, it envisages a strong role for community and voluntary organisations taking responsibility for some complex problems that the state has been unable to solve.