A civic ethic
As we pulled together our notes from visits and interviews, and began to develop our typology of disciplines and practices, we noticed that a certain ethic or disposition ran through all of the work we were seeing. We noticed something similar when working on an earlier Kinship Works report, Civic Rewilding. There we described a ‘community instinct’ that was distinct from, and in almost direct contrast to, the more bureaucratic instincts of a traditional public service.
We concluded that it would be helpful to name this civic ethic, because it so clearly departs from the mentality that currently dominates most large public institutions. As an example, people working on the ground in communities tend to see a person in their social context, and not as an individual, or a symptom or a problem to be solved. They relate to people, often face-to-face, as rounded human beings, as opposed to defining people by siloes (e.g. a patient, or a job-seeker). They take time to get to know the person and their community, listening deeply – and the strength of their work comes in part from this depth of understanding. They focus on strengths, not weaknesses. And they often seek to empower the person, unlocking their agency, quite unlike the often disempowering effects of bureaucracy.
Civic practitioners also seem to work in systemic ways, focusing on the structures and systems which have led to the person being in a particular situation. The debt a person is in, or a spell of unemployment, or a child excluded from school, are understood as the product of systemic challenges like a shortage of affordable housing, rather than individual failings. This is why civic work often entails or is closely allied with advocacy, organising, and campaigning.
We could articulate this civic disposition through a series of principles:
Seeing the person as a human being first and foremost, as opposed to the abstract categories of bureaucracy (job-seeker, pupil, patient)
Seeing the structure behind the situation. Understanding the root causes of people’s challenges, and the ways in which these might be changed.
Strengths before deficits. Looking for what is there – capacities, assets, relationships, stories – before seeing what is missing or broken.
Relationships as the work, not an afterthought. Recognising that a deep and authentic human connection is often the way in which change is achieved.
Continuity and long-termism. Not ‘discharging’ people once a single problem is solved, but staying with a person, sometimes for years.
A non-anxious disposition. Being willing to sit with ambiguity, to deal with the anxiety of not intervening, and to give people space to grow, and even to make mistakes.
Centring agency. Prioritising the work of rekindling a person’s, or a community’s, capacity to shape the circumstances of their own lives.
Blurring personal and professional boundaries. Recognising that public servants are human beings too, driven by purpose and informed by their own experiences.
Finally, the work of civic renewal is very often, though not always, grounded in a place. Much of the best work takes place at neighbourhood-level, and is accountable to local people. This work often builds out from something tangible: a much-loved building, garden, or communal meal.