Information and Communications

Technology, Community

Development and Urban Governance:

A Study of Transition in North-West

England.

Paul Anthony Johnson

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Leeds

Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

March 2006
Contents

List of tables 4
List of figures 4
Acknowledgements 5
Abstract 7
Candidate’s Declaration and Glossary 8
1. Introduction and overview 9
1.1.Thesis rationale and hypothesis 9
1.2.Aims and objectives of the thesis 10
1.3.Community development and social policy 11
1.4.Information and social inclusion 13
1.5.The restructuring of capitalism 15
1.6.Structure and themes of the thesis 18
2. Information and communications technology, community and
urban governance: a review of the literature 24
2.1.Introduction 24
2.2.The information society? 26
2.3.Shifting conceptions of community 38
2.4.Globalisation and changing forms of governance 51
2.5.Local governance and urban regimes 60
2.6.Community and ICT in context 67
3. Information and communications technology and community
development: four decades of change 71
3.1.Introduction 71
3.2.Community development and community information in the
post-war period 74
3.3.The shift towards radicalism 76
3.4.The ascent of ICT, and the demise of oppositionalism 85
3.5.Social partnership and the coming of New Labour 92
3.6.Community, ICT and governance 108
3.7.Reflecting on the evidence 116
4. Methodology 131
4.1.Introduction 131
4.2.Methodological issues 132
4.3.Qualitative methodologies and theories 135
4.4.Research design 141
4.5.Conducting the research 151
5. Case Study 1: Local governance and community informatics
in Manchester 177
5.1.Introduction 177
5.2.Map of the study 179
5.3.Historical overview 181
5.4.The formation of information policy 185
5.5.Discussion 196
6. Case Study 2: Community organisations and community
informatics across Greater Manchester 206
6.1.Introduction 206
6.2.Map of the study 208
6.3.Function and organisation 209
6.4.Funding and sustainability 221
6.5.Perceptions of technology 225
6.6.Discussion 229

2
7. Case Study 3: Cross-sectoral community informatics
partnerships in Merseyside 237
7.1.Introduction 237
7.2.Map of the study 240
7.3.Company, trust and lottery profiles 244
7.4.The growth of partnership 247
7.5.Roles and functions of enablers 250
7.6.Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative Project (SNIP) 254
7.7.Discussion 261
8. Information and communications technology and community
development: a critique of the policy process 274
8.1.Introduction 274
8.2.The convergence of funding environments 276
8.3.The future of community-ICT resource centres 282
8.4.Social inclusion as a central aim of policy 288
8.5.ICT and the new vocationalism 293
8.6.Smaller community organisations and change 297
8.7.Local information policies and strategies for community
development 300
8.8.An interconnected process of transformation 304
9. Information and communications technology, community and
urban governance: a theory of transition 308
9.1.The transformation of the sector: an overview 308
9.2.Institutionalisation and entrenchment 314
9.3.The shifting nature of governance and welfare 316
9.4.Structure and agency in information governance 331
Appendix 334
References 338

3
List of tables

Table 3.1. Approaches to information and communications

technology (ICT)-related change 126
Table 4.1. Case study research sites and interviewees 176
Table 4.2. The progress of research 190
Table 9.1. Old and new localist models of local governance 341
Table 9.2. Old and new localist models of local information governance 345

List of figures

Figure 4.1. The research process cycle 155

Figure 4.2. The internal case study research process 162
Figure 4.3. The approach to data analysis 184

4
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dave Muddiman for providing me with support and
guidance at every stage of the writing of this thesis. Alistair Black and Tony
Bryant provided invaluable help and direction at crucial stages of the project,
and I would like to thank them also. Thanks to all those who provided me with
information, or agreed to be interviewed by me. Finally, I would like to
acknowledge the support and forbearance of Gloria Johnson through the long
evenings and weekends when this thesis was written.

5
To Heidi, Harry, Gloria, Jack and Isabella

6
Abstract

The debate over the impact of the ‘information revolution’ on the concept of
community has come to ever greater prominence in recent years. Within it,
many issues have arisen concerning the roles played by information in
general, and information and communications technology (ICT) in particular,
as increasingly important facets in the practice of community development.
This thesis provides a new framework for understanding these developments,
challenging the currently dominant paradigm of ‘community informatics’. It
does this by placing the study of ICT-related community development within
the broader context of changing structures of governance in society.

The thesis begins by examining key areas which inform an understanding of

change in the sector. It discusses ideas around the role of information and ICT
in helping shape societal change, and takes a detailed look at the terms
‘community’ and ‘community development’. Exploring questions around the
restructuring of global and local governance, it identifies the most useful
theoretical framework for understanding recent shifts relating to the
community-ICT field. An account is then provided of the historical trajectory of
change over the past four decades. It is argued that there has been a loss of
autonomy among community-ICT organisations. After a discussion of
methodological issues, the middle part of the thesis tests these propositions in
the field through a series of three case studies: the first examining the
information strategy of an innovative local authority, the second looking at the
ICT-based activities of a number of local community organisations, and the
third studying the dynamics of change between different forms of funding for
ICT-related community development.

The final part of the thesis begins by considering the case study findings within
the context of current policy formation. It finds that an interconnected process
of transformation is taking place around six key areas, which together
represent a policy map of ICT-related community development in the UK.
These are the convergence of funding environments, the emergence of a
nationwide infrastructure of community-ICT resource centres, the pursuit of
social inclusion, the rise of a new vocationalism, a changing environment for
smaller community organisations, and the emergence of local information
strategies.

Finally, the theoretical implications of the research are explored. The nature
of transition between current and past regulatory frameworks for ICT-based
community development is analysed. Building on urban regime theory and
concepts of the post-fordist local state, it offers a model of new localist
information governance (NLIG) for the sector. NLIG is oriented towards
economic development, appointed governance bodies, public/private
partnership, individual empowerment and sector professionalisation. Together
these factors have led to a shift in the sector from radicalism to incorporation,
and to the institutionalisation of ICT-related community development.

7
Candidate’s Declaration

I confirm that the thesis is my own work: and that all published or other
sources of material consulted have been acknowledged in notes to the text or
the bibliography. I confirm that the thesis has not been submitted for a
comparable academic work.

Glossary

3tc Merseyside Third Sector Technology Centre

ADI Alliance for Digital Inclusion
BADDAC Bury and District Disability Advisory Council
BRIAN Bury Resource Information and Advice Network
CABx Citizens’ Advice Bureaux
CAIP Community Access Information Point
CBED Community Based Economic Development
CCC Contact Community Care
CDP Community Development Project
CI Community Informatics
CMF Capital Modernisation Fund
CRC Community-ICT resource centre
CVS Council for Voluntary Services
DIP Digital Inclusion Panel
EIG Economic Information Group
ERDF European Regional Development Fund
ESD Electronic Service Delivery
ESF European Social Fund
EU European Union
EVH Electronic Village Hall
HCC Hattersley Computer Centre
HDT Hattersley Development Trust
ICT Information and Communications Technology
INSINC National Working Party on Social Inclusion
JMF John Moores Foundation
MCC Manchester City Council
MCIN Manchester Community Information Network
MIPC Manchester Institute for Popular Culture
MSF Manufacturing Services and Finance Trade Union
MTEC Merseyside Training and Enterprise Council
MTTP Manchester Telematics Training Partnership
NIC Neighbourhood Information and Advice Centre
NLCB National Lottery Charities Board
NLIG New Localist Information Governance
NLG New Localist Governance
KWNS Keynesian Welfare National State
PAT15 Policy Action Team 15
SEU Social Exclusion Unit
SNIP Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative Project
SRB Single Regeneration Budget
SWPR Schumpetarian Workfare Postnational Regime
TEC Training and Enterprise Council
VITAL Voluntary Organisation IT Link

8
Chapter 1:

Introduction and overview

The debate over the impact of the ‘information revolution’ on the concept of

community has come to ever greater prominence in recent years. Within it,

many issues have arisen concerning the roles played by information in

general, and information and communications technology (ICT)[1] in particular,

as increasingly important facets in the practice of community development.

The discussion takes place within the wider context of arguments surrounding

the emergence of an information society, and it is the dynamic tension

between the social and the technological in both theory and practice that lies

at the heart of this study. In particular, it is concerned with the way these

perspectives manifest themselves around issues of community development

and ICT.

This chapter introduces the aims and objectives of the thesis and then outlines

many of the themes to be explored in detail later. It begins by briefly

advancing the main research proposition and aims of the thesis and then

examines the positions occupied by community development and ICT within

British social policy. It then introduces the broader discussion taking place

over issues of the global restructuring of capitalism. This debate is central to

providing a wider context for understanding changes taking place in Britain.

The remainder of the chapter briefly outlines the overall structure and themes

of the rest of the thesis.

9
1.1.Thesis rationale and hypothesis

This thesis provides a new framework for understanding developments in the

field of ICT-related community development, challenging the currently

dominant paradigm of ‘community informatics’. It explores the relationships

that exist between the various strands involved in change, and places the

study of these issues within the broader context of alterations to structures of

governance in society. After providing a detailed literature review of the field

and a consideration of historical change over the past four decades, a

hypothesis is offered as a starting point for empirical research.

The hypothesis contends that in a policy and funding environment dominated

by ideas of public/private partnership and economic development, a shift has

taken place within the positioning of ICT-related community development.

This has resulted in greater levels of incorporation into emerging governance

structures, and led to a loss of autonomy and radicalism in the sector.

1.2. Aims and objectives of the thesis

Within the context of the issues and questions raised above, the specific aims

and objectives of the investigation are:

Main Aims

- To investigate and characterise the current state of information and

communications technology-related community development within the
United Kingdom.
- To identify the central dynamics of change within ICT-related
community development, and examine the nature of possible transition
in the sector.

10
Supporting Objectives

- To explore and critically examine theories of the ‘information society’

and their relationship to the concepts of ‘community’ and ‘community
development’.
- To explore and critically examine theories and models of governance
as they relate to the community-ICT field.
- To investigate shifting local, regional and national policy environments
within which community-ICT initiatives have been developed.
- To undertake indicative case studies of ICT initiatives and diffusion in
the community development field.
- To identify the factors contributing to the perceived success and failure
of various kinds of ICT-related community development.
- To assess the implications of these findings for policy development in
areas such as differential access to ICT, social exclusion and local
information strategies.
- To relate these findings to the developing theory of the ‘information
society’ and its impact on the governance of communities.

1.3. Community development and social policy

Where do social and community issues stand within change? After a long

period at the margins of social and political discourse, the field of community

development is again emerging as a central consideration within United

Kingdom (UK) social policy debates. Located at the interface of the local state

and the independent action of citizens, community development is a key factor

in the struggle to both involve communities on the ground in change and to

institute governmental policy at the most basic level.

The terrain occupied by community development has shifted markedly since

the term came into common usage in the UK after the second world war.

Becoming increasingly radicalised towards the end of the 1960s, community

development practice reached its zenith as an independent-minded movement

with the emergence of the Community Development Projects (CDPs) of the

early 1970s. Although funded by central government, the CDPs offered a

11
critique of welfare capitalism which held out the promise of a grassroots

alternative to paternalist state intervention at the local level. In practical terms,

this was matched on the ground by an upsurge in local community action

initiatives. However, this radicalism proved to be short-lived, as welfare

capitalism came under increasing pressure from a new quarter, the radical

right (Craig and Mayo, 1995, pp.105-09).

Over eighteen years of Conservative rule, many of those who had previously

fought to replace existing welfare institutions were forced to defend those very

structures in the face of a concerted effort to ‘roll back’ the welfare state. That

this was not entirely successful can be seen by the enormous changes in

welfare provision that came into being after 1979. However, there are many

threads of continuity that run through the period, and it has been argued that it

is within existing structures that more sophisticated and significant changes

have mainly occurred (Mayo, 1994; Jessop, 2000, p.14). During this period,

approaches to community development increasingly began to concentrate on

ways of bringing it closer to the centre of policy making at both local and

national levels.

By 1997 and the election of a Labour government, the revitalisation of the

community sector was seen as a key element of the new administration’s

determination to tackle broader problems of social exclusion (see, for

example, Social Exclusion Unit, 2001). This concern has continued until the

present day, with community-based local regeneration and the pursuit of

social inclusion continuing to be central to government urban policy (Social

Exclusion Unit, 2003). However, the terms on which such policies are posited

and put into practice remain contested (Percy-Smith, 2000a, pp.3-7).

12
1.4. Information and social inclusion

The role of information and ICT has been seen by some as central in tackling

problems of social exclusion (National Working Party on Social Inclusion,

1997). It is often recognised, however, that problems are also dependent on

many other structural factors:

The factors that give rise to social exclusion are mainly economic. If the
gap between wealthy people and people on low incomes is not to widen
in the Information Society, social policy needs to continue to confront
and to overcome economic disadvantage.
(National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.5)

Within the community development field, strong community information

activities have long held a significant place. The flourishing of local

neighbourhood information centres and community information banks in the

1970s and 1980s bear testament to this. The emergence of information

technology as a force in the community development field in the 1980s held

out new and more far reaching vistas. Some have seen the prospect of new

technologies allowing the true sense of community to be recovered,

concentrating on the emergence of new forms of networking across time and

space. Wilcox (1996a) contends that:

the information age could be a golden era for the non-profit sector. New
information and communication technologies are creating enormous
opportunities for no profits to increase their efficiency, improve the
quality of services they provide, and influence policy-makers.
(Wilcox, 1996a, p.13)

Even the more sceptical recognise that ICT offers many new possibilities for

promoting fresh forms of action. Their role in tackling deprivation and pushing

community policy forward has also been recognised in official government

13
reports. Most notable is that of the Social Exclusion Unit’s ‘Policy Action Team

15 (PAT15)’ report, which states that:

For people living in low-income neighbourhoods, gaining and exploiting

ICT skills can lead to opportunities to participate fully in the local and
national economy. The arguments for social inclusion and for economic
development in the Information Age are mutually re-enforcing.
(Policy Action Team 15, 2000, Summary, p.4)

Access to ICT at local levels is now seen as pivotal in helping provide local

communities with the tools for community development. However, the

character of this development is not subject to universal agreement. The

problem lies partially in a repositioning of community development within the

broader policy spectrum. As community development has been brought

closer to the centre of policy making concerns, it has also lost much of its

discrete identity. Twenty five years ago the sector loudly proclaimed its

distinctive role as a force acting both in and against the state (London

Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, 1980). Today many community

development initiatives have become subsumed within the wider ambit of the

departmental activities of local authorities.

In this situation, ICT plays a potentially contradictory part in pushing forward

change. On the one hand the possible liberatory aspects of new forms of

communication and information use are stressed. Here, ICT is seen as a

potent means of empowering people in their interactions with each other and

the wider world. The opportunities offered by the technology to develop

communication networks and to retrieve and disseminate information are often

cited as examples of this. In UK policy terms, however, the practical emphasis

has more often been placed in a different direction. Within policy making

circles, social inclusion is often viewed through the prism of what is deemed to

be useful economic activity (Byrne, 1999, p.94). As such many ICT initiatives

14
have been aimed primarily at promoting change through means of tackling

labour market exclusion. This is seen to be achievable through the promotion

of skills acquisition, in turn leading to enhanced economic circumstances for

marginalised individuals and groups.

It is within this broad setting that community development has again become

something of a focus for change. A plethora of bodies and agencies ranging

across national and local boundaries now view community development as an

important vehicle for the implementation of social policy. As indicated, the

Social Exclusion Unit’s National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal sees

community development activity as an essential component of tackling issues

raised by its various Policy Action Teams. Many local authorities are also

developing community based activities aimed at achieving similar outcomes.

The focus extends beyond the public sector proper to bodies such as the Big

Lottery Fund (the successor to the National Lottery Charities Board and the

Community Fund) and to third sector bodies operating at local levels within

communities.

1.5. The restructuring of capitalism

We have seen that the community sector has been subject to enormous

change in recent years, and that there are also various ways of approaching

the impact of technology on changing social and economic structures. All

these changes are taking place within conditions of a broader restructuring of

capitalism. This has been happening since at least the oil crisis of the early

1970s. This transformation has been theorised extensively, and from a

15
number of positions[2]. Within this thesis, I shall broadly take the ideas of the

‘regulation’ school as a starting point for an analysis of change.

The regulation approach supports the possibility of a multi-level view of

capitalist restructuring from the supranational through to the local state. It also

allows for an holistic view of transition through the concepts of a regime of

accumulation and an associated mode of regulation. The term regime of

accumulation refers primarily to the predominant manner in which production

and consumption are organised across an economic system. To keep this

system functioning there must exist a body of interiorised rules and social

processes, ‘taking the form of norms, habits, laws regulating networks and so

on that ensure the unity of the process’. Together, these make up the mode of

social and political regulation (Lipietz, 1986).

After the upheavals of the early 1970s the regulation approach sees the

Fordist system of mass production and consumption giving way to a new era

of post- or neo-Fordism. This is characterised by more flexible forms of

accumulation, and the alteration of the legislative and normative framework.

Within this overall picture, the changes seen in the boundaries and scope of

the welfare state are of particular importance to the work of this thesis.

Because of its all embracing nature, regulation theory is best understood as

an indicative or suggestive research agenda rather than as a polished theory

(Mohun, 1993), and it is within this broad sense that the approach shall be

utilised here.

As indicated earlier, some influential commentators allow information

technology a privileged position within this restructuring process. For

16
example, Castells argues that we are living through a ‘rare interval’ in history:

‘an interval characterised by the transformation of our “material culture” by the

works of a new technological paradigm organised around information

technologies’ (Castells, 1996, p.29). Castells contends that although

technology does not determine society, it embodies the capacity of societies to

transform themselves and largely shapes their destiny:

The current technological revolution originated and diffused, not by

accident, in a historical period of the global restructuring of capitalism,
for which it was an essential tool. The new society emerging from such
a process of change is both capitalist and informational.
(Ibid., p.13)

This informational capitalism is also global in its reach. The new ‘informational

mode of development’ shapes the entire realm of social behaviour, leading

Castells to conclude that we should expect the emergence of historically new

forms of social interaction, social control, and social change. Primary among

these is the rise of loose horizontal networks across key sections of society,

representing a qualitative change in the human experience (Ibid., p.477).

Castells’ characterisation of the role of both information generally and ICT in

particular in this process, is complex and persuasive. However, despite his

protestation that the dilemma of technological determinism is probably a false

one, he clearly ascribes to technology a central - even dominant - place in

processes of change. The developments he outlines are seen as

generalisable across various sectors of capitalist society, including the field of

community. Indeed, the role of networks has been of particular salience within

a number of accounts of how ICT has played a decisive part in pushing

community development forward in the information age (see Day, 2001 and,

more critically, Haywood, 1998).

17
1.6. Structure and themes of the thesis

The thesis aims to explore the nature of the transition that community

development has undergone over the past thirty or so years, and the particular

role of information within it. In part this involves an examination of the

historical trajectory of change. However, it will also attempt to provide an

explanation of the transformation of community development in terms of a

number of themes developed by commentators of the ‘information age’.

These range from the techno-utopianism of futurists such as Howard

Rheingold (2000), through to more temperate reflections on the rise of the

network society offered by thinkers such as Manuel Castells (1996, 1997,

1998). It will also examine critiques of these positions offered by more

sceptical analysts of the impact of ICT (see for example Webster and Robins,

1999).

Exploring this transformation may perhaps be achieved most fruitfully through

assessing the impact of restructuring on the social, political and economic

structures of capitalism. To take into account shifts in both the regime of

accumulation and the mode of regulation, a broad outline of the processes at

work is needed. This offers a means of contextualising some of the specific

factors at work within the community sector.

A brief examination of the changing regime of accumulation operating within

contemporary capitalism is offered in Chapter 2. However, we shall be more

concerned with specific shifts in aspects of the mode of regulation of the

welfare state in the UK, particularly in relation to community development at

18
the local level. Stoker and Mossberger (1995) have characterised these as

resulting in the creation of the post-fordist local state. I shall explore the

arguments for a concept of change that has resulted rather in what may be

termed the neo-fordist local state. This has the merit of taking into account the

transformations undergone at local state level, while stressing certain

important underlying strands of continuity. Instrumental in influencing such

change has been the restructuring of social welfare provision in the UK.

The pressure of these developments has, I argue, been responsible for

pushing community development along on its journey from the radical margin

of social and political life, to the position it finds itself in today at the

incorporated centre of New Labour social policy. ICT has had an important,

but not necessarily decisive, role to play in this process. It shall be argued

that the relationship between ICT and community development is complex and

multi-faceted, but that the basis of change lies ultimately within the sphere of

social relations.

It is in this context that Chapter 2 examines a number of key areas which

inform an understanding of the developments outlined above. The chapter

begins with a discussion of ideas that have developed around the role of

information in general and ICT in particular in helping shape societal change.

This is followed by an examination of the terms ‘community’ and ‘community

development’. The chapter then moves on to look at questions around the

restructuring of capitalism in the latter part of the twentieth century. It attempts

to identify the most useful theoretical framework for understanding recent

shifts, especially as they relate back to the field of ICT-related community

development. In a similar vein, the impact of change on problems of

19
governance at the level of the local state is then considered. As such, the

chapter indicates the overall context within which a more detailed analysis of

transformation in the community development sector can be considered.

Chapter 3 focuses in on the research problem and begins to develop a

particular model of change. The first section examines the trajectory of

change in the specific field of UK community development over the last thirty

to forty years, with particular reference to issues of information and ICT. The

chapter argues that three specific phases of community development can be

identified over this period. Earlier radical patterns of oppositionalism in the

field gave way by the mid-1980s to a new accommodation with central

government plans for the local state. It was during this period that ICT

experienced a rapid ascent to the top of the policy agenda. This trend towards

accommodation has since become entrenched, leading to the current

incorporation of community development within the mainstream of policy

making.

The second part of the chapter, from Section 3.6 onwards, applies the

research conclusions of Chapter 2 to this historical practice, and develops a

more detailed analysis of the research problem. After considering different

approaches to current ICT-related community development issues, this

section argues that the process can best be explained within the overall

context of a restructuring of capitalism and welfare. Section 3.7. highlights a

number of questions for further investigation, and posits an initial research

hypothesis. Together these provide the thematic bases upon which the later

case studies have been designed.

20
The middle part of the thesis moves from a consideration of the wider debates

outlined above to a detailed examination of empirical data collected through

field work study. Chapter 4 links these two sections through a discussion of

field work methods and broader methodological issues. It introduces the case

studies and describes the process of progressive focussing within which each

of the research sites and topics have been chosen. This includes a brief

discussion of the specific subject areas of each of the studies, and how they

have been approached. It also discusses how their thematic structures have

been arrived at. This is aimed at providing the reader with a map of the

research process and its methods. Some of the insights gained through the

case study process are broadened out and utilised later in the document, as

part of the basis for constructing wider policy analysis and theory. As such the

methodology of the empirical studies is partially informed by the theoretical

themes of the thesis as a whole, and in turn forms a dynamic interchange with

them.

Three case studies have been undertaken for the thesis. The first takes as its

subject the information strategy of what has been perceived to be a relatively

innovative local authority, Manchester City Council. Among the central

themes developed in the study is the idea of the emergence of a ‘dual

information economy’ in the city. Case Study 2 widens the scope of the

research by examining the ICT-based activities of a number of community

organisations operating at local levels across the ten local authorities of

Greater Manchester. The most striking feature identified is the emergence

across the region of a loose network of community-ICT resource centres

(CRCs). These perform broadly similar functions, although utilising a range of

21
organisational structures and funding sources. New sources are emerging for

the funding of ICT within community development settings.

The choice of site for the third case study has been made partly through the

need to engage with this development. Merseyside has a strong history of

non-public sector funding for third sector projects as a whole. It provides a

useful research arena for studying the dynamics of change between traditional

and newer forms of funding, outside of direct local and national government

control. An important element of the study is the identification of new and

shifting patterns of partnership between various funders, and the effect such

changes have upon the third sector itself.

The case study results are indicative of more generalisable trends within ICT-

related community development in the UK. Chapter 8 compares and contrasts

the findings of the case studies, examining these within the context of current

policy literature. It adopts a thematic approach, analysing various aspects of

policy. These include: the convergence of funding environments; the

emergence of community-ICT resource centres; social inclusion as a central

aim of policy; ICT and the new vocationalism; the consequences of change for

smaller community organisations; and local information policies and

strategies for community development. Taken together these areas represent

a policy map of ICT-related community development in the UK. In the light of

this discussion, the chapter concludes with an overall analysis of current ICT-

related community development in the UK.

The final chapter draws wider conclusions around the central research

problem: that is, what constitutes the current and future status of ICT-based

22
community development after more than a quarter of a century of

transformation? It also takes a step into the realm of broader theory building,

exploring the theoretical implications of the research in relation to a number of

areas of social theory. Among these are a reappraisal of the structural basis

of the information society, and shifting perceptions and realities around the

notion of community. The prospects for local community development

interventions in an era of globalisation are also considered.

The synthesis of issues offered in Chapter 8 also provides a platform for

analysing the overall character of the new mode of regulation in the field. This

is taken forward in the final chapter in the form of a model of change for ICT-

related community development, placing the specific findings of the thesis in a

broader theoretical context. This compares and contrasts current and past

regulatory frameworks, and analyses the nature of the transition between

them.

Notes

1 The term Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is used in

the singular form throughout this study. In practice, however, it refers
to a multiplicity of technologies.
2 For a detailed discussion, see Harvey, 1990, pp.121-88.

23
Chapter 2:

Information and communications technology, community and urban

governance: a review of the literature

2.1. Introduction

The social, economic and political fabric of the world has undergone

tremendous structural change in recent decades. The period has seen the

collapse of an alternative economic system to capitalism in Eastern Europe

and the restructuring of the world political and economic order towards a

single superpower, the United States. Parallel to this has been a shift towards

the relative decline in the power of the nation state and the ushering in of an

intensified period of economic globalisation. Amongst many other things,

these factors have contributed to a changing context for the implementation of

national welfare and social policy. An extensive literature has developed

which attempts to theorise the dynamics of these changes, and describe the

structures and patterns emerging in their wake[1].

Alongside these shifts, there has been a dramatic influx of ICT into every

aspect of social life. This too has led to a burgeoning literature which attempts

to assess the ways in which the realm of information is impacting upon

people’s lives. In our interconnected world, these inquiries necessarily refer

back to wider questions of social, political and economic theory. To assess

the impact of these developments on the nature of community-based activity,

it is instructive to revisit debates around the notion of community and see how

they are affected by wider developments. Only then can the effects of change

24
on local governance and community development be fully appraised and

contextualised.

This chapter begins by discussing various views of the information society. In

doing so it pays particular attention to the growth of information networks, and

the effects of these on the positions of cities and regions within globalised

conditions. It broadly rejects technological determinist positions, instead siting

its analysis of the impact of ICT within a wider socio-economic context. This

will form the basis of a further intermeshing of social theory and empirical

material throughout the thesis.

The chapter then moves on to a detailed discussion of the term community.

Crow and Allen (1994) observe that any attempt to analyse the concept of

community involves wading through thickets of sentiment and emotion. This is

largely because in everyday use the term itself always tends to denote good

things. Thus, company or society can be bad; but not the community

(Bauman, 2001, p.1). Cohen notes that when imported from common speech

into the discourse of social science it becomes highly resistant to satisfactory

definition (Cohen, 1995, p.11). As such the term itself is open to multiple,

often unclear, interpretations. However, notwithstanding these problems, for

present purposes the concept is placed firmly within the framework of local

social relations. This allows the possibility of a bridge between studies of

socio-economic restructuring and governance at various levels. It also helps

provide a setting for the more specific analysis of community and ICT

developments in the UK undertaken in later chapters.

25
The third section considers the wider restructuring of capitalism and the state

in the latter part of the twentieth century. It does so through engaging primarily

with the approach of regulation theory. It argues that important changes have

taken place in the regime of accumulation (broadly, generalised production)

and the mode of regulation (broadly, social and political arrangements).

These have deeply affected the nature and direction of the welfare state, the

major site for the implementation of social and community policy. This in turn

has transformed conditions regarding the role and governance of the local

state, with important consequences for the practice of community

development.

The final part of the chapter looks more closely at those issues of governance.

This is accomplished largely through a discussion of urban regime theory and

issues of social capital. Together these approaches provide a starting point

for examining the composition of local governance coalitions and their links to

community-focused ICT. This is particularly useful in setting the context for

the three case studies which make up Chapters 5 to 7 of the thesis.

2.2. The information society?

The idea that we are moving towards an information society has become ever

more influential over the last thirty years. Technology has developed rapidly,

especially through the emergence of ICT. Many commentators have argued

that a new era has dawned, one that is defined by the power of information.

There are various interpretations of what this can mean, and a number of

more specific theories have emerged around what has become the

26
overarching concept of the ‘information society’. This section briefly considers

the analytical background to the idea of an information society[2]. It then

examines the views of some prominent thinkers in the field.

2.2.1. Definitions of the information society

Some writers talk of an ‘informational mode of development’ leading to the

rise of the ‘network society’. Others, while seeing existing social structures

becoming ever more informationalised, argue for restraint in heralding the rise

of a qualitatively new societal formation (see, for example, May, 2003). This

view holds that the information society concept is at the very least problematic.

Garnham (2000), for example, contends that the term information society has

become largely meaningless through overuse and the vision bears very little if

any relation to any concretely graspable reality. It therefore operates not as a

useful concept for theoretical analysis but as an ideology. Rather than serving

to enhance our understanding of the world in which we live, it is used to elicit

uncritical assent to whatever dubious proposition is being put forward beneath

its protective umbrella.

Webster (2002, p.8) broadly agrees, again raising doubts about the validity of

the notion of an information society. He states that it is possible to distinguish

analytically five definitions of an information society, each of which is

subjected to critical analysis. These are technological, economic,

occupational, spatial, and cultural.

Technological definitions lay emphasis upon spectacular technological

innovation. They see the social impact of the convergence of

telecommunications and computing as resulting in a new order in society. The

27
more extreme pro-impact positions can be classified as a techno-utopian.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates (1995) argues that the information society is here

and is already transforming people’s daily lives. Analyses such as this focus

on developments in technology that are instrumental in shaping the way

people act in every area of their lives. Existing social relations of late

capitalism are taken as a given - rather in the sense of Fukuyama’s (1992)

End of History - upon which the technology can act in order to perform its

transformative tasks. Gates thus posits the existence of a simple relationship

between new technical developments and a transformed society.

The hyperbole of Gates is not the norm within academic studies of the

information age, but it is influential in the policy sphere where such claims may

be treated less cautiously, as governments feel they cannot afford to fall

behind in the race to implement an information economy. Some of the policy

implications following from this position are discussed further in Chapter 8.

Here Garnham’s warnings of the privileging of ideological positions over actual

measurable change seem apposite. As Webster points out, this view of

change is technologically determinist in that it sees technology as the prime

social dynamic. In contrast, he takes the view that technological change is not

aloof from the social sphere, but is an integral part of it.

Economic theories of an information society point to the mass of economic

indicators which taken together might indicate the existence of a dominant

‘information economy’. Porat (1978) for example, has developed a typology

which concludes that by the mid-1970s, 46% of US gross national product was

accounted for by the information sector. Thus, he states, the United States is

now an information economy (cited by Webster, 2002, p.13). Webster argues

28
that this - and other similar indices - attempt but fail to differentiate fully

between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of an information society.

Similar problems emerge among theories which seek to espouse an

occupational justification for the term information society. The shift in

occupational distribution is central to the most prominent forerunner of the

information society idea, the ‘postindustrialism’ thesis of Bell (1974). Bell’s

arguments are wide ranging and complex, and can only be discussed briefly

here[3]. He maintains that the rise of a dominant white collar service sector in

late 20th century capitalism signals a seismic occupational shift towards a

postindustrial society, where theoretical knowledge becomes the ‘axial

principle’ at the heart of society.

The central factors in bringing about these changes are developments in

computing and telecommunications. Webster says that together with

typologies such as Porat’s, this position fails to make adequate arguments for

a qualitative, truly transformative shift in society. It is the quality of the

contribution of certain groups in society that matters most, and the social

hierarchies that exist among them. In this context, some level of continuity is

at least as important a factor as the extensive change taking place.

Webster’s fourth dimension of an information society is the spatial. Here the

major emphasis is on the information networks which connect locations, and

have important effects on the organisation of time and space. The present

study is particularly concerned with the ways in which ICT impacts upon

specific cities and regions. Thus spatial dimensions of change are studied in

some detail later in this and subsequent chapters. The transformation of

29
global information networks by ICT is seen by some as creating a network

society, complete with a network market-place where access to and control of

information flows is of the utmost importance (Castells, 1996). Again, we shall

discuss later whether the vast increase in information networking brought

about by these changes represents a qualitative shift to a new type of society;

a new ‘informational mode of development’. However, the general conclusion

reached is that the huge changes taking place do not constitute a new societal

mode of development, but rather a process of informatisation within existing

capitalist relations.

Fifthly, the rise of the information society can be looked upon, according to

Webster, as a cultural shift. Contemporary culture is more information laden

than any of its predecessors. In a media saturated environment, it is argued,

life is quintessentially about exchanging and receiving messages about

ourselves and others. This growth of signification has led some to argue that

we are living in an information society, one in which signs both dominate, and

through this very domination and omnipresence begin to lose meaning

(Poster, 1990, p.63).

This strand of thought around the information society concept is represented

most thoroughly within postmodernist circles. It is associated with a

relativisation of knowledge and a rejection of grand ‘metatheories’ as ways of

explaining the world we live in (see for example, Baudrillard, 1981). An

extensive literature has built up around these ideas which is largely outside

the scope of this thesis[4]. However, as we shall see in the discussion of

Castells later in this chapter, cultural definitions do impinge on other

approaches to the information society.

30
2.2.2. The rise of the network society

Of those contemporary thinkers supportive of the idea of a transformed

information society, Castells comes closest to combining a comprehensive mix

of social theory and empirical evidence in his trilogy The Information Age:

Economy, Society and Culture (1996, 1997, 1998). Castells’ stress on the

importance of various types of networks is of particular relevance to later

discussions in this chapter, and will be examined in some detail. He traces

the effects of three independent processes appearing between the end of the

1960s and the middle of the 1970s, coming together to produce not only a

new set of social conditions but a new society. These are the information

technology revolution, the economic crisis of both capitalism and Soviet-style

statism, and the emergence of new social movements like environmentalism

and feminism.

For Castells, the revolution in information technology is partly responsible for

the collapse of the Soviet bloc and for the restructuring of a new and more

flexible capitalism. A new social morphology based on horizontal

‘informational’ networks is emerging to replace more rigid vertical hierarchies.

This is accompanied by the growth of a global informational economy and a

new culture of ‘real virtuality’.

Castells argues that the information technology paradigm provides the

material basis for the pervasive expansion of the networking form throughout

the entire social structure (Castells, 1996, p.468). The inclusion/exclusion in

networks and the architecture of relationships between networks, configurate

dominant processes and functions in our societies. Such networks are

enacted by light-speed operating information technologies. The convergence

31
of social evolution and information technologies has created a new material

basis for the performance of activities throughout the social structure. This

material basis, built in networks, earmarks dominant social processes, thus

shaping social structure itself (Ibid., pp.470-1). In this ‘brave new world of

global informational capitalism’, any formerly dominant capitalist class is

replaced by a global capitalist network (Ibid., p.474).

A further feature of this shift is the time-space compression noted by Harvey

(1990). Harvey uses this term to signal processes that so revolutionise the

objective qualities of space and time that we are forced to alter how we

represent the world to ourselves. Innovations in technology shrink the map of

the world and ‘annihilate space through time’ (Harvey, 1990, p.241). Hardt

and Negri (2000) refer to these general processes as heralding a new era of

global capitalist sovereignty, one they term ‘Empire’. They do not though place

their central emphasis on the technological impact of information as Castells

does. This stress on the dominant role of technology leaves Castells open to

the charge of technological determinism. As Webster (2002) notes, Castells’

distinction - here and in earlier work - between the informational mode of

development and the capitalist mode of production, implies that there is a key

realm – technique - which is in some way detached from capitalism.

May (2003) further disputes the general claim that technology is the ‘single

most important cause of changes in our society’, illustrating that in fact ICT is

part of a continuing history of technological development. He argues that:

Our relation with technology is not as passive receiver of innovation:

humans shape the social context which produces technological
advance.
(May, 2003, p.29)

32
Utilising the ideas of Lewis Mumford, he contends that society is characterised

by two contrasting ‘technics’, authoritarian and democratic, which play

themselves out in the information age. For May, this creates an irresolvable

tension between ‘enclosing’ and ‘disclosing’ dynamics. Within an enclosing

dynamic, capitalism uses ICT to perpetuate itself and its property relations,

whereas a disclosing dynamic involves individuals using ICT to undermine

capitalist or authoritarian processes and relations. This, says May, is the

dynamic of our day, with no single hegemony governing all human behaviour.

He argues that we need to be sceptical yet hopeful, recognising the continuing

interaction between the twin dynamics of the information society and not

accepting that any particular version of it is inevitable (Ibid., p.161).

2.2.3. Networks and flows of information

Within this contested situation Castells emphasises the importance of ‘flow’ to

the operation of networks:

(D)ominant functions are organised in networks pertaining to a space of

flows that links them up around the world, while fragmenting subordinate
functions, and people, in the multiple space of places, made of locales
increasingly segregated and disconnected from each other.
(Castells, 1996, p.476)

In and of themselves the above changes are powerful enough, but Castells

goes further. In his view the Industrial Revolution and the Modern Age saw a

domination of Nature by Culture – in itself a highly contentious assertion. The

new stage of development sees a complete supersession of nature: Culture

refers to Culture.

Because of the convergence of historical evolution and technological change

we have entered a purely cultural pattern of social interaction and social

organisation. This is why information is the key ingredient of our social

33
organisation and why flows of messages and images between networks

constitute the basic thread of our social structure (Ibid., p.477). Again Castells

wants to elevate the power of information to the very highest degree. The

signs and images produced within the informational mode of development are

seen as both primary and dominant, rather than being underpinned by long

term structural developments within capitalist relations themselves.

One key consequence of the transformed time-space relationship in the

information age is the way in which globalised information systems provide

corporations with the infrastructure to allow world-wide decentralisation of

operations, while ensuring that centralised management remains in overall

control (Webster, 1996, p.200). Although such networks are ‘open structures,

able to expand without limits’ (Castells, 1996, p.470), the key nodes of these

structures are to be found within the most advanced metropolitan cities.

Beyond the major ‘global cities’ such as London, New York and Tokyo, other

cities and regional economies also have their own nodes that connect to the

global network. Amongst other prerequisites, each of these requires an

adequate technological infrastructure (Ibid., p.413).

These informational cities have the largest proportions of informational

workers within them, and are the sites of a growing polarisation. ‘Technocratic-

financial-managerial elites’ occupy leading positions of power within

informational capitalism, and have the capacity to segregate and disorganise

the mass of people in order to achieve social domination. Within the space of

flows, wealth and power are projected throughout the world, while the life and

experience of people is rooted in specific places. In short: ‘elites are

cosmopolitan, people are local’ (Ibid., p.415). Thus, along with the age of

34
information come new forms of social division and exclusion. This complex

intersection of human settlements (‘the space of places’) and ICT (‘the space

of flows’) is multi-faceted and has an elaborate dialectic of its own, affecting

developments and dynamics across the political economic and cultural

spectrum (Castells, 1999).

2.2.4. The increasing importance of cities and regions

One other key result of the rise of the informational city is that the nation state

increasingly becomes caught in a power vacuum between supranational and

local influences. Precisely because the economy is global, national

governments suffer from failing powers to act upon the functional processes

that shape their economies and societies. But regions and cities are more

flexible in adapting to the changing conditions of markets, technology and

culture (Castells and Hall, 1998, p.480), a point which shall be returned to later

in the chapter. The particular nature of the informational economy allows cities

and regions to find their specific role in it. This is because although production

within the informational economy becomes organised within the ‘space of

flows’, social reproduction continues to be locally specific (Castells, 1989).

However, Keohane and Nye (1998) argue that one reason that the information

revolution has not transformed world politics to the extent some have

anticipated is that information does not always flow in such a vacuum. Rather

it exists in a political space that is already occupied. Prophets of a new

cyberworld, like modernists before them, often overlook how much the new

world overlaps and rests on the traditional world in which power depends on

geographically based institutions.

35
It is at the socially specific level of the region or city that two dominant trends

of our age come together: The application of digital information and

communications technology, and ‘the most momentous process of

urbanisation in human history’ (Graham, 2001). Graham argues that the

contemporary city is an amalgam whereby the fixed and tangible aspects of

familiar urban life interact continuously with the electronic and the intangible

(Graham and Marvin, 1992).

Later in this chapter we shall explore in some detail the changing role of cities

as sites for broader social economic and political transformation, focusing

directly on new problems of governance. For now, the specific impact of ICT

on urban processes shall be considered. The societal diffusion of ICT remains

starkly uneven at all scales, and it is in the contemporary city that this

unevenness becomes most visible. Here, clusters of ‘superconnected’ people

exist cheek by jowl with large numbers of people with non-existent or

rudimentary communications technologies and very poor access to electronic

information (Graham, 2001).

Graham contends that ICT as currently applied by dominant users, tends to

extend the power of the powerful through allowing socioeconomically affluent

groups to bypass the local scale. At the same time, people with little access to

begin with face extra barriers when attempting to improve their social and

economic conditions. This underpins and intensifies already existing

unevenness:

Against the rhetoric that ‘cyberspace’ is a purely virtual and disembodied

world, the radical growth of ICTs is closely related to the restructuring of
real geographical places at all geographical scales.
(Graham, 2001, p.39)

36
In fact Graham goes even further, asserting that there is a continuum of

analysis that stretches from international institutions down to individual human

bodies. Rather than causing territory to disappear as in the cyberspace

dreams of many IT utopians, it is precisely the fact that a multitude of places

exist that creates the need for exchange based on ICT networks (Graham,

2001).

For Sassen (2001) the need for ICT to relate to a pre-existing social

infrastructure is crucial in deciding which cities become the ‘global cities’

envisaged by Castells and others. She argues that in principle the technical

infrastructure for connectivity can be reproduced anywhere, but not the social

connectivity. In the case of a complex landscape such as Europe’s, we see

several geographies of centrality - one global, others continental and yet

others regional (Sassen, 2001, pp.412-14). It is the emerging importance of

these regional geographies that has helped inform the siting of the case

studies undertaken later in this thesis. Moulaert and Scott (1997) note that

within much of the recent literature, too much concentration has been placed

on studying only the largest metropolitan cities.

Within contemporary information-laden and network-based societies and

cities, information poverty - or ‘the poverty of connections’ (Demos, 1997, p.6)

- can be seen as important an issue as traditional forms of poverty relating to

housing, work and other social conditions. As Chapter 3 illustrates,

regeneration of urban areas has been a theme of social policy since at least

the late 1960s, and issues of community involvement in that process have

been a continually contested site. Some policy implications of this process are

explored later in this thesis. Recognising that local deprivation relates to both

37
the space of places and the space of flows, it is useful to take a more detailed

look at the continuing salience of the term ‘community’ within the information

society. In doing this we can assess its relevance within the context of a rapid

restructuring of much of social life, not least due to the impact of ICT.

2.3. Shifting conceptions of community

2.3.1. Historical notions of community

The study of communities has a long history as a theme within the academic

sphere. With the onset of industrialisation from the mid-eighteenth century

onwards, a concern with the breakdown of traditional rural societies informed

the work of such diverse sociological thinkers as Marx, Durkheim, Weber and

Comte, each finding a place within their wider theories of society for a

discussion of the nature of community (Bell and Newby, 1971, pp.21-3).

Despite this continuing interest in community as one element among many in

social theory it was not until 1887, when Ferdinand Tonnies laid down the

classic distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (translated

variously as Community and Society or Community and Association) that

community studies began to take on a life form of its own, distinct from other

spheres within the general sociological arena.

For Tonnies, in Gemeinschaft human relationships are close, enduring and

based on a clear understanding of where each person stands in society (Ibid.,

p.24). With Gesellschaft the growth of impersonal and contractual ties

indicates the progressive disappearance of vital elements of social cohesion

and intimacy. In this typology, Gemeinschaft is taken to be almost exclusively

38
positive and inclusive, with Tonnies remarking: ‘A young man is warned

against bad Gesellschaft, but the expression bad Gemeinschaft violates the

meaning of the word’ (Tonnies, 1980, pp.409-10).

This notion of community can be seen as providing the normative basis for

many of the classic studies of community life up until late in the 1960s (Bell

and Newby, 1971, p.24). Much of the work within this tradition of ‘community

studies’ took as its starting point the notion that modern non-rural societies are

distinguished by a loss of community (in the sense of Gemeinschaft), together

with making wider assumptions about the normality of social integration (Crow

and Allan, 1994, p.14). The position was exemplified on a theoretical level by

the Chicago School of social theorists, for whom the relationship between

individual and society relied heavily on images of the isolated individual

threading an idiosyncratic route through a variety of disconnected social

milieus[5]. Such classic texts as the ‘Middletown’ studies of Muncie, Indiana in

the 1920s and 1930s (Lynd and Lynd, 1929; Lynd and Lynd, 1937) can be

seen as empirical examples of similar modes of analysis.

This approach remained dominant until the late 1960s, when it came under

heavy criticism from a new, generally left/radical, wave of community theorists

who identified a number of major problems in the field. It was argued that as

constituted, community studies was based on non-systematised procedures of

observation often contextually divorced from wider societal currents. It was

also non-cumulative in content and also generally slipshod in method (Bell and

Newby, 1971, pp.14-7). Community studies, declared Glass, had become ‘the

poor sociologist’s substitute for the novel’ where description took precedence

over analysis and idiosyncracy dominated over comparability (cited by Gilligan

39
and Harris, 1989, p.16). Further, the empirical evidence for the ‘community

lost’ theory does not, even in its own terms turn out to be overwhelming, as:

(p)eople in cities tend to draw upon the same sources of support as

people in rural areas: kin, neighbours and friends...(L)ittle empirical
evidence [exists] for the community-lost thesis that urban residents lack
sources of support in comparison with rural residents.
(Mayo, 1994, p.52)

Plant (1974) pointed out that to give an account of the meaning of a word - in

this case ‘community’ - is to describe how it is used; and to describe how it is

used is to describe the mode of social intercourse into which it enters. Some

theorists went as far as to argue that ‘as a concept “community” is not useful

for serious sociological analysis’. This is because it is insufficiently precise in

sociological terms for describing the totality of factors and, crucially,

institutions and institutional arrangements that go to make up any local social

system (Stacey, 1969, p.134). Perhaps even more damaging was the charge

that the concept of community had been appropriated by and come to belong

to capital, obscuring the conflictual nature of local social systems.

Cockburn argued that the word community serves to mask the real battles

taking place between classes at the level of the local state (Cockburn, 1977,

p.163) and should be avoided. The point was taken up by Ferris, who stated

that ‘to use terms like Gemeinschaft, community, or mutual loyalty in the

context of the modern nation state is simply ideological and mystifying’ (Ferris,

1985, p.58, quoted in Crow and Allan, 1994). Relatedly, in his early work

Castells (1977, 1977a) contended that the basic and essential social relations

of capitalism are obscured within notions of urbanism generally.

This onslaught upon the hitherto dominant ideas and methods within the field

coincided with a wider attack on the functionalist ascendancy in sociology

40
generally. In its longer-term effects it served more to shift and tighten the basis

upon which communities are studied rather than displace such activities

altogether. As Day and Murdoch pointed out, the concept of community is one

that just will not lie down (Day and Murdoch, 1993, p.85). Thus whilst the

1970s saw a relative dearth of empirical studies of communities being

undertaken, the theoretical basis of the discipline was being constantly - if not

always consistently - strengthened through the imposition of more rigorous

categories for investigation and analysis.

This second ‘theorising’ phase of post-war research into the community field

eventually gave way to a new batch of empirical studies of community life -

studies of community as opposed to the more non-cumulative community

studies (see Bell and Newby, 1971, p.13) These were seen to be located

within the bounds of sociology proper, rather than acting as an adjunct to the

field of social anthropology (Gilligan and Harris, 1989, p.17), and increasingly

imbued with a heightened awareness of the potential pitfalls in the area (Crow

and Allan, 1994, p.13).

In this context however, Wild (1981) sounded a salutary note of caution,

turning a number of the previous arguments around by asserting that the

perceived weaknesses of community studies seized upon by its critics in fact

constituted its strengths. Citing factors such as the empathic understanding of

interpersonal relationships, the balance between the specific and the general,

and the theoretical and methodological inclusiveness of community studies,

Wild asserted that:

Neither phenomenology nor structural Marxism has much time for

community studies. For the former, community sociologists are overly
concerned with the institutional and organisational frameworks of
localised social systems and do not pay sufficient attention to the

41
 perceptions held and meanings understood by individuals in their
everyday interactions. For the latter, studying people with reference to
specific localities is a fruitless exercise in abstracted empiricism because
the behaviour and beliefs of these people are determined by the ‘laws of
capital’ which are found elsewhere.
(Wild, 1981, p.11)

Such an argument is a useful – if perhaps over-simplistic - way of recovering

and refocusing the concept of community studies as a discrete area for

analysis. The case studies in this thesis represent an empirical examination of

wider notions regarding the changing nature of community within the

information society.

2.3.2. Towards a fuller definition of community

As we have seen, the term community can be taken to mean many things.

Numerous commentators have attempted to develop comprehensive

typologies of its most salient features, whilst almost always adding the caveat

that definitional precision is an unattainable goal. In its broadest sense,

community can be taken to denote:

The broad realm of local social arrangements beyond the private sphere
of home and family but more familiar to us than the impersonal
institutions of the wider society.
(Crow and Allan, 1994, p.1)

However, by its very breadth this definition raises more questions than it can

begin to answer, serving only to stand as an initial point of departure for any

discussion that aims to capture the richness and diversity of the term.

Bauman (2001) notes that the word community invariably has a ‘good’ feel. It

evokes everything we miss and what we lack to be secure, confident and

trusting. In this sense, community stands for the kind of world which we would

like to inhabit, but is not available to us (Bauman, 2001, p.3). It is an ideal

type, and perhaps because of this, is particularly difficult to define succinctly.

42
Drawing on Barnes’ (1954) conception of networks, Willmott distinguishes

three senses of community: territorial community, based on shared place;

interest community, based on shared characteristics of people other than

place (religion, ethnic identity, occupation etc.); and community of attachment,

which combines both of the first two meanings, suggesting attachment to

people in and through relationships to them, and to place (Willmott, 1986,

p.85). Communities of attachment can operate (through interaction and a

sense of identity) in wider circles than just those people with whom one has

relationships of a personal kind. These wider relationships ‘locate’ people in

the wider social structure and make sense of the world for them (Ibid., p88).

This network approach has been dubbed by Wellman one of ‘community

liberated’, as opposed to both the ‘community lost’ thesis considered earlier,

and ‘community saved’ ideas posited by Bell and others who call for a de-

romanticisation of pre-industrial eras (Bell, 1956, cited by Mayo, 1994, p.52).

The network approach ‘frees the concept of community from its purely local

roots and allows for informal ties in terms of social networks’ to be considered

(Wellman, 1979, cited by Mayo,1994, p.53). This is particularly helpful in the

consideration of the types of networks brought into being with the emergence

of ICT.

Butcher attempts to evolve a description of community suitable for informing

policy analysis and formation at the local level by again using three senses of

the term: descriptive, value and active community (Butcher,1993, p.12-21). A

descriptive community draws on Willmott’s idea of the community of

attachment and is used to refer to a group or network of people who share

43
something in common such as a sense of belonging to, or membership of a

network. This has both social and psychological referents, conveying the twin

notions of ‘being part of’ in a sociological sense and ‘identifying with‘ in a

psychological sense. For practical purposes of community policy and

development it needs to be stressed that just because certain population

segments live in an area or have other common attributes (a necessary

condition for community development), it may not be the case that well

established group and network attachments exist, thus potentially rendering

development strategies ineffective.

For Butcher, what defines community initiatives and policies is their attempt to

qualitatively affect peoples lives by embracing particular community values,

such as solidarity, participation and coherence. Initiatives seeking to draw

upon these attributes in a dynamic manner assume the existence of an active

community;

alive with activity and cross-cut with networks of relationships, providing

a locus for informal support and...acting as a base for social and political
action in wider arenas.
(Butcher, 1993, p.17)

This meaning of community ‘subsumes and builds upon’ the descriptive and

value meanings discussed above. It refers to collective action by members of

locality or interest communities embracing one or more of the values of

solidarity, participation and coherence. For this to be a meaningful process,

says Harris (1991), it should take place within a context of the

‘deinstitutionalisation’ of social policy. Part of the vitality of the UK community

sector lies in its function of resistance to institutionalised power. This

resistance can sometimes reveal itself as a distance between practical

community activities carried out at the ground level, and overarching political

44
and ideological positions vying for policymakers’ attention. These may enter

the policy field as an attempt to extend theoretical positions into practice.

2.3.3. Communitarianism

One such variant of community theory that has gained currency in recent

years is communitarianism. Communitarianism emerged in the late 1970s as

a critical reaction to liberal theory in the field of political philosophy (Daly,

1994, p.x.), but quickly turned to the more practical political terrain of

emphasising social responsibility, and promoting policies meant to stem the

erosion of communal life in the modern world (Bell, 2001). Most prominent

among this second group of communitarian thinkers is Amatai Etzioni. In his

book The Spirit of Community, Etzioni argues that the central need is to

establish a set of social virtues, some basic settled values that the community

actively endorses and affirms. As such a social movement is envisaged which

puts ‘a new emphasis on “we”, on values we share, on the spirit of community’

(Etzioni, 1993, p.25).

Etzioni looks at different social institutions, such as the family and schools,

and sees trends such as ‘dismembered families’ and schools which turn out

citizens lacking a shared set of moral values (Ibid., p.90). These and other

institutions need to be transformed in order to instil an internalised set of such

moral values into the emerging citizenry. Etzioni goes on to pair moral order

with individual autonomy as the twin virtues which ‘crown the communitarian

normative account’ (Etzioni, 1997, p.245). These themes have been taken up

by political leaders in both Britain and the United States. Policies which

promote the idea of two parent families as more desirable than alternative

lifestyles have been enacted both sides of the Atlantic.

45
In 1996, for example, Tony Blair stated that ‘the breakdown of law and order is

intimately linked to the break-up of a strong sense of community. And the

break-up of community in turn is, to a crucial degree, consequent on the

breakdown in family life’ (Quoted in Hughes and Mooney, 1998, p.68). Two

years later, the New Labour government pushed through cuts in benefits for

lone mothers. This was against much opposition from its own supporters, and

expressly against the 1994 recommendations of the Commission on Social

Justice appointed by the then Labour Party leader John Smith (Commission

on Social Justice, 1994, p.252).

Communitarianism’s promotion of morally-based solutions for problems in

society can be seen as neglecting many of the material causes of those

difficulties. Most importantly for the present discussion is its call for a return to

the traditional family and traditional values as the basis for social welfare. This

largely disregards wider issues of differentiated power structures. This can

have tremendous effects for the way in which policy formation takes place

across a variety of community-based issues, including the provision and

promotion of ICT.

Demaine (1996) argues that the notions of citizenship and community

entailed within communitarian thought may form the focus of a new ideology

for New Labour, but this entails many problems. Citing Pahl (1995) he

identifies forms of communal activity different from those favoured by Etzioni.

Beyond communitarianism, he argues, lies the possibility of encouraging the

development of a diverse, tolerant and friendly society based on creative

individuality.

46
This diversity can take conflictual forms where local communities respond

unfavourably to decisions by those governing them. Political leaders are

desperately looking for an ideology that finds a middle way between the public

and the private, and communitarianism provides a useful platform for such

ideas (Demaine, 1996, p.17). Some of the ways in which forms of

communitarian thought have found their way into the direct policy forum are

explored in Chapter 8. Important among these is the notion of a ‘Third Way’

adopted by the Blair government in its first term, which has broad implications

for social policy in areas as diverse as welfare and labour market policy. The

term itself largely fell into disuse by the second election victory of 2002, but its

spirit continues to possess a salience at the top levels of policy making.

2.3.4. Virtual communities

Some have argued that the whole notion of community has to be looked at

afresh in the era of globalisation and ICT. Discussing the transition from

premodern gemeinschaft groups to those of gessellschaft, Rheingold

contends that all the questions about community in cyberspace point to a

similar kind of transition taking place now (Rheingold, 2000, p.54). For

Rheingold and others such as Odone, the electronic Web may have the

potential to serve as the first building block in the creation of a whole new

social solidarity grounded upon cross-cultural, interdisciplinary dialogues and

cemented in an empowerment and enfranchisement of isolated individuals

(Odone, 1995, cited by Robins and Webster, 1999, p.230)[6]. This position

can be criticised from a number of angles. Firstly, it has been argued that

much of the cyber-utopian argument (and indeed the counter-argument) is

based on weak empirical evidence about the actual relationship between

47
virtual and ‘real-life’ communities. With regard to social networks ‘the

Manichean pronouncements of pundits…most likely overstate the actual

nature of virtual community life’. What is needed is the replacement of

anecdote with evidence (Wellman and Gulia, 1999, p.201).

Further, Robins and Webster argue that, like communitarianism generally,

‘techno-communitarianism’ has been embraced by politicians struggling to

recreate forms of social and political cohesion in the aftermath of Thatcherism

and Reaganism:

As far as Third Way politicians are concerned, virtual technologies

promise to make community instantly available, now as a service (or a
commodity) that can be piped into the electronic home – community, or
interactivity, for domestic consumption.
(Robins and Webster, 1999, p.231)

This links back directly to a discussion of the importance of networks in a

changing global order. Against those who argue that the virtual community

and other forms of neo-communitarianism offer a potential haven of inclusivity

and shared interests, Robins and Webster point to the actualities of global

change. Arguing that the virtual (and non-virtual) community of interests

disavows the conflicts and antagonisms of the real world, they conclude that ‘it

is a politics without power, without antagonism and without people’ (Ibid.,

p.232).

It is in this context that the information revolution, the rise of virtual

communities and community theory generally can begin to be placed within a

broader process of global social, economic and political restructuring. May

(2002) argues that ICT is increasingly being used not to create new political

communities, but a new generation of e-consumers. Via the ‘sound-byte’, the

information age turns politics into a spectator sport, with opinions being made

48
and remade instantly, based on little more than image and personalities. At

most, ICT has become a supplement to political discourse, not a giant

paradigm shift (May, 2003, p.111).

As Crow and Allen note, communities are active creations (1994, p.133) and

as such their composition and experience reflect shifts in external conditions.

It must be noted that there are at least two levels at which we are discussing

information technology in relation to communities here. The importance of

those communities which find their very existence in cyberspace has been

examined above. In terms of societal restructuring and the impact of this on

social policy however, the ways in which spatial communities access and use

ICT is also crucial. There is a growing literature in this field attempting to

assess the ways in which the sector is and should be developing.

2.3.5. Community informatics

Schuler and Day (2004) contend that ‘community technology initiatives’

involving the use of ICT for and by local communities has grown in

significance over the past twenty years, to the extent that it can no longer be

confined to analysis at the micro-level. ‘Community Informatics’ (or CI) has

come to be the collective term used to encompass the diversity of these

activities. Gurstein (2003, p.77) describes CI as the ‘application of ICT to

enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives’.

Day and Cupidi (2004) argue that active citizenship, human-centred design

and communal participation are prerequisites for sustainability in the CI field.

This human-centredness allows CI to be viewed as a dynamic system, driven

by ‘human-values’ rather than technological imperatives (Day and Cupidi,

2004, p.8).

49
The core components of this system are ‘community’, ‘communication’ and

‘technology’. Despite its contested nature, community should provide overall

meaning and an essential departure point for CI. Communication is seen as a

dynamic process, with various meanings for people concerned and with

various motives behind the act of communication. The parameters of these

however are located within the framework of communities participating in and

making decisions for themselves. In order for the technical component to

function as part of the CI system, they have to be filtered at every stage

through a ‘human-centred lens’ (Ibid., p.8).

Overall, it is argued, these factors now constitute CI as a feasible macro-level

social phenomenon emerging across the globe. The previously dominant top-

down worldview of the network society is increasingly exposed as an

irrelevance to a culturally diverse global civic society. It is being replaced by

an alternative, bottom-up approach to communication technology at the

community level.

The community informatics approach has provided many insights at the level

of individual initiatives and is a valuable tool in trying to ensure the active and

effective participation of communities in such activities. However in

broadening out the theoretical basis of such phenomena to a full-blown

critique of civil society it places itself on less firm territory. As May (2002,

p.94) points out, similar claims for the transformative potential of the telegraph

and radio were made in the past. The overriding experience of both current

and historical change is for governments to successfully resist attempts to

open up the political process to wider deliberation. Thus it can be argued that

50
when turning to wider policy issues the CI approach fails to contextualise the

sector within a broader framework of capitalist restructuring. The next section

aims to provide such a context.

2.4. Globalisation and changing forms of governance

2.4.1. Globalisation and Restructuring

Sassen (2001a, p.3) argues that the geography and composition of the global

economy has changed so much since the early 1980s as to produce a new

and complex duality: a spatially dispersed, yet globally integrated organisation

of economic activity. Within this process of globalisation, the dominant

concept of prosperity is ever rising domestic gross product (GDP) and ever

more globalised world trade, a process generating an increasing amount of

exclusion (Chanan, 2000, p.201). As is argued above, nowhere is this more

marked than in the broad spectrum of relations that people develop towards

ICT. To understand the roots of these developments it is necessary to analyse

some of the factors affecting global processes of change.

An extensive literature has grown up around the issues of capitalist

restructuring, globalisation and the fall of Soviet-style socialism[7]. There are

different schools of thought around the nature of this change. Mishra (1999),

for example, points to the distinction between the internationalisation of

economies and globalisation proper. In the former case the principal

economic units of the economy remain national although international aspects

of the economy assume increasing importance. Globalisation, on the other

hand, refers to a situation where distinct national economies cease to exist in

51
that they are subsumed and rearticulated into the system by international

processes and transactions (Mishra, 1999, p.4). The distinction between the

two is important in the sense that the degree of internationalisation has varied

historically and today’s relative openness of economies is not necessarily new.

In that sense it can be seen as cyclical and potentially reversible.

Globalisation, though, implies an unprecedented movement in world history,

one which transforms structures in such a way as to be practically irreversible.

Mishra argues that what we have today is closer to an international economy

than a fully globalised one, although a development towards the latter remains

possible. The debate as a whole is too broad to be covered here in detail, but

a number of salient questions arise for the community sector. These

particularly relate to issues around shifts in welfare systems and the changing

nature of local governance. Thus the next section - although outlining a view

of the overall nature of recent restructuring – is particularly concerned with the

ways in which welfare has been influenced as a result of these ongoing

processes. In what follows, I will concentrate on the account of change first

outlined by the French regulationist school of thought in the late 1970s through

the concept of post-Fordism, and further developed into an analysis of

changing patterns of welfare provision by theorists such as Jessop.

Amin (1994) argues that there is an emerging consensus in the social

sciences that the period since the mid-1970s represents a transition from one

distinct phase of capitalist development to another. The nature of this new

phase however, is the subject of a keenly contested argument. Indeed as

Amin himself notes, the theorisation of the capitalist historical process as

being marked by such transitions is disputed by a number of theorists in fields

52
as diverse as cultural theory and labour process theory (see, for example,

Sayer, 1989; Pollert, 1991). The post-Fordist debate concerns the nature and

direction of such change. Different positions within the discussion each

accept that history can be periodised into distinct phases, these giving way to

a period of uncertainty and transition during which the elements of a new

paradigm may develop and mature. Beyond that common understanding of

change, there exist great differences even within the ranks of those who

contend that classical Fordism is being replaced by a new historical phase of

capitalism.

Amin for example identifies at least three theoretical positions lying at the

heart of the post-Fordist debate: the regulation approach, which lays stress

upon the complex relationship between the regime of accumulation and an

associated mode of regulation (see Lipietz, 1986); the flexible specialisation

approach, which sees standardised mass semi-skilled production being

replaced by customised tailored skilled production (see Piore and Sabel,

1986); and the neo-Schumpetarian approach, which argues for ‘long waves’ of

economic development initiated, sustained and ultimately separated by

changing ‘techno-economic paradigms’ (see Freeman, Clarke and Soete,

1982).

2.4.2. The regulation school of thought

While recognising the above complexities and tensions, the following draws

upon the work of theorists influenced by the regulationist school. Harvey

(1990) argues convincingly that while there have been profound changes

taking place in the nature of capitalism, we still live in a society where

production for profit remains the basic organising principle of economic life.

53
We need some way to represent these shifts which does not lose sight of the

fact that the basic rules of a capitalist mode of production continue to operate

as shaping forces in historical-geographical development (Harvey, 1990,

p.121).

The works of Aglietta (1979), Lipietz (1986) and others offer a starting point for

the analysis of these processes. Regulation theory is not a unified school of

thought – Jessop (1990) outlines at least seven regulationist schools – but can

be viewed as a malleable research template. As indicated in Chapter 1, the

approach views recent shifts as a transition in the regime of accumulation and

its associated mode of social and political regulation. Harvey argues that the

long post-war boom from 1945 to 1973 was built upon a certain set of labour

control practices, technological mixes, consumption habits, and configurations

of political-economic power. This configuration can reasonably be called

Fordist Keynesian.

The break up of this system has inaugurated a period of rapid change, flux

and uncertainty. Whether or not this warrants the title of a new regime of

accumulation (post-Fordism) is not absolutely clear. Aglietta, for example

uses the term ‘neo-Fordism’ to denote scepticism about the extent to which we

have entered a radically new era of accumulation (cited by Pinch, 1997, p.75).

However, the contrasts between current political-economic practices and

those of the post-war boom period are sufficiently strong to make the

hypothesis of a shift from Fordism to a qualitatively altered regime of

accumulation a telling one (Harvey 1990, p.124).

54
2.4.3. The changing landscape of welfare

Classical regulation theory has concentrated more on shifts in mass industrial

production than on the functioning of the welfare state, new forms of

governance or social reproduction. However some theorists have extended

the regulationist discipline into a serious exploration of welfare issues. By

extension this also allows for a greater contextualisation of community issues.

Jessop (2000) argues that changes in welfare are inseparable from broader

changes in the welfare regimes that emerged in the post-war Fordist boom.

This is only one among a number of positions that seek to explore the

changing nature of welfare states, and is itself built on a wide literature of

comparative studies of welfare states, such as the ‘three worlds of welfare

capitalism’ typology developed by Esping-Andersen (1990).

Jessop’s own typology examines current welfare developments within the

process of global restructuring. The form of the welfare state said to be in

crisis is described by Jessop in ideal-typical terms as the Keynesian welfare

national state (or KWNS). The four criteria used derive from features of

capitalism as a mode of production. The first criterion is the state’s distinctive

roles in securing conditions for profitable private business, the broad field of

economic policy. The second is the broad field of social policy, which refers to

the state’s distinctive roles in reproducing labour power individually and

collectively. The third dimension refers to the main scale on which economic

and social policies are decided. The final dimension concerns the relative

weight of the mechanisms deployed in the effort to maintain capitalist

profitability and reproduce labour power by compensating for market

inadequacies. This is where issues of governance are most relevant.

55
The KWNS can be defined on these four dimensions. First, in promoting the

conditions for capital’s profitability, it can be described as Keynesian in so far

as it aimed to secure full employment in a relatively closed national economy.

It did so mainly through demand side management.

Second, the KWNS had a distinct welfare orientation in so far as it tried (a) to

generalise norms of mass consumption beyond male workers in Fordist

economic sectors. This allowed dependants to share the fruits of economic

growth, and also contribute to effective domestic demand; and (b) to promote

forms of collective consumption favourable to the Fordist growth dynamic. This

has its base in a virtuous circle of mass production and mass consumption.

Thus economic and social polices were linked to economic and social rights

attached to citizenship of a national territorial state.

Third, the KWNS was national in that economic and social policies were

pursued within the matrix of a national economy, a national state and a society

seen as comprising national citizens. Local and regional states acted mainly

as relays for policies framed at the national level.

Fourth, the model was statist in so far as state institutions were the chief

supplement to market forces in securing the conditions for economic growth

and social cohesion. For Jessop there never was a pure form of KWNS. Nor

is there a pure crisis - only specific, path-dependent, nationally variable crises.

Cochrane, Clarke and Gewirtz (2001) similarly state that the differences

between welfare states remain as important as their common features.

56
2.4.4. The governance of welfare

Welfare regimes are implicated in governing various aspects of the division of

labour in society, and in this context they can help secure some of the key

conditions for capital accumulation. The concept of governance enables us to

classify welfare regimes in terms of their typical combinations of modes of

coordination. Jessop argues that it was the purported failure of the KWNS as

a mode of economic and social governance that prompted the search for new

forms of governance. Given the neo-liberal form that restructuring has taken, it

is paradoxical that some of the most salient criticism of welfare state failings

came not from libertarians but from the feminist left (see Lipietz, 1992, p.192).

Taking the four dimensions of the KWNS in turn, Jessop identifies the

following crisis-tendencies.

First, the primary object of economic governance in the KWNS was the

national economy. However, Keynesian economic demand management

became increasingly problematic in its handling of the Fordist economy as it

moved into crisis. The increase in economic internationalisation exacerbated

these problems. The national economy began to be replaced as the primary

object of economic governance by the knowledge-driven economy as

described by Castells (1996) earlier. Its growth dynamic depends on how

effectively a given economic space – which may be regional, national or

supranational – fits with a changed global division of labour.

Next, the crisis of Fordism undermined the main tenets of KWNS social policy.

These included the assumptions of full employment, the family wage, and the

gendered division of labour. The social wage became increasingly seen as a

cost of international production rather than as a source of domestic demand.

57
The aggressive neoliberal agendas pursued in Britain grew in part out of

severe dislocations which underscored the need for major reform. The

collapse of Keynesian policies lent credence to the neoliberal agenda

(Pierson, 2001, p.439).

Alongside these shifts came a change in the values and interests associated

with the welfare state. Included in this has been a move away from class

based redistributive politics; an increased concern for personal empowerment

rather than the bureaucratic administration of legal rights and uniform public

services; and the expansion of the third sector, supposedly operating outside

of the framework of pure markets and the bureaucratic state.

Third, the primacy of the national scale of economic and social governance

depended on the coincidence of national economy, national state, national

society, and the survival of the national state as a cohesive body. A ‘hollowing

out’ of the national state has taken place, as its powers are delegated upwards

to supra-regional or international bodies and downwards to regional or local

states. Lastly, the state’s role in the mixed economy has been undermined by

a number of factors. Alongside the breakdown in post-war compromises

between capital and labour, these include new economic and social conditions

that cannot be managed by a reliance on top-down state intervention. With

the partial breakdown of national state modes of governance, Jessop sees an

increasing reliance on networks and partnerships as modes of coordination:

Overall, this involves a tendential shift from imperative coordination by

the sovereign state to an emphasis on interdependence, divisions of
knowledge, reflexive negotiation, and mutual learning. In short there is a
shift from government to governance in the narrow sense.
(Jessop, 2000, p.18)

58
In the current context, this accentuation of governance over government is

also particularly important in terms of the ways in which local social systems

are administered.

2.4.5. Schumpetarian workfare postnational regime (SWPR)

Four general trends in the restructuring of the KWNS reflect the changes

outlined above, resulting in what Jessop terms an ideal-type Schumpetarian

Workfare Postnational Regime (SWPR).

First is a shift from Keynesian aims and modes of intervention to a

Schumpetarian promotion of permanent innovation within relatively open-

economies. The main features of Schumpetarian economics are discussed by

Rima (1996). For Schumpeter, the most characteristic aspects of a

competitive capitalist economy are constant invention, innovation and

technological changes. The SWPR demotes a concern for sustaining full

employment in favour of promoting structural competitiveness.

Second, the SWPR can be described as a workfare regime in that it

subordinates social policy to the demands of labour market flexibility. The

state is reorienting itself towards the ‘making and remaking of subjects’ who

are expected to be partners in the innovative, knowledge-driven,

entrepreneurial, flexible economy and its accompanying self-reliant,

autonomous, empowered workfare regime.

Third, the SWPR is postnational as the increased significance of other spatial

scales makes national territory less important. International organisations play

59
an increased role in policy-making, while there is also a simultaneous

devolution of some policy-making to regional and local levels.

Finally, the SWPR has a regime form because of the increasing importance of

non-state mechanisms in the delivery of economic and social policies.

The transition from KWNS to SWPR has important consequences for an

analysis of change at local and community levels. We have noted the broad

progression towards an emphasis on the Schumpetarian economic dynamics

of innovation and autonomy. The workfare orientation of social policy has also

shifted the emphasis on how people become involved in activities at the local

community level. Nowhere is this more marked than in the area of ICT use.

May (2002, p.41) argues for example that ICT and the rise of informational

labour appears to have done ‘little if anything to limit the determining power of

capital in the realm of work – or anywhere else for that matter’.

The ways in which these changes have taken effect will be examined

empirically in later chapters of this thesis. First though, it is useful to provide a

contextualisation for those investigations. This can be provided through taking

a closer look at issues of local governance and the changing nature of urban

regimes.

2.5. Local governance and urban regimes

Mayer (1994) argues that three major parallel trends have affected local

politics since the mid-1970s. Firstly, local politics have gained in importance

60
as a focus for proactive economic development strategies. The background to

these developments are the changes in capital mobility and shifts in the

technological and social organisation of production described earlier. The

second change has been an increasing mobilisation of local politics in support

of economic development, together with a subordination of social policies to

economic and labour market policies. This goes hand in hand with a

restructuring of social services.

The local state - and the ‘entrepreneurial city’ - now involves other non-

governmental actors in key roles (Mayer, 1994, p.317). This constitutes the

third major change, the expansion of the sphere of local political action to

involve not only the local authority but a range of private and semi-public

actors. Along with other new actors entering the field, the role of the local

state is being redefined in respect of business interests, and the voluntary and

community sectors.

2.5.1. Models of local governance

Stoker and Mossberger (1995) present a typology of local responses to

restructuring, and the willingness and ability of local authorities to embrace

new conditions. They argue that the post-Fordist literature - informed by

regulation theory - has a reasonable claim to have most effectively captured

the broad complexity of the changes outlined above. Stoker (2000) says that

a vision of local governance is emerging which recognises that services can

be commissioned or co-produced rather than directly provided by the state. It

also gives prominence to a wider role of community leadership. Stoker argues

that as the world has become a more complex and demanding place, current

institutional arrangements appear to be failing:

61
 The solution is not more government. Nor can we look to a romantic
vision of community and citizen self-organisation for salvation.
Governance suggests that it is the mix that matters – the way elements
from state, market and civil society are brought together.
(Stoker, 2000, p.3)

The sense of change started by the Conservatives and continued under New

Labour implies an end to the traditional model of local government. This has

helped to create an understanding that there is not a single model of local

governance but rather a variety of models. Miller et al (2000) identify broad

distinctions between localist, individualist, mobilisation and centralist models of

local governance (Miller et al, 2000, pp.28-32).

The localist model is most associated with traditional defences of local

government, seeing local governance as a ‘liberal pluralist’ expression of local

choice and accountability. The individualist model is most clearly associated

with ‘New Right’ political thought. It is based on the idea of local people as

consumers, and favours competition between service providers. The

mobilisation model draws on a left-wing perspective, involving councils doing

things with people rather than for them. In practice this points to participatory

politics in which the disadvantaged and excluded learn and put into practice

the arts of organisation, campaigning and mobilisation. The centralist model

rests on a fundamental preference for the primacy of national democracy. In

order to ensure that all citizens receive a similar access to quality services,

local autonomy is opposed and local participation is not highly valued. In

practice, the main battleground in recent years has been between elements of

the localist and individualist models, with mobilisation strategies being pursued

by a number of left-leaning Labour councils in the early 1980s.

62
Stoker (2000) argues that the characteristic form of operating in the

governance environment is through the building and maintenance of networks

in an open atmosphere. What is required is the blending of the resources of

government with those of non-governmental actors. It is difficult to assemble

effective partnerships when trying to link shared policy goals with an effective

implementation strategy. It is here, says Stoker, that urban regime theory

becomes a useful tool for analysing change and providing ways forward for

local governance.

2.5.2. Urban regime theory

Regime theory views power as fragmented, and regimes as the collaborative

arrangement through which local governments and private actors assemble

the capacity to govern. Both local government and business possess the

resources needed to govern. For government, these include legitimacy and

policy-making authority. Business possesses capital that generates jobs, tax

revenues and financing. Because of these resources, it is a key participant in

governing coalitions.

Developing the capacity to act, however, involves uncertainty in a complex

policy environment characterised by interdependence, and regimes will vary in

their composition from place to place and change over time. This may be due

to the relative strengths of business and the presence of other interests, such

as neighbourhood groups and other community organisations. Here it is

instructive to bear in mind the inequalities of power, and also potential clashes

of interest described earlier by Castells.

63
Stone (1993) defines four different types of regimes, although others add

considerably to the urban regime typology[8]. These are: caretaker regimes

which focus on routine service delivery and low taxes; development regimes

that are concerned with promoting growth through changing land use; middle

class progressive regimes which include aims such as environmental

protection, historic preservation and affordable housing; and lower class

opportunity expansion regimes that emphasise human investment policy and

widened access to employment.

Of the four the latter two are most difficult to achieve. This is in part because

they entail a measure of coercion or regulation of businesses rather than

voluntary coordination. This is especially so for the fourth type of regime.

Unlike redistribution, the concept of improved opportunity implies the

enhancement of the social welfare of the lower class without costs to other

segments of society. However this still poses significant difficulties. Such

regimes require support from all of the agents needed for progressive change

plus the involvement of a lower class constituency. Thus, in addition to its

roles of regulation, coordination, and monitoring, government must mobilise a

largely disenfranchised segment of the population. Stone says that power is

not simply given via the electoral process; instead, ‘it is something created by

bringing co-operating actors together, not as equal claimants, but often as

unequal contributors to a shared set of purposes’ (Stone, 1993, p.8). Local

politics is about the production of benefits, not the distribution of benefits, and

public policies are shaped by three factors:

(1) the composition of the community’s governing coalition,

(2) the nature of relationships among members of the governing
coalition, and
(3) the resources that the members bring to the governing coalition.
(Ibid., p.2)

64
With its political economy approach to the problem of governance, regime

theory offers a powerful tool for analysing local aspects of overall regulatory

modes of regulation. For example the major economic changes occurring in

affluent democracies affect employers’ and unions’ assessments of major

social policies (Pierson, 2001, p.4). These same economic actors play a

critical role in the politics of welfare state reform, including at the local level.

However regime theory can also fail to adequately tackle broader questions of

divergent interests between those groups. It may be argued, though, that

cross-interest alliances can be more easily built at local rather than national or

supranational levels. This is partly because the general character of the state

is more in evidence than in those broader arenas, where particular class

interests dominate more easily[9].

Placing the various actors into their positions with regard to entering the

governance arena allows an initial insight into ways coalitions can be built

locally. In addition it raises issues about the problems certain actors face in

making their voices heard. Stoker states that even among elites the building of

such partnerships is likely to face many obstacles. It has already been noted

that business and local authorities possess key resources that enable them to

dominate local coalitions. This can be the case around community and ICT

policy as well as in other administrative areas. In the US context, Imbroscio

(1997) points to the existence of a ‘dominant regime form’ in local politics.

This is constituted by a local governing coalition with at its centre a close

alliance between local authority officials and land-based business people, and

an urban agenda favouring mainstream corporate growth strategies. This

model is increasingly making inroads in the UK, though with distinctive local

65
differences. The unequal power relationships involved within local coalitions

are apparent in the case studies detailed in later chapters. In a public-private

partnership oriented environment, various difficulties exist in incorporating

local community groups fully into governance regimes. Important among

these are questions around unequal levels of ‘social capital’ among coalition

partners.

2.5.3. Social capital

The social capital debate looks not only at the leadership frameworks that

make up urban regimes, but the ways in which various groups are able to

enter into them. As with Bourdieu’s concept of ‘cultural capital’, it exists in

parallel with economic capital but not as an immediately calculable, realisable

and exchangeable entity[10]. This involves examining the capacity for

cooperation in a community based on a number of factors (Stoker, 2000,

p.10). Primary among these is trust, which can take various forms –

interpersonal, organisational and governmental. Different forms of trust and

expectation underpin different forms of action. Pahl (2000), for example,

argues that trust lies at the heart of true communicative friendship in the

contemporary world.

Networks of civic engagement such as various types of community

organisations are also important. The denser the networks the more likely

members are to co-operate for mutual benefit. It is through networks that

information can be passed, including the trustworthiness of individuals, groups

or institutions. Norms and sanctions can be effective forms of social capital in

that they facilitate and inhibit certain types of action. Together these elements

make up the overall stock of social capital that a community possesses and

66
can draw upon. An element of caution is introduced into the debate by

Gilchrist. She notes that inequalities can develop within networks and that

norms can be oppressive for some while empowering for others (Gilchrist,

2004a, p.5).

Within localities, this exists alongside human and physical capital in the

regeneration process. Stoker agues that an improved physical infrastructure -

in the field of ICT for example - can be ineffective without broader access to

social, economic and political inputs. Indeed:

What appears to be happening in a number of British cities is that the

myriad of social, economic and political networks that make up the fabric
of civil society - the environments of trust and stable expectations –
consistently exclude certain parts of the population from accessing
appropriate forms of social capital.
(Stoker, 2000, p.13)

The new local governance, he says, has at its heart the building of cross-

sectoral networks. It should be able to engage the widest range of individuals

and groups in society. Achieving a capacity to network across the whole of

society is difficult since the networks needed as underpinnings of cooperation

and collective action are unevenly distributed. This takes us back to Castells’

‘cosmopolitan/local’ dichotomy outlined earlier. It is not only between regions

and cities that relations between the powerful and powerless exist, but also

within them.

2.6. Community and ICT in context

It is apparent that changes taking place at the broadest levels of society are

intimately related to the processes by which local social systems are

developing. Whether one fully agrees or not with Castells’ notion of an

67
informational mode of development, it is clear that information networks, and

the flows of information they generate, are becoming an ever more powerful

force in both global and local governance. The links between the two levels –

and others in between such as the nation state – are becoming more complex.

As capital restructures and innovates, old certainties are discarded, to be

replaced by a more malleable and less assured set of norms. The

development of cities and regions in this new situation needs to looked at

afresh.

Actors at the urban level in the UK have found themselves in a constantly

shifting situation over the past three decades, as the various welfare realities

of the post-war settlement have given way to enormous upheaval. Whether

we are at the end of a cycle of development from one set of capitalist

structures to another as regulationists maintain, is not totally clear. Aided by

new technologies, Fordism has certainly been transformed in many ways.

The result of this transformation however may be better defined as neo- rather

than post-Fordism. In many key areas of social policy strong points of

continuity can be observed amongst the whirlwind of change.

Despite the efforts of successive national governments in Britain, many

aspects of welfare remain partially resistant to the paradigm shifts cast upon

them. Community development in all its forms is one of these aspects. We

are here particularly interested in the impact ICT has had upon policy and

practice in the field. However, as this chapter has shown, ICT development is

itself dependent on a range of diffuse social, economic and political factors.

The argument for the emergence of a fully fledged information society has not

been decisively made. Instead, we can talk about an expanding

68
informatisation of society within a pre-existing framework of capitalist relations.

To unravel the particular factors involved in ICT-related community

development, it is necessary to take an historical look at the sector with these

wider findings in mind.

Indeed, it is arguable that an holistic political economy approach needs to be

taken to issues of local governance generally. This implies looking at the

composition and objectives of urban regimes as they relate to ICT and

community development, in their entirety. The coalitions and networks

involved in policy making have changed over time, particularly in relation to

non- and semi-public actors. This has important effects on the ways

community and third sector organisations can respond to change, and also on

the make up of community organisations themselves.

As local governance alters, so too does the relationship of the community

sector to it. It is increasingly likely that community organisations will find

themselves entering coalitions with new and potentially more powerful actors.

Shifts from collective welfare to more individualised workfare policies also

suggest a greater atomisation of the relationship between disorganised

members of local communities and organised service providers. Such

circumstances raise further questions about the ways in which differential

access to, and levels of power over, community affairs are viewed. Here,

individualised social exclusion from labour markets has been increasingly

seen as the problem in policy terms, rather than any collective or class issue

of poverty.

69
This chapter has outlined the broad framework within which change at the

local level may be understood. As such it provides a theoretical backdrop

against which empirical studies can be undertaken and policy formation

analysed. These issues are explored in empirical detail within Chapters 5, 6

and 7. Important developments such as those concerning the changing face

of local governance have also been raised. However, it is not yet clear from

this review just how much these changes have affected the actual processes

of community activity in the United Kingdom. Addressing these and other

related issues demands a closer examination of the historical trajectory of the

UK ICT-related community development field from 1960 onwards. This will be

the initial focus of Chapter 3.

Notes

1 For a fuller discussion, see, for example, Giddens, 2001; Held et al.,
2000.
2 For a comprehensive historical overview of the ‘information society’
debate, see Lyon, 1988.
3 See Kumar, 1978 and Webster, 2002 for more detailed examinations
of Bell’s work.
4 Harvey, 1990, provides an extended discussion of postmodernism.
5 See Cohen, 1995, pp.21-8 for a discussion of the Chicago School.
6 See Dery, 1997, for a counter-view of cyberculture.
7 See for example Amin, 1994; Harvey, 1990; Lipietz, 1992; Castells,
1996; 1997; 1998; Hardt and Negri, 2000.
8 See Imbroscio, 1998; and Stone, 1998; for a discussion. For a
postmodernist critique of the ‘political economy’ approach of regime
theory, see Swanstrom, 1993.
9 See Hoffman, 1986, p.45, for a discussion of the capitalist state’s
representation of particular interests as general ones.
10 Featherstone, 1994, offers a detailed discussion of cultural capital.

70
Chapter 3:

Information and communications technology and community

development: four decades of change

3.1. Introduction

This chapter outlines and examines some of the major developments which

have taken place in the field of community development and the provision of

community information in the UK since the late 1960s. Within this framework it

also looks at the emergence of information and communication technologies

as a significant factor in affecting the direction of the sector since the middle of

the 1980s. The chapter will argue that the period circa-1969 to the present can

be characterised as one witnessing a significant shift in the overall nature and

outlook of community development and community information practice.

The central feature of this change has been a move away from the radical

community development perspectives which emerged in the late 1960s and

placed an emphasis upon independent community action outside of and often

opposed to state structures. This radicalism has been largely superseded by

an approach that stresses the importance of partnership between

communities, local authorities and other stakeholder bodies, including private

industry.

The process of change between these positions involves at least three major

stages: those of an entrenched anti-state radicalism emerging at the end of

the 1960s and not fully losing its impetus until the election of the third Thatcher

71
government in 1987; the adjustment from a fairly general oppositionalism to a

much greater degree of accommodation and incorporation by the state during

the latter years of Conservative government; and the development of a new

entente cordiale between different levels of state and non-state actors under

the governance of New Labour. The publication of the Report of the

Commission for Social Justice in 1994 represents a key moment in heralding

this final process, bringing ideas of social inclusion and partnership to the

foreground of the debate on the welfare state.

Other commentators have subdivided these periods in slightly different ways.

For example, Taylor (1995) argues that the 1970s were a period of community

development opposition to the state, with the 1980s being a time of defence

against state onslaught. The 1990s are seen as time of ‘agency and

substitution’, where community development began to take on a number of

roles previously seen as the sole preserve of the state proper. Relatedly, I will

argue that over the period in question there has been a shift away from

dominant community development perspectives which laid stress upon

oppositional interests and solutions for various sections of society. These have

been replaced with the entrenchment of community development as a means

of promoting and emphasising social cohesion and inclusion, through the

means of partnership and bringing together of common interests of disparate

groups.

The thread that links these divergent positions is the shift in the 1980s towards

pursuing strategies at local levels within rather than outside of state structures.

A potential paradox here is that during this period, there was a marked

increase in the importance of the city and region as a focus for attracting

72
funding from sources external to national government, particularly the

European Union. These changes came about primarily through a perceived

need to defend the gains made within the umbrella of the state over the post

war period, from attack by the new Conservative government.

Waddington (1979) notes that the practice of community development cannot

be looked at in isolation from wider developments within and around the state

as a whole, and the periods referred to correspond relatively closely with key

shifts in the structure of the welfare state as a whole in Britain. Similar

conditions apply to issues of community information, and the changing

networks, technologies and structures bound up with its practice.

The nature of change in these areas, and the degrees to which these are

socially or technologically driven will be discussed in greater detail within the

following sections. It would be possible to write a narrative of developments in

the field of community related ICT from the perspective of changes and

advances in technology driving the sector forward. Technologically driven

approaches tend to view developments such as the rise of the personal

computer in the early 1980s and the emergence of the Internet a decade later,

as central to the formation of new patterns of community development.

Undoubtedly there does exist a dynamic and mutually reinforcing relationship

between technological and social factors at various levels. This and

subsequent chapters will argue that within this relationship, the shifting social

formations around the issue of community development remain most

influential. The chapter will relate changes in community development to

concomitant changes in approaches to the uses of information in various

73
forms. On the whole, these can be viewed primarily as tools for the realisation

of community development aims.

The increasing importance of information technology as a factor in shaping the

form and indeed structures of community development practice will also be

examined. Throughout the chapter the areas of information provision and new

technology will be approached as important but not primary factors within the

overall framework of a changing attitude to the role and nature of community

development itself, within the parameters of wider given social, economic,

political and cultural factors.

The chapter concludes by reflecting on the evidence considered so far

regarding the state of ICT-related community development. Here, an initial

hypothesis is presented concerning the changing nature of ICT and

community development governance in Britain, with the intention that this be

tested against the empirical evidence gathered through the subsequent case

studies.

3.2. Community development and community information in the post-war

period

The term community development was derived primarily by Batten (1957) from

experiences in developing countries in the immediate post-colonial era, where

the British government in particular was concerned to promote a democratic

(that is non-socialist) transition to self-government (Mayo, 1994, p.69). The

post-war growth of community development was piecemeal, with much of the

actual work until the mid-1960s being concerned with issues of youth, leisure

74
and education. However by the mid-1960s, criticisms of the welfare state

suggested that a rapidly expanding government machine was dominated by

inflexible bureaucracy while still failing to meet social needs (Taylor, 1995,

p.100).

Despite economic growth, large scale pockets of deprivation were still present

in British society resulting in increasing alienation from the machinery of local

and national governance. Alongside this, a new political consciousness was

forming around diverse issues such as opposition to the Vietnam war, and the

growth of movements for industrial democracy. This also filtered through to

local levels, and a new impetus was given to the work of community based

organisations. The resultant mix of social unrest and unwillingness of

communities to accept previously imposed government remedies, created a

potentially volatile situation requiring new forms of action.

Community information policy and practice followed a similar trajectory over

this period. The delivery of community information services is in many ways

related to the overall state of community development. From the mid-1940s

until the late 1960s, the field was dominated by a similar emphasis on top-

down and relatively bureaucratic forms of providing information services to

local communities. The most significant development of this period arose with

the formation of the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux (CABx) at the outset of the

Second World War. Although initially set up to cope with wartime issues,

CABx soon began taking on wider family and personal issues related to local

community life (Bunch, 1982, pp.3-5). Funded mainly through the labyrinthine

procedures of central and local government, the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux

75
quickly expanded to a national network with offices in every town around the

country.

By the late 1960s, in parallel with trends in the wider community development

arena, there was a growing realisation that the generalist CABx could not

adequately cope in sufficient depth with all information and advice needs. As

a result, there sprung up information and advice centres covering more

specialised areas such as housing and legal services. In addition, some saw

other drawbacks to CABx. These included their neutral stance on differences

between clients and those in authority, their concentration exclusively on

serving individuals rather than groups, and their lack of identification with local

neighbourhoods (Ibid., p.44). As a consequence, in the increasingly heated

political atmosphere of the time, a plethora of new sources of community

information began to spring up. Most notable among these were the

independent Neighbourhood Information and Advice Centres (NICs) rooted

within local communities, seeking to offer collective community-based

solutions to problems as well as giving advice to individuals.

3.3. The shift towards radicalism

Craig (1989) argues that the year 1968 proved a turning point for community

work, especially in its overall relation to the state. The infusion of radical ideas

into various social and political spheres in the late-1960s was already leading

towards a situation where the local state was no longer seen as a ‘munificent

provider of services, but as an obstacle to progress’ (Craig 1989, p.9). The

establishment of the Community Development Project (CDP) by the Home

76
Office in 1969 provided a number of the most able critics of the existing

situation with an opportunity to put their ideas into action. Alongside the CDP

came a number of other important community initiatives designed to combat

deprivation. Primary among these were the establishment of Educational

Priority Areas and the development of an Urban Aid Programme. While Taylor

argues that these programmes were primarily designed for tackling

deprivation, Cockburn (1977, p.121) adds that a further objective of pre-

empting working class militancy was uppermost in the strategy of the

government. Of these initiatives the CDP was unique in having community

work built in as a major component.

3.3.1. The Community Development Project: the radicalisation of

community work

Twelve CDPs were set up around Britain, each with the remit of investigating

the causes of local social problems and reporting their findings back for local

and national authorities to then act upon. The three main strands of the

Project envisaged by government were: increased cost effectiveness in

supplying services in a streamlined and directed fashion; positive

discrimination for what were deemed to be community priority areas; and an

emphasis on the development of community care (Corkey and Craig, 1978,

pp.45-6). Local authorities also looked to the Projects as one way of helping

deal with the growing problems of urban management.

Cockburn argues that this represented the introduction of the ‘planning

principle’ into national social policy at much the same time it was changing the

style of physical development decisions and local state business as a whole

(Cockburn, 1977, p.121). The model for the Projects originally borrowed

77
heavily from the US government’s ‘War on Poverty’ aimed at combating

deprivation and quelling the causes of unrest in Americas inner cities. In the

event, all twelve CDP teams rejected the original aims and ideas of the

programme upon which these strands were based. The Home Office entered

the process using consensus-based models of community work. It based its

analysis of the situation and ideas for change upon a social pathology or

victim blaming approach to poverty and the creation of a cycle of deprivation.

It was possible to conceive of a society with no losers, if only the

disadvantaged could be given assistance in making their case (Taylor, 1995,

p.101).

The CDP workers however, concluded that deprivation, poor housing and

other social concerns had to be understood in relation to the normal

operations of the (capitalist) economy rather than in terms of community

pathologies (Mayo, 1989, p.92). Further, in a series of reports (Community

Development Project, 1974; Community Development Project, 1976;

Community Development Project, 1977) the CDP developed its own analysis

of poverty and re-examined the role of the community worker in making a

difference to people’s lives. The theoretical analysis was based primarily on a

structural-Marxist political economy. They challenged the assumption that

local action alone could tackle problems which had their roots in much wider

economic forces, arguing that social problems arise from a fundamental

conflict of interests between groups or classes in society. The problems are

defined mainly in terms of inequalities in the distribution of power and the

focus of change is thus on the centres of organised power (Community

Development Project, 1977). Crucial to the success of this analysis in

practical terms was the existence of experienced community workers on the

78
action side of the project able to add an important practical dimension to the

proceedings.

Thus for the first time:

were brought together the conviction that poverty was structurally

determined and the analytical skills to begin to expose the processes by
which this occurred in particular historical contexts with the
organisational skills needed to work for change with the poor and
disadvantaged themselves.
(Green and Chapman, 1992, p.249)

This linkage between a clear, concrete analysis and widespread grass roots

action with a whole range of community organisations constituted the major

strength of the CDPs. However, the limitations of the particular models

employed in addressing issues such as divisions within working class

communities and questions of gender and race inequality have been noted by

numerous commentators (see Green and Chapman, 1992, pp.252-5). Critics

argue that the CDP project was longer on analysis than applications

(Waddington 1979, p.121), partially because of the realisation by community

workers that wider societal forces shaped local urban problems, thus making

them more difficult to tackle on the ground (Marris, 1982).

3.3.2. Changing patterns of community information

The energy and dynamism of the community development field in the 1970s

spawned many new local initiatives around the country, as local grassroots

action became a focus for the development of such organisations as tenants

associations, claimants unions and other neighbourhood action groups. Allied

to these developments was the growth in interest around the issue of

community information, most notably through the promotion and development

of the aforementioned NICs. NICs were set up through a variety of means,

79
either as part of community project plans, CDP initiatives, specific

neighbourhood group initiatives, or even as strands of the Urban Aid

Programme.

Streatfield (1980) outlines three main reasons why community workers got

involved in establishing neighbourhood information centres:

Firstly, some NICs were established as a way of providing a means of

intervention in the community for community workers, enabling them to

identify community needs. For example one of the stated aims of the CDP’s

‘Hillfields Information and Opinions Centre’ was ‘to establish categories of felt

need and aspiration in the study neighbourhood’.

Secondly, NICs played a role in explaining the community worker’s presence

in the area and providing them with local credibility. This raises ethical

problems relating to community workers ‘parachuting’ into areas with little or

no previous knowledge or contact, and proceeding to attempt to organise

tenants into particular forms of action.

The third reason for the NIC establishment was to address the problem of

information poverty. To some extent this emphasis on providing information

and resources so that groups could formulate their own demands and press

directly for change, came about as a result of a new direction taken by many

CDPs when they challenged the social pathology model of deprivation

(Streatfield, 1980, p.215)

80
Certain functions were basic to the work of most neighbourhood information

centres. Among these were the provision of information, advice and referral

services. Wider functions of case-based advocacy, general community

education and facilitation of self-organisation of people with common problems

also occurred. Butcher (1976) argues that two basic models for running such

centres could be identified: an access approach and an advocate-organiser

approach. The access approach saw the information centre as an extension

of the services provided by the state whereas the advocate-organiser

approach acknowledged the possibility of conflict between the service

providers and service users.

By the mid-1970s, the traditional access approach exemplified by the network

of Citizens’ Advice Bureaux was under fire from initiatives more heavily

informed by theories of community action and a bottom-up approach to

community issues. These models again highlight one of the central concerns

of community work practice during this period, that of the contradictory

position of the local community worker working both within and potentially

against the state. Streatfield (1980) argues that a possible tension was set up

here between the needs of individual users of the centres and the desire of

many community workers to link up people with similar problems in common

collective cause. In practice, he argues, NIC workers were very rarely

successful in bridging the gap between these two needs, often resulting in

limited success in developing either collective action or addressing individual

problems.

The ideal of the relatively sophisticated development of up-to-date community

fact banks capable of providing an information framework for effective local

81
action (Gibson, 1979), was in practice reduced to a reliance upon the ‘recipe

knowledge’ of community workers or volunteers. This recipe knowledge is

defined by Schutz (1964) as a knowledge of procedures for getting things

done which can be trusted though not clearly understood (cited by Streatfield,

1980). This is in contrast to expert knowledge, which indicates relying on

access to up-to-date published reference information. In the almost

exclusively paper-based situation of the 1970s, such access to current

information was tempered by many financial and logistical constraints.

However, the green shoots of nascent electronically-based information media

were beginning to make their presence felt within the community sector.

By the start of the 1980s many commentators were already arguing that the

future of community information services lay in harnessing some or other form

of electronic media (Bunch, 1982, pp.155-60). Early initiatives such as British

Telecom’s ‘Prestel’ system, were cumbersome and expensive to use with

many drawbacks. These included unreliability and duplication of information

and problems with public and staff access (Ibid., p.158), but in overall terms

experiments from Scandinavia to the United States pointed to a rapidly

increasing role for such technologies.

Despite the difficulties being faced, neighbourhood information centres

became a central feature of the community development landscape (Ibid.,

pp.43-70), and the emphasis on providing access to information and advocacy

for local communities resulted in the growth of new forms of networking within

and between community groups and community workers. By this time, public

libraries too had begun to take seriously the question of providing an outlet for

community information services. In addition to the influence of the shifts in

82
contemporary thought regarding community information, libraries themselves

were beginning to reach out to the community in various ways. These

included the development of outreach services and a recognition that the

public library was an important reference point for local communities and could

play a pro-active part in assisting the flow of information to them (Ibid., p.71).

The 1974 restructuring of local government also introduced new internal

structures and policies for libraries – such as team and multi-agency working -

which mitigated towards a greater level of involvement outside of library

buildings themselves (Ibid., p.75). Such new forms of interaction across the

community work field were to take on a more central role in the 1980s, with

the growth of more co-ordinated community development action at the level of

the local state and beyond.

3.3.3. The restructuring of welfare

The response of the state to the radicalising experience of the CDP was, says

Craig, predictable. Most local projects were closed by 1975, with successive

governments anxious not to repeat the experience of such an innovative and

oppositional programme within the community work area (Craig 1989, p.12).

Cockburn argues that ‘from the state’s point of view something went wrong

with this experiment’ (Cockburn, 1977, p.126).

Some lasting achievements were accomplished by the CDPs, however. As

well as helping to inform the future policies of particular local authorities, their

analysis of deprivation in part filtered through to government policy

statements. In 1969 the government had started from the quite explicit point

of view that economic development was not the issue. By the late 1970s ‘the

83
inner-city problem was now perceived as essentially an economic problem’

marking a sea change in official thinking (Butcher et al,1990, p.198).

Grass-roots community work was, however, still locked in battles with local

authorities over the attempts by the latter to impose new top-down methods

for the management of such issues within communities. In this contradictory

situation, the policy instruments used to tackle these questions and the

economic and ideological contexts within which these were formulated were

undergoing a process of transformation, one marked most distinctly by

changes of emphasis in the overall priorities of the welfare state.

This shift was ushered in on the back of a general worsening of the economic

climate as the 1970s progressed. Although experiencing a number of

economic crises, the 1960s was generally a period of economic growth and

increasing levels of prosperity for most sections of society, although with

notable exceptions as the experience of the CDPs has shown. The economic

recession sparked off by the oil crisis of 1973 was much sharper and long

lasting than those previously experienced, and was crucially accompanied by

a resurgent anti-statism of the right, expressed in the form of monetarist

policies and a squeeze on welfare spending.

Although the early and mid-70s were marked by a general air of

‘desubordination’, a willingness to question, challenge and occasionally take

direct collective action against authority (Butcher, 1993a, p.62), by the turn of

the decade the election of the first Thatcher government had established a

new agenda, one which served to ‘emphasise the role of the free market and

84
individualism in place of public ownership, planning and collectivism in social

welfare’ (Mayo, 1994, p.2). The hitherto anti-statism of the left expressed in

the philosophy and practices of many community workers was to prove

inadequate as a basis from which to grapple with the challenge from the new

anti-statism of the monetarists (Popple, 1995, p.23).

Community workers were increasingly forced to move from a position of

attacking the bureaucracy and paternalism of the welfare state, to defending

the gains won within it over the previous forty year period. Although the

number of community workers carried on increasing throughout the 1970s

(Craig, 1989, p.12), indicating that the profession was embedding itself within

certain sectors, the removal of much of the potential for progressive social

reform left community work as a whole in disarray by the early 1980s. The

sustained attack on existing local government structures by the first Thatcher

administration forced community work as a whole onto the defensive.

Practitioners in the community development field began to be forced to search

for new forms of both organisation and practice in the light of these emerging

conditions.

3.4. The ascent of ICT, and the demise of oppositionalism

The election of the first Thatcher administration in 1979 ushered in a period of

upheaval, if not quite transformation, for the welfare state as a whole.

Although the previous Labour government had begun a process of attempting

to limit the nature and scope of welfare spending, events now took a

qualitative turn. Like many other welfare sectors, community work and

85
community development became subject to levels of scrutiny and change not

encountered for a political generation. There began to be put in place a series

of wholesale changes in the direction and character of community provision.

Within the overall atmosphere of a newly emboldened right-wing economic

liberalism aided by a determined and focused Conservative government,

community development was faced with a set of new and radically changed

priorities.

3.4.1. Rolling back the welfare state

Most important among these was the emphasis placed on a shift towards the

restructuring and decentralisation of community initiatives. These were based

upon the core notion of privatisation and the enhancement of market

mechanisms at every level. In practice these manifested themselves in

various stronger or weaker forms such as public-private partnerships and the

quasi-marketisation of various welfare sectors. These changes were

accompanied by a new ideological emphasis on the importance of community

responsibility based upon individual as opposed to collective ideals. This

crucially involved an alteration in the balance between inputs for welfare and

community

provision away from statutory and towards non-statutory bodies and

organisations, as part of the enterprise culture of the ‘enabling state’ (Butcher,

1993a, pp.64-5).

This situation was again derived primarily from political forces intent upon

limiting the role of the state in the provision of welfare (King, 1989, p.49).

Thus as public provision relatively declined, the role of self-help and voluntary

organisations rose accordingly. This trend was apparent even during the

86
years of the CDP, but accelerated greatly – and was taken to new levels of

doctrinal dogma – throughout the 1980s.

During the decade, government conceptions of community development were

increasingly characterised by the notion of a classless common community

identity between local groups, government and the corporate private sector.

This position spilled over into practice by providing justification for private-

public partnerships of differing kinds at the local level. The rhetoric of central

government in pushing through this programme of change was, on the face of

it, highly contradictory. The Conservatives espoused a policy of rolling back

and decentralising the state at every level, while in practice proving to be one

of the most centralising and interventionist governments of the post-war era

(Miller and Bryant, 1990, p.317).

A number of local authorities throughout the country attempted to maintain a

radical stance against the general direction of change, based partly on tenets

of local or municipal socialism, and partly on a desire to maintain the hitherto

levels of autonomy enjoyed by the local government, whatever its political hue.

Amongst community workers, there was a move from the 1970s position of

attacking many of the failings of the local state in relation to community

development, towards one of defensive struggle to maintain levels of services

which had already been identified as inadequate (Craig, 1989, p.12).

The abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, together with the third

general election victory of the Conservatives in 1987, ensured that many of

the government’s plans were pushed through at the level of the local state. A

number of Labour-controlled local authorities began to argue that whether

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attractive or not, the ‘de-politicisation’ of the community development arena

was a trend that had to be fallen in with. Some on the political left even began

to argue that the retreat of the local state from some areas allowed greater

freedom for bottom-up initiatives (Jacobs, 1989, p.99).

3.4.2. Cultural policy and information provision

In an attempt to respond to new sets of conditions, UK cities such as

Manchester and Glasgow began drawing upon the experiences of other

European regional centres in attempting to push through programmes of

‘municipal cultural regeneration’. These activities drew upon broader themes

of cultural policy which emphasised the centrality of the city and the region in

pushing through innovative economic and social development (Bianchini and

Parkinson, 1993, p.2). Within this burgeoning movement new and innovative

forms of local government action were beginning to develop. Bianchini

highlights a number of the factors involved in developing a new outlook on

behalf of local authorities. He argues that by the turn of the decade local

government was starting to respond to changing economic conditions and the

changing needs of communities in various ways.

The pursuit of an overall cultural policy as the central plank of a regeneration

strategy made it possible for some cities to gain advantages over others

endowed with similar resources. Some of the factors identified in gaining such

strategic advantage would form the basis of urban development policies for

the coming decade, not only in cultural policy terms, but also through

innovative programmes for the development of community based ICT

strategies. For Bianchini, the main tenets of such policies include:

the presence of solid partnerships between local government and the

private and voluntary sectors, the quality of urban leadership, the ability

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 of strategic policy-makers to formulate practical action plans, and their
awareness of the city’s position within national and international urban
cultural hierarchies.
(Bianchini, 1993, p.206)

As locally accountable and democratically elected multi-purpose agencies,

local authorities are seen to hold a pivotal position within this framework, being

better placed than either national government or the private sector to make

cultural policies work effectively.

3.4.3. New forms of local information strategy

The implementation of dynamic local information policies were seen by many

local authorities as being central to the success of broader cultural policies.

Early municipal telematics initiatives such as the Manchester Host Computer

were explicitly modelled on the contemporary experiences of other European

cities in using the growing convergence of telecommunications and computing

to drive through sea changes in information policy (see Leach et al, 1990,

pp.92-3). Whilst maintaining an understanding of the importance of more

traditional forms of information policy, local authorities such as Manchester

saw that information technology was rapidly becoming the key basis for

information provision. Although couched firmly in the language of economic

development, the feasibility study for the Host computer conducted by Leach

et al (1990), identified the potential for developing an integrated information

strategy based around the use of emergent technologies.

The experience of the Electronic Village Halls (EVH) movement in

Scandinavia was also looked upon as providing a partial template for the

development of community-based technology centres in the United Kingdom.

The original function of Scandinavian EVHs was to provide

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telecommunications services for isolated rural communities. Specially

designed ‘village halls’ were equipped with video equipment, fax, telex and

facilities for teleshopping, interactive citizens advice services and satellite TV.

By the late 1980s these were increasingly transferred to the urban

environment as a means of introducing the working class population to the

new information technologies. Rather than viewing these developments as

simply skills-based or training projects, EVHs were seen as crucial to a

programme of ‘acculturation’, integrating ICT into people’s routines through

the means of a social, rather than simply a training, centre.

Thus, the EVH model was seen as acting as a means of creating community

and grass roots involvement in corresponding UK initiatives (Leach et al,

1990, p.100). Promises of training programmes and skills acquisition were

though still central to the ability of local partnerships in accessing funding for

such telematics projects. Although community development was invariably

mentioned as a factor in seeking funding, it was usually seen as only one

aspect of an overall package of economic development and regeneration. As

such many of the difficult issues inherent in promoting genuinely democratic

access to impoverished communities were either put to one side or ignored

altogether (Harris, 1992, p.46-8).

3.4.4. The development of new information services

The provision of a proportion of community information services through the

medium of ICT was still at a very early stage by the end of the 1980s, and

those involved in setting up the earliest projects saw themselves somewhat as

pioneers of a new movement. Facilities and services were limited, often slow

and relatively clumsy in their working.

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The complex nature of gaining funding for expensive projects was coupled

with exponential rises in the capability of the technologies during the periods

of implementation. This meant that by the time projects were up and running,

facilities were often already dated. Gaining funding for the upgrade of

systems – if possible at all in technical terms - was again a costly and tortuous

business. As such, a constant time lag developed between the technologies

appearing at the cutting edge of the ICT revolution, and those available for use

within the community sector. However, the ‘tele-evangelist’ proponents of

change were remarkably prescient in their assessment of the direction of

change to come in the 1990s.

Writing on the cusp of the new decade, over two years before the emergence

of the Internet as a real force to be reckoned with, the developers of the

Manchester Host predicted that:

between now and the end of the century there will be a new
communications infrastructure based on fibre optics with enormous
capacity to move data, voice and image signals from one “fibre-optic”
island to another. This will have the effect of making today’s luxury,
high-priced forms of communications cheap and accessible to many
companies and households.
(Leach et al, 1990, p.95).

The services made available through most of the early electronic

communications networks revolved around the core provision of electronic

mail and bulletin boards for the dissemination of information.

In addition rudimentary conferencing and file transfer facilities, together with a

number of information services and databases for community-based and

commercial users were common. Siting the EVHs within disadvantaged

communities - or targeting them towards groups such as women or the

91
disabled - and marrying their activities with ongoing community based

initiatives was seen as a key to making the technology relevant to local

people’s lives. At the same time commentators such as Lyon (1988) identified

a number of possible foci of development: IT jobs and training; teleworking;

communication and education services – including community information,

health and disability; and community development itself (cited by Muddiman

and Black, 1997, p.133).

3.5. Social partnership and the coming of New Labour

Mayo notes that while the new right policies of the 1980s had a number of

negative consequences for the welfare state ideal, the extent to which they

significantly altered institutionalised approaches to government welfare

provision by the mid-1990s was debatable. Many of the broad structures of

the welfare state remained intact, providing a level of structural continuity

within a changing system. It was, rather, within these structures that

increasingly sophisticated and significant fundamental changes occurred.

This internal malleability allowed the possibility of a modified version of

community development to re-emerge as a central theme, one which gained

greater impetus with the election of the Blair government in 1997.

3.5.1. Partnership and division

At first sight this seems a somewhat paradoxical return to the centre.

Community development had lost favour with state bodies after being

perceived as a radicalising strategy in the 1970s and 1980s. However the

resurgent form of community development displayed a noticeably altered set

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of imperatives. By 1989 Jacobs could argue that new public-private

partnership initiatives, and other actions which fit in with the concept of ‘whole

communities’, already had the effect of marginalising conceptions of either

municipal socialism or radical direct action, rendering them relics in the minds

of many and re-establishing views of capitalism as the natural order of things

(Jacobs, 1989, pp.106-10).

The new partnerships created whole new alignments (and dependencies) as

community activists and companies developed new strategies to facilitate co-

operation, and work within the existing political and economic limits imposed

by national government. A note of caution is necessary here. As Mayo points

out, a number of local authorities continued throughout the 1990s to develop

community development policies that took account of the upsurge in

community activity, whilst maintaining important social goals like those of anti-

poverty and equal opportunities (Mayo, 1994, pp.146-7). However these were

most often incorporated into wider strategies concerned with the management

of communities through service provision of one form or another, rather than

the promotion of grass roots activity directed from the bottom upwards. Within

the overall climate of change, circumstantial pressures were also brought to

bear on community organisations themselves, as issues of commercialisation

and financial viability rose to prominence.

This increase in emphasis on financially viable partnerships between the

public private and community sectors led to the emergence of a competitive

situation where more organisations fought over often fewer resources,

although the arrival of the National Lottery in 1992 relieved some financial

pressures. On one level this made it much harder to defend what were seen

93
as directly political programmes, marginalising the most radical community

organisations.

This was as true with regard to ICT development in the community sector as

with other elements in the field. It also brought about an increasing

professionalisation of the sector as a whole, at least among those groups most

able to take advantage of the new conditions. In effect a voluntary sector

market was created (Deakin, 1995, p.63), one in which opportunities for

funding increasingly took precedence over wider questions of principle or

need, as relationships of dependency between community organisations and

business were intensified and reinforced.

However despite this radical restructuring, concern about the deep social

divisions remaining in Britain forced new strategies on tackling the perceived

problem of social exclusion back onto the political agenda. It was within this

atmosphere that the idea of community development enjoyed the start of its

renaissance. The idea of partnership as a vehicle for generating renewal

gained new currency in the 1990s through a series of policy initiatives both

within and outside of the Labour Party.

The publication of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities’ Local

Authorities and community development – a strategy for the nineties

document (Association of Metropolitan Authorities, 1993) was central in this

respect. It argued that an emancipatory, inclusive strategy of community

development was a key element of a healthy democracy, while the Labour

Party’s consultative document Renewing Democracy, Rebuilding

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Communities called for local councils to adopt annual ‘Community Plans’ to

encourage participative democracy at the local level (Labour Party, 1995).

One effect of this approach towards community development as a form of

activity that crosses various areas of social welfare, has been in some cases

to subsume community work within a range of different departments, none of

which have a systematic approach towards community development.

Community development workers have historically largely been viewed – and

to an extent viewed themselves – as operating at the margin of welfare

occupations, more often identifying their priorities with those of service users

that other welfare professionals (Miller and Ahmad, 1997, p.279).

The situation arising in the mid-1990s and continuing to gain ground into the

third term of a Labour government, still offers a potentially contradictory future.

On the one hand, it locates community development closer to the centre of

local governance, holding out the possibility of effective service delivery in

partnership with ever more varied public and private agencies. This ‘synergy

model’ of partnership suggests that by combining resources and knowledge,

the partner organisations will be able to achieve more together than they could

alone. Similarly, they may be able to gain access to additional funds that

neither could access alone.

Alternatively, as Mayo points out, a ‘transformational model’ of partnership

holds out other possible conclusions. Private sector bodies might become

more socially aware and, conversely, public, voluntary and community sector

organisations might become more market-oriented or even market-dominated.

Thus, partnership becomes a mutual struggle for transformation, and if one

95
partner is significantly more powerful than another and/or has greater access

to information than the other, then ‘the outcome of this mutual struggle may be

only too predictable, as the community sector has all too often found to its

cost’ (Mayo, 1997, p.5).

In 1992 the then Labour leader John Smith set up the ‘Commission on Social

Justice’ to report on a programme for social and economic reform. Amongst

the commission’s terms of reference were: ‘to examine the relationship

between social justice and other goals, including economic competitiveness

and prosperity’; and ‘to analyse public policies, particularly in the fields of

employment, taxation and social welfare, which could enable every individual

to live free from want and to enjoy the fullest possible social and economic

opportunities’. It reported its findings in 1994 under the heading Social

Justice: Strategies for National Renewal. The conclusions contained within

the report came to partly inform New Labour’s policies around the welfare

state in the 1997 general election, with the idea of an ‘Investors’ Britain’ at the

heart of policy making for welfare state regeneration. The report argued that:

investors combine the ethics of community with the dynamics of a

market economy. They believe that the extension of economic
opportunity is not only the source of economic prosperity but also the
basis of social justice.
(Commission on Social Justice, 1994, p.4)

Central to the notion of an investors’ Britain is the view that inclusive

partnerships must operate at all levels to achieve social justice. It is this basic

assumption that has largely informed government policy on community

development as a whole since 1997, no less in the field of ICT than any other

area. In its manifesto before the 1997 election, New Labour expressed its

intention to move ‘from a contract culture to a partnership culture’ (Labour

Party, 1997).

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Nowhere has partnership been taken up more enthusiastically than in the idea

of ‘social enterprises’. These are businesses with primarily social objectives

whose surpluses are principally reinvested for such purposes in the business

or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit

for shareholders and owners (Department for Trade and Industry, 2002).

Corporate ‘social responsibility programmes’ – such as those undertaken by

BT, Marks and Spencer and AOL – offer support to social enterprises in a

range of areas. The potential for a transformational model of partnership to

operate over and above a synergy one in these circumstances is clear, even if

only through a publicly unarticulated pressure on smaller organisations to drop

controversial activities in favour of those deemed more acceptable to their

corporate backers.

3.5.2. ICT and community development: from the mid-1990s to the

present

The ideas of partnership and social inclusion, and the potential for developing

common interests across a broad range of actors in society, have raised the

possibility of implementing policies at national and local levels which can

greatly increase the levels of ICT access among the poorest groups in society.

At the same time these do not necessarily adversely affect the interests of

already powerful actors. The availability of the benefits of the information

superhighway to all, it is argued, not only empowers those who join the ranks

of the ‘information-haves’, but helps provide entry to newly expanding labour

markets. As such, in policy terms, enhanced access to ICT has become

increasingly linked to questions of economic development and the

reproduction of labour, exemplified by Tony Blair’s desire to ‘embed work as

97
the cornerstone of the welfare system for all those of working age’ (Blair,

2001, p.3)

Although the speed of technological change has forced ICT high up the

community development policy agenda, some commentators have warned

that technology does not provide a quick fix to deep-seated or institutionalised

problems. Harris (1991, pp.75-6) says that to regard information work as

neutral amounts to collusion with the forces which perpetuate disadvantage.

While opportunities for social change may be seen to be opening, this change

will not come about just because information itself flows. Social intervention is

called for at every level, and this must include the effective participation of

people in determining the conditions which affect their lives.

It is within this context that attempts have been made to inject elements of

empowerment into new programmes of socially-based ICT development.

Borrowing from theories of community development, a number of practitioners

have recognised the potential of ICT to spearhead local regeneration

strategies, while also being made available to impoverished and marginalised

communities. Within those local councils most alert to the possibilities of

working with rather than against central government in the post –1987

settlement, new layers of organisation sprung up in the 1990s with the

specified aim of gaining funding for ICT development.

These new or revamped departments looked at the funding process in

innovative ways, focusing much more on the possibilities of the city or region

as being able to attract support and investment from a wide variety of national

and supranational sources. This, they have argued, could at some levels

98
bypass traditional central government funding routes altogether. At the heart

of the ethos for change is the idea that the establishment of a ‘digital

democracy’ located within communities, is bound up root and branch with

wider questions of economic development (Carter, 1997, p.137). This in turn

raises questions of whether local regeneration operates simply as a tool for

government-derived policy, or moves towards being a vehicle for genuinely

inclusive policy-making – both across social and economic fields and within

local communities (Osborne and Ross, 2001, p.91)

Some of those charged with implementing ICT-based community development

polices have understood the inherent contradictions within the situation very

well. Carter (1997, p.137) argues that the main scenario being debated within

policy circles through policy papers such as the Bangemann Report (1994)

was essentially optimistic. The information superhighway would support a

wide range of new services which would empower citizens and provide for

their full participation in an emerging digital democracy. Whilst working within

a basically neo-liberal framework, Bangemann noted that the idea of a

European information society must reflect the fact that the political and social

consequences of using ICT goes far beyond just economic or technological

reforms (cited by Dutton et al, 1996, p.396). As Mansell and Steinmuller

(2000) argue, it is very difficult to reconcile goals of social and economic

cohesion with those of realising products that can be readily commercialised

and that will improve European economic competitiveness. The result is:

a division between projects that have an explicit social aim and,

therefore, can be assessed in relation to their social contribution and
other projects whose aims are in accord with the commercialisation and
competitiveness agenda.
(Mansell and Steinmuller, 2000, p.41)

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Carter too sees these contradictions, stating that there is a serious danger of

ignoring:

the realities of power which support an information aristocracy rather

than a digital democracy. If citizens are not able to have access to the
new telematics infrastructures and services, the outcome will simply
reinforce existing patterns of inequalities with ‘information haves and
have-nots’ in our communities.
(Carter, 1997, p.137)

This view has been supported by a series of studies which reveal widespread

inequalities in ICT-take up continuing to the present day (National Working

Party on Social Inclusion, 1997; Policy Action Team 15, 2000; European

Commission, 1997; Selwyn and Gorard, 2002; Wyatt et al, 2004; Digital

Inclusion Panel, 2004). These findings suggest that early fears raised remain

salient, although Wyatt et al. (2004) point to increasingly positive changes by

the end of 2003, based around the experience of the government’s ‘UK Online

Centres’ initiative.

It is useful to briefly examine some of these reports, to see how they tackle a

number of the issues discussed in this chapter. It is important to take these

works on their own terms, which may not include much reference to broader

global conditions. Each however focuses on the community sector and current

ICT-related initiatives taking place therein.

The first study is the report of the National Working Party on Social Inclusion

(1997) titled The Net Result: Social Inclusion in the Information Society. This

work contains an extensive discussion of some of the categories of the

information society and has the widest remit of the three studies under

discussion. Community Online’s (1999) Local Connections report focuses

more closely on specific projects and initiatives across the UK. Finally, The

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Digital Inclusion Panel (DIP) (2004) report Enabling a Digitally United Kingdom

offers a framework for action for the remainder of the decade.

The Net Result criticises the dominant economic orientation of the information

society debate. It suggests that this imbalance needs to addressed through

bringing in issues around the nature of information and communication, and

the social significance of the citizens and communities. It raises vital

questions about membership of the information society being potentially

denied to some members of society, seeing the principle of citizenship as

being central to information inclusion. Social policy must confront

technological determinism and reassert the primacy of the citizen and the

community as the agents and subjects of social change (National Working

Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.13).

Of all the reports in the sector The Net Result makes the most concerted effort

to address the wider causes and consequences of social exclusion, insisting

that it is structural, dynamic, and multi-dimensional (Ibid., p.17). The report

includes an extensive critique of the lack of policy direction in overcoming

these problems, some aspects of which have also been of concern to

government policy-makers since 1997. However, over and above talking

briefly about the structural nature of information inequality, it does not

acknowledge that there may be more involved in government responses to the

problem than a neutral pursuit of best policy. The broader logic of the

capitalist restructuring that has effectively created these structural problems is

not addressed in any great detail.

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Instead the report lays much - and worthwhile - emphasis on human-centred

systems to address these problems through the means of various types of

community networks. As I have argued in Chapter 2, this is a necessary but

not sufficient response to the problem. Importantly, The Net Result identifies

the establishment of a national network of community-ICT resource centres as

potentially providing a structural focus for drawing these into a more integrated

whole. It also acknowledges that the information society will be an arena for

various interests which will not always progress together harmoniously.

Arguing that there are three main strands to the information society debate –

the technological, the economic and the ‘socially-divisive’ – INSINC states that

it has intentionally placed its effort outside these streams. The role of the

Working Party was instead:

to explore the potential for social inclusion in the Information Society,

from a community development perspective; and to try to identify policy
measures to that end.
(Ibid., p.64)

This the report does well, producing far reaching policy recommendations

within these closely-defined parameters.

The Local Connections report is produced by the online community

practitioners forum, Communities Online. It focuses in great detail on policy

issues around the issue of community-related ICT. The document is a

response to the Social Exclusion Unit’s report Bringing Britain Together: a

national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. Local Connections

encompasses a number of strands ranging from a discussion of the ways that

ICT can be used to support neighbourhood renewal, through to the

development and implications of policy in the area.

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In keeping with the very practical nature of the concerns of Communities

Online, the main focus is on identifying what actually works within

communities. Given this, three key considerations inform the research and

the conclusions of the report. They are:

- In what ways can ICTs be used to support neighbourhood

renewal?
- What are the factors that make for success at both the project
and local community level?
- What are the implications of this for policy?
(Shearman, 1999, p.1)

From these initial premises, it brings forward various recommendations, many

of which have proved both timely and salient, especially in relation to urging

the government to carry out its stated commitment to a ‘joined-up’ and

integrated policy process. Some of these are discussed in more detail in

Section 8.2.. However given its specific remit, Local Connections places itself

firmly within the policy debate over ICT-related neighbourhood renewal. It

remains comfortable keeping within these limited borders, arguing that modest

adjustments to policies and programmes can have a transforming effect on

ICT-related community regeneration (Ibid., p.6)

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Enabling a digitally United Kingdom clearly illustrates the ways in which the

information society discourse has evolved over the last decade. It

offers a framework for action to provide the necessary conditions to

develop what it calls the ‘supply-side digital opportunities and the

demand-side capacity for people to exercise their option to become

digitally engaged’ (Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004, p.8). The use of the

language of the economist is not accidental, as the framework is

comprised of the following elements:

Commercial innovation and enterprise. This is seen as a key driver in

the increase and acceleration of digital take-up.
Social innovation and enterprise. In the form of corporate social
responsibility initiatives social innovation and enterprise represent a
powerful vehicle to enable people and communities to become stronger
and more digitally connected.
e-Government service delivery. This presents a significant opportunity
to improve services that are important to people who are currently
unengaged. It requires government to work in an innovative way, and in
partnership with industry and the voluntary sector.
Lifelong learning opportunities. Government and other organisations
such as the Learning and Skills Council are providing resources that
enable people to develop their capacity to become digitally engaged.
(Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004, p.8)

Overall, the report illustrates that within official policy circles the debate over

social inclusion has become located firmly around issues of enterprise,

innovation and labour market reproduction. The strengthening of communities

is seen as inextricably linked with corporate action, and funding is to be

provided largely through the prism of corporate acceptability.

The lack of adequate investment by government at an early stage coupled

with an exponential growth in commercialisation of the internet, have left the

community sector in general – and impoverished communities in particular -

far behind in questions of access. Perhaps even more importantly are

concerns over the quality of use. The reasons for this are complex and

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primarily socially based. Nevertheless, they are seen by some commentators,

especially those associated with the CI approach, as open to some change

through the determined implementation of policy (Harris, 1999, p.68; Day and

Schuler, 2004). However, as has been discussed in Section 2.3., the process

of making and implementing policy operates within broader structural

constraints. These are not always conducive to the kind of change proposed

by advocates of CI, some reasons for which are explored more fully in Chapter

9.

3.5.3. Community networks and community-ICT resource centres

The development of various forms of ‘community networks’ has been

identified as critical to the practice of successful community development in

the information society (National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997,

p.44). At the most general level, ICT-related community networks can be

described as networks of computers that are interconnected to a central

computer which provides community information and a means to

communicate electronically. Characteristically, these networks tend to be

focused on local issues, have a concern for access and inclusion for all

members of the community, and believe that the network can strengthen and

vitalise existing communities (Beamish, 1995).

When people, usually through representative agencies at local level, seek to

exploit new technologies to extend existing networks the result can be

stronger communities. If these initiatives are successful, various community

development aims such as greater communication, increased participation

and a generally more informed community can result (National Working Party

on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.45). However, the potential for community

105
networks to become little more than skills acquisition projects is always

present, and can be exacerbated by the make up of those agencies involved

in their functioning. In his study of public ICT sites in Wales, Selwyn (2003)

notes that this tendency remains as strong as ever. Many initiatives are built

up on a partnership basis between local communities and other actors such as

local authorities, colleges, larger voluntary agencies and private companies.

For community development concerns of self-realisation and empowerment to

function, the active input and influence of people at the ground level is

essential.

The coming together of communities and other actors in community networks

has increasingly taken the form of the development of physical locations with

an overarching function of providing a focus for ICT-related activities within

localities. The broad term ‘community-ICT resource centres’ describes a

heterogeneous set of initiatives that have sprung up around the country,

although the Labour government has increasingly encouraged the term

‘Online centres’. These centres operate through a variety funding bases, and

hold divergent sets of aims and goals. What is common to these initiatives,

however, is the focus they begin to provide for local communities to use ICT at

varying levels of sophistication for community development ends.

The 1997 INSINC report identified the establishment of a network of CRCs as

crucial to the development of a socially inclusive information society. In

contrast to the haphazard history of CRC expansion, this should be based on

a programme of core public funding and not subject of funding trends or

dependent on success in challenge bids. The all too common short-termism of

contract-chasing and temporary funding provide an unstable and distorting

106
base from which to operate, leaving CRCs overly concerned with questions of

financial sustainability rather than their core reasons for being in existence.

The INSINC group contended that the market principle could not bring about

the necessary conditions for such a network, not least because it overlooks

the need for purpose and appropriate use among those who otherwise would

have no reason to get connected (National Working Party on Social Inclusion,

1997, pp.48-9).

The physical structure and location of CRCs can take a variety of forms. The

INSINC report recommended that public access be made available through a

co-ordinated programme of action involving schools, community centres,

public access kiosks and crucially, the library network. The report of the

government’s Social Exclusion Unit policy action team on access to IT two

years later, recommended broadening this to include post offices, cyber cafes

and new ‘neighbourhood learning centres’. By 2003, the actual size of the

network had grown to over 6,000 centres funded at some level through the

Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF) (Wyatt et al, 2004).

Harris points out there are at least two kinds of ‘poor community’, those where

community groups are relatively well organised and active, with some local

involvement in regeneration initiatives; and those ‘dis-integrated’ communities

which only possess the most fragile of community-based groups. In the latter

areas, he contends, it is unrealistic to expect renewal to take root in the

relatively unproblematic ways suggested by PAT15 and other policy action

teams (Harris, 1999, p.65).

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The emergence of the CRC as a central focus of ICT-related community

development poses a number of questions for the sector. In part, these hinge

around the contradiction running through community work as a whole between

the access and advocate-organiser approaches outlined earlier. On the one

hand CRCs can trace their origins back to the independent NICs located

within communities and acting as advocates for the concerns of individuals

and groups therein. Indeed a number of CRCs have evolved directly out of

such situations, adding new dimensions to the work of existing organisations.

Conversely, many CRCs are also largely dependent on local authorities,

funding bodies such as the Big Lottery Fund and national government

initiatives such as the CMF for their existence. Given the trend towards an

access-based approach in the thinking of many funding bodies, there is a

possibility of CRCs becoming the main formalising vehicle for this view within

the community sector.

The basic functions of CRCs are similar across the country, but the

organisational forms they take vary. Examining the impacts of such

developments within divergent community settings can help shed light on

factors of change that are either common to various situations or specific to

particular ones. Various factors come into play here: Most especially, which

groups are at the centre of the decision-making process when it comes to

determining the scope and outlook of such centres, and how does this affect

the outcomes in terms of what the centres offer? These outcomes are

measurable not only in terms of their contribution to the skills pool of a

restructured labour market, but also concern questions of personal and

collective empowerment. These issues raise important questions concerning

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the future of governance in relation to community development and ICT, some

of which are explored below.

3.6. Community, ICT and governance

As has been shown, the practice of community development has undergone

tremendous changes over the past three decades. I have argued that the

three overlapping but distinct phases of this change can be broadly

characterised in the following way: firstly a period of entrenched anti-state

oppositionalism, lasting from the late 1960s until the third Conservative victory

in the 1987 election; secondly a move towards greater accommodation and

incorporation into local governance structures during the last years of

Conservative government; and, thirdly, a new period of institutionalisation

under New Labour rule. Side by side with these developments has been an

equally radical shift in the ways community information activities are

undertaken. Alongside changing attitudes to the content and focus of such

information activities, has been the phenomenal rise of ICT as a tool for

gathering, storing, and disseminating information. The sheer power of new

information tools has in itself also changed the nature and scope of

information available to communities and community groups.

3.6.1. The blurring of boundaries

The changing forms of community development emerging in the new climate

inevitably mean that relationships between various actors and agencies in

society have also been altered, and in some cases transformed beyond

recognition. Changes in policy emphasis at national and local levels have

109
been ongoing, with the idea of the enabling state gaining ever greater

currency. This has been accompanied by the emergence of new partnerships

which offer access to the sector for an ever greater range of non-public sector

actors.

These developments have created shifts in the nature of services offered at

local levels, and also altered the ways in which local third sector and

community groups can have a meaningful input into such areas. In such

circumstances it has become necessary to re-examine and reappraise the

specific strategies being pursued at local levels, and the particular structures,

partnerships and practices current in the field.

The relationship of community development to the state has always been

complex and difficult to disentangle. The sector has historically sat at the

margin of local authority service provision, with community workers often

seeing themselves - and being seen – as possessing a greater degree of

independence from local authority control than other departmental actors.

This situation has changed over time as community development has

increasingly become tied in as one element in the strategic activities of a

number of local authority departments. These include social services, libraries

and latterly those concerned in one form or another with issues of economic

development. Not only has this blurred the distinctive identity of community

workers somewhat, it has served to squeeze and narrow the scope of

community development practice as a whole.

3.6.2. Local information strategies

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With this blurring of the boundaries between departments in mind, many local

authorities around the country have attempted to implement integrated local

information strategies, covering a range of service provision areas. Some of

these are integrated into broader ‘community strategies’ often developed

within guidelines issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004).

Equally, information strategies are being increasingly incorporated into the

broader policy aim of expanding e-government generally. The accessibility of

100% of public services via technological platforms through electronic service

delivery (ESD) is a key national policy aim (Hudson, 2002, p.518). The work

of the UK Online Centres initiative reinforces this through viewing access to

services as a key element of lessening the digital divide in society (Wyatt,

2004, p.10). As we have seen, the DIP specifically links the benefits that

being ‘digitally engaged’ brings for individuals, business, the voluntary sector

and government (Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004, p.6-8).

In many cases the net has been widened to incorporate private industry,

universities and local quangos in the decision making process. ICT is

increasingly being seen as an essential building block in the process of getting

such initiatives off the ground. Integrated strategies are not however by any

means the norm across the country. Many localities have seen information

activities implemented in much more piecemeal and haphazard fashion.

The direction of change can be influenced by many factors. Some of these

relate directly to issues of organisational strength and levels of access to

funding. Others have more to do with historical conditions around the

development of the third sector. The existence of strong centres of innovation

within local authorities, the historical relationships existing between third

111
sector organisations and local private concerns, and the reality of an

independent, vibrant grassroots based network of community organisations

can all have a considerable effect on outcomes. For example, in some cases

the implementation of information policy has become part of a broader cultural

policy at the local level. Change here may be viewed by various actors in the

context of a more thoroughgoing acculturation to new technologies, resulting

in shifts in lifestyle as a whole.

When examining cities or regions where such ideas have prominent

exponents it may be the case that deeper differences emerge in policy and

outlook. Such investigation can serve to make explicit the contested terrain

occupied by the struggle to implement new technologies into the community

development arena. The ways in which the structures employed to meet the

new priorities of ICT implementation and community development change

have shifted over time. This has created tensions within local authority

decision-making structures around the country. This can take a variety of

forms, notably between those who see the all pervasive nature of the

technology as allowing for new bridges to be built between all sorts of

‘traditional’ and non-traditional actors, and those who work within a more

historically conventional paradigm.

Other factors are equally important in affecting the nature of change. For

example as a result of the economies of scale associated with purchasing

and implementing ICT based services, less of the technology is being

introduced as a grassroots phenomenon. This is despite some community

groups attempting their own innovative use of ITC for the provision of the

services they offer to their target groups.

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Given financial and technical constraints many find this very difficult to put into

practice in a large way. This has the potential to create serious problems for

autonomous change at the grassroots. The business-led ‘Alliance for Digital

Inclusion’ (ADI) has recognised this as a negative factor, and gives small-

scale grants to community organisations for pursuing ‘Innovation in the

Community’ (Alliance for Digital Inclusion, 2004). These however are

administered by the internet giant AOL, regarded by many practitioners as part

of the initial problem.

The case studies which follow this chapter will examine some of these issues,

and attempt to explain why differences might emerge between localities and

regions, and with what consequences for the sector as a whole. It is important

to investigate the different historical starting points which, for example, the

cities of Manchester and Liverpool might occupy, if one is to understand the

trajectory of change in each. The increasing centrality of the place occupied

by the city and region in driving through change has been noted earlier. This

very importance points to diverse forms of implementation, as each of these

areas carries through new innovations in specific historical circumstances.

However, such diversity and specificity exist within a wider social and political

context, one that has been considerably reshaped over the past three

decades.

3.6.3. New forms of institutionalisation

With the language of social exclusion largely replacing terms such as poverty

and class in the lexicon of those responsible for pushing through ICT-related

policies for deprived areas, the scope of change is now being considered in

113
narrower terms than thirty years ago. The upsurge of radical community work

in the 1970s has left its mark in mainstream practice with many ideas

becoming rooted in everyday activities. For example, the challenge to

pathological descriptions of the nature of poverty remains a powerful critique

even now. Overall though, co-option into ever more straitjacketed structures

has became the norm, and radical new ideas are becoming increasingly

marginal. It might even be argued that at some level new forms of social

pathologising are emerging, as socio-structural answers to exclusion are being

largely rejected in favour of bringing individuals back into the societal (and

labour market) fold through skills and training initiatives.

The rise of the enabling state in the Thatcher period has shown no signs of

receding under subsequent governments, with non-statutory bodies holding an

increasingly entrenched place within the sector. These changed structures,

with their emphasis firmly on questions of vocationalism and economic

development play a large part in helping narrow the agenda for new ICT

initiatives, often forcing community groups to rein in their ideas in order to

become eligible for funding. With the greater formalisation and

professionalisation of the sector, it seems that the access approach to

community work has generally gained the ascendancy over advocacy and

community self-organisation. The growth of multi-agency, and crucially multi-

sector, partnerships both help reinforce this ‘squeeze to the centre’.

Within this general context though, government has accepted the need for a

large public funding element for the establishment of a national network of

CRCs, and for a host of other related internet and ICT based schemes.

Although this is being proffered firmly within an economic development

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agenda, social development objectives are seen as important, if secondary.

Again these are generally placed within fairly narrow limits, focusing upon

gaining the skills necessary to become employable and able graduate to

membership of the inclusive society.

The PAT15 and DIP reports, among others, have demonstrated that the poor

generally have less access to ICT than any other groups in society. Even if

current government initiatives radically alter this state of affairs, questions of

individual and collective empowerment will remain. Access may be a

necessary element of empowerment in relation to ICT, but it certainly is not in

itself sufficient. A critique of such policies is needed, one which takes into

account both the policies and initiatives of the UK government but also goes

further and locates those actions within a rapidly changing global setting.

Across the world, many key structures of the post-1945 settlement have

become subject to huge transformative pressures. The dynamics of this

change are complex. For example, pressures on the nation state to open up

both its economic and political borders to the wider world are intimately linked

to new conditions for the governance of localities and regions. The very

position of the local within the wider geo-political and economic mix has been

transformed, creating new opportunities for the most favoured areas whilst

consigning others to semi-permanent marginalisation.

As has been noted, this dichotomy is mirrored within the structures of cities

and regions themselves. In this transformed situation, the traditionally

Keynesian nature of welfare governance has been undermined in various

ways. More often than not these have proved commensurate with the overall

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dominance of neoliberal thought within the restructuring process. In this

situation issues of local governance and the provision of welfare at the local

level have not escaped transformative pressures. The two levels of activity

are intimately related. This relationship is dynamic, multidirectional and

complex. Local welfare change involves various parallel processes, some of

which relate directly back to broader restructuring processes and some of

which take a more circuitous route.

3.7. Reflecting on the evidence

Chapter 2 argued that the critical use of some of the insights provided by

regulation theory are useful in allowing an innovative way of examining these

processes. However, broad theoretical insights by themselves are incapable

of capturing the complicated matrix of factors that go into making real

historical change. To do this it is also necessary to conduct empirical

research at the ground level. As a precursor to this, the first part of this

chapter outlined some of the changes which have taken place within the field

of information-related community development in post-war Britain. It placed

these within the broader context of changes taking place in welfare generally.

This narrative helps create the framework within which a more detailed

examination of current shifts in the governance and also the practice of the

sector can be undertaken.

3.7.1. Differing models of change

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Outlining a broad contextualisation of the field allows a number of new

elements to be examined. These can help provide new insights into the

factors at work in influencing the direction of current change both on the

ground and at broader policy levels. As discussed earlier, a number of

previous studies have examined changes in the community development

sector with reference to the impact of ICT. Others still have approached

questions of ICT-related restructuring and change from broader theoretical

perspectives. Some of the main positions are illustrated in Table 3.1. below.

Table 3.1. Approaches to information and communications technology

(ICT)-related change

Approach Exponent Focus

Technology-driven Bell (1974)
Castells (1997)
Economic and social Jessop (2000)
reproduction May (2002)
Policy-driven National Working Party on
Social Inclusion (1997)
Digital Inclusion Panel
(2004)
Human agency Day and Harris (1997)
Day and Schuler (2004)
Technological imperatives
for change
Capitalist restructuring
Governance theory
National and local policy
imperatives
Community networking
Civic activism

The approach taken by Bell (1974) and Castells (1997) can be characterised

as being essentially technology-driven. Although they reach differing

specific conclusions concerning the nature of change, both argue that

technological innovation is the prime social dynamic, carrying with it social

impacts that result in a new order in society. Together with those who view

economic and social reproduction as the main determinants of ICT-related

change, they share a tendency towards approaching the issues from a broad

theoretical viewpoint, operating in its widest form at a global level. However,

117
the two positions diverge over the key question of primacy in the relationship

between society and technology. Commentators such as Jessop (2000) and

May (2002) view technology in general, and ICT in particular, as only one

element in the mix of social and economic factors that affect the nature of

change.

The National Working Party on Social Inclusion (1997) and the Digital

Inclusion Panel (2004) both take a more policy driven approach to change.

They concentrate fairly exclusively on the national factors at work rather than

any wider restructuring process. Within both of these studies there is a

tendency to focus directly at the level of policy in relation to the direction of the

sector, without reference to some of the broader conditions that affect the

making of that policy. In particular, national conditions in the UK are often

described in isolation from wider global restructuring. This can potentially

have the effect of excluding or mistaking broader influences and issues

surrounding change.

Day and Schuler (2004) go further down the line of a human agency

approach in seeing community networking as a central component in

influencing the nature of change. One limitation to the scope and depth of this

human-centred approach can be the concentration on micro-issues – albeit

very important ones - at the expense of some broader structural trends. A

balance needs to be struck in this regard between discrete levels of analysis.

It is felt here that amongst the approaches outlined, regulation theory comes

closest to allowing an integrated analysis of both theoretical and empirical

levels.

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Relating the different levels of general and particular influences on policy and

action is difficult. It nevertheless has to be attempted as its omission can have

serious consequences for understanding current developments. If a study

fails to properly contextualise the processes it is describing, then a number of

things may follow. At the most general level a failure to take into account the

changing nature of governance at both local and wider levels can lead to the

misinterpretation of the ongoing role of the community sector as a whole, and

within this community development in particular. As Chapter 2 argued, this is

particularly important in relation to the examination of ICT. The impact of ICT

in the community arena – as in so many others - has been to change the

scope of the sector overall and bring it into new areas of policy deliberation. In

the UK this has led to direct Prime Ministerial intervention in policy formation

on a number of occasions (see, for example Blair, 1996, p.103; Blair, 2004).

Gaining a greater theoretical understanding of these and other developments

involves taking into account the new conditions within which they happen.

The making of policy within national borders is still of the utmost importance,

but is itself influenced by much broader developments. At the level of local

regimes the mix of influences is equally great, as localities struggle to find a

settled place in the changing global order. Failure to take these factors into

regard can lead to an incomplete appraisal of the potential outcomes of policy,

and of the limits within which policies may feasibly operate.

It is important to note here that while changes in the community sector do not

take place in isolation, neither do broader structural developments have a

simple and direct effect on what happens within community development.

There is a relationship here which needs to be explored, and one which takes

119
place on various levels. These include the general/theoretical level of

understanding societal restructuring; the arena of local and national policy-

making; and developments in ground level activity. All these levels are related

to and impinge upon one another in various ways. However each also

possesses its own internal dynamics.

A central task of this thesis is to attempt to unravel some of the threads of

those relationships and establish the key factors that go into their making.

This is as important when focusing on policy issues as it is for more

generalised theorising. Failure to develop an understanding of multiple

pressures for change may have important consequences. For example, it

may lead to putting forward policy recommendations that at best only

marginally influence the trends at work, and at worst might serve to disguise

the endemic nature of the growing inequalities in meaningful power over and

access to information.

As we have seen, each of the policy-oriented reports mentioned in Section

3.5.2. brings important findings to the field and presents useful

recommendations for social and community policy. But each baulks at going a

step further and examining in any detail the overall conditions within which

policy is made and the limits of policy in a world dominated by a restructuring

global capitalism which dominates the direction of technological use, and the

overall policy arena within which ICT is considered. It can be argued that to

undertake this work might distort and take away from the richness of the

debate about what is going on on the ground, and to some extent this is true.

Different pieces of work fulfil different functions.

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Most of the policy-oriented studies examined above work well within the

parameters they have set themselves. However the lack of research

attempting to make an analysis integrating micro- and macro-levels, still

constitutes an omission within the literature, and more is needed to

complement the more current policy-oriented examinations of the field. This

thesis is an attempt to begin in some way to bridge the gap and bring together

the discrete levels of analysis into a single whole.

3.7.2. Building a new theory of change

As has been demonstrated, many of the conditions and challenges facing the

community sector today can be said to be qualitatively different from those

pertaining thirty or so years ago. More empirical investigation is necessary if

the full nature and extent of these shifts is to be understood. It also seems

that notwithstanding this change many threads of continuity in both theory and

practice still run through the community field. These too must be the subject

of further empirical inquiry. The overall tendential shift from Keynesian

national welfare state to Schumpetarian postnational workfare regime

identified by Jessop has created many new pressures upon the local

governance of welfare. Not least is the emergence under accelerated

globalisation of a neoliberal social and economic orthodoxy, mirrored by a

global crisis of the left during the period under study.

As discussed in Section 3.7.1., there are a number of ways of interpreting the

changes underway within the areas of ICT and community development. On

the one hand, these include accounts which subscribe to varying degrees of

technological determinism. Others see activist community networks as key

organisational forms in influencing the nature of change (see for example Day

121
and Schuler, 2004). I have argued that the most useful theoretical framework

for understanding these changes is broadly that of regulation theory, which

allows for an holistic analysis of changing structures, whilst recognising the

importance of human action and agency in shaping specific manifestations of

change. However this framework needs to be built on through extensive

ground-level research. Only then can a richer understanding of current

developments be reached.

When confronting issues of community development the idea of local

governance through urban regimes also seems particularly useful. It allows for

the description of an ever widening web of agencies, organisations and

individuals that have influence over community development in one way or

another. Within the constant flux of change, actors at the local level are being

forced to continually review their positions relative to each other and the world

around them. We have seen that the influence of ICT has been afforded

greater or lesser weight by various commentators, but all agree that its rise to

pre-eminence over the past thirty years has had an important effect on

governance issues at every level. This has transformed the nature of debate

over community information, throwing into sharp relief questions of access to

and control over the burgeoning technologies.

This chapter has argued that the main trend in community development over

the last three decades has been a shift away from radical opposition to the

imperatives of capital at the levels of the local and national state. This has

been largely replaced by the development and subsequent entrenchment of

an accommodation with these forces as consecutive governments have

sought to remould national and local welfare provision.

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Two examples from the period indicate that this may mean more than simply

changing the policies instituted at the community development level. It may

be that the current transformation involves an alteration of the core nature of

local regimes and the actors involved in the formation and implementation of

policy, although again this question is in need of much further exploration.

The first area of change relates to the increasing importance of non-public

sector actors in both policy making and policy implementation within the

community development field. As we have seen in Section 2.5., these may

include a broad range of organisations ranging from large corporate entities

such as IBM, AOL and BT, down to a variety of small and medium enterprises

and non-governmental organisations. In addition the growing layer of

quangos in various fields adds another complicating factor to the

organisational and structural mix.

These changes relate directly to the shift from local government to local

governance described in Section 2.4., with the hitherto primacy of local

authorities in directing change being challenged by an increasingly eclectic

mix of organisations. More empirical research is needed if the nature of these

changes is to be better understood. The second area of change worthy of

more detailed examination is within the field of community information itself.

This is connected with the shift away from a (relatively) independent network

of NICs having core aims of collective empowerment. It is arguable that these

are being largely replaced with a looser network of CRCs, or ‘Online Centres’,

funded mainly on the basis of delivering skills-based courses for the use of

ICT within the labour market. Along with other trends in community

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development identified within this and the previous chapter, these

developments raise important questions for further analysis.

3.7.3. Developing a research hypothesis

A primary question is whether the perceived shift away from local government

- and towards local governance - stands up to empirical investigation in the

field of community development. The extent to which this trend is still at the

early stages of progress, or has already effectively taken place in its

essentials, needs further investigation. This involves re-examining the

continuing role of local authorities in a situation where many new

organisations and interest-groups are becoming involved.

Alongside this there is a need to examine the levels at which these new forces

operate in influencing policy direction and its implementation. The further up

the policy ladder such influence is exerted, the more issues may be raised.

Among these it is pertinent to ask how much effective control has been taken

away from local authority policy makers, and shifted sideways or upwards. Or

is it possible that in this more diffuse situation greater autonomy might filter

downwards to grass roots actors?

It seems reasonable to assume that the influx of wider forces into these areas

creates new tensions within the structures of local government itself, as

groups within and between departments struggle to react to the changing

conditions. Examining the ways these tensions manifest themselves can

provide important indicators towards understanding shifting positions on

issues of information and community development policy. It also helps in

approaching the question of whether these are internally resolvable.

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However, the precise nature of change can only be understood through

analysing the evidence as it exists within localities. Therefore it is necessary

to look in some depth at instances within actual local authority areas and

measure these against initial research hypotheses.

All these issues have a direct impact on the repositioning of community

development within the local governance mix. With them in mind it is

necessary to ask what the changing situation means for ICT-related

community activities on a practical level, and how the positions of those

involved has altered. This includes both the community professionals

employed by a variety of organisations in the new mix, and the activists on the

ground attempting to make sense of a new situation.

The slightly dichotomous combination of stricter funding criteria and more

diffuse ways of getting this funding to the grass-roots may result in confusing

consequences for the autonomy of local groups. The same might also be said

of the impact on the local formation of community-ICT policy generally. On the

one hand the input of a diverse range of voices might have a positive impact

on the range of options considered for such a policy. However this may be

offset by imbalances in power and influence between those involved in the

process.

It is important to understand some of the complexities involved at the local

level when relating these issues back to the wider concerns of government

welfare policy. It is equally so when discussing other broad policy aims such

as social inclusion. Again the relationship between policy, theory and practice

needs investigating both empirically and theoretically. It should be asked to

125
what extent are the underlying principles of policy driving change in the sector,

and how much policy is simply a response to shifting social and economic

structural conditions. In contrast to technologically determinist positions, I

have already argued that ICT itself is capable of being used for a variety of

social policy goals. Tackling such issues through a combination of empirical

evidence and theoretical analysis will allow a broadening out of the discussion

later in the thesis, towards an analysis of the relationships between

movements at local, national and supranational levels.

This returns us to questions surrounding the development and character of an

information society and the changing nature of governance within it. The local

governance approach is useful again here. It allows for a view of change

within community development which incorporates an understanding of the

importance of ICT without becoming technologically determinist. It also makes

possible new ways of examining issues such as community networks and

communitarianism from this non-technological determinist viewpoint.

As indicated in Section 2.3.6, a number of previous studies have argued that

human-centred community networks can be taken as a useful starting point for

progress in ICT-related community development. This approach is put

forward in opposition to the dominant techno-economic paradigm of the

Information Society thesis. The focus on networks is a useful corrective to

such positions, but in itself is not sufficient to fully understand the complex

dynamics of the field. The actions of people within these micro-structures and

networks themselves need to be contextualised. It is of course important that

this broader theorisation does not impede empirical study of the field. The

126
actual dynamics of change need examining through such study, allowing for

modification of theory where necessary.

The creative use of a local governance approach can allow a two-way

dynamic to emerge between these levels, making it possible to begin building

a framework to tackle the major research questions of this thesis. Both

regulation theory and the notions of urban regimes and local governance have

been identified as useful ways of tackling the subject at hand. I have argued

that these approaches allow problems of ICT-related community development

to be analysed in new ways. However, this needs to be rigorously tested and

reviewed through empirical research.

Chapters 2 and 3 have allowed us to reach two preliminary research findings

which will be built on throughout the remainder of this work:

Firstly, it has been argued that a generalised transition has been taking place

in welfare systems over the last thirty to forty years. This has involved an

accelerating shift away from a system based on a Keynesian economic model

coupled with a strong welfare-oriented national state sector. In opposition to

this model there has developed a neoliberal global economic environment

allied to an emphasis on labour market readiness as the major objective of

social policy. Within the political arena this has meant a broadening of non-

state actors involved in the making of welfare policy.

Secondly, it can be said that these broad structural changes have had

particular consequences for the community sector and the importance of ICT

within it. Over the last four decades, community development and information

127
have moved away from a relatively independent position at the margins of

social policy, characterised by high levels of community activism and an

oppositional approach to the state.

Arising from these findings, the following hypothesis can be advanced:

An examination of current ICT-related community development trends

indicates a movement towards greater incorporation into the newly

emerging structures of local governance, dominated by the imperatives

of public/private partnership and economic development. This has

resulted in a narrowing of the autonomy of community organisations to

pursue broader self-defined aims, if they are not to risk a loss of support

from funding sources.

The pressure upon community organisations to conform with this

‘partnership’ model of development has resulted in them narrowing the

scope of their own aims and objectives. This ‘self-policing’ process has

led to a loss of radicalism within the sector.

The evidence for this hypothesis is incomplete. More work is required to

ascertain if what we are currently witnessing is the entrenchment of such a

trend. In particular, greater empirical data is needed to build upon its

theoretical propositions, and if necessary result in their modification. To this

end, a number of research questions can be identified for addressing in the

following areas: case study investigation, the analysis of the policy process

and the development of theory. These are as follows:

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Case study investigation:

- Is change in the sector uniform within and between localities, or do

differences exist across areas with divergent historical traditions?

- Which actors are most dominant in driving ICT-related community

development at the local level, and is this altering over time?

- How is the practice of social partnership between public, semi-public and

private agencies affecting ICT-related community development at local

levels?

- Are information strategies being successfully developed and implemented

within local community development arenas?

- Are community organisations substantially changing their aims, objectives

and practices in response to new conditions?

The analysis of the policy process:

- What main dynamics drive the policy process within UK ICT-related

community development, and from where do the major influences upon

this process derive?

- What principal factors affect the ways in which ICT-related community

organisations now sustain themselves in both financial and organisational

terms?

- How do broader social and political objectives, such as promoting

partnership and tackling social exclusion, feed into the formation of policy

around ICT-related community development?

- Is the national network of CRCs providing the community sector with an

adequate framework with which to meet emerging challenges relating to

ICT?

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- What implications do current dominant trends within the sector hold for the

future of ICT-related community development?

The development of theory

- How may the overall nature of the relationship between community

development and ICTs be best understood?

- What have been the key dynamics of the four decade long process of

transformation in the relation of community development to the state?

- How may the new structures of governance surrounding ICT-related

community development be best characterised?

- In what ways is it possible to go beyond current dominant paradigms for

theorising the position held by the community-ICT field within wider

society?

- How can theory and practice be best linked to help ICT-related community

development move forward for the future?

In this study the necessary data for answering these questions is provided

through undertaking a number of case studies, examining the levels to which

local people and community groups have had active input and influence at the

grass-roots level towards the making of policy. This process aims to test the

validity of the initial research hypothesis, and extend or alter it where

appropriate. However, before conducting the case studies, it is necessary to

develop a firm methodological foundation upon which they can be based. It is

to this methodology we now turn.

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Chapter 4:

Methodology

4.1. Introduction

Preceding chapters have examined the major historical and theoretical issues

associated with the question of ICT-related community development. This

chapter outlines the practical ways in which the current research process has

been approached, together with an exposition of the methodological decisions

taken in its design. It consists of three sections.

The first section begins with an examination of the term ‘methodology’ and

outlines how it has been interpreted within the execution of this research. This

encompasses a discussion of the methodological choices made during the

research process, and how they underpin both the theoretical and policy-

oriented aspects of the thesis.

The next section involves a more specific discussion of the research design

used. It includes an examination of the various stages of research and the

ways in which the empirical data gathered relates to the broader thesis.

Central to these issues is a discussion of the sampling techniques and

fieldwork methods chosen. Out of this emerges an overall map of the empirical

research process.

The final section is a reflexive account of the conduct of this research. It

provides a description of how the research was carried out in practice and an

assessment of the validity of the research process. Within this account it

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outlines some of the problems encountered and the ways in which these have

been resolved.

4.2. Methodological issues

It is useful to define the distinction between methods and methodology.

Methods can be described as the actual techniques used to study the social

world, whereas methodology deals with the overall principles and logic of

research. Within the social sciences, differing definitions of methodology have

been offered by researchers. These vary in emphasis from the pursuit of

‘clarification’ of the suppositions and consequences of methods described by

Kaplan (1973), to an emphasis on overcoming ‘puzzlement’ in the research

process, provided by Miles and Huberman (1994).

Clough and Nutbrown argue that for all their differences, these definitions of

methodology share a common idea of justification: ‘Methods mediate between

research questions and the answers which data partially provide to them;

methodology justifies and guarantees that process of mediation’ (Clough and

Nutbrown, 2002, p.38). Thus a good methodology is a critical design attitude

to be found always at work throughout a study, rather than simply confined

within a brief ‘Methodology’ chapter.

4.2.1. Positivism and naturalism

The choice of methodology within a research project is intrinsically related to

broader models of thinking that inform the social sciences. A key distinction

here is that between positivistic and naturalistic paradigms within social

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science thought. Von Wright (1986) argues that this itself is rooted in the

earlier distinction between Aristotelian and Galilean traditions, characterised

respectively as teleological and causal-mechanistic systems of thought (Von

Wright, 1986, p.11-16).

Like all influential and widely practised systems within social science,

positivism has developed many facets and nuances over the years. In its

most simplified form, positivism can be described as a philosophical position

according to which there are close ties between the social and natural

sciences, each sharing a common logical framework (Giddens, 1989, p.747).

As with the galilean tradition, this unity of method is broadly based on causal

explanations of phenomena. A central concern is with the testing of theories

against ‘the facts’, confirming or falsifying initial hypotheses. As positivism

became dominant within social science, qualitative and quantitative methods

were increasingly separated out in an absolute fashion. Quantitative survey

research methods of social enquiry gained dominance, leaving an

‘epistemological chasm’ between the two within many sociological disciplines

by the mid-20th century (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1996, p.3).

Modern naturalism arose as a reaction to positivism’s emphasis on scientific

method in the field of social research. Drawing on a wide range of

philosophical and sociological ideas, naturalism argues that social phenomena

are quite distinct from natural phenomena. The social world cannot be

understood in terms of causal relationships or by the subsumption of social

events under universal laws (Ibid., 1996, p.7). To understand people’s

behaviour an approach must be used that gives access to the meanings that

guide this behaviour. In relation to the collection of data for the fulfilment of

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this task it has been argued that the main field strategy of the naturalist

researcher is to take rich and detailed behaviour specimens of the people and

groups under study (Denzin, 1986, p.39).

Where positivism broadly preaches the value of quantitative methods,

naturalism exhorts the merits of qualitative ones. Knowledge within these two

approaches is typically arrived at through the use of deductive and inductive

methods respectively. Inductive methods are normally associated with the

construction of theory from the application and understanding of observations,

while deductive methods stress the application of theory to observations and

the knowledge of observations.

Following from this it can be seen that qualitative research tends to construct

theory through the understanding gained from observation of one form or

another, while quantitative work normally stresses the application of theory to

the problem (Wallace, 1986, p.8). The greatest problem associated with

naturalism is its often determined refusal to extrapolate wider theoretical

conclusions from research undertaken. This ‘thoroughgoing relativism’ has

the consequence of potentially limiting social research to cultural description.

Wider assumptions and theories which are brought to the research remain

implicit throughout and difficult to develop or test (Hammersley and Atkinson

1996, p.13).

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4.3. Qualitative methodologies and theories

Notwithstanding the above problems associated with qualitative methods of

research, detailed case study examinations of a number of research sites

have been undertaken for this thesis. These have been chosen in favour of

less nuanced and information-rich quantitative survey methods. The use of the

case study method itself takes place within a debate about the nature of

different forms of qualitative research.

We have already discussed naturalism as an overarching qualitative

methodological stance. Some major variations within the qualitative approach

should also be briefly outlined. It is important to be aware of the considerable

theoretical and practical overlap that has developed between these positions.

A constant interplay of data gathering and analysis is at the heart of qualitative

research. The nature of this relationship varies considerably between the

research paradigms described below, often dependent on the level of

perceived independence of data from a broader socio-structural context.

4.3.1. Interactionism

Interactionism refers to a group of theories which deal with interactive effects

between people and the situation they operate within. The main theory within

the interactionist field is that of symbolic interactionism, associated with Mead

(1934) and later Blumer (1969). It holds that the way people act is based on

constantly modified ‘meaning’ that arises out of social interaction. One

pertinent problem associated with this branch of thought is its inability or

unwillingness to systematically analyse social phenomena in wider terms than

those of interpersonal relationships.

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4.3.2. Ethnography

Ethnography refers to the detailed study of small groups of people.

Conventionally, it operates within the general sphere of naturalistic research,

taking on board many of the arguments developed within interactionism to

help explain the dynamics of the groups under study. This perspective has

come under increasing pressure in recent years. Hammersley argues that

because we both act within and reflect upon the social world, neither

naturalism nor positivism provide an adequate framework for social research.

The powerful contribution which ethnography does have the potential to make

must be based on some form of reflexivity, placing both the researcher and

the subject(s) within the context of the world they inhabit.

4.3.3. Grounded Theory

The development of grounded theory represents an attempt to close the gap

between theory and empirical research by the generation of theoretical ideas

through the systematic investigation of the social world. It dispenses with a

priori theorising of a broadly logico-deductive nature, replacing this with an

inductivist perspective on the problems of theory-building. The categories of

grounded theory are generated through a process of constant comparative

analysis of cases chosen by the technique of theoretical sampling. Here, the

initial case for analysis is chosen on a general subject or problem basis, not

via a preconceived theoretical framework. For new data, cases are chosen on

the basis of the emerging theory, thus creating a dynamic process of empirical

research and theorisation.

Although providing the basis for the collection and intimate theorisation of

detailed materials, grounded theory is vulnerable to some of the criticisms

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levelled at other inductivist theories. The conclusions gained in research are

difficult to relate to any wider theoretical positions. Indeed this is seen as a

strength by the founders of grounded theory in that theory based on data can

usually not be completely refuted by more data or replaced by another theory

(Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p.4) It can be argued that grounded theory fails to

take into consideration wider social structures and relations of power that are

not necessarily able to be made fully apparent within the confines of the data

collected on a particular project, but are nonetheless ‘real’.

4.3.4. Critical Ethnography

Critical ethnography represents a further step away from placing ethnography

within a purely naturalist setting. It attempts to link the detailed analysis of

ethnography to wider social structures and systems of power relationships. It

does this by considering the subject group in a wider context; examining the

ways in which the social processes of the group are mediated by structural

relations; and incorporating ethnography into a ‘dialectical analysis’ aimed at

getting beneath the surface appearance of things to their essences through

the mechanism of deconstruction and reconstruction (Harvey, 1990, p.12).

Critical ethnography can be placed within a broadly ‘critical realist’ context,

where the objects of analysis (causal laws, generative or essential

mechanisms, structure of things) are seen to exist and operate relatively

independently of the enquiry or the activity of the participants within it (see for

example Bhaskar, 1994, p.547). Critical ethnography brings together a

number of strands that effectively allow the researcher to move beyond the

polar opposites of crude positivism and naturalism, towards a more rounded

view of the relationships between essence/appearance and structure/agency.

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4.3.5. Critical Social Research

Harvey (1990a) talks of methodology as ‘the point at which method, theory

and epistemology coalesce in an overt way in the process of directly

investigating specific instances within the social world’ (Harvey, 1990a, p.1).

He argues for a methodology that transcends the confines of both positivism

and naturalism. This he calls critical social research. At the heart of critical

social research is the idea that knowledge is structured by existing sets of

social relations. The aim of a critical methodology is to provide knowledge

which engages the prevailing social structures. Within this, a place exists for

both empirical analysis of various types together with theoretical conjecture.

It is the methodology not the method of data collection per se which

characterises critical social research. Drawing on the materialist/realist

philosophical tradition, critical social research therefore attempts to dig

beneath surface appearances through the direct analysis of social phenomena

using a variety of research methods. Focusing out from naturalism and in

from positivism, it sees the emergence of a ‘correct’ core concept arising from

ongoing analysis of central research questions. These concepts are only

correct insofar as they provide the best focus for deconstructing and

reconstructing the phenomenon under investigation within its broader social

and historical context (Harvey, 1990a, p.30). To this end, critical social

research has traditionally placed a great degree of emphasis on theoretical

concerns. However, an analysis that does not engage fully with the material

world it is studying is destined to be both limited and speculative in nature.

Critical social research will be taken as the broad methodological starting point

for research in this thesis. However, as Clough and Nutbrown argue,

opposing research paradigms are ultimately post hoc descriptions of gross

138
characterisation. In addressing a task we do not immediately go to this or that

methodology as such; rather we confront specific problems which we come to

eventually locate in continually related ways of constructing the world.

Common to all good social research is that it sets out with specific purposes

from a particular position, and aims to persuade readers of the significance of

its claims; these claims, they add, are always broadly political in that they take

place in policy contexts of one form or another (Clough and Nutbrown, 2002,

pp.12-15).

Within the broad critical category, this study is more narrowly influenced by the

application of two particular theories. These are regulation theory and urban

regime theory, both of which have been discussed at length in Chapter 2.

Using this broad theoretical framework allows the social circumstance under

study to be located within a specific historical and social context. Thus a

discussion of the social, economic and political factors at work within the case

studies described in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 can be linked to wider developments

in modes and regimes of accumulation. In short this approach makes it

possible to take an holistic view of the sector.

This approach is not without shortcomings and internal problems of its own.

At least two main problems can be identified. Firstly, it is clear that if a too

rigid initial theoretical approach is taken, the data gathered may be

manipulated to fit these preconceived ideas. This is a common – and powerful

- criticism of critical social research as being in danger of imposing the

researcher’s assumptions about social reality on the research process.

Indeed the very sites chosen for investigation may be skewed, as may be the

field questions developed.

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Section 4.4. describes how the process of choosing case study sites has been

approached with this problem in mind. Central to successful research is a

clear, logical and reflexive relationship between research questions and field

questions. This process of reflexivity has informed both the theoretical

structure and empirical data-gathering elements of the thesis. This has led to

some results being ambiguous and in need of further investigation and

reflection. It also makes clear the need for a further refinement of theory

within the field. However, to approach the research without a clear but flexible

theoretical framework would also bring its own problems, most notably an

inability to contextualise and generalise out the knowledge gained through the

fieldwork process.

This brings us to the second problem alluded to above; that of whether the

data generated could mean something different if an alternative theoretical

approach had been taken. As I have argued in Chapter 2, various theoretical

positions have emerged around the question of ICT- related community

development. Other researchers legitimately approach similar issues from

different viewpoints. This difference means that the analysis of broadly

similar data can lead to varying conclusions. One contention of this thesis is

that previous surveys of the field share in common the lack of a theoretical

framework capable of adequately linking macro- and micro- levels. In practice

this has meant that critical judgement has tended to extend only to the

relatively narrow – though important – level of policy analysis. The wider

vistas opened up by the application of regulation and urban regime theories

allows us to address not only these policy issues, but also inquire further into

the positioning of ICT-related community development within broader

questions of governance and welfare.

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4.4. Research design

This section focuses on research design issues. It begins with an overall

discussion of the research process, which is followed by a description of how

the research has actually been undertaken, as illustrated by Figure 4.1. below.

This describes more fully the key decisions taken within the conduct of the

research and the stages at which they have occurred. Also addressed is how

the conclusions reached in the methodological discussion translate to actions

and outcomes in the actual thesis. This is done through a consideration of the

sampling techniques used and the fieldwork methods employed within the

case study process.

4.4.1. The research process

Clough and Nutbrown suggest that examination of the people, places and

contexts that make up research sites can be characterised by four forms of

radical enquiry. These are radical looking, radical listening, radical

reading and radical questioning (Clough and Nutbrown, 2002, pp.22-6).

Radical looking is the means by which the research process makes the

familiar strange and reveals gaps in knowledge. It is an exploration beyond the

familiar and the known, towards a focus on gaps in knowledge.

Radical listening – as opposed to merely hearing – is the interpretative and

critical means through which ‘voice’ is noticed. This involves the literal voices

within field study and the voices which are at work in other research reports. It

includes working out positionality. This is achieved by trying to understand

something of what lies behind what is said by research subjects; trying to

141
understand this in terms of the speaker’s/author’s intentions; and trying to

understand what this means within their particular social frameworks.

Radical reading provides the justification for the critical adoption or rejection

of existing knowledge and practices. It attempts to reveal the purposes and

positions of texts and practices. This criticality aims to be rational, but cannot

fail to reflect the values and beliefs of the author. As such, Chapter 3 above

has outlined in detail the range of values at work in the analysis adopted

throughout this thesis.

Radical questioning reveals not only gaps in knowledge but also why and

how particular answers might be morally and politically necessitated. At least

three types of questioning activity are involved in any research endeavour.

These can be characterised as personal questions, research questions and

field questions. Personal questions involve the researcher asking questions of

themselves about what drives their research and the location of themselves in

the research. The formulation of research questions, such as those

developed in Chapter 3, is key to the realisation of a successful study. The

formulation of the field questions asked within the empirical research situation

is directly related to the nature of these overall research questions.

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4.4.2. The research process cycle

Figure 4.1. The research process cycle

Inductive Conceptual framework/

theory and literature

Research questions/
Data analysis hypothesis

Data collection Research setting/

Field questions

Deductive

Modified from Rudestam and Newton, 1992, p.5.

Figure 4.1. illustrates the elements of the research process at work within this

study and their general relationship to one another. This can be characterised

as a circular process, analogous to more general processes of learning. It

entails a number of stages, beginning with the conceptual framework and

carrying through to the collection and analysis of data. However, it can be

entered at various points, leading to a re-evaluation of core concepts and

research questions. The various elements that go into making up the cycle

can be examined discretely. They are the conceptual framework/theory and

literature; research questions/hypothesis; research setting/field

questions; data collection and data analysis. The overall cycle is informed

by a combination of inductive and deductive approaches to the construction

and application of knowledge.

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4.4.3. Conceptual framework/theory and literature

As indicated earlier this study is informed broadly by a regulation and urban

regime theory approach. Together with this general contextualisation of the

research topic has gone a detailed examination of the broad literature relating

to ICT and community development. Methodologically the combination of

these elements informs the overall conduct of the research by helping to

develop research questions that are both critical and apposite. In turn, it can

be seen from Figure 4.1. that even before fieldwork has been undertaken, the

development of such questions leads to a critical re-examination of the

literature and its pre-suppositions.

In keeping with the intent to go beyond a simple inductive/deductive

dichotomy, the overall research process cycle incorporates elements of both

analytical methods. The establishment of a clear conceptual framework

allows for an element of hypothetico-deductive theory building. However, this

is accompanied by a willingness to learn both in empirical and theoretical

terms from the experience of data collection in the field. Although this may

reinforce pre-formed theory it also has the potential to disturb it. In these

circumstances a reappraisal or reformulation of the overall framework may be

necessary. Utilising this process in the fulfilment of this research has helped

progressively focus all aspects of the research cycle.

4.4.4. Hypothesis and research questions

Reviewing the theoretical literature and historical situation in the previous two

chapters has allowed a broad hypothesis to be developed for the thesis. It

has also helped identify a number of questions for further empirical

investigation. These questions range from broad issues concerning the overall

144
dynamics of the policy process, to more specific concerns over the levels of

success enjoyed by local projects.

The development of a coherent set of research questions has been crucial in

establishing the necessary parameters for identifying the best sites for

carrying out field research. This selection process has involved two main

criteria. Firstly, sites should be able to offer the potential for a broad thematical

examination of the issues and questions identified. This may include looking at

different funding sources, various forms of organisation and governance, and

different levels in the decision-making process. Secondly, they should contain

a broad demographic and geographical mix. Given the size of the studies and

their qualitative nature, this should not be seen as exhaustive but indicative of

wider trends.

4.4.5. Case studies and research sites

Burgess (1997) notes that the focus upon natural settings presents the field

observer with problems of selection and control over the data that are

collected. Researchers therefore constantly have to select locations, time

periods, events and people for study. The result is that while some elements

of the situation and sections of the target population are included in a study,

others are excluded. This brings the researcher directly up against

considerations of sampling. Many restrictions such as time, money and access

mean that it is never possible for a researcher to be able to study all the

people and events in a social situation. It is these problems that make

effective choice of research sites and sampling procedures essential. It is

useful here to differentiate between some of the concepts involved in carrying

145
out fieldwork, before describing how they relate to each other in the practice of

this research.

Case Studies: This refers to a particular type of field research generally

relying on an observational approach and involving a relationship between the

researcher and those who are researched (Burgess, 1997, p.2). In a broad

sense, the term field research incorporates a variety of conceptual and

methodological tools that can be used by the researcher while conducting

empirical investigations. These can be variously characterised as qualitative

research, interpretative procedures and ethnography among others. Some

researchers prefer the term case study rather than the more general field

research because it allows a delineation of the methods and parameters

involved in empirical inquiry. For example, Stenhouse (1982) refers to his

research as case study oriented, based as it is on condensed field experience

involving observation (rather than a participant observer strategy), tape-

recorded interviews and the collection of documents. It is in this sense that

the term is used throughout this thesis to refer to the empirical field research

undertaken.

Undertaking a case study usually involves the choice of a particular group or

social system for examination and analysis. However, case studies are not

necessarily simply constructed around delimited groups or organisations, but

can be constructed around wider themes and ideas. Those undertaken in this

thesis take this sense of the term as their starting point. They are based

primarily on issues that have emerged through an extensive preliminary

survey of the ICT-related community development field. Conducting case

146
studies affords the researcher the opportunity to test their pre-existing ideas

about these issues against reality, and if necessary modify or extend them.

The overall setting for a case study can be approached both geographically

and thematically. In both cases a clear objective of choosing the setting should

be that of maximising the possibility of generating data by which initial

hypotheses can be tested against. For example Case Study 1 is set within the

geographical confines of the City of Manchester. Thematically, it concentrates

on examining the ways in which local authorities approach questions of ICT-

related community development.

Once a setting has been identified, further factors come into play over the

ways in which the research should be carried out. These include the specific

sites to be visited, sampling techniques and the consideration of ethical

questions concerning the conduct of the fieldwork.

Research Sites: This refers to the particular sites of research visited within

the general research setting for a case study. One or more sites may be

involved, depending on the nature of the study. A number of research sites

have been visited for each of the Case Studies for this thesis. These are

detailed further in Section 4.5.1. below. Within each case study, cross

referencing of results has taken place both within and between the research

sites visited. This is expanded in Chapters 8 and 9 to include cross

referencing between the broader case studies themselves.

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4.4.6. Sampling strategies

Various sampling strategies can be identified. These include: probability

sampling in which every unit in the universe under study has the same

calculable and non zero probability of being selected; non-probability sampling

in which there is no means of estimating the probability of units being included

in the sample; and theoretical sampling, which its developers have defined as

follows:

The process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst
jointly collects, codes and analyzes his data and decides what data to
collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it
emerges. (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p.45)

For reasons discussed in Section 4.3. earlier, a qualitative framework has

been chosen as the most appropriate method for empirical data gathering.

Within this context, both probability and non-probability sampling generally fail

to provide the depth of detail required for the full contextualisation of data. In

a quantitative study generalisability is largely determined by statistical

inference, a conceptualisation alien to both ethnography and critical social

research (Wainwright, 1997).

Theoretical sampling involves researchers in observing social situations with a

view to extending, modifying developing and verifying theory. In relation to

Figure 4.1., theoretical sampling techniques are represented by the inductive

bottom-up element of theory development. The fieldwork for this study has

applied a modified form of theoretical sampling. An attempt has been made to

combine the insights gained through this data gathering process with a

continued use of a broader theoretical framework of regulation and urban

regime theory. The particular choice of sample has been derived from a

consideration of a number of factors relevant to the research questions

148
developed in Section 3.7.. Within this framework, the north-west of England

can be identified as an urban region capable of providing indicative material

for the exploration of issues relating to both policy and theory, especially when

considered alongside the findings and conclusions of other studies.

The theoretical sampling approach has also been broadly followed through the

adoption of a triangulation approach to the collection of data. Triangulation in

this context can be seen not only as a combination of investigative methods,

but also used to refer to a number of accounts of events. The ‘slices of data’

gathered in this way give the analyst different views or vantage points from

which to understand a category and to develop its properties (Ibid., p.65).

Given the weight placed upon this data, many of the research conclusions

within a study can be heavily dependent upon the validity and veracity of data

gathered. Its representative nature is thus of great importance, as is the

selection of research settings in which to gather it.

Spradley (1980) identifies five criteria in the selection of a research site. They

are: simplicity, a research site that allows researchers to move from studying

simple situations to those which are more complex; accessibility, the degree of

access and entry that is given to a researcher; unobtrusiveness, a situation

that allows the researcher to take an unobtrusive role; permissibleness, a

situation that allows the researcher free or restricted entry; and participation,

the possibility for researchers to participate in a series of ongoing activities.

Meeting all these criteria within real world settings is difficult. This makes

compromise necessary, dependent upon the theoretical and substantive

interests of the researcher together with the constraints on their work.

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Figure 4.2. The internal case study research process

Dynamics of and influences upon the policy process

Research
Factors affecting financial and organisational sustainability questions
Partnerships between various state and non-state agencies
Uniformity and divergence across and between localities
Implications of current policy trends for future
development
Case Study One: Case Study Two: Case Study Three:
City of Gtr. Manchester Merseyside
Manchester Computer Non-traditional
Strong local state Resource Centres funding and
and/or governance Community-based governance
structures organisations structures
Research
Field settings
questions
and
techniques

Data
collection

Interim
Analysis

Revised
analysis

Figure 4.2. provides an expanded illustration of the relationship between

research questions, research settings and field questions for the case studies

that follow this chapter. A number of research questions have emerged from

the literature review undertaken for Chapters 2 and 3, some of which are

included within the figure. In turn three ideal-type research settings have been

identified from these research questions. Turning these into real research sites

for the case studies has involved taking into account Spradley’s five criteria.

150
Given the increasing importance of locality for community development, the

central empirical feature of this research is a series of case studies carried out

at the level of the city and region. A regional perspective is useful as it can

encompass both local authority and community perspectives, since both tend

to conceive of themselves at times in these terms. This can then be related

back to the national policy contexts discussed in this chapter. This choice of

research sites has allowed the discrete study of localities, while possessing

the flexibility to identify research questions and problems that can be

addressed in a comparative sense across the studies. These in turn provide

the basis for reaching more generalisable conclusions.

The local state is also a bridge between individual projects and the wider

concerns of the national state. It is itself in a constant state of flux as actors

such as elements of private business and newly formed quangos move closer

to the centres of decision-making. Community development and community

information policy is therefore concentrated and carried out at this level. As

such, Section 2 of the thesis will build on the wider debates outlined in

previous chapters by undertaking a detailed examination of empirical data

collected through field work study.

4.5. Conducting the research

The real process of research is not a neat circular process. It entails many

time lapses and revisitations of both theoretical and empirical work. In the

following account I will describe how this research has actually been carried

out. This will involve highlighting the complex ways in which problems have

151
been encountered; how ideas have been formulated and reformulated; how

new avenues for analysis have presented themselves; and the processes by

which the conclusions and recommendations presented in the following

chapters have been arrived at.

4.5.1. The selection of case study sites

As indicated, a number of criteria have been used in the selection of settings

for the studies. The findings obtained may be seen as characteristic of wider

conditions and thus broadly generalisable within well defined parameters. The

research settings are based on what are seen as critical case scenarios within

the sector. Each involves a detailed thematic exploration of ICT-related

community development issues in a particular locality. Any insights gained

through the case study process will be broadened out and utilised later as part

of the basis for constructing wider policy analysis and theory. As such the

methodology of the case studies is partially informed by the theoretical themes

of the thesis as a whole, and in turn forms a dynamic interchange with them.

The first case study examines ICT-related community development within the

context of relatively strong local state/governance structures. It takes as its

focus the information strategy of what has been perceived to be an innovative

local authority, Manchester City Council. A key question to be asked is

whether differences of approach to ICT-related community issues exist within

and between departments in the council, and how these might show

themselves in practice. To this end issues of gaining funding, partnership-

building and delivery methods will be examined.

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The next study broadens out from the first by focusing on local community

organisations themselves, especially those associated in some way with the

rise of the CRCs discussed in Chapter 3. It looks at a number of ICT-related

community initiatives operating within the ten local authority levels of Greater

Manchester, including the city of Manchester itself. Similarities and

differences both in terms of function and broader themes are explored. One

key concern of the study is to investigate the range of funding and support

mechanisms in place across the region. It is also useful to look at how the rise

of CRCs nationally manifests itself within a regional setting, and how resource

centres relate to local community groups which may not already possess

extensive ICT experience.

The choice of setting for the third case study has emerged partly though the

need to engage with the growing importance of non-traditional sources of

funding and governance for ICT-related initiatives. Various new forms of

partnership have been emerging within the sector in both the city of

Manchester and Greater Manchester as a whole. Although these areas have

some history of private sector involvement in the community development

field, this has generally been of secondary importance compared to the input

from local authorities.

In contrast, Merseyside has a strong history of non-public sector funding for

third sector projects as a whole. It provides a useful research context for

studying the dynamics of change within the relationship between traditional

and newer forms of funding outside of direct local and national government

control. One key element of the study is the investigation of new and shifting

patterns of partnership between various funders and the effect such changes

153
may have upon the third sector itself. These tensions are examined through

the use of a small case study within the larger study.

4.5.2. Research planning audit

For each of the case studies a planning audit was drawn up prior to carrying

out the fieldwork. The initial literature review - together with the development

of the overall conceptual framework - brought to light a number of issues that

had only been tackled at the margins by previous researchers. These have

been

described in detail in earlier chapters. In particular, a clear link has not been

made previously between a transformation in processes of urban governance

and the empirical ways in which this is affecting the practice of ICT-related

community development. It is with this in mind that the scope and compass of

the case studies has been developed and an initial research planning audit

drawn up.

From the outset this planning exercise envisaged a process of triangulation

within and between case studies. Triangulation has been necessary within

case studies in order to check and validate data in various ways. For example

in Case Study 3 the cross referencing of information between Sefton

Neighbourhood Information Project (SNIP), Liverpool City Council and the

John Moores Foundation was crucial in judging the validity of comments made

about the nature of public-private relations in Merseyside. The overall case

study process has also involved a degree of comparative analysis between

the different perceived dominant forms of activity in each location. Here for

example it has been possible to test the hypothesis that a common model of

154
umbrella organisation has been emerging even where local background

conditions are traditionally very divergent. This has proved to be a productive

– though not unproblematic – approach to the questions under study.

Two main problems became clear in concentrating research only at the level

of relationships between community organisations and governance agencies.

Firstly, this field of study has already been amply covered by other studies

such as Day and Harris (1997). Secondly, other important changes are taking

place at different structural levels. Thus in Case Study 1, the initial planning

audit set itself the task of examining the relationship between Manchester City

Council and the local ICT projects it oversaw in some form or another. It soon

became clear that many of the most interesting relationships were not those

between the council and voluntary organisations, but were those existing

within departments in the Council itself.

It is here that a willingness to shift focus in the light of experience has proved

useful. Although the Council/voluntary organisation relationship is explored in

Case Study 1 and remains important, new issues emerged when talking to

respondents. In particular, interviews changed emphasis during the field work

period towards looking at the ways in which divergent perceptions of urban

governance can lead different departments to approach community- related

ICT activity in alternative ways.

This level of complexity over departmental operation was not envisaged in the

original planning audit. At the outset of the study a relatively ‘vertical’ view of

the interview schedule was foreseen. This would have only involved talking to

people from the top of the organisation – for example, senior City Council

155
officers – through to those involved in frontline services such as libraries. After

the first tranche of interviews it became clear that following this path too rigidly

would lead to a skewed picture of the organisation as a whole. Interviews

were still carried out from both the top and bottom of the City Council, but now

in the context of taking a greater ‘horizontal’ look across different departments.

In addition, early interviews repeatedly highlighted the links that exist between

senior officers within the Council and external organisations acting as ‘buffers’

between them and the local third sector. In the process of unearthing these

unexpected empirical findings, new theoretical ideas have been developed

about the ways in which the broader information economy operates in

Manchester. These are discussed in detail in Chapter 5.

This openness towards altering direction whilst working through the case

study process can also be seen within Case Study 2. One initial motivation for

the study was that a case study was needed which provided a rich and

detailed view of the activities of community organisations themselves. Finding

the themes that bind these activities together within a broader policy context is

a difficult task in such a diverse sector. A number of themes such as issues

of funding, organisation and the use of technology were identified in advance

of interviews. However, it was still clear that an inadequate focus could lead

to the possibility of a disjointed set of results, especially as the interviews were

to be conducted across the Greater Manchester region.

Thus, it was decided that more interviews would be conducted for this study

than the two others, but with the possibility of gaining less rich data. It was

concluded that the best first step was to speak to the Councils for Voluntary

Services (CVSs) which act as umbrella organisations for the sector. Speaking

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to the CVSs brought out that common issues existed, but also more

pertinently that all the organisations were operating within a similar policy

environment, filtering down from not only the local but the national level. This

shifted the emphasis of the interview process somewhat. Although the day-to-

day activities of the community groups remain of importance to the study,

these must be viewed within the constraints that help push groups towards

narrower and externally mediated sets of actions. As such, the key questions

within interviews moved towards an examination of the nature of the policy

environment and the structural and organisational effects of this upon local

community organisations.

This in turn had the effect of altering the analysis away from questions of

activity and towards themes of funding, sustainability and power differentials

between ground level organisations and the larger structures surrounding

them. As such Case Study 2 has moved towards becoming a study of the

relationships at play in the sector, while not losing its emphasis on highlighting

the tasks undertaken by local groups in a difficult and ever-more constrained

operating environment. This has allowed Case Study 2 to play a bridging role

between the issues explored within the other two Case Studies. It illustrates

that although different operating environments exist, common themes can be

discerned and analysed across the divide. The role, for example, that

Hattersley Computer Centre plays within the Hattersley Development Trust

resonates with examples from Case Study 1 and informs a number of the

questions pursued in interviews for Case Study 3.

Case Study 3 was motivated by an initial desire to explore non-traditional

forms of support for ICT-related community development. This soon gave rise

157
to an understanding that even here new conflicts have emerged between

traditional and emerging forms of non-public sector support. In practical terms

some of the simplistic and unilinear assumptions of the initial case study

planning audit have given way to a richer and more complex understanding of

the webs and networks existing between local government, private industry

and quango-type organisations.

This was helped in part by the experience of Case Study 1 which had

highlighted the increasing importance of such relationships. It was thus

decided that a greater part of the remit for Case Study 3 was to see if similar

conditions pertained within Merseyside. This approach helped ensure the

provision of rich data not only for the individual case study, but also for making

a comparative analysis between studies and informing the broader policy

questions examined in Chapter 8.

Here too though, surprising results were found in early interviews, particularly

concerning the ways in which multi-agency cooperation is now becoming seen

as an integral part of ICT-related community development. This brings with it

its own sets of costs and benefits for smaller community organisations. As the

interview process developed in Merseyside, Sefton Neighbourhood

Information Project emerged as an examplar of the ways in which different

agencies are coming together in very practical ways. This is analysed more

fully in Section 7.6., taking the form of a short case analysis within the larger

study. The issues involved here, and the organisational forms taken have also

informed the further reconsideration of policy and theory in Chapters 8 and 9.

158
Overall, the planning audit took as its starting point many of the ideas and

issues highlighted within Chapters 2 and 3. The experience of actual data

gathering has resulted in the modification of some of these questions, and

thrown up a number of new directions for the research to follow. Progressive

focussing at each stage of empirical research has allowed the individual case

studies to question preconceived notions and push the research into new

areas of inquiry. Progressive focussing generally gives research a

characteristic ‘funnel’ structure, as the research problem develops or

transforms over time. Along with this the scope of the research is clarified and

delimited, and its internal structure explored. Within this process initial ideas

and problems may be discarded in favour of those thrown up by the research

process and seen to be more salient. Progressive focussing may also involve

a gradual shift from a concern with description to one of greater analytical and

explanatory content (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1996, p.206).

With these factors in mind the selection of respondents and the questions

asked at interview have been closely linked with wider processes of data

collection and analysis. New themes have emerged and old assumptions

have been challenged. Within the final three chapters of the thesis these in

turn feed back into some of those wider themes, helping develop a modified

view of the sector based on both firm empirical and theoretical foundations.

4.5.3. Data collection

The main method chosen for data collection has been a series of semi-

structured depth interviews. Interviews for the fieldwork period were organised

in small batches so that at any time around three or four meetings were in the

159
pipeline. This allowed for a degree of continuity, but also a flexibility to

respond to new lines of information and data.

Within each case study a series of preliminary interviews were organised with

people identified as potentially key respondents. As Burgess (1997) notes, the

selection of individuals in field studies is a different procedure from the

selection procedures associated with statistical sampling in survey research.

In field research informants are selected for their knowledge of a particular

setting. If the researcher has chosen their respondents well, this knowledge

may complement their observations and point towards more investigation that

needs to be done in order to understand further the social settings, structures

and processes under investigation (Burgess, 1997, p.75).

The semi-structured interview was chosen as an appropriate method of inquiry

for the case studies, for gaining the rich qualitative data required. It involves

the researcher entering into something resembling a dialogue with the

respondent, and so being confident and knowledgeable about issues under

discussion so that they are able to ask supplementary questions (Hawtin,

Hughes and Percy-Smith, 1994, p.117).

Thus, although interviews were entered upon with a series of prepared

questions and issues to be addressed, these were approached as being open-

ended and new territory was often entered into during their course. The initial

schedule was therefore used as a directional guide but not as a means for

closing off new avenues of thought during the interview. The data gained at

each interview was then taken into account when framing questions and

160
themes for discussion at later interviews, forming a key element of the

progressive focussing process.

When undertaking any field study the researcher has to make difficult

decisions over sampling strategies, particularly in choosing smaller, qualitative

case studies over larger sample survey methods. However as Mead (1953,

p.654) has argued, such qualitative methods can be equally valid in drawing

out the key features of a social setting and its attendant structures and such

research should not be ‘a version where n equals too few cases. It is simply a

different kind of sampling’.

A process of triangulation between the data from respondents and other

primary documentary material also took place here, again allowing for a

progressive focusing strategy to take effect. For example, within Case Study 1

alone the following primary and secondary documentation was gathered:

Libraries and Theatres Department IT policy documents; City Council

Information Policy draft document; various bid documents for European Social

Fund and European Regional Development Fund funding; Manchester Host

Computer feasibility study; Publicity material for Manchester Telematics

Training Partnership, Manchester Community Information Network, the City

Council’s Economic Information Group (EIG); Articles by City Councillors and

Officers in professional journals; EIG ‘Creative Cities’ policy outlines; internet

pages from the City Council and other projects interviewed.

Figure 4.2. has illustrated the way in which an interim analysis of the data

informed both the specific nature of the next set of interview questions, while

also feeding back into the broader research questions for the case studies.

161
This process of analysis is explored further in Section 4.7. below, but the

relationship between data collection and analysis cannot be separated

arbitrarily in practice. Each side of the relationship builds on and informs the

other.

4.5.4. The interview process

Table 4.1. outlines the sites visited and informants interviewed for each of the

case studies. All meetings have taken the form of face-to-face semi-structured

depth interviews unless otherwise stated. Respondents were contacted in

advance by a telephone call followed up with a letter of confirmation. These

gave the interviewee brief information about the nature of the research, a

description of the possible length of the interview and an assurance of

confidentiality. In addition a number of informants agreed to interview during

site visits where another interview had already been arranged. These were

either conducted on the same day or at a later date.

In all, sixty interviews were conducted over the full fieldwork period. Almost all

of these were face-to-face interviews lasting between forty minutes and an

hour. Over half of the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed soon

after with notes also being taken, although in a small number of cases

respondents expressed a desire not to be tape-recorded. In these instances

notes were taken at interview and written up in full afterwards.

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Table 4.1. Case study research sites and interviewees
Research Sites
Case Study 1 Manchester City Council
(MCC), Libraries and
Theatres Department
MCC Social Services
Department
MCC Economic Initiatives
Group
MCC City Councillors
MCC Chief Executive’s
Department
Manchester Institute for
Popular Culture
Manchester Telematics
Training Partnership
Manchester Community
Information Network
Slade Lane Neighbourhood
Centre
Soft Solution Ltd
Case Study 2 Greater Manchester Council
of Voluntary Organisations
(Bolton) 3D Centre
(Bolton) Gateway Project
(Salford) GEMESIS Project
(Salford) Little Hulton
Women’s Project
(Salford) MIND
(Bury) Council for Voluntary
Services
(Bury) ISAware
(Bury) Bury Resource
Information & Advice Network
(BRIAN)
(M/CR) Manchester
163
Interviewees
- Group manager, Business &
Technical
- District Manager, South
- District Manager, Central
- Voluntary Groups Database Co-
ordinator
- Library Assistant, Harpurhey
- Library Assistant, Wythenshawe
- Assistant Director, Provider
Services
- Manchester Advice Network
Team Manager
- Senior Principal Economic
Initiatives Officer (Twice)
- Principal Economic Initiatives
Officer
- Chair, IT Members Working
Party
- Principal Officer (Telephone
interview)
- Director
- Director (Twice)
- Project Manager
- Project Manager
- Senior Project Worker
- Co-ordinator
- Project Manager
- Co-ordinator
- Project Volunteer
- Senior Project Researcher
- Project Researcher
- Senior Project Worker
- Project Manager
- Co-ordinator
- Information Officer
- Co-ordinator
- Project Worker
- Co-ordinator
- Project Worker
 Community Information
Network (MCIN)
(M/CR) Chorlton Workshop
(M/CR) Voluntary
Organisation IT Link (VITAL)
(M/CR) Voluntary Action
Manchester
(M/CR) Contact Community
Care
(M/CR) Workers’ Education
Association
Rochdale) Council for
Voluntary Services
(Rochdale) Kashmiri Youth
Project
(Oldham) Oldham
Development Agency for
Community Action
(Tameside) Hattersley
Computer Centre
Case Study 3 Littlewoods Organisation,
Community Affairs
Department
John Moores Foundation
National Lottery Charities
Board
Liverpool Council for
Voluntary Services
Liverpool Trades Union
Resource Centre
Manufacturing Services and
Finance Trade Union
Merseyside Training and
Education Council
FunderFinder Ltd
SWITCH IT Community
Project
Sefton Neighbourhood
Information Project (SNIP)
The interviews were conceived of as being the key source of qualitative data
upon which a multi-layered and detailed picture of the individual research sites
and overall case settings could be built. Given this, ‘open’ rather than ‘closed’
164
- Project Manager (Twice)
- Project Manager
- Project Worker
- IT Co-ordinator
- Co-ordinator
- Co-ordinator
- Project Worker
- Project Volunteer
- Researcher
- Co-ordinator (Telephone
interview)
- Project Manager (Telephone
interview)
- Co-ordinator
- Project Manager
- Project Volunteer
- Development Manager
- Development Worker
- Project Manager
- Project Worker
- Grants Officer, Lancashire
- Co-ordinator
- Co-ordinator
- Branch Secretary
- Policy Development Officer
- Director
- Project Manager
- Co-ordinator (Twice)
- Project Officer
questions were the primary form of inquiry. A closed question is of the

following type:

Does this project serve the local community by:

a) providing drop-in ICT facilities to a deprived area

b) giving people a place to gather and exchange information
c) providing free training to local unemployed people
etc.

An open question might take the form: How do you feel that this project

serves the local community?

It is in effect the start of a dialogue, but one which the interviewer needs to

approach with a considerable amount of background knowledge and

preparation. As such they are intimately related to other aspects of the

research approach. Therefore, as indicated earlier, contemporaneous with

interviewing respondents a large amount of other primary documents relating

to the case studies were collected via various sources.

Burgess (1997) talks about three main types of questions that are posed in

unstructured or semi-structured interviews. Firstly, descriptive questions

which allow informants to provide statements about their activities. An

example of this from the current research is in asking respondents about their

job or position within a project or organisation. Secondly structural questions

which attempt to find out how informants organise their knowledge. For

example: What factors need to come together in building a successful grant-

aid proposal within your sector? Thirdly, contrast questions which allow

informants to discuss the meanings of situations and provide an opportunity

for comparisons to take place between situations and events in the informants’

165
world (Burgess, 1997, pp.111-2). An example with relevance to a number of

respondents within this research is: Why do you think that the funding body

insisted on you providing a greater vocational element before approving

support this time around?

These factors demonstrate that in carrying out interviews that do not take on a

rigid structural form, the interviewer may be seen as other than strictly neutral

and objective. In terms of neutrality, I have already argued earlier in this

chapter that critical social research approaches the research question with

specific purposes and from a particular position. However, this position is

open to both challenge and modification. Indeed the clear purpose of

undertaking extensive field work is precisely to test out and modify if

necessary initial suppositions about the ICT-related community sector.

Maintaining objectivity is precisely the act of being open to learning that one

has been mistaken or off-mark in a previous formulation. It also involves being

open to learning that previously unconsidered issues are the salient ones

within the field. In both these areas the spirit and practice of the field research

has been one of openness to the gaining of new knowledge. Having said this,

it is clear that case studies involving between fifteen and thirty respondents

cannot be exhaustive in either the issues raised or people spoken to.

Priorities in both areas have to be made by the researcher. In addition, the

issues focussed on in the final studies are those seen as most salient by

myself and necessarily involve a degree of theoretical pre-judgement on my

part.

166
Fortunately, many of the issues being examined were not seen by

respondents as being of a sensitive nature and good access to people and

documentation was freely provided in most cases. In choosing respondents,

two things were regarded as of uppermost importance. Firstly, I was

concerned not to get just a selective view of the field under study. I wanted to

speak to people operating at different levels and across the decision-making

spectrum. This again helps in the triangulation of data. Secondly, it was

imperative that a flexibility was built in to the interviewing schedule in order to

respond to new research issues that might, and did, emerge.

4.5.5. Ethical considerations

All social research projects are likely to raise some ethical issues. Indeed

some commentators suggest that ‘the only safe way to avoid violating

principles of professional ethics is to refrain from doing social research

altogether’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1952, p.453). Blaxter, Hughes and Tight (1996)

state that three general conclusions can be reached around the subject of

ethics. Firstly, that a consideration of possible or actual ethical issues is an

essential part of any research project. Secondly, that such consideration is

likely to need to take place throughout the research project, from initial

planning through data collection to writing up and dissemination. Finally, that

in many cases there will be no easy answers to the ethical questions which

may have to be faced.

Hammersley and Atkinson (1996, pp.263-87) argue that most ethical issues

can be considered under five headings: informed consent, privacy, harm,

exploitation, and the consequences for future research. Each of these can be

considered in relation to the current research project:

167
Informed consent This involves informing people to be studied about the

research in a comprehensive and accurate way, and gaining their

unconstrained consent. The most obvious case of withholding informed

consent is when covert participant observation takes place, but it arises in

other forms of ethnographic work too. Even when operating in an overt

manner, researchers often do not tell all respondents everything about the

research project. This may be because the researcher themselves do not

know the course the work will take until late into the research process, or

even because respondents may not be interested in minute details and could

even find an insistence on providing too much detail intrusive.

Case study respondents for this thesis have been provided with outline details

of the research project and its major policy concerns. As indicated above,

most have not wanted to dig too much deeper into the minutiae of the overall

thesis, although these details would most certainly be provided should they

take such an interest.

Privacy A frequent concern about social research is that it involves making

public things said and done for private. However what is public and what is

private is rarely clear-cut, especially in research conducted at a relatively deep

level of participant observation. The dominant empirical research method for

the current project has been that of depth interviews. Within this format,

informants have been told that the full content of meetings was to be

potentially usable within the final case studies.

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Harm Social research can sometimes have important consequences both for

people studied and others. This may occur as a result of the actual research

process or from the publication of research findings. This project does not

involve wide personal ramifications upon the individuals studied as might be

the case for example in a situation researching mental health issues with

patients, professionals and families. However, individual respondents or

organisations might feel they have been unfairly treated or misrepresented

upon reading the research findings. In this situation the researcher needs to

show that a scrupulous effort has been made to provide an objective account

of the facts as they have been found during the study. This is one reason why

the scrupulous use of best practice in interviewing and analysis are essential

to the validity of the final thesis.

Exploitation It is sometimes claimed that research involves exploiting those

studied, with information being given for very little in return. As most research

encompasses both costs and benefits for those concerned – on however small

a scale – there are problems surrounding judgements about what constitutes

exploitation. It is difficult to measure what most of these costs and benefits

are, especially in situations like the present one. Here the vast majority of

respondents have been spoken to on one occasion only, and no directly

discernible personal losses or gains have ensued from these meetings.

Consequences for future research Researchers rely on being given access

to settings. Research and findings that garner a negative reaction from those

under study may make it more difficult for future researchers to gain access

for future investigations. This is more about peoples’ reactions to research

than about ethics themselves, and is perhaps an inevitable consequence of a

169
field that embraces differing and sometimes conflicting interpretations of

details. As such, the best the researcher can do is to represent the data

gathered as objectively as possible, with the facts rather than individual bias or

interests speaking most loudly.

Within this research project the above five areas have been of great concern

throughout the empirical field work period. This study has been fortunate that

in each of the case studies the potential consequences for respondents has

not been as great as might pertain in other, micro-based, studies. What has

been of most concern in interviewing respondents are policy-related rather

than personal issues. Of course, when organisations are studied in any depth

such personal and ethical questions are always present and constant care

needs to be taken to ensure misrepresentation of any kind does not take

place.

4.5.6. Data analysis, validity and interpretation

I have described how data collection and data analysis have been treated as

linked, each feeding off the other during the fieldwork timeframe. A further

process of analysis has taken place during the fieldwork process, within which

the various notes have been brought together. Overall, data analysis has

followed the approach described by Fielding (1993, p.163) in the following

model:

Figure 4.3. The approach to data analysis

Search for Construct

Fieldnotes categories Mark up or outline (re-
Transcripts and patterns cut up data sequence)
(themes)

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Once data had been collected in the field, the various fieldnotes and tapes

were transcribed, and from the early stages files were established for the

observation and analysis of this data. Here too, some of the broader ideas

explored in Chapters 2 and 3 have been reintroduced, especially in drawing

disparate strands together for a cogent conclusion to each study. Although

specialist software is available to facilitate this process, the ‘cut and paste’

utility of a word processor has been considered adequate for the task, as

advised by Wainwright (1997).

Three types of files have been kept, corresponding closely to those

recommended by Lofland (1971). These are:

Mundane This file was established to keep track of people, organisations and

documents. A file of this type has been kept for each case study, the results of

which are displayed within Section 4.5. above.

Analytical For each case study information has been stored multiply under

different analytical themes and categories. This has been achieved by a

process of ‘pile-building’, akin to that described by Harvey (1990a, p.13), in

which fieldwork data is first read ‘vertically’ in chronological order to identify

common themes and relations. These are then copied and segmented into

different themes.

For example, within Case Study 2, the following themes were identified as

providing a good basis for deeper observation and analysis: function,

organisation, funding, sustainability and perceptions of technology. In

171
addition, the themes developed within each case study have also been cross-

referenced across the three case studies. Thus the concepts of partnership,

vocationalism and social inclusion form common threads across and between

the case studies.

The reordering and rereading of data in this way, has enabled a sequential

argument to be constructed and illustrative quotations from the transcripts to

be selected for inclusion within Chapters 5, 6 and 7. The knowledge gained

has also been used to provide material for the development of policy and

theoretical concepts within Chapters 8 and 9, in conjunction with the broader

critique of social relations described in Section 4.3.5..

Fieldwork file This file was established as a means of accumulating material

on the research process itself. Within it, notes were kept on the trajectory of

the research and how this was affected and altered over time. This file has

been of great importance in allowing a greater level of reflexivity within the

process of research.

In conducting field work research it is important to consider the role of the

researcher in influencing its nature and outcome. Such questions of reflexivity

conventionally involve two things (Harvey, 1990a, p.11). Firstly, it requires that

researchers reflect upon the research process in order to assess the effect of

their presence and the research techniques on the nature and extent of the

data collected. This involves considering various issues; to what extent

respondents were telling the researcher what they wanted to hear; did the

researcher inhibit respondents; did the format of the data collection restrict the

kind of data being collected?

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The greatest difficulties of this type can occur when the researcher gets so

close to the fieldwork target group that they can be described as taking on the

role of a ‘complete participant’ (Junker, 1960). For this piece of research the

fieldwork took place near the opposite end of the ‘fieldwork role’ spectrum, as

a non-participant observer. Even in this situation it is necessary to be aware

of the potentially skewing effect of the presence of the researcher. In Case

Study 2, for example, a number of respondents who were very willing to be

critical of funding bodies in a general manner were less forthcoming about

relationships with specific individuals within those bodies. Overall though, the

vast majority of the data collected was not of a sensitive nature, allowing

interviewees to be very open in their responses.

Secondly, reflexivity requires that researchers critically reflect upon the

theoretical structures they have drawn out of their analysis. Field researchers

should not just fit details into a pre-formed schema but try to re-form this to

see if the details have different meanings. A constant review of recorded

material of all sorts helps reflexivity, theory development and understanding.

As mentioned earlier data triangulation is of great importance here. Field work

files have been kept throughout the research process. These hold interviews

notes and transcripts together with other primary and secondary

documentation. The process of analysis involves the development of a set of

analytic categories that capture relevant aspects of these data, and the

assignment of particular items of data to those categories (Hammersley and

Atkinson, 1996, pp.208-9). This activity has allowed common themes to be

discerned across case studies. These include questions of partnership and

vocationalism common to all three studies.

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Intrinsic to this process is the idea that data can surprise the researcher, and

that pre-existing views can be shown to be incomplete or incorrect. An

example of this within Case Study 1 is the ability of a small organisation such

as Chorlton Workshop to undertake socio-political as well as vocational

education in its daily activities. Amongst groups operating under severe

constraints, this illustrates a greater degree of autonomy from political and

funding masters than was previously thought.

Harvey sees the two above positions as inadequate for conducting critical

ethnography. He argues that this is a particular approach to social research in

which the understanding developed from the ethnographic study is integrally

related to the deconstruction of the social structures within which groups of

actors operate. What is important is that the probing of the subjects’

meanings is not the end of the story. Respondents operate in socio-historically

specific milieu and are not wholly independent of structural factors. As such

their meanings are mediated by structural concerns. It is in this sense that this

piece of research takes regulation theory as the general basis for theoretical

consideration around the specific responses of interviewees. This represents

a position taken after a thorough consideration of alternative views of change,

such as the ‘community informatics’ thesis examined in Chapter 2.

However an important note of caution is also required here. Hammersley and

Atkinson (1996, p.20-1) argue that such a forthright criticism of ethnography

involves an overestimation of the actual and potential contribution of research

to policy and practice, and an associated failure to value the more modest

contribution it actually offers. Research should not be directed towards the

174
achievement of particular political or practical goals. This may lead to findings

being distorted by ideas about how the world ought to be, rather than being

valid in their own right. To deny that research should be directed towards

political goals is not, however, to suggest that researchers should abandon

their political convictions. It is to insist that as researchers their primary goal

must always be to produce knowledge, and that they should try to minimise

any distortion of their findings by their political convictions or practical

interests. It is with this in mind that researchers should face their subject ready

to be surprised at what they may find, and comfortable with the idea that their

own preconceptions may be severely challenged in the course of producing

new knowledge.

As Table 4.2. illustrates, the field work for the thesis was carried out between

1998-2001, documenting a period of rapid change from one formation to

another in the field of ICT-related community development. The conclusions

of the thesis are premised on the view that a process of transformation has

been taking place in the field of ICT-related community development since the

late 1960s. The case study research was conducted at a particular moment of

transition within this overall shift. Many of the nascent trends and tendencies

identified within the studies have since been strengthened and extended in

practice through combinations of local, national and even supranational

factors at work.

Table 4.2. The progress of research

Task Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Literature searches
Project info. Gathering
Pilot study
Identify research settings
Fieldwork

175
 Return to field
Thesis write up

Although changes have occurred in the field since the data gathering took

place, the focus of government policy has shifted from the community-ICT field

towards broader issues of electronic government, an exercise concerned

primarily with the state reforming its own governance structures (Hudson,

2002). This same period has seen a stabilisation in models of community-ICT

provision around issues of funding and public access, allowing for a growth in

the actual numbers of access centres (Wyatt et al, 2004).

The literature review and theoretical framework that surrounds the case

studies is attuned to the most current literature and events. It is within this

context that the case studies retain their contemporaniety. Within the

following three chapters, the theoretical ideas and hypothesis developed

earlier are tested against the empirical realities of the research sites under

study.

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Chapter 5:

Case study one: Local governance and community informatics in

Manchester

5.1. Introduction

Earlier chapters have outlined the need for an understanding of different forms

and levels of governance in the practice of ICT-related community

development. It has been argued that the state – whether supranational,

national or local – can still play a potentially pivotal role in this process. The

ways in which this takes place has shifted over time as the state has itself has

been subjected to alterations in the balance of power and influence over

policy.

New constituencies have emerged, operating both around the traditional core

of the local state as described in Chapter 2, and also within state structures

themselves. Within this emerging situation the local state can remain a key

influence on policy formation, and is often the conduit by which large amounts

of funding are distributed to the wider community sector.

The first case study sets out to explore the ways in which some of these

structures operate at the level of the local state. More specifically, it examines

the development and operation of information policy within one local authority

– Manchester City Council – aiming to shed light on the various actors

involved and the networks and relationships existing between them. As

discussed earlier, in some ways the entities of ‘city’ and ‘region’ have gained

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in policy-making significance with the emergence of information technology as

a central policy tool. It is here that Castells’ ‘space of places’ and ‘space of

flows’ come together in dynamic interaction, as people and technology

intersect with each other in the urban environment. This may give rise to new

forms of local governance and activism at the community level.

Within the north-west region of England, Manchester stands as a good

example of a city that has traditionally been at the forefront of embracing and

carrying forward change. From its rise to prominence in the industrial

revolution onwards, it has carved out a role as a central catalyst within the

region for the adoption of new forms of social and technological innovation

(Agar, Green and Harvey, 2002). Running through this history of change has

been a strong and consistent strand of municipal involvement through the

auspices of the local authority.

It is this strong local authority involvement in change that forms the central

feature of this first case study. While the next two case studies will examine

other elements of ICT-related community development in more detail, Case

Study 1 will focus primarily on the processes of making and implementing

information policy from the perspective of developments within and around

Manchester City Council. This does not of course preclude an examination of

the ways in which partnerships are forged between the city council and other

agencies with an interest in these areas, or in the potential tensions that exist

in these same relationships.

Manchester has also developed a reputation as an early adopter of change

within the community-ICT field as described below, and looking at the city in

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detail can provide wider insights into the ways the policy process operates in

other large provincial urban areas. The case study provides an entry point

from which a comparative analysis with Case Studies 2 and 3 can begin to be

made. These studies will focus outwards from a more narrowly defined local

authority view, looking instead at some of the community-based and non-

governmental players in the community development mix. This first study

aims to provide a platform from which this broadening out can take place.

5.2. Map of the study

A range of people have been interviewed for the case study from both within

and outside the city council. As with the two later studies, the sample is

indicative rather than exhaustive. It encompasses those concerned with the

formation and implementation of community-ICT policy for the local authority,

together with those who can be described as being actively engaged in

imagining future policy directions for the sector.

5.2.1. Manchester City Council interviewees

Respondents have been chosen from across those sections of the city council

identified as most relevant with respect to ICT and community information

policy issues. In terms of elected members, the Chair of the IT Members

Working Council has been interviewed. The four departments most involved

in community-ICT activities have also been approached. These are: the

Libraries and Theatres Department; the Economic Initiatives Group; the Social

Services Department; and the Chief Executive’s Department.

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In each case senior officers within the department have responded positively

to requests for interview, and in the case of the Libraries and Theatres

Department a number of further field visits have been made to speak to

District officers across the city.

5.2.2. External interviewees

Manchester Telematics Training Partnership: An initiative that helps co-

ordinate telematics training and education around within the city. MTTP has

links to local community groups, the academic sector and to Manchester City

Council itself, especially the Economic Initiatives Group.

Manchester Institute for Popular Culture: a research centre based at the

Manchester Metropolitan University. MIPC is extensively involved in projects

around the city’s culturally-based ‘Northern Quarter’, including those involving

innovative use of ICT at a community level.

Manchester Community Information Network: an ICT-based public

information project with electronic kiosks situated around the city. MCIN is a

company limited by guarantee, with city councillors, departmental officers and

academics sitting on its board.

Slade Lane Neighbourhood Centre: A neighbourhood information centre

located in the Longsight area of the city. An early adopter of a computer suite

for community group and individual use, together with ICT training

programmes for local community members.

Soft Solution Limited: Involved in community-related ICT development in

Manchester from the late 1980s, liaising closely with the city council, university

sector and community groups throughout the ensuing period.

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5.3. Historical overview

It is useful to separate out the city’s historical approach to community

information from its more recent telematics implementation strategy, although

in practice the two have come to converge in a number of ways. Community

information policies generally predate the information technology revolution

and continue to have a strong paper-based element. The use of ICT in this

area took off in the wake of the 1987 Labour general election defeat, when the

city council began to move towards an economic development policy based on

‘enablement’ rather than traditional service provision.

5.3.1 Electronic Village Halls

This was the policy direction that provided the initial impetus for many of the

city council’s initiatives in the use of ICT for promoting community

development. The focus of change was the emerging idea of electronic village

halls (EVHs) developed in Scandinavia. EVHs utilised the PC technology of

the time to create networks over the telephone system, connected together by

local ‘hosts’ usually supported by or funded through local authorities.

This model of computer networking rejected the idea of a central computer

that people gained access to, in favour of a devolved network of smaller linked

servers. Supporters of the EVH model argued that this increased the

opportunities for local accountability and control, and contained the potential to

provide benefits at the local level (Leach et al, 1990, pp.99-100). As the prime

movers of the initiative in Manchester were sited within the economic

development group (EIG), these benefits were primarily linked to new

employment opportunities, at least at the explicit policy level.

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The site of these EVHs though was to be community groups of various types,

ranging from specific sites for women and ethnic minorities to those based in

neighbourhood centres within deprived urban communities. From a

community development standpoint, such initiatives provided local people not

only with training in computer skills but a local facility for a new way of

communicating with their peers at both a local and wider level. Well into the

1990s many of the larger city council departments were sceptical of such

developments, and continued ploughing their main efforts into mainstream

traditional areas of work, based largely around community information coupled

with a developmental aspect through the provision of audio, video and print

facilities to community organisations[1].

5.3.2. The dual information economy

The emergence of a two track or dual information economy can be discerned

around this time, as the economic development initiatives began pushing

ahead with the introduction of new technologies into wider areas and

attempted to build new forms of partnership between community

organisations and public and private bodies. Thus when the city council

launched the UK’s first public access computer communication and

information system - the Manchester Host - in 1991, many treated the whole

enterprise with scepticism. Voices within the council chamber opined that ‘the

chaps from economic development have been visiting too many Star Trek

conferences’[2].

However, that same year the city council established the development of ICT

as a core strategic objective for all future work[3]. The subsequent burgeoning

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of the internet as a key communications network consigned most opposition to

the margins. The Host itself was upgraded to become a full internet service

provider in 1995.

In this climate, the number of initiatives has increased rapidly as have their

size and scope. The city council began working in partnership with local

organisations to develop new telematics applications and services to support

the idea of ‘Manchester – the information city’ (Carter, 1997, p.142). The

‘Creative City Partnership’ – arising initially out of a bid for funding within the

European Union’s ‘Telematics for Urban and Rural Areas (TURA) programme

– has introduced a further cultural industry element to the pre-existing mix of

employment related ICT skills training.

This has been followed by the establishment of partnerships providing support

for local pilot and demonstration projects in advanced telematics-based

services. These have mainly been co-ordinated through the Manchester

Telematics Training Partnership (MTTP), a joint initiative between the city

council and the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). MTTP has had a

remit to build upon the city’s existing telematics infrastructure, to support the

development of new economic activity and to promote the use of telematics

within other sectors such as education, the arts and cultural industries. The

main focus of this work has been to develop a network of local telematics

access centres around the city, each linked to the Manchester Multimedia

Centre housed at the MMU. Four of these centres have been based on the

upgrading of existing EVHs, with eight new facilities around the city[4].

Within other city council departments the main impetus for change has come

from the Libraries and Theatres Department, although with some input from

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Social Services and Housing. From the mid-1970s onwards Manchester

libraries have been very proactive in offering information services, setting up

extensive community information collections across the city. These text based

collections still exist and are regularly updated. A number of libraries, for

example Wythenshawe in the south of the city, have extended this work into

electronic form.

Internet terminals are now sited across the library network, together with the

development of a series of Community Access and Information Points

(CAIPs). CAIPs represents an attempt by the city council to offer greater

public access to its service via terminals sited within local council buildings.

Such as libraries, social services offices and housing offices[5]. The

community information content on these machines has been provided through

another public information project, the Manchester Community Information

Network (MCIN).

MCIN aims to build a public information project based on strong community

foundations but able to respond to the new climate in community development

funding and organisation. Although closely linked with Manchester City

Council it is a limited company and also has charitable status. City councillors

and departmental officers sit on its board of directors, together with

representatives from the private and university sectors. Initial funding for the

project was gained through the auspices of the European Regional

Development Fund (ERDF) and the British government’s Single Regeneration

Budget (SRB)[6].

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The Community Information Network acts as a gateway for the public to

information databases set up by a variety of local authority and external

organisations. Terminals exist around the city, with a number of other joint

projects running in parallel. These have included a series of touch screen

information kiosks sited around the city. The main public interface has been

provided with MCIN content, although commercial functions have not been

ruled out in the longer term. Such initiatives have been developed primarily

thorough MCIN, although with some private input[7].

5.4. The formation of information policy

The development of an information policy or strategy has been an issue within

the local authority for a number of years. At the time of interview, no formal

fully integrated information policy has been adopted by the politicians, either

for internal information needs of the council departments or for wider public

initiatives. In beginning to address this question, disparate actors have been

pulled together from various levels and departments within the council.

5.4.1. The elected members’ perspective

Senior councillors point to the complexity of local government structures and

the potential for contested sites of influence:

The thing about IT is that it is still relatively new to local government and
basically you get a lot of good-hearted people who go off at a tangent
with the projects that they define as important, The reality is that project
service and delivery should be prioritised by the Members and not the
Officers…I shouldn’t admit this but we don’t have an information
strategy, although we will in the next period. The draft has just landed
on my desk[8].

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The document referred to however is based primarily on the technical needs

of the city council and has been drafted by the IT Unit of the authority[9]. The

chair of the members’ IT Working Party accepts this: ’It is mainly technical now

but I would hope that would change before the final version with a little bit of

input from elsewhere’[10]. This input might come from a number of sources –

primarily the politicians themselves – but the problem of a seeming lack of co-

ordination between technical and social imperatives remains:

The IT Unit co-ordinates with the contractual and technical side of

things. Economic Initiatives is a different group, coming under Chief
Executives. They do our outer net stuff, our telematics working with
other institutions. These two branches haven’t really talked to each
other for a long time[11].

This division between disparate elements within the local authority, rather than

any unfamiliarity with ICT, seems the core reason for a lack of integration. As

Hepworth has argued, local government actually acts as a pivot for the

information economy. The management and organisation of urban

government is essentially an information business, lying at the centre of the

municipal information economy’ (Hepworth, 1991).

The main way in which it is envisaged by local politicians that internal ICT

development can reach out to a wider audience is through a link with general

service provision. Any information strategy must work its way into council

activities at this level; ‘the better the internal systems, the better the provision

to the community…Community information just goes into a pot of priorities,

and if IT isn’t an issue with Members, then home helps are’[12]. This situation

is reflected at committee level, where it has been left to a members’ sub-

committee to develop the idea of electronic community access information

points (CAIPs) around the city.

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The Social Strategy sub-committee (SSSC) comprises the chairs of all the

main committees of the authority and is itself chaired by the council leader.

The SSSC set up a ‘Local Access Working Party’ made up of councillors and

senior officers. The working party was concerned with the ability of residents

to access a wide range of services effectively on a local ward level. One

element within this was the potential for electronic information points to

supplement person to person interaction in achieving this goal.

Some pump priming was made available for a small pilot scheme, but

thereafter all funding has had to come from the existing budget. Funding was

provided to extend hardware to Chorlton in the South of the city. One officer

on the working party explains that:

We had to be fairly careful. We were being asked to set up a service

that was a new initiative, but were conscious of the resourcing
constraints. So a number of services that already existed were
relaunched as an ‘initiative’[13].

As well as involving a certain sleight of hand element, this approach highlights

problems for the pursuit of a wider information strategy:

The truth is an information strategy does not really exist. We always

said we should think in strategic terms. Now I think that maybe the
information points are a diversion from that. Something could happen
through the SSSC; an overarching document should be produced. The
leader is interested in making this happen. He emphasises this area
more than ever before. Previously urban regeneration was the key
strategy[14].

5.4.2. Departmental activities

It is at other levels that the most co-ordinated activities take place. In most

cases policy formation takes place within strict budgetary constraints. For

example, when considering the financial consequences for the department’s

revenue budget, the Libraries IT Strategy Statement notes that; ‘(A)n increase

187
in IT activities will naturally mean an increase in revenue expenditure for IT

which will have to be found from within the total existing budget’[15]. Libraries

have taken the initiative in setting up a number of projects around the city and

are keen to promote partnership with other centres of influence in the council

as in the case of CAIPs. Key officers within the department stress the

importance of strategic working, but are frustrated at the present lack of co-

ordination:

The council is an information machine, it gathers information from all

kinds of sources. But you find that it is all uncoordinated and down to
individuals. There isn’t much communication between departments, so
people don’t know what is going on…There is also a lack of political
awareness, councillors don’t understand what information is and it is
difficult to convince them that there should be more done[16].

The tentative cross-departmental initiatives with housing and social services

indicate a growing realisation that new ways of working can bear fruit.

However, these tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Within these

and other departments strict functional boundaries tend to operate which have

so far been resistant to change. It seems to be the case that in most areas it

is through the activities of key individuals that new links are beginning to be

made, and with them new policy directions explored.

Within Social Services, for example, it is felt that the increase in cross-

departmental activity is still taking place within a small number of ‘islands’:

We are very close to it all, but the rest of the department will come along
in the end. I can’t really blame the department for being slow. From a
priority point of view there are lots of other ways the public use us
better[17].

It is felt that the development of an intranet facility is a key step forward in this

direction. At the time of interview the system was just a demonstrator

available to around two hundred senior officers across the council. This has

188
since developed into a system housing detailed information from every

department and accessible city-wide. Despite developments such as this

which may eventually have the effect of loosening up some decision-making

functions, most departments tend to operate through fairly rigid hierarchies.

Even the slightest attempts at policy shifts tend to be referred upwards at

every step, although once budgets and priorities are set a fair amount of

autonomy is granted to middle level managers within the limits defined[18].

One area of the council that has historically operated quite differently in

relation to ICT is the Economic Initiatives Group (EIG), housed within the Chief

Executive’s Department:

You can see the split between the EIG and the other parts of the council.
If you want to do something within libraries you’ll submit a paper to a
committee and wait six months for anything to happen. If you are the
right person in the EIG, you just go and do it so long as a cheque for
three million quid shows up later[19].

Although bordering on caricature, this argument highlights the very different

set of structures that operate at certain levels within the Economic Initiatives

Group. Decision making power over this area has been effectively

decentralised to key workers within the group, who operate with a large

degree of autonomy. Although the group as a whole works within the city

council revenue framework, it has as its major function the task of pulling in

external funding for project development.

One result of this is that the information strategy emphasis has shifted towards

external actors, located well beyond the boundaries of the City Council. Key

members of the EIG have been deeply involved in telematics since the late

1980s. This, together with a high national and European profile has led to a

situation where the information strategy of the council has become

189
synonymous to many with the activities of a small number of people in the

group:

What is Manchester’s information strategy? It begins and ends a couple

of people in the EIG cobbling together ERDF bids through the city
council[20].

Senior figures within other departments acknowledge the level to which the

EIG promotes the city council in this area stating that ‘we would like to join in

more of their activities. We have all had an input into MCIN and it works’[21].

5.4.3. Partnerships and funding

Given the increased budget constraints placed upon local authorities in the

recent past, the promise by national government of future large-scale funding

for ICT-based programmes tends to remain on a permanent wait and see

basis[22]. A dichotomy exists between the essentially traditional manner in

which resources for ICT activities are gained by most council departments,

and the methods of the EIG.

For the former, budgets are essentially raised internally, although often

containing relatively minor elements of outside revenue procurement.

Partnership with other departments or outside institutions is also a common

but minor aspect of the funding process. The latter involve a proactive search

for project funding from a variety of sources, most notably the European

Union. Through the work of the EIG, Manchester was one of the first local

authorities to have an office in Brussels[23].

Central to the economic development strategy of the EIG are the ideas of

partnership and network building, both of which are also basic pre-requisites

for securing European funding. For example, through MTTP the city has been

190
awarded half a million pounds by the European Commission to support local

economic and community development projects as part of the ‘Telecities’

project. Six other European partner cities have made up the bidding

consortium – Antwerp, Barcelona, Bologna, Helsinki, Nice and The Hague

(Carter, 1997, p.147). This international networking exercise has been

duplicated at a local level within the projects themselves. Partners here

include the Greater Manchester Information Network Group (G-MING – co-

ordinated by the University of Manchester), Norweb Communications,

Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, MTTP, MCIN, and the Workers’

Educational Association (WEA)[24].

One key architect of these and other partnership initiatives argues that

strategic use of ICT can meet the economic, social and cultural needs of local

users by focusing on the need for universal access to applications and

services, including the right to develop content; supporting linguistic and

cultural diversity at all levels; and harnessing the dynamism of innovative

solutions to achieving economic, social and cultural development (Carter,

1997, pp.143-6). A partner in other initiatives within the Creative Cities rolling

programme maintains that at the heart of the local network web lied only one

or two individuals, bidding for money on an opportunistic basis:

From one bid they go to the next bid, and to the next bid. It has
expanded so quickly they are having to chase short term contracts.
They basically don’t have the…resources to deliver that as a strategy.
You get to a point where if it is this big you need strategic political
support, but they have never done the work to get that. What it means is
that one person is running round Manchester with so many fingers in so
many pies, that all the threads actually link up to him. Sometimes it is
Machiavellian, sometimes it’s post-modern fragmentation. But whatever
it is, it’s not strategic in any way[25].

The reality of the situation actually seems to lie somewhere between the

above positions. While it is true that the networks which have been built over

191
the years do tend to have a common centre of gravity, the net result of so

much activity has been the attainment of a certain critical mass. Neither the

city council nor other elements within the partnership networks could afford a

seismic collapse if one or two actors vacated themselves from the picture.

A large degree of hyperbole runs through the publicity of the various

partnership initiatives, but the common threads identified above do actually

also form the basis of much practice, helping constitute some sort of

integrated whole. Whether such developments can be formalised into a more

planned programme of development is debatable, although a later arrival into

a senior EIG position has had a specific remit to build a strategic outlook for

just such initiatives over the medium term[26]. This may or may not involve a

significant shift in relations of influence.

However, it can also be argued that the very nature of partnership building in

this context requires the types of links that have evolved in Manchester. In the

1960s and 1970s local authorities were easily the primary local political

institutions. More recently they have had to share this space with a range of

non-elected governmental institutions, the private sector and voluntary sector

organisations (Stoker and Mossberger, 1995, p.216). Manchester has shown

that it is still possible for the local authority to remain the central unifying

element in this mix, but only by adopting new networking methods.

Thus the formal and fairly rigid hierarchies of the past have evolved in some

instances to much flatter management structures. These are often less formal

and can give individual officers, such as those in the EIG, far greater

operational autonomy. Paradoxically, the informal relationships that are built

192
up between various sites of influence tend to be much closer and tightly

controlled than before. Different combinations of many of the same general

pool of partners have made up the core of a large degree of Manchester’s

telematics bids dating back to the late 1980s[27].

The make-up of the partnerships basically reflect the bidding requirements for

gaining European funding. These are predicated on the idea of partnership

between actors across sectors and national boundaries. This is mirrored by

the actual content of proposals that have been submitted over the years,

which include provision for the involvement of public sector, private sector,

academic and voluntary/non-governmental organisations. The parameters of

European funding are heavily constrained by issues of legal competency, or

what in law the Commission is allowed to do.

For example, along with other European cities working along similar lines, the

city council successfully argued in 1993 that the Maastricht treaty provided

new legal competencies for the Commission[28]. These were to support

telematics programmes that had as a goal the creation of new employment

opportunities and the tackling of poverty. This represented a shift in emphasis

away from technical research and development funding for large European

companies. This new situation has provided a number of opportunities for

Manchester. As a key player in the Telecities network the city has been well

placed to take advantage of these. However, the centre of influence within the

city council has remained firmly within the EIG.

Alternative approaches to questions of ICT partnership and funding within the

city council also lead to different emphases in terms of who the recipients or

193
users are, and how and why they access technology. ‘Traditional’

departments have concentrated their efforts on providing frontline services to

fairly undifferentiated communities across the city. The Libraries and Theatres

Department IT strategy aims to ‘provide equal access to information to all

citizens of Manchester[29]. While this is also one of the central aims of the

EIG’s telematics initiatives, as cited earlier, officers within the group go much

further in highlighting a number of more specific groups or communities of

identity.

For example, the Manchester Multimedia Network – an arm of the MTTP –

aims to not only (a) expand centres providing targeted geographical support in

key inner and outer city areas. It goes further in hoping to (b) develop new

centres with a wide area focus, e.g. a network in the city centre to support

teleworking and the cultural industries (Carter, 1997, pp.144-5). This final

aspect is becoming increasingly central as the idea of community begins to

lose currency among some of those involved:

Think of a working class community, such as a pit community: diamond

hard types of family, location, union, politics and religion. There is a
similar cluster or community in the cultural sector, but it is weaker –
graphite if you like- with weak forces tying it together. People come and
go, it’s fluid, not something you can build on like the others. So we
never use the word community, just clusters and networks[30].

It can thus be tentatively argued that in the case of Manchester, traditional

ways of conducting telematics-related community development have resulted

in a focus on traditional sites of community. The looser conceptions

associated with the approach of the EIG and its partners have resulted in

radical departures from these norms. The case of the Manchester Community

Information Network provides an example of how partnership has operated

somewhere between these poles at a local level.

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Organisationally, MCIN ostensibly has sat outside the bureaucracy of council

structures as an independent entity. In practice this independence has clearly

been less than absolute. If MCIN was a mainstream local authority initiative,

then the decision making procedures to which it was subject would, if not

perfect, at least be more transparent. The tension has been set up primarily

by the need to make MCIN a semi-autonomous entity as a precondition for

gaining resources. A senior councillor and member of the Network’s board

says:

We are good at that sort of thing. If you can’t get money through the
council structure you will see an awful lot of companies like MCIN. They
exist in that form for funding reasons. The money runs out next year
and we’ll have to look afresh at that sort of thing[31].

In this climate it is difficult not to conclude that some key decisions concerning

the future of the organisation and its relationship to other council initiatives are

being made in forums other than the board of directors. MCIN's project

manager also sees the organisation as fundamentally a council service:

From the city council perspective everything is now a cost centre, with
departments charging each other for services. It would be a waste of
time setting up a separate community information department, so the
easiest thing was to set us up and let us get on with it[32].

Nevertheless, she has not been comfortable with plans to replace the outgoing

voluntary sector based line manager with someone from the city council, and

contends that ‘independence has allowed us to move more quickly. We are

left to develop the links with voluntary organisations and they trust us more

than they would the council’[33]. These tensions are rooted within the

organisational structure of MCIN. They reflect the differences in management

style and function between traditional and more divergent departments within

the city council.

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5.5. Discussion

Manchester City Council was early among local authorities to understand the

potential importance of ICT use for a wide range of community development

activities. However, the level of this realisation was not spread uniformly

across different departments within the council at the time. Most active early

on in moving towards an imaginative use of the new technological media were

a fairly well defined group of actors within the Economic Initiatives Group.

5.5.1. The two-track process of ICT-related community development

The dynamism of this group in pushing forward the introduction of ICT via the

auspices of the Manchester Host, led to the development of what can be

described as a two-track, or dual, information economy within the city. Thus a

division emerged between the work of different departments in this area. This

can be seen as reflective of wider trends in the ways that ICT became viewed

within the local authority sector. Forms in which they might be used as a

potential tool for helping deliver community development outcomes were

subject of differing levels of understanding.

Key people across departments generally had an early awareness that ICT

was somehow going play an important part in the development of future

service provision. It took the presence of a like-minded group of strategically

minded ‘early adopters’ though to move the process forward at this nascent

stage. For Agar, Green and Harvey (2002, p.272) this illustrates a fairly

straightforward point: that ICT does not simply appear in a place. It is made to

196
appear and much work has to go into accomplishing that impression. This

inevitably means that how it appears will be associated with the motivations

and perceptions of those who work to put it in place, which also means that it

will be located and perceived as being connected to particular people

organisations, interests and so on.

Differences in attitude toward the emergence of ICT within the authority were

also not unrelated to the wider response to more general changes taking place

in the welfare state at the time. In particular, there was a rapid shift of focus

around a number of issues relating to questions of local authority funding and

the development of new forms of partnership.

It is interesting to note that the groups most involved in pushing the process

forward were those that recognised early the potential of ‘the city’ as a focus

for funding in a supranationally-led funding situation, given the policies of

national government towards local authorities in the late 1980s. They

understood too the increasing importance of going beyond national funding

constraints to access resources, and were also acutely aware of

developments elsewhere in the field of ICT-related community development.

So in at least two important ways the city council was able to be at the

forefront of change; firstly in understanding the shifting locus of funding, but

also in pursuing an early version of CRC provision - although the slightly

different electronic village hall model was favoured. In terms of supporting

CRC provision, central government has only recently moved towards

developing a coherent policy of supporting a national network of centres.

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5.5.2. Barriers to the development of an information strategy

There have been some negative consequences of such an early embracing of

ICT. Funding in this area has become increasingly inadequate in Manchester,

mainly as a result of having to chase relatively small amounts of money

throughout the previous decade, rather than gaining larger infrastructural

resources. In addition, a project funding culture has arisen as money is

gathered from whatever quarter it emerges.

In the constant search for new money, the attainment of a workable

information strategy for the city became less tenable over time. The situation

began to change as national policies for the introduction of a relatively

integrated network of CRCs emerged under the incoming Labour government.

These have confronted an embedded situation in the city of differentiated

forms and centres of access, each with its own history and outlook.

A further potential cleavage exists between the types of service provision

offered. The previous major emphasis of community development upon a

broad-based community information outlook is being put under increasing

pressure. Policies are being increasingly put in place that expect to deliver

measurable outcomes in terms of training, skills and ultimately new

employment.

Bringing these various factors together within an overall city-wide framework

may prove more difficult than in locations with less developed conditions.

There, the possibility of using large-scale technology funding to transform local

ICT provision in an integrated manner may be made easier by less complex

sets of circumstances. Against this, the flexibility that has allowed sections of

the city council to change direction on numerous occasions over the past

198
decade may once again prove the key to achieving a diverse yet relatively

synchronous resource network.

5.5.3. Organisational Forms

Various organisational structures have been adopted for the provision of ICT-

related community development throughout the period. All have been aiming

to reach critical mass usage within localities, but have not thus far been

entirely successful. Throughout the city, EVHs have acted as the foundations

around which the wider city council strategy has been built. However, they

have not reached the broad levels of usage initially envisaged, and

consequently have not really been extended to reach the original designs for a

much wider local network.

More recently the emergence of CRCs or ‘Online Centres’ – often housed

within existing community centres - has become the dominant form of new

provision. Often these CRCs have a narrower service remit than EVHs. In line

with the general shift in community development policy emphasis, they

concentrate less on holistic concerns over the potentially empowering and

transformative possibilities of ICT in a community setting. As such, there is a

general shift away from issues of community action and information, with the

focus moving instead onto the more pragmatic issues of skills and training.

Such developments accord closely with wider policy concerns of both local

and national government to introduce an ever greater vocational element into

community development activities. This has resulted in the community sector

beginning to take on a number of functions related to making labour ready for

the wider employment market. In some of the most deprived parts of the city

199
this has meant dovetailing community development activities into wider

programmes of economic development, acting as the major social element in

an overall programme of urban regeneration.

There is still some scope for targeting particular identity groups as was the

case with the early women’s and disabled EVHs, but this type of activity is

becoming far less central to the council’s plans. Such a shift corresponds

closely to changes in policy direction generally within town halls over the last

ten years, as Labour local authorities have dropped much of their overt

support for ‘identity’ groups as a whole.

5.5.4. Political and departmental actors

Councillors within the city generally welcome, and to an extent understand,

some of the diverse issues involved in the push for new ICT innovations in the

community development and information fields. But they have tended to be

unable to provide a clear vision of the particular ways forward in terms of

policy. Tremendous changes have of course been taking place in the ICT field

over this period, and it has proved genuinely difficult for non-specialist

politicians to provide a lead to council departments.

This situation has been partly responsible for the uneven nature of

developments across the council, as actors within departments have struggled

to fill the partial policy vacuum. The ability to grasp the nature of and potential

for change has been varied. There has been rather a lack of vision

forthcoming from ‘traditional’ departments such as libraries and social

services, which have tended to wait for initiatives handed down from the

politicians. Conversely, the elected body has been happy to let the EIG

200
pursue its own course without asking too many questions. This has resulted

in councillors not always fully comprehending the issues – or indeed the

practices - taking place under their nominal jurisdiction.

In terms of any overall council information strategy this has slowed the

process of innovation across the city, while also creating a gap between

different areas of service provision. To a certain extent these areas developed

into contested sites regarding the nature of a city-wide information strategy,

with a clash of cultures developing around much wider issues such as the

ways and means of running departments and implementing policy. Since the

late 1990s and the election of a new Labour government, the situation has

changed quite rapidly, and the emergence of new and increased funding from

the centre is starting to pull the strands together somewhat.

It may be argued that the separation of functions between – and to some

extent within – departments was less due to the imperatives of technological

change than to more socially-based factors. In particular the dual impact of a

lack of decisive government strategy and the availability of alternative sources

of funding meant that the most ‘creative’ and dynamic elements within the

council structures were thrust to the forefront. These creative, almost

maverick, ways of seeking out funding also helped lead to the emergence of a

number of key individuals – especially within the EIG – who have largely

overseen the trajectory of change over the past decade and a half. This was

also helped by the flatter operational structures that exist within the EIG, in

contrast to the more vertical and hierarchical decision making structures

associated with some other departments.

201
5.5.5. Bases of organisational action

Curiously, it was from within this flatter organisational form that a small

number of key individuals emerged. Most knowledge of the intricacies of the

developing situation gradually came to reside within this group. As such the

less bureaucratic ways of working within the Economic Initiatives Group were

instrumental in the development of a more informal – but increasingly

exclusive – insider culture of getting things done. As Agar, Green and Harvey

(2002) note, this could be realised:

only through the mobilisation of existing alliances, networks and, of

course, ideas. Those kinds of connections importantly also entailed
disconnections, from places and organisations that did not, for one
reason or another, fit the image and understanding of these technologies
and their location in Manchester.
(Agar, Green and Harvey, 2002, p.284)

Thus, while encouraging dynamism of action, this informality has in fact

worked against the building of an overarching and inclusive strategy.

Those charged with bringing in project funding however, might argue that the

objective basis for creating a workable strategy did not exist in the early part of

the 1990s, due to the lack of availability of long term resources. In the

absence of such infrastructural funding, the pursuit of shorter term project

support provided the city with an exciting and eclectic mix of activities. The

greater the level of stable long-term money that becomes available, the more

this is tending to recede. As new resources come in from central

government, there is a greater pull back towards multiple departments working

together.

With this comes a greater possibility of putting in place medium and longer

term strategies for ICT-related community development. Whether these

202
strategies will lose the innovative, pioneering edge of previous initiatives is

another thing. Where there is relative safety there may also be less scope for

imaginative action.

There are a number of lasting legacies of the innovative actions within the city

from the late 1980s onwards. The forging of partnerships between diverse

local actors from across the public and private spheres is now deeply

entrenched. This is a local manifestation of a shift that has been taking place

almost everywhere, but one that was followed early and aggressively in

Manchester through the EIG. The current search for funding concentrates on

longer term support via bodies such as national government, the Big Lottery

Fund and, still, Europe. All these involve an extension of the concept that

partnership is central to successful bidding. That may be across departments,

with other semi-public bodies such as universities and quangos, or with private

industry.

The larger amounts of money available mean that change is filtering down to

the grass-roots groups to some extent, even to those that were excluded from

the informal EIG network. In practice, however, there is the distinct possibility

that ground level groups will have to conform in future to the views of

committees and hierarchies again, which may not know what is actually

needed on the ground. This system is already reining in the more

adventurous and, especially, radical, activities of groups through mechanisms

of narrowed funding criteria. The next case study looks at how these smaller

organisations are faring across the wider Greater Manchester authority area in

this developing climate.

203
Notes

1 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic

Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
2 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic
Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
3 Manchester City Council (1991) Economic Development Strategy. Internal
document, Manchester City Council.
4 Interview with Director, Manchester Telematics Training Partnership, May
1998.
5 Interview with Group Manager Business and Technical, Libraries and
Theatres Department, Manchester City Council, January 1998.
6 Manchester Community Information Network (1997) Annual Report and
Accounts 1995-1996. Manchester : MCIN
7 ISAware (1998) Newsaware Newsletter, Issue 2, March. Manchester:
ISAware.
8 Interview with Chair, IT Members Working Group, Manchester City
Council, January 1998.
9 Manchester City Council (1997) Information Policy. Internal draft
document, Manchester City Council IT Unit.
10 Interview with Chair, IT Members Working Group, Manchester City
Council, January 1998.
11 Interview with Chair, IT Members Working Group, Manchester City
Council, January 1998.
12 Interview with Chair, IT Members Working Group, Manchester City
Council, January 1998.
13 Interview with District Manager (South), Libraries and Theatres
Department, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
14 Interview with District Manager (South), Libraries and Theatres
Department, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
15 Manchester City Council (1998) IT strategy report 1997/8. Internal
Libraries and Theatres Department document, Manchester City Council.
16 Interview with Group Manager Business and Technical, Libraries and
Theatres Department, Manchester City Council, January 1998.
17 Interview with Assistant Director: Provider Services, Social Services
Department, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
18 Interview with Voluntary Groups Database Co-ordinator, Libraries and
Theatres Department, Manchester City Council, March 1998.
19 Interview with Director, Manchester Institute for Popular Culture, January
1998.
20 Interview with Director, Manchester Institute for Popular Culture, January
1998.
21 Interview with Group Manager Business and Technical, Libraries and
Theatres Department, Manchester City Council, January 1998.
22 Interview with Group Manager Business and Technical, Libraries and
Theatres Department, Manchester City Council, January 1998.
23 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic
Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
24 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic
Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
25 Interview with Director, Manchester Institute for Popular Culture, January
1998.

204
26 Interview with Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic Initiatives
Group, Manchester City Council, March 1998.
27 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic
Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
28 Interview with Senior Principal Economic Initiatives Officer, Economic
Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council, February 1998.
29 Manchester City Council (1998) IT strategy report 1997/8. Internal
Libraries and Theatres Department document, Manchester City Council.
30 Interview with Director, Manchester Institute for Popular Culture, January
1998.
31 Interview with Chair, IT Members Working Group, Manchester City
Council, January 1998.
32 Interview with Project Manager, Manchester Community Information
Network, April 1998.
33 Interview with Project Manager, Manchester Community Information
Network, April 1998.

205
Chapter 6:

Case study two: Community organisations and community informatics

across Greater Manchester

6.1. Introduction

The second case study looks directly at the experiences of local community

organisations in the practical use of ICT for their work. Such organisations are

often isolated from the centres of policy-making power, but carry much of the

practical burden of shifts in policy and funding. As such they can be good

barometers of the actualities of change and the directions in which it is

heading. They are also the object of much of the policy process discussed

within this thesis, and it is important to evaluate how far that process is

actually based on a good understanding of the role and needs of the

community sector.

It is therefore useful to gain an insight into some of the ingredients that go into

making up the work of such organisations, especially as these connect to ICT.

The ways in which groups organise themselves and relate to funding agencies

are important issues here, as is their general approach to information and

communications technology. Each group has its own story to tell and is in this

respect unique, but there are also common problems to be faced whatever the

specific types of service provision individual organisations are involved in.

Some community organisations have ICT issues at the forefront of their

activities whilst others see it as only peripheral to their main vision. This

chapter aims to provide some illumination into each of these areas.

206
The case study examines some of the ways in which each of these strands

within the third sector approach issues surrounding ICT-related community

activity. Within this context it aims to shed light on the relative positions of

such entities in the shifting governance hierarchies associated with the rapidity

of change. Here questions of autonomy and constraint over action are central.

These tie-in in many ways to broader questions of funding and, ultimately, the

sustainability of such organisations in the medium and longer terms.

The Greater Manchester region has been chosen as the geographical

catchment area for the case study. The region is located close by those

locations chosen for Case Studies 1 and 3, but is mostly made up of smaller

local authorities. It encompasses ten local authority areas. These are: the

City of Manchester; Salford; Tameside; Bolton; Bury; Wigan; Stockport;

Oldham; Trafford and Rochdale. In order to achieve a comprehensive

coverage of activities on the ground, groups have been interviewed from

across the district. These however represent only a small percentage of the

total number of organisations in the sector operating across Greater

Manchester. Thus, as with Chapters 5 and 7, the study aims to provide a

qualitative indication of the activities and trends at work rather than an

exhaustive quantitative account.

Central to this description of the sector is the aim of understanding in depth

the nature of events happening at the ground level, and the similarities and

differences across the region. These are apparent both within and between

local authority boundaries and the particular service concerns of individual

organisations. They also relate to ways in which third sector organisations

207
connect with each other in terms of networking and the sharing of experiences

over ICT.

6.2. Map of the study

Representatives of various organisations have been interviewed across seven

of the ten Greater Manchester local authority areas. These organisations can

themselves be divided into three main groups.

Firstly, there are community organisations which although making use of ICT

at some level, exist primarily to service the more general needs of a specific

user group. Organisations in this category include: MIND (Salford); Contact

Community Care (Manchester); Gateway Project (Bolton); Workers Education

Association (Manchester); Kashmiri Youth Project (Rochdale).

Next are organisations operating as community-ICT resource centres or

Online Centres. These provide community-based ICT services to other

community organisations and individual members of the public. Members of

this group include: 3D Centre (Bolton); Little Hulton Women’s Project

(Salford); Bury Resource Information and Advice Network (BRIAN) (Bury);

Manchester Community Information Network (Manchester); Chorlton

Workshop (Manchester); Hattersley Computer Centre (Tameside).

Finally are a number of ‘umbrella organisations’. These are bodies which

have developed to act on behalf of or with reference to the broader community

sector in their locality. Some, such as the Councils for Voluntary Services,

208
serve generalised needs for the sector. Others such as the GEMESIS Project

concentrate more specifically on ICT-related issues. This group includes:

Greater Manchester Council of Voluntary Organisations (Greater Manchester);

GEMESIS Project (Salford); Council for Voluntary Services (Bury); IS Aware

(Bury); Voluntary Organisation IT Link (VITAL) (Manchester); Council for

Voluntary Services (Rochdale); Oldham Development Agency for Community

Action (Oldham).

The work of a number of organisations cross the above boundaries, especially

in relation to acting both as a CRC and a general community organisation.

6.3. Function and organisation

Kendall and Knapp (1995) have identified five sets of functional activities

carried out by organisations in the voluntary sector. These are; service

providing functions; mutual aid function; pressure-group function; individual

advocacy; and resource/co-ordinating functions (Kendall and Knapp, 1995,

pp.67-8). For the purposes of this study, this typology can be simplified into

two main clusters. We are mostly concerned with issues around organisational

use of information technology, and a clear divide can be observed between

resource/co-ordinating groups and those which belong primarily within the

other four sets of actors.

At the most basic level, Kendall and Knapp characterise organisations fulfilling

the co-ordinating function as typically blending service provision to other

voluntary sector bodies and acting as a central repository of expertise on a

209
specialist subject, with representing a membership of other voluntary bodies

and liaising between them in various ways. Resource organisations can

themselves be usefully divided into two sets; those which veer more strongly

towards the role of support organisations for the sector as a whole, and those

which place an emphasis on working with individuals and groups within their

geographical community, usually through the auspices of a community-ICT

resource centre.

6.3.1. Community-ICT resource centres.

The importance of CRCs to the development of social inclusion in the

information society has been stressed by a number of authors, notably Day

and Harris (1997), with recommendations stretching back to the late 1990s

stressing the need for such organisations to be publicly funded across the

country. Given the early lack of a coherent and unified programme for this to

take place, a multiplicity of organisational forms have emerged in the sector.

This differentiation of form has so far outstripped any growth in functional

distinctions, as organisations in the main continue to carry out most activities

within fairly well defined parameters.

Differences do remain around the emphasis centres place upon individual or

community group use of their facilities. These however are usually based

more on a pragmatic assessment of the local situation, and the requirements

of funding bodies, than any preference for either set of users. The distinction

often loses salience in practical terms, as most centres operate under the

principles described by the manager of the Bolton 3D Centre, where groups

and individuals have open access to facilities originally earmarked primarily for

use by small and medium enterprises (SMEs):

210
 We provide access for people rather than SMEs, but if there is funding
for SMEs, then people become SMEs, don’t they. We do whatever it
takes really. There are all these hoopy things you have to nominate
people into to get the money[1].

Within Rochdale, the community sector has teamed up with other agencies to

develop local IT facilities. Together with the City Council, Hopwood Hall F.E.

College, and the local health authority, Rochdale CVS has been central to the

development of a Rochdale telematics strategy. A combined ESF/ERDF bid,

worth around £300,000, has brought in funding for a fourteen station computer

training centre to be operated by the Council for Voluntary Services.

Community groups are able to access these stations for both training and

group use. As the CVS manager explains;

Those trained will hopefully cascade their skills back into local groups
and communities by training others in their localities. The specific
outreach points are still to be identified, because there is still a bit of
political debate about where they should be sited. They need to be
where the public have access as well as community groups[2].

Different organisations are becoming involved in different ways across the

borough. At the Middleton end, the new Middleton Electronic Village Hall has

been set up in close conjunction with Hopwood Hall College, while on the

outlying Heywood estate, Heywood Community Training have been closely

involved with the attempt to bring accessible IT facilities to local residents. A

number of organisations from the town’s Asian community have also been

involved in these developments. As part of the funding initiative, the Kashmir

Youth Project have been instrumental in the push to establish an EVH among

Rochdale’s substantial Bangladeshi population.

Within the borders set by and for CRCs a diverse range of specific activities

are undertaken. These tend to be concentrated around training and skills

acquisition for employment or further education, although a shift towards the

211
provision of facilities for information and communication activities can be

increasingly observed in a number of the organisations spoken to. This is

borne out by the increasing emphasis placed upon the provision of Internet

courses by projects such as Hattersley Computer Centre and Chorlton

Workshop.

The historical concentration upon fairly narrowly defined fields of activity

masks a willingness on behalf of most of the organisations to embrace

opportunities for change and development where they become available and

are seen as economically viable. All the resource centres studied have greatly

expanded their Internet and e-mail facilities. The Rochdale coalition saw its

initiative as helping the town leapfrog out of its previous position of having very

little publicly accessible ICT equipment:

From basic facilities at the moment we hope that this is the beginning of
the networking revolution...The borough telematics strategy has
previously just been a set of works on paper. We are now putting flesh
on it. The voluntary sector is moving fast in these particular areas, more
than others really. I think it is fair to say that by when this work is finished
Rochdale CVS will be one of the best equipped in the country[3].

The provision of on-line facilities is generally seen as increasingly central to

the future work of the centres, and it is recognised by most that their use will

carry on becoming more important to their client bases. Even now though

some confusion remains as to the specific ways in which this might manifest

itself in practice. This has led to a clear distinction between the running of

training courses designed to introduce students to the Internet, and the actual

use of the net in drop-in situations where people are left to randomly - and

often fruitlessly - wander the vast expanses of the world wide web alone.

212
Resource Centres play an important intermediate role between various

policymaking levels and the community sector, acting as frontline

organisations for the implementation of policy on the ground. The relative

uniformity of services offered by most of the centres visited for the study

stands in distinction from their quite different organisational bases. The range

of partners involved in developing and running the centres covers actors

across the public, private and academic sectors.

This, together with some of the funding requirements addressed later, has

resulted in a squeeze towards the centre ground on the provision of services

at local levels. This can be characterised as conforming fairly closely in

practice to a de facto community services approach by almost all the

organisations spoken to, where economic development issues tend to hold

sway over more radical social critiques of information inequality. The

community-ICT resource centre movement embraces a range of philosophical

and political positions and this is reflected in the diversity of actors involved in

the management committees and boards of organisations.

Chorlton EVH, for example, emerged in the mid-1980s as a fiercely

independent and radical organisation with a strong element of social criticism

embedded in its view of the information needs of the local community, while

Hattersley Computer Centre (HCC) flowed out of a joint initiative of private

business, local authority and community organisations. From the beginning

HCC’s remit has been firmly one of economic development, albeit with an

important twist of community involvement[4]. In practical terms, the two

operate in more similar ways than their origins might suggest. Their presence

213
at the heart of local life in geographical communities offers both organisations

the chance to provide a mixture of services.

Open drop-in access to IT facilities is combined with a range of courses

designed to give increasingly formalised qualifications as a precursor to

employment or further education. Such a blend is considered safe for

organisational support and funding by established bodies across the public

and private spectrum. While this is indicative of an increased awareness of the

social and economic problems caused by differential access to new

technology, it also represents a limiting factor on the sharpness of any critique

of that phenomenon.

6.3.2. Community-IT support organisations

An important layer in the support framework for frontline resource centres is

provided by various organisations which concentrate some or all of their

resources on assisting the community-IT sector as a whole. The level of this

support differs between organisations. IS Aware has a specific remit to

promote access to telematics applications and services across Greater

Manchester. It does this through working with local groups in the business,

education and community sectors[5]. As its name suggests, IS Aware is

primarily concerned with raising awareness of the issues surrounding

information technology. This involves it running seminars for and

disseminating information to interested parties. As such the help IS Aware

can give to any single organisation is limited, although it is also involved in

supporting a small amount of training initiatives at a modest level.

214
This situation creates some problems for IS Aware, which tends to be viewed

as somewhat distant from the day to day concerns of the organisations it

assists. If this distance was offset by a close proximity to funding sources the

problem might not be so acute, but IS Aware has very little power to provide

financial assistance itself. Instead it disseminates information to the

community sector about other funding sources. This is a useful role but one

which a number of other organisations, not least the Councils for Voluntary

Services, could potentially fulfil just as effectively.

Organisations such as Voluntary Action Manchester approach the problem

from the opposite direction. Their first obligation is to aid the community sector

as an overall entity, and within this environment IT-related activities are only

one of many issues to be tackled. Because community groups are confronted

with all manner of problems daily, the question of information technology

tends not to be seen as a priority, and VAM will act much more as a gateway

to ground level initiatives such as Chorlton EVH than as a direct supporter of

IT-related activities.

Some CVSs are beginning to approach the question of information technology

in a much more serious and direct manner. Rochdale CVS has been actively

engaged in a programme of telematics development making it a key part of

local development in the area. Such close involvement in new initiatives can

result in a spillover to IT-related CRC activity, a welcome, though not wholly

unproblematic development. The main difficulty involved in such an extension

of functions is that some existing core work may suffer as a result, but this is

heavily dependent upon the levels of pre-planning and funding involved with

the change.

215
The inbuilt advantage of CVSs over organisations such as IS Aware or the

GEMISIS initiative in Salford is their already close proximity to the

communities they serve. GEMISIS, a major collaboration between various

public, academic and private partners, aims to develop wider uses of cable

networks and information technologies in various sectors. One of its key

objectives has been to use such technology to improve the quality of life for

the community through the development of projects in a number of localities

within the City of Salford. However, within the GEMISIS ‘Community Service

Area’, a greater emphasis is seen by many to be placed upon identifying the

problems communities face rather than addressing those problems through a

creative interaction with the community itself.

6.3.3. Independent groups/service providers

The first use of computers by many independent community groups is often as

a tool for increasing the efficiency of office functions such as letter writing and

keeping accounts. Over and above this type of usage, the most innovative

groups within the field are beginning to develop new ways of helping deliver

their core services with the aid of IT. Within this study, smaller bodies

providing services to often specific target groups have tended to utilise

information technology in a relatively instrumental manner, tailoring its use to

aid particular aspects of their work. These changes are often on a small scale

but are designed to involve a significant shift in the way user groups are

supported in certain areas. For almost all the groups spoken to this process

has not sprung up fully formed or even evolved in a smooth linear manner, but

has been one of trial and error as particular solutions are sought to complex

problems.

216
This is illustrated through the example of Contact Community Care, who work

with mentally and physically disabled people in the Prestwich area of North

Manchester. With around two hundred clients, the organisation employs one

full time co-ordinator, a part-time administrator and two part-time community

support workers. These are supported by a network of around twenty-five

volunteer workers. Among its other activities the group undertakes advocacy

work, and has been trying to support three of its members in meaningfully

participating in the Learning Disabilities sub-committee of the local authority.

Getting the council to agree to such attendance is seen as a major

breakthrough in itself, but a number of problems have arisen with the way the

sub-committee operates. The group co-ordinator explains that:

People are going to the meetings, but not understanding what is going
on. They are long, high powered meetings, and end up being a horrible
experience for our members. They are getting the minutes sent, but
they don’t mean anything at all, because they can’t read at all or not very
well[6].

Stuart, a community worker on placement from a local college is suspicious

about the council’s motives:

Social services are being quite tokenistic. They have invited people
along as service users to participate in the sub-committee, but all the
discussions are way over their head...Then sets of jargonistic minutes
are whizzed out just as they have been over the years. It seems to be
more of a public relations exercise than anything meaningful[7].

Contact Community Care has gained support from the VITAL project operated

by Chorlton EVH, outlined later in this chapter. This involvement is primarily

aimed at using multi-media technology to begin tackling the above set of

problems and provide minutes in some form that can be easily understood.

217
The group started by looking at software packages that use universally

recognisable symbols instead of words to convey information, but became

frustrated with the leading proprietary products which were seen to be almost

as complicated as the word-based minutes:

It’s alright for those who can read. Its only when you discuss it with non-
readers that you realise even supposedly universal symbols don’t mean
a lot. It is like learning a new language, so you might as well teach
someone to read and write[8].

The conclusion was reached that symbols representing words were not the

way forward, and the group turned to the idea of using multi-media

applications as a means of tackling the problem. It is here that the support of

the VITAL project came in, with a specialist worker being funded to work with

CCC for around a month to see if a video editing suite possibly combined with

some animation packages could start to provide some solutions. Such

activities are envisaged as potentially providing valuable new elements to the

self-advocacy process. The group is small and needs to communicate what it

is doing to potential members, especially those who may be housebound but

want to participate in the communicative process.

The case of CCC brings into focus some of the problems and benefits of a

project such as VITAL. VITAL has a remit to work with ten organisations over

a period of up to six months, providing expert help to community organisations

during that period[9]. The short term nature of VITAL’s involvement with

groups means that if solutions are not found quickly to what are complex and

long-standing problems, then groups may find themselves no nearer answers

even after the money has been spent. Even if some progress is made, there

is no guarantee that once the funding has ended groups will move forward

218
with the technology. One volunteer argues that groups have no choice but to

grab any opportunity for support. He says:

The way things are going with local authorities, you have to shout the
loudest to get anything at all. No-one here has had a real insight into IT,
we’ve all got backgrounds in community work...The sort of help you
need is almost like an ongoing consultancy about the vast array of
options for its application[10].

However, the injection of even one month’s ‘consultancy’ can potentially push

a project forward onto a new plane in its dealings with IT (or make it seek

another route to the solution of its problems), and open up a whole new series

of networking opportunities for the future. This seems to be the case with

Contact Community Care. Together with the multi-media support, the group

has gained assistance with the use of spreadsheets and has had a half day

workshop provided by Chorlton EVH on information issues. While welcoming

these events the group co-ordinator remains to be fully convinced: ‘Some of

our staff are enthusiasts, but some think the world would be a better place

without computers. I’m not sure at the moment who is right’[11].

For a group such as Contact Community Care, the intense effort being put

into enrolling technology as a means of improving access may not end with

any definitive set of solutions, as the technology - itself often inadequate - has

to compete with a range of limiting bureaucratic and social factors. For

organisations with so many competing restraints on time, funds and human

resources, IT has to make a clear and decisive difference in order to earn itself

a place high in any list of priorities. Where community or voluntary

organisations have the opportunity to identify in advance a specific role for the

technology, the path of implementing new initiatives can be considerably

smoother. This does not necessarily involve a process of integration into

219
existing work, but can often take the form of a complement to the main

activities of an organisation.

An initiative such as BRIAN, which decisively separates out the use of

technology from all other aspects of the work of the Bury and District Disability

Advisory Council (BADDAC), has allowed a well-defined set of objectives to

emerge and be tackled[12]. The major outcome of this is that the series of

BRIAN terminals now operate as an entity themselves, providing information

to disabled people in a not dissimilar manner to the way the MCIN network

discussed in Case Study 1 offers to the community as a whole.

The independent community sector in Greater Manchester is only now

beginning to use ICT for many functions over and above those of word

processing, spreadsheets and the production of publicity material. Initiatives

such as BRIAN show that groups can and do develop further capabilities

through sources and channels close to home, but there remains an

overwhelming need for increased support from external actors. The role of

community-ICT resource centres is central to this process.

The existence of a local resource network available for groups to tap into

freely for training and support, is central to the building of a critical mass of

ICT use in the community sector. This can lead to a range of ambitious

activities as is now happening in Rochdale, or to small changes, as in the

acquisition of a single PC by the Gateway Project for mentally and physically

disabled children in Bolton through its liaison with the Bolton 3D Centre. A

volunteer from Gateway outlines how this operates in practice:

I came here in the first place to get some support and advice from the
CVS, but I spoke to John [the centre manager] and he got me doing

220
 some publicity material. It has gone on from there. We now have a
computer of our own up on our premises - which the kids love - and if we
move we are going to extend that[13].

The Gateway project shares its premises with another play group, and has

fairly limited access to the use of rooms. Its own computer is thus consigned

to a cupboard for as much time as it is available for use either by clients or

volunteers:

I find myself down here at the 3D all the time making up posters, writing
the newsletter or whatever. It’s pretty much open house[14].

Within this mix, projects where CRCs go beyond the provision of advice and

training to provide a wider package of support measures, are important.

These are often short term and underfunded, as in the case of VITAL in

Manchester. However, they do have an impact upon the sector and can

provide the basis for some longer term and more sustainable initiatives, such

as the website and database developed by Voluntary Action Manchester as

part of the VITAL project headed by Chorlton Workshop.

6.4. Funding and sustainability

Gaining adequate and sustained funding is a key problem for community

organisations of all sizes and type. The relationship between individual

organisations and the geographical communities they serve is heavily

dependent upon how well groups meet the perceived needs of local people. A

number of factors can affect the balance of this in practice, not least the

requirements of funding bodies placed upon groups in their proposals for

financial support.

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6.4.1. Differing forms of funding

For small service providers IT support usually comes in the form of one-off

equipment or training grants, if at all. In certain circumstances this short term

injection of capital can meet certain identified needs and allow the

organisation to move on to a higher plane of activity, but equally often it

heralds a frustrating period where the lack of long term support eventually

renders the technology useless. This possibility is apparent in the experience

of Contact Community Care. The existence of local expertise in the form of a

resource centre may alleviate such problems, but often the centres are busy

chasing short-term project money themselves. This can undermine their core,

strategic plans for the longer term.

This has been a problem for Chorlton EVH since its inception, for example,

and only now with the aid of a substantial Lottery grant do workers there feel

that they can fully push ahead with their own plans for the future. At times the

centre has been near to closing because of a lack of adequate funding,

something viewed with resentment towards the local council by EVH workers.

It can be argued that at some level, the previous lack of support has

developed an acute sense of the value of any funding that does come along.

The EVH is now able to call upon a vast reservoir of experience in

implementing its plans for the next period.

The Rochdale CVS initiative has an opposite problem, how to ensure that the

sudden influx of funds is used efficiently and effectively for local residents and

community organisations. The borough has the opportunity to leapfrog itself

into a position of strength through its community-based IT strategy, but for this

to work it must rely heavily on the CVS’s existing knowledge of the community

222
scene to guarantee effective take up on the ground. While the constant

pursuit of short-term funding creates a myopic project-based culture,

exhausting and demoralising practitioners, large scale initiatives are also

potentially subject to a number of pitfalls.

Not least among these is the temptation to fill space - whether in activities,

equipment or personnel - because it is there rather than through a well

managed and targeted project of expansion. The Rochdale partnership

outlined earlier accepts that this could have been a problem for their own

project, but argue that even a grant of £300,000 is still inadequate to address

the overall needs of the borough. The possibility of individual projects not

living up to prior expectations is always present, but an acceptable risk within

such a bold initiative.

6.4.2. Shifting funding sources

The large scale grants received by projects visited for the study have come

from two main sources. These are firstly the National Lottery Charities Board

(now subsumed within the Big Lottery Fund) and the European Union, which

has come to prominence in terms of local and regional funding over the past

two decades. As outlined in Chapter 5, Greater Manchester and in particular

the City of Manchester itself, was among the first areas in the UK to realise the

potential of supranational funding bodies for local economic development. This

process was kick-started by the need to fill the vacuum created by a

substantial drop in central government rates support in the mid-1980s, and

spurred on further with the introduction of the poll tax. A central result of this

process was the substantial loss of ability by local authorities to directly

223
provide discretionary support grants to frontline organisations at adequate

levels.

In this climate the shift towards seeking new sources of funding by community

and voluntary organisations has been almost inevitable. This shift has been

accompanied by a multiplicity of new forms of partnership. The adoption of

these new links has been aimed primarily at maximising the financial inputs

available to organisations, but has been accompanied by parallel changes in

organisational culture and outlook. This includes the close involvement of the

private sector in developing a range of initiatives, such as that of Hattersley

Computer Centre where British Telecom sits alongside local community

groups and Tameside Council on the board of the Development Trust[15].

As more players enter the scene, each bringing with it its own agenda, the

relationship between community organisations and external funders is

becoming more complex. The search for achieving long term financial

sustainability, always a difficult task within the sector, has become dependent

on fulfilling new criteria and forging new links, sometimes at the expense of

existing principles. Small organisations are not new to the process of tailoring

funding proposals to the concerns of grant-holders and then reverting to their

own agenda in practice, but with the tight monitoring and evaluation schedules

of much project-based support this is becoming more difficult. In effect new

agendas are being pushed upon the sector from external, sometimes

unaccountable sources.

The new relationships formed by community and voluntary organisations may

also differ between their involvement with different private organisations, the

224
lottery and supranational institutions. Groups are having to spend more time,

and initially resources, on getting up to speed with what is required from each

of these new potential funding sources in order to gain support. For already

overworked and underfunded groups this can lead to missing out on funding

opportunities, not through a lack of expertise in their field of activity, but

because of insufficient insider knowledge of the machinations of potential

backers.

This was a problem encountered early on by the BRIAN database for disabled

people in Bury, and highlighted by Dave Seedtree, the project manager:

For fund-raising we are competing against professional fund-raisers, I

am from an IT background, and anyway I don’t get the time. The way
we got our last set of money was to hire a volunteer, who is disabled, for
a pittance - basically expenses - and he came up with the money[16].

The group came through this problem and now faces a relatively secure future

financially, but for every small organisation that manages to break through

such constraints, there are many others that currently do not. This highlights a

need for simpler and more transparent access to sources of funding, both

directly by groups and through intermediaries such as expanded CRCs.

6.5. Perceptions of technology

The diffusion of information technology in all its forms is still in its infancy

within the voluntary and community sector. Many small organisations -

especially those which see themselves as primarily providing a service for

specific client groups - still operate with little ICT capability. Where computers

are being utilised, they tend to perform mainly administrative back office tasks,

225
although use of the information capabilities of the internet is now gaining

ground quickly. This is especially so with regard to the small, local and

independent organisations mainly spoken to for this study. It can be argued

that two major problems exist within this cluster.

6.5.1 Community group perspectives

Firstly groups find it difficult to envisage situations where information

technology can significantly improve the standard of support they offer to their

client groups. This may be because of the complexities involved in addressing

particularly specialised sets of needs, and the levels of interaction called for

between field workers and clients as in the case of Contact Community Care.

Many of the proprietary software packages available are still fairly basic and

somewhat clumsy in their operation, a situation which may lead groups to

reject them. Even where it is felt that it may be worth taking a chance on a

specific package further financial considerations come into play. Many groups

simply cannot afford the costs involved without some form of financial

assistance. Those that have some money may still see the technology as a

not particularly cost effective way of spending their finite resources. Thus

other tried and tested solutions are given greater priority.

This situation brings into stark relief the need for funding sources which

directly target the ICT needs of the sector, supporting specialist organisations

in gaining their first level of access to the technology that is available. Only

then could anything close to some sort of critical mass be achieved in the

area. Nicola Teece, the Web Site designer for the VITAL Project, says that,

‘you have to assume that users have only the most basic set of IT skills and

equipment, if any when setting up systems for them’[17]. Alongside this

226
assumption is another that only an even smaller percentage of voluntary

organisations have access to services such as the Internet. The City of

Manchester has been seen as an area that is better served in many respects

than others within Greater Manchester as a whole. However, even here, for

real dialogue and increased awareness to be engendered among local groups

further measures are seen to be needed:

It is all a question of access. All this information may only be accessible

to a small percentage of groups in Manchester through the Internet[18].

Meaningful penetration of the sector is still at a surprisingly early stage, both in

terms of the targeted software available at affordable prices, and groups

feeling that the technology offers new channels of communication within their

field. Cases such as that of BRIAN in Bury show that this is not universally

true. While networking is not seen as the key issue, the use of computers as a

medium for imparting relatively up-to-date information is strongly justified by

members of the project. They argue that BRIAN provides the best - and often

only - means of access to disabled people within various localities around the

borough:

Technology is an enabler. In the past if someone wanted some

information from BADDAC they would ring up, or pick up a booklet and
read it. This way they can search for information at their speed in their
time and find information over and above what they were looking for, in a
way they could never find on a bookstand or through a telephone
conversation[19].

Thus technology is seen as a tool for providing a wholly new service to an

existing client base.

6.5.2. Community-ICT Resource Centre perspectives

Community-ICT resource centres approach the technology from a different

starting point. The notion of a community sector in general need of greater

227
access to new technology binds CRCs together as an emerging movement.

Many differences of emphasis around a series of issues emanate from this

common starting point. However, the idea of information technology as a

generic tool for addressing the varied needs of community and voluntary

groups is constant. Among the CRCs spoken to true information evangelists

have been few and far between. While most people argued that ICT has the

potential to change and improve the ways in which community based groups

can operate - even at very basic levels - it was also recognised that such

developments are often incremental and must be contextually appropriate.

Each of the CRCs recognised the importance of basic activities such as

improving access to ICT, and promoting training and skills through their

centres. Divisions began to emerge around some of the broader issues

relating to the role of information technology in contributing to wider societal

change. At the simplest level important differences exist between those who

view the use of ICT by community organisations as a potentially powerful tool

for promoting radical change through a shift in levels of access, activism and

grassroots democratic activity as a whole, and those who prefer a narrower

perspective focused on issues of economic development. The differences in

general outlook highlighted earlier between organisations such as Chorlton

Workshop and Hattersley Community Centre finds its basis here.

As has been shown, the financial and organisational pressures faced by

groups with different ideological starting points has resulted in a general shift

towards the centre ground of community access and training in practice.

However there seems to be at least a loose correlation between those groups

which have grown out of and are rooted in the local community, and a sense

228
of the desirability - if not the possibility - of much greater democracy around

the use of IT.

This extends to projects such as Bolton 3D Centre, part of the Bolton

Community Education Service. At the heart of the centre manager’s analysis

is the idea that the technology is potentially a democratising force at a

community level:

What I think is important about the Internet stuff and suchlike is that
potentially you could use it to exchange your ideas in a cheap way,
providing you’ve got the technology. It’s not really happening now
because the sector is not up to speed...We need a transition from the
idea that computer people use computers to one where everyone uses
them. Not in any special way, just as something you do, so they are for
people. I suppose we are the continuity popular front of computing[20].

Conversely, agenda setters for custom built partnerships, such as Hattersley

Development Trust (HDT), while nodding in the direction of breaking down

social exclusion, continue to pursue fairly rigid economic development goals.

6.6. Discussion

The specific experiences of smaller community based organisations across

Greater Manchester tend to vary in relation to local conditions, and this is

particularly true in the sphere of ICT-related activity. Local councils, CVSs

and other support bodies across the region stand at different stages of

development with regard to ICT. Some have been in the process of

developing local information strategies for a number of years, while others are

still at the earliest stages of deliberation.

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6.6.1. Converging trends within a differentiated sector

These divergent environments have inevitably fed downwards and affected

community groups on the ground. As a result there is a considerable amount

of differentiation between both the aspirations of groups attempting to use ICT

within their community based activities, and their success in doing so.

However, even in those areas where little progress has been made, some

organisations have not waited for support from above. They have instead

embarked on various developmental activities of their own.

Groups within the third sector often work in isolation from their peers.

Sometimes this is by choice, but more usually it is a result of the lack of

adequate structures for bringing such a disparate and poorly funded sector

together. Councils for Voluntary Services within Greater Manchester work

hard on relatively low budgets to mitigate this situation, but a great sense of

atomisation is still apparent at the ground level. This does not seem to be

improved to a great extent within the realm of ICT-related activities.

Organisations such as IS Aware and Gemisis have attempted to make inroads

into raising awareness of the issues, but again this has had only marginal

effect. Even within this splintered situation, where activity is taking place on a

relatively organised basis some common features and trends are beginning to

appear. Most notable among these is the emergence of local umbrella-type

ICT resource centres in almost most of the local authority areas.

Such centres operate primarily as community organisations which aim to

serve the ICT needs of other community organisations, together with those of

the community as a whole. These CRCs display many differences in

organisational structure, ownership, and funding bases. Despite these

230
differences, they all also tend to provide many of the same services to both

the local community and to community organisations wishing to make use of

the potential of ICT. These are most usually concerned with providing

facilities for training and skills improvement in the use of computer packages.

Internet training and access is also becoming increasingly central to their

work. In some cases local groups, such as the oral history group in Hattersley,

are taking advantage of the new forms of access to both information and

communication they provide.

Groups which are attempting to access ICT resources outside of the CRC

framework are generally finding resources difficult to come by. This is

particularly true for smaller organisations such as Contact Community Care.

To put innovative ideas into practice is an expensive process, and funding is

invariably directed towards what are considered safe targets by donor bodies.

This is primarily a result of an overall lack of resources available to the sector,

but other factors also apply. Those involved in distributing funds often have

pre-established criteria which relate specifically to the need for training and

vocational outputs. Less mainstream approaches to ICT innovation are seen

to involve greater risk, and provide less efficient outcomes within the current

community development climate.

6.6.2. Diversity of conditions

This case study illustrates the operation of a diverse set of groups around the

region attempting to use ICT as part of their community based activities. The

situation is complex, with each of the groups encountering different

experiences. This applies both in terms of their local conditions and their

particular organisational and financial circumstances. The problem for the

231
development and implementation of policy here is how to address such a

range of needs in a meaningful way, yet without undermining the

independence of any particular group.

This has so far proved difficult in each of the local authority areas studied,

although for areas such as Rochdale the granting of large scale funding

provides some scope for beginning to address such problems. In contrast, a

number of authority areas are not yet in receipt of funding on this scale from

any mix of public and private sources, illustrating the uneven nature of

development across the region. The position of the community groups within

each geographical area is to some degree dependent upon how well these

higher bodies have managed to gather resources together. In a number of

authority areas over the past decade funding support has been consistently

low, although a general climate shift can be seen to be emerging in the recent

past.

Community organisations often set themselves service goals in terms of

measurable ICT outcomes for the client groups they assist. For a number of

those examined in this study, these are related to the successful

implementation and use of ICT in this process. In addition to these objectives,

wider policy-based and strategic themes also impinge on the actions of

organisations. These include questions of community empowerment and

overall community development, together with more everyday questions of

access to information and the availability of ICT training.

These areas overlap to some extent, both within and between organisations.

They are also subject to different emphases depending on particular

232
circumstances. Nevertheless, they are closely related in many ways, and

becoming more so with regard to the development of CRCs across the region.

Through the auspices of community-ICT resource centres a tangible similarity

of function is emerging regarding ICT provision across most of the authority

areas. This is both shaping and being shaped by policy at local and national

levels.

6.6.3. Strictures and structures

Reports such as Policy Action Team 15 (2000) and Wyatt et al (2004)

represent attempts to bridge the gap between the emergence of CRCs as a

workable model for community related ICT provision, and the current paucity

of funding and activity in the field. The argument for a national network of

CRCs or Online Centres based within neighbourhoods has largely been won

at governmental level. The organisational foundations of such centres are

diverse and will probably remain so. This is the case in Greater Manchester,

where initiatives such as Hattersley Resource Centre, Bolton 3D Centre and

Chorlton EVH have quite different organisational backgrounds.

Such diversity is to be welcomed and has historically been accompanied by

groups operating with high levels of autonomy. However, the introduction of

more rigid funding regimes bring with them the potential for new controls over

the actions of CRCs. These may not be explicitly political or ideological in

terms of laying down parameters, but are more likely to concentrate on

providing greater funding to those organisations adhering most closely to

policy guidelines developed by funder bodies. To avoid this, a major policy

problem is ensuring an adequate programme of change which addresses the

233
problems of groups and the communities they serve, whilst not dictating their

actions unnecessarily through prescriptive means.

All the groups spoken to reported at least some liaison with and support from

local authorities. A number have also received advice from overarching

initiatives such as IS Aware. For organisations to gain substantial funding

though, they have invariably been obliged to look further in search of partners.

Private sector involvement has become increasingly important, although this

has usually involved partnership with the relevant local authority. The make

up of a project such as Hattersley Development Trust is indicative of this

shifting situation. The overall work of the Trust has a large community

development content, and this is reflected within the ICT element represented

by the Hattersley Community Centre. It is salutary to note that this work is

closely linked to the involvement - and to some extent the interests – of private

industry players.

In contrast to the experience of the Hattersley Development Trust, which

almost represents an ideal type of the new partnership paradigm, is the work

of the Bolton 3D Centre. Both Bolton and Hattersley fulfil relatively similar

functions within their localities, but the 3D Centre has a much more traditional

composition in terms of its funding base. The Bolton Community Education

Service which oversees the work of the centre is in some ways an

organisational hangover from the many similar services that have been cut by

local authorities over the past two decades. Almost all the centres examined

have greater operational autonomy than might at first be thought when looking

at their management structures. However, it is probably no coincidence that

the 3D Centre still maintains the greatest autonomy in this respect. In practice

234
it has the freedom to place questions of empowerment for its users on a

similar plane to those of skills and training.

Changes in the scope and nature of funding are continuing to alter the

landscape of ICT provision by and for community organisations in Greater

Manchester. This process is in a constant state of flux, and the relative

positions of the various actors at both funding and service provision levels will

undoubtedly be subject to further change. The third case study examines how

such changes are affecting Liverpool, a city which has historically followed a

quite distinct trajectory from Greater Manchester in the way the third sector is

funded and operates.

Notes

1 Interview with Project Manager, 3D Centre, Bolton, September 1998.

2 Interview with Co-ordinator, Rochdale Council for Voluntary Service,
Rochdale, December 1998.
3 Interview with Co-ordinator, Rochdale Council for Voluntary Service,
Rochdale, December 1998.
4 Hattersley Development Trust (1998) Working Towards a Brighter Future.
Manchester: Hattersley Development Trust.
5 ISAware (1997) ISAware News, Issue 1, October. Manchester: ISAware.
6 Interview with Co-ordinator, Contact Community Care, Manchester,
September 1998.
7 Interview with Project Worker, Contact Community Care, Manchester,
September 1998.
8 Interview with Project Volunteer, Contact Community Care, Manchester,
September 1998.
9 Voluntary Organisations Information Technology Link (1997) Project
Placements. Internal Project Document, VITAL.
10 Interview with Project Volunteer, Contact Community Care, Manchester,
September 1998.
11 Interview with Co-ordinator, Contact Community Care, Manchester,
September 1998.
12 Bury and District Disabled Advisory Council (1998) The BRIAN Project.
Manchester: BADDAC
13 Interview with Project Volunteer, Gateway Project, Bolton, September
1998.
14 Interview with Project Volunteer, Gateway Project, Bolton, September
1998.

235
15 Hattersley Development Trust (1998) Working Towards a Brighter Future.
Manchester: Hattersley Development Trust.
16 Interview with Co-ordinator, Bury Resource Information and Advice
Network, Bury, September 1998.
17 Interview with IT Co-ordinator, Voluntary Organisation IT Link, Manchester,
August 1998.
18 Interview with Co-ordinator, Voluntary Action Manchester, Manchester,
July 1998.
19 Interview with Co-ordinator, Bury Resource Information and Advice
Network, Bury, September 1998.
20 Interview with Project Manager, 3D Centre, Bolton, September 1998.

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Chapter 7:

Case study three: Cross-sectoral community informatics partnerships in

Merseyside

7.1. Introduction

The previous two case studies have examined some ways in which the

community development process operates from the perspectives of local

authorities and community organisations themselves. These studies have

concentrated their analysis on the interrelationship between community

organisations, ICT-based community development initiatives and local

authorities. However, various wider questions regarding the further

relationship between these forces and non-public sector organisations have

arisen out of the research process.

Although public sector funding remains the largest area of financial support for

community and voluntary organisations, non-public sector support plays a

highly significant role in the field. Private companies continue to be key

players in certain areas of activity in the voluntary sector, ranging from small

grants for start up activities through to active involvement as partners in much

larger endeavours.

Many company givers continue to provide funding in traditional, philanthropic

ways, but new forms of interest in the voluntary sector have emerged. Some

companies are becoming involved in various forms of partnership with a

number of other private, public and semi-public agencies. The engagement of

237
companies such as BT in Hattersley community trust shows that this can be

stretched much widely than previously, as the mix between ‘corporate caring’

and public private partnership extends ever further.

This is nowhere more apparent than in Liverpool with the trade union

movement’s involvement in the bid to make Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative

Project (SNIP) the hub of local activities in the field of computer

resource/learning centres. Finally there are the organisations and agencies

that operate in a grey area between the public, the private and the voluntary.

These include the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), and external or

supranational funding bodies (mainly via the European Union). Most notable

among these is the National Lottery, which has rapidly become the most

important source of funding for the voluntary sector outside of central and local

government.

As outlined in Chapter 3, Government policy has been to actively encourage

the new public-private mix into ever wider areas, with an increasing

awareness that this must involve longer term strategic planning and funding

than has previously been the case. Non-governmental involvement in the

field extends further than the activities of private companies. Other forces are

at work here such as the trade unions, which in the atmosphere of the new

mix and the ideology of an end to exclusively public funding of the caring

professions, have come to play a greater part themselves in the third sector.

Taken together these developments seem to suggest that the forms of

governance relating to the community sector as a whole, and more specifically

to activities in the field of ICT, are changing in a number of ways. Most

saliently the erstwhile (never wholly complete) separation between public and

238
private forms of funding is beginning to break down, with increasing moves

towards ever greater degrees of co-operation. This is reflected at policy levels

across each sector, and in practice through various 'joined-up' bids for major

funding.

These factors come together all over the Britain in diverse ways, none more

interestingly than in Liverpool. In some contrast to Greater Manchester,

Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside area has a long history of

philanthropic giving by large private organisations, most prominently through

various wings of the seemingly omnipresent Moores family. These have

exerted influence over its direction over many years, both in terms of public

policy and social input. Historically, the various foundations and trusts of the

Moores family have come to represent the very epitome of traditional

paternalist philanthropy. This is especially true among the Catholic poor,

excluded until well into the 1950s from thoroughgoing representation at the

highest levels of local government. The social programmes and initiatives

carried through by local companies and trusts over the years have become an

important element in the mix between public and private financing of

community initiatives (Casson and Brown, 1996, p.177).

The election of predominantly Labour-controlled councils over the past four

decades has served to partly diminish the importance of this input, but a

powerful sense of the continuing role of the large private concerns remains

within the city. The more recent history of the local council’s position

regarding attitudes to mixed funding sources for social welfare spending also

differs significantly from cities such as Manchester. Where the latter early on

embraced the practice if not necessarily the ideology of diverse sources of

239
community development funding, Liverpool resisted such moves until late in

the 1980s after the demise of the local Militant-led city council. In many

respects the city has not yet achieved funding parity with Manchester and

others, although it is now moving towards partnership based projects in similar

ways to other local authorities.

These changes potentially involve shifts in direction for both public and private

funding organisations, with important consequences for local governance of

the community sector. The city provides an excellent research site for

examining both the ways in which non-public sector funding has traditionally

operated, and the strains put upon this process by recent moves towards a

formalisation and institutionalisation of cross sector operation.

7.2. Map of the study

A cross section of organisations have been visited and interviewed for the

study. The sample is intended to be indicative of the breadth of agencies

active in the funding process. Their remits can be broadly divided into three

main categories: funding providers; funding enablers; and funding recipients.

7.2.1. Funding providers

Three organisations falling into this category have been visited and

interviewed. They are the Littlewoods Organisation PLC, The John Moores

Foundation (JMF) and the National Lotteries Charities Board. Both

Littlewoods and JMF are wholly private organisations, and both are related to

the Moores family retailing and leisure empire.

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The Littlewoods Organisation makes charitable donations to a number of

organisations, and in addition donates sizeable amounts through a number of

other schemes. These include the Foundation for Sports and Arts and the

Football Trust. The company directs much of its charitable activities towards

Merseyside and the North West, and operates a Community Affairs

Department designed to further focus its community activities. Littlewoods

provides funding across a broad range of charitable areas, occasionally

including ICT-related projects. One major initiative has been the provision of

used computers to Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative Project (SNIP) for

recycling and distribution within the community sector.

The John Moores Foundation (JMF) was set up in 1963 to provide funds for

charitable purposes, mainly in Merseyside and Northern Ireland. Its major

aims are to support the alleviation of poverty through funding of non-statutory

disadvantaged and marginalised groups. The size of grants varies, but in

general about 75% of grants are £5,000 or less and about one third are

£1,000 or less (John Moores Foundation, 2005). Although ICT is not seen as

a priority area for funding, the JMF has also provided seedcorn financial and

infrastructural support to SNIP.

The National Lotteries Charities Board (NLCB) was a government

appointed committee responsible for spending money raised through the

national lottery. In formal terms it was a non-departmental public body, and the

largest all-purpose grant maker in Europe. As such it occupied an

intermediate position between publicly funded provision and that raised

through traditional charitable means. Its role was taken over firstly by the

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emergence of the Community Fund, which itself merged with the New

Opportunities Fund in 2004 to become the Big Lottery Fund.

The purpose of the NLCB was to meet the needs of those at greatest

disadvantage in society and ‘improve the quality of life of people and

communities who are affected by poverty and disadvantage’ (National Lottery

Charities Board, 1999, p.1), and it pursued these goals through a series of

funding programmes: Community Involvement; Poverty and Disadvantage;

International; Health and Social Research; and Small Grants. Together these

programs distributed around £285m in 1999 - when the case study field work

was undertaken - making the NLCB by far the largest single funder to

charitable organisation. Within Merseyside two ICT-related projects stand out

as examples of Lottery funding, the Bridge Community Education and Training

Resource Centre in Bootle (£162,720 grant) and SNIP in Sefton (£126,817

grant)[1].

7.2.2. Funding enablers

The middle ground between funding sources and recipients is occupied by a

variety of bodies and agencies that offer expertise and support in aiding the

process of obtaining grants. These range from large organisations

experienced in lobbying funders for grant-aid to whole regions, through to

individual consultants versed in the finer points of putting together funding

proposals. Together these actors function as conduits between the various

channels of influence and procedure that ultimately lead to whatever support

is available.

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For this study, three enablers have been visited and interviewed. Each of

these carries out the enabling function in distinct ways and at different levels.

They are: the Liverpool Council for Social Services (LCSS), an independent

lobbying organisation which co-ordinates many of the large charitable bids in

the city. The Chief Executive of LCSS is also head of the Liverpool Council for

Voluntary Services (LCVS); the Trade Union Resource Centre (TURC),

involved in both developing ICT skills for voluntary sector workers and active

as a partner in some major funding proposals; and Merseyside TEC (MTEC),

which operates primarily as a training provider, but also oversees a number of

local community development enabling organisations. These come under the

collective term 'community based economic development enterprises’

(CBEDs).

7.2.3. Funding recipients

Chapter 6 has examined the functioning of various grass roots organisations

in some detail. Within the Merseyside study, the main focus has been on the

channels through which funding finds its way through to individual projects.

However, within this framework it is useful to inquire into the end results of

such activities on the ground. For the purposes of this study, two projects

have been visited, the Switch IT centre in Netherton, and the Sefton

Neighbourhood Initiative Project (SNIP). Within Merseyside a number of non-

public sector resourcing strands have come together through the auspices of

SNIP. A short case study of the project, focusing upon its multiple sources of

funding, is included within the overall study.

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7.3. Company, trust and lottery profiles

Voluntary and community organisations can turn to numerous sources of

funding from outside of the public sector in their search for project support.

Merseyside, whilst being much smaller than Greater Manchester, has far more

large trusts, together with historically well established company giving

(Directory of Social Change, 1996). Standing outside of statutory guidelines

on where money should be directed, these organisations have scope to focus

their donations towards preferred areas of perceived need. Such decisions

are based on a variety of factors relating to the nature and activities of the

targeted third sector organisation.

7.3.1. Differing approaches to company giving

The John Moores Foundation, for example, sees the alleviation of poverty and

exclusion as its focus:

We tend to fund centres that are generally not resourced. Organisations

that find it difficult to get money from other sources[2].

These organisations range across the ethnic minorities, women’s groups and

persons with HIV/AIDS. However, one of the initial reasons for the

foundation’s concern over problems of marginalisation was rooted in the

perceived ‘exclusion of one section of the community on religious grounds’ in

Liverpool over many years[3]. This is highlighted by the interest of the JMF in

extensively supporting projects in Northern Ireland. Standing outside statutory

parameters has also allowed the trust to experiment in various ways, unlike

other organisations with a specific focus and programme. According to the

foundation’s co-ordinator:

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 We don’t have a “strategy” like local authorities. We have areas and
groups we are interested in. Once we provide support it is up to the
groups themselves how they address the issues in their community[4].

In respect of the freedom to target support in idiosyncratic ways, the

Foundation has occupied a similar position to company givers such as

Littlewoods. However, Littlewoods has taken a much more hard-headed

approach to the way it runs its charity-based activities. All charity support,

whether in kind or in cash, has emerged out of a calculation between the

benefits to the community and the public relations advantages gained by the

company. This is reflected in the company’s Community Affairs Department

objectives, which are:

To help achieve lasting improvement in the quality of life of the

communities our businesses serve, and in so doing:
- inspire and motivate our stakeholders – employees, shareholders,
customers and suppliers;
- build and sustain our corporate reputation, and add value to our
businesses[5].

The adoption of a focused Community Affairs Department headed by Comic

Relief’s ex-managing director has been an attempt to meet these objectives

through a series of tightly regimented activities. Building and sustaining the

corporate reputation has been pursued through slipping publicity opportunities

into every aspect of charitable work, something which has not always

achieved the desired effect:

Our PR and media opportunities are not at the moment getting a

proportional amount of actual media coverage, so we are looking at
ways of developing the whole programme. Results PR-wise are very
important as is the whole profile of the company[6].

This has contrasted sharply with the position of the John Moores Foundation:

We keep a low profile, almost working underground, whereas the

Littlewoods Organisation is different. They like to be seen giving big
cheques at photoshoots to show they care about the community. I think

245
 this is a general difference between foundations and companies. We
don’t tend to go for the high profile[7].

Thus the main reason for company giving can be seen as a form of

enlightened self-interest rather than pure altruism of charity, and companies

see their giving as ‘community involvement’ or ‘community investment’

(Smyth, 1998). Foundations, especially those endowed through personal or

family fortunes such as the JMF, tend to see themselves and be seen by

others as purely philanthropic. This conforms to a somewhat stereotypical

image of what ‘charity’ and the funding of the third sector as a whole is all

about.

7.3.2. The National Lottery

The arrival of the National Lottery on the scene has had a particularly

significant – though not necessarily negative - impact upon the previously self-

assured world of the trusts. To use a cricketing analogy, the players arrived

and the gentlemen were not quite sure what to make of them. The National

Lottery has in many ways represented the funding flip-side of the new

professionalisation now apparent in the third sector as a whole. The very

existence of the Lottery has raised a number of salient questions over the very

nature of public and private sector funding: how far have lottery funds

represented a de facto tax on poor communities where lottery participation is

most common? To what extent have lottery tickets been bought with funds

that would otherwise be given to charity? And how far have lottery funds been

given to things that would otherwise be funded by the government (for an

examination of some of these concerns see Siederer, 1996).

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The monies distributed through the National Lotteries Charity board have

added around a third to philanthropic giving[8], but also brought with them a

new emphasis on greater formality in the funding decision-making process.

Grant officers must ensure that applicants conform to a relatively lengthy and

complex set of criteria in order to be eligible for support:

We have set criteria by which we assess applications. There is a first

assessment process where we check eligibility for minimum applicability.
Then I have to go into more detail about any difficult questions arising.
Next there is a further assessment by telephone or a visit to the project.
I need to know about the management committee’s inclusive strategy,
any needs analysis, consultation processes, project beneficiaries and so
on. These standards are national[9].

In the early days of the Lottery these rigid standards were carried through in a

centralised and unwieldy fashion. Although the NLCB always operated its

grant-making activities through regional structures, the original Regional

Advisory Panels had little effect on policy issues, acting instead as vessels

through which money could pour based on national priorities. The introduction

of Regional Awards Committees in the late 1990s heralded a shift towards

greater autonomy of decision-making at the regional level[10]. The Board had

many of the features of a generalist independent charitable trust. In 1995

agreement was reached for the Board to join the Association of Charitable

Foundations, as the ACF acknowledged that alone among the six Lottery

distributors, the NLCB had sufficient de facto independence to meet the

Association’s criteria (Siederer, 1996, pp.124-5).

7.4. The growth of partnership

The ability of the Lottery to provide large scale grants supporting the general

infrastructure of the third sector, can be seen as freeing the hands of the

247
smaller trusts to pursue their own more narrowly defined priorities with greater

focus. It has also opened up new avenues for joint activities – or more usually

unintended providential crossovers. None of the funding organisations spoken

to see shared activities as a central or even necessarily beneficial goal. In

practice however, especially since the emergence of the lottery, organisations

have continually been finding instances of convergence as third sector

organisations have become more adept at pinpointing the pressure pads that

open different doors to funding.

7.4.1. Partnership issues and problems

This does not mean that the input of the funding organisations has been at all

similar either in form or substance. The John Moores Foundation has taken a

pragmatic view:

We don’t have a formal relationship with other funders. We look for the
best way of helping and sometimes it just happens, but not consciously.
We try and build networks for the organisations themselves. We will
suggest best practice and offer advice and suggestions, but we may not
be able to give the money for those things. In that situation they will
move on to someone that can[11].

As well as giving relatively small grants for project work, the foundation has

extended organisational advice in a bid to foster long term sustainability:

We offer support in recording, book-keeping and developing a focus…

We look at ways of them building up their strengths and lessening their
weaknesses. We don’t want to create a culture of dependence on
us[12].

For many organisations, the small seedcorn money often offered by

foundations is welcome, but not sufficient to sustain long-term survival. The

NLCB, with its ability to confer six figure awards, has been seen as a way of

gaining core revenues of sufficient value to extend activities over the medium

and long term. However, even here with the safeguards demanded from

248
organisations by the Lottery, the emphasis has been on ‘monitoring not

managing. Organisations must demonstrate their ability to sustain

themselves. We don’t want to be sat there on the management

committee’[13]. The Lottery has moved towards a position where some loose

relationships have been built with other funding bodies. Although the Board

has previously liased and consulted at a corporate level with other agencies,

its ability to provide 100% funding for projects has steered it away from joint

initiatives. This has been based more on a perceived prudent use of

resources than any deep-seated opposition to the idea:

The Lottery Act would allow us to start to solicit bids, but we have not
chosen to do so as yet. We are just making the best use of money. We
have one development officer in each region, and this would be too
much at the moment. But if others wanted the Lottery as a member of
an initiative this would not be precluded[14].

Since setting up the Community Affairs Department, the Littlewoods

Organisation has felt that it has ‘moved on from cheque book philanthropy to

active work with the community’[15]. The company argues that this shift

highlights an already clear distinction from the work of trusts, which tend more

towards passing on money without making longer term commitments. The

majority of budget and resources have been committed to a programme built

around the core theme of ‘regeneration’[16]. Within this programme specific

themes such as education, the encouragement of enterprise, and

environmental activities have been pursued in conjunction with the local

community. Many of the projects set up, such as the adoption for support of

two ‘named and shamed’ schools in Liverpool, have been seen as open-

ended by the company[17].

As always this is a two way process, where the company has offered real

long-term support while expecting a number of pay-offs in return:

249
 We provide employee support, business support and financial support.
We ask them what they want, but give further support in planning and
setting objectives. There isn’t any great publicity yet, it’s all very drip-
drip[18].

The combination of corporate ‘adoption’ and warm reflective publicity glows

reflect a growing Americanisation of the strategies of large companies in

relation to the community sector. While real money has been pumped in, the

watchword has often been ‘investment’ rather than philanthropy. This has

been mirrored by the promotion of the company as a responsible corporate

citizen through participation in ’Liverpool Vision’, an umbrella organisation

promoting an overwhelmingly corporate vision of the future of Liverpool.

7.5. Roles and functions of enablers

Added to the multiplicity of funding sources available outside of the traditional

public sector, are a number of intermediate organisations intent on playing

their own part in channelling support through to the voluntary and community

sector. Together these disparate actors have made up a sometimes effective

body of advocates for third sector provision. The division of labour which has

developed has not altogether been a conscious nor an organised

phenomenon. Overlapping campaigns for funding have happily co-existed

with glaring gaps in activity.

Within the Merseyside area various players have been active in helping garner

support for initiatives such as the bid to establish a Merseyside Third Sector

Technology Centre (3tc). The bid is discussed below. These have ranged

from independent consultants through to regional corporate and local authority

250
partnerships. Two organisations which have acted in different ways as

enablers have been spoken to during this study. They are the Merseyside

Community Branch of the MSF trade union, and Merseyside Training and

Enterprise Council (MTEC).

7.5.1 Trade union involvement

At a local level MSF (now part of the Amicus trade union) has around 1,400

members within its Community Branch, drawn primarily from voluntary sector

workers. The union has become more active in training and development

issues through the auspices of the Trade Union Learning Fund initiative set up

by the government in early 1998. MSF has seen the fund as an opportunity to

diversify its activities into new areas of activity, using the money available to

support workplace bargaining within the voluntary sector. The union has tied

up this work with other actions, some of which are ICT related.

One bid has been for ‘University For Industry’ funding, developing sectoral

learning hubs and centres around the region, and supporting members in

developing new training opportunities[19]. This proposal has been developed

primarily for voluntary sector workers rather than for industry as a whole within

the region. MSF has also been involved in the 3tc bid, primarily through its

interest in developing training opportunities within the third sector. At the time

of the proposal, the union admitted to a degree of self-interest in its

involvement:

If the 3tc bid doesn't come through, it won't mean that our strategy falls
to pieces, but it will certainly leave a big dent in it. We make no bones
about it. It's in our interest for this thing to happen[20].

It is significant that the two areas of greatest involvement by MSF within the

voluntary sector have both been ICT related. The union has seen training and

251
skills in this area as crucial to the future prospects of its members, arguing that

an active trade union input to the process of ICT development is of paramount

importance. This should help guarantee that questions of rights and wider

social concerns are not pushed to one side as the situation develops. As the

branch secretary argues, 'at the end of the day a skilled and empowered

workforce is what we want'[21]. The union is also philosophic about its

involvement in partnerships with various other types of organisation:

In the voluntary sector we collide with funding from a variety of streams.

They're local, national, and European. Charities, then individuals and
companies. They may be philanthropic, but not always towards their own
workers. It is also true that the third sector is not always the greatest of
employers. They say "we don't need trade unions, we are nice
people"[22].

The trade union movement in Liverpool has always viewed the question of

philanthropy as a double edged sword. Citing Liverpool as the last large

English city to move from Conservative (specifically Unionist) control, local

officials argue that this has had a hangover effect for the voluntary sector.

The sector is very developed, but so is the whole religious thing -

Catholic and Anglican. Trade Unions are one of the few areas that
working people have some control - if imperfectly…However, our record
of having stopped single-minded governments doing their thing is poor.
So we have looked at the situation, and have got involved with the
private sector. They are involved, but not always for the best reasons. In
this city some of the biggest philanthropists of the lot were
slaveowners[23].

In practical terms this has translated into an ongoing reappraisal of the actual

ways in which the partnerships work:

The important thing is not to let the philanthropists dictate how

everything is run and used. You have to be clear when taking money or
goods what they want you to do with it. Take the Moores, you can't get
money out of them for the workers. However, it has to be said that SNIP
wouldn't happen if Littlewoods hadn't given them the computers[24].

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7.5.2. The Merseyside Training and Enterprise Council (MTEC)

The national TEC network was set up in 1990-1 as the successor to the

Manpower Services Commission. The arrival of the TECs was designed as a

semi-privatisation of the national training scene in the UK across a range of

industrial sectors. TECs have acted as independent training facilitators with

annually negotiated contractual obligations to central government for putting

agreed objectives into practice. Since the case study interviews took place,

they have been subsumed into a new government initiative, the Learning and

Skills Council, in 2001. The move has been seen as bringing TECs back more

closely under Whitehall control:

We naively thought we could stand alone and be independent, but

obviously we are not. Legally we are a kind of quango, but at the mercy
of the government[25].

On a local basis the 'Operations' side of the TEC has contracted with various

local authorities, colleges and other bodies to facilitate training delivery in the

area, covering the Liverpool Sefton and Knowsley local authority areas.

Programmes have included various single regeneration budget (SRB)

activities, together with the establishment of a number of Community Based

Economic Development (CBED) enterprises. These CBEDs have operated as

focuses for training and regeneration in locales around the region[26]. They

have also provided drop-in facilities for local residents, including in a number

of cases various levels of ICT support.

In addition to its Operations side, MTEC has also operated a number of

specialist support teams, aiming not to provide training but the mechanisms to

make sure that training on the ground can be delivered effectively and

efficiently. These teams, which have included 'Investors in People', 'Business

Education Partnerships' and an Education team, vet training suppliers for best

253
practice and help put funding mechanisms in place. MTEC has had a major

ICT related involvement with the voluntary sector through its role as a partner

in the 3tc bid.

7.6. Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative Project (SNIP)

The Sefton Neighbourhood Initiative Project (SNIP) has provided a good

example of a thriving ICT-based community-led project in the region, although

other IT centres, such as the SWITCH centre in Netherton, have been

conducting community based ICT work on an ongoing basis. Perhaps

because of its rarity value, just about all of the funding and enabling agencies

spoken to in the course of this study have had varying degrees of input into

SNIP's activities since its formation in 1991 as an independent print facility for

the voluntary sector in Sefton.

7.6.1. Background to the project

In April 1999 as lead partner in the Merseyside Third Sector Technology

Centre, SNIP submitted a Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) bid for £4.5m in

an attempt to shift its work onto a higher plane and become the central hub for

a huge expansion of ICT utilisation by the third sector in Merseyside[27]. The

bid was not accepted in April, but was successfully resubmitted in the

November 1999 funding round.

The £4.5m SRB input has been supplemented by around £3m from the private

sector (£1.5m in kind and £1.5m cash generation) and £2.5m from other public

sector funds. The overall budget to deliver the project is now in excess of

254
£14m (3tc, 2005a), with around fifty people employed. At the time of the

second bid project workers felt that the extra time may have been a blessing in

disguise:

We failed in April, but it has raised the our whole profile. We have
redrafted the bid and it is now even better. I think they were concerned
about our ability to handle such a large expansion, but we have now
sorted out the sections on management systems and financial systems,
and are determined to get it in the next round[28].

7.6.2. Funding history

Support from trusts played a pivotal role in the survival of the centre in its early

days, with the Barings Foundation, the Tudor Trust and the J.P. Getty

Foundation all providing small grants in the absence of local council funding.

The project co-ordinator explains:

This wasn’t a cuddly project. We weren’t providing people in dire need

with services. So the trusts were very good to us. The council gave us
£5,000 in the second year, but they still had their resources unit up and
running and wouldn’t have dropped that for us. There was also a lot of
politics going on around these issues at the time, some of it a bit
personal[29].

The John Moores Foundation came in with funding in 1994/5 and carried on

supporting the project up to and including the provision of money for co-

ordinating the passage of the SRB bid. Despite the project’s success, though,

accessing trust funding has proved a difficult process, and is also seen as a

transitory stage in the long-term development of SNIP:

It is a nightmare getting funding for the voluntary sector. We wouldn’t

exist if it weren’t for trusts, but every funder employs different criteria.
We have been lucky, but no-one funds anything for too long. Once we
have been funded we go back to people, but then get letters saying they
won’t fund again. Also some of the criteria are not written down, so it is
all very hit and miss[30].

The problems have persisted even when direct contact has been made:

We have to phone round the trusts to find out the score, and that can be
disheartening. Most trustees are middle-class, middle-aged men, and
the difference between them and us can be off-putting. A lot of the

255
 funding is down to personal whims and – OK, it is their money – but lots
don’t comply with charity law[31].

A key breakthrough came in 1996 with a successful bid to the National Lottery

which recognised the validity of SNIP’s aspirations to provide software training

opportunities for local groups. Six months into this programme matched

funding arrived in the form of a successful European Social Fund (ESF) grant.

Since then, Lottery funding has been an almost permanent feature. This

allowed the extension of the computer support and recycling project, one of

the cornerstones of the SRB proposal. The project has acknowledged the

significance of Lottery money in creating stability, saying;

The Lottery is very, very important to us. It is one of the few trusts that
recognises the value of infrastructural stuff. That runs through its view of
everything. If you meet their criteria – which is written down and can be
followed – then you get the funding. So it is not a case of personal
relationships or pet themes[32].

The transparency of criteria and the professional nature of the relationship

between funder and recipient make medium and long term planning a realistic

goal:

The Lottery is completely geared up to administering money in a proper

manner. You never get that system with the trusts. Trust money is nice,
but for the core costs it is a nightmare. Basically they don’t have the
depths of reserves[33].

Financial muscle is at the heart of the question. Resources are finite even for

the Lottery, but for organisations such as the JMF with well under £1m per

annum to hand out, the provision of core costs year on year is simply not an

option.

7.6.3. The 3tc bid

Since its inception, SNIP has built year on year on its relationship with the

local third sector. It has moved on from providing just a basic print and design

256
facility towards playing an ever greater role as a resource and co-ordinating

focus for a range of ICT activities. The central thrust of the 3tc proposal was

to build upon this role further, becoming the hub of a strategic effort to engage

the whole of the local third sector in an upsurge of ICT awareness and use. In

2002 SNIP changed its name to Merseyside Third Sector Technology Centre

(3tc). This was a visible reflection of its ability to provide a wider range of

services to groups and communities across Merseyside.

Building on an identified lack of ICT skills and usage, 3tc has aimed to provide

a full cycle of support to local organisations. This begins with accessing and

refurbishing PCs, then distributing them at low cost across the sector. Further

value has been added through the provision of technical support, training and

an ongoing central service for information management and applications

development. In addition to these has been the establishment of a multimedia

and community-ICT resource centre (3tc, 2005a).

The bid has closely tracked the main strategic objectives (SO) of the SRB

programme, which are to: Enhance the employment prospects, education and

skills of local people (SO1); Address social exclusion and enhance

opportunities for the disadvantaged (SO2); Promote sustainable regeneration,

improving and protecting the environment and infrastructure (SO3); Support

and promote economic growth in local economies and businesses (SO4) (3tc,

2005). Within these general areas a number of more detailed ICT-related

SRB ‘Scheme Objectives’ have been addressed by the consortium. These

freely mix the language of partnership, social inclusion and community needs

with terms such as workforce upskilling and commercial development. As

such 3tc has intimately equated the pursuit of ‘social inclusion’ with skills,

257
training and employment issues. For the SNIP management team, though, a

wider concern with issues of empowerment and social justice have remained

major driving forces in the work of the project:

The community sector in Merseyside is massive; there are over 5,000

organisations. What I want to do is get out to them then let them put
their knowledge to use however they feel best. They are the ones on
the ground, seeing problems every day. It’s not just about jobs, it’s
about people[34].

As such the establishment of twenty-four content-led communications

networks, and much improved access to electronic information services have

been seen as crucial to the overall balance of 3tc.

7.6.4. The 3tc partnership

As mentioned, SNIP have acted as lead partner throughout the 3tc project.

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council acted as the accountable body for the

initial project bid, providing operational support and premises, and co-

ordinating liaison with other local councils on Merseyside. The lukewarm

response of the local council to earlier activities of SNIP has been overtaken

by a more supportive attitude towards the project's activities.

This has come about partly through a recognition that SNIP has the potential

to bring in a large amount of resources to the local area. Beyond this though it

seems that the increasing professionalism of the project has played a part in

the change of view. This is demonstrated by the increasingly strong network

being forged with the private sector and other areas of the local third sector.

SNIP has never professed to follow a particularly radical social agenda. Its

aims and objectives have fallen well within the ambit of the new vocationalism

promoted by successive governments. Nevertheless the shift from

troublesome outsider to local figurehead has come about precisely because

258
the organisation has had to adopt a formalised and consciously inclusive

approach to its relations with the private sector.

Amongst other things, the success of the 3tc bid was initially posited on an

ongoing relationship with the Littlewoods Organisation, who have supplied

computer hardware for refurbishment. Littlewoods were not named as an

actual partner in the 3tc development. The full partners have included a range

of public, semi-public and education organisations, together with a variety of

voluntary sector umbrella groups, mainly Councils for Voluntary Services (for a

full list of current sponsors, see 3tc, 2005). In addition the MSF trade union

and the Merseyside Network for Europe, a coalition of public and private

organisations aiming to bring inward investment to the region, are signatories.

Within the partnership, all roads have tended to lead to the main partner SNIP.

The Project has independently set up and managed its relationships with local

businesses, foundations and other third sector agencies. As its activities have

increased, for example through the Lottery bid, this has necessitated a more

organised approach to networking, with independent consultants providing

some support in attending to the question of increased formalisation. With the

need to bring a consortium together for the SRB proposal, this consultancy

work has been added to with a private consultant carrying out much of the

initial groundwork research.

The flexible approach to building broad cross-sectoral coalitions which has

existed within local authorities such as the City of Manchester, seems to have

been duplicated in Liverpool by elements from outside of the formal structures

of governance. Local authority involvement in Sefton has been an exercise in

259
catching up with a changing situation rather than attempting to play a

proactive leadership role from an early stage.

The experience of SNIP has shown that community organisations can

successfully exist as a focal point for the coming together of disparate actors

across the public and private sectors. Its flexible approach to the question of

partnership has made it a forerunner in the area and one of the largest

beneficiaries of European social and regeneration funding nationally. In some

ways, the very tardiness of the local political culture in the early adoption of

community-based ICT activity, has allowed 3tc to jump forward to a position

where the very latest technologies have been made available in an integrated

manner.

Central to funding being obtained have been a variety of new flexible

arrangements and the involvement of private firms. These companies tend to

come into the partnerships with their own agendas and on their own terms.

Indeed many of the conditions of entry have been specifically designed to be

appealing to the private sector in order to facilitate this involvement. However,

even in this situation elements of public sector funding and organisation, and

an overarching public sector ethos have remained central to the process of

implementation. The final outcome, in terms of the 3tc centre, has been

remarkably similar in function to comparable CRCs examined in the previous

chapter. This indicates that the CRC model outlined in Chapter 3 holds up

well in practical terms.

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7.7. Discussion

The recent generation of new forms of public/private partnership in Liverpool

and Merseyside seems to demonstrate a tangible shift in attitudes from those

current until the late 1990s. A fairly strict separation of public and private input

into the third sector has been replaced by a greater emphasis on working

towards a greater degree of co-operation. The lack of a vibrant, ICT-based,

third sector groundswell of activity in the earlier period is indicative of both the

low levels of available external support, and the unpreparedness of the sector

in its response to prevailing conditions. The projects that did emerge in the

first half of the decade, such as SNIP, were reliant - as today - on funding from

various differentiated sources. Trusts, companies, the local council and

independent revenue gathering all played a part in helping to get activity off

the ground.

7.7.1. The tendency towards piecemeal funding

The real problem for early growth was that at each stage and from each

funding source, the level of support was wholly inadequate. National and local

policy at this time was moving rapidly towards recognising the importance of

ICT-based resource centres for the community sector. However, this was not

implemented in a co-ordinated fashion across the country as a whole. Even in

regional terms a clear distinction can be seen between the experience of

Greater Manchester and the Merseyside area. With the absence of centrally

co-ordinated sources of large scale funding, areas such as the City of

Manchester drew upon their wider ranging experience of locating funds from

various sources and bringing them into new projects. As has been seen this

261
piecemeal approach, though often effective, has resulted in the generation of

a multiplicity of forms for organisations that fulfil the same core functions.

In comparison this process seems to have involved a time lag of at least two

or three years with regard to Merseyside. So, one major problem for the

growth of ICT-related activity has been linked less with the technology itself

than the core ability to effectively access funding in a flexible manner. The

growth of cross sector partnership through forums such as Liverpool Vision or

the Merseyside Network for Europe can be seen as a response to this

problem. However, there has been a great contrast between the top heavy

corporate nature of these bodies and the more flexible, informal and - at least

ostensibly - democratic nature of such organisations as the Hattersley

Development Trust seen in Case Study 2.

It is the very informality and looseness of HDT which has allowed it to make

such a difference in a specific deprived geographic location, while other

Liverpool-based partnerships search for corporate flagship masts to pin their

colours to. The experience of 3tc however can be seen as challenging and

ultimately overcoming some of these problems. So, it can be argued that

even while accepting that a new situation is in place regarding the nature and

scope of community sector support, traditional ways of working have died

hard.

This is not necessarily a consequence of the opening up of altogether new

sources of funding. The 3tc proposal was bidding for mainly public sector

money from the UK government. The real differences have been the

partnership arrangements necessarily in place prior to the granting of funds.

262
Because these new forms of requirement have been largely based on

reaching commonality with those in place from other funding sources, such as

the European Union and the National Lottery, then those partnerships that

conform to the new orthodoxy have been more likely to receive support

generally.

7.7.2. The institutionalisation of flexible funding

The shift in national policy emphasis referred to earlier, towards greater

support for funding ICT projects within the community sector, has become

increasingly embedded over recent years. Although an added impetus has

been provided by a Labour government committed to tackling the problem of

'social exclusion' over the accessing and use of ICT, the process of

introducing ever more flexible funding mechanisms essentially forms part of a

continuum. It may be argued that this path has now been trodden to the point

where a period of transition from more traditional forms of funding has given

way to a new institutionalisation of flexible funding forms. At their heart, these

involve a conscious sweeping away of any idea that an inherent antagonism

exists between public and private funding sources.

This new (in its current form) ideology is generic across sectors, but seems to

have particular salience with the rise of information technology as the world's

newest and largest mass industrial sector. A note of caution is necessary

regarding the perceived level of direct private funding into ICT-based

community projects. By far the greatest amount of direct cash funding is still

received from public or at least semi-public bodies. National and local

government, the National Lottery and supranational bodies such as the EU still

make up the bulk of direct support. However, this is supplemented - often as

263
a contractual requirement before funding becomes available - by support in

kind (or cash) from the private sector. These mechanisms can open the door

for large scale expansion by third sector organisations, but also invariably help

rein in aspirations and policies towards the communities served.

This ‘squeeze to the centre’ has been described in Chapter 5 and can be seen

as representing the emergence of a new codification of the acceptable

elements of officially sanctioned community development. Unlike the

community development movement of the 1970s, which was capable of being

stretched to encompass various forms of community action, the current search

for social inclusion explicitly excludes 'dangerous radicalism' from the funding

mainstream. The resulting paradox is that flexible forms of funding

accompanied by diverse groups of funding recipients, is increasingly leading

to relatively uniform types of activity on the ground. One underpinning force in

driving the direction of this lack of functional diversity has been the emergence

of a 'new vocationalism', aimed at tackling exclusion through equipping people

for the labour market. Individual skills and training for work are rapidly

replacing collective social awareness and action as the foci of community

development activity.

The sector is rapidly becoming more formalised and thus increasingly open to

regulation and co-option into more 'manageable' structures. The introduction

of rigorous contractual requirements, competence appraisals and exit

strategies are leading to greater professionalism, or more to the point

managerialism. They may also help bring in a higher level of ICT expertise.

Ultimately though these are often gained (if indeed more managerialism is a

264
gain) at the expense of some autonomy in the fields of policy making and

action.

7.7.3. Tensions of transition

New ‘third way’ arrangements find themselves sitting uneasily with the

basically ‘Old Labour’ working-class attitudes of some of those putting

together the new partnerships. The ghost of Militant left-labourism may have

been exorcised, but traditionalist right-wing labour sits uneasily at the focus

group table. Smoke filled rooms, oak tables and 1970s corporatist ideals still

abound within organisations such as the Liverpool Council for Social Services.

The resignation of 'Mr. Liverpool' Peter Kilfoyle from the first Blair government,

although unrelated to ICT issues, serves as an illustration of the general

attitude amongst movers and shakers in the city. As an old style right-winger

Kilfoyle was instrumental in removing Militant from power in the local Labour

Party, but found himself unable to stomach the government's 'middle class'

ideas about gay equality. In the ICT and community fields, a parallel failure to

understand the nature of recent shifts has held back the city's attempts to

implement change over the last decade. The 'dual information economy'

identified within the City of Manchester in Case Study 1, is only now emerging

in Liverpool - and in a very idiosyncratic fashion.

Trusts and private companies in the city also generally approach the new

arrangements with a cautious eye. Although the John Moores Foundation

helped fund the development plans for the 3tc bid, it is notable by its absence

as a partner in the proposal. The Foundation still prefers to keep a low profile

in its activities, and to direct these towards its traditional project-based

concerns. Littlewoods too, although involved in the Merseyside Network for

265
Europe, is not a signatory. Companies and foundations continue to insist

upon entering into joint action on their own terms. This is set to continue.

Foundations hold their own constitutions and funding bases which are not

usually subject to outside pressure, while large companies prefer to pursue

their own agendas which may or may not coincide with community partnership

concerns. In Liverpool, this is especially so given the longstanding

involvement in philanthropic activity of companies such as Littlewoods, and

their relative power in public affairs compared to the private sector in cities

such as Manchester.

The practice of public-private partnership has become current within initiatives

across the community sector as a whole. The types of partnership examined

in these case studies are duplicated across various community fields, often

based around the themes of regeneration and development. However there

are a number of features in this process which may be seen as particularly

salient with regard to ICT-related projects. As community development

generally has become progressively more linked with vocational and training

issues, various vehicles for turning policies into real outcomes have been

sought after.

The coincidence of the exponential rise in ICT capabilities with a new state-led

agenda in these areas has made the new technologies ideal candidates to

focus upon. In Liverpool, as in many other areas of the country the community

sector lags behind other areas in its use of the new technologies. This is

partly due to simple cost factors, but also to the very labour intensive and

interpersonal nature of much community-based work.

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Companies, local authorities and even academic institutions simply can not

afford to be left behind when it came to the adoption of these tools, whereas

most community groups have been able to soldier on despite everything. The

limited amounts of money available have been perceived as being able to be

put to more effective use elsewhere, especially by smaller community groups,

although the increasing pervasiveness of the technology is affecting this

perception. It is no accident that the current sea change in new technology

available to the community sector has often taken the form of umbrella-type

resource centres. These are mainly used by smaller groups within inadequate

financial and physical resources of their own. Many of the larger national

charities have sophisticated ICT programmes in place already, although more

often than not as administrative systems rather than as tools for innovative

service delivery. To set up an effective resource infrastructure for the

community sector in any given place requires a degree of financial and

logistical back up, together with technical knowledge. Even the smallest scale

ventures cost significant amounts of money, not always forthcoming through

local sources alone.

As we have seen, the rise of ICT has also coincided with and mirrored 'flexible'

forms of fundraising. This relationship has been noted by commentators in

society at large, in areas as diverse as the labour process and globalisation of

the media. ICT is itself an inherently flexible tool and acts as an enabler for

new forms of working and communicating. It is, however, a site of contention,

in the community sector as much as anywhere else. The growth of private

influence and input within bids and proposals for ICT-based community

funding is one area where the ideological debate is taking place, and there

seems no inherent reason why private sector influence should be greater here

267
than in, say, the provision of long term care for the elderly. Except, that is,

because the provision of computer learning centres has become a key policy

goal for national government.

Information capability, the emergence of the knowledge society and economic

regeneration are increasingly seen by policy makers at all levels as perfect

bedfellows. Computer learning centres can play a dual role as resource bases

for local community organisations, and another cog in the vocational wheel.

The importance of the former element should not be underestimated. 3tc

provides sections of the community sector on Merseyside the level of support

and advice already afforded by many Greater Manchester boroughs.

7.7.4. The shifting focus of community development

Community development in Liverpool clearly has a quite distinct history and

trajectory from Manchester and even Greater Manchester. To a large extent

this is due to the historically greater influence of private sector and charitable

funding in the community sector within the city. While local conditions have

created a whole different set of problems, they also point to potentially

divergent ways forward. However, there are still a number of similar general

problems and trends that apply across all the sets of circumstances making up

the three case studies.

The National Lottery, for example, has played a significant role here and

elsewhere in transforming the landscape of community development as a

whole, and this also applies to some extent to ICT-related activity. Its funding

arm has come to recognise the importance of the regional level as a site for

the implementation of policy. To some extent it has moved to tailor its

268
activities to the specifics of the funding situations extant in different places. So

in Liverpool for example, it has struck up relationships – although generally

arms length rather than intimate ones – with some of the major charitable

players, such as the John Moores Foundation. This has allowed itself and

them to play to their respective strengths.

The Merseyside experience strongly illustrates the link between new funding

regimes and the emergence of a new vocationalism within community

development. Evidence gathered shows that many community-based ICT

initiatives have become more favoured within funding circles as they have

taken on the role of training and retraining for the restructured labour market.

Funding proposals have in turn taken on many of the imperatives of this

restructuring process, and this has resulted in recent years in an increased

interest being shown from various grant-making bodies. Most of these funders

emanate primarily from the public or quasi-public sector, including the Lottery,

TECs and local public-private development bodies.

7.7.5. Institutionalisation and the incorporation of the third sector

Those projects gaining funding support invariably encompass some social

element within their activities. This is in line, for example, with all European

funded programmes of this type since the introduction of the Social Chapter.

However, the core premises for making more money available are becoming

the degree to which economic development, retraining and general vocational

imperatives are addressed. Perhaps surprisingly in contrast, the trust and

foundation sector is still able to carry on more traditional and independently-

minded funding of projects on purely social bases. These often concentrate on

unpopular or difficult issues, sometimes identified by trusts as in need of

269
support for precisely those reasons (see for example John Moores

Foundation, 2005). As a slice of the overall funding cake though, this

influence is waning and the key trend is the inexorable tendency towards

activities with a high degree of vocational content.

These developments are quickening the trend towards a greater level of

institutionalisation of the funding and operation of what is supposed to be a

relatively autonomous grassroots community movement. There is an

increasing involvement of various players from both the private and public

sectors, who are coming together with similar aims and agendas for the

sector. This is leading to a new incorporation of various agencies into the

heart of the system. Again, as in other areas such as Manchester, this is

resulting in a more restrictive environment for those wishing to access funding.

Such a shift can be seen as part of the wider tendency towards the rise of a

safe centre-ground for community development, with new capital-led

imperatives at its heart. Differences do exist among the major players in this

development, who include major companies, economic development bodies

and even trade unions. However, these are increasingly driven to the margins

as economic development and training issues come to the forefront.

On one level, the consequence of these changes has been to inject a greater

degree of stability into ICT-related community development activities.

However, this is potentially at the cost of independent action. There is an

increasing professionalism taking place among third sector organisations at

the umbrella level of the CRC. This is being accompanied by a greater

270
degree of incorporation into official structures concerned with training and

economic development.

7.7.6. The increasing formalisation of funding relationships

The more groups such as SNIP tie themselves in with long-term funding on a

large scale, the greater and more complex the links between various levels in

the system become. Community groups are finding it almost impossible to

extricate themselves from complex and increasingly formalised alliances if

they are to survive, as organisational bases are transformed and perpetuating

reliances develop. For some organisations, the uncertainty of short-term

project funding (which itself usually carries certain caveats of responsibility) is

being replaced to a certain degree with greater stability and certainty.

However this is almost always at the expense of independence of

organisational thought and action.

Project funding creates a sort of ‘jobbing’ culture, where organisations access

different sources of money on a short or medium term basis, and enter

mutable alliances to do so. When the job is done, or more often when the

money runs out, they move on the to next project. Although this situation is

unsatisfactory there is a level at which choices are being made and some

degree of independence retained. This is not to say that fairly rigid criteria are

not applied when entering into project funding. However, organisations can

often undertake other, usually more adventurous activities at the fringe of the

main contracts, due mainly to the looseness of the structures. Once an

organisation is tied into long-term relationships with actors across both public

and private sectors, institutionalisation can create a culture where the bidding

of the those with greater size and influence is carried out all the time.

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In conclusion, it can be seen that the ways in which the private sector in

Merseyside approaches the third sector has changed considerably over recent

years. Old style philanthropy with its informality and personal relationships, is

giving way to corporate teams intent on professionalising the sector, directing

flows of funding in and out and developing partnerships with public sector

sources of cash. To some degree the lowest and most menial training and

reskilling ICT-related tasks are contracted out in all but name to the third

sector. At the same time parts of that sector are being tied to a greater extent

than ever before into formalised and contractualised situations.

Notes

1 Interview with Grants Officer (Lancashire), National Lottery Charities

Board, Warrington, February 2000.
2 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
3 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
4 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
5 Littlewoods Organisation (1999) Internal Community Affairs Department
‘Mission Statement’.
6 Interview with Development Manager, Littlewoods Community Affairs
Department, Liverpool, August 1999.
7 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
8 Interview with Director, FunderFinder Ltd, Leeds, April 1999.
9
10 Interview with Director, FunderFinder Ltd, Leeds, April 1999.
11 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
12 Interview with Project Manager, John Moores Foundation, Liverpool, June
1999.
13 Interview with Grants Officer (Lancashire), National Lottery Charities
Board, Warrington, February 2000.
14 Interview with Grants Officer (Lancashire), National Lottery Charities
Board, Warrington, February 2000.
15 Interview with Development Manager, Littlewoods Community Affairs
Department, Liverpool, August 1999.

272
16 The Littlewoods Organisation (1999) A Summary of our Community Affairs
Programme. Liverpool: The Littlewoods Organisation.
17 The Littlewoods Organisation (1999) Charitable Grants Made, May 1998-
April 1999. Liverpool: The Littlewoods Organisation.
18 Interview with Development Manager, Littlewoods Community Affairs
Department, Liverpool, August 1999.
19 Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (1997) Union Learning Fund
Application. Liverpool: MSF.
20 Interview with Branch Secretary, Manufacturing Services and Finance
Trade Union, Liverpool, August 1999.
21 Interview with Branch Secretary, Manufacturing Services and Finance
Trade Union, Liverpool, August 1999.
22 Interview with Branch Secretary, Manufacturing Services and Finance
Trade Union, Liverpool, August 1999.
23 Interview with Branch Secretary, Manufacturing Services and Finance
Trade Union, Liverpool, August 1999.
24 Interview with Branch Secretary, Manufacturing Services and Finance
Trade Union, Liverpool, August 1999.
25 Interview with Policy Development Officer, Merseyside Training and
Enterprise Council, Liverpool, January 2000.
26 Merseyside Training and Enterprise Council (1999) Merseyside TEC
Community Development Agenda – Report on progress of activities up to
January 1999. Liverpool: MTEC.
27 Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project (1999) The 3TC Partnership
SRB Challenge Fund Submission April 1999. Liverpool: SNIP
28 Interview with Project Officer, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
29 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
30 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
31 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
32 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
33 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.
34 Interview with Co-ordinator, Sefton Neighbourhood Information Project,
Sefton, June 1999.

273
Chapter 8:

Information and communications technology and community

development: a critique of the policy process

8.1. Introduction

Chapters 1 to 3 were concerned with building an overall picture of the policy

and structural shifts that have taken place within community information and

community development since the late 1960s. These were placed in the

context of broader transformations affecting the nature of welfare states in an

era of increasing globalisation. It was shown that these movements have had

an enormous impact on the nature of governance at every level from the local

through to the supranational.

This was followed in Chapters 5 to 7 by a detailed empirical examination of the

ways in which change has been taking place on the ground within the sector.

As indicated earlier, a gap exists between broad studies of the economic,

social and technological reproduction of capitalism, and more human agency-

based considerations of specific activities around community informatics. This

thesis begins to bridge that gap. The case study process has allowed for the

emergence of a richer understanding of some of the specific local policy

processes within the wider account of change.

A number of key issues for further debate arise out of this evidence. These

will again be presented here at two discrete – but still interlinked - levels.

Chapter 8 focuses on the practical and policy related level of ICT and

community development. It concentrates on a discussion of some salient

274
problems emerging at the level of local and national policy making. Six central

themes have been identified for further discussion. These have emerged out

of the case study process as key policy areas within the community-ICT field.

As has been seen earlier, previous studies (for example, National Working

Party on Social Inclusion, 1997; Shearman, 1999; Policy Action Team 15,

2000; Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004) take the levels of national and local policy

as a focus for discussion. This chapter contributes to that debate through

relating the empirical findings of the case studies to the broader questions

explored in these and other reports.

The areas discussed are: The increasing convergence of funding

environments around community-ICT development; the emergence of a

nationwide physical infrastructure of community-ICT resource centres; the

cementing of the concept of social inclusion as a central policy aim in the field;

the rise of a new vocationalism informing policy goals around the community-

based use of ICT; the changing shape of the environment within which smaller

community organisations tackle the new challenges presented by ICT; and the

emergence of a number of local strategies aimed at promoting ICT-related

community development. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how

these themes can be brought together to begin the building of a new

description of the community-ICT policy-making environment.

Chapter 9 goes on to consider some of the wider theoretical ramifications of

these findings. These are situated in the context of the ideas explored in

Chapter 2 around the themes of community development, the information

society and ICT, local governance and regulation theory. The empirical

evidence gathered through the case study process is central to informing this

275
debate. This new data allows for a critical examination of a number of ideas

put forward in earlier chapters and makes possible a reappraisal of the

research hypothesis developed in Section 3.7.. The combination of these

empirical and theoretical research elements sheds fresh light on the situation

around ICT-related community development. It allows space for the

construction of a new model of the nature of such activities, one that is rooted

within the complex and shifting structures of the social, political and economic

realms. Chapter 9 offers such a model, based on a new paradigm of localist

information governance emerging from a period of transformation.

8.2. The convergence of funding environments

Recent years have seen the development of a more homogeneous and

regulated funding environment emerging for the community sector. This

is particularly true in areas of third sector activity where effective action is

only possible with relatively high levels of ongoing capital and revenue

support. The implementation of ICT initiatives fall directly into this

category, having relatively high start-up costs, and requiring continuing

financial inputs of various kinds.

8.2.1. Forms of differentiation and convergence

Successive governments from the mid-1990s onwards have recognised that

greater levels of support are needed in the area, and made attempts to start

lessening the gap between identified needs and actual funding provision. A

common preferred approach of encouraging funding partnerships has been

adopted as a major vehicle for effecting change. This follows trends adopted

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in many other sectors of the economy, with actors from both the public and

private sectors working together to develop projects.

Such developments are apparent at local, national and supranational levels,

resulting in an ever increasing non-public sector involvement in the funding of

the community sector generally. In practice there has been an increasing

convergence of funding criteria for new projects, together with an insistence

that organisations applying for renewal or extension of grants begin to follow

more closely these broad policy outlines. While supporting the idea of greater

cooperation across sectors, Shearman argues that regeneration and ICT

policies have tended to favour larger scale projects; ‘but it is often the micro-

level, small scale and under-funded ventures that have the most potential’

(Shearman, 1999, p.25). The innovative nature of some of these projects can

lead them to be situated outside of the mainstream funding circle.

Within these criteria however, the forms of partnership entered into are still

quite differentiated. The denial of traditional public sector funding

opportunities to both local government and the community sector from the

mid-1980s caused a crisis in the financing of local community development

projects. This heralded a period of an increasingly creative search for money

by both local authorities and the community sector. Much of the finance which

was forthcoming arrived through the auspices of the European Union or

indigenous quangos set up by the Conservative government, which already

operated strict guidelines regarding the assembling of cross-sector

partnerships in order to access support. At the same time, national

government in the UK was modifying its own approach to funding on broadly

similar lines.

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This period of transition was characterised by a general situation of under-

funding of community-based ICT projects. Some pockets of success were to

be found where innovative development workers within communities and local

authorities managed to understand and harness the nature of change at an

early stage. These groups however, tended to operate at the margins of both

local authorities and the community development sector. They were not

capable of generating adequate amounts of finance for the development of a

sustainable infrastructure of community-based ICT initiatives. The incoming

New Labour government accepted the need to support the development of

such an infrastructure, but maintained that the format of partnership should

remain at every level. In the ensuing years a new position of stability seems

to have been achieved. This accepts many of the tenets of change which

characterised the period of transition away from a separation of public and

private sector involvement in community matters.

The processes of change are multiple and complex. Due to a number of

factors mentioned earlier, ICT is particularly subject to interest from actors

beyond traditional public sector boundaries. Its community information

lineage has tended to place it historically in the position of an important

tool for the potential empowerment of local communities. However, its

equally significant role in helping train and prepare people for the labour

market sets up a dynamic tension between social and economic factors.

These issues will be examined in greater depth later in this chapter, but it

is clear that the juxtaposition between these alternative roles for ICT has

possible consequences for the nature of funding policies and regimes.

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8.2.2. Changing patterns of partnership

As described in Chapter 2, the nature and scope of community development

generally has undergone a major shift in recent years. Its new ubiquity across

various strands of local authority activity, and the increasing

professionalisation of the community sector generally, combine to make the

field more attractive to private interests. Changes in the nature of funding

regimes have helped drive these shifts, but they have also been accelerated

as a result of them. The exact relationship between the two is intricate, but it

is clear that change has brought powerful actors into an active community role

in new ways. Although various companies have provided philanthropic

support for many years to community organisations, involvement in the sector

is increasingly being viewed as not only a justifiable social goal but an efficient

economic one as well.

It is legitimate to ask whether the increased involvement of such players has

helped shift the funding focus away from potentially radical community action-

related initiatives, towards those with more mainstream neo-corporate goals.

The composition of many community partnerships aimed at gaining large

scale funding is salutary in this respect, with large private concerns and local

authority representatives outweighing those from smaller community

organisations. As the Digital Inclusion Panel notes:

A growth in the number of funding schemes made available only to

consortia makes digital engagement by the voluntary sector a necessity.
(Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004, p.28)

This imbalance can be exacerbated further by other factors such as access by

the larger players to internal organisational resources. This can be equally

true of public sector bodies as well as private. INSINC note that most

complaints about partnerships suggest that it is bad feeling between public

279
sector agencies which causes the most difficulties in partnership situations

(National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.50).

Relatedly, in many cases the input of private companies into partnerships is

based on support in kind rather than any cash element. This often takes the

form of the provision of technical resources or equipment. In these situations

the type of access offered can be instrumental in framing the overall funding

proposal. Where diversity and autonomy of action at the local community

level do continue to flourish, it is frequently despite the nature of the

partnership relationship rather than as a consequence of it. Once funding has

been obtained and the objectives of larger players met, those charged with

implementing initiatives in the community often have scope to mould the

corporate objectives to local conditions.

Shearman argues that too often effective social and economic regeneration at

the micro level has been constrained by an institutional funding system that:

favours large scale projects at the expense of smaller ones; fits projects to

funding rather than funding to projects; promotes institutionally shaped cul-de-

sacs which do not meet local neighbourhood needs; often sets unrealistic lead

times for achieving project goals. This is true for both ICT and non-ICT related

regeneration projects, but also:

Where there is a technology element, (the funding system) supports

projects which focus too strongly on technology, networks and access
with inadequate attention to people, participation, interaction and
purpose.
(Shearman, 1999, p.31)

In order for the impact of joined-up government to be really felt within

communities there also has to be joined up funding accessible to and tailored

for the needs of local communities (Ibid., p.75).

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Evidence from the three case studies indicates a general trend towards a level

of convergence within previously disparate local funding environments.

However, this trend is by no means universal across the community

sector in the North West. A number of successful projects are funded in

what might be characterised as a traditional manner. Bolton 3D Centre is

run by the Community Education Service without significant recourse to

financial inputs or policy influence from the private sector. Neither does

the trend towards funding convergence mean that the variety of funding

sources are necessarily diminishing.

8.2.3. Convergence of functions

It is the criteria employed by different funders in dealing with recipient

organisations that are coming to closely resemble each other. Two examples

from the case studies illustrate this tendency. Hattersley Computer Centre

and Chorlton Workshop are each rooted in local situations with highly specific

and differentiated features. As outlined in Chapter 6, the Trust is a partnership

of organisations from the public and private sectors which have come together

specifically to support regeneration on the Hattersley housing estate. HCC

has been created directly through the work of the Trust, and has a remit

heavily influenced by some of the key private partners.

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Chorlton Workshop was set up much earlier than HCC as a local community-

ICT initiative. It always prided itself on its position as independent from

outside control. In winning a large National Lottery grant, it accepted a

number of terms and conditions that effectively transformed its core

community activities into very specific skills-oriented areas. Like HCC, the

Workshop does undertake broader socially developmental activities.

However, they are no longer the centrally defining features of the

organisation. They have become peripheral, and in many ways only

acceptable in the context of the new core activities being carried out to the

funding body’s satisfaction.

In each case, organisations with very different starting points have been

brought more closely together in terms of function since the millennium.

Differences remain, and will continue to do so. As the case of Chorlton

Workshop also illustrates, three way partnerships between public, private and

third sector organisations are not a universal feature of this tendency.

However, in each instance, external funding criteria have proved crucial in

affecting the aims, objectives and activities of ICT-related community

organisations.

The convergence of funding environments brought about by policy trends at

the highest levels has been accompanied by other new conjunctions of

community practice. The next section will examine whether and how this

extends to the forms of organisational structure employed within the

community-ICT field.

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8.3. The future of community-ICT resource centres

The increasing growth and stabilisation of the funding environment for

community-based ICT initiatives has been accompanied by a renewed policy

interest in the sector at the highest levels. In recent years, the growth of

CRCs as the local physical focuses of policy implementation has been

dramatic. INSINC contend that CRCs are ‘perhaps the most important

practical feature of a socially-inclusive Information Society’ (National Working

Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.44). In contrast, Wyatt et al (2004, p.8)

conclude from their research that public internet access through Online

Centres will not provide a way to bridge the ‘digital divide’.

8.3.1. The emergence and role of a national CRC network

With many CRCs already in place around the country, especially in the

poorest 2000 wards identified as geographical target areas by national

government, something approaching a national network can now be identified.

The development of this core of physical structures providing access to ICT for

local communities has been uneven and, until the Department for Education

and Skills stepped in with funding for the most vulnerable 200 centres in 2001,

largely unplanned. This unevenness has manifested itself both in the diverse

funding backgrounds of centres, and of the services they provide. In recent

years policy makers have been attempting to introduce a more uniform system

of regulation and support for such centres.

This policy development focuses on building a sustainable CRC network in the

most deprived areas of the UK. For many commentators (see for example

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National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, pp.48-9), a national CRC

network can only be effective and empowering if it is rooted in a non-artificial

manner within local community life. A high degree of local ground-level input

into the process is important if this is to be achieved. However, in an

increasingly top-heavy and undifferentiated funding environment this is

becoming ever more difficult. Certain assumptions regarding training needs,

economic development issues and the characteristics of local communities are

often made in advance from outside of communities. In such conditions, the

views of those locally regarding their own needs can be tagged on at the end

of the process in a tokenistic manner.

Shearman contends that bringing poor neighbourhoods up to ‘an acceptable

level’ is not enough. Local ICT projects can be both state of the art and

community based:

The key issue is not the technology and what it can do. It is the needs of
communities and how the technology can be used strategically to meet
those needs.
(Shearman, 1999, p.8)

The development of CRCs is thus closely linked to questions of homogeneity

and heterogeneity in the community-ICT field.

These in turn link to wider issues of not only social inclusion, but social control.

CRCs have the potential to occupy a unique position within the community

field. They are organisations which both serve the community sector through

the provision of resources, but can themselves be an integral part of that

sector if run both for and by the local community. A key task for the

implementation of policy is to ensure that a less uneven development of CRCs

around the country is not accompanied by diminishing levels of diversity.

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In looking at why CRCs have become so dominant as umbrella organisations

for the community ICT sector, it is necessary to ask whether viable alternative

models for ICT diffusion exist. Many forms of ICT use by community groups

outside of the CRC model have tended to either be simply administrative or, in

the case of specific ICT-based service provision, chronically underfunded. In

the former situation, many of the skills are first learnt with the prior support of

local CRCs anyway. In the latter, unless a proprietary package with tailored

functions can be obtained at reasonable cost many initiatives founder. This is

not to argue that alternative models for community based ICT cannot flourish

at all. For example the digital arts project Artimedia, based in Batley,

concentrates on developing the cultural uses of ICT for community benefit

through extensive outreach work (see Shearman, 1999, pp.38-41).

CRCs are the subject of much policy analysis and the particular form of the

emerging national network over the last five years has to a large extent been

policy driven. However, the general model has developed out of the

neighbourhood information centre (NIC) movement. This has spawned a

multitude of diverse situations at local levels, with fairly open relationships

existing between centres and the groups they serve. The informal nature

through which NICs can usually be accessed still provides a solid basis for the

work of CRCs. It is possible for community-ICT resource centres to establish

multiple levels of association with user communities. These can range from

the very informal drop-in, through to structured courses. The key task is to

ensure that at each of these levels there exists a feeling of local ownership

and management of the centre.

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8.3.2. Common factors for success

Shearman highlights a number of common factors relating to successful

projects: technology is used as a means to an end, a tool to achieve wider

social, economic and/or community objectives; projects are local, with deep

community involvement; they have a clear vision of what they want to achieve

and where they are going; they have a diverse range of activities; they

develop links both with local agencies and beyond the local community;

arising out of local needs, they share a focus on developing local work

opportunities. (Ibid., p.35)

These issues again raise questions of funding sustainability. If centres are

not provided with the possibility of core funding over the medium to long term,

but forced to depend exclusively on gaining money through chasing short term

contracts, there is an acute danger of many activities being marginalised or

dropped completely. It is quite possible for accountability of CRC activity to

remain in place through local arrangements, without centres turning

exclusively into community training businesses. One element of the principle

of universal free access is that users should have a real say in the nature of

the services they are accessing. This may only be compatible with the criteria

of many current funding arrangements at a relatively superficial level, with

much of the service content offered by CRCs being determined elsewhere.

The community–ICT centre model can be seen as the dominant feature of

ICT provision across the three case study areas in this thesis. Both the

organisational and financial bases of centres are malleable. Indeed they are

subject to major shifts not only between centres but also within single

organisations. This has historically been due to the existence of a forced

286
financial ‘nomadism’, as groups have had to wander from funder to funder to

ensure their continuing existence.

Chorlton Workshop again provides a good example of such a situation.

Although the organisation has striven to maintain the original character and

ethos of the Workshop, this has been subject to pressure from the

requirements of funding bodies. Despite such changes though, it is still

identifiable in each of its incarnations as a CRC, and many of its activities are

still defined at a local level, through its relationship with the immediate

community. This is equally true of Bolton 3D Centre, which has an

uninterrupted history of core local authority funding. The services offered by

the 3D Centre, and the types of community group that use the centre, are

defined on a local basis. Thus the two organisations have experienced quite

different historical trajectories at every level. Despite this, the common

features they exhibit quite clearly show that their similarities far outweigh any

differences in defining them as community-ICT resource centres. The same

applies to Hattersley Computer Centre, which was devised specifically as a

CRC with a fairly narrow training and skills remit. In a short space of time the

centre workers, together with local community groups, had redefined aspects

of HCC’s operation. A number of informal ICT-based local history projects

have emerged, redefining the boundaries between the centre, Hattersley

Library, and the local community centre.

There are many creative ways in which local individuals and groups reshape

the activities of CRCs over time. In order for this to happen though, the

inherent flexibility of the model needs to be maintained, both as an object of

social policy and as a reflection of funding criteria. As government policy

287
strives to make the provision of skills and training pre-eminent in revitalising

the urban inner cities, there is a danger that an over-emphasis on vocational

issues is pushing more holistic community development to the margins. CRCs

are a key site within which the future direction of these policies will be judged.

8.4. Social inclusion as a central aim of policy

Achieving the goal of greater social inclusion has emerged as a central theme

within the political rhetoric and policy formation of the Labour governments

from 1997 onwards. As a policy goal, social inclusion derives from

discussions of the term ‘social exclusion’, originating with the Socialist Party in

France in the mid-1980s, but gaining wider currency through the inclusion of

the Social Chapter within the EU’s Maastricht Treaty. Overcoming social

exclusion is here directly linked to problems of overcoming economic

exclusion within a neo-liberal economic environment. In practical terms much

EU policy towards these issues reflects a limited concern with questions of

labour market exclusion (Geyer, 1999, p.161, cited by Percy-Smith, 2000,

p.2).

8.4.1. Government initiatives

This trend has continued to be dominant within the formation of UK policy, with

the tackling of social exclusion being directly linked to questions of broader

economic development. The Social Exclusion Unit was set up in 1997 to

develop integrated and sustainable approaches to the problems of the worst

housing estates, noting that previous attempts to deal with problems of social

288
exclusion included a failure to address the structural causes of decline through

a ‘joined-up’ national policy framework (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998, p.9).

As a means of combating this situation, a number of Policy Action Teams

(PATs) were set up to investigate aspects of social exclusion corresponding to

specific areas of social life. As outlined in Chapter 2, the work of PAT15

focused directly upon issues of exclusion related to information and

communications technology. The key recommendations of the report

concentrated on the need for government to develop a coherent set of policies

across departmental lines, aimed at providing a minimum level of access to

ICT for everybody within the poorest neighbourhoods.

As such the PAT15 report is directed almost exclusively towards practical

policy recommendations, looking to implement the type of joined-up thinking

and action necessary for creating a network of ICT learning centres across the

UK. It explicitly accepts government characterisations of the nature and scope

of social exclusion, tying these into the setting of the Social Exclusion Unit’s

‘National Framework for Neighbourhood Renewal’ (1998). By 2004, DIP

reported that online centres had been established in each of the 88

designated ‘Neighbourhood Renewal Areas’, together with a further 2,000

deprived wards (Digital Inclusion Panel, 2004, p.23). Within each of the

reports however, the analysis of the problems of poor neighbourhoods centres

on the exclusion of a specific section of society from broader social and

economic norms, rather than any examination of social inequality arising as a

generalised feature within capitalist society.

8.4.2. The idea of social exclusion

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The idea of social exclusion has some features in common with broader

concepts of poverty as outlined by commentators such as Townsend (1979).

These include notions of multiple deprivation and multidimensionality arising

from complex causes (Percy-Smith, 2000, p.16). Despite this, much of the

wider discussion of inequality present within the key poverty debates of the

1970s is markedly absent from current policy forums at governmental level.

For Byrne, this is because causal complexity is extinguished from the policy

discussion in favour of an agenda that favours an unerring support for the

economic logic of globalism. This process takes place within the context of

neo-liberal market-oriented economics, where the imperatives of capital

dominate. In this context, he argues, contemporary social exclusion is a

product of shifts in the character of contemporary capitalism. Current

government policy attempts to move people from excluded to non-excluded,

while leaving exclusion as a domain. The real issue is how to get rid of the

domain, how to create a social order which excludes exclusion (Byrne, 1999,

p.78). A discussion of these broader questions shall be taken up in greater

detail in the next chapter. For now it is important to note that this is the

general context within which social policy develops in the UK. As Loader and

Keeble observe:

The evidence suggests that whilst excluded communities and individuals

are unable or reluctant to use the technology, their identities and
cultures remain invisible.
(Loader and Keeble, 2004, p.35)

The emergence of social inclusion as a central policy goal has coincided with

a number of related developments within the field of community development

as a whole. As has been noted earlier in this chapter, the building of a

national network of ICT learning centres has been accompanied by an

290
accelerated tendency towards a convergence of criteria for funding availability.

These have tended to emanate from higher bodies, trickling down to

grassroots organisations in the form of guidelines for gaining support.

Harris argues that articulated policies which remove or anaesthetise people’s

own inclination to identify what is best for them are in danger of creating a new

institutionalisation. This institutionalisation holds that ‘only institutions whose

business it is to produce information can produce information of value’ (Harris,

1991, p.81). It can be argued that this commodified view of information filters

through into the social exclusion arena by the linking of social and economic

aspects of that process at every level.

8.4.3. Social exclusion and community development

This has potentially major consequences for the practice of community

development. ICT-related community development is increasingly emerging

on a service provision model. Day and Harris argue that although the

community services approach has an important role to play in the

establishment of CRCs, an over-reliance on top-down service based initiatives

can lead to distance between provider and user groups and affect longer term

sustainability (Day and Harris, 1997, p.11).

Within this context, broader community development activity can become

increasingly diffuse, in that it operates across departmental boundaries and

has no identifiable centre. Although striving to attain goals of social inclusivity,

it can often be exclusive in practice, marginalising groups and initiatives that

do not subscribe to increasingly narrow objectives of the new

institutionalisation. INSINC argue that this need not be the case:

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 Technology which generates or reinforces top-down centre-to-periphery
communication…can be severely disempowering…But anyone who has
witnessed the ways in which some community groups have grasped the
networking and communication potential of this technology is likely to be
aware of a strong and growing influence working in the opposite
direction.
(National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.66)

Tackling social exclusion in the field of ICT has become dominated by

questions of access to services in fairly well defined geographical areas. It

is within these spaces that institutionalisation is most apparent as a tool of

social policy. As Sanderson (2000, p.131) notes, the complex set of

factors which are mediated through place are captured in the concept of

social exclusion as defined by Madanipour (1998, p.76): ‘an

institutionalised form of controlling access: to places, to activities, to

resources, to information’. With regard to current social inclusion

policies, it is within this context that the relationship between individuals,

their communities and the uptake of service provision might be best

viewed. Without increased levels of grassroots participation in governing

such areas of activities and resources, ICT learning centres may be

viewed as unwelcome additions to the growing panoply of workfare state

institutions. The case study evidence within this thesis indicates that this

is indeed partly the case, although a number of factors also mitigate

against this outcome on the ground.

Most important among these is the tendency in practice for CRCs to be

flexible and move beyond their formal service remits. This involves both

allowing community activities which are outside of the centres’ official

guidelines, and taking a more relaxed approach to achieving some closely

defined targets than funders would like. A number of the activities of both

Chorlton Workshop and Bolton 3D Centre in Chapter 6, bear testament to this

292
stretching of funding criteria. However, such flexibility is finite and only

extends to activities not deemed openly hostile by higher bodies. Independent

oppositional action is not viewed in a similar light, and the application of

policies for social inclusion serves to broaden horizons only within fairly strictly

defined parameters.

The emergent CRC network serves primarily not to organise people in any

collective fashion, but to train individuals for entry or re-entry into a changing

labour market. Many voices of dissent from this position can be heard within

centres, and a number reach out beyond their mission statements or core

funding criteria to involve themselves in broader activities. But although these

are important aspects of work, they are not generally central to the activities of

CRCs. As has been argued earlier, in order to gain funding a process of initial

goal limitation is often necessary. This process is directed towards defining

much of the practical support and facilities CRCs offer groups and individuals

within localities. The next section examines current directions in the nature of

service provision offered as means of combating social exclusion.

8.5. ICT and the new vocationalism

Previous sections in this chapter have highlighted some features within the

relationship between social inclusivity and economic regeneration as they

relate to ICT. It has been argued that an institutionalised framework of

community-ICT resource centres has emerged. This development began

primarily as a series of local responses to the perceived problem of a lack of

community-ICT access at local levels. National policy considerations rapidly

293
took over in the mid-1990s, with the result that more recent progress has

tended to be more uniform and directed from above. This in turn has

impacted on the nature of ICT-related community development, which has

both been drawn in to the centre of decision-making considerations while

losing much of its singular content.

8.5.1. Information capability

At local and national levels, government has been concerned to harness the

possibilities offered by CRCs to combat social exclusion in more deprived

neighbourhoods. Much of this activity attempts to tackle both social and

economic aspects of social exclusion and develop information capability

among excluded or marginalised sections of society. Information capability

here can be seen as encompassing at least three dimensions: (i) information

awareness, the ability to recognise that what may be needed in a given

situation is information; (ii) access to information; (iii) the ability to exploit

information once it has been acquired (National Working Party on Social

Inclusion, 1997, p.21).

One element of such information capability is the development of peoples’

capacity to view technology and the wider social world in new ways. For

Byrne, this means turning to issues of empowerment of the dispossessed.

Empowerment here is seen in the context of transformative action of

marginalised communities, resulting in both individual and collective change

(Byrne, 1999, pp.133-4). INSINC refer to empowerment as being ‘at the core

of community development’, adding that once most groups gain access to

294
communication facilities they will know exactly how to exploit the technology

(National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.65).

However, in the hands of UK policy makers empowerment, if referred to at all,

is generally taken as meaning the acquisition of skills by individuals which

might enable a shift in economic circumstances. INSINC may be correct in

arguing that groups will exploit technology effectively. It is also true that most

CRCs offer an open drop-in policy for local community groups. But what the

state tends to facilitate in terms of core policy backed up by funding, active

monitoring and evaluation and, if necessary, sanctions is not collective

empowerment but individual skills training.

8.5.2. Roots of the new vocationalism

This increasing emphasis on vocational training arises out of government

characterisations of the problem of social exclusion:

For people living in low-income neighbourhoods, gaining and exploiting

ICT skills can lead to opportunities to participate fully in the local and
national economy. The arguments for social inclusion and for economic
development in the Information Age are mutually re-enforcing.
(Policy Action Team 15, 2000, p.2)

This emphasis finds its practical expression in the services being prioritised by

CRCs on the ground. Vocational courses in various aspects of ICT uses are

central to the work of centres. Skills and training are offered not only because

CRCs feel that they are a good thing in themselves – although on the whole

that is the case – but because their core funding streams depend on such

activities. This is true of a number of diverse organisations examined in the

foregoing case studies, including Hattersley Computing Centre, Chorlton

Workshop and SNIP.

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The impact of vocationalism on wider issues of ICT use for broader personal,

social, and political development can be seen as ambiguous. Increased

individual access to the wider labour market and gaining employment in still-

burgeoning industries are not outcomes to be dismissed lightly. As INSINC

notes, there are many undesirable social consequences for ‘work-poor’

households and neighbourhoods (National Working Party on Social Inclusion,

1997, p.15). Further, those most affected tend to be groups already

disadvantaged within society, such as women, ethnic and racial groups, older

people and people with disabilities. A caveat to this is provided by the results

of Oftel commissioned research carried out in 2003. It found that among low

income groups, asylum seekers made the most effort to seek out and use

public internet access which they used mainly for job hunting and sourcing

news from their home countries (cited by Loader and Keeble, 2004, p.32).

These and other groups though may benefit equally from strong community

activities that challenge not only the structural economic exclusion they face,

but also socio-structural disadvantage. The two are not at all mutually

exclusive, but as Byrne argues, regeneration from the bottom up represents a

democratic challenge to corporatist top-down change (Byrne, 1999, p.133).

This applies equally to the priorities of change as to the methods and levels of

decision making. In this context, skilling people up for the market becomes

only one of a whole series of social concerns.

The case studies in previous chapters have highlighted some ways in which

the acceleration towards vocationalism has worked itself through into practice.

Most notably, projects such as Chorlton Workshop find themselves with

greater levels of long-term funding, but with less room for pursuing

296
independent community activism. Access to vocational and pre-vocational

courses is becoming more widely available to local communities, but this is

sometimes coming into conflict with free and open access to the facilities and

support necessary for the broader exercise of community action. This trend

affects not only the ways in which individuals use CRCs, but can be of vital

importance to the work of local community groups as those in the sector

struggle to gain adequate access to information and communication.

8.6. Smaller community organisations and change

The environment within which local community organisations operate has

been subject to immense changes over the past period. This is true of the

sector as a whole, but the rapidly evolving nature of ICT has added an extra

dimension to these developments. There are many factors driving such

change, a number of which have been discussed in previous sections within

this chapter. Smaller community organisations are finding that beyond the

personal use of a PC at home – which in itself can be a powerful tool –

creative use of ICT for achieving objectives is becoming more expensive and

technically difficult.

8.6.1. Local groups and umbrella structures

The growth in CRCs as umbrella structures for providing community-ICT use

has been rapid. To a large extent this has been welcomed by community

organisations, such as those utilising the facilities at Hattersley Computer

Centre or Bolton 3D Centre. The availability of up-to-date ICT facilities and

technical support is of great potential use to smaller groups. Such access

should not be taken for granted though. There is a subtle but clear distinction

297
between the term community-ICT resource centre, adopted by the centres for

describing themselves throughout the 1990s, and the government’s preferred

terms ‘Online’ or ‘learndirect’ centre. The former stands as a possible heir to

the Neighbourhood Information Centre movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

The latter carries with it the managerial and didactic tones of a place of

learning organised from above.

The substantial injections of funding becoming available are largely premised

on a tangible return in terms of qualifications gained, targets achieved and

employment secured. On these bases, the contribution made by community

groups to the various constituencies they serve are seen as largely intangible.

Worse still in the case of radical and marginal issues, they may be seen as

positively unwelcome.

The potential benefits of developing community networks have been

discussed in Chapter 2, but in the UK at present such relationships are only

just beginning to be developed. The emphasis on building a network of

learning centres aimed at providing skills training for ICT packages can lead to

deficits in other areas. In particular this can affect the chances of community

groups in exploiting more widely the areas of information and communication

for community development. It can be argued that since the mid-1990s an

overall pattern of ICT use by community groups has emerged, which is highly

reliant on free and open access to local facilities. Despite the best efforts of

individual groups and resource centres, the use of new ICT facilities by local

groups is coming to be viewed by many CRCs as an add-on, rather than as a

central feature of their place within the local landscape.

298
From the point of view of CRCs this is primarily due to contractual

requirements for particular forms of core use, together with a lack of resources

for wider developmental work. The atomisation of the community sector

discussed in Chapter 6 plays a large part in debilatating the response of

community groups. Councils for Voluntary Organisations and other umbrella

bodies play a large part in attempting to overcome the isolation of

organisations in the sector, but as the case studies show, they too lack

adequate resources to reach out to all groups. Many smaller groups exist with

little or no ongoing support from any quarter in accessing ICT facilities. A

large proportion of CRCs have themselves evolved out of local independent

groups, and see themselves as part of the third sector. But the rigours and

disciplines of the funding process can pull them away from these roots,

changing the focus of the community networks they are involved in.

8.6.2. The potential for marginalisation of smaller groups

As the INSINC report notes:

The danger here is that the networks become dominated by the more
powerful interests in the area, such as colleges, local authorities or large
professionalised voluntary agencies. The development of relatively
large-scale community networks such as those we are seeing may be
inevitable, because of costs and the need to develop a critical mass of
users. But there is a real need to develop within them examples of
‘neighbourhood areas’ which are genuinely local and representative.
(National Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.47)

Without a turnaround in policy-making emphasis, many small groups may be

permanently disenfranchised from this process. Further, the very nature of

CRCs as community groups themselves might be under threat as they

increasingly become adjuncts of local educational institutions or local authority

library services.

299
The trends described above are neither uniform nor universal. A significant

number of CRCs maintain deep links with local community organisations and

are determined to provide full and open access to facilities. Organisations

such as Hattersley Computing actively seek the involvement of local

community groups in utilising the full range of information and communication

possibilities offered by ICT. Community groups themselves also often have

long years of experience in extracting the maximum benefit out of limited

available resources. And many local authorities are in principle supportive of

promoting the benefits which an active community sector can provide.

However, with the core policy focus at local and national levels shifting away

from this type of activity, wider collective community organisation can become

marginalised. This marginalisation is rarely if at all an active target of policy,

but an unwelcome consequence of the policy focus alighting elsewhere. For

this trend to be reversed a consideration of the role of independent community

groups would have to be brought back to the centre of community

development policy formation. Such a process could begin to replace the

passive overlooking of the ICT needs of grass roots community organisations

with an overt and active consideration of the benefits to those groups and to

the wider community.

8.7. Local information policies and strategies for community

development

Since the publication of the government’s 1998 national strategy for

neighbourhood renewal (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998; Social Exclusion Unit,

2001) the issue of local plans for community regeneration has been placed

300
further towards the centre of national policy deliberation. Local authorities

have found themselves able to call upon extra support structures for

identifying and implementing ways of tackling deprivation within poorer

communities. As outlined earlier, the Social Exclusion Unit set up eighteen

Policy Action Teams in 1998, with the aim of bridging the gap between poorest

neighbourhoods and the rest (Social Exclusion Unit, 2001a).

8.7.1. The pursuit of integration

The work of these Teams is based around five key areas: (i) Getting the

people to work (ii) Getting the place to work (iii) Building a future for young

people (iv) Access to services (v) Making the government work better. (Social

Exclusion Unit, 1998. For a full discussion of these five areas in relation to

ICT see Shearman, 1999, pp.69-78) The work of PAT15 has been directed

specifically towards the fourth of these areas, access to services. As

Shearman notes, ICT needs to be integrated right across the Policy Action

Team spectrum if links are to be made more explicit with relevant mainstream

funding. (Shearman, 1999, p.3).

The Manchester case study has shown that the drawing up and

implementation of an effective local information strategy is a complex process.

Local authorities often come to the issue with a strong understanding of

general neighbourhood requirements, but with only vague notions of particular

needs relating to ICT. Recently many national and local government

organisations have switched their emphasis away from creating integrated

local information strategies, placing greater stress instead on the

implementation of e-government initiatives.

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INSINC argue that strong community networks feeding into policy structures

are essential for the development of information policies that can adequately

reflect and feed into local concerns (National Working Party on Social

Inclusion, 1997, p.44). They argue that library services which invest in

community information often do so very much in a top-down manner. Enabling

smaller agencies to contribute to these processes should be an essential part

of an authority’s information strategy. This is taken further by Shearman who

criticises previous government policy for its ‘one size fits all’ approach to the

development of CRCs and local information strategy generally.

Regeneration and ICT policies have tended to favour large scale projects, but

it is most often the micro level, small scale and underfunded ventures that

have most potential. Key factors in social regeneration include the ideas,

knowledge and experience of local people. If these are harnessed together

with an ability to look outwards and make links with other places, then the

‘social glue’ of community can drive forward the whole process of regeneration

and neighbourhood renewal. In this context the uniformity of policy responses

which constrains many conventional ICT strategies can begin to be

addressed. Listening to the needs of neighbourhoods, together with an

openness to a diversity of solutions are key to promoting successful local

strategies. In this way current mismatches between policy initiatives designed

to support community development and the kind of policy support people

actually want can start to be overcome (Shearman, 1999, pp.25-6).

8.7.2. Funding mechanisms and policy development

Funding mechanisms and broader policy development can again come

together in a creative and dynamic way here:

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If future policy approaches are to be more effective, major changes are
needed in the ways in which community–based ICT projects are
supported. Mechanisms will need to be found for adapting the financing
structures currently in place to the real needs of local neighbourhoods.
These might include:
- mechanisms for identifying and promoting neighbourhood-based local
economic potential
- funding individualised small scale projects
- setting up ‘risk capital’ funds for community entrepreneurs
- establishing new criteria and mechanisms for determining and
evaluating project outputs and impact

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 - providing longer term financial support where appropriate
- developing support schemes which allow projects to employ staff rather
than relying on volunteers
- ensuring that ‘social capital’ initiatives transfer skills to local people
(Ibid., p.32)

A number of these factors do occur in isolation. For example, Hattersley

Computing employs only local people who have learnt their ICT skill through

the practical activity of building a local ICT for the estate. But the holistic

approach recommended by Shearman remains very much a minority position

in practice, as local authorities and other policy making bodies continue to

impose policies from the top down. These bodies are very much concerned

with issues of professionalism and producing tangible value for money.

Wider intangible benefits that local communities bring to the process are often

not taken fully into account, sometimes because barriers between formal and

more informal bodies are encountered. Where formal engagement with

relevant agencies is necessary in drawing up plans and policies, the

institutions and agencies involved are not always forthcoming in helping

ensure the maximum information flows into and out of the community. This

again can prove a barrier to effective policy formation and implementation.

8.7.3. The future of local information strategies

It can be seen that, together with political will at the national level, local

information plans and strategies have a key role to play in broadening access

to ICT across neighbourhoods. Meaningful universal free access is and will

remain a key object of public policy, but one which as we have seen still lacks

a fully strategic sense at the policy-making level. At the broadest level the

government’s Social Exclusion Unit identifies six key barriers which have

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prevented past efforts achieving a step change in terms of strategy and

consultation:

- failure to address the problems of local economies

- failure to promote safe and stable communities
- poor core public services such as health education etc
- failure to involve communities
- lack of leadership and joint working
- insufficient information and poor use of it
(Social Exclusion Unit, 2001, p.1)

Despite the identification of a failure to involve communities and promote a

sense of joint working, policy still tends towards consultation rather than full

integrative partnership with local communities. The process of empowerment

described earlier in this chapter is one which needs to begin at the inception of

policy and run through every stage of the process if it is to be effective. As

INSINC note:

If the Information Society were characterised by new levels of

partnership and participation, by a policy willingness to empower
communities and renewed appreciation of social values, then the
information highway and its associated technologies offer a powerful
mechanism for such development. Without such a socially-supportive
context, however, access on its own will not be enough. (National
Working Party on Social Inclusion, 1997, p.66)

8.8. An interconnected process of transformation

Taken together, the six policy areas outlined above provide a representation of

a changed context within which ICT-related community development is taking

place. Viewed in isolation, each of the changes relates to a particular aspect

of governance undergoing a bounded modification. Viewed jointly, a picture

emerges of an interconnected process of transformation within the sector.

Each of the changes, although possessing its own discrete internal dynamics,

is connected to each of the others in various ways.

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Some answers can now be provided to the policy-related research questions

posed in Section 3.7.3., and the opportunity also exists to look forward to

some possibilities for the future direction of policy in the sector. This chapter

has built on and extended the findings of Chapters 4, 5 and 6, building an

overall picture of the situation in which ICT-related community development

now functions.

The convergence of funding environments relates to a centralisation of

financial policy direction. Although the variety of funding sources has

increased over the last period, there has been a coming together across

structures of the direction of that funding. This is in line with a much more

centralised view of what is an appropriate use of money. This has resulted in

a greater degree of structural institutionalisation through the expansion of the

CRC network. The CRC model now stretches across such diverse

organisations as schools and colleges, libraries and independent community

organisations. The types of core activity that take place within the centres are

becoming ever more uniform, although still with a level of diversity at the

edges. These core activities are primarily skills and training based in keeping

with the new vocationalism described in Section 8.4. of this chapter. This

accent on vocationalism can be seen as aimed at providing reproduction for

the labour market in areas identified on a number of occasions as central to

government policy in the sector (see Byrne, 1999, pp.105-6).

Informing this emerging paradigm is the overarching ideological construct of

social inclusion. As has been argued, social inclusion is based on policy

attempts to empower individuals to move from an excluded to a non-excluded

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position within a neo-liberal economic framework. Along with the new

vocationalism it is based primarily on an individualist rather than a collectivist

view of change. This change of emphasis in the relationship between the

individual and the community is increasingly pervasive at both policy and

broader theoretical levels. It partially underpins wider moves towards workfare

regimes, and encourages an atomisation of responses to change.

The accent on sets of defined targets and goals has had a number of

consequences for smaller community organisations attempting to use ICT

creatively. It must be stressed that the ingenuity and creativity of such

organisations has managed to retain a great degree of diversity within the

sector. There remains however a tendential shift towards a greater

rationalisation and uniformity of the core use of ICT by community

organisations. This not only connects back to the pressures of the overall

funding situation, but forward to the policies and strategies increasingly carried

out by local authorities. As with the other areas mentioned, there remains a

degree of diversity across the aims of local information strategies. This

diversity, though, increasingly exists as an adjunct to a greater uniformity of

purpose, as the imperatives of vocationalism and social inclusion become

formalised as key objectives within the local policy arena.

Henderson (2003, p.175) contends that the future for community practice

depends on how it can become a more integral part of the organisational

structures and programmes now being advocated by central government and

other agencies. This overall ‘mainstreaming’ of community development, and

ICT-related activities in particular, looks set to represent the dominant policy

paradigm in the sector for the foreseeable future, as the ‘squeeze to the

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centre’ described in Section 3.6. becomes ever tighter. For those groups that

conform to the rules of this new system, greater funding and sustainability may

result. However, the rise in professionalisation and managerialism that

accompany mainstreaming, promise to cut the organisational autonomy and

independence of smaller community organisations even further than is

currently the case.

A coherent picture is beginning to emerge around the way in which the

community sector experiences ICT. New forms of governance are developing

at the local level, based on older forms of localism revitalised within a new

situation. This ‘new localist governance’ for ICT-related community

development is intimately connected to the changing realities of the trends

outlined above. It represents a new institutionalisation of community

development in general and ICT-related community development in particular.

The theoretical significance of such institutionalisation will be explored further

in the next, and final, chapter.

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Chapter 9:

Information and communications technology, community and urban

governance: a theory of transition

9.1. The transformation of the sector: an overview

9.1.1. Revisiting the research hypothesis

This thesis is primarily concerned with understanding the recent history of ICT-

related community development in Britain. It stresses that this has by no

means been unilinear or simple. The terrain of community development has

been and remains contested, with different forces influencing its progress.

The hypothesis put forward in Section 3.7.3. contended that:

An examination of current ICT-related community development trends

indicates a movement towards greater incorporation into the newly

emerging structures of local governance, dominated by the imperatives

of public/private partnership and economic development. This has

resulted in a narrowing of the autonomy of community organisations to

pursue broader self-defined aims, if they are not to risk a loss of support

from funding sources.

The pressure upon community organisations to conform with this

‘partnership’ model of development has resulted in them narrowing the

scope of their own aims and objectives. This ‘self-policing’ process has

led to a loss of radicalism within the sector.

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This hypothesis developed out of a consideration of the history of ICT-related

community development and a review of the academic literature in the sector.

In turn, these tasks were conducted in pursuit of the following set of research

aims and objectives identified in Chapter 1.

Main Aims

- To investigate and characterise the current state of information and

communications technology-related community development within the
United Kingdom.
- To identify the central dynamics of change within ICT-related
community development, and examine the nature of possible transition
in the sector.

Supporting Objectives

- To explore and critically examine theories of the ‘information society’

and their relationship to the concepts of ‘community’ and ‘community
development’.
- To explore and critically examine theories and models of governance
as they relate to the community-ICT field.
- To investigate shifting local, regional and national policy environments
within which community-ICT initiatives have been developed.
- To undertake indicative case studies of ICT initiatives and diffusion in
the community development field.
- To identify the factors contributing to the perceived success and failure
of various kinds of ICT-related community development.
- To assess the implications of these findings for policy development in
areas such as differential access to ICT, social exclusion and local
information strategies.
- To relate these findings to the developing theory of the ‘information
society’ and its impact on the governance of communities.

The hypothesis begins to address the main objectives by positing an overall

view of the nature of change within the sector, and the general direction within

which such change is heading.

9.1.2. Revisiting the policy dimension and its significance for different
stakeholders

Section 3.7.3. also outlined three sets of research questions arising out of the

hypothesis. These were:

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Case study investigation:
- Is change in the sector uniform within and between localities, or do
differences exist across areas with divergent historical traditions?
- Which actors are most dominant in driving ICT-related community
development at the local level, and is this altering over time?
- How is the practice of social partnership between public, semi-public and
private agencies affecting ICT-related community development at local
levels?
- Are information strategies being successfully developed and implemented
within local community development arenas?
- Are community organisations substantially changing their aims, objectives
and practices in response to new conditions?

The analysis of the policy process:

- What main dynamics drive the policy process within UK ICT-related
community development, and from where do the major influences upon
this process derive?
- What principal factors affect the ways in which ICT-related community
organisations now sustain themselves in both financial and organisational
terms?
- How do broader social and political objectives, such as promoting
partnership and tackling social exclusion, feed into the formation of policy
around ICT-related community development?
- Is the national network of CRCs providing the community sector with an
adequate framework with which to meet emerging challenges relating to
ICT?
- What implications do current dominant trends within the sector hold for the
future of ICT-related community development?

The development of theory

- How may the overall nature of the relationship between community
development and ICTs be best understood?
- What have been the key dynamics of the four decade long process of
transformation in the relation of community development to the state?
- How may the new structures of governance surrounding ICT-related
community development be best characterised?
- In what ways is it possible to go beyond current dominant paradigms for
theorising the position held by the community-ICT field within wider
society?
- How can theory and practice be best linked to help ICT-related community
development move forward for the future?

The first two sets of research questions relate to case study investigation and

the analysis of the policy process. They have provided a series of foci for the

empirical and policy investigations undertaken in Chapters 5 to 8. To briefly

summarise, some key findings arising out of this process are that:

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- an interconnected process of transformation has taken place within the
sector of ICT-related community development
- this process involves a general narrowing of criteria deemed acceptable
for gaining funding. This is centred around new forms of partnership,
vocationalism and the professionalisation of community-ICT activity
- the manner in which the CRC network has expanded has resulted in a
greater degree of structural institutionalisation across the sector
- social inclusion has emerged as the dominant ideological construct
informing the new ICT-related community development framework
- community organisations are being forced to operate within the boundaries
of this new situation or risk the loss of funding and support.

These conclusions are of significance to different sets of stakeholders.

Specific parts of this thesis hold particular salience for at least three groups;

the practitioner, policy and academic communities. In some ways the lines

between them are blurred because of an unusually high degree of integration

within the sector. For example Manchester Telematics Training Partnership,

although acting together with practitioners on the ground, also operates within

an academic environment and has an important input into the consideration

and formulation of policy. Notwithstanding this, practitioners in the field of

ICT-related community development will find the empirical studies contained

within Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of particular interest, while Chapter 8 should be

especially useful to those concerned with the wider formulation of policy.

The final audience is that of the academic community, to which the rest of this

chapter is of primary relevance. The chapter locates the thesis within the

broader field of academic theory, containing interdisciplinary elements of use

across such fields as community informatics, information studies and urban

sociology. In particular, it contributes to the development of urban regime

theory by applying it to the study of information governance.

9.1.3. The theoretical significance of the research

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The third set of research questions outlined above, identified issues requiring

more investigation and analysis for the further development of theory in the

field. These are now discussed in the light of the evidence provided by

Chapters 5, 6 and 7, together with a reconsideration of the continuing salience

of the hypothesis itself.

It can be argued that, in some ways, the very nature of community

development itself has altered over the past three decades. At the start of the

1970s high levels of community activism and an oppositional approach to the

state characterised the field. By the middle of the first decade of the twenty-

first century this radicalism has been effectively supplanted by an

incorporation into the very structures so roundly attacked over thirty years

earlier.

Within the field of community development, ICT itself has only come to

prominence since the1980s. Before that date broader forms of community

information were the focus of much discussion and disputation. However, the

subsequent rise of ICT to the centre of the policy-making debate has

sometimes seemed irresistible, although not always mirrored by an equal

concern in practice within community organisations themselves. In a broader

context, this advance has taken place within – and contributed to - a turbulent

social, political and economic environment.

Together with Chapter 3, the case studies have shown that many grass roots

community groups and organisations have made innovative use of ICT over

the years, often being ahead of local and national government in

understanding the potential for the technology to change people’s lives. Such

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initiatives have frequently arisen within the context of a radical and activist

approach to community development, especially in the earlier days of ICT.

These were usually in keeping with the general feeling of the period that

community development held a special and independent place within the

welfare mix, operating both within and sometimes in opposition to wider

governmental structures.

As the position of community development within this mix has altered, so too

has the place and perception of ICT. Changing funding environments, altered

structures of local government, shifting policy focuses, new directions in

welfare generally; all these have impacted on the ways in which the

community development field has taken on ICT use, more even than the

development of the technologies themselves. Thus, from their inception, the

impact of new technologies must be viewed firmly within the context of

broader changes in the social, economic and political climate.

These changes have been rapid and far-reaching, greatly altering the form -

although not necessarily the core content – of capitalist relations at every

level. Community development has been far from immune from such

influences. Held (2001) argues that globalization encompasses a

‘cosmopolitan project’ which has transformed the political and economic scene

locally, nationally and supranationally. He says we are now witnessing a

possible period of the entrenchment of the new forms of political and

economic activity that have come into being. Although highly contested, these

provide a possible platform on which to build a more accountable form of

globalization. This thesis contends that while Held may be over-optimistic

regarding these new forms of governance, his central point remains valid. A

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relatively lengthy period of transformation is now giving way to an

entrenchment of new political and economic institutions.

9.2. Institutionalisation and entrenchment

Community development has been deeply affected by the breakdown and

subsequent repositioning of such vital structures of governance. As this study

has demonstrated, it has moved closer to the centre of policy making

concerns, and to the practical implementation of such policy. It has effectively

been repositioned within an altered welfare arena. What has taken place is a

shift from radicalism to incorporation. It is the institutionalisation of

information- and ICT-related community development.

9.2.1. The context of institutionalisation

An institutionalist account of processes of community development

emphasises the social relations within which we live and the social worlds

within which our relations with others are constructed. It examines the way

micro-relations of social interaction are shaped by their history and context

(Healey, 2001, p.57). This institutionalisation has involved community

development becoming increasingly tied into more formalised hierarchical

structures in various ways. Local initiatives have found themselves subject to

ever more stringent financial and bureaucratic control from above.

This has now reached the point where it can be legitimately argued that

community development no longer occupies a contradictory position of being

both opposed to and dependent upon the state. Rather, it is now a more

integrated element of the formalised structures of an emerging governance

regime. It is these structures that weigh down increasingly heavily upon the

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grassroots activities of local community organisations. However, when

examining these issues we must also be aware of the active work of

interpretation and invention through which people create and transform such

structures.

In what follows I shall develop a discussion of these issues in the context of

shifting forms of governance regarding community development. Some other

studies, such as Day (2001), ascribe primacy to more agency-centred

explanations of change within the field, particularly in relation to the take up

and use of ICT. Here, however, I shall be focusing largely on the powerful

structural pressures exerted over change. Such an emphasis, while

acknowledging the contribution and insights of more person-centred

approaches, remains at the centre of the thesis.

Chapter 8 has argued that a number of policy areas which were once only

tendencies have now become more or less entrenched and institutionalised

realities. Primary among these in terms of local governance has been the shift

towards an ever deeper involvement in policy formation and implementation

by semi- or non-public bodies. These include private corporations and a host

of quangos in many shapes and forms. Such bodies are at the heart of an

emerging ‘appointed world of local government’ (Skelcher, 1998, p.10).

The ethos of the ‘appointment’ approach to policy formation extends

downwards, for example, from bodies such as the National Lottery to entities

such as the Hattersley Development Trust examined in Chapter 6. Although

HDT and other entities retain a degree of ground level input and autonomy,

these exist within rigidly policed parameters validated at various hierarchical

316
levels. These are again often appointed rather than elected, and accountable

upwards rather than downwards to the local communities they serve. Local

authorities retain an important - but altered – position within this mix,

increasingly acting as enablers rather than enactors of policy.

Other examples abound of the ways in which the changed position of

community development impacts upon the practice of ICT-related community

development. These include the experience of Chorlton Workshop and SNIP

in their attempts to expand their activities within local communities. Vitality,

creativity and a desire for autonomy are as ever to be found within the ethos of

local groups, but the hard financial and political conditions of the new

community development are forcing these traits further to the margins of

activity.

All these factors add weight to the view that ICT-related community

development is becoming increasingly embedded within new sets of

structures, and that a shift from an old to a new localist information

governance has taken place. The components of the new governance are

discussed in greater detail in Section 9.3.2. below.

9.3. The shifting nature of governance and welfare

The experience of the case studies has demonstrated that alterations have

taken place in the practice of community development at every level. Chapter

2 examined a number of themes around the issues of governance and

welfare. Some of these will now be revisited in the light of the empirical

317
evidence gathered through the case study process and the policy conclusions

developed in Chapter 8. Some new questions over prevailing views of

development in the sector have developed out of these investigations.

Primary among these are doubts cast over the explanatory validity of the

dominant discourse in the field, the community informatics approach. These

problems are discussed below, with a critical view taken towards agency-

centred models of understanding the community-ICT arena. An alternative is

put forward which, while recognising the importance of human agency in

affecting the direction of change, locates the central motor of transformation

within newly emerging local, national and global structures.

9.3.1. Beyond community informatics

Chapter 2 illustrated that the shifts in community development policy have

moved the sector more closely towards the centre of the policy making arena,

but in an increasingly neutered form. It argued that community development is

now an almost seamlessly integrated part of that policy framework, resulting in

it operating with less autonomy than previously. Chapter 3 went on to contend

that despite these changes the relationship between community development

and the state remains complex, with scope for many different and

contradictory experiences at the local level. The case study findings have

borne this out empirically.

On the ground in community groups a tension continues to exist between local

community workers and the parameters they operate within. Gaining further

understanding of this ongoing struggle involves briefly revisiting some

conflicting conceptions of community activity. These broadly relate to differing

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emphases on questions of structure and agency in determining the nature

and scope of change in the sector. Firstly it must be said that in reality all

change is a combination of the two factors. It is people that define the issues

at hand and then act upon them, but they do so within certain constraints -

social, political, economic and organisational – that are not of their choosing.

The community informatics approach recognises these constraints,

foregrounding the complex dynamic relationship between technological

innovation and changing social relationships. It argues that the fluid nature of

the new media offer the potential of being used as a liberating and

empowering tool to challenge entrenched positions and structures (Keeble

and Loader, 2001, pp.4-5). To a greater or lesser extent it is this view of

human networks triumphing over structure that informs the discourse (see for

example Day and Schuler, 2004). The evidence of the case studies, and

broader findings about policy directions within this research, indicates that

these actions take place in a much less open environment than agency

proponents assume. Rather we can see that in reality ground-level action

tends to occur within parameters that are essentially defined and shaped

externally.

This is not to say that community networks do not constantly challenge and

push those boundaries and in the process of doing so help reshape and

redefine them from the bottom upwards. Nor does it mean that policy cannot

be developed at the ‘middle’ level which aims to promote diversity and certain

levels of radicalism. The discussions and divisions within Manchester City

Council illustrate that the policy environment at local levels remains contested.

Different groups have different agendas and these can be and are fought out

319
in the community development arena. But the evidence in this thesis suggests

that such experiences are partial, only reflecting certain aspects of reality.

Community development exists and operates within a much wider arena, one

being shaped in the first instance at a much broader level by a number of

factors that impact on, but are very much outside the control of, local actors.

Although these too are open to contestation and the play of politics, there is a

clearly recognisable tendential shift towards new imperatives and boundaries

within which local community development can operate.

Before pondering the specific question of the current state of community

development with regard to ICT, it is worthwhile reflecting briefly on what the

term community development now represents. As Chapter 3 outlined,

community development in the early nineteen seventies occupied a dualistic

position at the margins of the welfare state. It existed at the intersection of

official state provision for local neighbourhoods, and community self-

organisation and activism. In the ensuing period, the activist side of this

equation has given way to a partial professionalisation of the sector; one

which although undergoing various twists and turns along the way is now

almost complete. Community development can be said to have become fully

incorporated into the new structures of local welfare.

This does not mean that community activism has gone away, but merely that it

has found new avenues largely outside the jurisdiction of community

development proper. Thus a separation has taken place between the realms

of community activism and community development. The case studies show

that this is mirrored within the third sector generally, where local groups that

actively oppose the new restrictions placed upon their activities by funding

320
agencies and quangos are generally seen as positioning themselves beyond

the funding pale. Chorlton Workshop, for example, has been forced to

considerably tailor its plans away from more radical primary initiatives in order

to gain lottery funding. Current trends such as the rationalisation of National

Lottery Community Fund structures in 2004 to become the Big Lottery Fund,

and the expansion of government policy to introduce broadband access to

local communities within strictly controlled guidelines suggest a strengthening

of this trend. Within this context, the view that grassroots agency can exert

widespread leverage over hierarchical structures seems over-optimistic.

We have seen in Chapter 2 that any discussion of the rise of an information

society needs to contextualise the position of ICT and other technologies

within a broader social framework. The case has been made, for example,

that variations on the theme of a new informational mode of development

ascribe an over importance to the imperatives of technology, while

underestimating the influence of other economic and political factors in

change. This has largely been borne out by the findings of the case studies

and by the broader study of UK policy formation in Chapter 8. Wider issues

regarding the role of ICT in processes of globalisation have been shown to

follow similar patterns. The domestic policy agenda surrounding community-

ICT is firmly shaped by more extended concerns of government such as

combating social exclusion and the need to reskill workers for a changing

labour market. Both ICT and information generally play an important role in

not only the response to, but the shaping of, this situation. This however is not

primary or dominant but only one among a number of equally important

factors.

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With this relationship in mind it is instructive to ask what major factors are

driving the community-ICT sector forward at present. Day (2001) argues that

a participative community informatics approach is needed if information

society policy development is to progress. In doing this he proposes a much

greater involvement of citizens in the policy-making process. Only then can

community-ICT policy overcome a community services approach and develop

a more community action-based agenda (Day, 2001, p.319). While these are

laudable aims, it can be argued that Day is guilty of concentrating upon the

process of policy making rather than addressing some of the more intractable

problems regarding the imperatives and interests of government, business

and – to a lesser extent – local authorities within the policy arena. The

community informatics approach hence overstates the extent to which ground-

level human agency factors can confront and overcome the new realities of

community development incorporation into a wider neoliberal policy agenda.

Thus, when looking at the role of, for example, CRCs within the case studies,

it is clear that centres with divergent histories and funding bases are in

practice performing broadly similar functions. This is not coincidental. It is

part of a more general tendency – uneven but clearly distinguishable –

towards a greater homogenisation of the core activities of CRCs in the new

phase of ICT-related community development identified above. The ongoing

impact of ICT upon community development depends not only or even mainly

on questions of access, funding and participation. These details of policy are

(important) subsets of a much broader debate about the direction of policy

which must include notions of conflicting interests and differentials of power.

Community-ICT can affect the direction of change, it can make some new

activities possible and it can accelerate existing trends in community

322
development. But, as already stated, these trends are fuelled primarily by

wider social, economic and political factors within which ICT is part of the mix,

but by no means dominant. The case studies have shown that the ways in

which community groups, local authorities and CRCs themselves direct their

activities can have important effects. The community informatics movement is

therefore a significantly positive force for the democratisation of the sector,

but it tends to underestimate the entrenched nature of the structural

tendencies it is up against. At the local level these are nothing less than a

transformed set of conditions for the governance of localities.

9.3.2. The new localist information governance (NLIG)

Chapter 8 ended by identifying a set of conditions that have come into being

and which together make up what may be termed a new localist governance

(NLG). The main features of this new governance are outlined in Table 9.1.

below. It is possible to further refine aspects of this model to the postulation of

a more specific new localist information governance (NLIG). This idea is

developed in Table 9.2., which argues that the various component parts of this

NLIG have become entrenched, resulting in a transformation of activity in the

sector. The policy themes explored in Chapter 8, such as partnership, funding

information strategies and the CRC network are primarily influenced in their

direction by much broader factors than the technological logic of ICT or by the

activities of actors at ground level. Case study examples such as those of

SNIP in Liverpool indicate that wider influences are at work in bringing about

change.

Chapter 2 explored some of these influences in its discussion of urban

regimes and changing forms of governance. The further identification of an

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emerging form of NLG requires some more explanation. It is first necessary to

state that the shift towards NLG is tendential, uneven and incomplete. Indeed,

as Miller et al (2000) point out there is not a single model for local governance

but rather a competition between the range of models outlined in Chapter 2.

The localist model is therefore only one within a range of options. It is however

the most widespread and commonly expressed of the ideal types described

earlier and the model to which much local governance is returning, albeit with

elements of the individualist model favoured by many on the political Right

during the eighteen year tenure of the Conservatives.

Thus, NLG can be characterised as a return to an altered localist perspective

in running local affairs after a period of transformation and upheaval. The

term ‘localist’ suggests that local authorities are returning to the centre of

policy-making and implementation regarding those ICT-related and other

community development issues within the local arena. This however is in a

modified form with local authorities increasingly playing the role of enabler for

the variety of actors now associated with local governance. The case studies

have demonstrated the continuing position of local authorities at the heart of

local governance, although the precise balance differs in each locality. This

reflects a number of wider studies (see for example Geddes, 2001) which

have identified a shift from a situation where local authorities and other

localised public agencies were primarily and often exclusively responsible for

the provision of local public services, to one where that responsibility has

become far more widely spread across the public, private and not-for-profit

sectors.

324
Benington (1997) has found that in many instances local authorities continue

to be dominant or leading actors in local partnerships. They have sought to

reposition themselves in the new context of the mixed market and constraints

on local government spending by emphasising their wider role of local

community leadership in partnership with other agencies and community

interests. Alongside this they claim legitimacy through the democratic process

and their responsibility to represent the interests of the whole of local society.

As we shall see later, this general position applies equally to initiatives

specifically focused on ICT-related community development. The new localist

governance involves a stripping down of the role of the local state, with

various of its previous component parts leaving the elected domain to function

within the appointed domain. Table 9.1. sets out to compare and contrast the

major characteristics of the old and new localist models.

Table 9.1. Old and new localist models of local governance

Old Localist New Localist

Key goal
Attitude to local autonomy
Attitude to participation
Key service delivery
mechanism
Key political mechanism
Expression and meeting of
locally defined community
needs
Strongly in favour
Supportive but gives
primacy to elected
representatives
Multi-functional elected
local authorities
Representative politics
through local elections
Meeting local community
needs within context of
policy goals developed
both locally and externally
Inclined to favour, but
accepts that this can take
place within externally
defined parameters
Supportive but gives
primacy to elected
representatives and
appointed agencies
Core enabling role for
elected local authorities,
operating in partnership
with appointed agencies
Representative politics in
partnership with appointed
agencies

Modified from Miller, Dickson and Stoker, 2000, p.29.

325
The old localist model sees local governance as the expression of local

choice, with the institutions of local government accountable to the local

populace. These institutions must have sufficient autonomy to reflect local

rather than externally defined needs. Participation by the public is encouraged

but priority is given to the judgement of elected representatives. Primacy of

service delivery is given to traditional multi-purpose elected and accountable

local authorities. These govern through a representative system of politics

which balances and weighs competing demands from the community before

coming to their decisions about the way forward.

The new localist model favours local choice but is heavily influenced by policy

goals developed outside of the local authority remit. Local autonomy is

increasingly limited to a specific local expression of needs defined externally,

via both national policy forums and quasi-public non-governmental agencies.

Public participation is encouraged but priority is given to a combination of

elected representatives and actors appointed through a variety of agencies.

Elected local authorities retain a core service delivery role, but this is

increasingly as an enabling force operating in partnership with other –

appointed – agencies. Elected councillors remain at the centre of a

representative system of politics, but one which has been divested of a key

series of functions. These have largely been reallotted to appointed agents.

Within this new context, and as a result of broadly the same set of processes,

there has arisen a dominant new mode of information governance. As

Chapter 8 indicated, together with local governance generally, information

326
governance has undergone a transformation in the past thirty or so years. A

new form of information governance has emerged out of these changes, and

is becoming increasingly rooted within local governance regimes. Table 9.2.

characterises the differences – in the form of ideal types - between the old

and new localist models of local information governance.

Table 9.2. Old and new localist models of local information governance

Old localist information New localist information

Key Goals
Governance mechanisms
Funding mechanisms
Political context
Information strategies
Sector workers
Method of delivery
governance
Socially and politically
oriented, providing broad
range of information
Elected overseeing
bodies, giving high degree
of ground level autonomy
Primarily national and
local state provision
Anti-poverty, class-based,
collectivist emancipation
Based mainly on collective
social and political
development
Activist outlook, ‘in and
against the state’
Neighbourhood
information centres,
accountable downwards
governance
Increasingly economically
oriented, providing narrow
skills and training
Appointed and elected
overseeing bodies, with
close scrutiny of ground
level actions
Mix of public, quasi-public
and private actors
Social inclusion,
partnerships, individual
empowerment
Based mainly on economic
development, with social
and political add-ons
Increased
professionalisation,
working within formal
structures
Community-ICT resource
centres, accountable
upwards

The old localist information governance had as its main goals a range of social

and political aspirations aimed at a redistribution of power in the sphere of

information and knowledge generally. Although the radicalism of these aims

can be overstated, they were generally predicated on a belief that people in

local communities should be exposed to broad forms of information such as

the ‘Neighbourhood Fact Bank’ espoused by Gibson (1979). Community

groups operated within a context where elected local authorities provided

327
funding which could then be utilised relatively autonomously at the ground

level. The primary funding mechanism for a wide range of programmes was

through a mix of local and national state initiatives, such as the Community

Development Project discussed in Chapter 2.

The driving force behind action was to tackle poverty. This related not only to

poverty as an economic condition, but as a social and political phenomenon.

An acknowledgement – sometimes diffuse, sometimes with a sharper edge -

that this was a class, or at the very least a collective, issue was widespread.

In keeping with the broader collective, anti-poverty context local information

strategies were designed to focus mainly on issues of social and political

development. Economic development played an important but secondary role

in this process. Further, many ground level community development workers

developed the programmes into more radical initiatives than had been

envisaged at policy-making level. This led to an activist outlook with many

workers seeing themselves as working both in and against the state. Much of

the activity within localities was centred around the Neighbourhood

Information Centre (NIC) movement which advanced an ethos of participative

democracy and accountability to the local communities served.

It can be argued that a ‘new information governance’ has largely replaced this

situation. This new form of governance is increasingly oriented towards

economic development goals, and has narrowed activities down to prioritise

ICT skills and training issues. This is in keeping with the new vocationalist

and workfare principles described earlier. Ground level activities are ever

more closely scrutinised by a mixture of elected and appointed bodies. These

are made up of a mix of public, quasi-public and private actors, operating

328
within a broader political context informed by the ideology of social inclusion,

partnership and individual empowerment.

The bulk of local information strategies focus mainly on issues of economic

development, although almost always containing within them a number of

secondary social and political goals. Overall, the workforce in the sector can

be characterised as having undergone a partial professionalisation, with

community development workers operating within more formalised structures

than ever before. Service delivery is being largely carried out through the

auspices of an expanding network of community-ICT resource centres.

Although these operate with varying levels of autonomy, they are increasingly

accountable upwards to governing bodies on which local community voices

are in a distinct minority.

The NLIG offers a variety of opportunities and dangers for community

organisations. At one level there may be a greater incidence of local groups

finding their way on to the boards of governance bodies at the most immediate

levels. The case of Hattersley Computer Centre illustrates just such an

example of this type of co-option. Once there however, groups are often

faced with important differentials of power as other actors assert their

inherently greater leverage over the situation. This happens on at least two

levels. Firstly because corporate, quango or local authority actors tend to

have greater organisational resources behind them, but also because the

funding and regulatory environment is often weighted in favour of economic

development issues which must be closely followed. As with other aspects of

the appointed state (or, more correctly, appointed regimes) a democratic

deficit and lack of accountability can easily ensue.

329
The notion of NLIG allows for the extension of urban regime theory into the

realm of information governance. As such it possesses some of both the

strengths and weaknesses of that larger theory. First of all it contains a clear

expression that within the realm of information governance a modified form of

localism is now clearly emerging, and entrenching itself, from the upheavals of

the 1980s and 1990s. The policy directions taken remain open and malleable.

So too do the particular formations in different localities and their relationships

with other policy forums. As a concept NLIG is open enough to be subject to

change over time and space, but also defined enough to represent an

accurate general picture of the directions in which community-ICT governance

is heading. These changes may be considered within a wider discussion of

the relevance of regulation theory to the ideas expressed above.

The usefulness of regulation theory as an overarching way of approaching

change in society was outlined in Chapter 2. It was acknowledged that within

regulation theory a number of positions can be found, each with a greater or

lesser focus on either economic or social and political change within late

capitalism. However, all share a common approach to critically analysing

capitalism as an holistic system with a dynamic interchange taking place

between the regime of accumulation and the mode of regulation. The

concentration on issues around the governance of welfare expounded by

Jessop (2000) provided a useful route towards – and broader

contextualisation of – the focus on questions of governance at the local level.

However, the work of Jessop and much of regulation thought as a whole has

operated at a fairly theoretical level, lacking in detailed empirical content. In

turn, empirical studies directly referring back to the larger theory are rare,

330
although schools of thought such as urban regime theory are clearly

influenced by regulation thought.

It is within this context that the methodology of interrogating the nature of

urban regimes used within the case studies has been chosen. The emerging

picture around new localist information governance can be said to herald the

appearance of a nascent regime of NLIG. Our empirical studies have taken

place within the narrow geographical sphere of the North West of England.

Even here though it is possible to identify such NLIG regimes developing in

both Manchester and Liverpool. Each has its own characteristics, but each

also carries with it broader defining similarities in the ways that coalitions are

built. Key among these is the position of local authorities acting as facilitators

and brokers between a number of competing actors. It can be said that this

represents a partial reassertion by the state of its central role in local affairs

within the new set of conditions that exist.

As Pierre and Peters (2000) argue, the extent to which the state conducts and

co-ordinates such changes, or merely responds to changes in environment is

a huge one. As is that of how successful such a new position can prove in the

longer term as external pressures grow more intense. Here it seems enough

to state that after a period of immense flux, new governance regimes are

emerging and becoming more embedded. These in turn can be seen to

reflect many of the broader shifts in welfare governance described in Chapters

2 and 3. The consequences of such changes for wider questions of

participatory democracy, community self-organisation, ICT-networking and

many other issues are multifaceted. They do seem in practice to lend weight

to Jessop’s notion of emerging ‘workfare regimes’ with a mode of operation

331
based on local differentials of power, shored up by workfare-oriented policy

chains such as those described in Chapter 8.

9.4. Structure and agency in information governance

This thesis began by posing the question of where ICT-related community

development presently stands in the UK; how it got to the position it holds, and

what its prospects are for the future. To begin to answer these questions has

required looking at a number of broader areas. The roles of ICT and of

community development have changed within a social world that has itself

come through a period of transformation both locally and globally. The old

certainties of the post-war period have been swept aside. The emergence of

new forms of community development and their regulation can now be clearly

identified. However, even the increasingly incorporated and institutionalised

community-ICT scene is still at a nascent stage of development. To claim a

full theorisation of the new position would be inappropriate. The answers

provided in Chapters 8 and 9 to the research questions posed in Section

3.7.3. are not definitive. They have, however, addressed the core issues, and

certain key features have been identified with some assuredness.

Firstly, the thesis as a whole - and the NLIG model in particular - offers a

meso-level bridge between the micro-level empiricism of most community

informatics studies, and the macro-oriented theories of writers such as

Jessop. This corrective to the currently dominant CI approach provides a basis

from which future research can proceed, both within the community-ICT field

and in wider ‘information society’ studies.

332
Secondly, following the initial hypothesis, the thesis has demonstrated the

manner in which community development has moved from the radical margins

to the incorporated centre of local governance over the past thirty or so years.

This process remains contested and is more marked in some areas than

others, with many local differences and exceptions remaining within the case

study areas. In Liverpool for example, the NLIG model can be said to fit only

fairly loosely, with traditional non-public actors retaining a degree of cultural

influence beyond any lingering economic potency.

Thirdly, regarding ICT, it is clear that although it has emerged to play an

important role in the direction of community development, it remains one part

of a broad mix of factors influencing the direction of activity in the field. The

sector exists within, and seems increasingly constrained by, a policy

environment that stresses directed skills and training to the detriment of

autonomy and creative self-organisation. The empirical findings of the thesis

do much to inform the policy debate around ICT-related community

development. In particular they have allowed the identification of some key

dynamics of change, laying the ground for the development of a new model of

local information governance regimes.

Finally, this in turn provides material for a greater understanding of the

structural reasons behind the continuing ‘digital divide’. This imbalance exists

between those who exert disproportionate power over the arena of

community-ICT, and those who attempt to work independently with ICT to

transform the nature of information access and use within local communities.

The reconsideration of the role of structuring forces in shaping this divide

333
begins to redress the over-concentration placed on questions of agency by the

dominant paradigm of community informatics. It allows instead for a dynamic

interchange between the poles of structure and agency, understanding that

macro-level structuring forces exist alongside other driving forces at the micro-

level, variously fostering social cohesion or encouraging fracture and division

(Healey, 2001). As Marx observes:

Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please;
they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but
under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from
the past.
(Marx, 1950, p.225)

Any attempt to develop ICT-related community development in a democratic

and accountable way must take into account the diverse nature of these

circumstances in the sector and beyond.

334
Appendix

Examples of contrasting interview schedules for Case Studies 1, 2 and 3.

For every interview undertaken within Case Studies 1, 2 and 3, a schedule

was made. For each of these, an indicative list of questions was drawn up in
advance. For each area of interest, a main question and at least one
supplementary question was devised. These were introduced into, or left out
of, the interview situation as and when deemed appropriate. If the interview
moved into territory not covered by the schedule, the decision was taken in the
meeting whether to pursue these new lines of inquiry or guide the interview
back to the prepared questions. A sample interview schedule for each of the
case studies is provided below.

Case Study 1. Schedule for interview with Senior Principal Economic

Initiatives Officer, Economic Initiatives Group, Manchester City Council.

Organisational philosophy
What is the history of your organisation?
How and why was the Economic Initiatives Group set up?
What position does it occupy within the city council as a whole?
How does the nature and style of work of the EIG compare with that of
other departments?
What have been the major ICT-related initiatives developed by the
EIG?
What are the main aims and objectives of your organisation?
Who sets these and how do they change over time?
Is there any tension between the objectives of the EIG and those of
other sections of the city council?
How does community development and ICT feature within the overall
aims of the EIG?

Organisational structure
What is the management structure of the EIG?
Who are individual officers answerable to?
Is the EIG based on similar management structures to other
departments?
How does the EIG receive its funding?
Is all support received from within the city council or is there an
element of funding from external sources?
What is your role within the organisation?
Where do you stand within the organisational hierarchy?
How far does your position involve the facility to make autonomous
decisions?

ICT-related funding and support activity of the EIG

What are the main criteria for developing ICT-related programmes and
initiatives?
Do these change over time or across projects ?
Is there a broader city council information strategy that the EIG works
within?

335
 Are the issues of community development and economic development
regarded as linked or separate ?
Do the criteria relating to ICT-based projects differ from those
applicable to other types of initiative?
Which ICT-related projects are you currently involved with and in what
ways?
What outcomes do you seek when developing ICT-related projects?
How are these monitored and evaluated?

Partnership
With what forms of partnership is the EIG involved?
What sort of joint activities do you enter into?
Has the balance changed over time between public and semi-public or
private sector involvement in ICT initiatives?
How does the EIG work towards partnership with the local voluntary
sector?
With which other funders does the EIG liaise?
What are the bases of these liaisons and how do they work in
practice?
How can the relationship between local, national and supranational
levels of funding supply be successfully managed?

Overall reflection
What is your overall view of the way your organisation works in relation to ICT-
related community development?
How have things changed over time in relation to the promotion ICT-
related initiatives?
What do you envisage being the key features of the next period in
relation to involvement with ICT-related community development?

Case Study 2. Schedule for interview with Project Manager, Hattersley

Computer Centre.

Organisational philosophy
What is the history of your organisation?
How and why was your organisation founded?
What is the social and economic profile of the community you work
within?
What functions does your organisation undertake within the local
community?
What are the main aims and objectives of your organisation?
Who decides these objectives and do they change over time?
How, if at all, is ICT seen in terms of wider social or economic
objectives?

Organisational structure
What is the management structure of your organisation?
How is overall control of the organisation exercised?
Which organisations sit on your management committee?
How is general policy- and decision-making carried out?
How does your organisation receive its funding?
Does the organisation have a constant supply of funding?

336
 From what sources does funding derive?
What is your role within the organisation?
Where do you stand within the organisational hierarchy?
How far does your position involve the facility to make autonomous
decisions?

ICT-related activities of the organisation

What ICT-related activities and initiatives is your organisation involved in?
What ICT facilities does the organisation possess or have access to?
What ICT-related support does the centre provide to the local
community?
On what basis can people or community groups use your facilities?
How can members of the community have an input into the running of
the computer centre?
Does the organisation undertake any outreach work beyond the
computer centre?
Is an emphasis placed on people gaining qualifications or making
broader use of the ICT facilities?
How does your ICT-related work correspond to the wider activities of
the Hattersley Development Trust?

Overall reflection
What is your overall view of the way your organisation works in relation to ICT-
related community development?
How would you rank the overall contribution the computer centre has
made to local community life on the Hattersley estate?
What do you envisage being the key challenges of the next period?

Case Study 3. Schedule for interview with Project Manager, John Moores
Foundation.

Organisational philosophy
What is the history of your organisation?
How and why was your organisation founded?
What functions does your organisation undertake within the local
community?
What are the main aims and objectives of your organisation?
Who decides these objectives and do they change over time?
Are there any objectives specifically linked to the use of ICT?

Organisational structure
What is the management structure of your organisation?
Who has overall control of the organisation?
How is general policy- and decision-making carried out?
How does your organisation receive its funding?
Does the organisation have a constant supply of funding?
What is your role within the organisation?
Where do you stand within the organisational hierarchy?
How far does this involve the facility to make autonomous decisions?

Funding and support criteria

What are the main criteria for supporting community organisations?
Do these change over time or across projects?

337
 Which types of project will your organisation not fund?
What criteria apply specifically to the support of ICT-related projects?
Do these differ from those applicable to other types of community
project?
What ICT-related projects do you currently support?
How long and in what way do you support these projects?
What outcomes do you expect when providing ICT-related funding?
How are these monitored and evaluated?
What forms does ICT-related funding and support take?
Is it always cash based or also provided through other means such as
consultancy and advice?
Is funding provided only for specific lengths of time or on a longer term
basis?

Partnership
With what forms of public or private partnership is your organisation involved?
What sort of joint activities do you enter into?
How do you see the role of the Foundation in such partnerships?
What is your relationship with the local voluntary sector?
With which other funders does your organisation liaise?
What are the bases of these liaisons and how do they work in
practice?
What is your relationship with organisations within the Moores family?

Overall reflection
What is your overall view of the way your organisation works in relation to ICT-
related community development?
How have things changed over time in relation to ICT-related funding?
What do you envisage being the key features of the next period?

338
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