|
2001 Conference - Rotorua
  
No. 3: Encourages Broad Based
Participation, Social Connectedness, Inclusiveness and Diversity of
Thinking
"Communities can often be compared to an
Australian Rules Football match where 30,000 people who need the
exercise watch 36 players who don't"
(Peter Kenyon)
"As a rule of thumb, involve everyone in
everything"
(Tom Peters)
Social Capital
"the fabric that holds the community
together"
(Robert Putnam)
Features of social organisation like networks, the quality and
intensity of civic involvement, the level of trust and norms that
exist between individuals and/or groups within a community, and
which facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.
- Civic engagement
- Social connectedness
- Inclusiveness
- Cooperation
- Mutualism
- Trust
- Reciprocity
- Collective well being
- Valuing of individual gifts
Decline in Social Participation between
1970-1997 in the USA
(According to Robert Putnam)
- Attendance at public meetings dropped from 22% to 12%
- Participation in committee meetings dropped from 17% to 8%
- Decline of 60% in dinner parties - having friends over for
dinner dropped from 14 times a year to 8 times
- Having a picnic went from 5 a year to 2 a year
"Much hard evidence has accumulated that civic
engagement and social connectedness are practical preconditions for
better schools, safer streets and even healthier and longer
lives"
(Robert Putnam)
"We are committed to ... strengthening the
foundations of Australia's civic culture. We believe that social
capital and the building of networks of trust and understanding in
national and local communities are vital if these communities are to
respond to the challenges of change."
(Prime Minister John Howard, Address to the World
Economic Forum, 1998)
|
