Engaging local communities with the governance of social and cultural infrastructures

Fransman, Jude (2024). Engaging local communities with the governance of social and cultural infrastructures. In: The British Academy ed. Social and cultural infrastructure for people and policy: Discussion Papers. Social and cultural infrastructure for people and policy. London: The British Academy, pp. 38–61.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5871/infrastructure/discussion-papers

URL: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/s...

Abstract

While the engagement of local communities is a recurring theme and a key recommendation across the policy-focused literature on Social and Cultural Infrastructures (SCIs), there is a tendency to present both SCIs and ‘community engagement’ as unproblematic and inherently virtuous drivers of social cohesion or social capital. This obscures potential tensions around the function, resourcing, ownership and inclusivity of SCIs, as well as the significant evidence that participatory interventions can be ineffective and unrepresentative, undermine democratic processes, exacerbate inequalities and risk damaging the wellbeing of participants. In response, this paper seeks to support policymakers to determine appropriate methods for engaging place-based communities in the governance of SCIs. It draws on literature from a range of scholarly fields to examine three sets of cross-cutting challenges relating to place, assets, and community. This discussion informs a framework that is then applied to a discussion of seven approaches to community engagement, highlighting both their potential and limitations. The paper concludes by suggesting that community engagement can itself function as a form of SCI, yet, like all SCIs, is subject to contestation and requires significant investment to ensure effectiveness, inclusivity, and sustainability. Policymakers are urged to think systemically by paying explicit attention to their strategic assumptions, contexts of implementation and modes of representation and to assess their capacity to support ethical practice, recognising and resourcing the labour of engagement. Where capacity does not extend to supporting engagement responsively and responsibly, policymakers should be transparent and consider other approaches to context-sensitive and equitable resourcing.

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