Society News
Climate change enters the boardroom
You’d have thought that with the near-frenzy over Copenhagen, climate change has shouldered its way into mainstream alongside issues such as national debt or health provision. But the recent flurry of public mudslinging between ‘climate believers’ and ‘climate deniers’ (Glaciergate and Datagate, to name just two) has shown that it is still a divisive issue. This doesn’t bode well for prospects of decisive, effective action to reduce the impact of climate change, or to prepare society for...
Political legitimacy and membership
There's a good suggestion made on the Power 2010 campaign. It argues that:
No political Party should be registered with the Electoral Commission unless it has a democratic constitution which can be changed by a majority of its members on the basis of one member one vote.
This suggests an interesting idea - that part of the blame for the undemocratic nature of parliament and people's feelings of a lack of accountability stems from the fact that the membership of these parties themselves is...
It's all about equality...
Equality seems to be hot on everyone’s lips at the moment. With a general election in the not too distance future, and a new Equalities bill on the brink of publication, the major parties are all trying to show to Britain how they would tackle equalities issues, and how they are the people to take this issue forward. A new series of pamphlets by Demos tackles this very issue, illustrating policy plans for each of the parties on equality issues in Britain. An interesting insight into each...
What do we value?
On the day we have officially come out of recession, and new research on our social attitudes has been published, I would recommend taking a look at the McKinsey interview with the extremely lucid Jim Wallis (you can watch, listen to or read it here on the McKinsey Quarterly website, though you will have to create a free account to do so). In the light of the current discussions taking place at Davos, he suggests that the question we should be asking about the economic crisis is not ‘when...
Techie trends - flash in the pan or key tools for your work?
It’s the turn of the decade and predictions abound. The Evening Standard recently produced its version: what impact will technology be having on our lives in 2020 ? You’ll be able to control the TV with your mind, play games telepathically, and even have your fridge make your shopping list for you. Sounds like this will all make for a great weekend, but how is it also relevant for your working week?
The Power of your mind
How can using the power of your mind to control machines help you...
Wellbeing: a new paradigm or just a fad?
As someone with a long interest in language and how it is used, I am often fascinated by how changes of terminology take place. Suddenly people are using a new term, sometimes to refer to a new concept or approach, but sometimes the new term simply replaces an old one. Well-being is not a new term or even a new concept, but it is certainly being used much more these days, and in different ways too.
I am a great believer in the idea of ‘confluence theory’, the notion that significant changes...
Future of wellbeing: what does this mean for you and your organisation?
From debates on wellbeing as a political goal, to positive psychology 'wellbeing' is being used more and more. But what does this term mean? And more importantly, perhaps, what does it mean to civil society organisations?
Many charities have wellbeing at the heart of what they do, even if they don't realise it. The sector can play a vital role in this directing this issue to shape society into a good society.
Join us on 23 February for the Future of Wellbeing seminar (PM4) at NCVO's annual...
I am what I read?
For a while, my news mainly came from the RSS feeds I chose to come into my netvibes account. This was a form of personalising the news I received grouped into things more likely to interest me (so tabs for politics, culture, the third sector, technology etc) – still in the main from news providers and journals, but divided up by topic not source. Then I started to use my network on delicious to find my way to articles that friends and colleagues had bookmarked as being of interest. ...
Walled gardens and climbing over fences
Last week I spoke at the NCVO Membership schemes conference on what the future of membership might look like. I raised one of the key things that has struck me in our research to date: the difference between recruitment and retention for membership organisations. As Colin Rochester puts it in his Making Sense of Volunteering,
“the cocktail of motives that lead people to engage [in the first place] may be very different from the factors that maintain their involvement”
In general – and I’d...
More on whether we get what we pay for
A while ago, I wrote a piece on the ‘freemium’ model that seems to be growing in relevance as people’s patterns of consumption of information and products, and their willingness to pay for them.
If you are interested in this topic and have a spare few minutes over the weekend, you might like to take a look at this slideshow (warning - there are 263 slides). Since we're all time poor, I thought I'd highlight that of particular interest to membership organisations are slides 200, 216 and 217...
