"Looking at the work through social value, it’s not about how many people use the building but how much knowledge can you embed locally through turning everything into a learning opportunity" www.theguardian.com/artanddesign... Kudos @immykaur.bsky.social

The systemic risks of underperforming housing. From a (predictably) fab set of slides on Civic Square by @immykaur.bsky.social docs.google.com/presentation...

I saw @raechelkelly.bsky.social today on a train platform and got to spend 3 hilarious and unexpected hours together. Going to try Blue Sky for real now.

One of the best things I’ve read all year.

One of the best things I’ve read all year.

“We must root ourselves back in the land; the way the land speaks to us; the way we build on the land; the way that the land can nurture us, and the way the land nurtures itself.” —Abdi Hassan www.instagram.com/reel/DICsBsp...

Just read another post about Nick Booth - this one by Kate Cooper.

Sad to read the news about @podnosh.bsky.social in this post by @danslee.bsky.social. Nick was one of the early pioneers of social media across charities and local government.

For years I’d managed to avoid the work WhatsApp group life, and tried to keep phone as private as possible. Why is everyone organising on WhatsApp again professionally, please can we use Slack. It’s too much, even if you mute, there’s still stuff constantly.

But in my experience, there is always one essential ingredient: scrappy people who are willing to work backward from goals that seem impossibly ambitious at the start — Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

But in my experience, there is always one essential ingredient: scrappy people who are willing to work backward from goals that seem impossibly ambitious at the start — Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

'I thought about it in my head and I felt it in my heart and I longed for it to happen with all of my body and soul , but I made it with my hands.' — Rob Ryan

The greatest weariness comes from work not done. Eric Hoffer

We used to have a cartoon that said "Everything I didn't do yesterday plus everything I haven't done today plus everything I won't do tomorrow completely exhausts me". Always rang true.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done. Eric Hoffer

The post office (+ public libraries) are 🌟. We *could* think so much more capaciously + creatively about what they can be! Check out our Local Media lesson on post offices (relevant slides start @ 48): localmedia.wordsinspace.net/spring2024/p... And this recent talk is about civic institutions:

Excited to share a new report by Material Cultures, situating social and ecological possibilities and context for the retrofit of the Neighbourhood Public Square at @civicsquare.bsky.social. In part it shares an ecoregional mapping of Birmingham + West Midlands, + much more. bit.ly/BuildingSkillsCS

Excellent work. I was part of a group in Birmingham, UK (cc: @immykaur.bsky.social) that similarly created and distributed benches throughout the neighborhood. Just saw one still in place this morning!

When I sit on my boards the position makes you feel so powerful, because you get to just say stuff to people delivering with no responsibility in reality for whether it’s actually possible, you don’t actually hold the risk and if you do, you then stop anything transformative or really risky ..

Friends, organisers, movement of peeps organising together, shifting to the organisational logic is not for the faint hearted. I also really think that the amount of things you have to hold on, not say what happened in reality, causes illness, the performative nonsense, is exactly that nonsense.

“I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery & the practice of politics in life to disappear. I want the institution to understand: if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside. Ceasefire now, arms embargo now free Palestine.” www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I trued Reformer Pilates for the first time today. I felt like a hippo on a tightrope.

Excited to share a new report by Material Cultures, situating social and ecological possibilities and context for the retrofit of the Neighbourhood Public Square at @civicsquare.bsky.social. In part it shares an ecoregional mapping of Birmingham + West Midlands, + much more. bit.ly/BuildingSkillsCS

Reading back meeting notes from ten years ago, and it’s still all funding uncertainty and insufficient time to think and plan, even when we were 20% as big as we are today. Fifteen years of running an NGO come February and it’s a run in a hamster wheel, the wheel just gets bigger.

“We're off track against where we should be - and that's things like flood defences, or are our houses built on flood plains? In the summer are our cities ready for extreme heat? These basic things” Good to see Emma Pinchbeck settled in at the CCC and making clear the need for climate adaptation

This is how to do it, kids: Home insurance is now a climate story. Put it on the front, and put "climate change" at the top. Especially now that deniers will control the federal and state government. www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/hom...

It’s a privilege to be responsible for something. I’d take responsibility over motivation any day.

Directorship in this field isn’t about how skilled you are alone, it’s really honestly just about how much responsibility and risk you’re willing to be responsible for in this current system.

BlueSky making liberals feel safer not just because Twitter went to shit, but they can more Gaza / Palestinians even more here.

I may - cough - just be finishing our submission to the Industrial Strategy, and am v struck by how small a part Net Zero plays in the doc and the question set. Reminded of comment by @immykaur.bsky.social asking why everyone isn't just *opening their eyes* and looking at what's happening outside.

Well this is turning into a pretty ok space to be :) Hello EVERYONE If you're seeking more #HopeInTheDark (gratitude & citations to @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social) - here's a starterpack of place-based changemakers who're making some of those better futures we all hope for happen. go.bsky.app/6BNBPgg

Just spotted in Harborne: a well looked after Impact Hub Brum Kickstarter tote bag 💛 I don’t think I know the owner. @immykaur.bsky.social

Made another highly specific apology card.

... and we harness the power of making to bring people together. Join us next Thursday at our monthly neighbourhood meet up to hear more about our work, make together, and connect with us and our wider ecosystem of partners (most of whom aren't on here yet!) tinyurl.com/21nov-retrofit

... we co-design and make tangible infrastructure with local people that creates space for shared community life through projects like the Front Garden Retrofit Kit: wecanmake.org/builds/library-of-social-infrastructure

... we retrofit existing homes using biomaterials, and our expanded approach to "retrofit" creates opportunities to activate streets and 'hoods in ways that are beneficial for people and the planet. We're hosting an evening about this on Thurs 21 Nov – come find out more! tinyurl.com/21nov-retrofit

... build new homes using modern methods of construction, meaning we can bring local people into the process and keep jobs, skills and the value of development within the local neighbourhood. The film on our website explains a little more: wecanmake.org

Hi, we're WeCanMake and we've joined the exodus from that other platform... WeCanMake is a neighbourhood test space in south Bristol, imagining and making low-carbon homes that grow social infrastructure and community wealth in the process. Operating out of a community microfactory, we... 🧵

Is it finally time to come over here? Hey there BlueSky, will you feel like the early days of Twitter?

I've made a starter pack of all the UK think tanks I could find on bluesky so far, and staff working at them. If I'm missing any organisation/any one please do comment below so I can add in 😊 go.bsky.app/Geu9Jd8

Have a dormant X account. As everyone reports droves of people leaving, I just got an alert that the WEF Chief Ethics Officer has followed me there 🤣, if you were wondering how that was going.

Welcome Immy! Good to see you here. I have made a starter pack of UK charities who are also here. Might be of interest.

In my Week Notes this week; the wonderful responses from our call out to creatives for Urban Rooms activities, more Urban Rooms conversations, and bringing people together to get the Urban enquiry started 😁 medium.com/colab-dudley...

I’m only a quarter way through @debcha.bsky.social’s “How Infrastructure Works” and I have already highlighted so many passages. This is a _sublime_ piece of writing. Highly recommended if you have any interest in what happens when you flick a switch, or open a tap. And you should be interested.

Bristol's first public map of the repair, share and reuse community has just landed thanks to UWE & Bristol Waste. Check it out for: - Book libraries - Charity shops - Commercial repair - Communal workspaces - Libraries of Things - Recycling - Reduce - Repair cafes - Reuse #circulareconomy

So this went wonderfully well this evening. And I shared some of the big scary science from Civic Square’s 3 degree C Neighbourhood, and the urgent need for creativity and collective action in communities. I was motivated by @immykaur.bsky.social sharing at last week’s MAIA event.

After prolonged drought in Spain, a year's worth of rain hit one Valencia town in just 8 hours. At least 95 have now been confirmed killed by disastrous flooding across eastern and southern Spain, the explosive rainfall intensified by climate change.

Week Notes. I was looking forward all week to MAIA’s Organising ABUELOS event. There’s lots from that for me to follow up. So this is more what I’ve been doing than what I’m learning. I think some week notes will be more about the work than the learning. medium.com/colab-dudley...