Some Friday reading. One snippet: "There are stark differences in the way the centre and the edges think about scaling. The centre uses phrases like ‘roll out’ (3.4x more than the edges), as well as ‘milestones’ (5.7×), ‘targets’ (3.9×), ‘pilot’ (2.0×), and ‘implement’ (1.9×)... (1/2)

Some Thursday reading 👇👀

🔔 New today! 🔔 How do worldviews differ between the centre of government and innovators at the edges? A major new publication from The Centre for the Edge initiative from Kinship Works and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). And a new website too! 1/2 medium.com/@jamestplunk...

🔔 New today! 🔔 How do worldviews differ between the centre of government and innovators at the edges? A major new publication from The Centre for the Edge initiative from Kinship Works and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). And a new website too! 1/2 medium.com/@jamestplunk...

🎉 Announcing a new project today 🎉 A collaboration between Kinship Works and The Future Governance Forum, supported by Barrow Cadbury Trust @kinship.works @futuregovforum.bsky.social @barrowcadbury.bsky.social. Mapping the energy at the edges to improve government medium.com/@jamestplunk.... 1/n

Off to Liverpool to see how the Citizen First incubator has been going. A trip to Anfield to hear what the entrepreneurs have been up to. What a treat! I wrote about these methods in this post: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Does anyone know a good dog walker in Liverpool? Need someone central-ish for the day later this week.

🔔 NEW today from @kinship.works 🔔 Ending the institutional monoculture. How can we spread more diverse institutional forms across the public sector and civil society? medium.com/@jamestplunk... (1/n)

🔔 NEW today from @kinship.works 🔔 Ending the institutional monoculture. How can we spread more diverse institutional forms across the public sector and civil society? medium.com/@jamestplunk... (1/n)

Another quick share of this new post. 👇 On the capabilities required in government to make programmes like Pride in Place (and neighbourhood healthcare) a success.

A new post on the capabilities government needs to support the work of civic renewal. I share three insights. 1. This work doesn't scale, it spreads. 2. Don't go for speed, go for traction. 3. Use your power to hold space open. (1/n) medium.com/@jamestplunk...

A new post on the capabilities government needs to support the work of civic renewal. I share three insights. 1. This work doesn't scale, it spreads. 2. Don't go for speed, go for traction. 3. Use your power to hold space open. (1/n) medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Finally getting around to reading the frankly embarrassing number of @jamestplunkett.bsky.social long-form essays that I've been piling up for months. This one on government disciplines is excellent. I hope that @policycamp.bsky.social has some positive influence. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Brilliant job alert! 👇 And a wonderful initiative more generally.

New post: Can we use 'test and learn' methods in the NHS? What would it take to do so? Long but important! I think this is one of the biiggest delivery questions facing the UK government. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

New post: Can we use 'test and learn' methods in the NHS? What would it take to do so? Long but important! I think this is one of the biiggest delivery questions facing the UK government. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

NEW @kinship.works for @jrf-uk.bsky.social Help us map the disciplines of civic renewal - We know community-led approaches to reviving civic life (Big Local, etc) work - But we lack understanding of disciplines/professional roles that enable it What should we look at? medium.com/kinship-work...

Excited to be finally giving a talk at TransformGov! 👏👇

A final Friday share of this new post, published this week. How do we activate citizen agency? Could we build an activation layer at the edges of public institutions? 👇

One for Wednesday. With bonus metaphors… 👇👀

📣 New today: How to activate the agency of citizens. 📣 A post exploring methods for activating citizenship, using a case study of the Citizen First model developed by @publiclife.bsky.social and currently running in the Liverpool City Region. 1/n medium.com/@jamestplunk...

📣 New today: How to activate the agency of citizens. 📣 A post exploring methods for activating citizenship, using a case study of the Citizen First model developed by @publiclife.bsky.social and currently running in the Liverpool City Region. 1/n medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Some Friday reading! 👇 ☕ 📖

Essential reading alongside today's final report from ICON, the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods. In the report below we get deep into the practice of civic renewal. A positive, progressive, local mode of collective action, growing in the cracks of our struggling old system. 👇

🎉 Launch day! 🎉 Today at @kinship.works we're publishing Civic Rewilding, our final report on the craft of civic renewal. We've synthesised the lessons from Big Local, one of the biggest ever experiments in rejuvinating the civic capacity of neighbourhoods. 1/n www.kinship.works/publications...

🎉 Launch day! 🎉 Today at @kinship.works we're publishing Civic Rewilding, our final report on the craft of civic renewal. We've synthesised the lessons from Big Local, one of the biggest ever experiments in rejuvinating the civic capacity of neighbourhoods. 1/n www.kinship.works/publications...

Excellent canter through the field of civic renewal by @jamestplunkett.bsky.social. "technocracy lacks an emotional register. It can’t speak in sentiments like pride, agency, and a felt sense of momentum - precisely the sentiments that are abundant in community-led development."

🚨 6PM, WED 28 January 🚨 At TPXImpact or online Matt Wood-Hill, MHCLG, and Linda O’Halloran, TPXimpact on public service market-shaping. ​Patrick Diamond, Professor in Public Policy, Queen Mary, University of London, on government effectiveness luma.com/pc7ji8sg Please share! Thanks 🙏

A new guest post I’ve written for Sam Freedman’s Substack, exploring the evidence on civic renewal and Labour’s communitarian turn… 👇

Three technology-related things I'm really interested in, along the lines of @jamestplunkett.bsky.social's piece. 1. What (if any) central data/digital infrastructure supports local community activities? James mentions Polis for example. Perhaps OpenStreetMap might be another?

A really optimistic, actually quite joyful piece! Thank you for sharing @jamestplunkett.bsky.social

New post just out: "Power to the People" Today we have a guest post from @jamestplunkett.bsky.social on how Labour can counter the "Britain is Broken" narrative by investing in civic life and giving people more control over their community. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/p...

New this week! The latest in our work mapping public sector reformers. 👏👏👏 @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social has pulled together the amazing responses we got to a shoutout before Christmas. He’s shared an update here: 1/n medium.com/kinship-work...

New this week! The latest in our work mapping public sector reformers. 👏👏👏 @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social has pulled together the amazing responses we got to a shoutout before Christmas. He’s shared an update here: 1/n medium.com/kinship-work...

One of the most interesting trends of the last few years has been watching Google's products become as bloated/hard to use as Microsoft's. An iron law of political economy: big companies get sclerotic/bureaucratic! (This is one reason it's so important to have activist competition policy.)

Back at one of our favourite venues. Very impressed if anyone guesses it!

Christmas Day walk to a mountain temple in Lampang. Not quite on brand for the day maybe but very beautiful.

Eugh, I know HMRC digital services are much improved, and this has taken endless toil. But after being stuck in a loop trying to sort a trivial task let’s just say there is still work to do. Also: please employ more service designers.

A Friday share of this 👇 Perfect hopeful reading for the Christmas wind down:)

One of my favourite insights from this Working Paper on Big Local: the power of taking a more organic approach to governance. Rather than designing governance in Whitehall - a chart that looks neat on paper - cultivate it as a local capability. 🧵

🔔 New report out today 🔔 🪴 Rewilding Civic Life 🪴 Today at @kinship.works, we’re publishing a Working Paper that pulls together the evidence from Big Local, one of the world’s biggest-ever experiments in revitalising civic life and restoring social capital. 1/n www.kinship.works/publications...

🔔 New report out today 🔔 🪴 Rewilding Civic Life 🪴 Today at @kinship.works, we’re publishing a Working Paper that pulls together the evidence from Big Local, one of the world’s biggest-ever experiments in revitalising civic life and restoring social capital. 1/n www.kinship.works/publications...

One for people working in government evaluation and analysis teams. Also research councils. 👇 How can we broaden our field of view to see and spread more promising alternatives?

One for a Friday coffee! 👇

One for people working in government evaluation and analysis teams. Also research councils. 👇 How can we broaden our field of view to see and spread more promising alternatives?

If you read @jamestplunkett.bsky.social 's piece earlier this week (and linked again in the thread) considering "What if government is stuck in a local maximum?" then this response from @mssophiaparker.bsky.social is well worth your time. sophiaparker-241.medium.com/a-larger-rea...

New post this week 👇 People are worried that the scientific discovery process has got stuck, and this has led to a new discipline of metascience. But what if the same has happened to policy-making and Government more generally? And. if so, what do we do about it?

What if government is stuck in a local maximum? Today I'm publishing a new post exploring whether the evidence standards and control mechanisms we use in government are limiting us to a dangerously narrow field of view. If so, what could we do about that? medium.com/@jamestplunk... 1/n

What if government is stuck in a local maximum? Today I'm publishing a new post exploring whether the evidence standards and control mechanisms we use in government are limiting us to a dangerously narrow field of view. If so, what could we do about that? medium.com/@jamestplunk... 1/n

Honestly, the extent to which you now need to work around the machinery of government (in stealth, against the rules, etc.) in order to save it from itself is truly extraordinary.