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.

A Friday share of this 👇 Should we make a hit list of the top 500 buildings in deliquent ownership? Could we help to setup a safe harbour scheme - holding buldings of civic value while communities raise funds to buy them? All of this and more....!

Oop, internet broken again?

🔔 Is it time for a new push on delinquent ownership? 🔔 We're hosting a conversation @kinship.works to share ideas... cado.kinship.works. 1/n

🔔 Is it time for a new push on delinquent ownership? 🔔 We're hosting a conversation @kinship.works to share ideas... cado.kinship.works. 1/n

Went to a brilliant presentation tonight about urban rewilding by @citizenzoo.bsky.social Heard the background to the Ealing beaver reintroduction and lots more about white storks, glow worms and grasshoppers More on their work and volunteering opportunities here: www.citizenzoo.org

Over on the place where Links are In, I reflected on this thoughtful piece by @jamestplunkett.bsky.social and @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social, that beyond *new applications* of public interest tech, we should need to build the scaffolding that allows compelling innovations to scale and interoperate.

Do any political/election data/GIS nerds fancy helping out with some number crunching? If anyone has experience of things like lookups to link LSOAs to wards, and analysis of election data drop me a line. I can pay a small amount but it would have to be done partly for interest/nerdery!

Could 2026 be the year of public interest technology? We've been doing some thinking at Kinship Works with @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social and co at Careful Industries - what it would take for 2026 to see public interest/civic tech to reach its full potential? Some ideas: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Could 2026 be the year of public interest technology? @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social and @jamestplunkett.bsky.social have co-authored a blog on what it would take for 2026 to see public interest / civic tech realise its full potential. We'd love to know what people think. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Public interest tech - that does good for people, communities and the planet - is a no-brainer, so why does no one want to fund it? @jamestplunkett.bsky.social and I have 4 recs for how the UK civic and community tech landscape could be better supported www.careful.industries/blog/2025-12...

Could 2026 be the year of public interest technology? We've been doing some thinking at Kinship Works with @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social and co at Careful Industries - what it would take for 2026 to see public interest/civic tech to reach its full potential? Some ideas: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Of course the Guangzhou public library makes Chengdu’s look like Hackney Central. 98,000 square meters.

London is becoming a cycling city. As we continue to expand London’s cycle network, the number of daily bike trips is soaring. Cycling has risen by more than 40% since 2019 to 1,500,000 trips every day.

Don't make me agree with Michael Gove. www.businessgreen.com/news/4522257...

Really interesting post - captures a lot about the dysfunctionalities of modern government.

Writing about civic life in public libraries is always a joy, but doing it in one of the biggest libraries in the world was extra special. I was feeling glum and now realise library time is what I was missing!

Sichuan public library. Or a corner of it! 52,000 square meters and has space for 6,000 people to work

For people who leave their nerdy public sector reform long-reads to the weeekend… 👇👀 Are legacy mentalities from comms, political strategy and trad policy dragging government down?