Encouraging the local

New forms of local connectivity and interaction may be helping to redefine and reconnect local communities. They may strengthen social capital and create greater local engagement.

What is changing?
Finding help when you need it just got easier in two US cities. Two new services use add-ons to social networking sites to enable local people, friends and neighbours to help each other out. The first, friendlyfavor helps people find help locally – either a neighbour to help moving stuff or a recommendation for a local service from a trusted source; the site even provides the space to ‘send a thank you’ such as a gift voucher or a ‘return service’ such as babysitting time. The other, mealbaby, is designed to help people who have perhaps recently come out of hospital or are unwell and on their own, by encouraging friends and relatives to prepare and bring round a meal. On the political front, local governments have long had their own websites full of information, but which is often dense and difficult to navigate to find what you want, or the person you need. A new website may change that in America. American Solutions plans to create a wiki for some half million local officials in the USA so that people can find them, contact them, rate them, say what they think. Scrutiny and transparency should increase.

Why is this important?
Effective communities have always been important but may be more important than we thought. Recent research indicates that mood, behaviour and even healthy can be ‘socially contagious’, affected and reinforced – for good or ill – by the networks and social groups that we move in. Reducing social problems such as crime, obesity and smoking may be more about creating effective and supportive communities, than targeting individual behaviours. Creating more opportunities for self help, connection and support among local residents may be part of that process. Local initiatives will also need greater local control and self determination. That too appears to be back on the political agenda; most recently with the unveiling of the UK Conservative Party’s new policy document called ‘Control Shift’. Being visible locally, via such services as Google Latitude - a new tracking service which enables people to ‘opt in’ to be visible to other friends and relatives – may further enhance local links. If local shops and services, as well as friends, could be part of a trusted network, so local services could begin to create far stronger links with their customers, offer tailored on demand services.

Sheila Moorcroft, Research Director, Shaping Tomorrow

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