Many Neighbourhoods One City: A discussion document of Phase 1

Much decision making in Bristol is currently driven by the One City Approach. The basis of the collaborative research project, Many Neighbourhoods, One City (MNOC), is that knowledge from the ‘many neighbourhoods’ should be instrumental in informing the ‘One City’. Whilst many decisions have a city-wide remit and scale, the balance between city governance and neighbourhood governance must periodically be critically examined and rearticulated.

The overarching aim of MNOC is to carry out this rearticulation, and suggest potential redesign of city governance structures to integrate local and community understanding, knowledge and voice. There is inevitable friction between these different levels of governance, between the hyper-local realities of people and the need to aggregate and potentially remove local context to allow for coordinated strategic policy-making. In order for the One City Plan to be truly effective and meaningful it must be rooted to local circumstances and needs. Whilst there is potential for friction between the city scale and the neighbourhood/community, there is an even greater opportunity for synergy if these elements work together more cohesively and effectively. A plan that is felt to be disconnected from local context and different knowledges is likely to become untethered to the needs of its citizens and divorced from a democratic ethic that is generated through bottom-up conduits of local knowledge.

We recognise the potential for community anchor organisations (CAOs), as integral elements in the city’s social infrastructure, to strengthen conduits of knowledge and enhance local and city governance structures. Primary research objective: to explore how we can draw on the expertise and knowledge of CAOs in the city to build a picture of what is happening in Bristol, to investigate how communities can join together and work on commonalities and shared interests to establish a collective voice in city decision-making.

Research approach: explorative, collaborative, reflexive, whilst remaining action-oriented; recognising that failure is always possible and can lead to new and better ways of doing and being. A Research Steering Group of academic researchers and CAO practitioners has played an advisory role and guided the research process, alongside regular reporting and discussion in the Social Justice Project. After an initial mapping exercise (see methodology and separate working document) through a survey of 14 CAOs, we focused on two research aims:

Research aim 1: To identify alternative forms of economic development generated at neighbourhood level by CAOs.
• What does economic development mean for CAOs working in the neighbourhoods and communities?
• What similarities and differences are there between CAOs understanding of economic development?
• Are their shared interests between CAOs that can build coalitions?

Research aim 2: Investigate the relationship between CAOs and their local communities.
• How do CAOs gain knowledge about the communities they work with?
• How do CAOs respond to needs identified and build strategies based on insight and knowledge of Bristol’s diverse communities?
• How do CAOs engage the community in their responses (services and activities)?

In the last section of this report we identify three possible fields and /or initiatives which would enable the CAOs and UoB to continue working in with the ethos of collaboration, taking projects and idea forward and codeveloping research and actions.