We’re always interested in civic activists who take their work down to the most everyday level of activity - those sources of power and agency that come up from basic relationships and friendliness, immediately-perceived need, enjoyable and convivial activities.

Not because we want people to shut down from the wider world - the opposite (see our cosmo-local theme) - but because we feel there’s a language of common purpose that is to be recovered and reconstructed. Particularly from the 95+% who don’t get explicitly involved in party-political language and world-views.

So we were very happy to receive this “Village in the City Manifesto” from the inventor of Host Leadership, Mark McKergow, who’s based in Edinburgh but works globally. This is a useful framing to try and value the kind of hyperlocal “mutual aid” that has been occuring during the pandemic, and maybe give it the impetus of custom and tradition, to survive beyond the public health urgency.

Mark’s blog is very clear, so probably easiest to cross-post in its entirety below. (We also note there’s an open Zoom meet on 29th June).

As the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ emerges and develops, the usefulness and resilience of very local connections has become increasingly clear. The levels of local can be seen as house; street; village; town; district; city.

The potential for connection at the village level – even in much bigger settlements like towns and cities – is clear. Architect Richard Rogers identified over 620 ‘High Streets’ in London alone, each of which is central to its own village.

Village-level activity can:

build community, particularly inclusive cross-generation and cross-demographic community
increase understanding, empathy and respect for others, particularly others who are ‘not quite like me’
build resilience and mutual support with people right there on the doorstep
connect businesses, support groups, families, churches, secular groups and everyone else with an identity and local participation
act as a necessary counterbalance to the recent amazing developments in online communication; access to global communication produces a space for micro-local in-person interaction
help citizens become more empowered and purposefully connected than they have been in recent years.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash — Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

This manifesto sets out the village-in-the-city concept as a way of consciously building on this in ways which expand on the best of micro-local. Villages (in this sense) have:

A name – usually this already there
- Recognisable, distinctive, widely known and used
Inclusivity
- Everyone who lives there is a ‘member’
- Addressing multiple hopes, needs and interests
- Drawing on the ‘treasure within’ – skills, resources, desire to participate
Meeting places (accessible to all and within walking distance)
- Indoor – halls, pub rooms,
- Outdoor – public spaces, green places
- Places for chance encounters as well as planned events
Connection within the village
- Papers, newsletters, emails, Facebook groups, Whatsapp available to all
- News and updates which go to everyone
- Fostering two-way communication (not just ‘us’ to ‘them’ or ‘hub’ to ‘rim’)
- Has a way to reach out to newcomers and engage them
Hosts
- People who foster connection as part of their role (this used to be the pub landlord and the vicar, but can now be a more expanded concept)
- This role should be shared around – multiple hosts make for wider participation and less burn-out
- Can be an informal role (people just doing it) as well as more structured
- Not just ‘organisers’ but also co-participants, joining in along with everyone else
Inclusive gatherings
- Milestones in the year to bring people together – summer garden party, Hogmanay, Christmas Fayre, music weekend,
- Regular inclusive opportunities to meet, build community and reflect – perhaps including churches, teas/coffees, drop-ins, perhaps a Sunday Assembly
- Open community events like homeworker meetups, film club, play streets, quizzes etc etc
- The more specific and locale-relevant the better
And… an ‘identity’
- What makes this a special place?

Note that this is not:

A formal administrative unit
Somewhere with a formal leader/governance
A rules-enforcement body
Something with a budget or funding (when the funding stops, the activities stop)

Build your village – balance your life

This is almost certainly going on already in some ways where you are; find it, build on it, engage others, reinvent old traditions and start new ones.

Interested? Join the Facebook group. Post on social media #VillageInTheCity. Then download the Village Builder Worksheet and start your local conversations.

Mark also alerted us to the Britain After Covid Facebook page - “you are welcome to join the discussion and connect with others”.

And as Mark quotes Richard Rogers, we playfully post one of Rogers’ inspirations, Archigram, when they suggested (in the late sixties) that one kind of future architecture might want to bring “the city to the village”…

Out of the mutual aid of Coronavirus, the “Village in the City Manifesto” wants us to make new traditions of conviviality