Feb 12, 2015 | Citizen committees, Community development, Deliberative, Local government, People, place & governance, Walking
Right now there’s a council officer out there battling with a squeaky wheel. I know this from my research on local government committees, where their role was a frequent theme. The officer is usually acting in the context of strategy and plans. The committee...
Nov 28, 2014 | Citizens' juries, Collaborating, People, place & governance
‘I come from a place there wasn’t any democracy. This is a really big influence for me. I also feel strongly that democracy is more than just turning up to vote.’ Gail Fairlamb is Director of Participation and Partnerships in South Australia’s...
Sep 17, 2014 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Community Engagement, Community Governance, Local government, People, place & governance, Terms of reference
In early September, I presented on improving the functioning of citizen committees’ at the SA Community Managers’ conference in Adelaide. The conference is for local government managers and the theme was ‘Active Citizenship’. I proposed three...
Sep 10, 2014 | Local government, People, place & governance, Planning, Public transport, Walking
Bikes go hand in hand with the social enterprise focus of Donkey Wheel House. In 2013, City of Melbourne developed plans to improve Godfrey Street. It’s a little street that runs alongside Donkey Wheel at the Southern Cross end of town. At Hub Melbourne we saw...
Jul 11, 2014 | Collaborating, Community development, People, place & governance
Nominations for the 2015 National Community Development Award (Australian Regional Development Conference) close on Tuesday next week (15 July 2014). The key criterion? How does your project demonstrate innovation and/or best practice in the way your organisation does...
May 28, 2014 | Community Engagement, Participatory budgeting, People, place & governance, Planning
I’m sure that if there isn’t a book out there called ‘Participatory Budgeting for Dummies’, there soon will be! This increasingly popular approach involves the public in decisions about public budgets. It’s been used in countries such as...
