There are 18m unemployed in the EU, an average of about 11% of the active population, half of whom are long-term unemployed (source: "Job Creation in the Environmental Sector - local initiatives in Europe", European Academy of the Urban Environment, for DGV, 1997). The EU framework for action published in the 1993 White Paper on "Growth, Competitiveness and Employment" identified the three main components of an employment strategy:
The Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) and the Social Economy
Social exclusion reflects the growing problem of lack of demand for some forms of labour in an increasingly globalised economy. Fostering social cohesion has become a key dimension of European policy, with one component being the development of intermediate labour markets (ILM). The ILM exists as a transitional labour market that lies between unemployment and employment. In that sense it is a recognition of the existence of an informal or hidden economy. ILM can be seen as a way of transforming and legitimating forms of employment which were previously at the margins of the economy, and producing a form of 'social economy' which will increase overall employment opportunities in innovative and socially useful ways
The ILM can be broken down further into 5 forms of transitional arrangements which lie between:
In this model the ILM can be seen as a way of 'warming' unemployed (cold) workers so that they can move into the 'hot' economy. ILM workers can be seen as effectively excluded from the mainstream economy whilst being virtuously associated with its effects. ILM has to defend itself from charges of substituting for 'real' jobs by being seen as temporary, transitory, and isolated from or outside the competitive labour market.
Nevertheless the EU sees a significant role for ILM both as a way for unemployed workers to develop and as a source of socially useful goods and services. But there is a danger that as in 'welfare-to-work' policies the ILM might increase the number of the working poor on poverty wages. An alternative model could be based on a mining metaphor with the ILM as a mode of job prospecting creating new types of employment rather than substituting for existing jobs (i.e. low displacement effects)
The social economy is a significant component of the ILM, however, it is also much more than that. Elsewhere (click here) I have reviewed the varying nature of social economy organisations, but the important point to note is that social economy organisations are elements of a regeneration strategy. They are social utility organisations, not just a market mechanism.
In the Cuenca seminar (Sep 10th 1998), I will
give examples drawn from the Irish experience which show how social economy
organisations can provide a form of participatory democracy and citizenship-in-action
which could be re-planted and implemented elsewhere in Europe.
Local, Area Based Policies for the Social
Economy
It is clear that the ILM can provide an important rationale for emerging social economy organisations at the macro level,. However, one of the key lessons from EU initiatives is that policies for participative forms of employment have to be grounded in and adapted to local circumstances. Policies for employment and for social inclusion need to be based on local economies in local communities. As well as providing employment opportunities, such policies must also look to increasing social capital in areas of high social exclusion by building the capacity of local communities and the employability of their inhabitants. This together with the use of innovative, bottom up approaches to job creation can offer a route into employment and social inclusion for local, marginalised communities.
The European Commission's Local Employment and Development Initiative (LEDI) has helped support new approaches and ideas with its belief that local action can actively locate new job opportunities, rather than hope that the mainstream economy will eventually provide a 'trickle down' of jobs into marginalised communities.
A recent UK study ("Local Enterprises in Enterprising Localities: Best Practice in Area Based Policy in the UK" - P.Lloyd et al, 1998) has attempted to seek out best practice in the UK and studies over 30 local initiatives, based in a variety of circumstances, though all characterised by high rates of unemployment . They identified 5 sets of locally based policies:
1. The social and institutional context
For an initiative to succeed it needs to have roots. It helps if there is a local history of community support or solidarity. This can be workplace based struggles and trade union solidarity, or it can be a tradition of religious or community organisation. Whatever the source, a tradition of collaboration and the emergence of representative community agents-of-change, will provide a solid base upon which initiatives can build.
I am involved in the EPITELIO project which is EU funded (via the TURA programme), involving partners in the UK, Spain and Italy. Our brief has been to focus on the use of telematics to support excluded groups and marginalised communities. The following observations are taken from our most recent EPITELIO report (Validation, Verification and Demonstration Report : D5.2,1998). In the Issues and Observations section we make it clear that from our research that we cannot presume that community solidarity exists - either based on locality or 'communities of interest' (e.g.: AIDs sufferers, Gypsies, prisoners)
The excluded groups we work with in the UK are increasingly marginalised. They are typified by:
2. A Creative Milieu
The local community needs to be viewed as an important
source of innovation and creativity. Often, some creative individuals can
initiate successful projects or generate new enterprises against all the
odds. An example of this in Manchester has been the development of "Big
Issue", a magazine sold by homeless people in order to provide them with
some income. The two charismatic women, Ruth Turner and Anne McNamara,
who have developed this in Manchester have succeeded in raising significant
funding to enable them to refurbish a city-centre building in Oldham Street
which is providing a Big
Step multi-purpose resource centre for homeless people.This has
now moved into providing an Employment Unit which:
"will
be working closely with employers and developing further training
links with colleges to ensure that homeless people are able to move
on from the
Unit once they have developed the appropriate skills. In particular it
will be looking
closely at self employment and flexible patterns of working, as we
have found this is
often more suitable than 9-5 office jobs for ex-homeless people."
The Big Step Web
Site, Sep 1998
This is one area that community-based resource centres can play a significant role when market forces fail and where 'organic' community creativity has failed to fill the gaps left by private business. In this context, Manchester has seen the emergence of resource centres which attempt to marry the local with the technical. The Manchester Electronic Village Halls have shown how this can work in practice and provide both direct support for the intermediate labour market, and indirectly through providing 'street based' training and support to both individuals and in enterprise creation. Manchester has also pioneered the harnessing of young people's creativity through the targeted development of a Cultural Quarter called the Northern Quarter Network. Whilst this has been supported by the local authority and other agencies, it is difficult to achieve the levels of flexibility and quick response which such intiaitives need to succeed. It is interesting in this context that the main locus of support for the Northern Quarter network has been the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture at Manchester Metropolitan University, which has been central in the development of the network, working closely with local young people. Universities are privileged in being well placed geographically, with acces to intellectual and financial resources which make them ideal candidates for fostering local creativity and innovation. In the UK this has now become a fashionable, government supported policy goal . See for example "Inward looking" an article in the Economist, 8/8/98 pp25-26, which cites the Welsh Development Agency as 'being excited' by the ideas of Kevin Morgan and Phil Cooke of the university of Wales, who promote the research facilties of local universities as a key factor in job generation
Such successes as we have achieved in Manchester via the EPITELIO project have been small scale in relation to the widescale failure to truly engage many marginalised communities, especially those in the so-called 'sink' estates. In truth the problems of social exclusion seem to be getting worse as the contrasts between affluent and the poor get ever larger.
3. Management competence
The lesson learned from many initiatives based in local communities is that they require a range of skills which are unlikely to be present (at least initially) in order to obtain funding and be managed properly. Project management skills are largely confined to larger organisations in the private sector and are almost unheard of in the voluntary sector (see for example the articles in "Issues in Voluntary and Non-Profit Management" Julian Batsleer et al, Open University, 1991). The people who do get involved in community intitiatives tend to so so in order to achieve their primary goals (eg: tackling drug abuse, helping set up a community centre), not to be become effective managers or administrators (llok at the problem most groups have in appointing a treasurer!)
There is no easy way for local groups to gain control of their own funding destiny. In my view, local groups are rarely going to be in a position where they will be entirely free from the need to obtain external funding. Whilst generating their own income is an important goal, they are likely to remain "mixed economies" of grant income and self-generated income, though the distinction between the two can sometimes be blurred. For example, Chorlton Electronic Village Hall (EVH) both has received funding from the National Lottery but it also has contracts to supply training which is paid for by the local authority, the latter being payment for a service rather than a grant.
4. Sustaining the venture
Most project, by definition have an end
point. Government and other insitutional funding is overwhelmingly of a
pump-priming nature. The problem for any local community intiative is how
to sustain an initiative after the initial funding ends. In one
sense, the success or otherwise of an initiative can be judged by looking
at what happens once the funding ends. That is, does the project survive?
In my view the continuation on a mix of new grant funding plus income generation
is as good a measure of success than the rare intitiatives that manage
to generate all their own income. The Lloyd article (op cit,
1998) previously referred too disparagningly refers to the culture of "grant
chasing" which needs to be broken. Whilst I agree it can be dangerous to
become overdependent on grant income, the successful negotiation of grant
opportunities is a legitimate and long term component of any
communit organisation's strategy for survival.
The EVH initiative in Manchester is a good example of this. All three of the initial EVHs (Bangladeshi, Womens and Chorlton) have survived and thrived, over 5 years after the initial funding ceased. However, all three have devleoped in very different ways. Whilst the Womens' EVH has become an international examplar of how women's groups can lead and develop a telematics based initiative, the other EVHs have developed in very different ways. Chorlton, for example, has returned to its roots as a resource centre for unemployed people and provides a valuable IT training facility for such individuals, rather than having become a seedbed for innovative entrepreneurs
Conclusions
The Manchester experience of innovative, telematics initiatives to over come social exclusion, typified by the EVH initiative, has been focussed on providing resources at the local level. There has been success in that all the EVHs have survived and continued to develop, but they have becoem increasingly differentiated because of the varying nature of their community and the support they have received. Nevertheless, much of the government and European funding that has been obtained to support and extend these successe (eg: through the Manchester Telework and Telematics partnership - a joint Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University intiaitive) has led to the growth of intermediate organisations which whilst effective at negotiating funding regimes have been increasingly isolated from the local communties they purport to serve. Lets be blunt, such funding often benefits these agencies more than the communities they are supposed to be providing services for.
Within the overall category of social exclusion, those communities which are better organised are more likely to get funding support. the real challenge is in working with those really marginalised communities, to provide them with sufficient support to pump-prime innovative projects and to support emerging local charismatic entrepreneurs, without the funding ending up in the pockets of well connected intermediate agencies. In this context much can be learned from the Irish experience in that they are amongst the most advanced in Europe in finding innovative ways of developing innovative forms of successful and sustainable social economy organisations.
Bernard
Leach
Department
of Sociology
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester
UK
Sep 1998