PPP (Part 2) - Pirates, Privateers & Planning Reform – The ‘Pirates Code’

Why we need to focus on co-creating new rules for empowerment, or risk consigning local democracy to Davy Jones Locker.

As I noted in my last post on PPP (not Perth People Place for those tuning in from my previous crew), I’ve been trying to decompress and recharge supplies before swinging aboard a splendid new galleon otherwise known as…Angus Council, (Ok…perhaps more of a 'schooner', relative to some larger Local Authorities). Did I mention I’ve been reading about ‘Pirates’ under a metaphorical Palm tree recently...

While I’ve been marooned on 'gardening leave' for the last couple of weeks, I’ve taken the opportunity (amongst swabbing the home decks, baking grub and sampling the occasional ration of Rum) to read: Be More Pirate, by Sam Conniff Allende.

Who knew that this book would be so relevant to working in our Local Authorities and navigating the swirling currents of contemporary Planning and Place-making? It's highly recommended reading, for anyone interested in , and generally how we work differently within the changing world of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) which was guided into legislation by MSPs earlier in 2023.

For those of you less excited by all things Planning, (but inspired by more things Pirate), NPF4 is the big planning map we use to steer our democratic national, spatial planning course towards a more sustainable, safer, fairer and brighter future – for everyone.?

Three key themes (amongst others) within NPF4 include: -

1.??????Empowering communities

2.??????Inclusivity; and

3.??????20-minute Neighbourhoods (or more ‘liveable’ neighbourhoods in local parlance)

Curiously, these are all features of Pirate communities from the historic golden pirate age of the 1700s (again, do read the book for further insight).

Now, I know that there is an obvious contradiction here, in that to be more of a ‘pirate’ by definition, you really need something conventional to rebel against. And a National Planning Policy such as NPF4, might just be a good example – perceived by some, as central Government, apparently, ‘telling us all what to do’ from the ‘top down’. But this, like the above book, isn’t about the parody fictional notions of Pirates AKA - Pirates of the Caribbean (still one of my favourite films…) taking on the establishment’s Navy. It’s about real lessons we can learn from the edges of society, the ‘grass roots’ and those smaller outfits of thinkers, entrepreneurs, and community pioneers, working out-with the mainstream, towards a shared collective good. And why that’s a reason to be hopeful amidst all the sea fog/red mist and uncertainty just now, is that we now have NPF4 and a variety of complementary legislation in place and ready for delivery…

Somehow.

But before we talk about pragmatics of actually getting stuff done, please note that democracy is the golden thread here (we did elect our Members of the Scottish Parliament via Proportional Representation).?And of course, pirates and privateers (State sanctioned private sector pirates) both love gold thread or any other gold for that matter…

If you will hold with me for a moment, I’ll tip-toe off briefly at this point, into the Favela in South America, Shanti towns in Africa and Meitheal, our very own Celtic version of Ubuntu.?These are the unwritten rules that hold various cultures and communities together in the absence, or failure, of the wider State to fairly support all of its Citizens. They are now being reconsidered by many in urban development, for social lessons that we can all learn, as well as the carbon we can all save.?

Planning authorities and local communities in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro are piloting work with the Favela Bairro project – providing materials for local folks to upgrade their own dwellings and retrofitting fundamental infrastructure and sanitation.?Much of this approach was pioneered by Patrick Geddes in the old town slums of Edinburgh during the enlightenment. Though beware of ‘Disneyfication’ and swarms of pirate cruise ships anchoring just off Leith...(Great places, it turns out, create new risks all of their own...).

These are very relevant examples of largely self-organising communities with local activism, and which share some common themes with the golden age of Pirates. Namely that they have created self-governance rules by which everyone can work together fairly.?Just as with lessons from re-looking at Piracy though, we must be careful not to romanticise what can be less than safe, healthy, inclusive and sustainable places for people to thrive.

Returning to my central concern in this article, and how do we deliver better places for people in an existing, albeit imperfect democracy namely - empowering local communities but without dis-empowering existing democratic institutions??Benign dictatorships or strong man leadership, (and it all too often does appear to be ‘men’) risk exclusion, unfairness and privateering of and in, public places.?Lest we forget, that these are at the very core of our hard-won freedoms...

So, who will be the captains to do the right thing by local folks including the younger, the older and the differently-abled??Or indeed those who may be less affluent, less well equipped and less time rich to deliver places for everyone??Beware… The Mafia emerged in Italy, according to Mariana Mazzucato, as a failure of state to help everyone be the best they can be.?

Designing the process and the democratic governance infrastructure must surely therefore, be the first step in developing local place plans?

Over the last 10 years or more, there are a few small planning and place-making practices who, together with committed folks in many local authorities, have been exploring at the edges for alternative ways of working which meaningfully empower local communities. At the core of any good piracy is an ability to challenge the status quo, respectfully.?To be creative.?To draw on and co-create maps of what’s already strong and what’s already going on in any given Neighbourhood and any given place.?Working with existing elected representatives, can strengthen that endeavour – enriched by more deliberative change processes.

To achieve that, it takes a crew of well organised folks with a variety of complementary skills, aptitudes and experience, all pulling together towards a shared Vision of what makes that a better place to live, work and visit. ?It demands an ability to network across all the technical skills to make objective evidence mapped assessments of what any given place actually is, with all those unique constraints (strengths) and opportunities (challenges). Ideally, this should be developed out-with market forces and individual project prejudice – however worthy they might be.

And it requires an ability to co-learn from local, lived experience, better understood from a representative cross section of local people. For these plans are what attract gold – in the form of grant funding, stakeholder confidence and inward investment. And that helps get stuff done.

That does need some organisation and some structure. Even some level of agreed hierarchy (though keeping that shallow, as per our historic pirates, would be my advice). Developing a new code then is both helpful and necessary.?This is governance so that everyone is clear about the rules of engagement.?And where there is ambiguity (life is complex) – agreeing overarching values is a useful moral compass to steer a course to doing the right thing – by everyone. This helps create the conditions to nurture trust, something recorded even in 17th century Pirate Articles of Association:

“Trust cannot be taken lightly: 'In the prizes they take, it is severely prohibited to everyone to usurp anything, in particular to themselves. ... Yea, they make a solemn oath to each other not to abscond, or conceal the least thing they find amongst the prey. If afterwards any one is found unfaithful, who has contravened the said oath, immediately he is separated and turned out of the society.” ??

(quote from the above Pirate book and historic Articles of Association, Henry Morgan & other Buchaneers – 1670s).

Our public are rightly suspicious of any company, corporation or well organised group’s motives.?Who gains? And who elected them anyway? These are fair and reasonable questions.?Especially when it comes to public assets. And it helps to be able to differentiate between crews or community organisations who can claim only to be indicative of their own membership – as opposed to those elected representatives who do have something of an actual claim on democratic representation.

Revolutions, if history is our yard stick, have often happened starting at the edges of the know maps and conventional wisdom.?Often these are the conditions where people need to pull together to survive and to thrive, and where necessity provides the wind in the sails of creativity.?Eccentric mavericks and oddities at first, these creative cultures and alternative ideas have eventually infiltrated the cultural and political centres, as the method in the apparent madness becomes clearer or as failures in conventional wisdom as highlighted in the 2008 financial crash have exposed.

‘Be More Pirate’ lists a plethora of great examples and highlights their relevance to the cooperative movement via Robert Owen.?But perhaps most importantly, it highlights why any group of ‘radical ‘Buccaneers’ desperate to influence their community in a better direction, first need some basic rules of engagement, terms of reference or articles of association.

In my opinion, the days of Master [planner] and commander are numbered. We must look to the horizon and see clearly that empowering local communities at the expense of dis-empowering existing local authorities would be to risk damaging local democracy and potentially below the waterline. At the very least, it will slow us down at a time we desperately need to move at pace to address urgent challenges inherent in very real climate, cost of living, health and biodiversity crises.

So, I for one, say, ‘Aye’, therefore to good piracy!?‘Aye’, to challenging anachronistic rules from a command-and-control classical Navy of self-proclaimed ‘elites’.?And ‘Nae’ to bad piracy including privateers – unwittingly stealing the opportunity for local authorities and local communities to learn through their own experience.?To piracy which endangers the whole crew and any Neighbourhood via exclusion and social division based on income and frankly, the hand our class-based society has dealt to too many of our children.?And as we discussed earlier, it’s the diversity of communities, (spatial and of interest) as well as the local characters and interrelationships in any dynamic community, where the real riches lie. That means helping local folks write their own articles of association based on their own ‘Northern Star’ or shared community Vision for their future course.

But it also means however, that we should stop seeing local authorities as part of the problem, rather, part of the democratic solution.?We can help plot a better course to a fairer future via co-created local place frameworks, enabling community wealth building – and a variety of individual local place plans.

So, me community empowerment lubbers, What say ye?

...Did I mention I’m still on ‘gardening’ leave… and looking forward to the next adventure!

(note: no real rations of rum were consumed during the preparation of this particular pirates elog…)

Note on the author: Jonathan Clarkson is an interdisciplinary designer, teacher and urbanist practitioner with over 27 years of experience using design as a tool for, analysis, collaboration, solving problems and adding value.?Jonathan has publish a number of design articles and is a visiting lecturer and tutor at both Edinburgh School of Art and the Mackintosh school of art in Glasgow.