Shift power back to communities and decentralise play provision.

It has taken some time to further develop the last strategy I introduced in the article I wrote earlier this year on decolonising play. The fifth strategy is Shift power back to communities and decentralise play provision.

Why has it taken so long?

The notion of shifting power back to communities and decentralising play provision initially seemed quite radical within our state-governed democratic societies. However, as you start to scrutinise the terms "governed" and "democratic" when considering this strategy, you realise perhaps it's not that radical or novel after all. You begin to understand how widening your view of being governed and easy democracy can work, is what can shift power back to communities in a way that enables play spaces to be provided using a more grassroot approach.

Governance in a country means being officially responsible for making laws, managing the economy, and overseeing public services. Meanwhile, democracy should ideally ensure policies are created for and by the people, without class distinctions or privileges. Democracy thrives in societies where everyone, regardless of economic status, has a say in shaping their environment.

Play has many benefits, such as improved wellbeing, creativity and health, that can be associated with economic measures or not. Improved wellbeing, physical and mental health can reduce individuals hospital costs over their life time and lead to improved careers that benefit the economy. Play spaces can improve community cohesion and transform spaces that were previously used for anti-social behavior, which can potentially reduce policing costs, while also increasing movement and sense of belonging. Play spaces can provide the nature, joy and wonder that improve quality of life. I find models for understanding prosperity more widely like the one from the Quality of Life Foundation in the image below, really useful in understanding the value of play to communities.

However, globally, governments often prioritise measures of economic prosperity, which typically benefits the ruling or wealthier classes. This, to some degree, is understandable (though not acceptable) in today's capitalist, globalised world. At a national level, countries prioritise improving Gross Domestic Product, trade, and overall economic development. I won't delve into why GDP as a measure of growth can exacerbate inequality here, but this focus on economic prosperity at a country level highlights the importance of decentralisation—not just from national to local governments, but even further, to the communities governments seek to serve.

Sometimes country or local governments appreciate the economic benefits of play, most time they do not. Consequently play provision is deprioritised or even disregarded.

However, based on our experience at Dream Networks C.I.C , the majority of individuals, families and communities appreciate the benefits of play regardless of whether they can see the economic gain or not.

Decentralisation is not new.

Empowering communities to transforming the land around them, without waiting for governments support, isn't a radical idea. When recently researching the history of landholding systems in Nigeria (West Africa) and Kenya (East Africa) [1], I found that in both of these African countries, land was governed under native law and custom, that land was entrusted to the community as a whole, the village or in the family as a group, it was not individually owned and it was not state governed. These communal land tenure model are still in operation in rural communities predominately in the global majority (also known as the global south) and indigenous communities. Communities have the autonomy to shape their land use democratically. They have the power to decide how their land was shaped and what forms of tenure it was used for.

Democratic rule is arguably easier to manage at a community. However,? I am not taking an idealistic viewpoint on this form of governance, I am sure that significant conflict and inequity has also arisen from communal land tenure models. However, one thing that was and is still true, is that communities have autonomy and power. They do not have to wait for county policy to evoke change. They do not have to adopt homogenous designs for their spaces that cascaded down or enforced on them. They do not have to call on local planning offices, to decide to install some play material. They are empowered because they depended on themselves as a community. They are resourceful with the material they have available to them and take collective action to evoke change.

Similar community owned management models have been adopted in the European countries. For example, in the UK, an increasing number of pubs that were at risk of being shut down have become community-run. According to Co-operatives UK, there has been a 62.6% increase in the number of community-owned pubs over the past five years [2]. Local community members have decided to take action and preserve social spaces that matter to them. The same can be done for play spaces.

Activating and Sustaining Community Play Spaces

Activating and sustaining community play spaces involves practical steps. For instance, in conversations with my local community group in Brockley, London about creating a play space, we started to understand what would be need to take collective action to create local spaces. We would need to reach out the local housing association or local authority about transforming two underutilised plots of land in a housing estate or behind the community hall. The neighbourhood community groups would need to leverage their local knowledge and connections to understand play needs and desires, to decide what play activities they would want. They would need to fundraise locally and source materials from themselves and local businesses. Then they could work together and volunteer time to create welcoming spaces to for everyone to play. Again this is not new, similar things have been done for communal gardens, what is perhaps novel, is having spaces reclaimed for sole purpose of play and making these spaces more resilient.

So lets thing of how this could look practically

-The fundraising could be through local businesses, religious institutes and community members themselves.

-We may need to fundraise to pay for some of the time community members spend managing this co-creation process.

-The community groups might need a structure to help them in co-design inclusively, expertise in understanding how to make their play spaces more inclusive, some support in ensuring the play features they install are safe and last for the time they hope the space can used for. I guess that's why we Dream Networks C.I.C and other organisations like KABOOM! exist.

-The play space might be full of loose and reduced parts, that depart from the conventional fixed equipment and Eurocentric outdoor play space design. This is definitely not a bad thing, in fact it uses a circular design principles and in some contexts, it can be a more sustainable way of creating play spaces

As the local spaces are activated and transformed by the community, seeing the transformation and positive impact, the landowner might decide to partner with the local community to sustain or improve what they have created.

This was the case in a research project I co-lead with local community members in Kenya, after hearing and seeing how community members wanted to transform a space for play. A private landowner decided to donate land they could have used to build property for play. The community then co-created their play space with some technical support in the design and build stages.

There are also other ways to sustain these plans. On a project we at Dream Networks C.I.C worked on in Southwark, London, a property developer provided section 106 money to local authorities, that a school then used to collaborate with us to co-design and build a permanent play space that was more sustainable and inclusive.

These examples show how partnerships between communities and private entities that donate land or funding, can enhance inclusivity and provide play spaces.

While decentralising play provision challenges existing norms, empowering communities to manage their environments fosters inclusive, sustainable urban development. However to sustain these spaces long term and scale, the local government has a critical role to play.

We need alignment for sustain change and scale

To achieve widespread impact, alignment between government policies and community activated play spaces is crucial. As highlighted by Heathcott and Garcias in their research on pocket parks in Mexico [3], misalignment between politics, policy, and design can hinder efforts to transform urban public spaces. Therefore, to scale, aligning political will and policies to support and sustain these community-led initiatives is essential.

However this alignment can also be driven by the communities actions. When spaces are activated for play by communities. Through listening or reading impact stories from his or her constituents, the local MP, will have data to leverage on when advocating for changes in local plans and national policies that will enable for more play provision.

In all I have written today, there is a strong on decentralisation through emphasise on community action. However, its also important to recognise in many neighbourhoods communities simply won't have the time to manage these activations, which is why funding some of their time and collaboration is so important .

‘This is why we exist at Dream Networks, to build collaborative networks that promote knowledge and resource transfer within marginalised or suppressed communities. To act as a co-design agency that supports communities to create their inclusive, culturally resilient, sustainable, and safe spaces with the resources available. To share the stories of impact that drive change at a policy level’.

Check out the image below for a better understanding of how we work with businesses, communities, and other institutions that typically provide play.

Please do drop me a message if you would like to speak about ways this model could work for your community or business or residential or public space.

Check out the article below of even more examples of communities creating play spaces

https://www.pps.org/article/young-people-and-placemaking-engaging-youth-to-create-community-places

References

[1]https://journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/ULJ/article/download/2293/2340#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20landholding%20system,the%20family%20as%20a%20group.

[2]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365930181_Design_Highs_and_Policy_Lows_in_the_Making_of_New_Public_Space_in_Mexico_City

Heathcott, Joseph & García, David. (2022). Design Highs and Policy Lows in the Making of New Public Space in Mexico City. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability. 1-24. 10.1080/17549175.2022.2150270.?

[3]https://www.uk.coop/news/uks-democratic-economy-hits-ps879-billion-people-turn-co-operatives-and-mutuals