Katharine Wheeler

An anchor organisation, or community anchor organisation, is an organisation that acts as a hub/resource for local people and plays an active role in what is needed for the wider benefit of their communities.

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What Works Scotland talks of 'community anchor organisations' as community-led and -based; holistic and multi-purpose; responsive and committed to a particular community (1). While they suggest that community-led organisations such as Development Trusts and community-controlled housing associations often fulfil this role, they believe any organisation that is committed to serving a community over the long term can be considered an anchor organisation. It is also possible that two or three organisations working together can share this type of community leadership.

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Often  anchor organisations have an important role in facilitating partnerships and providing local leadership.

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'There are no examples of sustained community empowerment without some such locally embedded organisation' (2) - The Scottish Community Alliance

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(1) What Works Scotland: Exploring the role of anchor organisations - http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/WWSExploringTheRolesOfCommunityAnchorOrganisationsInPublicServiceReformExecutiveSummary.pdf 
(2) Scottish Community Alliance (accessed 2021) - https://scottishcommunityalliance.org.uk/about/anchor-orgs/

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, an artist can be described as someone who creates things with imagination and with skill. (3)

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Often in community focused practice there is a core belief that we can all practice art, and that art can be a gateway for people to better understand their lives, their sense of place and their rights.

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‘We consider an artist to be anyone with a flexible creative discipline used in a variety of situations, processes and actions from problem solving, negotiating, encouraging others and realising projects. In this sense, we do not define the term ‘artist’ as a manufacturer of ‘art products’. Similarly we do not view an ‘arts audience’ as a consumer of art but as an active participant, in the process, creation and meaning of all creative actions from protests and policy-making to poetry and performance.’ (4) - The Stove Network

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(3) Cambridge Dictionary (accessed 2021) - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/artist

(4) The Stove Network: Creative Practice (accessed 2021) - https://thestove.org/creative-practice/

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Assets are the things we have that are valuable. An asset can be tangible or intangible, and can have economic, social or environmental value (or all three).

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All people and communities are rich in assets.  Working in an asset-based way means trusting that the unique mix of strengths within each community can be used to develop solutions best suited to the challenges they face. 

Co-creation encourages every individual to activate their creative potential and realise their own ability to make change. It is a co-operative process in which people with diverse experiences, skills and knowledge come together and work in non-hierarchical ways to address a common issue, and which enables people and communities to be actively involved in shaping the things which impact their lives. 

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Co-creation shifts power, resource and ownership towards the people the work is intended to benefit, as opposed to a traditional ‘top down’ approach. (5)

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(5) Co-Creating Change (accessed 2021) - http://www.cocreatingchange.org.uk/about/

Collaboration involves dialogue between two or more parties to work together towards a shared goal. (6)

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The process of collaboration can be defined as one that allows for those involved to work together in an open, and often creative, way where all engaged are able to shape the direction of the work with equal measure. 

Collaboration in arts practice requires a common understanding to work towards a shared vision, where those involved have an equal sense of ownership over the work and activity and are willing to learn from, and with each other, through a creative process. (7)

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(6) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/collaboration

(7) SCOPA, K (2003) The Development of Strategies for Interdisciplinary Collaboration from within Visual Arts

The commons refers to the assets and property of the people that we hold as a collective: Our shared environmental (including the built environment), social and cultural wealth. 

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This can relate to physical spaces, parks, common grazing land, but can also refer to technology and other open-source concepts for sharing innovation, ideas and resource. (8) 

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The commons can also be seen as that which we have ownership of through the state, the national services and utilities which in we are equally entitled to. (9) Historically in Scotland a large amount of land was held in common and there is a movement to return areas to this structure of stewardship through community ownership. (10) (11)

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The ‘common good’ refers to benefits that are felt by all members of a given community. (12)

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(8) Creative Commons Global Network (accessed 2021) - https://network.creativecommons.org/about/

(9) BLOCK, P (1996) Stewardship

(10) WIGHTMAN, A (2010) The Poor Had No Lawyers - http://www.andywightman.com/poor-had-no-lawyers

(11) Community Land Scotland (accessed 2021) - https://www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/find-out-more/renewal_repopulation/

(12) Thought.Co (accessed 2021) - https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-common-good-definition-and-examples-5077957

Community describes a group of people connected by a shared interest; it could be where they live, an aspect of their identity, or around a shared hobby. (13) We are all simultaneously part of many communities.

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‘Community offers the promise of belonging and calls for us to acknowledge our interdependence’ (14) - Peter Block, Community

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(13) Community Empowerment Scotland Act 2015 - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2015/6/section/1/enacted

(14) BLOCK, P (2018: 4) Community 

'Community art’ is the creation of art as a human right, by professional and non-professional artists and individuals, co-operating as equals, for purposes and to standards they set together, and whose processes, products and outcomes cannot be known in advance.' (15) - François Matarasso, A Restless Art

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This differentiates from ‘participatory’ or ‘socially engaged art’ specifically in that everyone involved has the same rights within the process, it is people learning to create art together without hierarchy.

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(15) MATARASSO, F (2019) A Restless Art - https://arestlessart.com/the-book/download-a-digital-copy/

‘Community cultural development’ is a term used in the United States to describe what is often called ‘community art’ in the UK. It is the work of artist-organisers and community collaborators who use creative work to express identity, concerns and aspirations of a place/community. (16)

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‘It is a process that simultaneously builds individual mastery and collective cultural capacity while contributing to positive social change.’ (17) - Arlene Goldbard, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development

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Similar to ‘Creative placemaking’, as defined in The Stove’s Embers report as the creative, community-led and grassroots, work where artists, and creative people, are involved in collaboration with community members working towards social change of the places they live. (18)

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(16) ADAMS, D and GOLDBARD, A (2005) Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development

(17) GOLBARD, A (2006: 20) New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development

(18) WHEELER, K (2020) Embers - https://thestove.org/portfolio/embers/

Community wealth building is an alternative economic model of working that aims to share the power and ownership over our local economies with local people and redistribute the financial gains and benefits of activity and work across communities. ‘It is about creating a fairer and more socially just economy.’ (19)

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This could be achieved through local procurement, skills development, shared resources and innovation, as part of development work in a place. 

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‘Putting labour before capitol; ensuring assets are broadly held, and that investing is for people and place, with profit the result, not the primary aim;’ (20) – Joe Guinan and Martin O’Neill, Community Wealth Building

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(19) CLES (2019) Community Wealth Building: Theory, practice and next steps - https://cles.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/CWB2019FINAL-web.pdf

(20) GUINAN, J and O’NEILL, M (2020: 8) The Case for Community Wealth Building

Conversation is an ongoing discussion between different groups in which ideas are informally exchanged. (21)

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A ‘conversational practice’ in arts work is an ongoing local conversation about the purpose of the places we live and work in. This is the foundation of a community-led and grassroots approach to creative working with communities.

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‘We’ve learned that keeping the conversation going is the single most important thing of all – for conversation is an open space of possibility, it is owned by no-one, rather it is stewarded, nurtured and protected by everyone who takes part.’ (22) - Matt Baker, Conversing with a Town, The Stove Network

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(21) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/conversation 

(22) BAKER, M (2019) Conversing with a Town (accessed 2021) - https://thestove.org/conversing-with-a-town/

Creative placemaking is a relatively new term that has not yet developed a fixed or generally accepted meaning. It is a creative and grassroots approach to ‘placemaking’, development of spaces, and community-led planning and development, that allows communities to take a leading role in co-developing better strategies for the place they live. 

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‘Effective Creative Placemaking engages communities at grassroots level, building on the existing culture, activity and relationships in each place. It brings people, communities, groups and organisations, public and third sector agencies and supporting bodies together to co-develop better strategies for our places.' (23) – Katharine Wheeler, Embers, The Stove Network

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(23) WHEELER, K (2020) Embers - https://thestove.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/EMBERS_Spread.pdf

Creativity is the use of imagination and original thinking to make something new or reimagine something differently. (24) It is part of everyday life and can be applied in any area of work, life or activity.

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When we think and act creatively, we are taking a risk by expressing something original – creativity is what allows change to happen. 

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(24) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/creative

Culture means the ideas and practices that are particular to a place or a group of people however small or large. (25)

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‘The fabric of signs and symbols, language and image, customs and ceremonies, habitations, institutions, and much more that characterise and enable a specific human community to form and sustain itself.’ (26) – Arlene Goldbard, The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists and The Future

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The Scottish Government defines cultures as reflecting the past, challenging the present, and shaping in the future. (27) Their newly published Culture Strategy places creativity at the heart of community progress and recognises the value of thriving unique local cultures.

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(25) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/culture

(26) GOLDBARD, A (2013: 11) The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists and The Future

(27) Scottish Government (accessed 2021) Culture Strategy - https://www.gov.scot/publications/culture-strategy-scotland/ 

The concept of cultural democracy has a long history, emerging largely in the 1970's, though its story goes further back than that, and it has been coming back into recent use. (28)

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'Cultural democracy is the right and capability to participate fully, freely and equally in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and create, publish and distribute artistic work.' (29) - François Matarasso, A Restless Art 

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Cultural democracy aims to challenge the hierarchical structures that support and celebrate culture and open debate over who decides what is, and is not, of value. From a community perspective this goes further than ‘arts for everyone’, and issues of access, and challenges the very structures of decision-making and power in what is presented and celebrated as the ‘culture’ of a place. (30)

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‘We argue that people should have rights of access not just to cultural outputs, but to the means of cultural input.’ (31) – Owen Kelly, Cultural Democracy and The Right to Make Art, chapter 11

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‘…it posits that many cultural traditions co-exist in human society, and that none of these should be allowed to dominate and become an "official culture".’ (32)

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(28) Cultural Democracy Now (accessed 2021) - https://culturaldemocracy.uk/cultural-democracy-now/ 

(29) MATARASSO, F (2019) A Restless Art - https://arestlessart.com/the-book/download-a-digital-copy/

(30) JEFFERS, A and MORIARTY, G et al (2019) Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art

(31) KELLY, O (2019: 231) Cultural Democracy: Developing Technologies and Dividuality, JEFFERS, A and MORIARTY, G et al (2019) Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art  

(32) ADAMS, D and GOLDBARD, A (1990) Cultural Democracy: A Brief Introduction - http://www.wwcd.org/cd.html 

Degrowth challenges the sustainability, and mathematics, of a constantly growing model of economics and global society. The concept of degrowth emerged in the 1970’s but it has recently gained momentum as a response to a need for greater sustainability in our practices that respond to the need for climate action.

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‘The degrowth movement of activists and researchers advocates for societies that prioritize social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption.’ (33)

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It aims for a more sustainable form of economics, one that works to promote our ecological needs as well as our economic ones. (34)

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‘This story of growth is so embedded in our ways of living that any kind of change demands the complete re-imagination of our Society.’ (35) - Enough Scot

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(33) Degrowth (accessed 2021) - https://www.degrowth.info/en/what-is-degrowth/ 

(34) ISEE – The International Society of Ecological Economics (accessed 2021) - http://www.isecoeco.org/ 

(35) Enough Scot (accessed 2021) - https://enough.scot/

Development refers to the support offered to places or sectors to encourage the best use of existing assets. Development can be led by the community itself through a process of internal reflection, organising and action, as well as being supported by external agencies and interventions. 

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Asset-based development is built on the belief that every community already has the assets it needs to thrive, they just might not be recognised yet. (36)

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‘Community cultural development’ and ‘creative placemaking’ are a forms of development that insist on participation with local people who define their own aims, and methods to reach these aims, rather than be something that is done to them, or without their direction. (37)

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(36) Nurture Development (accessed 2021) - https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/asset-based-community-development/

(37) ADAMS, D and GOLDBARD, A (2005) Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development

The economic wellbeing agenda aims to measure the success of an economy by how well it serves people and the environment and not just how much money is made, products are produced/sold, jobs created. From this viewpoint, economics is about understanding who gets what, under what conditions and why? (38)

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It fosters the idea that social (effects on people) and economic (effect on wealth, resources) measures should be considered together when judging the success of relative placemaking projects. 

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Wellbeing economics looks at the deeper impact of policies; the quality of jobs created, the distribution of money and resources, the effect on the poverty, or inequality, of an area, the effect on environment, carbon emissions, the long-term effects on health and community empowerment. (39)

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Economic wellbeing considers the possible displacement of these social issues as opposed to developments that lead to gentrification, and regeneration, that pushes poorer communities to the outskirts, does not have a wider benefit for local people and is successful purely in economic terms. (40) (41)

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(38) MCGREGOR, J A and POUW, N Towards an economics of well-being, Cambridge Journal of Economics (2017: 41, 1123–1142) - https://academic.oup.com/cje/article/41/4/1123/2327835

(39) TREBECK, K (2019) Building a Wellbeing Economy, Open Democracy (accessed 2021) - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/building-wellbeing-economy/

(40) SMIRNOVA, V and GUERRA, V (2017: 68-72) Community Change: Placemaking Revisited

(41) LEES, L and MELHUISH, C (2012) Arts-led regeneration in the UK: The rhetoric and the evidence on urban social inclusion, European Urban and Regional Studies.

Working on a grassroots level involves community action on local priorities. It often relates to work that amplifies a community’s voice, organising to increase community power, and championing the right of communities to take action on issues that affect them. 

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‘Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures.’ (42)

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Community organisations often talk about grassroots work and activity coming from, and for, our communities rather than activities that are brought in, or done to, or even just with communities. 

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(42) Wikipedia, Grassroots (accessed 2021) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots 

A holistic approach involves recognising and respecting the complex relationships that are at play within a system. It celebrates and seeks to support the whole system rather than individual parts or players.

Innovation is the production of new ideas and new activities. These new ideas can progress thinking across any field – economics, social policy, technology. (43) Innovation disrupts the status quo and leads to new ways of working.

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The Scottish Government has a statement of intent to become a world leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation through investing in economic enterprise. (44)

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There is a growing understanding of the significant role that creative industries play in local and regional innovation systems. (45)

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(43) Scottish Government, Implementing a Scottish Social Innovation Strategy: Support from the European Regional Development Fund 2014- 2020 - https://www2.gov.scot/resource/0043/00434672.pdf

(44) Scottish Government, Supporting Business: Innovation (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/policies/supporting-business/innovation/ 

(45) CHAPLAIN et al, NESTA (2010) Creative Clusters and Innovation: Putting Creativity on the Map - https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/creative_clusters_and_innovation.pdf 

Inclusion means that all people are able to share in positive outcomes, regardless of their socio-economic status, race, gender, abilities, sexuality or other characteristics. 

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‘Inclusive practice’ means removing the barriers that stop people being able to make the most of opportunities.  

Inclusive growth is a relatively new term that combines ‘increased prosperity with greater equality’. (46) The emphasis on equity, the distribution of the benefits of economic growth, is a widely supported argument but in practice the continued centring of growth and traditional measurements of economic success may not lend themselves well to community-led development. 

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‘In practice, inclusive growth is strong on competitiveness and inward investment, but weak on tackling inequality and poverty.’ (47) – Centre for Local Economic Strategies 

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The Stove Network talks of ‘Inclusive localism’ as a methodology to achieving ‘a vision of a society, and an economy, that does not simply value numbers, but rather supports economic activity that benefits communities, places, and ALL the people who live there.’ (48)

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(46) Scottish Government, Growing the Economy (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/policies/economic-growth/inclusive-growth/

(47) CLES (2019) Community Wealth Building - https://cles.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/CWB2019FINAL-web.pdf

(48) BAKER, M (2019) Conversing with a Town (accessed 2021) - https://thestove.org/conversing-with-a-town/ 

Instrumentalisation is the treatment of an idea as an instrument that functions as a guide to action, and in relation to politics, to make use of something to achieve a political goal. (49)

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Art as instrumentalisation is when an artist, or artists work, is used as a vehicle of propaganda, or to further the political agenda of an organisation, and mask negative effects of an activity on a wider community.

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Art as instrumentalisation, or ‘art-washing’ (50), in relation to placemaking/development work, refers to when artists are brought in to improve the image of a place/space and engage local communities without any real power or decision-making given to those communities. The artists role in this work has long been looked at with regard to gentrification; when communities are displaced, and can no longer afford to live, in an area due to developments. (51) (52)

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(49) Wiktionary (accessed 2021) - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/instrumentalisation 

(50) BILLARD, J (2017) (accessed 2021) Art and Gentrification: What is ‘art-washing’ and what are galleries doing to resist it? - https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/in_depth/art-gentrification-what-is-artwashing-and-what-are-galleries-doing-to-resist-it-55124 

(51) LEES, L and MELHUISH, C (2013) Arts-led regeneration in the UK: The rhetoric and the evidence on urban social inclusion

(52) MATARASSO, F (2019) Instrumentalisation: A Convenient Mask (accessed 2021) - https://arestlessart.com/2019/11/05/instrumentalisation-a-convenient-mask/

Leadership is a process of influencing people to act together towards a shared purpose, and is not about someone’s position in a hierarchy. Leadership can often be found in unexpected places and emerge a project progresses and confidence grows. 

Participation, in its most simple sense, is the action of taking part in something. (53)

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Participation can be seen as our most basic individual choice and power in how we interact with the world around us and as such is seen as a core principle of a human rights-based approach to making decisions that affect us. (54) ‘Participation must be active, free, meaningful and give attention to issues of accessibility, including access to information in a form and a language which can be understood.’ (55)

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In relation to community planning and development, participation requests, have been built into the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to give local people more power in decision-making processes that seek to make improvements to public services. (56) (57)

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(53) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/participation 

(54) World Health Organisation (accessed 2021) - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-rights-and-health 

(55) Equality and Human Rights Commission - http://eqhria.scottishhumanrights.com/eqhriatraininghrbaexplained.html 

(56) What Works Scotland: Participation Requests (accessed 2021) -  http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/topics/participation-requests/ 

(57) Scottish Government: Community Empowerment (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/policies/community-empowerment/participation-requests/ 

In its broadest sense ‘participatory art’ is an approach to making art which engages public participation (58) in the creative process, letting them become editors in some way of the work, or their experience of the work, through activity.

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‘The term ‘participatory art’ is used expansively and includes processes of making that give varying degrees of ownership to those involved. It is used to describe forms of performance art that involve the audience to help create the work (59) as well as processes of co-creation but can be broadly defined by the ‘shared creative act’ (60)

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In its deeper sense it is a form of art-making 'by professional and non-professional artists' and has two defining characteristics: that it involves the creation of art, in any form, and that everyone involved in the artistic act is an artist 'everyone involved is an artist because an artist is defined by the act of making.’ (61) – François Matarasso, A Restless Art

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It demands that we think, feel, talk and share with other people.

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(58) Wikipedia, Public Participation (accessed 2021) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_participation 

(59) The Tate: Participatory Art (accessed 2021) - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/participatory-art 

(60) MATARASSO, F (2019: 19) A Restless Art - https://arestlessart.com/the-book/download-a-digital-copy/

(61) MATARASSO, F (2019: 49) A Restless Art - https://arestlessart.com/the-book/download-a-digital-copy/

Permission means receiving approval to act. (62) Permission can also be as a process, rather than just a one-off decision, that involves people in a framework of ongoing decision-making. 

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There is a growing understanding that community-led approaches to regeneration, which prioritise the permission of local people, bring benefits to social cohesion, connection, a greater sense of support, community-esteem and self-esteem. (63)

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In relation to creative development and regeneration projects the process of permission requires active engagement of local communities for their ongoing consent to make changes.

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(62) Lexico Oxford (accessed 2021) - https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/permission

(63) HEATH, S, RABINOVICH, A and BARRETO, M (2017) Putting identity into the community: exploring the social dynamics of urban regeneration

Place-based refers to a focus of work and activity that is informed, and ideally led, by the place it relates to with outcomes that are specific to that area. 

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Place-based approaches bring together a range of partners and programmes to improve outcomes for an area. (64) The Stove, along with many other community embedded projects, consider place-based working to be about coming up with locally specific solutions to societal challenges. (65)

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What Works Scotland describes place-based working as: ‘A community of people bound together because of where they live, work or spend a considerable proportion of their time, come together to make changes to that place which they believe will improve the physical, social or economic environment and in doing so tackle issues of inequality.’ (66)

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(64) What Works Scotland: Place-based Approaches (accessed 2021) - http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/topics/place-based-approaches/

(65) The Stove Network: People and Place (accessed 2021) - https://thestove.org/creative-practice/ 

(66) BYNNER, C (2016) What Works Scotland: Rationales for Place-based Approaches in Scotland - http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RationalesforPlacebasedApproachesinScotland.pdf 

Place-based economies build on the particular characteristics of a geographical area, drawing on its unique assets and making the most of its strengths. 

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Creating place-based economies enables regional cohesion by supporting places to design solutions best suited to them, rather than a one-size-fits-all model.

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The Scottish Government has agreed to adopt the ‘place-principle’ which requests that ‘all those responsible for providing services and looking after assets in a place need to work and plan together, and with local communities, to improve the lives of people, support inclusive and sustainable economic growth and create more successful places.’ (67)

In practice, a place-based economy should support the local and specific needs of a place over the profit margins of centralised bodies and global corporations. 

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(67) Scottish Government: Place-principle (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/publications/place-principle-introduction/ 

Placemaking refers to the concept of developing spaces that work for communities and encourage connection and creativity for the common good. (68)

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The term is often used to refer to good urban design, in an architectural and planning sense, and can be done with a greater, or lesser degree, of influence given to local people who live in the communities involved. (69) (70)

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Though the language of placemaking has the benefit of communities as the focus of its intentions there are questions over whether it offers communities the necessary safety nets to protect them from the negative effects of economic growth and market competition, particularly in cities. (71)

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(68) Project for Public Spaces (accessed 2021) - https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-placemaking

(69) ANDERSON, D (2019) (accessed 2021) The Developer: Why does every article about placemaking begin with a definition of placemaking? - https://www.thedeveloper.live/places/why-does-every-article-about-placemaking-begin-with-a-definition-of-placemaking

(70) Greenspace Scotland: Community Placemaking (accessed 2021) - https://www.greenspacescotland.org.uk/community-placemaking

(71) SMIRNOVA, V and GUERRA, V M (2017) Community Change: Placemaking Revisited

Planning is about making the best use of land for housing, business, industrial, agriculture and recreation. It is about making places where people want to live, work and play, places which are safe and inviting, and places which are sustainable. 

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In Scotland, community planning encourages collaboration between public services and communities, built on shared targets for local priorities ‘Community planning is about how public bodies work together, and with local communities, to design and deliver better services that make a real difference to people's lives.’ (72)

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In Scotland the Community Empowerment Act (2015) supports more powers for communities in planning and land purchase. (73) Local Place Plans are also soon to be introduced which will give communities further statutory powers in planning. (74)

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Creative methods of engagement that help de-mystify and encourage participation in these processes can help bridge the gap between policy and practice. (75) (76)

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(72) Scottish Government: Community Planning (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/policies/improving-public-services/community-planning/ 

(73) Scottish Government: Community Empowerment Act (accessed 2021) - https://www.gov.scot/publications/community-empowerment-scotland-act-summary/ 

(74) Development Trusts Association Scotland: Local Place-Plans - https://dtascommunityownership.org.uk/community/community-place-plans/what-are-place-plans/community-action-plans 

(75) COWIE, P (2017) Performing Planning: Understanding community participation in planning through theatre

(76) Cap-a-pie: A Case Study (2016) - https://www.cap-a-pie.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Case-Study-The-Town-Meeting.pdf 

The term socially-engaged relates to participation in collective activities which relate to the identity, challenges, of a place or community.

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Socially engaged arts practice, also referred to as social practice or socially engaged art, is one that can include any artform and which involves people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction. (77) ‘Contemporary socially-engaged art can be characterised as artist-led, non object based encounters, performances, and collaborations with others.’ (78)

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The participatory, social, element of socially engaged practice, is central, with artists working actively with participants and what is created, which may be an experience rather than anything physical, often holding equal or less importance to the collaborative act. What defines social practice from a wider participatory practice is that, where as the later simply requires the collaborative act the former requires a focus on social issues through that act. (79)

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(77) Tate (accessed 2021) - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socially-engaged-practice

(78) HOPE, S (2019: 10) From Community Arts to the Socially Engaged Art Commission, JEFFERS, A and MORIARTY, G et al (2019) Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art

(79) HELGUERA, P (2011) Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook

Social enterprises are businesses with a social mission, who use their profits for the common good.

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Social Enterprise UK (80) defines social enterprise as businesses that:

•    Have a clear social or environmental mission that is set out in its governing documents.
•    Are independent and earn more than half of their income through trading (or are working towards this) – meaning that they are not solely reliant on grants
•    Are controlled, or owned, in the interests of a social mission
•    Reinvest, or give away, at least half of their profits or surpluses towards a social purpose
•    Are transparent about how they operate and the impact that they have

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(80) Social Enterprise UK (accessed 2021) - https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/what-is-it-all-about/ 

Sustainability means meeting the needs we have today without compromising our ability to meet the needs we will have tomorrow. 

In regeneration, sustainability means creating communities that are inclusive, diverse, well-serviced and future-proofed. (81)

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(81) LOMBARDI, R D et al (2010) Conceptualising Sustainability in UK Urban Regeneration - http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/42799/1/42799.pdf   

Regeneration means the development of a local area, including the activities that happen there, to improve the outcomes of the communities that use it.

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According to the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum, successful regeneration comes from the unique identity of a place and its people; involves those people meaningfully in planning; is based on long-term partnerships over many years; and links local assets with wider national agendas. (82)

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(82) SURF (2016) Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum: Manifesto - https://www.surf.scot/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/SURF-2016-Manifesto-Final-Draft.pdf

Regenerative processes are the social and economic practices that restore and replenish natural and human systems, in contrast with extractive processes which extract and use up resources. (83)

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(83) RSA (2017) Our Future in the Land - https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/reports/rsa-ffcc-our-future-in-the-land.pdf

Wellbeing means living well, and living well together. 

Societal wellbeing is about encapsulating all the things we need to have a good society now and in the future. It brings together environmental, social, and democratic outcomes. Societal wellbeing means that the economy and public services are focused on the goal of societal wellbeing, not ends in themselves. (84)

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(84) Carnegie UK Trust (2019) What should be in a Wellbeing Law? - https://d1ssu070pg2v9i.cloudfront.net/pex/carnegie_uk_trust/2019/07/08120200/LOW-RES-4196-Carnegie-WellbeingLaw-A4.pdf