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Over the last three decades,the UK has seen inspiringexamples of cooperativeaction and social change. Ifthese are forerunners of a

new Big Society, it is worthwhile to lookback and learn some lessons.

In this article, I draw on the experiencesof three pioneers to suggest what I see asthree lessons for the future. I should stressthat this is my own personal interpretationand a simplified suggestion of one thingtheir stories tell me.

John�–�demonstrate�theculture�of�enterpriseJohn Bird, founder of the Big Issue,1 is asclose as you get to a celebrity social entre-preneur. A former rough-sleeper himself,Bird got together with Gordon Roddick ofthe Body Shop in 1991 with a view thatsomething radical had to be done to dealwith homelessness. John, a printer by trade,was working as a small publisher; in NewYork, Gordon had seen a new project tryingto create employment by running commu-nity newspapers as a business. That year,with rough-sleeping in London at recordlevels, they launched the Big Issue as aLondon-based social experiment. Theywere both taken aback by its instant appealand record growth rate.

The Body Shop Foundation provided a£30,000 grant to hire a few staff and the ini-tial business plan projected the creation of 50jobs for street sellers. John and Gordon wereinundated with homeless people keen to sellthe paper and the first few issues sold outrapidly, as Londoners were keen to buy it.Apart from that seed-corn grant, the Big Issuehas traded profitably ever since and a signifi-cant proportion of its trading surpluses of 10per cent or more annually have beencovenanted to its sister Big Issue Foundationto provide employment, advice and housingaid services to homeless people.

For Maria Clancy, who worked on thespread of the model overseas, the depress-ing fact is that so few organisations in thevoluntary sector have tried the Big Issue’ssocial business approach in other fields. AsClancy comments: ‘we are wondrous of thefact that nobody has copied us. It’s verystrange – especially when we have beenable to create thousands of jobs. Perhaps ittakes time for other non-profit organisationsto understand, but nobody will engage withthe social business possibilities.’

John Bird sees the problem as a prevailingpassive attitude of ‘no grant, no go’ com-bined with the deep prejudice that non-prof-it organisations have (by definition) againstdoing business and making money. As aresult of this pervasive ethos, social change isimpeded by a dominant ‘alms culture’; while

Dreams�of�a�social�economyEEdd��MMaayyoo looks�at�the�work�and�ideas�of�John�Bird,�IainTuckett�and�Edgar�Cahn�and�gleans�some�salient�lessons�forthe�construction�of�the�social�economy�in�its�latest�guise.

1 The Big Issue offers homeless and vulnerably housed people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income. The organisationis made up of two parts: a limited company, which produces and distributes a magazine to a network of street vendors,and a registered charity, which helps those vendors gain control of their lives by addressing the issues which have con-tributed to their homelessness.

he sees a place for charity for those that needit, there is a far greater need for social busi-nesses, which charitable organisations are ill-equipped to get on with. He describes thesyndrome: ‘Most charities have one thing incommon. They have to appeal to businessesand the public for alms. Without our supportthey would not exist. Few of them havelearned the art of becoming self-sustaining.They are forever appealing to you and me ina manner that is in effect a polite form of beg-ging. The money comes in and goes out.’

Iain�–�help�enterprises�addup�to�moreIain Tuckett has been at the forefront ofcommunity economic development effortsin Southwark, London, for over 20 years.Iain and his development trust staff at CoinStreet Community Builders provide asuperb example of how to develop aresilient social enterprise group, one whichincludes a secondary housing co-op, affiliat-ed housing co-ops, five separate charitabletrusts, a development body, an affiliatedlocal employers group, and an affiliated artsand festival trust.

In 1977, a major developer sought plan-ning permission to build Europe’s largestskyscraper hotel linked with a millionsquare feet of office space on the Southbanknear the Elephant and Castle. But local resi-dents could see that speculative develop-ments of this kind would offer only cleaningjob opportunities for local people. So theyworked out a regeneration plan, includingaffordable housing, a new park and river-side walkway, managed workspace for smallenterprises, new retail shops and leisurefacilities, and the Coin Street Action Groupwas formed to make it happen.

The action group was aware of the suc-cess of the North Kensington AmenityTrust, which had in secured 30 acres ofland from the local authority, at a pepper-corn rent for 25 years, as part of the dealwith the community to let the Westway bebuilt to Heathrow. After seven years of

campaigning and two public enquiries, theaction group’s campaign succeeded, andCoin Street Community Builders wasformed to lead the acquisition of the siteand implement the popular plan.

Iain Tuckett’s work and emphasis onintegrated community planning has itsantecedents. In the 1830s and 40s, fledglingco-operators developed so-called ‘Halls ofScience’. At the end of the 19th century, theBritish Settlements revived the strategy andbecame an international movement of‘neighbourhood houses’. It is a tough chal-lenge though for any property developer ina low-income area. An essential ingredientis to be able to see how enterprises add uptogether to form a local economy.

Edgar�–�build�co-operationby�distributing�powerThe idea of time banks was developed inLondon by Washington law professorEdgar Cahn in 1986. Recovering in hospitalfrom a heart attack, Edgar was listening toBBC Radio 4 and a speech by PrimeMinister Margaret Thatcher. Listening witha degree of despair, he wondered how infuture society could ever support thoseaspects of love, care and support betweenpeople that were never likely to be valuedor exchanged in the market. The answerthat came to him was the idea of timebanks, based on finding ways of organisingthe economy around people’s time ratherthan money.

There are now at least 1,000 time banksoperating across the world, exchangingcredits called anything from ‘time dollars’ inthe United States to ‘hureai kippu’2 (or‘ticket for caring relationship’) in Japan.They are all designed to reward the effortthat people put in to help others in theircommunity, drawing on the model of ablood bank or babysitting club.

Frontline public services are being cutback and stretched. But, even so, significantresources are directed at serving people inneed. Within the care system, social workers

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2 Also, ‘fureai kippu’.

provide support. Within the legal aid sys-tem, lawyers advise. Within the NHS, doc-tors diagnose. But it remains rare that theseinstitutions succeed in engaging the passion,cooperation or commitment of the peoplethey serve. However, as Edgar Cahnrealised lying in his hospital bed, such serv-ices work best when power is distributedbetween professionals and the public andwhen what happens is owned, formally orinformally, by the people that use thoseservices.

Reflected�spaceFor me, these three inspiring innovatorsdemonstrate the continuity of the strugglefor more community-oriented forms of eco-nomic life. The language has changed overtime – the ‘social economy’ has given wayto ideas of social enterprise and socialentrepreneurs or morphed into the frame-works of social innovation. The coopera-tive movement, which can trace its rootsback to the early 19th century, is enjoying arenaissance.

Public policy has a butterfly mind: thelanguage of what is in and what is out turns

over – now, it is the ‘Big Society’ that is in.But to herald society as a counterpoint togovernment is to miss the point. It is certain-ly the case that big government is trustedless than big society, but society shouldn’tbe seen as a panacea.

I have recently been involved withresearch that has led to the launch of theCooperative Barometer, an index of fair-ness across Britain.3 We carried out a sur-vey showing that 61 per cent of peopleacross the UK feel that the way govern-ment treats people is unfair. However, 44per cent feel that the way people are treat-ed in society is unfair. This is hardly a ring-ing endorsement of ‘society’. Indeed, for aminority, the shift from state to society, interms of fairness, is like jumping from thefire back into the frying pan. Voice,accountability and inclusion matter asmuch in the Big Society as they do for biggovernment.

But the truth is that what I learn fromJohn, Iain and Edgar is that the language ofpolicy is often simply a reflected space forthose engaged in the practice of commu-nity action. You learn the words, see thepossibilities and dance to the tune, butdon’t ever mistake it for the hard work ofsharing power in new, enterprising andinclusive ways.

Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK,the membership network for co-operative and mutualenterprises.

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3 See at: www.uk.coop. The Co-operative Economy 2010 sets out the scale of co-operative movement in the UK and can befound at www.uk.coop/resources/documents/uk-co-operative-economy-2010.

Voice,�accountability�andinclusion�matter�as�much�inthe�Big�Society�as�they�do�forbig�government�