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Guideline 1.1. Process Pathway

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Circles of Social Life: Process Pathway

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Overview Circles of Social Life is an approach that supports cities and communities to enact positive social change. It facilitates a principled, evidence-based, and community-engaged response to complex or seemingly intractable social issues. The approach is based on the idea that reflexive learning should underpin collaborative practical action—action that has consequences. Currently, questions of sustainability are the main emphasis of the overall approach—hence the usual public emphasis on Circles of Sustainability—but the methodology is designed more broadly so that other themes can be analysed and assessed—from vibrancy and liveability to resilience and adaptation, and from child-integrated cities to healthy cities and intelligent cities. Here we present an overall scoping of the process of engaging in collaborative practical action. The Process Pathway The Process Pathway provides a map to guide urban-change groups through the practice of making a significant impact upon a designated locale, such as a city, a town or an urban region. Linked to guidelines for each of the stages, the Pathway provides a broad management overview that can be used for small or big projects. It can be used to guide a focussed and discrete project or to frame a general sustainability plan that includes many sub-projects. The Process Pathway is organized around an iterative Process Pathway with seven stages of activity: 1. commitment, 2. engagement, 3. assessment, 4. definition, 5. implementation, 6. measurement, and 7. communication. Each of the process stages is divided into a series of phases, organized in a logical sequence of activities as part of the broader Circles of Social Life approach. The various phases of the Pathway are linked to associated tools and methods. These tools are designed as part of an integrated, cross-referenced set that can be used as a comprehensive guide or as singular tools, each of which can be taken out of the toolbox and used with or without reference to the other tools.

Figure 1. The Process Pathway of ‘Circles of Social Life’: Simple Version2


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When laid out in relation to the various tools and processes through a figurative pathway (Figure 2 below) the full method can be seen in one image. It has a starting point, and a logical set of steps, but has no set end and no single defined mandatory pathway through the process. It is an iterative process that once begun will ideally spiral through the Process Pathway a series of times. Moving through the process can be fast or slow. It is possible to skip steps the first time and come back to them the second time around with more intense focus; and it can either be done with minimal or maximum engagement, or somewhere in between. Other tools can be added to the process pathway, and work already done as part of an ongoing project can be assessed in terms of the process pathway and incorporated into the mix. The Process Pathway graphic is designed around four columns. The first column emphasizes the constant core of the Circles of Social Life approach: reflexive learning and principled acting together with consequence. The second column includes the seven basic stages of collaborative learning and activity. These project management stages have been used one in variation or another in classical planning approaches. They are laid out here in such a way as to bring together the strengths of different methods. The third column begins to elaborate those stages in a way in which both the novelty and unusually comprehensive nature of the ‘Circles of Social Life’ method begins to become apparent. The fourth column shows how the different tools relate to those elaborated steps in an integrated way.


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The Process Pathway can also be laid out both in a figure (Figure 2) and a table (Table 1) that explains the steps in more detail. Figure 2. Elaborated Process Path for Sustainable Development


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Table 1: Stages and Phases of the Process Pathway

Process Stages

Process Phases

Process Phases —Possible Tasks

Process Tools —Guidelines, and Terms of Reference

1. Commit

Affirm commitment to making a difference

Affirm a long-term commitment to taking on a significant project that responds to a complex issue and will potentially bring about positive social change. For example:

• Guideline 1.1. Overview: Process Pathway

• Affirm publicly a commitment to take on a significant project. • Affirm broad commitment to the principles for making cities better places to live (these principles can be modified through broad consultation with affected constituencies.

• Guideline 1.2. Principles for Better Cities

• Affirm agreement with the Principles of Action. • Guideline 1.3. Principles for Action

• Affirm engagement in an urban area to put the principles into practice

Establish the management structure

Establish a management group who can carry forward a process of social change. Ideally this should be based on a broad partnership of people from different levels of government, civil society and business. For example:

• Establish a Management Group to run the project. • Guideline 1.4. Principles for Partnership (in development)

Choose the framing considerations

Choose the framing considerations, including the general issue in question, the general objective of the project, and the material scope of the project. For example:

• Choose the general issue the city wishes to address. • Choose the general objective(s) in relation to that general issue. • Choose the temporal and spatial scope of the project.

• Guideline 1.5. Project Profile Template

Resource the project

Resource the project financially or begin to explore ways of sustaining the project through in-kind, personnel, infrastructural, or financial support. For example:

• Resource the Management Group administrative costs taking into account the possibility of seconded staff, in-kind support such as office space, or seed-funding. • Resource the project costs for research and implementation, or set up a mechanism for developing an unfolding budget.

2. Engage Consult

key constituent groups and individuals

Consult as widely as possible and get advice on key people who should be appointed to a consultative reference group. For example:

• Consult locally with key constituent groups and individuals, including through meetings and public forums, based on the ‘all-affected principle’. • Consult more broadly, including if necessary with professional consultants. • Consult about who should be named as part of an honorary group of advisors to the project.

• Guideline 2.1. Conditions of Engagement

Entrust collaborators and form a critical reference group

Entrust a group of advisors and name a consultative reference group, seeking to select a range of persons who are engaged across sectors relevant to the project and from across all domains of social life—economic, ecological, political and cultural. For example:

Entrust a Critical Reference Group by appointing key advisors and naming them publicly.

Empower Empower local communities who are in any way affected by the project through inviting them into an ongoing critical engagement. For example:


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local communities

• Empower local communities by actively seeking critical and constructive feedback during this stage and all subsequent stages of the project. • Empower communities through integrating the results of earlier consultations into a rough preliminary ‘project description’ to which local people can respond.

Accord recognition to partners

Accord recognition to the different partners and individuals who, in multifarious ways, are contributing to the project. For example:

• Accord recognition to institutional partners, contributing organizations and affiliated individuals through public naming, such as through publishing those names on a website. • Accord recognition through developing Memorandum of Understanding.

3. Assess

Determine knowledge and resources

Determine the available relevant information sets and the knowledge-base of individuals associated with the project. For example:

• Determine the knowledge-base of the Management Group and Critical Reference Group (and bring in more expertise if necessary)

• Guideline 3.1. Knowledge Profile Process (in development)

• Determine what relevant data is already available in relation to the locale, map against the ‘Circles of Sustainability’ domains, and archive material in an accessible way.

• Determine strengths and weaknesses. • Guideline 3.3: Strengths and Weaknesses

Profile (in development)

• Determine what relevant indicators are currently collected. • Determine if additional resources are required and seek to acquire those resources.

Analyse data and documents

Analyse the current situation in relation to the general issue in contention across all social domains—economics, ecology, politics and culture. For example:

• Analyse existing public data. • Analyse existing policy documents.

Research social context

Research the background context to the general issue and seek to understand driving forces on the general issue. For example:

• Research driving forces • Research the overall sustainability profile of the chosen urban locale.

• Guideline 3.4. Urban Profile Process

• Research community responses through social questionnaires. • Guideline 3.5. Social Life Questionnaire

• Research individual responses through interviews.

• Guideline 3.6. Interviews and Conversations

• Research tensions in social life. • Guideline 3.7. Social Themes Profile

Process Project outcomes

Project current developments into future possible scenarios, based on current possible trajectories, as a way of anticipating the consequences of social change. For example:

• Project future social scenarios through developing stories about alternative pathways.

• Guideline 3.8. S Scenarios Planning Process

• Project program scenarios by anticipating the effects of the project in question upon other aspects of social life in the urban locale.

• Guideline 3.9. Project Simulation Process:

The Intelligent Cities Simulator

4. Define

Clarify definitions, forces and risks

Clarify definitions of the general issue in question and the key materiality considerations of the project. For example:

• Clarify the definitions of the general issue. • Clarify the general objective in relation to that issue. • Clarify the relation between the general objective and the ten United Nations principles.

• Guideline 4.1. General Issue Clarification

Process


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• Clarify materiality considerations of the project in response to the general issues, including defining the time-frame and spatial scope of the project. • Clarify the driving forces affecting the general issue. • Clarify risks and challenges involved in effecting social change.

Identify critical issues and indicators

Identify the most important critical issues that will provide the focus of action in relation to the general issue, and decide upon the objectives and indicators of change in relation to each of those critical issues. For example:

• Identify the critical issues that affect the main issue. • Identify the critical objectives in relation to the critical issues. • Identify and resolve tensions between critical objectives. • Identify key indicators related to objectives.

• Guideline 4.2. Critical Issues Identification

Process

Refine project parameters

Refine the project directions and parameters in order to finalize plans for implementation. For example:

• Refine the project parameters in the light of the clarified definitions

and risk assessments. • Refine the budget parameters. • Refine indicator targets. • Refine and finalize the overall plan.

Review project plans

Review the strengths and weakness of the current overall plan through enlisting expert outsiders. For example:

• Review the overall plan through a peer review process, bringing to your city people who have had experience of similar projects elsewhere; and/or • Review the overall plan through a consultancy process.

• Guideline 4.3. Peer Review Process

5. Implement

Authorize the plan

Authorize the various aspects of the plan and its subprojects within project parameters. For example:

• Authorize co-ordinators and delegate authority to them. • Authorize contracts to be signed. • Authorize budgets and expenditure lines. • Authorize approval processes for planned steps.

• Authorize procurement processes. • Guideline 5.1 Procurement Process (in development)

Enable project support

Enable the various aspects of project support. For example: • Enable appointments processes necessary to conducting the project. • Enable necessary training processes and team development. • Enable necessary procurement processes and activities. • Enable necessary technology installation.

Liaise with constituents

Liaise with all relevant constituents (stakeholders and affiliates) through the implementation process.

Revise the plan periodically

Revise the plan periodically on agreed intervals, adjusting the details of implementation where necessary given changing circumstances and responses to project developments.

6. Measure

Monitor indicators

Monitor the progress of the project throughout the period of its implementation and after. For example:

• Monitor activities, and assess progress towards achieving the main goal and objectives of the project; • Monitor indicators chosen during the ‘Identification’ and ‘Refinement’ phases.

Document project implementation

Document the project implementation process. For example:

• Document the project implementation through written papers, and disseminate publicly, such as through a website or Local-Global database.

• Guideline 3.2. Local-Global database

Reassess profiles and

Reassess the way in which the project has broader impact by rerunning previously used assessment tools—or run them for the first time to generate base-line data for tracking longer-term changes over time. For


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processes example:

• Reassess by conducting an ‘Urban Profile Process’ again.

• Guideline 3.4. Urban Profile Process

• Reassess by running the ‘Social Questionnaire’ again.

• Guideline 3.5. Social Life Questionnaire

• Reassess through a further round of interviews.

• Guideline 3.6. Interviews and Conversations

• Reassess ‘Social Themes Profile’. • Guideline 3.7. Social Themes Profile Process

Evaluate overall project outcomes

Evaluate the overall project outcomes, including strengths and limitations. For example:

• Evaluate data from each of the processes run during the Reassessment phase. • Evaluate the project internally through a major written report. • Evaluate the project externally through a consultancy process.

7. Communicate

Translate themes and learning

Translate the technical dimensions of the project into lay language for broad communication. For example:

• Translate the technical material including themes, critical issues, objectives and outcomes of the project into easily accessible language for broad public dissemination.

Publicize the process and outcomes of the project

Publicize the process, outcomes and themes of the project and its subprojects. For example:

• Publicize through meetings, in media releases, through dissemination of documentation, and by archiving material in the Local-Global database, etc.

• Publicize the themes and nature of the project through innovative learning tools.

• Guideline 7.1. Fierce Planet Video Game

Report outcomes of the project

Report on the project in an ongoing way throughout its various stages. For example:

• Report on decisions and outcomes to all constituents, partners and relevant agencies through appropriate levels of documentation, including through web-based dissemination.

• Guideline 7.2. Communication on Progress

Advise communities, partners and government

Advise communities, partners and all levels of government about next steps.


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To give a sense of how one key stage in the project development occurs the following section turns to a particular example.

Appendix 1. Issue Selection Process

Overview The Issue Selection Process is a process, designed to elicit the critical concerns, problems, questions, features and issues related to what has been identified as a general issue. The objective of this process is to generate a candidate list of critical issues. These are particular things or processes that matter most in relation to the general issue—things that impact upon it or are affected by it. A general issue can be as broad as ‘the general social sustainability of our city’ or as narrow as the cultural sustainability of a particular project in a particular quarter, for example, ‘street art and social life along the waterfront’. A general issue could appear to be simple such as ‘resource-use by residents in the city’ or ‘constructing walking paths through the city’. However, even apparently simple issues are usually more complicated than they appear and benefit from careful management and active community and civic engagement. The Issue Selection Process is best conducted as a brainstorming session with a group of relevant people who have a critical interest or engagement with the general issue in question. These people should ideally be drawn from what we have formally called the Critical Reference Group, a group that has an ongoing advisory role in the overall project appointed by the Management Group—namely, those who have overall responsibility for the project. The people involved in this exercise need not be all of the Critical Reference Group members, but it should represent representatives of key constituencies who have an interest in or engagement with the general issue. A person who knows the method well, and who has been appointed to the role by the Management Committee, facilitates the Issue Selection Process. Context The Issue Selection Process takes place once the following has been organized:

1. A Management Group has been formalized; 2. A general issue and its associated general objective has been identified; 3. The constituent area affected by the general issue has been defined; 4. The key engagement groups and individuals in that constituent area have been identified; and 5. A Critical Reference Group has been convened, comprising local experts in the issue, representative

members of relevant engagement groups and constituencies in the area, as well as outside experts if necessary.


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The General Issue Clarification Process is a crucial step in the Circles of Social Life assessment method. It occurs in the Definition stage—Stage 4.1 marked in green—of the overall process pathway that includes the following seven steps: Table 1. Process Pathway Stages (Schematic Version Showing the Clarification Process) Process Outcomes Process Stages

Process Phases Process Tools

Reflexively learn and act together with consequence

1. Commit Affirm Establish Choose Resource

2. Engage Consult Entrust Empower Accord 3. Assess Determine Analyse Research Project 4. Define Clarify 41. ‘General Issue’

Clarification Process Clarify the definitions of the ‘general issue’. Clarify the general objective in relation to that issue. Clarify the relation between the general objective and the ten United Nations principles Clarify materiality considerations of the project in response to the general issues, including defining the time-frame and spatial scope of the project Clarify the driving forces affecting the general issue Clarify risks and challenges involved in effecting social change

Identify Refine Review 5. Implement Authorize Enable Liaise Revise 6. Measure Monitor Document Reassess Evaluate 7. Communicate Translate Publicize Report Advise


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1 This paper has been written by Paul James based on foundational work by Liam Magee and Andy Scerri as part of the

‘Circles of Social Life’ approach developed by a team at the UN Global Compact Cities Programme. With thanks to Elizabeth Ryan, Sam Carroll-Bell, Cynthia Lam, and the Global Advisors to the Cities Programme.

2 The UN Global Compact developed this graphic. See Global Compact and Deloitte, UN Global Compact Management Model: Framework for Implementation, UN Global Compact, New York, 2010. It has been modified for the Cities Programme.

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