Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us – interview with author Jon Alexander
n more ways and with greater ingenuity than ever, people across the world are organising themselves and building the world they want to see. But many organisations still push a ‘consumer’ model of involvement where they lead and everyone else is asked to back them up with quick and easy symbolic action.
Jon Alexander has condensed his findings from work at the New Citizenship Project exploring the shifting role of organisations and institutions in his new book CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us (buy online: https://www.jonalexander.net/).
Jon (also a Campaigning Forum (ECF) community member) shares some examples of citizen-led action from around the world and a set of principles organisations of all shapes and sizes might use to build change by working with people, organising and supporting them – rather than just mobilising them.
Examples include:
- How the Gov Zero movement transformed the government of Taiwan
- How the National Trust reoriented itself to build the relationship between people and place
- How new forms of democracy are taking shape and taking hold across the world, from the city of Paris to the Chilean constitutional convention
Julie Dodd interviewed Jon as she is very familiar with Jon’s work and book. The interview (2020) brings out relevant insights for the Campaigning Forum (ECF) community. Julie is also an ECF community member and runs New Reality Consulting.