Second, give residents a genuine hand in shaping their own neighbourhoods. Today that usually means joining a residents’ committee, a standing commitment not everyone wants to make.Â
An alternative is to convene small rotating citizens’ assemblies alongside them. Each assembly might have about 20 residents drawn at random across age, race, housing and income, sitting for three months on actual local problems, with a real say in the outcome: from neighbour disputes and second-hand smoke to how a slice of the estate budget is spent.Â
The aim is to make this a civic duty everyone takes a turn at, randomly selected, not left to the willing few, so the assembly reflects the whole estate rather than the usual joiners. The mixing matters too, and can help build what a fraying society often lacks: the habit of working with people unlike ourselves, and the challenges and opportunities it brings. This is bridging social capital in action.
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