Invaluable Civic Conversation: Looking into the Health of Place

In 2004 the City of Glasgow and partners undertook a series of Civic Conversations to address health challenges for the city's population. This report is part of the very creative results - including yesterday's post of the film, "Miniature Glasgow" - to gather and create deeper meaning about a city, the place, and habits of people related to health care.

From partner International Futures Forum archive:

The first seminar series began in November 2004 with a lecture and seminar by the British philosopher Anthony Grayling on Imagining the Perfect Polis. In December Alistair Lawrence led a seminar entitled Animal Farm on what we might learn from studies of farmyard animal behaviour. Sholom Glouberman from Toronto spoke on order/disorder, the environment, identity and health; the transformation in the prospects of place were introduced by Denys Candy from Pittsburgh; happiness by Richard Layard of London; and the psychology of transformation by IFF Member Maureen O’Hara from San Francisco. The first series concluded in May 2005. It provided rich content for a first meeting of Glasgow’s Healthier Future forum in June 2005. Since then there have been two subsequent series and four further healthier future forums. The fourth series was completed in the spring of 2008. A fifth series commenced on Nov 25 2008 and will run to May 2009.

The Report is a rich assembly of reflections and replicable methodologies. Here is a list of milestones discovered through the conversations:

• Rather than asking what is wrong, ask what is missing? When facing current difficulties, plans, ideas and actions, our critique often starts by asking what is wrong. This can quickly turn into negativity and guardedness as people seek to defend their own ideas, plans and actions and attack those of others.  Asking what is missing from a situation which is giving rise to difficulty, or what is missing from a plan, idea or action is more generative 
Be willing and able to hold several perspectives simultaneously and create something new from them which does not currently exist. The holding of different perspectives for as long as possible helps to ensure solutions have incorporated concerns and hopes of multiple perspectives
Make room for dreams. This suggestion came from young people in the Civic Conversation. It has become a platitude to note that young people are the future and this is often given as a vague, if undeniable, justification for involving them. If we understand young people’s dreams and aspirations as third horizon aspirations then we begin to recognise dream and dreamer as potential sources of resilience in the City.  Consequently, engagement is less likely to appear superficial and tokenistic 
Ask ‘is what is proposed a sustaining or transformative innovation?’ In times of relative calm and stability, this is not really a concern. In such times, the world changes slowly, in predictable ways and our ways of taking coherent action work well. In times of rapid change and uncertain development, this is not so straightforward. Sustaining innovation may well be necessary to mitigate decline, but without the realisation of transformative potential it simply prolongs decline.
• Ask ‘what horizon am I operating in?’ ‘How does it relate to other horizons?’ ‘Are all horizons covered?’ ‘What can I do to improve relationships among these different horizons?’    

If the Glasgow Civic Conversations were replicated in your town or city, what could you learn about the health care landscape and solutions?

 You can learn more at IFF.