Community wealth building or local authority rhetoric?

Abstract

We examine the principles, purpose and practice of Community Wealth Building (CWB). Our case study, located in the UK, involves a Local Authority (LA), local community groups and local people, and the implementation of a CWB initiative by the LA. Action research enabled us to scrutinise the LA approach to the CWB initiative in terms of community engagement and consultation. We identified power and control tensions in relationships between the LA and different community groups (including local development trusts) that undermine the theoretical principles of CWB. Examination of these issues through a Bourdieuvian lens reveals the role played by power relations and highlights the need for ‘practical reflexivity’ in any community engagement process especially where institutions are at risk of misinterpreting how CWB might be accomplished in practice. Our study contributes a reflexivity model of CWB for purpose and practice, grounded in ethics, fairness and inclusion, and is of significance to LA initiatives claiming a CWB mission, vision and strategy.

Mind the gaps: Challenges of implementing policy for Scotland's rural third sector

“…This will be money generated locally which in many cases is invested back into the communities in which they are based, helping communities to have more control of their local economy.” (Scottish Government, 2021b)Fundamentally, the success of CWB is considered in relation to the involvement of anchor organisations, an approach successful in cities, yet to be tested in the expansive rural regions of Scotland (Guinan and O’Neill, 2019). Currently the Western Isles LA is a test bed for CWB policy, and it will indeed be interesting to understand how the concepts of CWB transfer into the rural domain especially where the claim is that ‘will be money generated locally’ (Redwood et al, 2022). It is noted here that anchor organisations in a rural context may have a different meaning and rural areas have the agency to reframe this understanding.…”

“…Oddly over a decade later and Brexit, our evidence shows that power remains in the hands of LA's and Government (Wilson et al, 2022). With regard to CWB, the Scottish Governments flagship policy (Scottish Government, 2021b) arguably the response to new governance for rural spaces requires investment in reimagining the idea of an anchor organisation, building a fiscal capacity in the third sector and empowering community to solve problems at grassroots level (Redwood et al, 2022).…”

“…With increasing calls for bottom-up strategies, the Scottish government has committed to bring forward legislation that support policies for Community Wealth Building (CWB) (Scottish Government, nda) an ideology originally designed in and for cities as a way of supporting urban regeneration. With the Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS) driving the CWB agenda forward and a focus on ‘levelling up in rural economies’ (EDAS, 2023), it is unknown territory in terms of how CWB concepts will transfer from urban to rural context without a full institutional commitment to bottom-up development strategies (Redwood et al, 2022). Current solutions are driven through Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) and several community-led socio-economic initiatives and include social enterprise, community buy outs, social innovation projects, social business, community organisations and community led action groups with rhetoric styled like bottom-up responses to unique place and space problems.…”