About Social Media Today
Across England, and beyond, there are towns and cities that have struggled to survive, even during the long economic boom of the mid 1990s to 2008. A few have managed to reinvent themselves – think of Scarborough – or, like Brighton or Preston, have ridden the waves of expansion. Many others have done little more than put a brave face on decades of decline.
In recent years they’ve employed broadly similar survival strategies: try to attract clone town shops, set up business parks, try to kickstart the economy by promoting cultural industries. The successes have been mixed at best.
This weekend I’ll be in Todmorden, where I’ll join a group thinking about what a 21st century market town might look like. The event is hosted by Incredible Edible Todmorden, the outstandingly successful community growing movement that has already changed the feel and reputation of the town.
Incredible Edible is a striking story of social action, as I’ve reported before. But the town still has thorny problems to grapple with. Stuck at the top of the Calder Valley between Halifax and Rochdale, miles from the economic action of Leeds and Manchester, and bereft of its traditional industries, it could be relegated to an extended dotage as a dormitory town whose inhabitants spend their money elsewhere. The market, once thriving, has seen better days. So too has the Grade I listed town hall.
People attract people
So what might this 21st century market town look like? What assets could it build on?
The main asset of any place, of course, is not its land, buildings or industry: it’s the people who inhabit it. Todmorden is lucky in that respect, because Incredible Edible has created a focus and a talking point. That breeds networks and confidence. A place where people talk to each other is a place where things can happen – and a market town is a good size for such a cauldron, being big enough to support most essential goods, services and social support within its perimeters but small enough for people to feel they belong.
The bonus of the networks that have grown up around Incredible Edible is that they have created conversations about sustainability, local resilience and productivity – or, to use ordinary language, how we can survive, meet our needs and enjoy life. This is a huge advantage: while others are stuck in conversations about what ‘they’ (the council, the government) are going to do about it, Todmorden has already created an environment where people are thinking about what we can do – about the values and aspirations that could underpin a modern market town, not just the goods and services. This makes it easier to focus the dialogue on cutting out waste, creating opportunities and supporting local producers.
A port in a storm
In hard times, people huddle together. They have done for millions of years; it’s affluence that has created the illusion that we don’t need each other. In a storm you need a port and a place to anchor.
And the storm is going to hit traditional towns hard. Within the UK, old-style economic development is being dumped. The loss of public funding and the removal of spending power from the economy as public servants and contractors lose their jobs will hit businesses and shops.
Shopping too is changing as retail moves online, traditional town centres empty out and peer-to-peer trade increases.
The advent of social media and many-to-many networking will also have profound effects on institutions and on the relationships between social capital and place, on the way business is conducted and on the dialogue between citizens and the state. Most organisations and institutions are only just starting to wake up to this.
Meanwhile an ageing population will demand deeper and more responsive social support at exactly the moment when the state, citing penury, is retreating as rapidly as possible from universal welfare.
And we haven’t even begun to talk about climate and environmental challenges, the risks of food and energy dependency, and whatever threats we are not yet even aware of. If ever there was a need for strong social networks linked to a shared vision for a place, it’s now.
Rethinking the market
One way to respond to these challenges - to create a market town that can thrive in difficult times – is to reinvent the market.
The market has to be the heart of a successful market town. Not the market of distant ‘market forces’ or the capricious choices of global investors and shareholders, but the physical market where people meet and exchange, haggle and bargain. Todmorden has the infrastructure, but needs to make better use of it.
To get things going, how about starting with a free market? A market where everything, literally, is free – a social and physical version of Freecycle. Why? Because it brings people together. Instead of dumping unwanted stuff, it gets passed to a new owner. It cuts out waste and creates a place where people who may have very little can get things they want, bringing marginalised people into society.
The point here is to do something brave that will animate the town. If people come in looking for free stuff, they’ll also use the town to pick up things they need or might like. In retail speak, it’s about footfall – bringing people in to generate passing trade. People who come to a free market will also use the cafés and pubs, the buses or car parks.
Get the buzz back into the market and there are other opportunities. Incredible Edible could spawn a makers’ market: people who make cheese or chutneys, cakes or casseroles. Again, the price of entry needs to be low – the idea is to showcase what people can offer and use that as the hook to bring people in, rather than thinking of the makers as people who should pay for the right to offer their wares. The most popular makers would find they had the seeds of a viable business, should they choose to develop it. At that point they might be expected to pay for the privilege of a guaranteed or better positioned stall.
A makers’ market could also be an outlet for artisans and craftspeople, and the showcasing and teaching of traditional skills – skills that will need to be rediscovered when we once again realise the value of products that last. And while the market for pots or furniture may be limited, there’s a great opportunity for teaching people how to make them for themselves.
Third, we could start to create local financial markets. Todmorden isn’t a basket case – it has well-off people with money to spend and invest. Why should that go on products and to companies that drain wealth from the locality or never contribute to it? Many will see the merits in supporting local businesses not just through their shopping habits but with their investments. A Todmorden version of Zopa, for example, could create an online exchange where lenders offer loans to local firms – or there could be a Todmorden version of the successful micro-finance pioneered by Grameen Bank.
Red-blooded capitalists could set up a Todmorden Dragons’ Den, where local businesses pitch to local investors. Those more interested in creating jobs and social value could set up a Todmorden Employment Bond, as pioneered in cities like Sheffield and Newcastle.
Another aspect of this opportunity-led culture would be the systematic use of empty space to showcase local people’s business ideas, creative products or social projects. Market stalls and shops shouldn’t be left empty. Every week a different company or organisation could set up a temporary shop to promote its work. Again, the point is to animate and enliven the centre, to create a focus and a buzz. Start with the market and move outwards. If there’s enough going on, enough to see and an element of surprise every time you go there, you’ll want to come back.
A working heart and a working head
The idea here is to get the heart pumping and the brain working. The physical centre needs to pump energy around the system. But the town needs to be a place of ideas and imagination too.
When business and social networks start to work, and to work together, you generate serendipity – the apparently chance encounters and exchanges that bring a spark to people’s lives. When you systematically encourage that, things can happen. Social media has huge potential here, but that’s a post for another day.
And there’s more. Go back to the food network created by Incredible Edible, the way food is now embedded in local schools’ learning and the culture of sharing that’s starting to develop, and there are not only business opportunities. There’s an opportunity to create a town where everyone is active, everyone is connected and everyone cared for.
A reanimated town centre and rejuvenated business culture is part of that. But there’s also an opportunity to build neighbourliness and social networks simply through distributing surplus fruit and veg. Nothing intrusive or difficult – again, the starting point must be to offer something for nothing.
A network of street distributors could offer surplus produce to their neighbours. As Incredible Edible grows, the network would spread so that each street has its own coordinator. The distributors, almost without knowing it, would become aware of their neighbours’ needs. That enables people to help each other in low-key, informal ways, or to refer more complex needs to people who can help.
The way we’ll rebuild community in the 21st century is to make it as easy as possible. People shy away from big commitments they feel they might not be able to honour. As with a start-up business, a start-up social network needs to be low-risk. But the goal is a big one: resilience, self-reliance, and a town where the relationships work – where people can be private without being isolated, independent but not alone.
A town like that may never be wealthy. But it will do well, which is more important.
