Page 11 - Community Living Magazine 34-1

after coronavirus
Building a different society

When we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, we should learn from its often
difficult lessons. Simon Duffy finds not only some unpalatable truths but also
hope in new economic models and stronger communities

he Covid-19 crisis has been a great People have
teacher but many of its lessons have connected with
Tbeen very harsh indeed. others in their
First, we learned that some communities and
governments are now prepared to treat a want to build
global pandemic as a serious public health on that
threat and take drastic action to safeguard
their people. This is quite a new
phenomenon, and may signal an
important development in our
understanding of ourselves and the global
community. Suddenly, we are a lot more
aware we are all connected with each
other – for good and ill.
The UK government was less willing to
act quickly, but was eventually shamed
into action. Its slow response has Whose lives matter? This does feel like the start of something
caused a high death rate and a severe The third lesson is perhaps the most new. Over the past 10 years, the Centre for
economic depression. painful – that the lives of disabled people Welfare Reform has published numerous
After 10 years of austerity, with the are not valued by our government. articles and reports describing innovations
slowest economic recovery on record, the The intrinsic risks of institutional living that would work best at a neighbourhood
UK is poorly equipped to deal with this mean care homes are likely to be level: local area coordination, peer
economic shock. However, it is possible dangerous places to live. At the start of support, individual service funds, self-
that the world will not respond to this the crisis, the government assured us care managing teams, Small Sparks (a small
crisis as badly as it did the last. home residents would be “shielded” but, grants programme) and many more.
in practice, one of its first actions was to Often, it feels that central and local
Economic rethink discharge people from hospital – with no government are blind to the value of
More people can see that the traditional testing – straight into those care homes. citizenship and community. Power always
economic model, which assumes The high death toll was inevitable. seems to stay stuck at the wrong level. But
everyone should be in work (however On top of this, many people were now we are starting to see people come
unproductive, badly paid or harmful), encouraged to sign do not resuscitate together to ask how to establish people
simply does not work. The treadmill of forms to limit pressure on intensive care power at a local neighbourhood level.
work and consumption is killing the units. Clearly, not all lives matter. With Citizen Network (https://citizen-
planet and it is killing us. More positively, most people who network.org), we have launched the
When painter David Hockney said that organise their own support have been Neighbourhood Democracy Project and
crisis shows us that “the only things that able to stay safe. Some authorities relaxed are connecting with people all around the
matter in life are love and food”, this the stupid rules that prevented people world who want to create a long-lasting
struck a chord. Many people have from using their personal budgets flexibly. shift in power towards local communities.
welcomed the chance to stay home, get Some organisations in Europe are Whether we remember these lessons in
involved in their community, cook more seeing this as the moment to push back the coming months and years will depend
and take more care of the family. against institutional and large-scale on what we choose to do now.
The second lesson might be that we congregate living. Perhaps this will be the It is possible we’ll forget all this; there are
need to build a different economy, where moment when we reignite the movement certainly those who are threatened by a
everyone has enough to live on and how we for community living. new way of doing things. There will be a lot
work is good for the planet and each other. Power downwards of pressure to go back to the old normal.
Seán Kelly/www.seankellyphotos.com everyone gets enough income to live on. people have discovered their own true for us. If we make and maintain new
There is a growing interest in universal
In the brain, memory works by creating
connections, so perhaps the same will be
The fourth lesson has been that many
basic income (UBI) – a system where
links, we can perhaps use this crisis to build
citizenship. They found they could
At the beginning of the crisis, there were
four UBI labs (pilot schemes testing its
connect with neighbours, offer and get
a better world that works for everyone. n
support, and do things in the community
potential) in the UBI Lab Network; there
Simon Duffy is director of the Centre for
are now 23 (see www.ubilabnetwork.org). – all at a safe distance. Streets and
Welfare Reform and secretary to
Public awareness and support for UBI
keep growing.
Citizen Network
many are now seeking to build on this.
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk neighbourhoods found their voice and Community Living Vol 34 No 1 | Autumn 2020 11