Cooperation 101: lessons in co-existence

If people don’t learn why and how we should secure healthy co-existence, society suffers.

The key question is how we are to relate to others who can affect our wellbeing. And there are basically four different approaches which may be adopted:

[A] Cooperative Co-existence: mutual concern & support

Be concerned for others’ wellbeing, and be prepared to support them as one would want others to be concerned and supportive towards one. The whole community is stronger because its members are cooperative with one another for the sake of ensuring everyone has a fair chance to live a fulfilling life.

[B] Oppressive Co-existence: conflict & domination

Put one’s interests above those of others, and use whatever means necessary to make others serve one’s goals. Aim to fight (by force or by economic means) and defeat others, and consider being able to take advantage of others the only worthy aim.

[C] Parasitic Co-existence: manipulative exploitation

Pretend to respect cooperative arrangements, but seek to break the rules, cheat, and manipulate others so that one can make gains from others without them realising what one is up to. 

[D] Individualistic Co-existence: self-regarding indifference

Consider everyone’s wellbeing their own business, and shun collective arrangements as inherently unacceptable. Ignore others except where a particular agreement can bring tangible benefits to oneself.

Now [B] would be the chosen stance of totalitarians, theocrats, fascists, communists, militarists, who want to impose their rule on others, and make everyone else live in a way that fits with how they want things to be. [C] would be the approach of free-riders who may say all kinds of thing in public, but will not hesitate in private to trick, steal, or by any means take unfair advantage of others. [D] would be the path for libertarians, anarchists, and rampant individualists who reject all rules and regulations they have not personally endorsed, regardless of the implications for others. Unless we want to head towards social disintegration via [B], [C], or [D], we would need to nurture and strengthen [A] – inculcating mutual concern and support from early age, and sustaining it through lifelong learning.

This will involve the following core elements to be taught:

·      Reciprocity and the mutual responsibility that entails: 

Teaching the golden rule – highlight the importance of treating others as one would have others treat one; make sure all are disposed to be respectful and caring, and displace hateful prejudices; realise that everyone must take responsibility for the foreseeable consequences of their actions; and value support arrangements that will help whoever is in need.

·      Objectivity and the cooperative enquiry that requires: 

Teach open reasoning – assessment of what is to be believed should be based on exchange of evidence and coherent arguments; no unquestionable doctrine (religious or ideological) can be invoked to justify any assertion; anyone with relevant information should be allowed to contribute to deliberations; and provisional findings are subject to future revisions.

·      Inclusivity and the citizen participation that demands: 

Teach power sharing – explain the danger of power being concentrated in one or a few; wealth and other resource inequalities must be minimised to curtail power gaps; collective power is pragmatically necessary but must be democratically accountable; limits on different forms of power should be set to protect all; and deliberative engagement is essential.

Illiberal populism and plutocratic manipulation have gained grounds because too many people are unaware that allowing the unscrupulous to fan distrust and hate, spread lies and distortions, and accumulate vast wealth and power to dictate terms to others, means that insecurity and oppression will destroy any chance for healthy co-existence. 

Under the rubric of ‘personal and social education’ or ‘citizenship education’, we must start teaching why and how we should strengthen cooperative co-existence.

Remembrance of Policies Past

So many politicians forget that if you don’t engage citizens in assessing and responding to public issues, and treat them as mere supplicants, mistrust and mistakes will follow. 

When I was made Head of Civil Renewal under the Labour Government back in 2003, a key challenge was to find out why despite the substantial investment and support the government had given to public services across the board, people’s confidence in many of those services was still lagging behind.

For example, fear of crime remained high in many areas where crime rates had actually fallen; there was frustration with how ‘little’ was being done in areas which were undergoing substantial regeneration; there was scepticism about health improvement when provisions were becoming better than ever; and overall, people felt they had barely any control over public decisions that affected their lives.

It turned out the clue was in the last item on that list – the lack of efficacy. When people sense that they have no real influence over decisions that are made for them, they cannot help but wonder if those decisions truly reflect their concerns. And this doubt is exacerbated by decisions which turn out to be flawed precisely because they had been made without involving people who had relevant views to contribute.

The remedy, we concluded, was to develop more extensive community engagement. What that meant was NOT tokenistic consultation exercises with dry questionnaires or drab public meetings. What we promoted, under the banner of ‘Together We Can’, was a wide range of approaches that helped people learn and deliberate about the issues in question, enabled them to question and reflect on the evidence and options, offered them a chance to express their preferences having heard what others had to say, and provided them with feedback so that further adjustment could be made in the light of preliminary steps being taken.

In areas where such approaches were taken forward with proper support and experienced facilitators, the evidence was clear – trust in public bodies’ actions went up, satisfaction with outcomes rose, relationships between state agencies and the public improved, cost effectiveness increased with fewer mistakes being made, and objectives set with citizens’ input more readily achieved.

One would think that progressive politicians returning to power would build on this and ensure that citizens are deliberatively involved in developing the policies needed to deal with the problems piled up by years of misrule. But what we have seen so far is virtual amnesia on the community involvement front. Policies are announced with no citizen engagement, and their unpopularity is cited as their necessity. This is not the way to build democratic support or confidence. 

Difficult decisions can be reached, so long as the people affected by them have a fair chance to participate, learn, and influence them constructively. What might otherwise be unpopular could be revised as something also tough, but owned by communities.

Politicians who think the only way to deal with difficult problems is to keep the public away from deliberating about them, are likely to be keeping themselves away from the public who will see them as remote and uncaring. They should remember the lessons we learnt from ‘Together We Can’. Otherwise, isolated they’ll lose.

--

A general guide to the resources relating to Together We Can is available at: https://hbtam.blogspot.com/2019/07/together-we-can-resource-guide.html

More specific materials can be found in relation to: Civic Pioneers (on local authority support for developing effective engagement practices), Take Part (on active learning for citizen participation), Guide Neighbourhoods, (on facilitating exchange of ideas across neighbourhoods for influencing public bodies), and Together We Can (on policies developed by different government departments).