Dr Simon Duffy gave this talk in September 2018 to the National Social Care Conference in Cardiff. He argues that our concept of citizenship is confused, but the potential for creating communities of citizenship is enormous.

1. Where have all the citizens gone?
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

2. • The ideal of citizenship is invoked for different reasons.
• Do we know what citizenship means?
• Do we know how to encourage citizenship?
• Do we know how to become communities of citizens?
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

4. Having a passport is
not being a citizen
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

6. John O’Brien
Citizens are people who can say “I belong to this
place and it's people and I am willing to act from
responsibility for my belonging.” People with
disabilities are among those who are vulnerable to
social exclusion: being pushed to the edges of
society and deprived of what they require to
participate actively. Citizenship creates a framework
for understanding what it is that we're really trying to
do when we become allies with people with
disabilities who are seeking a life that makes sense.
NB What is true for disabled people is true for all of us.

7. @simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

8. Does any of this help you
become a better citizen?
• Slash public spending
• Increase poverty
• Create a “hostile environment”
• Impose benefit sanctions
• Reduce rights and protections
• Announce lots of wacky new
Cabinet Office “initiatives”

11. In total, across England as a
whole, the WCA disability
reassessment process during
this period was associated with
an additional 590 suicides
(95% CI 220 to 950), 279,000
additional cases of self-
reported mental health
problems (95% CI
57,000 to 500,000) and the
prescribing of an additional
725,000 antidepressant items
(95% CI 406 000 to 1 045 000).
Barr B, et al. J Epidemiol
Community Health 2015;0:1–7.
doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206209

12. Minutes spent volunteering have dropped from 14.5 pd in 2000 to 13.7 pd in 2015.
The “Big Society” is dead. But we’ve seen Brexit, the anti-Austerity movement,
growth in Labour Party membership and many different grass-roots initiatives
targeting local communities… Citizenship is back on the agenda - but not in the
shape Cameron and his friends may have wanted or predicted.
[Source: Mean Mins Volunteering Per day: UK Harmonised
European Time Use Survey (HETUS), 2000 and 2015]
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

13. Is Citizenship
given by the
powerful
to the weak?
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

14. WomenCentre
• Local women, supporting
women and children to
overcome domestic violence,
mental illness and much more.
• Highly effective, efficient and
often compensating for
failures in the welfare state.
• A local service relying
significantly on funding from
charities and central
government.

18. PFG Doncaster
• People with mental health
problems campaign for the
right to direct payments.
• They discovered that the most
important thing was not
money - but each other.
• Has developed into a hub for
community development and
peer support.

20. Citizenship is something
we create together
• Our welfare state - citizens
must decide how to support
and sustain it
• Our welfare state - citizens
must know their rights, their
duties and their freedoms.
• Our welfare state - the
welfare state must support
and promote our citizenship.

21. Local government can also
encourage citizenship
• Barnsley Council has changed
its governance and is working
to change its whole culture.
• It focuses on shifting power
back to small local
communities.
• Commissioning is now linked
to volunteering, local spending
and local decisions.

25. Born out of severe
socio-economic conflict
Athens invented
democracy and helped
to define the ideal of
citizenship more than
2,500 years ago.

26. • At its peak ancient Athens had a population of about
300,000 people.
• 50,000 citizens had the right to vote in the assembly and
participate in the courts.
• About 1,100 citizens held office each year, with positions
mostly filled by lots (sortition) and with strict term limits and
clear accountabilities.
• Athens (and Attica) was also divided into c. 140 demes, each
of which also had its own democratic structures. e.g. demes
were responsible for educating the young.
• Representational democracy was considered oligarchic and
unworthy of a community of equal citizens.

27. The Athenians understood
that citizens need…
• The ideal of citizenship to be
Valued
• Authority over collective decisions
• Time to be a citizen - e.g. basic
income
• Rights to enable individuality and
freedom
• Responsibility to enable creation
of a shared world
• Common ownership and common
spaces - e.g assembly and agora

29. @simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network

31. We should want, above all else, to be citizens
and to support our families, friends neighbours
and all who come into our communities to join
us in equal citizenship. This is not just so that
people can enjoy the rights of citizenship, but
even more importantly, so that we can all enjoy
the responsibilities of citizenship.
@simonjduffy
@CforWR
@citizen_network