Welcome to the Spring issue, where we explore ideas across five themed sections, with the introduction of new sections focused on Retrieving History and Supporting the Green Transition. These new sections reflect our ongoing interest in institutional memory, collective imagination, and why we need to position our current efforts with a broader history of social and political change to move beyond today's dominant narratives and access alternative possibilities for the future.
In terms of the unfolding climate emergency, we’re publishing ideas that encourage us, despite decades of state scepticism, to rethink the relationship between the state and communities in reshaping energy industries and technologies, and the need to foreground issues of inequality as we struggle to adapt and mitigate, particularly if we’re to ensure that the 'green transition' is truly democratic, accountable, and equitable.
We also return to a critical conversation on Philanthropy, Power, and Systems Change. As some trusts and foundations begin to make grants again after pausing in 2020, we speak with Eli Manderson-Evans, CEO of the Blagrave Trust, about the risks of inaction, the importance of accountability structures, and how to make governance as responsive as possible in a sector still largely shaped by hierarchy.
Staying on the theme of funding, this issue also features an article about Funding Justice, the third edition of a report on social justice grantmaking in the UK, produced by The Hour Is Late and the Civic Power Fund. It offers insights into where money is flowing – ‘inside game’ work in elite settings vs. ‘outside game’ work in community settings – and provokes broader questions about who gets to shape civil society.
Building on this research, I believe we need an ‘institutional survey’ to understand the structures of civic power organisations. Despite the fact that advocacy for ‘democracy’ has surged in recent years, many of our institutions remain grounded in trustee-led, privately governed models, or loose, decentralised, and non-hierarchical networks which do not guarantee democratic participation. An ‘institutional survey’ of UK civil society – or part of it, such as our climate movements – could outline the structures, values, and accountability mechanisms in organisations across such movements. Since, if we care about democracy in politics, shouldn’t our civic infrastructure reflect democratic principles, too?
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