Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-rnpqb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T02:04:13.038Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

ten - Participation in behaviour change: technique or tyranny?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Fiona Spotswood
Affiliation:
University of the West of England
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Others doubtless wrote them off as anonymous benefit mums. But they’ve shown themselves to be articulate, successful activists. They were once treated as a problem, to be shuttled between temporary accommodation; now they’re pushing solutions to the real issue. (Chakrabortty, 2014)

‘Focus E15’ is a group of 29 young single mothers, many of them teenagers. In 2013, they were told they faced eviction from the hostel in which they lived and advised to look for cheaper accommodation in other cities, away from friends and family (Butler, 2013). At first they did what the council suggested, registering as homeless and looking for alternative accommodation, but with no success. So instead of moving away from London, where they had always lived and where their support networks were, they began a campaign, launched from a market stall. They stormed council offices and held a party in one of the show flats owned by the housing association that was evicting them. More recently, Focus E15 has taken over abandoned housing near the Olympic Village in East London, converting a building, which was still connected to utilities with working appliances, into a social centre with toys and food on offer to those who need them. It is from here that the group continues to run its campaign for access to good-quality social housing for all who need it. The campaign has garnered support from celebrities like Russell Brand, who featured it on his daily social media-based news channel The Trews in 2014. More recently, Focus E15 has begun to encourage people to contact their MP in support of the campaign, and this plea is being shared widely on social media. Behaviour change experts are beginning to ask whether – and how – it might be possible to encourage people to take the initiative in this way, to come together to tackle challenging issues like obesity in their communities, or risky drinking, or speeding. Consequently, terms like ‘co-creation’ and ‘participation’ have started to become buzz words in behaviour change, albeit that there are myriad interpretations of what these terms might mean.

Participatory approaches have an impressive pedigree in disciplines like health promotion (Minkler and Cox, 1980), education (Kemmis and McTaggart, 2005), design (Sanders and Stappers, 2008), community development (Fals-Borda and Rahman, 1991) and even theology (Berryman, 1987).

Type
Chapter
Information
Beyond Behaviour Change
Key Issues, Interdisciplinary Approaches and Future Directions
, pp. 199 - 216
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×