This week’s Global Local includes a brand new trust collection, with an exploration of challenges from working with communities to working with partners. How councils can recover trust in an age of misinformation. Plus the best from the rest – reports on trust from leading think tanks.
Communities and society, Democracy, devolution and governance
Global Local: The value of trust
LGIU@40: What if people trusted democratic institutions again?
LGIU's support for trust in local democracy and key questions for the future of local government 🌎
The value of trust
Are we living in an age of post-trust politics?
As LGIU celebrates its 40th anniversary, local government faces a pivotal moment. Traditional challenges like funding and growing demand for services and infrastructure clash with emerging issues such as climate change, populism, and complex technology. The LGIU@40 campaign leverages our deep experience in local government yet fixes on the future. Focusing on three key areas – participation, trust, and finance – we've collaborated with members and the broader sector to develop innovative approaches for improving local government. A manifesto, set to be published at the end of the year, will offer a roadmap to transition from aspirations to actions and establish a solid foundation for local government to successfully exploit the opportunities and overcome the difficulties ahead.
Read the full piece from LGIU Chief Executive Jonathan Carr-West
What's in this edition that can help?
A brand new trust collection, with an exploration of challenges from working with communities to working with partners. How councils can recover trust in an age of misinformation. Plus the best from the rest - reports on trust from leading think tanks.
Plus a new Global Local executive panel with insights from senior decision makers in local government. LGIU members and paid Global Local subscribers can attend free!
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This week's feature
LGIU@40 The trust collection
Our brand-new collection brings together LGIU’s work on trust. It looks at why trust is so important to good governance and to public service delivery, examines the consequences of a 'trust deficit' and considers how trust can be rebuilt.
Don't have time to read these resources right now?
Register on the LGIU website, so you can bookmark resources for later! Look out for the 'Bookmark' button on each page. You will then find all your bookmarks in your account dashboard – your own library!
LGIU's Global Local highlights
The core principles of trust applied to local government
Think piece | 4-min read ⏳
In this article, Dr Hannah Bunting, lecturer in Quantitative British Politics at the University of Exeter, UK, outlines the core principles of trust, applying them to the context of local governance. Building on this further, Dr Greg Stride adds some additional insights from our Local Democracy Research Centre’s recent work. Open to all to read 🟢
You CAN handle the truth: How councils can build trust and recovery in an age of alternate facts
Backgrounder | 15-min read ⏳
This report looks at the results from a 2021 LGIU survey on perceptions of misinformation during the height of Covid-19 – is trust under threat in the modern age? It explores the link between trust and an effective pandemic response, how jurisdictional disputes and misinformation have undermined trust and how we must shore up trust for local recovery. Open to all to read 🟢
Even more from LGIU...
Further food for thought
Recent reports and think pieces from leading research institutes around the globe.
Community trust through community research
Building Trust and Visibility Through Community-Based Participatory Research at Rural Minority-Serving Institutions: Aspen Institute, USA
Universities and colleges are producers of knowledge and play an important role in shaping culture, policy, political agendas, and in many ways, the flow of resources to communities. This research brief focuses on how Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) can empowering rural communities through community based participatory research that gives voice to rural communities. The brief examines who is involved in community-based participatory research, how to level hierarchies and build trust, asset-based research, data sharing and triangulation, and who benefits from community-based participatory research. Find out more about community research in LGIU's Global Local: Citizen Science.
Tr*** the police?
Rebuilding Trust and Delivering Safer Communities: A Plan for Reforming UK Policing: Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
The British system of policing is in crisis. Public trust and confidence has fallen. The police operating environment has changed hugely but they are stuck in a model from the past. As a result, they lack the skills, capabilities and technology to meet public expectations. This report recommends five broad reforms: 1 Prevention 2. A modern and flexible workforce. 3. A new focus on professional standards and responsiveness. 4. Structural reform, with a new national force to tackle cross boundary threats such as counterterrorism, serious organised crime (SOC) and cyber-crime. 5. Smarter use of technology to prevent criminality.
Earning trust
Collaborative governance and community trust: Centre for Public Impact
This summary article and full report looks at how local governments have used participatory governance approaches to rebuild trust. It includes shoring up the values, standard and trust within your own organisation. If you're tired of reading things... they also have an even more recent podcast on 'earned legitimacy'. Not tired of reading yet?: check out the LGIU backgrounder on participatory budgeting.
Breaking down the data to rebuild trust
Improving trust in state and local government: Deloitte Insights
Deloitte Insights takes a deep dive into the data to understand the drivers of trust in local government and comes up with some important correlations between culture, delivery, mission and trust.
Free for LGIU or VLGA members, attendance fee for non-members
Panel: Community engagement done well
Online | 9 Nov | 18:30 AEDT | 08:30 BST
Our Global Local Executive Panel Series brings together executive speakers from local government around the world to share insights and solutions to today's critical challenges.
At this panel, you can find out how senior leaders have overcome barriers to effective participation and enhancing community trust in local democracy.
Global Local Think Tank Review
The Global Local Think Tank Review highlights key findings from leading think tanks and research institutes across the globe.
The latest edition
This month: constructive climate conversations, youth involvement in placemaking, childcare challenges, employability support schemes and digital inclusion.
More Global Local resources from LGIU
Articles and reports
Free to read for everyone
Quick question...
To mark Halloween, we'll be casting an eye on all things 'dark tourism'. A semi-recent concept with a long tradition, dark tourism concerns sightseeing at some of the least happy places on Earth, sites of tragedy, war, incarceration, disasters and death. We want to know what dark tourism destination you found the most interesting, moving or even chilling.
Or do you have a dark tourism site in your local area – tell us about it. Is there local government involvement in its management or related tourism? We'll run our favourite submissions next week! We're just looking for a sentence or two.
Thanks for reading!
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for next week's dark tourism edition as it lands in your inbox. Featuring an interview with the mayor of Salem, insights from expert academics and more 👻 Get a taste of what's coming:
✅ Poll: Help shape our dark tourism and local government research
We’re seeking to understand better the complex industry of dark tourism and its relationship with local government. We want LGIU members and readers to help us. Your input in our poll can shape the direction of our upcoming research in partnership with academics at Minnesota State University.
🎧 Podcast: The under-explored relationship between local government and dark tourism
We chatted with Dr. Beth Heidelberg from Minnesota State University, Mankato, to discuss her niche specialism: local government’s relationship with the dark tourism industry. Providing insightful case study analysis from her field research of US dark tourism hotspots like Salem, Clear Lake, Holcombe and Amityville.
Global Local is a subscription service that brings you the best innovation, ideas and experience to be found in local government around the world. We believe that we learn, adapt and deliver better for our communities when we are connected.
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