Sarah Cotterill and Liz Richardson

1
Ask me I wont say No How could I? An
Experiment to Encourage Civic Behaviour Among
Callers to a Local Authority Contact Centre

• Sarah Cotterill and Liz Richardson
• http//www.ipeg.org.uk/civicbehaviour

2
Overview

• Background and context
• Rediscovering the Civic project
• Research question
• Design experiments
• Research design
• Preliminary findings
• Discussion

3
Policy context

• Citizen engagement contributes to
• Improved public services
• Cohesive, integrated communities
• Revive local democracy
• Well-being and skills
• Finding solutions to difficult problems
• (Communities in Control white paper, 2008)
• Service Transformation
• Improve capability to respond to citizen needs
• Joining up services
• Personalised services (Varney, 2006)

4
Background and context

• Contact centres emphasis on customer care and
  efficiency. Day to day encounters between front
  line council officers and citizens
• Frustrating
• Missed opportunity to listen?
• Customers or citizens
• Contrast with public value management
• Services delivering public value
• Dialogue with citizens (Lowndes,
  Pratchett, Stoker 2006 Stoker 2006)
• Councils struggle to involve those outside
  organised groups
  (Cowell 2004, Orr and Mcateer 2004)

5
Rediscovering the Civic and Achieving Better
Outcomes in Public Policy model
Cotterill, Richardson, Stoker, Wales, 2008
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Defining civic behaviour
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Institutional Factors

• Civic behaviour is influenced by external
  sources of support or opposition to behaviour,
  whether physical, financial legal or social
  (Guagano et al. 1995)
• Behaviour of local authorities will impact on
  citizen behaviour by creating or endangering
  trust and efficacy (Van Vugt et al 2000)
• Government can enhance/restrict social norms such
  as trust, recipricocity and reputations. By
  taking on collective responsibility, government
  can sometimes reduce individual recipricocity
  (Ostrom 1998)
• Where rules-in-use welcome engagement, there is
  more political participation (Lowndes, Pratchett,
  Stoker 2006)

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Institutional Factors

• Opportunity Structures
• Volume and variety of opportunities to volunteer,
  join groups, attend meetings, make comments etc
• Quality of opportunities including the support
  provided, the amount of influence, institutional
  responsiveness
• b) Institutional rules and practices
• Nature of the interaction between citizens and
  professionals

9
Research Question

• Research Aims
• Change the nature of the interaction between
  service providers and citizens during everyday
  contact
• Find effective ways of engagement
• Change the opportunity structure
• Research Question
• How can local authorities successfully build on
  customer contact to encourage civic behaviour?

10
Design Experiments

• Origins in the design sciences new to social
  science
• An untried approach to an identified problem with
  lack of clarity on how to implement it
• Defined and measureable objectives
• Redesign over a number of cycles to perfect
• A comparison group (preferable)
• Co-production researchers practitioners work
  as team
• Importance of detailed recording and reflective
  review
• Governance group with authority to implement
  change
• (John and Stoker 2008, forthcoming)

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Neighbourhood Activity Design Experiment

• Two stage intervention
• Contact centre ask for involvement
• Neighbourhood intervention
• ½ visited
• ½ information pack (comparison group)
• Research
• Telephone interviews before and after
• Civic behaviour, attitudes, efficacy, motives
• Observation
• Steering Group

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The Neighbourhood

• Residential area of a north-west town
• About 4000 residents, 1400 households
• 15-19 receive benefits 2005 (national
  14)
• Ethnicity 57 white 41 Asian (British or
  Pakistani)
• Within 30 of most deprived areas (IMD)
• (ONS neighbourhood statistics)
• Chosen because has an active and welcoming
  community association plus range of other
  activities.

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Preliminary Findings 1

• 30 callers say they want to get more involved
• Overwhelming support for the council
  encouragement
• Some scepticism about how others will respond
  they are flogging a dead horse
• Some scepticism about council motives
  Im worried its just
  a token gesture
• Not the usual suspects
• 7 white men 7 white women 8 asian men 8 asian
  women
• More than a third are under 35 years
• More than two thirds are working
• 5 who have not undertaken any civic activity in
  past year
• Motives
• Primary motives are instrumental make a
  difference to the area (crime, litter, activities
  for children)

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Preliminary Findings 2

• Follow up interviews 6-8 weeks later No
  activity yet but 10 of the 30 are still planning
  to get more involved in action to improve the
  neighbourhood
• The usual suspects?
• 4 white men 2 white women 4 asian men 0 asian
  women
• Two thirds are aged 35-44
• Higher level of civic activity in past 12 months
• Reasons for not getting more involved
• Barriers (caring, work, illness, age)
• I am happy to put my views forward and be
  consulted
• Want to be listened to and action taken
• Community organisations not for everyone

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Discussion Changing Institutional Rules
Practices

• We changed the institutional rules and practices
  by altering contact centre routines and providing
  neighbourhood support
• Some success in attracting a range of citizens
• Local authority concerns about adverse citizen
  reaction
• Citizen response
• Generally favourable, some scepticism
• Worries about the implications of commitment
• Citizens have a set of conditions before theyll
  respond. Quid pro quo

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Discussion Changing the Opportunity Structures

• Initial enthusiasm not translated into action.
  Why?
• Intention/action gap?
• Opportunity structure not changed?
• Opportunities do not reflect the behaviour
  citizens want to do?
• Next iteration can vary and tailor the
  opportunity structures more e.g.
• One-off activities
• Listening/partnership
• Putting people with similar interests in touch
  with one another

17
Ask me I wont say No How could I? An
Experiment to Encourage Civic Behaviour Among
Callers to a Local Authority Contact Centre

• Sarah Cotterill and Liz Richardson
• http//www.ipeg.org.uk/civicbehaviour