Glimmers

Findings

Why “putting a Zoom on it” isn’t enough.

Social Capital and Serendipity

Formal delivery charities and community groups across the UK have gone digital at speed throughout the Covid crisis.

66% of all charities are now delivering all work remotely, while Zoom and WhatsApp have become the informal backbone for MutualAid groups, community meet-ups, faith groups, exercise classes and more.

In the last few months, communities and charities have shown what is possible, but the strain of delivering that possibility is not sustainable and its impact is not yet known. These findings reflect what is knowable now about the needs of community organisers and people working in formal delivery organisations.

1. Social capital as well as digital skills

Technology can’t just be drag-and-dropped into a community. Putting a Zoom or a WhatsApp on it is not enough to bring people together — social capital and community bonds also need to be cultivated. 

In fact, there are clear signals that technology can highlight and deepen social and economic divides if it is not accompanied by thoughtful community building. After all, it is much easier to offer help on a public WhatsApp group than it is to ask for it. Vulnerabilities need to be understood and confidence nurtured; social and cultural divides need to be bridged and respected, and logistics need to be organised safely and well. 

One aspect of this has been shown at scale by the difficult roll-out of the GoodSam app, in which thousands of volunteers were massed at speed in a national feel-good moment, but their deployment has been slow and uneven — with many people waiting months to be given a task. 

We have also spoken to several small-scale communities that have struggled to grow without good hosting and community management. For instance, one MutualAid organiser was worried their group’s communications channels were dominated by more affluent people with the technical skills and social confidence to offer help, and several members of activist groups complained that the “usual suspects” dominated online meetings to the exclusion of others — especially when opportunities for smaller side meetings and chats over cups of tea were taken away. 

2. Serendipity matters 

In a more formal, social prescribing setting, we also heard that moving to a digital-first approach took away essential serendipity. 

“there is a lot of happenstance that is essential to our model. That casual connection doesn’t happen right now.”

Social prescribing takes a holistic approach to health and wellbeing and views each person as multi-faceted, referring people on to multiple third parties — anything from dog walking to food banks to legal services. 

This kind of complexity is difficult to manage digitally, particularly in a quickly spun-up, improvised technical setting, not least because much best practice for digital design often originates in business, where the end goal might be some kind of fairly straightforward conversion or data capture. (Caroline Sinders has written more about this in the Responsible Design for Digital Communities playbook.) The rough edges and messiness of real life — which are full of rich data points for social-prescribing staff —can easily get smoothed away.

This is not to say there is no upside of digital service delivery, but it must be implemented carefully and prioritise human connection over data collection. Just as at a real-life meet-up or on a 1990s Listserv group, good hosting is an essential — but often unspoken — aspect of a thriving digital community.

3. The inclusive design dividend

It is, of course, not all bad news — digital delivery has allowed some communities them to amplify their reach at speed.

We spoke with several counselling groups and support networks that have hugely expanded their numbers because video meetings and remote service delivery meet the needs of community members, service users, and practitioners.

If you already have the kit and the skills, then organising a video call can be cheaper and easier than hiring a community centre — and it is certainly more flexible, and less constrained by location.

If you have caring responsibilities, inflexible work commitments, or aren’t able to travel, then digital delivery suddenly makes it possible to take part in all kinds of things that might not have been possible before. And lurking in a group chat, or observing from afar, can help build the confidence of people who might feel wary or nervous in real life.

There is no one-size that fits all, and the delivering successful digital tools in this period has relied on the ability of delivery teams to design and create services almost on the fly— but this has taken its toll and is not sustainable. Charities and communities also need practical infrastructure and a deep and continued focus on meeting community needs, not just deploying tools. 

Research into user and community needs is a vital part of effective digital service delivery and the debate about digital inclusion and exclusion must expand to embrace inclusive service design. Giving someone data and a device is is not always enough.

There is also an urgent need for longitudinal ethnographic research to understand the impact of digital civil society on specific communities. This real-time research project has shown that — without existing community bonds — fellow feeling and social capital can be harder to nurture for some groups via a smartphone than they are in real life. Exploring this further is out of scope for this project, but will be vital as the unfolding pandemic increases the role of technology in community life.