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“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently.”

—David Graeber

Over the last decade of building TEDxBrum, Impact Hub Birmingham and prototyping CIVIC SQUARE, going into CIVIC SQUARE 2.0 now represents the next step forward — with all we’ve learnt so far, from what we’ve done together, and building upon the work of those who came before us. After three years of deep experimentation in the neighbourhood, learning from all that thrived in a backdrop of crisis, there will be a deep shift in our stewardship of this work from 2023.

First, we will be open sourcing all we have done so that it can take on a life of its own in our neighbourhood and far beyond.

“Systems Demonstrators are more fully-realised and fleshed-out versions of living systems. Nonetheless, they exemplify innovative approaches to transformed systems delivered in reality. They are real things, yet also stand for future trajectories, effectively living incarnations of North Stars for the missions.”

—Dan Hill, Designing Missions

In his seminal playbook Designing Missions, Dan Hill outlines precise definitions of the systemic design and practice around transformational missions. Therefore, second, we will be refining our definitions and specificity of the work, synthesising the learnings, and turning the prototypes and proofs of possibility that we have now tested into a very intentional focus, alongside key partners.

Third, we’ll be making a shift into deep demonstration. We don’t feel we can simply describe the possibility or scale of change required, and we are forever changed by seeing and feeling the emerging futures right here, right now.

“The demonstrator inherently conveys the systems of systems pertaining to the mission, or grand challenge behind it, and crucially, begins to illustrate how they are now combining in a transformed way. Systems theory indicates that all these aspects are already combined — everything is connected — but our challenge is to transform how they are connected such that they address our grand challenges, rather than ignore them or, worse, consciously produce or reinforce them.

Simply, with our examples, the demonstrator is what we begin to get when prototypes move from transforming one or two streets, to transforming multiple streets in entire city blocks and neighbourhoods, and thus producing ripple effects through all their inherent services, experiences, infrastructures, cultures, biodiversity, forms of governance, and so on. Scaling may be non-linear here, as critical mass may be achieved at various certain points in this development, producing the ‘greater than the sum of the parts’ perturbation point which shifts a system from one state to another.

As Jane Jacobs said, a city is not ‘like suburbs, but denser’ — it is something else, a different condition.”

—Dan Hill, Designing Missions

Demonstrators are a nested system of systems, and can be as big or as small as is useful in order to demonstrate the different transformations that are required — in governance, finance, and beyond — areas that require deep (re)design in order for us all to be able to build different realities. Rather than discrete projects and portfolios, we will seek to bring the everyday tangibility, the ‘dream matter’ of radical imagination, and the ‘dark matter’ of systems consciousness, into each demonstrator.

This is a development from where CIVIC SQUARE started — this first phase was all about building relationships and invitations through everyday participation and then observing and moving towards the ideas that land in a more experimental way. We will keep telling the inspiring stories of possibility, and what we have to gain by moving towards more regenerative and distributive-by-design neighbourhoods, whilst remaining focussed on the scale and pace of the work required now.

Our key focus for CIVIC SQUARE 2.0 will be to simultaneously continue to develop, maintain and build out three specific system demonstrators, all born directly out of our work so far, at a neighbourhood scale with a focus on the rapid, equitable transition that we need. As mentioned in further context in 01 | Introduction & Context, we can see that global systems starting to collapse on themselves is experienced most viscerally as they converge on our homes, streets and neighbourhoods, meaning this is also the scale where deep infrastructure is required. This is also where our agency and ability to organise is likely to be highest.

Whilst many of the examples we draw inspiration from, such as neighbourhood GPs, community libraries and social housing movements were all of a different era, they represent that transitions require democratic access to resources for neighbourhoods to be at the forefront of their transitions. This is not in isolation, nor to give in to localism, but rather an interdependent planetary approach that starts from where we are and cannot ignore the scale of the challenge.

Therefore, at the centre of this inquiry is a bold question: what if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets were designed, owned and governed by the people who live there? The question is framed as a ‘what if’, not to diminish it or make it an outpost to a distant future achievable in this generation. Instead, that if the imagination can stretch us into new paradigms, how can we demonstrate now, in real time, in systemic and practical ways? In CIVIC SQUARE’s work, we will focus specifically on the three following layers: