In March, our JUST Practice-Builders came together for their first gathering, which focused on mapping ourselves within the systems we’re trying to transform.
In the months since then, we have seen how powerful space, trust and shared purpose can be in enabling collaboration beyond a formal learning programme - connecting with the JUST Readiness Tool, piloting the Good Futures Framework game, and joining the JUST Annual Assembly to connect with the researchers working in their communities.
In June, we came together for our second gathering, which moved from understanding systems to identifying what needs to transform within them. It took place online, amidst a heatwave that could have diluted discussions but instead acted as a stark reminder of the urgency of taking collective action in response. Here are some of our emerging learnings from the Network so far.
Participation without shared power isn’t enough
How can we enable greater participation in sustainability initiatives? In the session it quickly became clear that to achieve a JUST future, it’s not enough to simply invite more people into existing processes – we need to change how power is built, shared and sustained.
Rather than looking to institutional leaders or formal authority figures, our Practice-Builders recognised that leadership exists wherever people take responsibility for creating supportive conditions for other people to participate. Sometimes this means facilitating difficult conversations that others might prefer to ignore, sometimes it means recognising whose voices aren’t in the room and doing better next time, and sometimes it simply means listening well.
Whether people were working on home energy, youth engagement or community ownership, change happened when power was shared with communities and when they are trusted as partners in change, rather than consulted as audiences. One powerful example came from Ruth Marshall from Together Creating Communities, whose work focuses on “creating accessible pathways, tools, and relationships that help people step into leadership with confidence. I want people to feel equipped, not excluded”.
Together, the group developed a shared picture of what sits at the heart of participation towards a just future. This includes:
- Listening before acting
- Creating partnerships based on shared values
- Recognising communities as leaders
- Building trust over time
- Recognising that climate and social justice are interconnected
Designing for JUST outcomes
In the afternoon, we were challenged to think about how we could advocate for social justice in sustainability initiatives. Responding to the stark situation presented in the first Milburn Report, one example explored was the transition to clean energy jobs, unpicking how we can ensure that young people - particularly those not currently in education, employment or training (NEET) - can shape, access and benefit from the UK’s growing green economy.
We quickly surfaced the overlapping barriers that many NEET young people face: inaccessible communication of opportunities, overemphasis of traditional academic pathways that under value vocational callings, loss of identity in places with changing industry, financial pressures, not having idols to look up to in the green economy.
Given the complexity of these barriers, there is no single person or entity that can overcome this challenge, and no single form of expertise is enough on its own. Our Practice-Builders mapped the diverse people we need to build power with to tackle the challenge – schools, colleges, youth organisations, faith groups, employers, Government, media, parents, and of course young people themselves. Building power means creating spaces where these different forms of knowledge can work together.
PM Andy Burnham’s call to offer technical subjects from age 14 in England is a welcome step in this journey, and there are lots of possibilities that could be embedded within this reform. Together, we mapped a new pathway: One where green skills training is co-designed, where development opportunities are paid, where young people have mentors, and where the capacity of youth leadership is invested in.
Bursting the Westminster bubble
Across our gatherings with the Practice-Builders so far, an emerging picture of what shared practice should look like is beginning to take shape. Achieving a future that is joined-up, sustainable and transformed will not be delivered by those simply delivering Westminster’s – or Whitehall’s – mandate.
It will be delivered by those on the ground who are cultivating relationships, connecting across boundaries, holding space for different forms of knowledge to meet, sharing power, remaining curious and continuing to learn together. These are not ‘soft skills’ that can sit alongside systems change, but need to be built into the infrastructure that makes systems change possible.
The art of being hopeful
One of the most energising aspects of the gathering was our Practice-Builders’ refusal to treat hope as blind optimism. They acknowledged the scale of today’s challenges: accelerating climate change, widening inequalities, shrinking public resources, growing pressures on communities.
Yet, they also recognised that hope is something we can practice together. Hope is built when people see that their experience and expertise matters, when communities see change resulting from their participation, when organisations collaborate rather than compete, when small acts of trust accumulate into larger movements for change.
This resonates deeply with the ethos of the JUST Centre. Transformative change rarely happens from a single technological breakthrough. More often, it emerges by joining-up ideas and action that gradually reshapes how systems are operate.
Achieving a just future will undoubtably require technology, policy and investment. But it will also require something else – people who know how to act together. That is the practice we’re nurturing, and we’re only just getting started.
