Introduction: Creating value that sticks to place

This publication brings together community organisers and funders whose work contributes to building thriving places, and shows that small-scale, local innovation creates many different kinds of benefit. The essays here show how community tech can help build social connections in neighbourhoods, create novel solutions to pressing problems, cultivate and attract new kinds of skills, and deepen civic engagement. 

Our contributors share how the social capital created by community tech turns into other kinds of value, including increased connection between people; more sustainable and better living standards in neighbourhoods; more choice; and more autonomy beyond the “big tech” platforms. Diversifying the technical and social infrastructure that communities have access to also increases the diffusion of useful technologies and digital skills beyond corporate or traditional R&D contexts. Fostering more community tech will multiply these benefits, rooting them in neighbourhoods beyond urban innovation centres, and cultivating more organic, community-led opportunities for growth.  

These essays were commissioned in Summer 2022, a time of significant upheaval in the UK. Some of the national challenges we face have come into sharper focus since then, and the role that community tech can play has become clearer – not just in the context of future plans for levelling up and enriching the overall innovation ecosystem, but in terms of delivering short-term essential support during the cost of living crisis. 

Through the research and convening we have conducted with Power to Change, it is clear that the potential of community tech is significant. With the right kind of infrastructural support, there is potential to grow an adaptive network of delivery-focussed organisations that can use digital technologies to understand and respond to granular local needs. 

This is human-scale, practically rooted innovation that will help build better places and create better outcomes for more - and while it is not the kind of technology that is normally included in national innovation strategies, the last decade has shown that the deployment of large-scale government and corporate technologies is by no means the right answer to every problem. Research by Nesta and the Young Foundation, respectively, shows that the public want innovation to deliver positive social impact and that technologies delivered by community organisations grow community capacity, social capital and a sense of belonging and local pride. A strong social infrastructure also attracts people, businesses and investment. The essays collected here demonstrate that community tech is not just valuable in local neighbourhoods – it is also a vital part of national infrastructure that brings together emergent innovation, community power, and the potential for economic and social renewal.