A sense of place in public sector innovation

A dialogue between Maggie Low + Lindsay Cole

This blog post is part of the Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation (PB PSI) community of practice (CoP). We are people working in- and alongside public sector organizations who share a curiosity and commitment to work more ambitiously, systemically, and respectfully on the biggest social and ecological challenges of our time. These posts are written from the diverse perspectives of different members of the CoP as we learn and explore together. Find out more about the project and/or join the CoP, here.

Maggie:

Indigenous perspectives from around the globe are most often place-based and rooted in strong relationships with the land. Drawing on these principles, a sense of place is the emotional attachment an individual develops with a particular location(s). Having a strong sense of place — whether you were born in that place or whether it’s a place that has come to hold deep significance for you — can help ground and motivate the work of public sector innovators.

Place helps us to cultivate deep connections with the land, our ancestors, ourselves and with each other. Conceptions of how land has been stolen and is now monetized as ‘private property’ will need to shift to a far more equitable and care-taking model. Through place we can connect to the strength of our ancestors, our loved ones, and embrace the struggles and innovations that came before us. These struggles offer great inspiration and wisdom while we cultivate the courage to fight for alternative futures. Place can also give us a strong sense of who we are, what we stand for, and how we are willing to shift, grow and rest over time.

While a sense of place can be deeply personal, it can also be shared to nurture lasting, loving relationships with each other. Where is a place deeply meaningful to you, and how might being connected to it push the boundaries of your work? What can we learn from each other across scales, from our different places?

Lindsay:

Thanks for opening up this discussion Maggie, and I’m curious to explore what you are encouraging us to think about as we move together into this Pushing the Boundaries of Public Sector Innovation community of practice (CoP). I did not grow up in the place where I now live, and — ancestrally, culturally, generationally — I’m a settler, or an uninvited guest in this place. And, at the same time, I’ve lived in this part of the world and around these lands and waters for about 25 years and have visited since childhood. My love and connection to this place is strong and I am also a newcomer.

In response to your question about how my connection to place pushes the boundaries of my work, a few things come to mind. I’m continually learning about the history and present of this place from the teachings generously offered by the Indigenous peoples who’ve lived here for many, many generations. This teaches me to practice humility, curiosity, moving at the speed of trust, and being open to different ways of knowing, being, and doing than I am used to. I’m also continually learning from the more than human relatives that also call this place home — plants, animals, and other beings. This teaches me to slow down, listen with all of my senses, and to attune to natural cycles and flows like seasons, light/dark, migrations, and growing patterns. There is so much to be learned by fully being present in these ways — by observing, listening, witnessing, and reflecting and all with a beginner’s mind. These same practices increasingly shape how I think about and enact what transformation and innovation mean in my work with the public sector.

The place where I live is experiencing unprecedented summer droughts, forest fires, species loss, deforestation, poverty, homelessness, disconnection, and many other eco-social justice and wellbeing challenges that people in places around the world are also experiencing. Right now I’m thinking about something that Bayo Akomolafe says: “The times are urgent, we must slow down.” I feel like this captures the tension that I feel when working on these complex and urgent challenges, and also (or perhaps in spite of) finding different rhythms that enable and encourage different ways of knowing, being, and doing to emerge from place.

I wonder if and how you experience this tension in your own thinking and practice, and if your own grounding in place supports, inspires, or provokes you in any particular ways as you think about pushing the boundaries of public sector innovation?

Maggie:

Thank you for sharing these reflections, Lindsay! I love the quote by Bayo Akomolafe because this tension is present for me in all of my practice. What comes up for me right away is the importance of relationality. If we are going to solve these urgent problems, I believe we need to continue to nurture the relationships we have with the human and non-human beings around us. And this gets back to what I think sense of place can offer us — a way to share and connect with our kin. I’d love to let my thoughts on this tension percolate a little more and I look forward to being in conversation with the community of practice about this over the coming months!

Maggie Low, PhD (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning, and the Co-Chair of the Indigenous Community Planning Program, at the University of British Columbia.

Lindsay Cole, PhD (she/her) is a public sector innovation practitioner, an applied and action researcher, and an educator currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with both the University of British Columbia, and with Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

This work is inspired by the land + sea + kin that we are privileged to live with as guests on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ / sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, and the swiya of the self-governing shíshálh Nation.