Social Provocations For A Digital Age

Social Provocations are a new series of posts edited by Shirley Ayres and Paul Taylor.

They aim to stimulate debate and discussion around the challenges and opportunities presented to us in the digital age.

We hope to identify the social leaders who are openly challenging mediocre services no longer “fit for purpose” in the 21st century, and those championing innovation and risk.

Additionally we want to highlight examples of people and organisations who are using digital technologies to close information gaps, move away from silo thinking — raising the bar of citizen focused services.

Context

Significant parts of the social sector are yet to realise that broadcasting a ‘message’ just isn’t going to work. This is now a world built on relationships and collaborations. That involves actively listening to other perspectives, generously sharing and doing more than just following everyone else in your sector.

The impact of digital on the way opinions are shaped cannot be underestimated. Technology has democratised access to information and created very different ways of enabling people to connect and share resources, thoughts and opinion. We live in a digitally connected world — and in the crowded social space online influence is becoming increasingly important.

We feel that it’s time to broaden the debate beyond just housing, health and social care. The wider social sector has collective assets worth billions but historically has rarely joined up to maximise impact.

In the digital age can the barriers to connected care finally be removed?

Technology has radically changed the way we live and access services. It has even changed how we relate to each other as human beings.

Have our public services truly adapted to this new era?

To kick the series off we are posing some wicked questions — that will be explored in the coming months. We’ll be inviting contributors to add their thoughts and you are welcome to add further questions or comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #SocialProv

We look forward to your contribution and debate!