How do we engage when there is no trust? Board Member Kylie Cochrane

Ironically, the world is getting bigger as it’s getting smaller. We can attain information and forge collective experiences from 10,000 miles away, all within the confines of a palm-sized device. Knowledge is no longer the domain of institutions but is in the hands of everyday people, who inform and advocate as it happens. The pendulum is swinging from dutiful forms of traditional citizenship, with government and private sector at the helm, to a far more inclusive, self-actualised style of civic participation.

Society has changed over the last ten years. With the abundance of information that we read online, people have become increasingly sceptical and distrustful of the traditional mainstream institutions of government and religion. According to my Social TriangleTM theory, a decade ago, the make up of every community, first world, third world and/ or tribal, could be represented by a hypothetical triangle of Politics in one corner, Religion in another and Community on the third point.

Today we have a significant distrust of politics and people have moved away from religious institutions, leaving the community as the only cornerstone of society. As a result, people now hold community – defined in terms of people (friends and family) and place (my country, my town, my street) as sacred. And any potential change is perceived as a personal threat to an individual’s way of life.

This means the default reaction to every infrastructure project will be outrage. And it changes the way we need to engage.

We need to design and construct infrastructure that lives within communities, rather than infrastructure that communities need to live with.

The community expects it. Engagement is no longer a choice. And we must get it right.