{"title":"Dick Atkinson Obe","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"urban-renaissance-book-dick-atkinson-obe-9781858581651","title":"Urban Renaissance","description":"Dick Atkinson's text deals with the regeneration of the troubled inner city areas. His work in the Midland's inner city districts such as Birmingham's Balsall Heath has received wide critical acclaim.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49596218769681,"sku":"GOR001956946","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1858581656.jpg?v=1751060597"},{"product_id":"nourishing-social-renewal-book-dick-atkinson-obe-9781858584928","title":"Nourishing Social Renewal","description":"This book uses the Third World question, \"how do you feed a hungry person?\", in order to answer the First World's need for social renewal and to build the Big Society. It points out that if the well intentioned State does things 'to' and 'for' people it will merely make them dependent. However, if it enables them to do things for themselves, it will make them independent and proud. The book takes Balsall Heath, an inner ring neighbourhood of Birmingham, as its starting point. It analyses why it had become blighted by the 1980s and how its residents renewed it in the years since then. From having been one of Birmingham's least desirable areas, it is now one of its most attractive ones. Residents there feel empowered, confident and enjoy caring for each other. The book looks at how this transformation has happened and how it can be replicated in any neighbourhood. In particular, it asks and answers the question: How can social renewal take place without external funding by empowering residents and by using existing mainstream budgets differently? Senior Politicians from all the parties have visited Balsall Heath and said that it holds the key which could unlock the door to the renewal of many neighbourhoods throughout the land. Those visitors include: David Cameron, Iain Duncan Smith, Oliver Letwin, David Willetts, Paddy Ashdown, David Blunkett and Hazel Blears. But, don't just take their word for it that Balsall Heath is special and that the lessons to be learned from its self-help success can be applied in many neighbourhoods. Read this book and consider for yourself how important these lessons are. More, consider how you can apply them in the neighbourhood where you live or the neighbourhoods for which you have statutory or political responsibility. The whole country has asked: What is the Big Society? Is it important? And, if it is, how can we build it? If you want positive answers to these questions, read this book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49608577712401,"sku":"GOR009418084","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1858584922.jpg?v=1750725201"},{"product_id":"civil-renewal-book-dick-atkinson-obe-9781858582672","title":"Civil Renewal","description":"Civil Renewal: \"Mending the Hole in the Social Ozone Layer,\" explains that for 40 years successive governments have initiated wave after wave of costly urban renewal schemes to try to improve the conditions which blight so many lives in up to 3,000 neighbourhoods. Yet, success has been elusive and only a very few neighbourhoods have made real progress. 'Civil Renewal' asks why this has been the case. It suggests that while the motives of those leading the initiatives were fine, the culture which shaped their attitude was flawed. So, they tried to redistribute wealth and felt that physical renewal projects would result in sustainable success. Thus, they failed to see that the problem lay not just in material but in social poverty and that the bonds which once tied people together in mutual support had loosened and can no longer support self-help activities. There really is a hole in the social ozone layer. Unless it is repaired renewal is not possible and even costly initiatives will fail. Thus, it shows how people-led renewal can make progress. Indeed, if residents in the few successfully renewing neighbourhoods can act as 'consultants' to less confident residents in failing neighbourhoods, perhaps a series of regional programmes of neighbourhood renewal can take place? Can the powers that be move from 'doing' and 'delivering' to 'enabling' and 'facilitating' and initiate a culture changing debate so that local people come to own the process of renewal and ensure that it becomes sustainable?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49640762442001,"sku":"GOR001579849","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1858582679.jpg?v=1751412429"},{"product_id":"towards-self-governing-schools-book-dick-atkinson-obe-9780255364089","title":"Towards Self-Governing Schools","description":"In this challenging paper Dr Dick Atkinson asks why local education authorities are needed. Finding reasons lacking, he puts forward a proposal for all schools to be self-governing and thereby removed from the debilitating effects of politicised education.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52479414731025,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52479415877905,"sku":"NLS9780255364089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780255364089.jpg?v=1759848691"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-dick-atkinson-obe.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}