Themes

I never stop learning – exploring, experimenting, reading, questioning. It is like a spiral, starting within and circling outwards through nature, family, community, school, work and state to global governance.

But lasting change needs focus.

My focus

My focus is helping people learn how to create change better. Over the years I’ve worked on many different issues and approaches to change, from grassroots community organising to lobbying world leaders. I’ve learnt a lot about what works – and what doesn’t – which I want to share, through this website, writing and teaching.

The following sections set out some core themes which inform my work:

Nature

We are part of nature. When we truly understand that human societies are part of the natural world, lots of things become clearer and we can learn how to live better.

Respect for evidence

A lot of what we see is not the way things are. We are moving at 1,000 miles an hour as the plant spins, but the earth feels stable. Trees draw their substance from the air through their leaves, not their roots. The news is full of conflict and competition, but we depend on countless acts of cooperation between people across the world. There is conflict, and it matters, but cooperation is greater.

The scientific method and its institutions give humanity power to understand and transform the world, based on relentless questioning and respect for evidence. Life could be better for everyone if we try to understand by questioning, collecting evidence and analysing what’s really happening.

Institutions as social theories

Social sciences are reflexive – information and ideas change the way people behave, even when they are false or misguided. Social sciences are different from natural science, because we are what we study and our ideas about the world change our behaviour.

Every institution is a working hypothesis about how to do something in society, whether to educate, heal, make things or govern. The most effective institutions have reflexive processes to gather, test, analyse and use evidence to make them better at what they do. Today’s rapid pace of change, due to innovation in natural sciences, means institutions need to learn and adapt faster.

Just as the natural sciences develop models of the physical world to unlock the power of nature, social sciences could help people solve social problems better by treating institutions as working models (or theories) of how to unlock social power. Social research could help people make institutions do what people want and dramatically improve social conditions for everyone, everywhere. To find out how read more.

Education for practical politics

If you want to make money, almost every university, bookshop and the internet offers you endless practical support. Business studies is now the biggest subject at UK universities, and probably the world. Students can study accounting, advertising, company law, leadership, marketing and many other skills for making money.

But if you want to solve problems in society or the environment, there are few courses in advocacy, campaigning, influencing, organising and other political skills. You can study problems in depth, and sometimes learn about solutions, but not how to put them into practice.

Humanity’s biggest obstacles are political, not technical. Politics is difficult and demanding. Even experienced, skilful politicians make mistakes that cost lives or make people poorer, despite their best intentions. Many activists waste time and effort on well-intentioned but misguided campaigns.

My book shows why and how everyone can learn politics, and how educators can put it on the curriculum. Download the first chapter here, for free.

See Resources for more ways of learning practical politics.

Equality

All human beings are born with inherent dignity, equal worth and fundamental freedoms, as the United Nations Charter and Declaration of Human Rights proclaims. This noble and challenging aspiration ***

Achieving greater equality between people of all genders, background, nations, it doesn’t work that way, yet. Progress is being made, but some people resist change and there is still a long way to go.

Work with systems

Small changes can have a big impact. A microscopic virus can cause countless deaths, which can be prevented by vaccines to boost the body’s ability to destroy the virus. Small changes in the law or incentives can also make a huge difference, positive or negative. The secret to finding out what changes will have most impact is to look closely to see what is happening and understand the systems involved.

The world consists of countless systems interacting with each other, from the cells in our body to world trade, the weather and solar system. Most value in any society comes from its systems, both natural and social. Understanding and influencing the right system at the right time in the right way is the most effective way to bring about lasting change. <Read more>.

Climate emergency

This is the biggest issue facing humanity. I’ve worked for equitable solutions to the crisis since 1992, lobbying delegates at UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (CoP) from the first one in Berlin in 1995 and supporting several campaigns over the years.

Greta Thunberg, school strikes, Extinction Rebellion and many others are taking the issue new levels, but there is a danger that a backlash: read more on <climate campaign strategies: blog>

Political – economics: power and resources

Politics is about Who Gets What, When, How in the words of Harold Lasswell (1936). It is how people decide the rules about how things work in society. Economics is about the flow of resources, the products of nature, people, machines and knowledge.

Politics takes place anywhere people make decisions, not just in political institutions, but also in families, companies, criminal networks, private clubs and voluntary associations.

You need to be able to see and understand how resources flow and decisions are made (i.e. political economics) if you want to change things.

These are different in every society, so observe carefully to understand how things actually work where you are, because it is constantly changing.

You can find some common patterns in most societies, including the fact that things are rarely what they seem and the law of unintended consequences: rules are laid down, decisions are made, but what happens is often quite different from what was planned.

Democracy

There are so many things that need fixing I’ll put six in priority order:

proportional representation: by far the most important to start with
use deliberative democracy for difficult issues – climate, Brexit/EU, housing, migration, constitutional reform etc
dramatic increasing in funding, status and support for political literacy in schools & practical political education in FE, HE, adult ed and public service broadcasting (BBC)
give local government more power & autonomy, including revenue raising
stronger, more democratic regional government across England
replace House of Lords with a federal chamber of representatives from the nations & regions of UK

The main thing that seems to be lacking is focus and visibility, which are not easy for a small team & Brexit overshadows everything, but here are some thoughts:

A) Focus on one critical, distinctive “gateway” issue on which UD can lead, are seen to lead & build a coalition to achieve change that becomes a platform for further democratic reform. Not sure what that issue is:

PR, Votes at 16 & deliberative democracy are key issues, but others are lead champions;
HoL or written constitution are not a priority, urgent nor sufficiently important at present;
transparency of lobbying & money in politics are needed, but not currently burning issues, & others are seen to lead on them;
“honesty in politics” aimed at the press and lying/dissembling politicians could be popular and catch on. No one seems to be leading on this; press & politicians provide new material to give you a “lie of the day”, “Distortion of the Day”, etc., Work with Fact Checkers & trust-worthy journalists to get material. Annual Pinocchio Awards, etc

B) Provide a “Democratic Service” could be useful, such as:

Vote Match / Who Should I vote for in the general (& local elections);
well before elections a “Tell the parties”/influence the manifesto service to crowd source ideas & pitch them to the parties (as Citizens’ UK does in London & before general elections, but only from its members)
run training session on ‘Use your voice/have your say’, along the lines of The Good Lobby ‘citizens’ lobbying’ courses in the EU

C) Be a visible source of information on initiatives in democratic reform, through email, twitter & website, with a monthly/quarterly poll on supporters’ priorities.

Email Titus

+44 77203 94740