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Experimentation

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‘The true method of knowledge is experiment’ (William Blake).

RSN challenges institutional barriers that inhibit experimentation and risk, and seeks out imaginative partners and funders that are prepared to work on the margins of social and economic innovation. It is often only by pushing on these boundaries that new methods and models evolve. We thrive on challenge, on ‘thinking outside the box’, and on designing imaginative solutions to conventional problems.

Action Research projects

  • Domiciliary care services in rural Wales

    Research into community meals provision, commissioned by Powys County Council through Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations, has been conducted in collaboration with Mid-Wales Food and Land Trust. The research explored the challenges facing existing provision and potential role for a social enterprise in delivering an alternative approach to the provision of meals, integrated with other domiciliary care services. The next step will be development of a pilot.

  • Mutual for the Self-employed

    RSN managers led a research team with the new economics foundation to test the feasibility and to develop a business plan for a Mutual for the Self-employed. This research has been carried out with the support of local CBP pathfinders and focussed on two urban areas (London and Coventry) and two rural areas (Mid Wales and Devon). The Mutual for the Self-employed connects advice with support for sole traders and community-based enterprises. The Mutual will also aim to provide bulk-buy services, discounts on equipment, and access to pension and insurance services.

    RSN has a lead role in developing the proposed pilots for the Mutual, which are envisaged to begin in autumn 2008. The CBP pathfinders will take an active role in the four pilot areas. The research report, Self Help and Mutual Aid, was launched in England at the CDFA conference in Leeds on 27th June 2008 and in Wales at the Sustainable Communities Conference in Newtown on 10 July 2008.

  • Complementary Currencies

    RSN Associates will be involved in the trialling of the "Currency Design Manual" written and developed by John Rogers of "Value For People". John Rogers, formerly Co-ordinator of the Wales Inistitute for Community Currencies (WICC) and a Director of TimeBanks UK, will be working with RSN on a number of complementary currency issues but with a particular emphasis on the delivery of co-production services. RSN is developing models for the integration of a variety of currency systems with the Community Banking Partnership, including meta-systemic elements for their support and supervision.