These days, when people talk about civil society they mean civil society organisations. These are important. And we will get to them as this series develops.
But then there are the relationships across society facilitated by social infrastructure, expressed in conversations about how to live peaceably with each other, and generating a shared moral order and mutual aid.
A football club is a significant part of the social infrastructure. Each fortnight, in Grimsby, a town of 130,000 people, between four and eight thousand people will gather. Next week’s episode with Grimsby Town fan Adam Howard will give listeners a good sense of the shared meaning and belonging football brings to a place.
Jason Stockwood is a tech entrepreneur, social entrepreneur and a Grimsby fan. So he knew the value of the football club to the town and surrounding area. Together with current Chairman Andrew Pettit, he became a major shareholder. It was an investment not only in success on the pitch, but the revitalisation of a community ravaged by the collapse of the fishing industry.
In describing the story, Jason references David Goodhart’s book The Road to Somewhere published by C Hurst & Co. Jason’s decisions about how to support his hometown were strongly influenced by the work of Robert Putnam, and in particular his book The Upswing written with Shaylyn Romney Garrett and published by Simon & Schuster. Jason’s decision making reflects the evidence presented by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
The English Football League -or EFL as it is commonly known- one of football’s governing bodies in the U.K., has published a series of reports on the impact of the sport on English life.
For those who want to know more about Jason’s work with Grimsby Town Football Club, he has published a series of articles in the Guardian newspaper.
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