Wednesday 08 August 2007
by Ben Marshall, Bobby Duffy, Julian Thompson, Sarah Castell and Suzanne Hall
"… governments have traditionally used a combination of incentives, legislation and regulation in an attempt to encourage and persuade the public into adopting different forms of behaviour. However, there is an increasing recognition that cultural factors — our attitudes, values, aspirations and sense of self-efficacy — are also important determinants of our behaviour."
"One of the key lessons for policymaking is to better understand the circumstances under which culture change interventions will be appropriate and effective."
Cabinet Office [note 1]
Modern Government, policy-making and politics take place against a changing cultural and social backdrop. Our report, Blair's Britain: The Social And Cultural Legacy, explores the way Britons think and behave, their values and aspirations, and how these have changed during the Blair years. The report brings together our wealth of social research data and places this in the context of social commentary and research done by others. It looks back at the last decade as a way of better understanding what the future might hold before presenting a new conceptual framework for policy-makers, communications practitioners and social marketers.
A Thematic Portrait Of Britain
British culture and society are, of course, multi-faceted. Among other things, our report looks at wealth, inequality, consumerism, well-being, communities, demographic change, crime, identity, technology and celebrity (the main trends in British politics and political public opinion are considered separately in our complementary report, Blair's Britain: The Political Legacy.
One of the recurring themes running through our evidence-base is the national pessimism that pervades the British psyche at present. While most Britons are content with their own standard of living, pessimism has grown about the country's "direction of travel". Our poll in May 2007 found six in ten, 60%, of the view that Britain is getting worse as a place to live, more than four times the proportion thinking it is getting better (14%). This represents a fifteen percentage point negative swing since we last asked the question in 1998, a little over a year into Labour's term of office.
This pessimism comes despite the consistently strong performance of the British economy during 1997 to 2007 with many people benefiting as a result. Surveys show that the British are markedly more positive about their own personal circumstances than their European neighbours and those living in other major economies; 61% feel confident about their own and their family's future standard of living, matched only by confidence in America.
Economic buoyancy and optimism has manifested itself in what some have termed 'turbo-consumerism' but, with rising credit and housing prices, this has left levels of household debt at an all-time high. And, despite the Blair Government's inroads into reducing child poverty, economic inequality has accelerated further still, as the wealthiest grow richer fastest. "Well-being" has also become a matter for media and Government attention — British full-time workers consistently put in the longest working week in Europe, there are rising reported levels of stress and Britons' physical condition has come under the spotlight.
When looking across public services we increasingly find that while people are satisfied with their own experiences, they remain much less convinced that this is replicated nationally. The Government and others face a significant challenge in over-turning such 'perception gaps'. Our research also finds a disconnect between perceptions and 'facts' (not helped by significant declines in important aspects of trust in Government, partly related to increased public awareness of 'spin').
One of the most striking aspects of the Blair years has been the pace of technological change. Mobile phones and access to the internet are now an accepted part of everyday life. While the Labour Government tried to harness these developments as a way of improving how people interact with public services, new technologies have had a much greater impact on how we do business and socialise. However, despite increasing access for many, though, a digital divide persists along the lines of class and age: 44% of those aged 65+ do not use a mobile phone and only 8% of those aged 65+ in the lowest social classes have internet access.
Communities and demographics are also changing significantly in recent years. By 2011 there will, for the first time ever, be more people aged over 65 than under 16. There are also a greater number of single person households which, in turn, is putting even greater pressure on infrastructure. At the same time, Britons are becoming more tolerant towards each other and diverse lifestyles (although 85% think political correctness has "gone too far"). Around seven in ten now believe that gay couples should be allowed to get married (68%, up from 46% as recently as 2000) and roughly the same proportion think that there should be more respect for the beliefs of different religions.
In recent years the notion of Britishness has become a major topic of debate although our research suggests that nationality is only a small part of what Britons actually identify with. Instead, they tend to reference their family, marital status and local community as the most important aspects describing who they are. There has been a decline in national pride — twenty years ago, a majority (55%) felt very proud of being British but the proportion had dropped to two in five by 2004 — and it is only when comparing Britain to the rest of the world or looking at particular institutions such as the NHS or the Army that this resurfaces.
Britain: Where Next?
The complexity of Britons' outlooks and opinions is considered in the concluding chapter of our report. Borrowing a technique from semiotics research, we identify a series of six oppositions to help our clients make sense of the social and cultural context they operate in. These underpin all of the behaviours and opinions voiced across our thematic portraits. They encapsulate the key countervailing trends in public behaviour, culture and opinion. They relate to the way Britons, individually and collectively, conceive of themselves, their activities, their Government, their role in society and their relationship with the issues of the day:
- Parent and children v Adult-to-Adult:
- Government is often seen to take a controlling, parental stance which can prompt citizens to react in a recalcitrant way. However, the rise of choice in public services requires citizens to make active and informed decisions and, thus, demands an adult dialogue.
- Individual v Community:
- People increasingly want services that are flexible, responsive and personalised, signs that we are acting as individuals. At the same time, people have strong affinity to local issues and the opportunities to get involved in communities of association are widening (often through the use of the internet and new technologies).
- Having it all v Tough choices:
- Rising standards and expectations coupled with increasing choice has meant that the ideas of 'having it all' and consumption per se are positively valued. But, at the same time, people are becoming more aware of the social and environmental implications their behaviour has and discussions about our 'footprint' on the planet have become commonplace.
- Consumers v Citizens:
- This has been a key debate over the past ten years. While people like the idea of choice in public services in principle, the market implications, such as perceived risk of postcode lotteries, are often unpalatable. People want to be treated like consumers by public services, but also recognise the resource constraints, conscious that, as citizens and tax-payers, they foot the bill.
- Small club v Big tent:
- This represents two competing schools of thought around the welfare state. The first holds that it should remain all-encompassing and offer support to those that need it; the 'big tent'. On the other hand, concerns about competition for finite state resources has led others to take a different stance — that welfare should only be granted to those that have earned the right for help.
- Turned-off v Clued-up:
- This final opposition reflects the fact that while the British are now more savvy and demanding than ever, and certainly more active in voicing their preferences, they are also reluctant to actively participate, frequently cynical about whether they can influence change.
Mapping these oppositions against each other allows us to make sense of the complexity of British public opinion and behaviour, acting as a creative spur to facilitate thinking about big social and political challenges in new ways. To illustrate this, our report looks at the oppositions in relation to three key policy areas; social cohesion, aviation and the ageing population.
Looking ahead, it seems that plotting a political course for Britain is no longer about navigating between right or left, or even following a middle "Third Way", but manoeuvring around a complex system and deciding which drivers ought to be encouraged and what communications and policy levers to use. This is a tough challenge but one that will have to confronted.
For further information please contact: Ben Marshall; tel: 020 7347 3461 or 07900 955 799
Notes
- Cabinet Office, Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, (July 2007), Achieving Culture Change: a policy framework
This report is free to Ipsos MORI clients and friends and £50 for others. If you would like to order a copy, please complete this online form.
Political trends in Britain 1997-2007 and what they mean for the future
by Dr Roger Mortimore, Julia Clark and Naomi Pollard
Tony Blair was elected British Prime Minister on 1 May 1997; by the time in May 2007 when he announced the date on which he would resign, he had been in office more than ten years. Such a period of government inevitably leaves its mark on the country, not only in solid policy achievements and failures but in its lasting political character.