#67: Sussex Is A 'Thing' And We Wunt Be Druv. But What Do We Want Instead?

The Sussex And The City Podcast Episode #67

Host: Richard Freeman Guest: John V. Willshire – strategic designer, writer and founder of Smithery

Sussex is a thing.

Obviously. But what sort of thing? And who gets to decide?

My guest this week is John V. Willshire, a strategic designer, writer and founder of Smithery, a consultancy that has spent 15 years helping organisations think differently about change.

John's guiding principle is to help people make things people want, rather than make people want things. And recently, he's been applying that philosophy to Sussex.

Drawing on the work of French philosopher Bruno Latour, John explores the ancient meaning of the word thing: a gathering of people brought together to discuss matters of shared concern.

So Sussex isn't simply a geographical boundary or an administrative arrangement. It's a complicated collection of communities, landscapes, histories, institutions, relationships and competing priorities.

And devolution is asking us to start treating all of that as one strategic region.

John and I have been exploring some of these questions through the Sussex Futures Network, a deliberately informal platform for bringing people together to experiment with different ways of thinking about Sussex's future.

One of those experiments has involved playing card games.

Inspired by the nineteenth-century Chartist movement and a contemporary charter-building game developed by Our House, John and collaborators have created a Sussex-specific game that invites people to imagine different forms of democracy.

Players combine cards showing who might hold power – from mayors, councillors and citizens' assemblies to rivers and even beavers – with cards showing how that power might be exercised.

They then imagine the worst possible outcomes, or dreadocracy, and the best possible outcomes, or dreamocracy.

It's playful and often absurd and very revealing.

Because when people are invited to experiment with democracy, rather than simply respond to proposals somebody else has written, they begin to recognise that political structures aren't fixed. They're things people have designed, and therefore things people might redesign.

We've played the game at Colonnade House in Worthing and Bull House in Lewes, the former home of Thomas Paine, whose writing helped inspire the American Revolution. There's something appropriate about sitting in that building, more than 250 years later, imagining different ways political power might work.

The conversation also takes us into the recent history of the Sussex Charter, written in 2006 by local resident Ian Steedman, and the establishment of Sussex Day on 16th June.

John finds something liberating in the discovery that a document which feels like an ancient declaration of Sussex identity was actually invented less than twenty years ago.

If somebody could invent a Sussex Charter, what else might we invent?

Could Sussex Day become an annual opportunity to discuss the future rather than simply celebrate the past? Could schools, community groups, businesses and councils experiment with different forms of participation? And could the new strategic authority build curiosity and play into the way it engages people?

Running through the conversation is that famous Sussex motto, "We wunt be druv."

John sees it as something more useful than a nostalgic declaration of stubbornness. It's permission to do things differently.

But there's an important question underneath that independent spirit.

It's one thing to insist that we won't be told what to do. It's quite another to work out what we want instead.

And that means bringing more people into the conversation, including those who wouldn't ordinarily attend a consultation, read a strategy document or think that local democracy has much to do with them.

Towards the end of our conversation, John offers a provocation.

What if Sussex's biggest export in fifteen years was play?

Not simply games or entertainment, but play as a serious method for solving problems, challenging assumptions, imagining alternatives and bringing people together.

This is a conversation about design, democracy, Thomas Paine, Sussex identity, devolution and the possibility that our future doesn't have to be something somebody else has already decided.

Because democracy isn't simply something we have.

It's something we do.

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• John's career in strategic design and the philosophy behind Smithery
• Why Sussex is a thing, and what that actually means
• How devolution is bringing together a complicated collection of communities and identities
• The origins and ambitions of the Sussex Futures Network
• Why democracy should be something people do, rather than simply something they have
• The surprising history of the Sussex Charter and Sussex Day
• What "We wunt be druv" might mean for the future of Sussex
• The influence of the Chartist movement and Thomas Paine
• How the Sussex democracy game works
• Imagining dreadocracy and dreamocracy
• Why rivers, wildlife and beavers might have a place in democratic conversations
• Playing with democracy at Bull House in Lewes
• How games could involve people who don't normally engage with politics
• Why Sussex Day could become an annual conversation about the future
• How councils and the strategic authority might embrace experimentation
• Whether Sussex could become known as a place where serious play drives change

John V. Willshire is a strategic designer, writer and founder of Smithery, an independent strategic design practice established in 2011.

Previously Chief Innovation Officer at PHD Media in London, John works with organisations to explore possible futures, develop new ideas and turn complex challenges into practical experiments.

His clients have included the BBC, LEGO, Unilever, Wellcome and the United Nations Development Programme. He also created Artefact Cards, a hands-on tool for creative thinking, and has taught innovation and future thinking at IED Barcelona and the Royal College of Art.

Although a native Scot, John has lived in Sussex for nearly twenty years and is helping develop the Sussex Futures Network, exploring how design, play and participation might shape the county's democratic future.

• Smithery – John's strategic design practice.

• John V. Willshire's writing – essays on design, futures and experimentation, including Sussex is a Thing.

• We Wunt Be Druv – the Sussex democracy game, with information about taking part.

• The Spirit of Thomas Paine – John's account of playing the game at Bull House on Sussex Day.

• Our House – the people-powered democracy movement behind the original charter-building game.

• The Sussex Charter and Sussex Day – the charter's text and the story of Ian Steedman's initiative.

• Bull House, Lewes – the history of Thomas Paine's former home.

• Artefact Cards – John's creative thinking tools.

Host: Richard Freeman Guest: John V. Willshire Sound design, editing and original music: Chris Thorpe-Tracey Production management: Letitia McConalogue

sussexandthecity.info – episodes, resources, events and more about devolution and change across Sussex.

sussexintelligence.com – independent research and evidence-led insight into growth, infrastructure, governance and belonging across Sussex.