Questioning the Wisdom of Crowd Funding

"Earlier this week, another project achieved its funding target on Kickstarter – the Thames Baths, an innovative plan by a team of young British architects to bring swimming back to the Thames," reports Leo Hollis.

Rather than just providing another victory lap for the Internet's benefit to "cool" urban projects, Hollis expresses his concern about the use of crowdfunding to enable projects like the Thames Baths (which, for the record, Hollis supports wholeheartedly).

The first line of Hollis's argument:

"Do these online platforms offer a good alternative to traditional civic planning and investment? In many occasions, it might appear so. The success of crowdfunding can give the impression that such schemes replace the obligation of local government to provide for its constituents. This is wrong-headed, to be sure, but is already happening: Belsize Community Library, for example, is being threatened with closure unless it can find a lifeline with local fundraising."

Hollis raises additional questions about the equity and the reliability of crowdfunding—even offering an alternative method, in the form of participatory budgeting, to combine the strengths of crowdfunding with "the less exciting, but equally important, responsibilities of government to provide public services for citizens."