Community participation and urban regeneration in Britain

Abstract

The issue of community participation in urban regeneration has received considerable attention in both Britain and the United States since the end of the 1980s (Hambleton and Taylor, 1993; Robinson and Shaw, 1991). This attention lies in stark contrast to developments in the 1980s when governments, inspired by neo-liberal theories (Green, 1987; King, 1987), stressed the role of markets and the private sector as the most effective method of economic and urban regeneration. This chapter investigates the idea of community participation in the development of urban regeneration strategies (Atkinson and Cope, 1994; Atkinson and Moon, 1994a; Hambleton and Thomas, 1995). First, it examines the nature of community participation by exploring the ideas of ‘community’, ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’. Second, it outlines the dominant approach to urban regeneration in the 1980s, and examines government initiatives seeking to involve local communities in the processes of urban regeneration. Third, it assesses the role of community participation in urban regeneration strategies. In particular, it looks at how communities can be and are empowered to participate in formulating and implementing urban regeneration strategies. The idea of community, though always a salient concept, has returned to the mainstream of urban policy analysis. Kymlicka observed that “in the 1980s and 1990s, community has resurfaced” (1993, p 366), with “community ties ... recast into humanity’s natural domicile” (Bauman, 1995, p 150). For example, the local government review process provided “the opportunity of relating the structure of local government more closely to communities with which people identify” (Department of the Environment, 1991, p 6).

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