Query: social capital, urban regeneration

title: The role, organisation and contribution of community enterprise to urban regeneration policy in the UK
abstract: This monograph investigates the organisation, constitution and delivery of community based organisations which are normally called community enterprises in the UK. These are organisations which emerge from local communities at the neighbourhood level, work in partnership with the public and private sectors, and provide a range of services to meet social, economic and environmental needs. The main focus of the paper is to explore how these organisations contribute to local regeneration strategies, generate social capital and contribute towards the promotion of civil society in general. The main emphasis is on organisations in England and Wales but comparisons are made with the USA and other countries where relevant literature is available. The key questions to be answered relate to the organisation and management of these bodies; the extent to which they engage with and contribute to local regeneration strategies; and the impact they have particularly in acquiring and managing assets. The diversity of the sector, and the range, scale and level of benefits it can deliver is illustrated through five detailed case studies of community enterprises established at different times, in different geographical locations and with different objectives and funding regimes. But, whilst the UK political economy is moving towards less state intervention and more community self help, the community development corporations in the USA provide an indication of the future direction community enterprises might take in the UK as part of a broad trend towards civic capacity building.

title: Remaking Place and Securitising Space: Urban Regeneration and the Strategies, Tactics and Practices of Policing in the UK
abstract: Urban regeneration programmes in the UK over the past 20 years have increasingly focused on attracting investors, middle class shoppers and visitors by transforming places and creating new consumption spaces. Ensuring that places are safe and are seen to be safe has taken on greater salience as these flows of income are easily disrupted by changing perceptions of fear and the threat of crime. At the same time, new technologies and policing strategies and tactics have been adopted in a number of regeneration areas which seek to establish control over these new urban spaces. Policing space is increasingly about controlling human actions through design, surveillance technologies and codes of conduct and enforcement. Regeneration agencies and the police now work in partnerships to develop their strategies. At its most extreme, this can lead to the creation of zero tolerance, or what Smith terms 'revanchist' measures aimed at particular social groups in an effort to sanitise space in the interests of capital accumulation. This paper, drawing on an examination of regeneration practices and processes in one of the UK's fastest growing urban areas, Reading in Berkshire, assesses policing strategies and tactics in the wake of a major regeneration programme. It documents and discusses the discourses of regeneration that have developed in the town and the ways in which new urban spaces have been secured. It argues that, whilst security concerns have become embedded in institutional discourses and practices, the implementation of security measures has been mediated, in part, by the local socio political relations in and through which they have been developed.

title: Governance and Social Capital in Urban Regeneration: A Comparison between Bristol and Naples
abstract: In several countries, urban regeneration programmes have become associated with wider policy changes to the governance and social improvement of local communities. These developments have become central to policy implementation in the UK where regeneration planning attempts to use 'social capital' from local networks and associations in new systems of governance connecting central government agencies, local councils and local voluntary and community groups. This article reports on comparative research aimed at assessing whether the new approaches significantly influence democracy and transparency and, correspondingly, responsiveness to power relations and conflicts, and the needs and interests of the previously excluded and often disadvantaged groups. The analysis derives from a contrast between Bristol, a propitious case for the new governance in the UK, and the Italian city of Naples. Similar and problematic developments are identified in both cases despite the pursuit of a radically different 'dirigiste' strategy by the Naples council. The findings suggest that more autonomous local government and greater civil society participation may still be needed to meet local expectations.

title: Social capital, regeneration and urban policy
abstract: This paper seeks to do a number of things. First, to give an account of the emergence of social capital as a very prominent element within policy discourse related to concerns with social exclusion and social inclusion. Second, to explain what is meant by the term social capital and describe its components and the forms it can take at the individual and collective or community level. Third, to show how social capital is linked to neighbourhood renewal goals such as community empowerment and to urban policy goals such as community cohesion. Lastly, to explain why the current Government is so keen on social capital, exploring its links to Third Way ideology, the objective of 'joined up policy' and the broader aim of 'democratic renewal' The paper first appeared as a chapter in Imrie,R. and Raco,M. Eds. (2003) Urban Renaissance? New Labour, Community and Urban Policy.  The Policy Press. Further details of this and other related publications can be found at: www.policypress.org

title: Urban regeneration through cultural creativity and social inclusion: Rethinking creative city theory through a Japanese case study
abstract: This paper aims to rethink creative city theory by analyzing urban regeneration processes in Japan through cultural creativity and social inclusion. The impact of Florida's theory has led to the common misperception that cities prosper as people of the creative class, such as artists and gays, gather. However, attracting people of the creative class does not automatically make a creative city. Empirical analyses of Kanazawa City, clarify that the creative city needs a 'culture based production system' a well balanced system of cultural production and cultural consumption that takes advantage of accumulated cultural capital. This paper also examines Osaka City, where creative city policies failed to produce adequate results because they did not take root as a comprehensive urban strategy. However, in spite of these failures, a lively and inclusive grassroots movement has emerged around the creative city. This movement brings Osaka towards being a socially inclusive creative city.

title: Growing food to grow cities? The potential of agriculture foreconomic and community development in the urban United States
abstract: Agriculture has become a focus of planning for urban regeneration in the United States. However, to make agriculture an impactful part of urban community and economic development rather than a passing fad it is vital to identify its most effective forms. This paper reports on field research in six cities in the United States where municipalities, nonprofit organizations and residents are deploying farming and gardening for diverse economic development objectives. Our findings suggest that despite expectations that urban agriculture will attract capital, create jobs and tax ratables and increase property values in preparation for 'higher value' development, its greatest potential is in social enterprise, supplementing incomes, developing human and social capital and promoting food security.

title: Remaking London: Decline and Regeneration in Urban Culture
abstract: Between the slum clearances of the early twentieth century and debates about the post Olympic city, the drive to 'regenerate' London has intensified. Yet today, with a focus on increasing land values, regeneration schemes purporting to foster diverse and creative new neighbourhoods typically displace precisely the qualities, activities and communities they claim to support. In Remaking London Ben Campkin provides a lucid and stimulating historical account of urban regeneration, exploring how decline and renewal have been imagined and realised at different scales. Focusing on present day regeneration areas that have been key to the capital's modern identity, Campkin explores how these places have been stigmatised through identification with material degradation and spatial and social disorder. Drawing on diverse sources including journalism, photography, cinema, theatre, architectural design, advertising and television he illuminates how ideas of decline drive urban change. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, Remaking London is both a compelling account of contested sites from the capital's recent history and a powerful critique of the contradictions of contemporary regeneration. "An important and much needed corrective, full of fascinating insights, which exposes the myths of regeneration" Anna Minton, author of Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty First Century City

title: Area based Initiatives And Their Work in Bonding, Bridging and Linking Social Capital
abstract: In this article, we provide a conceptual and argumentative framework for studying how Area based Initiatives (ABIs) can facilitate contact between networks in deprived neighbourhoods and external forms of power (linking social capital) These relations provide the residents and other members of civil society with crucial access to leveraging resources, ideas and information. Although few studies on linking social capital have been carried out in relation to urban regeneration, there is empirical evidence that suggests that it can play a positive role in establishing trust and relations between civil society and a municipality. We set out with a review of how social capital literature has been applied in an urban context, and then demonstrate empirical examples from Denmark of how, in different contexts (village, town and city) ABIs have facilitated processes that generated different forms of social capital (bridging, bonding and linking) The article concludes that ABIs contribute to creating linking social capital, but the extent of the contribution depends on the level of bonding and bridging social capital in the area. We argue that public planners as well as evaluators of the ABIs should increase their awareness about the potentials of an ABI to create linking social capital in deprived neighbourhoods.

title: Leadership, Power and Multisector Urban Regeneration Partnerships
abstract: Multisector partnerships have become the central tenet of contemporary urban regeneration policy facilitating a new form of local participative governance. Consequently, neighbourhood renewal and the importance of 'people' and 'places' have encouraged the emergence of a new form of 'community leader' who is more in touch with the problems of local disadvantaged groups. This paper explores the issue of leadership within multisectoral urban regeneration partnerships, focusing on the formation of social capital, power relations and partnership synergy. Conclusions point to the synergistic and social capital benefits of partnerships and the role played by urban leadership in generating a collaborative network capable of achieving more than performance targets.

title: Capitalising on Culture: an Evaluation of Culture led Urban Regeneration Policy
abstract: Municipal authorities throughout Western Europe are attempting to drive regeneration of their urban centres through policies designed to attract inward investment and tourism. In an attempt to woo these outside economic agents in, a variety of cultural consumption oriented policies have been developed and marketed. These include investment in hard cultural infrastructure such as museums or art galleries, and in less physical aspects such as holding events like the European Capital of Culture. A polemical debate surrounds this use of cultural policy with a clearly economic agenda. This paper gives a brief synopsis of some culture led regeneration models, addresses the validity of arguments from both sides of the debate, and in the year that Cork 2005 celebrates its year as European Capital of Culture, looks at how the event brings the battle out into the public domain. KeywordsCultural tourism, place marketing, social inclusion, urban