Local community involvement in urban regeneration
The Community Development Foundation, in association with the European Commission, DG XVI, has published the report of a study, undertaken in 1994-1995, on local community involvement in urban regeneration. The study involved a network of researchers in the (then) 12 Member States of the EU, who each provided a case study from their countries. This included information on relevant national and regional policies. An extra case study was undertaken in the former East Germany, with support from the Anglo-German Foundation. Research undertaken by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1987-1992) on the nature of local community action served as a background to the study. The present study examines how such action takes place in the context of official regeneration schemes and community projects. Eight of the case studies examined in the study concern community involvement as one aspect of a larger scheme intended to revive an area by investment in aspects such as housing improvement, job opportunities, training, social amenities and health. The remaining case studies concern free-standing community involvement projects. The case studies, examined in a comparative framework, provide the basis for thematic conclusions about the aims, methods and effects of community involvement. The study focused on practical methods and concrete results of community involvement in urban regeneration, in order to ensure that the findings would be useful to both policy-makers at all levels, and to practitioners in local schemes. The report is divided into four chapters which cover the following: - Urban regeneration and the question of involvement; - Community involvement: what it does and how it works; - Analysis: from added value to changing values; - Strategy and methods. The report also contains contact details for the research teams involved in the study, as well as case study summaries and an overview of national urban regeneration policies in the twelve countries examined. In addition, extracts from the French urban regeneration policy report (1994) and the United Nations summit on world social policy (March 1995) are included.