Revitalising Deprived Urban Neighbourhoods: An Assisted Self-Help Approach

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Governments in Western Europe and North America have placed job creation initiatives at the heart of their policy for revitalizing deprived neighbourhoods. However, relying on this alone is problematic and these governments are becoming increasingly interested in finding ways of enabling communities to help themselves. Drawing upon original, in-depth studies of self-help activities in both deprived and affluent neighbourhoods in UK cities, this book examines why the populations of deprived neighbourhoods are more likely to be excluded not only from the labour market but also from adopting self-help practices in response to their situation. It also identifies the barriers which discourage participation in self-help projects. A combination of policies are advocated, bringing together innovative "bottom-up" initiatives such as LETS, time currencies and Employee Mutuals, with "top-down" policies such as Active Citizens' Credits. This book instead suggests a fresh and positive approach towards revitalizing deprived neighbourhoods based on seeking the full-engagement, rather than merely the full-employment, of deprived populations.

SYNOPSIS

Williams (geography, U. of Leicester, UK) and Windebank (french studies, U. of Sheffield, UK) bring the concept of self-help (promulgated by the neo-liberal theorists of the British New Labour Party for application to health, pensions, education and other areas of social policy) to bear on the problems of urban regeneration. Defining self-help as the economic activities in which people engage that are non-market and informal, they argue that self-help strategies are likely to be more effective in bringing people out of poverty than older full-employment models. After categorizing the self-help activities that already exist in deprived urban neigborhoods, they identify what they see as barriers to self-help activity (lack of economic, social network, and human capital; institutional barriers of law; negative attitudes towards neighborhoods; and a lack of time). Finally, bottom-up initiatives such as local exchange and trading schemes and top-down policies such as Active Citizens' Credits schemes are described and recommended. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

FROM THE CRITICS

Ed Mayo