How do you create new ways in which communities can be involved in developing plans for their area?

Napier University
Mark Deakin 

With this research project, we wanted to look at new methods of involving local people in the regeneration of their neighbourhoods.

Key points

• Socially inclusive visioning has to start at the neighbourhood level
• It must emphasise community needs and equality of access
• A full assessment of social need must be carried out first
• A 12-step process can help deliver sustainable urban regeneration
• We need to focus on the skills practitioners need to make the exercise work.

In recent years, we’ve seen the emergence of new approaches to delivering urban regeneration, based on socially inclusive visioning. In a marked break with the past, these new approaches put social need and equality of access and opportunity at the heart of urban renewal programmes.

Our study built on the 2004 Egan Review of skills, which identified the need for more inclusive visioning in the regeneration process. Developing a vision of what a community might like look in the future had to include “all dimensions of the community”.

Meanwhile, across Europe and North America new approaches to urban regeneration stress the importance of more inclusive visioning. The ‘urbanist village’ and ‘neighbourhood renewal’ models, for example, have argued the case for greater emphasis on social need when developing a vision for an area.

While these approaches might still be in their relative infancy, there have been a number of recent attempts to put theory into practice. Our research drew out the lessons that have emerged from regeneration projects in Vancouver, Canada, the US city of Chicago, and Edinburgh and Birmingham in the UK.

What emerged from the case studies was a clear, step-by-step process through which sustainable, socially-inclusive urban regeneration might be delivered. The starting point is the social needs of the community in question. We identified 12 steps in this process of delivering sustainable urban regeneration.

Conclusions

The emergence of new approaches, which has seen theory put into practice in a number of cities in North America and Europe, represents a radical break with the past. So far, planning professionals have played a key part in their development.

Such approaches are still in their infancy and more evidence is needed to make the case for their wholesale adoption. Greater understanding is needed of the skills required to make them work. There should also be a new focus on measuring the environmental sustainability improvements that the new approaches can deliver.

However, socially-inclusive visioning does have potential. For the idea to come into its own, the theory and practice behind it need to be brought closer together, and communities need to be fully involved as equals.

For more information view the programmme website at http://gs.strath.ac.uk/suscoms