An article examined how governments had approached the challenge of improving community relations. It considered the extent to which community cohesion and anti-social behaviour policies demonstrated a coherent conception of the problem of community relations. Policies to promote social interaction were not necessarily aimed at achieving social harmony through meaningful interaction based on recognition of equal group status; and they were based on little in the way of evidence and prior knowledge.
Source: Jon Bannister and Anthony O'Sullivan, 'Civility, community cohesion and antisocial behaviour: policy and social harmony', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 42 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
A report examined how housing associations could empower tenants to help their communities. Proper training could give tenants the skills and confidence to (for example) collect their neighbours' views through simple surveys; give basic advice on welfare reform; plug gaps in elderly needs; encourage energy saving; and help with childcare.
Source: Anne Power, Eileen Herden, Bert Provan, and Laura Lane, Bigger than Business: Housing associations and community investment in an age of austerity, Orbit Group Ltd/London School of Economics
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | Report part 3 | Summary | Orbit press release
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined the issue of population shrinkage in Europe. Shrinkage could be used as an opportunity to readjust cities to changing times and actively involve local residents in developing creative solutions.
Source: Annegret Haase, Gert-Jan Hospers, Simone Pekelsma, and Dieter Rink, Shrinking Areas: Front-runners in innovative citizen participation, European Urban Knowledge Network
Links: Report | EUKN press release
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined how women's activism contributed to the generation of local capacities and resources; how women attempted to subvert or co-opt emerging patterns of local governance; and how women engaged with strategies of governing and managing local communities. It considered how austerity measures were leading to the closure of many of the spaces of power that previous generations of women had forged.
Source: Janet Newman, 'Making, contesting and governing the local: women s labour and the local state', Local Economy, Volume 27 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined the escalating shift in power from the centre to 'community' with specific regard to the local governance of street sex work. It considered what localism might mean for street sex workers as both vulnerable members of the community and also anti-social subjects. Street sex workers were susceptible to marginalization and social exclusion. To counter this, there needed to be greater attention to, and investment in, improving community cohesion and democracy for everyone within the localist agenda.
Source: Tracey Sagar and Jodie Croxall, 'New localism: implications for the governance of street sex work in England and Wales', Social Policy and Society, Volume 11 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
The Scottish Government began consultation on proposals to give local people a more direct say in what happened in their communities. Responses to the consultation would help shape the proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill. Ideas being explored in the consultation included extending a right to buy similar to the one enjoyed by rural communities in Scotland to larger towns and cities. The consultation also considered whether communities should have a right to ask to take on unused public sector assets such as school and health centres; and how communities could be more involved in making decisions on local budgets, helping public sector organizations identify the needs and priorities in an area and target budgets more effectively.
Source: Consultation on the Proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill, Scottish Government
Links: Consultation document | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release
Date: 2012-Jun
A report reviewed the evidence relating to meaningful interaction – focusing on successful approaches to promoting it, and its benefits for individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities. Meaningful interaction did help to build greater understanding and trust between people of different backgrounds. Where there was greater understanding and trust, prejudice and levels of discrimination were reduced, and a range of other, more 'concrete' benefits flowed from that: lower levels of hate crime; greater equality of opportunity in social and economic life; and lower levels of resentment at 'others' and thus higher levels of satisfaction.
Source: OPM, The Benefits of Meaningful Interaction: Rapid evidence assessment of existing literature, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report
Notes: Publication of this report was delayed by the coalition government.
Date: 2012-Apr
An article said that neighbourhood working was increasingly oriented towards neighbourhood management, privileging the 'joining up' of mainstream service delivery over the enhanced community engagement and political accountability more associated with the practices of neighbourhood governance. Neighbourhood management as a neo-liberal 'roll-out' strategy might be self-defeating – highlighting the inability of local authorities to respond to community expectations and grievances, and exposing the organizational constraints of partnership working, managerialism, and outsourcing.
Source: Steven Griggs and Mark Roberts, 'From neighbourhood governance to neighbourhood management: a "roll-out" neo-liberal design for devolved governance in the United Kingdom?', Local Government Studies, Volume 38 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
A report set out the findings of a neighbourhood working project in a northern city (Bradford). It drew on the views and experiences of practitioners and stakeholders to identify the potential benefits of effective working in neighbourhoods, including how it could: facilitate more active citizenship and manage the perceived risks of handing over control, assets, decisions or services to local communities; and make models of service provision more empowering.
Source: Liz Richardson, Working in Neighbourhoods, Active Citizenship and Localism: Lessons for policy-makers and practitioners, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | JRF press release
Date: 2012-Mar
The coalition government published a strategy for enabling and encouraging integration in communities throughout England. It said that the strategy was based on five key factors:
• Common ground – shared aspirations and values, and a focus on what people had in common rather than on difference.
• Responsibility – promoting a strong sense of mutual commitment and obligation.
• Social mobility – people being able to realize their potential to get on in life.
• Participation and empowerment – people having the opportunities to take part and take decisions in local and national life.
• Challenge to intolerance and extremism – a robust response to threats that deepened division and increased tensions.
Source: Creating the Conditions for Integration, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Strategy | Hansard | DCLG press release | EHRC press release | Labour Party press release | MRN press release | Runnymede Trust press release
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the utility of local measures of residential segregation with reference to the religious/political composition of Northern Ireland. There were marked spatial variations in the degree and nature of residential segregation across Northern Ireland: local measures provided highly useful information in addition to that provided in maps of the raw variables and in standard global segregation measures.
Source: Christopher Lloyd and Ian Shuttleworth, 'Residential segregation in Northern Ireland in 2001: assessing the value of exploring spatial variations', Environment and Planning A, Volume 44 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
A report examined the future prospects for tackling inter-communal division in Northern Ireland, and made a series of recommendations.
Source: Grainne Kelly, Progressing Good Relations and Reconciliation in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jan