Your place or mine? Issues of power, participation and partnership in an urban regeneration area

Crotty, John Gerard (2004) Your place or mine? Issues of power, participation and partnership in an urban regeneration area. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study sets out to explore what is characterised as the partnership process in an urban regeneration area. Rather than examine formal processes or policy, the intention was to explore the interaction between the active residents in the study area and the agents of some of the organizations with whom they came into contact. The area (Yoker) is at the western periphery of the city, but is neither a 'peripheral estate' nor until recently an area of formal policy intervention. It is typical of similar small areas in its industrial history and its difficulty in adjusting to changed economic circumstances. Its response has, however, been vigorous and based significantly on its own endogenous resources. In understanding the processes involved, the study has taken two broad approaches: the theoretical and the empirical, and is an attempt to relate the two as they can be seen to 'interact' on the ground. The theoretical approach has three strands (l) to understand the local working of power, (2) to examine the notions of social capital and collaboration and (3) to understand the local partnership process. Power, explored in terms of capacity and legitimacy and developed through consideration of 'circuits of power and 'hidden discourses', is seen not as a discrete entity but as providing the base on which social capital and partnership working might be constructed and as a signifier of other social and economic relationships. Social capital is seen as grounded in local power relations and as providing a matrix within which local networks might be activated, and trust developed; the cognate notion of collaborative planning is seen as a mechanism for bringing 'government' and 'community' into a process of active cooperation. Finally, partnership working is seen as the ideal outcome of the interaction between local power and social capital, dependant not on formal processes or discourses but on the harnessing of local skills founded on capacity and need. The three Yokel' case-studies are intended broadly to illustrate (rather than 'prove') some of these theoretical concerns in the field, but principally to allow local voices to articulate their perceptions of the issues within a semi-structured series of interviews. A brief comparative study in Drumchapel is intended to explore some of the differences between an area with a long history of policy intervention and an area like Yoker with no such history. The study concludes that a structured partnership approach will succeed best if founded firmly on local strengths and perceptions.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Ronan Paddison
• Keywords: Urban planning
• Date of Award: 2004
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2004-74048
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• Last Modified: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74048