Recent British urban policy has pursued ‘regeneration’. This article offers a critical reflection on this pervasive metaphor. ‘Regeneration’ is a signifier of profound change in many religious traditions and political ideologies, both radical and conservative. In practice, however, the more conservative meanings, deriving from individualistic spiritualities and ‘psychologisms’, sociological organicism and statist interventionism, remain dominant. Hence, for all its ‘holistic’ and ‘inclusive’ novelty, contemporary urban regeneration preserves some familiar limitations of perspective. In particular, in its quest for ‘social inclusion’, often the ‘excluders’ are not in view and the ‘excluded’ are not in focus.
This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. FURBEY, R. and MACEY, M. (2005). Religion and urban regeneration: a place for faith? Policy and politics, 33 (1), 95-116. Published version Copyright and re-use policy AbstractThe British government has identified 'faith communities' as a neglected resource in urban regeneration. This article first explores the context of official support for faith involvement in urban and neighbourhood policy and identifies the assumptions underlying key policy documents. These assumptions are then critically explored by reference to the links commonly drawn between religion and 'community', 'neighbourhood' and 'social cohesion'. Attempts to enlist faith groups within this essentially consensual agenda often fail to recognise both the potential divisiveness of religion and also the more positive and radical lessons that often stem from the action, experience and critical analysis of religious organisations and their members. FrançaisLe gouvernement britannique a identifié les 'communautés de religion' en tant que ressource négligée dans le cadre de la régénération urbaine. Cet article explore tout d'abord le contexte du soutien officiel de l'implication de la religion dans les politiques urbaines et de voisinage et identifie les suppositions sous-jacentes aux documents de politique clé. Ces suppositions sont ensuite explorées de façon critique en faisant référence aux liens dressés communément entre la religion et la 'communauté', le 'voisinage' et la 'cohésion sociale'. Les tentatives d'implication des groupes de religion dans le cadre de ce programme essentiellement consensuel, omettent souvent de reconnaître le potentiel de dissension de la religion et aussi les leçons plus positives et radicales, qui proviennent souvent de l'action, expérience et analyse critique, des organisations religieuses et de leurs membres.Español El gobierno británico ha identificado 'comunidades de fe' como un recurso de abandono de la regeneración urbana. Este artículo explora primero el contexto de apoyo oficial en la intervención de la fe en la política urbana y de vecindad e identifica las suposiciones que subordinan los documentos políticos claves. Estas suposiciones se exploran de manera crítica refiriéndose a los enlaces en común establecidos entre la religión y 'la comunidad', 'la vecindad' y 'la cohesión social'. Los intentos de alistar los grupos de fe dentro de esta esencial agenda consensuada falla con frecuencia en reconocer la división potencial de la religión así como las lecciones más positivas y radicales que a veces crece de la acción, experiencia y análisis crítico de organizaciones religiosas y sus miembros.
Housing, Theory and Society 2001; 18: 36-49. AbstractThe unusually large, predominantly municipal, housing sector in the UK has provided the context for a large occupational grouping of "housing managers" that has claimed professional status. However, within the post-1945 British welfare state this professional project enjoyed limited success and social housing remained a fragile professional domain. This article explores the consequences for housing professionalism of the recent displacement of the bureau-professional "organisational settlement" by that characterising an emerging "managerial state".Managerialism constitutes a clear challenge to established forms of "professionalism", especially a weak profession such as housing management. However, professionalism is temporally and culturally plastic. Hence, the demands of managerialism, within the specific context of New Labour's quest for "community" cohesion, may be providing opportunities for a new urban network professionalism founded on claims to both generic and specific skills and also a knowledge base combining abstraction with local concreteness. The prominence in these networks of erstwhile "housing" practitioners may become the basis for a new, quite different, professional project. This argument is developed through both conceptual exploration and reference to empirical research. The latter involves reference to recent work by the authors on, first, the perception of housing employers of the changing nature and demands of "housing" work and its consequences for professionalism and, secondly, the professional project implications of the increasing prominence of neighbourhood management.
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