Big Society and community: lessons from the 1998-2011 New Deal for Communities Programme in England

The potential of community entrepreneurship for neighbourhood revitalization in the United Kingdom and the United States

“…In the UK, the national government now implicitly targets high capacity communities through the power devolution and do-it-yourself discourse regarding community self-help and asset transfers through a Community Right to Buy. Many UK academics object to this form of targeting (Kisby, 2010;Lawless, 2011;Bailey, 2012). In contrast, many American practitioners and scholars advocate "strategic geographic targeting": focusing on highcapacity lower-income communities (within a population of lower income communities eligible for help) and by concentrating projects at block and neighbourhood subarea levels.…”

“…A key aim of the 2011 Localism Act is to pave the way for a wide transfer of powers to communities, neighbourhoods and individuals, for example by a 'Community Right to Buy' (CLG, 2011) that should facilitate the transfer of important private or public assets with a 'community value' to community groups. Citing Kisby (2010) and Lawless (2011), Bailey (2012 identifies several problems of this power-devolving strategy, which are important for the issue of targeting: "… Second, there is no apparent targeting of the most deprived neighbourhoods which require most assistance in addressing issues of asset transfer. Third, it clearly favours the better organised and generally more affluent areas which already have the skills, knowledge and resources to run community enterprises which can exploit opportunities.…”

“…(ibid. ; see also Lawless, 2011). Rather than rely on direct means such as 'town halls', most community enterprises use informal mechanisms, such as volunteers and word of mouth, in order to encourage greater involvement in the organization.…”

“…6-7) distinguishes between three categories of community enterprises: (1) Village halls (with approximately 10,000 spread throughout England); (2) Community development trusts involved in the provision of housing, workspace and training, retail, health and sports facilities and the delivery of contracts for nurseries and social services; and (3) Former partnership regeneration projects, e.g. the New Deal for Communities (NDC, see Lawless, 2011) or Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders.…”

The contribution of community enterprise to British urban regeneration in a period of state retrenchment

“…The commitment to target resources towards areas of greatest deprivation was largely replaced by the 'Big Society' where all citizens were expected to contribute towards the common good (Cameron 2010). The Big Society was heavily criticised for providing no additional resources, had no clear objectives or strategy (Kisby 2010;Lawless 2011;Bailey and Pill 2011) and was soon reinvented as 'localism' (Clarke and Cochrane 2013). Moreover, state funding which had gone to third sector organisations was also cut, thus making it more difficult to respond to new initiatives, and reinforcing the trend towards neoliberalism.…”