Regenerating the City: People, Politics, Power and the Public Sphere

Abstract

The transformative potential that has come to be associated with networking in all areas of social, economic and political life, not least initiatives designed to tackle urban deprivation, is premised upon the idea that better outcomes prevail when state, market and civil society actors work together in partnership to agree and implement change. Such a perspective is informed by two underlying and related assumptions; first, an understanding of democracy as being essentially deliberative in nature; second, an understanding of social and political change as being essentially consensus based. An agonistic model and alternative explanation questioning these assumptions and the 'transformative' claims made on behalf of partnership is presented in this article. In contrast to what is termed a 'neo-liberal orthodox' approach an alternative interpretation of regeneration located within a radical conceptualisation of civil society is proposed. Regeneration, it is argued, is better conceptualised in terms of contestation between state, market and third-sector interests with better outcomes for communities prevailing when third-sector actors develop the legitimacy and power to engage politically within the context of a contested public sphere.

The critical potential of institutional theory revisited — a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood

“…For the critics of a fairness commission strategy, these consensual politics smothered more fundamental discussions about political priorities and choices (Bunyan, 2015). Why, for example, should discussions of austerity and its political consequences not begin with a fundamental questioning of the relative merits of fiscal frugality (Kelton, 2015) and consider seriously the prioritisation of help for the poor and policies against inequality (Newman and Clarke, 2009)?…”

“…Why, for example, should discussions of austerity and its political consequences not begin with a fundamental questioning of the relative merits of fiscal frugality (Kelton, 2015) and consider seriously the prioritisation of help for the poor and policies against inequality (Newman and Clarke, 2009)? Following fairness principles, citizens and third sector entities were enrolled in, and focussed on, efforts to come up with new and more efficient and targeted ways of service design and delivery (Bailey and Wood, 2017;Bunyan, 2015;Bunyan and Diamond, 2014b).…”

Democratic Governance Through Intermediary Bodies: A Case Study of Third Sector Interfaces in Scotland

“…and two, that social and political change are consensus based. In the context of regeneration, Bunyan (2015) calls for an agonistic model and suggests that third sector actors "develop the legitimacy and power to engage politically within the context of a contested public sphere" (p.363).…”

Untitled

“…Формула для расчета математического ожидания бралась для нормального распределения, проверка не производилась. На практике при большем числе опытов (в данной ситуации -это количество опрашиваемых) такие вычисления могут быть произведены (Bunyan, 2015).…”