Capacity Building and Civic Engagement

Abstract

The previous chapter highlighted the growing importance given to a ‘community-focused’ approach in policy design and implementation, in which ‘community’ is both an object of policy and a basis for the delivery of policy. The priority afforded to this, alongside partnership working, can be located within a wider context in which there is mounting concern about the level of public or civic engagement. Not for the first time have governments expressed anxiety about the level of confidence in and commitment to existing political processes as demonstrated by the disadvantaged or socially excluded. Fear about the potential for political disaffection has never been far from urban policy and has led repeatedly to the introduction of ‘special measures’ targeted at such groups or the places they are said to inhabit.