Social Exclusion in European Cities: Processes, Experiences and Responses 0117023728

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Social Exclusion in European Cities

Regional Development and Public Policy Series Series editor: Ron Martin, University of Cambridge Regional Development and Public Policy is an international series that aims to provide authoritative analyses of the new significance of regions and cities for economic development and public policy. It seeks to combine fresh theoretical and empirical insights with constructive policy evaluation and debates, and to provide a definitive set of conceptual, practical and topical studies in the field of regional and urban public policy analysis. Regional Development Agencies in Europe Henrik Halkier, Charlotte Damborg and Mike Danson (eds.) Social Exclusion in European Cities Processes, experiences and responses Ali Madanipour, G6ran Cars and Judith Allen (eds.) Regional Innovation Strategies The challenge for less-favoured regions Kevin Morgan and Claire Nauwelaers (eds.) Foreign Direct Investment and the Global Economy Nicholas A. Phelps and Jeremy Alden (eds.) Restructuring Industry and Territory The experience of Europe's regions Anna Giunta, Arnoud Lagendijk and Andy Pike (eds.) Community Economic Development Graham Haughton (ed.) Out of the Ashes? The social impact of industrial contraction and regeneration on Britain's mining communities David Waddington, Chas Critcher, Bella Dicks and David Parry

Social Exclusion in European Cities Processes, Experiences and Responses Edited by Ali Madantpour, Goran Cars andJudith Allen

I~ ~~o~:~;~~~UP LONDON AND NEW YORK

All rights reserved. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agenc~ 33-34 Alfred Place, London we 1E 7D~ Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 1998 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd with the Regional Studies Association Registered Charity 252269 Reprinted 2003 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Copyright © 2000 The Stationary Office (second impression) First published 1998 © Jessica Kingsley Publishers © 2003 Routledge Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library

ISBN 0-11702372-8

Contents 1. Introduction

7

Judith Allen, University of westminster; Goran Cars, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; and Ali Madanipour, University of Newcastle PART I PROCESSES AND DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION 2. Europe of the neighbourhoods: class, citizenship and welfare regimes

25

Judith Allen, University of Westminster 3. Institutionalist theory, social exclusion and governance

53

Patsy Healey, University ofNewcastle 4. Social exclusion and space

75

Ali Madanipour, University of Newcastle PART II EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION 5. Barriers, boxes and catapults: social exclusion and everyday life

95

Rose Gilroy and Suzanne Speak, University of Newcastle 6. Troubled housing estates in Denmark

115

Hedvig vestergaard, Danish Building Research Institute 7. Exclusion, invisibility and the neighbourhood in West Dublin

13 1

Brendan Bartley, National University ofIreland, Maynooth 8. Spatial segregation and social exclusion in a peripheral Greek neighbourhood

157

Annie Vrychea, National Technical University~ Athens and Charalambos Golemis, PRAXIS, Athens PART III RESPONSES TO SOCIAL EXCLUSION 9. Rethinking social housing in the hour-glass society

Alain Ltpietz, Centre d'Etudes Prospectives d~Economie Matheematique Appliquees ala Planification~ Paris

177

10. Policies against social exclusion at the neighbourhood level in Germany: the case study of Northrhine-Westphalia Susanne Kiirpick and Sabine week, Institutfir Landes-und StadtentwicklungsfOrschung des Landes Nordrhein- WestJalen, Dortmund 11. Mobilising community resources in Portugal MariaJoao Lopes Freitas, Laborat6rio Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Lisbon 12. Combating social exclusion: looking in or looking out? Stuart Cameron, University ojNewcastle and Simin Davoud,: University College London 13. Social integration and exclusion: the response of Swedish society G6ran Cars and Maud Edgren-Schort: Royal Institute oj Technology, Stockholm

189

211

235

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PART IV CONCLUSIONS 14. Social exclusion in European cities G6ran Cars, Ali Madanipour andJudith Allenr

279 289 293

The Contributors Subject Index Author Index

299

Figures 3. 1 5.1 6. I 6.2 8.1 9.1 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 11. 1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 12.1

Stakeholder map of a community development initiative in Newcastle-uponTyne, in the northeast of England A holistic view of everyday life and the impact of governance The mutually reinforcing and negative effects of internal and external conditions on the material and structural relationships surrounding troubled estates Initiatives to influence positively the problems of troubled estates Spatial planning and social intervention to integrate the neighbourhood French hour-glass society (1986-1994) Location of the 21 neighbourhoods with special regeneration needs in Northrhine-Westphalia Vertical and horizontal networking within the Northrhine-Westphalia funding programme (adapted from KUrpick 1995) Organisational approach of Projtkt Marx/oh (based on Projtkt Marx/oh 1996) Organisational approach of Hamm-Norden Location of barracas in Cascais Two possible frames for defining priorities and choices Eight significant challenges for the resettlement programme Seven innovative intervention strategies Dimensions and strategic tools in the resettlement process Tyneside inner-city initiatives

63 96 123 125 167 181 193 195 199 204 2 15 215 217 22 1 234 247

CHAPTER I

Introduction Judith Allen~ Goran Cars and Ali Madantpour

Throughout Europe, structural integration has proceeded in parallel with a growing concern about the disintegration of everyday social relations. Global changes clearly affect all ofEurope: competition with the tiger economies, fundamental technological change and new communications technologies, pressure from migrants moving east to west and south to north. The ongoing unification of western European space and the transformation of its component welfare states is having a major impact on shaping its cities and societies. Whether experiencing economic growth or decline, all major European cities are witnessing the symptoms ofgrowing social exclusion: increasing long-term unemployment, male joblessness and the feminisation of an increasingly casualised workforce, widening gaps in income levels, increasing disparities in educational and skill levels, deteriorating health and life expectancies for the poorest members of society: In many cities, these changes are especially visible in the spatial concentration ofimmigrant and ethnic minority communities and in large areas with deteriorating environmental conditions. The processes which link the unification of the western European space and the fragmentation of its urban life are complex. At their root, however, is the changing nature of work in contemporary society. Increased global competition leads employers to transfer their risks onto the workforce wherever possible. As the balance of employment throughout Europe has shifted from manufacturing to the new service industries, the transfer of risk breeds new forms ofinsecurity among large segments ofthe workforce, through increasing part-time and temporary working and self-employment, and creates new pressures on household and kinship structures in providing support for their members. As global competitiveness has become the rallying cry of neoliberal governments throughout Europe and as commitment to the conver7

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

gence criteria for monetary union has come to be seen as a key element in achieving it, welfare state systems ofsupport for households and individuals are being reconstructed in order to reduce public expenditure. In 1993, Eurostat estimated that one-fifth ofall children and one-sixth of all individuals in the European Union lived in poverty, that is, 58 million people (CEC 1993). This figure conceals important disparities across the Union: the whole of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, two-thirds of Spain, Italy's Mezzogiorno and most of the former East Germany had incomes less than 75 % of the EU average, accounting for 55 per cent of all those in poverty (CEC 1991; Atkinson 1991). Moreover, poverty affected specific groups disproportionately: young people, women, ethnic minority and immigrant groups, and the elderly. While there is a lively methodological debate about these estimates (cf. Kleinman 1996 for a summary), it should not obscure the significance of the issue in terms of European integration. From the Commission's perspective, the changing structure of poverty presents a substantial risk for the future of the European project: The Community cannot be satisfied with a 'two-speed society' breeding, as it causes poverty, exclusion and frustration. The single frontierfree market and monetary union constitute growth factors for Europe as a whole, but they are also risk factors for the weakest regions and social groups and must be accompanied by more dynamic policies in the field of economic and social exclusion. (CEC 1992) Although promoting economic and social cohesion was one of three key objectives in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty on European Union, the subsequent Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion and to Promote Social Solidarity (CEC 1993) more directly reflects the Commission's view that the potential for social fracture threatens progress towards ever-closer union. Recognising that broader structural mechanisms have been set in motion by the process of European unification, the Programme focuses on those groups who have been socially excluded from education, employment, housing, health and other social services and gives special emphasis to issues of gender, culture, ethnicityand race within a multidimensional perspective. More significantly, the programme emphasises interventions at a local level using methods which embrace active participation by those whom the European project itself disadvantages. An important implication of this description of the problem is that social exclusion manifests itselfdifferently in different cities. National contexts differ. Welfare regimes in each country reflect different principles of social organisation and normative bases. Different cities are differentially placed within the European economic and social space, some experiencing growth and others in long-term decline. Urban socio-spatial structures var~ In some,

INTRODUCTION

9

social exclusion and spatial segregation are virtually synonymous. Others exhibit a more fine-grained pattern of differentiation. In some places, ethnicity and race form fundamental dividing lines in socio-spatial structures. In other places, culture and kinship networks are more significant. Finally, specific patterns of local governance and welfare state provision affect local patterns of social exclusion. This book reports on the first stage of a European Targeted Social and Economic Research project. It has grown out of a meeting held in January 1996 at the Centre for Research in European Urban Environments, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, sponsored by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The aim of the meeting was to generate a set of ideas and methods which could serve as a basis for cross-national dialogue and research on social exclusion and neighbourhoods. The meeting was exceptionally fruitful in developing a coherent perspective to underpin future work. One consequence ofthe success ofthe meeting is that all the work included in this volume has been substantially revised and developed since that preliminary meeting, which justifies presenting these earlier results to a wider audience. The contributions in this book analyse social exclusion in specific urban neighbourhoods in eight European countries: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. The book has four specific aims. First, it aims to understand how social fragmentation affects urban neighbourhoods throughout Europe and how the most acute forms ofsocial exclusion find a spatial manifestation in cities. Second, it aims to link more general theoretical perspectives on social exclusion in cities with specific empirical studies of particular neighbourhoods. Third, the book seeks to explore how new patterns of socia-spatial fragmentation within cities can be related to the emerging European space. By sharing experiences across countries, it aims to identify more clearly how common generative mechanisms work themselves through in a variety ofdifferent national and local contexts. These three aims lead to the fourth, which is to provide studies which will contribute to forming an agenda for further research aimed at testing the assumptions which underlie the work reported in this book and contributing to policy discussion and implementation at European, national and local levels. The book itself is organised in four parts. Part One sets out the broad conceptual dimensions which inform the remainder of the chapters: how global and European-wide change can affect neighbourhoods throughout Europe, the changing nature of urban governance, and the socio-spatiality of processes ofsocial exclusion. Each ofthese themes is developed at some length in order to provide a theoretical context for the more specific and localised studies which form the remainder of the book. Thus, the first chapter within this section identifies three key processes ofchange which link European integra-

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

tion with its effects on neighbourhoods: changing class structures and relationships, the control of immigration and its effects on racism, and the consequences of changing bases of citizenship as these are worked out through different welfare regimes. The second chapter traces through the ways that changes in urban governance affect the linkages between residents, neighbourhoods and wider urban governance mechanisms. It develops the idea of assessing the relational resources available to 'people living in places' as the basis for understanding how social fragmentation can inhibit human flourishing. The third chapter explores the subtle links between social and spatial boundaries, arguing that such boundaries are essential for maintaining social order but at the same time can create barriers for particular groups which contribute to, and indeed are a part of, processes ofsocial exclusion. Part Two describes the experience of living in particular neighbourhoods in four different countries. Two different approaches are used to focus on these 'living places'. The first approach is based on understanding how socio-spatial barriers affect the nature of everyday life, that is, the basic and routine activities carried out each day to sustain one's own life and that of others. The first study examines how socio-spatial barriers affect a particular social group, young people making the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The second study explores how new forms of intervention must be devised in order to improve not only the physical characteristics of modern housing estates, but also the social integration of excluded groups whose behaviour is seen as destructive by others. The second approach examines how the management of urban space through town planning can contribute to social exclusion by isolating and dividing groups in ways which make them invisible in the wider society, or alternatively by devising plans which simply ignore their existence and social needs. Part Three considers the nature oflocal governmental responses to the increasing social exclusion ofneighbourhoods in five countries. It is introduced by a chapter which outlines the different kinds of responses which are available to governments in addressing the consequences of social exclusion on the lives of particular groups. The remaining four chapters describe innovative local programmes in four countries. Two themes run throughout all these responses. The first is the significance of building networks which embrace the participation of excluded groups in designing solutions which meet their needs. Such work requires accepting that the way professionals define the needs of excluded groups can be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. The second theme is the requirement to balance building participative networks within neighbourhoods with finding ways to link these neighbourhoods into the wider networks of urban governance and to link residents in these neighbourhoods with wider initiatives to provide new em-

INTRODUCTION

11

ployment opportunities as well as access to health, education, training and other social facilities. FinalI~ Part Four presents some conclusions. Social exclusion as a social process The remainder of this introduction outlines the common ideas and conceptual framework which run throughout all the contributions and provide the context for each chapter. Three matters need to be mentioned at the beginning: the problem of terminological diversit~ how the idea of social exclusion entered European dialogue and how the concept of neighbourhood is used throughout the book. These introductory comments set the stage for explaining the concept ofsocial exclusion as a multi-faceted 'relational' concept describing a complex set ofsocial processes. The final issue which needs to be discussed is the way in which the nature of social exclusion raises subtle and new moral-practical issues in analysing it and in devising ways to combat it.

Terminological diversity Considerable terminological diversity characterises almost any discussion of social exclusion. On the positive side, words in common use include (social) insertion, integration, inclusion, solidarity and cohesion. On the negative side, a wide variety of terms are used: (social) exclusion, isolation, marginalisation, segregation, fracture and socially exposed. OccasionaIl~ the words poverty and multiple deprivation turn up, usually denoting the indicators by which those people and groups suffering from social exclusion may be identified but, more importantl~ connoting a key distinguishing idea, that social exclusion (by any name) is a social process within a whole society rather than a way of categorising individuals and groups within that society. This terminological diversity generally reflects the powerful dynamism of discussions of social exclusion. It is far from trivial to observe that part of the diversity of language reflects the problems of forging a consistent and usable common language across Europe (Euro-EngIish, in this case) for discussing emergent and new phenomena. These 'linguistic' problems, in turn, are generally rooted in different national political, intellectual and research· traditions, as well as more specifically rooted in the diverse academic and professional backgrounds and practical purposes of participants in the discussion (politics, sociology, economics, geograph~ town planning, architecture, social work and social administration). Seen in this light, what stands out is the strength ofthe consensus that important new social phenomena are emerging across all the European Community's member states, and that these

12

SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

phenomena are in some way linked with the formation of the European Union. In considering terminology, it is important to distinguish between those uses ofwords which are primarily designed to identify and label an empirical phenomenon, and those uses which are designed to refer to a set of ideas about social phenomena and process. In the latter usage, Hadjimichalis and Sadler (199Sa) present a set of papers which, taken together, argue that marginalisation is a wider social process which includes social exclusion as one part of it. The reason for this term of argument is twofold: one is to distinguish marginality from the economists' use of the term (meaning incremental) and the second is to indicate an interest in socio-spatial phenomena. A second important approach to ideas about the phenomenon ofsocial exclusion is found in the collection of articles edited by Mingione (1993) which discuss 'the new urban poverty and the underclass'. Again, the aim ofthis collection is twofold: one is to argue that there are emerging new social phenomena which require theorising and the second is to examine the usefulness ofWilson's work on the (black) American underclass in this context (see also Friedrichs 1997). It is important to comment on aspects of this terminological diversity if mutual understanding is to be achieved. Chapter 2 by Allen outlines some of the dimensions of social change throughout Europe which have generated these attempts to forge new terminologies and conceptual frameworks adequate to analyse what is widely agreed to be a new social phenomenon. However in order to understand fully the roots ofterminological diversity, it is also useful to review how the term 'social exclusion' entered the European agenda. Social exclusion and the formation of the European Union The Single European Act in 1987 and the Maastricht Treaty in 1991 considerably quickened the pace of movement towards ever-closer union. Prior to the mid-1980s, European actions aimed at equity issues were relatively shallow and broad brush in nature (Hadjimichalis and Sadler 1995b), aimed either at specific countries (the southern member states and Ireland) or at particular declining sectors of industry (coal, steel, agriculture). By the mid1980s, complex negotiations over widening and deepening the Community led to a sharpened focus on marginal social groups within each of the member states. In addition, Eurostat had by this time begun to grapple with the complex technical issues of defining and measuring poverty throughout the Community: Not only was there growing and incontrovertible evidence that, despite modernisation and the growth of competitiveness of the European

INTRODUCTION

13

economy, there were some groups who were unlikely to be in a position to benefit from these changes, but this evidence also gained political salience in the negotiations prior to the Maastricht Treaty, which was intended to be a fundamental next step towards ever-closer union. It was in this institutional context that Jacques Delors introduced the concept of social exclusion in a set of negotiations with the social partners. The term social exclusion derives from its use in French social policy, and specifically from the political programme of the French Socialist governments of the 1980s. In this context, the term carries two important specific connotations. First, it arises within a conceptualisation of national sovereignty founded in the idea of 'the one and indivisible Republic' so that actions to combat social exclusion seek the social, political and moral insertion of subjects within this wider unified French social order. In other words, it is difficult to reconcile this concept of social order with social (especially cultural and ethnic) diversit~ Thus, a highly salient practical political argument for combating social exclusion, which rooted itself across a very broad political spectrum in France, was that failure to combat social exclusion would lead to social fracture, threatening the basis of the Republic. Second, on the basis of these arguments, an important achievement of the French governments during the 1980s was to establish the revenu minimum d~insertion, a guaranteed minimum income, which recognises that not only are there groups who are likely to remain outside the labour market, but there are other groups who will have only a precarious relationship with it. Thus, there is an implicit recognition in this approach that actions to achieve insertion cannot necessarily depend on employment as a basic form of socialisation into a social order. When Delors introduced the term into the European Community negotiations, it took on a very different spin. First, the positive aim for combating social exclusion shifted from one of achieving insertion to one of promoting social and economic cohesion. Economic cohesion has been an aim for the Community since the early Treaties, and social cohesion entered the agenda with the Maastricht negotiations. Effectively, there has been an important shift in perspective at the European level from a view which sees the problem of cohesion as one of relationships among the member states to one which sees the population of the Union as a whole and among whom social exclusion must be addressed wherever it occurs. At the same time, the Union's use ofthe concept ofsocial exclusion implies a clear acknowledgement that there are negative effects, disadvantaging particular groups, built into the dynamics of achieving ever-closer union. Thus, the Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion and to Promote Social Solidarity is an explicit recognition of the Union's political responsibility for addressing these problems. Nevertheless, because social exclusion was seen as linked to decaying inner city areas, the

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

implementation ofthe action programme was clearly located as subject to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and, thus, devolved to the member states, and it is this devolution which has led to terminological diversity as the idea becomes rooted in different national contexts. In summary, an issue which is identified as Union-wide in scope and significance leads to a 'global' Union-wide policy framework which includes implementation at 'local' level on the grounds that the groups who are affected by social exclusion are spatially concentrated within urban areas. The main open question in this approach is whether the Union's policy framework is robust enough to be effective when implementation is so devolved (cf. O'Brien and Penna 1997 for discussion ofa similar problem affecting environmental regulation). This discussion of the origin of the term provides the background to the way in which the contributors to this volume have conceptualised social exclusion in specific urban neighbourhoods. Thus, since the word neighbourhood is also used in diverse ways, it is important to clarify how the concept of neighbourhood is used in this book. Neighbourhoods The contributions in this book deploy the concept of neighbourhood heuristically to indicate localities within which concentrations of poverty may be found. This approach connects the idea of neighbourhood with the localistic orientation of the European Union's action programme to combat social exclusion. As Madanipour argues in Chapter 4, the concept of neighbourhood has two very distinctive socio-spatial meanings. One meaning has its roots in an extensive literature about community, which explores the type and significance of the social relationships which bind people together in small places. In this context, as Healey notes, confronting the fluid and fragmented nature ofsocial relations in contemporary society implies that the assumptions of gemeinschaft which underlie much of the literature on community are no longer relevant. However, rejecting the gemeinschaft/gesellschaft distinction requires a way of explicitly attending to the nature of social relationships which do form in smaller areas. Two chapters illustrate this point. Gilroy and Speak (Chapter 5) develop a fine-grained analysis ofeveryday life precisely as a way of discerning how social relationships are shaped by the social management of space, in particular access to social housing, while Vrychea and Golemis (Chapter 8) discuss the problems which traditional patriarchal local relationships can present and which hinder adaptation to the demands ofcontemporary society. The second meaning of the concept of neighbourhood is rooted in professional practices in town planning, housing and social administration. It re-

INTRODUCTION

15

fers to the ways in which cities are divided into parts for the purposes ofthese professional activities. Chapter 7 by Bartley usefully traces the history of the 'neighbourhood unit' in town planning, and other contributors assume that the modernist housing estates built primarily in the 1960s and 1970s can be considered as neighbourhoods for the purposes of the work reported in this book. However, as Chapter 12 by Cameron and Davoudi and Chapter 3 by Healey both point out, taking this 'divisionist' definition of neighbourhood as a starting point for analysis requires attending explicitly not only to social relationships within these small areas, but also to relationships between their residents and actors in the larger urban society and space. In summary, the concept of neighbourhood used in this volume serves a methodological purpose, allowing contributors to focus on those small areas within cities where concentrations of poor people live while, at the same time, putting into question the social relationships which characterise these areas, both internally and in relation to the larger urban space and society. While all the areas which are studied in this volume make 'social sense' along some dimension, cultural or administrative, the aim of adopting a focus on neighbourhoods is simply to signal all the contributors' interest in examining socio-spatial relationships in the context of discovering what it means to 'live in a specific place' within large cities and how these socio-spatial relationships are implicated in the processes of social exclusion.

Social exclusion a..n d social relationships The key to the conception ofsocial exclusion which lies behind all the contributions to this book is the idea of 'relationality'. This idea has three main parts. First, it sees social exclusion as a set of processes which have their origin in structural changes which affect all groups within a given social structure and which change the nature ofthe relationships among the groups. The origin ofthis structural change lies in the changing global system, including the formation of the European Union, which induces change in the social structures ofthe member states. For example, casualisation in the labour market, or as Lipietz puts it in Chapter 9, the flexibilisation ofwage relations, is simultaneously a response to issues of global competitiveness and a fundamental change in the nature of the relationship between employers and workers. Similarly, the changes in legislation governing access to citizenship, which flow from the formation ofthe European Union, fundamentally alter the relationships among nationals, migrants and immigrants. The effects of these changes provide a central theme in Chapter 6 by Vestergaard, Chapter 10 by Ktirpick and Weck and Chapter 13 by Cars and Edgren-Schori, while Chapter 2 by Allen analyses how changes related to class, citizenship and welfare

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

regimes link global systemic change and social exclusion in European neighbourhoods. The second aspect of the idea of relationality is that these systemically induced relational changes challenge the capacity of existing forms of urban governance, where governance refers to the institutionalised patterns of relationships among groups which shape and contribute to decision making about the management of people in the urban space. The formal political arrangements which characterise local government are only a part of urban governance. Indeed, the concept of governance needs to be located in relation to the demands placed on local government by systemically induced change, requiring local government to forge new kinds of relationships ifit is to sustain its ability to manage urban space. These new governance relationships are often discussed in terms of embracing partnerships and participation. Chapter 2 by Allen and Chapter 6 by Vestergaard both summarise this fluidity in current governance relationships in terms of fundamentally shifting relationships among the state, market and civil society. Chapter 3 by Healey explores issues of governance at some length. She concludes that the key issue is the capacity of institutionalised relationships to change in ways which address those effects of systemically induced changes which incapacitate specific social groups. She then develops the concept of relational resources as a tool for assessing the societal position of particular groups living in specific places. Other chapters offer numerous examples of the problems of urban governance. Cars and Edgren-Schori in Chapter 13, in particular, stress the need to find ways to involve immigrant groups in decision making about the management of housing estates, while Ktirpick and Weck in Chapter 10 look at a set of initiatives addressing the problems which arise in declining industrial areas. In contrast, Vrychea and Golemis in Chapter 8 discuss the kinds of changed local relationships necessary to link small areas into the larger urban space, and Cameron and Davoudi in Chapter 12 develop this perspective more fully by contrasting policy approaches aimed at strengthening relationships within small areas and those aimed at strengthening links between the area and the larger space. Freitas' analysis of a squatter resettlement programme in Portugal (Chapter 11) shows the fragility and complexity of simultaneously reforming linkages within local government and between local government, squatter groups and groups in receiving areas. The third aspect of the idea of relationality reflects on how the maintenance of social order depends on the existence of social boundaries among social groups. Where systemically induced change alters social relationships, these boundaries are experienced as subtle socio-spatial barriers. Chapter 4 by Madanipour is a detailed analysis seeking to identify the conditions under

INTRODUCTION

17

which boundaries become barriers. A key idea is that social barriers become spatial barriers because social cues are encoded in space. These socio-spatial barriers can be perceived by careful in-depth studies which adopt an everyday life perspective, noting how people's life activities are restricted by their perception of the cues which keep them in their 'place', socially and spatiall~ Chapter 6 by Vestergaard and Chapter 13 by Cars and Edgren-Schori show how simply changing physical-spatial cues has little effect unless the social relational coding associated with them also changes. In contrast to approaches which start by considering how social relationships are coded into space, Bartley's analysis of the planning of Dublin's new towns shows how the construction of urban space creates the physical markers which become coded as social barriers. In summary, all the detailed case studies included in this book explore how three general processes work themselves through in specific neighbourhoods in eight different European countries. These general processes are: the ways global and European-wide change induce change within each of the member states, the development of new forms ofurban governance as the relationships among state, market and civil society change, and the spatiality of social processes which constructs subtle barriers keeping particular social groups 'in their place'. Thus, the concept of social exclusion which informs all the contributions to this book is that it is a societal, that is society-wide, process, induced by wider changes and working itself through in specific ways shaped by national contexts and negatively affecting the ability of particular groups to participate in those social relationships which mean that 'living in a place' contributes to human flourishing. Since this idea has important normative components, it is important to conclude this introduction by commenting on the way moral-practical issues are embedded within the analysis of social exclusion in neighbourhoods.

Combating social exclusion: moral insertion, cultural integration or social participation? An important implication of this relational view of social exclusion is that structural processes affect the whole ofa society in ways which create barriers which prevent particular groups from forming those kinds of social relationships with other groups which are essential to realising a full human potential. It is not that some groups 'exclude' other groups, but that processes affecting the whole of society mean that some groups experience social boundaries as barriers preventing their full participation in the economic, political and cultural life of the society within which they live.

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN EUROPEAN CITIES

This way of seeing social exclusion raises both practical and moral questions. The practical questions turn around how to intervene in these social processes in a way which supports and promotes fuller participation by those groups disadvantaged by societal change. The chapters in this book, taken together, raise four key practical questions. First, to what extent is work an important source of social relationships which form the basis for other kinds of social relationships? If work is seen in this fundamental way, then what is to be done for those groups whose relationship to the labour market is precarious and variable and those who are excluded altogether from the labour market? Second, to what extent do new forms of urban governance represent an extension of the forms of political participation which are available and which can integrate disadvantaged groups into the wider life oftheir society? Or do new forms of governance simply represent a reforming of governing coalitions and more subtle ways ofmanaging socially disadvantaged groups? Third, to what extent does the cultural life ofa society reflect commonly held norms which guarantee the social order necessary to support participation in the society? Or do these norms simply function to define deviance, both specifically in terms of antisocial interpersonal behaviour and more generally in terms of reinforcing racism and sexism, with the effect ofcreating social barriers for a wide range of groups? Fourth, how do all these barriers to participation in the wider society work themselves through to create the spatiality of urban areas? The concept ofsocial exclusion also raises moral questions, which must be treated with exceptional rigour in any analysis of particular places and groups. A few examples will illustrate the way in which the analysis which underlies this book raises moral questions. The treatment of socio-spatiality asserts that social boundaries can easily become social barriers. Under what conditions is a boundary also a barrier? When does the separateness ofdifferent groups become a matter of segregation, and when does segregation become a matter of exclusion? When does difference in ethnic or gender terms become a matter ofsexism and racism? More positively, when does difference become a basis for accepting diversity? When does promoting mutually agreed rules of behaviour, for example in managing housing estates, become a matter of constructing and containing deviance? When does 'norm governed' social behaviour create barriers to participation and when does it support the social order necessary to secure participation? In approaching these moral questions, what is at issue is the valorisation of some forms of behaviour over others. They are never far from the surface in analysing the specific situations in which processes ofsocial exclusion manifest themselves. They are closely bound into the ways we observe the world and the practical solutions we propose in response to manifest social inequi-

INTRODUCTION

19

ties. However, because the concept of social exclusion has been fashioned in response to the problems and uncertainties created by globalisation in the late twentieth centur~ it is wise to know that the moral issues will raise themselves in new and unpredictable ways, and it is also wise to be sensitive to this dimension ofspecific situations. Our main aim in combating social exclusion may be to intervene in ways which promote human flourishing in the full variety of circumstances in which people 'live in places', but we are far from knowing precisely how to pursue this objective in all its specificity.

References Atkinson, A.R. (1991) 'Poverty, statistics and progress in Europe.' London School of Economics ST/ICERD Welfare State Programme Discussion Paper WSP/60. CEC (1 991) The Regions in the 19905: Fourth Periodic Report on the Social and Economic Situation in the Regions of the Community. Brussels: DG XVI. CEC (1 992) The Community's Battle Against Social Exclusion. CEC European File, 4/1991. CEC (1993) Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion and to Promote Social Solidarity. Brussels: DGV. Friedrichs, J. (1997ff) 'Context effects of poverty neighbourhoods on residents.' In H. Vestergaard (ed) Housing in Europe. H0rsholm, Denmark: Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut. HadjimichaIis, C. and Sadler, D. (eds) (1995a) Europe at the Margins: New Mosaics of Inequality. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. HadjimichaIis, C. and Sadler, D. (1 99 5b) 'Open questions: piecing together the new European mosaic.' In C. Hadjimichalis and D. Sadler (eds) Europe at the Margins: New Mosaics ofInequality. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Kleinman, M. (1996) Housing} welfare and the State in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Britain} France and Gennany. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar. Mingione, E. (ed) (1993) 'The new urban poverty and the underclass.' Special edition of InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research 17, 3, (September). O'Brien, M. and Penna, S. (1997) 'European policy and the politics of governance.' Policy and Politics 25, 2, (April).

PART ONE

Processes and Dimensions of Social Exclusion

Introduction The three chapters in Part One offer three general perspectives on the dimensions and processes ofsocial exclusion. Social exclusion has increasingly been a central concern in the literature, but has remained a vaguely defined concept. This Part looks at processes ofdifferentiation and barriers to integration in order to develop a clearer understanding of the concept ofsocial exclusion and ways to combat it. When looking at the processes of differentiation, the changing class structure of the European countries, as well as the questions of ethnicity and race, become important considerations. Alongside these, the traditional or historical mechanisms of integration, welfare regimes and citizenship are analysed. At local levels, barriers to integration are identified: how lack of access to governance processes and the social management of space can contribute to social exclusion. Social exclusion is defined as a multi-dimensional process, in which various forms of exclusion are combined: participation in decision making and political processes, access to employment and material resources, and integration into common cultural processes. When combined, they create acute forms of exclusion that find a spatial manifestation in particular neighbourhoods. Chapter 2 by Allen analyses the changing wider European context within which social exclusion is emerging. She explores the links between ideas of social exclusion and debates on class, citizenship, and welfare regimes in Europe. The emergence ofthe European Union within the context ofglobalisation is associated with the recomposition of class structures and relationships in European countries. Can more traditional concepts ofclass help us in analysing new forms of stratification? Allen finds some of these perspectives useful, but also warns against adopting the popularised underclass perspective, which conflates and confuses many different aspects ofsocial exclusion. On citizenship, the chapter shows how the definition of European citizenship enhances the significance of race and ethnicity as a potential dimension ofsocial exclusion. She then goes on to use T.H. Marshall's ideas to trace how civil, political and social citizenship vary across Europe. Allen shows how the withdrawal ofsocial citizenship rights as a consequence offiscal austerity implicates the welfare state in creating social cleavage and exclusion. Allen then develops these ideas by using Esping-Anderson's typology of welfare regimes to look at the variety of ways in which different welfare systems shape

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the impact of transnational economic and political change on excluded people and neighbourhoods. Chapter 3 by Healey and Chapter 4 by Madanipour address the ways in which these wider processes become manifest at the micro urban level. Healey concentrates on the process ofsocial exclusion as exclusion from processes of governance. She examines the processes of exclusion and cohesion operating at the level of 'living in a place', or neighbourhood, and how governance policies and practices contribute to these processes. The chapter is based on an institutionalist analysis of social relations and governance activity, with a specific focus on 'everyday life' and the qualities of 'living places'. In developing an institutionalist understanding of social exclusion and neighbourhood life, Healey outlines a set of key concepts: social relational webs which frame and give value to individuals' lives; structure and agency, showing how individual actions can interact with structural driving forces; socio-spatial relations, where space and place matter for people and can find policy dimensions. These concepts come together in the notion of everyday life, which provides more focus for understanding what living in a place means, especially in the context of neighbourhoods as living places where social exclusion can become visible. Different forms of social exclusion are explored in relation to each of these dimensions. Two concepts of governance, as collective action and institutional capacity, are then employed to show how governance activity and its role in social exclusion can be analysed. Social exclusion in this sense becomes a lack of capability in governance relationships, conceptualised as having poor relational resources which deny access to material, intellectual, social and political capital. Madanipour concentrates on the relationship between social exclusion and space, exploring some of the frameworks which institute barriers to spatial practices. The chapter's particular emphasis is on the way these barriers to movement are intertwined with social exclusionary processes. After exploring the dimensions of social exclusion, the chapter argues that social exclusion should be seen as a combination of political, economic and cultural exclusion, where access to decision making, to resources, and to common narratives is limited. The chapter then explores the way social difference is managed spatially and how these socio-spatial processes lie at the foundation of social exclusion. It looks at how spatial practices shape the experience of exclusion and how these practices institutionalise spatial barriers. These include the different ways in which national space can be constructed and how, at the local level, difference finds spatial manifestation through land and property markets, the regulatory framework of town planning, and distinctions between public and private space. An important strength of Madanipour's analysis is the way in which he demonstrates how the close linkages

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between processes of exclusion and inclusion shape socio-spatial fragmentation. The main aim of Part One is to show how social exclusion is a new phenomenon associated with structural change in Europe, how the new forms of social fragmentation associated with these processes require new ways of thinking about urban governance, and how the process of social fragmentation finds a spatial form, where socially excluded urban neighbourhoods are the visible manifestation of these social processes. The remainder of this book concentrates on understanding how people experience and respond to these processes of exclusion.

CHAPTER TWO

Europe of the Neighbourhoods Class, Citizenship and Welfare Regimes Judith Allen

The key question which lies behind this chapter is simple: how do the wider changes associated with the formation of the European Union affect social exclusion in specific vulnerable neighbourhoods throughout Europe? Although posing the question is simple, answering it is more complex for this apparently simple question raises a host of further questions. To start with, it poses questions about how to understand changing class structures in the context of the emerging European Union. Because the idea of social exclusion has emerged in this context, the simple question also raises further questions about how citizenship is defined, legally and practically, within the European Union. And finally, because each member state has its own welfare system, questions about citizenship lead on to questions about how these welfare systems are changing. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide a framework of ideas within which transnational, or European-wide, changes in class, citizenship and welfare structures can be linked to discussions about social exclusion in neighbourhoods. The main method of analysis is to locate the idea of social exclusion in relationship to a set of current political and economic narratives, rather than to enter into debate about the specific changes which are taking place. To clarify how these narratives shape our understanding of social exclusion, the chapter seeks to identify how different narratives combine three elements: conceptual or theoretical views about the appropriate way to analyse social structures and processes, normative views about the right way to address problems of social equity, and descriptive elements concerned with the institutions ofwelfare delivery Searching out these elements in narratives about class, citizenship and welfare focuses some of the issues which surround processes of social exclusion in practice. 25

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Class and the labour market There is widespread agreement that the fundamental social structures of Europe are changing but very little agreement on how to characterise this change. Thus, Harloe (1995, p.14) lists nine different major sociological theories addressing this problem: post-Fordist, global Fordist, postmodern, post-industrial, informational, fragmented, disorganised, flexible accumulation regimes and service economy: Marcuse (1993) alludes to at least five of these theories as underlying different explanations ofa shift from 'dual cities' to 'quartered' cities. Such theoretical diversity primarily is perhaps a symptom that no one is yet entirely sure how to integrate analyses of changing economic structures and social processes. The only point ofagreement is that a fundamental change has occurred which can be dated as starting sometime in the 1970s (Marcuse 1993, p.355). Indeed, in popular literature, the point of change is often identified as 1973, the year of the first oil price rises and the subsequent restructuring of manufacturing industry in Europe. Views about class can be understood as a problem in economic and political geography, in which what needs to be explained is how a national ruling class comes to acquire the right to control affairs within the boundaries of a single state (cf. Machonin 1992; Silver 1993). Traditional theories of class have been designed to explain class structure and change in terms ofthe relationships between national ruling classes and nationally defined working classes. In other words, these theories were shaped by their development within the historical context of the emergence of nation-states themselves. One ofthe effects ofthe postwar settlement was to fix national boundaries in Europe and, consequently, to underpin the rights of national ruling classes in western Europe. A second effect was to undermine the currency ofclass theories based on concepts of combined and uneven development (cf. Machonin 1992; Weiss 1994). These historical processes reinforced the implicitly nationalistic assumptions embedded in theories of class. Issues of international relations were simply occluded. Thus, in western Europe, class theories in the immediate post-Second War period stressed weberian and empiricist stratification approaches. Neomarxist theories only emerged in the context of an emerging and distinctive euro-communism, which was strongly shaped by its nationalist focus and disavowed its origins in international socialism. More recently, the collapse of the eastern European socialist political systems has undermined faith in more structuralist perspectives and supported a return to neoweberian and durkheimian approaches (Eyal, Szelenyi and Townsley 1997; Gamble and Kelly 1996; McLellan and Sayers 1991; although c( Giddens 1994). Globalisation in the last quarter of this century exposes the nationalist assumptions implicit in most theories of class, as control by national ruling

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classes has come to be more strongly influenced by inter-national, rather than intra-national, economic processes. The emergence of the European Union itself is an important part ofthis globalisation process. The practical political strategy of ever-closer union among an increasing number of member states is explicitly designed to strengthen member states' communal competitiveness vis avis emerging industrial economies outside Europe while at the same time inhibiting some of the more destructive aspects of economic competition among the member states themselves. Whether this grand strategic gamble will prove successful is as yet unclear, but what is now apparent is that the political consensus about pursuing the macroeconomic convergence criteria embodied in the Maastricht Treaty is so strong that it is unlikely to be reversed. The main practical political question is how quickly or slowly convergence will be achieved (Kleinman 1996). Forrest and Williams have summarised the nature and consequences of these changes by saying: 'In this context, societies become more fragmented and polarised. There is a higher degree of horizontal integration linking privileged enclaves ofpower and control across nation states while new social dimensions emerge within nations' (Forrest and Williams 1997, p.20 1). In neomarxist terms, this European grand strategic gamble can be caricaturised as a set of multilateral negotiations among national bourgeoisies, on the one hand, and as a set of (largely) intra-national negotiations with the working classes on the other hand. What is discussed as the harmonisation ofworking conditions throughout the Union means the renegotiation of historical agreements within each member state in line with agreements at the transnationallevel. At the same time, an emergent Euro-bourgeoisie needs to be seen in the context of its relationships with bourgeoisies outside Europe and in terms of the divisions which European Union has engendered within national bourgeoisies. In this context, European-wide discussion of social exclusion is clearly part of a set of negotiations about the extent to which the problems, created by the shift of manufacturing production out ofEurope and changing labour practices within Europe, should be shared (Hantrais 1995). Viewed in this way, the practices and effects of social exclusion raise a set of strategic questions. To what extent does social exclusion provoke expensive social unrest? To what extent will sharing the costs ofsocial exclusion bring on board those sections of national ruling classes who are bearing the general cost of European integration in terms of their diminished competitiveness within the European market? To what extent is the principle ofsubsidiarity a strategy for containing the effects of social exclusion? To what extent does subsidiarity shift the social costs of integration onto those nation states which are most weakly placed within the Union generally and so strengthen the position of

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Europhobic sections of national ruling classes, making further integration more difficult? These strategic questions point out the differential class effects of evercloser union. To put the matter most bluntly, to what extent does ever-closer union effectively mean the formation of a new class, a unified 'Euro-ruling class', a set ofsecond class national and perhaps anti-European ruling classes, and a complex redivision of the working or popular classes within member states? Is social exclusion a name for those European-wide processes which split off a part of the working or popular classes within each member state, placing them in a position from which they cannot, as it were, join Europe? A key issue, then, is how to view these transnational processes in ways which can be connected with processes of exclusion at the neighbourhood level. In this context, it is useful to pin down the specific effects of transnational change by focusing on changing labour market structures. Bennington and Taylor (1993) suggest that the most useful way of looking at emerging labour market structures is to adopt a dual market approach which distinguishes the positions of core and peripheral workers. They cite a wide range of research which documents the increasing use of casualisation, part-time working, temporary and fixed term contracts throughout the Union. At the same time, other research has documented the emergence of new forms of poverty which affect a very wide range of groups of working age partly as a consequence of their increasingly precarious position within the labour force. What appears to be new in this situation is the social multidimensionality of poverty and precariti, so that age, gender, race, migration, household structure, educational qualification, etc. form a set of lines along which peripheralisation and potential exclusion from the labour force can run. The multidimensionality of the process also suggests that some of these groups may be more disadvantaged in some national and local labour markets than in others. Hutton (1996) conservatively estimates that 30 per cent of the UK population of working age is now within the peripheral labour force, while another 30 per cent is excluded entirely from the labour market. Hutton's approach tends to suggest that the boundaries between these two groups are rigid or impermeable, but Lipietz, in Chapter 9 ofthis volume, points out that in France the group which is permanently excluded from employment is, in practice, much smaller. In other words, individuals may pass through the boundary either way at different points in time, although the relative size of the two groups may remain stable. For Hutton, what is important is the tendency to underestimate the size of the group which is unemployed at any point in time, whereas for Lipietz what is central is the social strategies open to individuals in a position of precariti. Clearly, by examining how local la-

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bour markets work in practice, it is possible to identify how processes of exclusion affect those who are in a position of precariti. However, in much of the work which examines labour market processes, there is often an implicit assumption that welfare state institutions playa neutral role in processes of exclusion. lee et a/. (1995) point this out. They argue that: 'Where citizens are unable to secure such access [to welfare state services], ... their social and occupational participation will be undermined' (p.40). Lee et a/.'s approach to social exclusion prioritises 'the systematic divisions being created by the welfare state' itself (p.38), which they see as an aspect of citizenship, rather than as a consequence of class-based processes. Lee et al.'s argument is important because it illustrates some of the problems which can arise when the idea of social exclusion is approached in a manner which detaches it from concepts of class structure and change. They adduce both analytical and normative grounds for their argumentative strategy. Analytically, they argue: ... that for a group to be labelled a class its members need to be in a similar economic position and have common interests. This condition does not apply to the disparate groups affected by social and economic change in recent years. (Lee et a/. 1995, p.38) This position is contentious for two main reasons. First, their rejection of a class-based analysis rests on a specific view about the kind of conceptual framework which could underlie such an analysis. As Silver (1993) points out, this view is specific to British social and political debate. Thus, for example, Blanc (1996) adopts a very different approach when he proposes that the class processes which underlie social exclusion can be understood in terms of two contingently linked processes: disaffiliation, which is the loss of social ties with the wider societ~ and disqualification, which is the loss of social status within the wider society. EqualI~ lipietz' argument about precariti is also a form ofclass analysis, which stresses the changing relative status ofdifferent groups. Second, even within the class view adopted by Lee -et aI., there is no logical reason why disparate groups affected by the same processes of social and economic change should not share a common general interest while simultaneously having different specific interests reflecting their specific social characteristics and location in relationship to different sectors of the labour market or to welfare state services. The underlying issue is how well different forms of class analysis explain the processes of class decomposition and reconstitution engendered by globalisation and European integration. It is possible to remain quite agnostic about which form of analysis works best, while still asserting that the dynamics ofsocial exclusion do have a relationship to class processes. Nevertheless, what this critique of lee et a/.'s position points out is that class theories which seek to categorise social

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groups on the basis ofa common economic interest are weaker, in the context of analysing social exclusion, than theories which seek to explain how changing economic processes affect differentially placed social groups. In addition, Lee et ale also point out directly that, to be adequate, a class theory must also be able to explain the role and effects ofwelfare state institutions in social processes, whether it treats these institutions as an intervening variable, which alters the effects ofeconomic change on specific groups, or as an independent variable, which jointly determines these effects. The normative grounds for Lee et a/.'s position are more interesting and pertinent. They are especially concerned to distinguish their understanding of social exclusion from that proposed by the popular version of the underclass thesis. Wilson (1978; 1987) developed Myrdal's underclass thesis in order to point to the intense socio-spatial segregation of black people in the United States. This segregation so transfixes American society that it is possible to speak of a black society living within, but almost completely separate from, white societ)T. As Gans (1993), Silver (1993) and Friedrichs (1997) point out, the concept has suffered some strange mutilations in its passages across the Atlantic and from liberal sociology to journalistic and political discourse. Mingione summarises the problem with the popular use of the concept by saying that it conflates: ceconomic disadvantage, social exclusion and institutional isolation, lack of employment opportunities, cultural characteristics, forms ofdeviant behaviour and spatial concentration, [so that] political bias leads to attention being focused automatically on the presumed behavioural and cultural deviance exhibited by victims' (Mingione 1993, p.325). Lee et al. are responding to this discursive context when they conclude that: 'The term "social exclusion" draws attention to the same issues embraced by "underclass" and has the advantage offocusing on processes as well as avoiding the ideological loading so often attached to "underclass'" (Lee et al. 1995, p.39). In other words, their main aim is to argue for policy responses which address the structural problems within welfare state institutions which both generate and reinforce compound disadvantage, rather than blaming those who suffer this disadvantage. The logical problem with Lee eta/.'s position is simple. Taking a class-based view ofsocial exclusion does not necessarily imply adopting the popularised underclass perspective. At the same time, in their haste to reject the popularised concept of underclass, they fail to consider two important aspects ofthe problems it raises. The first is whether Wilson's original development of the concept can add something to our understanding of processes of social-spatial segregation. Such an analysis might also help to clarify how welfare state institutions can operate to mitigate, enhance and/or manage processes of social exclusion. The second aspect of the problem is more worrying. Is the development of a popUlarised

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31

version of the concept of underclass a part of the process ofsocial exclusion? Does this popular concept create a discursive context, in the Foucauldian sense, which naturalises social exclusion? Analysing the rejection of class analysis in Lee et al.'s argumentative strategy helps to clarify some ofthe problems involved in relating class analyses to processes ofsocial exclusion. First, it shows that class analyses which focus on the social processes engendered by economic change are more useful than those forms ofanalysis which focus on social categorisation. Second, it raises important questions about the role of welfare state institutions in managing processes of social change and, in particular, their complex role in both mitigating some of the material consequences of exclusion while simultaneously inhibiting processes ofsocial integration, in other words, precisely how welfare state institutions can be related to class processes. Third, Lee et ale demonstrate the care which must be taken in teasing out the normative dimensions ofany form ofclass analysis in the context ofdiscussing social exclusion since both concepts, class and social exclusion, necessarily carry an ideological loading. More generally, this discussion of the ways in which narratives about the reconstitution of class structures can be related to processes of social exclusion has been based on an implicit assumption that the formation ofthe European Union can be seen as simply a part or a consequence of economic processes of globalisation. However, the formation of the Union can also be seen as an active political response to economic globalisation. The next section of this chapter examines how such a view of the Union shapes narratives about nationality and citizenship, race and ethnicity:

Citizenship, migration, immigration and race Debate over European citizenship has been stimulated by two general and simultaneous processes. The first has been the rights granted to European citizens in the Maastricht Treaty and the second has been the way that fiscal austerity has undermined the delivery of social welfare throughout Europe (Garcia 1996; Silver 1993). This section of the chapter shows how these two apparently separate processes are very closely intertwined in narratives which seek to answer the question: what does it mean to be European today? The Maastricht Treaty gives all European citizens the right to settle in any of the member countries. Formally, citizenship of the Union rests on being a citizen ofone of the member states. However, the laws governing acquisition of citizenship or nationality, as well as the juridical and social principles which underlie these laws, vary across the member states. The Treaty, thus,

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implicitly poses important questions about how member states determine who has access to citizenship. Approximately five million European citizens reside within the boundaries ofother member states. At the same time, there are about ten million immigrants from outside the Union legally resident within member states, many of whom are long settled (Garcia 1996). The Maastricht Treaty has, thus, effectively created two classes of non-national residents within each member state: migrants, or those who have the right to live anywhere within the Union, and immigrants, or those who have the right to live within only one of the member states. This creation of a two-tier immigration policy has not been highly politicised, partly because immigrants are excluded from formal political activity in many countries and partly because immigration policies are being harmonised through multilateral agreements outside the framework of the Community Treaties. However, the aim is to curtail immigration from outside the Union including the number ofrefugees and asylum seekers who will be admitted. The implication of meeting this aim is to create a 'Fo_ rtress Europe' within which a very large proportion of immigrants are increasingly marginalised and subject to severe exploitation within casualised labour markets (Pugliese 1995). In general, the implementation of immigration legislation is a highly opaque area ofnational policy, subject to very little open democratic and public oversight. This opacity tends to further obscure the ways in which noncitizens are frequently denied basic civil rights (e.g. to appeal against administrative decisions through judicial mechanisms, habeas corpus, etc.) which formal citizens can take for granted in democracies. However, the recent changes in French and German immigration legislation can be explored in order to highlight some ofthe issues which nationality debates pose for a discussion of social exclusion. The German legislative changes were delayed by the collapse of the government of the former German Democratic Republic in 1989 and the consequent problems associated with migration from the eastern European states gave the issue a different complexion. The right to citizenship in the Federal Democratic Republic is based on German ethnicity (jus sanguinis) and migration from East to West Germany had been an important stabilising feature in the relationship between the FGR and the former DDR (Hirschman 1995). At the same time, the ethnic basis for formal citizenship in Germany means that it is almost impossible for a foreigner to understand the very fine social distinctions that are made among foreign ethnic Germans (Smith and Blanc 1996). Nevertheless, 'true' German ethnicity is clearly defined in terms of skin colour although public debate is managed in a way which attempts to deny lingering memories of the politics ofthe Third Reich. This denial of ra-

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33

cism, in turn, obscures the way in which racial discrimination is legitimated through the immigration legislation itself: In France, the loi Pasqua in 1993 removed the right to automatic citizenship after five years residence (jus solis). Restricting the right to French nationality was coupled with draconian administrative provisions regulating non-citizens. A number offactors came together to highlight the race dimension of these changes. First, by defining European citizens as migrants, the Maastricht Treaty implicitly highlights the much higher proportion of black people among the group now defined as immigrants throughout Europe. Second, memories of the Algerian War still permeate France. The byzantine legislative process enshrined in the constitution of the Fifth Republic amplifies the views of minority parties, which can frequently be expressed with some impunity in public debate. These same factors mar the current debate about removing some of the more bizarre administrative anomalies created by the 10iPasqua. The end result ofthe way that public debate has been shaped has been to increase 'official' harassment of France's non-white citizens. Indeed, it was only in 1996 that, for the first time, survey research became available which said that fully half of the non-white population of France are already French citizens. Both the French and German experiences illuminate the complex relationship between nationality legislation and the ways that immigration and immigrants are socially managed. The definition of nationality provides a legal basis for the social and political exclusion of resident non-citizens. While the Maastricht Treaty makes important gains in this context, guaranteeing some basic rights for migrants, this step forward has been made at the expense of effectively linking non-citizenship and race in public debate (Smith and Blanc 1996). How these formally sanctioned patterns of exclusion operate and how they interact with race and ethnicity varies across the member states. At one end of the spectrum, non-nationals within the UK enjoy virtually all the formal rights of nationals, so that social exclusion mechanisms operate more clearly on the basis of race. At the other end of the spectrum, non-nationals in Germany are legally excluded from a wide range of formal social institutions - for example, access to social housing and access to local democratic institutions - and social exclusion mechanisms rest on considerations of foreignness which shade off into issues about European ethnicity (Smith and Blanc 1996). It is impossible to generalise beyond saying that race and ethnicity are the only invariant dimensions of social exclusion associated with citizenship, although how it functions varies dramatically in different societal contexts as a consequence of the way it interacts with other basic dimensions of social cleavage and cohesion (Mingione 1993; 1995; Wacquant 1993).

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Narratives about nationality rights within the Union interact with a set of more domestically scaled debates about citizenship rights, that is, the sub-

stantive rights which citizens can claim. Much ofthe debate is rooted in a set of ideas first elaborated by T.H. Marshall in the postwar period, who distinguished three types of citizenship and associated rights. Civil citizenship brings rights associated with equality of treatment before the law, political citizenship confers rights to participate in the political life of a country, and social citizenship is based on the right to enjoy a minimum level of material welfare. In western Europe today, at least for those with formal citizenship, civil and political citizenship rights are assumed to be universal while access to social citizenship rights is assumed to be on the basis of need (Garcia 1996; van Kempen 1996). Marshall's work can be used in two different but related ways as a tool for understanding the nature of current debates over citizenship. First, it can be used to trace the shifts in the discourse of citizenship which have characterised the last quarter ofthe century. Second, it can be used to focus on the way that welfare state institutions, the activities ofspecific social groups and fiscal austerity combine to shape the delivery of social citizenship rights. The first way to use Marshall's ideas in analysing current discussions of citizenship casts his trio of citizenship rights as a basic idea against which current discourses can be measured. In using this method ofanalysis it is important to recognise that discourses ofcitizenship are shaped not only by the material and political realities which they (selectively) reflect, but also by the way they seek to provide justificatory explanations for, and principles to guide, the social activities which organise that realit}l. One of the important functions of many of the new ideas ofcitizenship is to provide a justification for the withdrawal of social citizenship rights as a consequence of fiscal austerit}l. Thus, in analysing these ideas, it is important to see how they identify the groups who are vulnerable to losing these rights and how the arguments are contextualised against the different principles which were used to explain and justify the creation of these rights in the first place. In Scandinavia and the UK, the central idea was one of social justice, focused on the reduction in material inequalities among individuals. In the continental countries, the principle was one of social solidarity, the idea that differentially placed groups have reciprocal rights and obligations. In the Latin countries, the Catholic principle of subsidiarity dominated, giving preference to civil organisations and family in delivering social rights. Elements ofeach ofthese principles appear in both European-wide and national debates over citizenship. (Ironically, the European Union seems to guarantee the free flow of ideas more easily than the free flow of people, goods, capital and services.) It is not surprising, therefore, that the language of citizenship

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has been appropriated in different ways across a very broad (European) political spectrum (Garcia 1996; Lee et ale 1995; Silver 1993). The analysis below focuses on how these shifts in language can be linked to issues of exclusion. At one extreme, there is an important tension between concepts of class and citizenship, which allows a communitarian approach to the concept of citizenship to substitute for solidaristic concepts ofclass relationships (Garcia 1996). Such concepts of citizenship emphasise belongingness and the exclusion of outsiders. These communitarian (and often nationalistic) concepts tend to be built on notions of volk or ethnos, rather than demos, as the criterion for belonging and are rooted in the nation-state building phase ofa country's history. Consequently, the use of such concepts tends to preclude discussion of the rights which citizens may claim from the state, while emphasising the obligations which citizens owe to it (Habermas 1996). Because the state simply re-presents the volk, there is no sense of the role of democratic political rights in either shaping the state's activity or in providing a basis for social citizenship rights. Communitarian concepts ofcitizenship, thus, not only fail to address the relationships among different kinds of rights, they also deny the existence of processes of conflict, struggle and exclusion within the nation-state. Ethnicity is unproblematically associated with nationality, exclusion is justified completely on the basis of ethnicity, and, in principle, it is complete exclusion from all rights. Within this approach, the concept of diversity or difference among citizens finds no place. A second approach to discussing citizenship is based on contrasting active and passive citizenship. As Lee et ale summarise this view: 'Citizens should not passively expect society to ensure that their social rights are maintained by the institutions of the welfare state, but must in return be prepared actively to contribute to society' (1995, p.41). This perspective is clearly rooted in a solidaristic view of social rights but its impact, or direct political meaning, depends on the context within which it is used. In France, for example, it was used to support the introduction of the revenu minimum d'insertion and other social programmes by the Socialist governments designed to support people's ability to be active citizens, while in the UK the concept has been used to justify withdrawing welfare assistance unless people are actively employed. Lee et ale (1995) are particularly concerned with the ways in which the concept of active citizenship can be used in the context of neoliberal or free market individualism. They argue that this perspective often links active citizenship to seeing citizens as individual consumers ofservices and can induce a logical inversion. They argue that: 'If the citizen is equated with consumer, then those who are denied access to services or who cannot, for whatever reason, consume services on equal terms are npt considered full citizens' (Lee et

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al. 1995, p.41). Thus, ifactive citizenship rests on economic activity, it can be argued that unemployed people have excluded themselves. This can then be used to justify seeing passive citizens as non-citizens in other ways as well, threatening their right to participate in the political life of the community and, in some cases, their elementary civil rights. This strand of reasoning is not far from the surface in debates over problem tenants in the UK, the withdrawal of basic civil rights proposed in the loi Pasqua in France, or the treatment of homeless people in some areas in Sweden (Sahlin 1995). Within this concept ofcitizenship, the concept ofsocial exclusion focuses on: 'this group ofpeople who are "non-citizens" and are excluded from the rights enjoyed by other citizens' (Lee et al. 1995, p.41). However, the concept of active citizenship can be deployed in a completely different way, which is founded in the concept of the historical achievement ofuniversal human rights. As Habermas puts it: 'Citizenship, actively employed, is then experienced ... as membership in a polity that lets no one slip through the net and excludes no one from the enjoyment of equal rights or from their share in socially produced wellbeing' (Habermas 1996, p.7). This universalistic concept sees all three forms ofcitizenship rights as inextricably linked, so that the withdrawal ofsocial citizenship rights threatens the maintenance of civil and political rights which, in turn, threatens social integration more generally. Drawing out the implications of this perspective, Habermas argues that: 'Politics could rid itselfofthe burden ofsocial integration only at the price of repressing minorities' (1996, p.ll). On this view of active citizenship, the problem ofwithdrawing social citizenship rights is not one of reducing access to some minimum standard of material welfare, but one ofsocial exclusion having consequences which threaten the maintenance of social order in the long run. As fiscal austerity has undermined the delivery of social welfare throughout Europe, the language of citizenship has sometimes seemed to present an alternative to the languages of class and solidarity on which many of the European welfare states have been built (Garcia 1996; Silver 1993). However, this brief review ofdifferent concepts ofcitizenship shows that the matter is not so simpie. The concept of social citizenship rights, that is rights delivered on the basis of need, is necessarily founded on a concept of difference. The issues are about how difference is defined, how different groups are to be treated differentially, and how such differential treatment is justified. On the one hand, the communitarian position defines all non-ethnic nationals as distinct and as ineligible for any citizenship rights, while the universalist concept sees modern European democracies as so constructed that all who reside within them must be extended the full range ofcitizenship rights. Both these positions, however, turn on exclusion from the social body

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as a whole and, in effect, are about the role of race and ethnicity as a criterion ofsocial exclusion~ overtly in the communitarian position and covertly in the universalist position with its hidden assumption about the right to reside in a country. On the other hand, the debate over active and passive citizenship turns around the differential nature of exclusion within societies. The centre ofthe debate is over access to employment and the linkages between employment and other social rights. At one extreme in this debate, failure to work is a form of self-exclusion which justifies the overt withdrawal of social citizenship rights and the potential withdrawal ofother rights. At the other extreme, exclusion from work is seen as a structural problem so that the state has an obligation to ensure that it does not result, in practice, in exclusion from the full range of citizenship rights. Thus, the active/ passive debate has the effect of emphasising issues around class and the labour market in relationship to social exclusion, but obscures issues about race and ethnicit)T, and, in particular, how racism operates within labour markets. Political and conceptual debates about defining citizenship primarily focus on defining and justifying who is eligible to exercise certain rights. This focus obscures the ways in which the day-to-day mechanisms for providing social citizenship rights operationalise the implications of these debates and, thus, shape the forms of exclusion which are experienced by members of the racial or ethnic groups whose right to citizenship is under debate. Three studies are especially useful in understanding issues about operationalising citizenship rights, which forms the second way of using Marshall's ideas about citizenship. Van Kempen (1993; 1996) focuses on how specific localised configurations of the organisations which provide social housing interact with the demands of particular groups of citizens and community structures to determine which social rights get delivered to which groups. Her analysis sets up a framework for understanding how formal equality, in terms of eligibility for social rights in housing, leads to inequalities in delivery through systematic variations in the structure of localised interactions. Her work complements that ofDeakin, Davis and Thomas (1995), which is a detailed cross-national comparative study of the social processes engendered by explicit attempts to democratise the delivery of welfare state services by institutionalising consumer and/or user involvement in the delivery of welfare. Their framework systematically analyses the relationships among policy makers responsible for services, managers of the services, front line workers, and client groups. Both these analyses illustrate some of the complexity associated with the delivery ofsocial citizenship rights and, thus, point to the fruitfulness of using concepts of citizenship rights as a means of identifying how processes of social exclusion and integration are shaped in practice. Potter's (1996) work on racial integration is also useful in this coo-

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text. While this work is not explicitly located within the framework of concepts ofcitizenship, it occupies itselfwith many ofthe same problems. Potter works from a paradigm of difference in a way which allows difference to be contrasted with devalorisation. By identifying a range of action strategies open to 'devalorised' groups (assimilation, self assertion, withdrawal and flight), the analysis supports an important distinction between separateness and exclusion. Using a broadly durkheimian perspective, it focuses on the interaction between the material realities and menta/ites of both devalorised groups and policy makers in order to develop an evaluative perspective which valorises the active choices of minority groups. The details of this analysis add a great deal to understanding the social processes around race which require public attention if the assumptions about equality and equity which underlie civil and political, as well as social citizenship, rights are to be made into a reality. The strength of these three studies is that they all present devalorised groups as subjects, actively negotiating social citizenship rights, rather than as the passive objects ofwelfare service delivery. They also focus attention on the interaction between specific social groups and the structure of the organisational interfaces they interact with, so that the nature of this negotiating activity can be linked with changes in the structure ofthe welfare state. These studies, thus, add to the concept ofsocial exclusion by pointing out the complexity of the everyday ways in which it may be contested by excluded groups (cf: Gilroy and Speak, Chapter 5 of this volume), how patterns of exclusion can be seen as outcomes of processes in which both privileged and devalorised groups are co-participants, and, through Potter's work, how what is being negotiated in this process is not just material realities but also the valorisation of the excluded group's status. By emphasising the complexity of realising social citizenship rights, studies of this nature also illustrate how formal debates over citizenship in Europe structure everyday processes ofsocial exclusion. Most member states lie somewhere between the extremes of communitarianism linked with solidaristic principles of eligibility and universalism linked with individualistic principles of eligibili~ Consequently, discussions of the right to citizenship can interact, on a day-to-day basis, with the provision of citizenship rights to those groups whose formal exclusion is under consideration in the wider debate. Thus, what this discussion of citizenship shows is that not only are there different forms of exclusion (economic, social, political) but there are different ways of justifying and implementing exclusion. The end result is that some groups are more excluded than others, either because of the forms of exclusion which they experience, the ways in which their exclusion is justified, or the principles which deny them access to the basic rights necessary to

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contest their exclusion. By looking at these issues across Europe, it is also clear that these patterns of exclusion vary, not only from country to country, but also from locale to locale because of the ways in which the provision of social rights is organised and the sensitivity of institutional forms to wider debates. Thus, citizenship affects what happens in neighbourhoods in three ways: by distinguishing among immigrants, migrants and nationals; through the associated processes of racial and ethnic discrimination; and through the everyday processes which shape how each of these groups can exercise their rights. The chapters in this volume by Cars and Edgren-Schori (Chapter 13), by Freitas (Chapter 11), by Vrychea and Golemis (Chapter 8), and by Ktirpick and Week (Chapter 10) illustrate the complex ways in which economic processes interact with issues of citizenship in shaping social exclusion. Previous sections of this chapter have discussed transnational processes associated with class and citizenship. Both sections have noted the significance of welfare state mechanisms in these processes. Thus, the section on class suggested that in modern European states, the structures of provision of welfare state services may be as constitutive ofclass position as global and national economic processes. Equally, narratives of nationality and citizenship contribute to constituting rules ofaccess to welfare provision. An equally important, but more implicit, theme running through these sections has been the ways in which fiscal austerit~ induced both by globalisation and commitment to the Maastricht criteria, is leading to changes in the way the welfare regimes within the member states operate. The next section of this chapter examines the issues raised by these consequent intra-national changes.

Welfare regimes Throughout Europe, the delivery ofsocial rights is mediated by welfare state institutions which are primarily organised on a spatial basis. In contrast to processes of change in class relations and citizenship, processes of change in these institutions often have more direct locally based effects (c( Deakin et al. 1995; van Kempen 1996). Thus, the way these institutions are changing in response to wider economic and political changes throughout Europe is an important variable in transmitting the effects ofwider changes to those especially vulnerable neighbourhoods whose residents are most dependent on welfare state institutions to maintain their daily lives. The specific configuration of welfare state institutions varies widely among countries, and there is an important debate about the extent to which the emergence ofa European Union-wide social policy is generating convergence among these different structures (Cochrane and Doogan 1993; Hantrais 1995). However, there seems to be no simple connection between

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Union-wide social policy, harmonisation of national systems and convergence. Liebfried (1993), in particular, argues that the decomposition of national systems is as likely an outcome of Union-wide change as convergence. In other words, either a Union-wide social policy could emerge by progressive changes within each national system towards a more unified pattern, or, alternativel~ a Union-wide social policy could emerge after a process of decomposition and recomposition of national systems. In contrast, Cram (1993) envisages a process of policy change in which the Union increasingly takes on a regulatory role and, under the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, member states and subnational units increasingly focus on service delivery. Nevertheless, both Liebfried's and Cram's views need to be seen in the context of the more general processes of hiving off state functions, partly induced by the convergence criteria, as well as within the general constraints on Union social policy which restrict it to matters which promote economic cohesion. In order to understand how welfare state institutions playa key role in shaping processes of social exclusion and integration, it is useful to abstract from the details of specific systems in order to identify a set of dimensions which help in seeing how different welfare systems may affect these processes differently. In this kind of approach, Esping-Anderson's (1985) typological work on national welfare regimes provides a key set of ideas informing current debates over changing national patterns ofsocial provision (Abrahamson 1992; Liebfried 1993). His main proposition is that there are three ideal typical models of welfare provision in Europe. The Nordic (or social democratic) model is based on relationships between the social partners in circumstances of relative labour scarcity and seeks to ensure that the social conditions of employment support the wellbeing of societ)T. The AngloSaxon (or liberal) model is based on a view of society as composed of atomised individuals and seeks to ensure that each person attains a minimum material standard of wellbeing. The Continental (corporatist or conservative) model is based on a conception ofsociety as comprising groups with reciprocal rights and obligations. It seeks to ensure the participation ofall within the material, social and moral order of society. The Continental model may have two variants, a Bismarckian form and a Latin (or southern) form, distinguished by the relatively stronger role ofcivil society and weaker role ofstate provision in the latter. Alternativel~ the Latin model may be seen as distinctive. The problem arises because of the lack of good comparative studies which include the southern European countries (Hantrais 1995; Liebfried 1993; Rose 1993; Room 1995; cf. also Vychrea and Golemis, Chapter 8 in this volume.). While no one country within the Union fits to any of these ideal types, they nonetheless help to clarify four important analytical issues

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involved in identifying how broad institutional changes may reflect wider changes and affect processes ofsocial exclusion in specific neighbourhoods. First, both the Nordic and Continental ideal types assume the centrality of employment as a basis for entitlement to other forms of social support, while the Anglo-Saxon model assumes citizenship (in the sense of residence within the nation state's boundaries) as the basis for social support. There are clearly problems with both these approaches in a period of increasing unemployment and casualisation in the labour force. On the one hand, systems of entitlement which emphasise employment will tend to exclude many of the newly poor groups with missing or variable work records (cf. Cars and Edgren-Schori, Chapter 13 in this volume) while, on the other hand, systems of entitlement based on citizenship will be more directly vulnerable to fiscal crisis, manifest as either a reduction in the levels of support provided or restrictions on entitlement. While systems ofentitlement based on employment incorporate strong elements of filiation within them, structured around trades unions or other corporate entities, systems based on citizenship do not directly support filiation. In citizenship-based systems, processes ofdisqualification, or loss of status, may be more significant, especially where claiming benefits is itself a mark of stigmatisation (Blanc 1996). Consequently, precariti or peripheralisation in the labour force will have different specific effects in different systems, partly because of the enhanced significance of informal social networks in job seeking in casualised labour markets (cf. Gilroy and Speak, Chapter 5 in this volume). On the one hand, the enhanced role of social networks raises questions about how such informal networks are structured in different social systems, and in particular, the relative significance of such social dimensions as race and ethnicity, kinship, age, etc., in structuring these networks (Mingione 1995; Mingione and Morlicchio 1993; Vrychea and Golemis, Chapter 8 in this volume). It also raises questions about the exclusivity of these networks. Are some people more excluded than others because they are excluded from these informal networks? To what extent do informal networks enhance or mitigate processes of disqualification and disaffiliation? To what extent are informal networks shaped by previous job histories? Are there different kinds of networks among the casual labour force and those who are excluded altogether from the labour force? On the other hand, Esping-Anderson's typology raises a set of questions about ways in which the spatial organisation and management of specific welfare state institutions, especially in education, health and housing, support, disrupt, manage or ignore localised networks. To what extent are these institutions subject to local political control? To what extent are they sensitive to variations in localised demand? To what extent can they provide organisational resources which can be mobilised by locally based networks?

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The second analytical issue which Esping-Anderson's typology raises is the role and significance ofnon-state collective entities in mediating between individuals and state-based management of social support. The Nordic model gives a key role to the social partners (employers and trades unions) in mediating this relationship. The Continental model assumes the relevance of a wider range of non-state organisations (e.g. churches, family, charitable and other voluntary organisations), while the Anglo-Saxon model assumes that the relationship between the state and the individual is direct and unmediated. Thus, an important factor structuring the responses and resources available to peripheral and unemployed groups will be the response and relevance of non-state collective entities. Thus, using Esping-Anderson's typology raises additional questions. Within Nordic models, to what extent have trades unions and employers' bodies addressed issues ofperipheralisation and to what extent do they maintain a localised presence in particular neighbourhoods? Within Anglo-Saxon models, how does the state directly seek to mediate and regulate the relationship between individuals and access to labour markets? Does the atomisation implicit within the Anglo-Saxon model fail to support the formation ofsocial networks, either because it ignores the role of non-state organisations or because it pre-empts their role by providing a minimum level ofmaterial welfare anyway? Within the Continental models, which specific social groups are considered to have responsibilities or obligations towards those groups with a precarious or non-existent relationship to the labour market? How do they set about meeting their responsibilities? What civil organisations are responding to issues of peripheralisation and how are they responding? To what extent do these organisations maintain a presence within different kinds of neighbourhoods? And within the Latin model, how do changing household and kinship structures affect access to welfare? The key to these questions is the configuration of the organisational resources within specific neighbourhoods and the relative ease with which they can be 'patched into' each other in order to combat social exclusion (Hastings, McArthur and McGregor 1996; van Vliet 1997). However, focusing on non-state organisations should not obscure the extent to which different parts of the state may respond to economic change differently. In particular, there are likely to be political tensions between centrally-governed welfare mechanisms and those parts of the state with direct political responsibility for the wellbeing of localities. This tension needs to be set in the context of three general processes occurring throughout Europe. The first is the general growth in the 'invisible state' as implementing the Maastricht criteria for convergence leading to a hiving off of state functions (Cochrane and Doogan 1993). Second, with the exception of the UK,

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there has been increased decentralisation of government activity throughout Europe (Batley and Stoker 1991), both enhancing local political responsibility and delegating downwards difficult issues of choice among local groups in a time offiscal austerity. Third, hiving offand decentralisation have evoked a mass ofexperiments throughout Europe concerned with new ways of regulating service delivery and enhancing accountability by service providers (Hill 1993; Le Grand and Bartlett 1993). How these general changes work themselves through in different countries varies with the specific political and administrative structures associated with welfare service delivery in each country: However, they raise a number ofsignificant questions when they are considered from the point of view of social exclusion and neighbourhoods. Do newly developing'democratic' forms of service deliver~ involving client groups directly, enhance or detract from the ability of locally elected governments to manage wellbeing within their areas (Hastings et ale 1996; Hupe 1993; Schartau 1993)? What enhances or detracts from the capacity and ability of locally elected governments to exercise leadership in mobilising local coalitions to respond to issues of social exclusion (Amin and Hausner 1997, Kouwenhoven 1993)? The third issue raised by Esping-Anderson's typology turns around the concept of reciprocity which forms part of the Continental model. If society is seen as formed from groups with reciprocal rights and obligations, then the reconfiguration ofclass structures over the last twenty-five years suggests that issues of maintaining social and moral order are central questions for understanding how social exclusion is both created and managed. Thus, for example, in French discourse social exclusion threatens to bring social fracture. Both the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon models treat social fracture as an issue which is separate from questions of welfare provision. What the Continental model points out is that employment is an important method of socialising young adults into wider social relationships. In the absence of this mechanism, it is unclear what the most significant socialisation processes are. Thus, while Galster and Killen argue that 'one of the main functions of neighbourhood is socialisation', they admit that its influence 'can range from negligible to overwhelming, depending on the particular residential context' (Galster and Killen 1995, p.25). In the UK issues of safety and security, code words for crime as the most visible indicator of social fracture, have become much more politically salient in recent years. In this context, it is not so much socialisation as the construction of deviance which becomes a key social process. Hall et al.'s (1978) work on demonisation shows clearly how the social construction ofsocial and moral order is based on the construction ofa social Other, to whom deviance can be attributed. Hall delineates the spillover effects in this social process by demonstrating how whole social groups can be-

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come demonised on the basis of the media treatment of a few of their members. On this argument, the social exclusion of specific groups may be a necessary part ofconstructing the moral order into which the aim ofcombating exclusion seeks to insert precisely members of these groups. Looked at in this way, the aim of integration is at least paradoxical ifsocial exclusion itself is a necessary part of a process of sustaining social cohesion and moral order for the majority or the whole. In this situation, the natural attitude towards some groups is containment, not integration. Young and Kramer (1978) have documented how this attitude characterised housing policy in London following the formation of a metropolitan-wide government, and there is clearly evidence that the residualisation of social housing performs this kind offunction in some European countries (Power 1993; Emms 1990). Sahlin's (1995) dissection of the way housing opportunities are used to control socially deviant behaviour in Sweden provides a detailed case study ofsome of these mechanisms in practice. Chapter 7 by Bartley and Chapter 5 by Gilroy and Speak in this volume give evidence of how the wrong address excludes people from employment opportunities. Thus, in neighbourhoods where significant numbers of members of deviant groups live, the social and political processes which generate spatial containment may be stronger than any processes associated with policy initiatives aimed at integration. The fourth issue generated by Esping-Anderson's work arises because the typology is based on traditional social policy areas: education, pensions, health and unemployment insurance. Pensions and unemployment insurance are primarily constructed around processes income transfer, while health and education are services which are most efficiently provided on a collective basis. Two attempts to use the typology to understand different national housing systems in Europe begin to link it with the spatial processes associated with social exclusion (Harloe 1995; Kemeny 1994). Both these attempts tend to take the Nordic welfare-and-housing system not only as an ideal type, but also as a paradigm against which Continental and Anglo-Saxon systems can be evaluated. Harloe is primarily concerned with explaining how broader social, political and economic processes have led to housing provision becoming socialised in various European countries. Kemeny bases his argument more explicitly on an explanation of how neighbouring processes became transformed into provision by a voluntary sector. Consequently, Kemeny tends to see the involvement of the state in direct provision as contingent, whereas Harloe tends to interpret it as part of a natural development. However, neighbourhoods are not just social objects created by national housing policies. They are also physical places created by land and residential investment processes, and the managers of residential space are primarily concerned with the development, management and maintenance of physical

or

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and financial assets. Reflecting on the stubborn physicality of a neighbourhood problematises their creation, continued existence and management. In general, the ways in which routine asset management affects living in a place have been neglected in the treatment of social exclusion. Kemeny is one of a handful ofwriters who attempt to explain how the creation of physical space and social place can be linked. He does this by developing two different ideas. One is the concept of residence, which refers to the complex of social activity and affect which characterises 'living in a place' (Kemeny 1992; see also Chapter 3 by Healey and Chapter 4 by Madanipour in this volume) and the second is the concept ofunitary and dualistic rental markets, which refers to the policy frameworks which determine how social housing is related to private (rental) housing markets (Kemeny 1994). The two concepts are not fully linked, but taken together they begin to show how political choices structure the framework of asset management, which in turn affects the creation of residential places. Page (1993) takes a different approach by focusing on the development and management of new social housing estates which, because ofthe residualisation ofthis sector in the UK, will provide homes for the most excluded groups. His argument is addressed to housing professionals in an effort to persuade them that the day-to-day management ofthese estates must be as much concerned with supporting the social processes which create places as with the physical and financial management ofspaces. Freitas, Chapter 11 in this volume, develops this line of argument by looking at a squatter resettlement programme in Portugal. With the exception of Freitas' earlier work (1993), which is based on household trajectories and life projects in relationship to relocation programmes, very little of the literature directly explores the role of housing asset management in relationship to the linkages between family or kinship, socialisation processes and welfare provision. Kleinman (1996) argues that part of the problem in making these connections is that housing policy debate is deeply split between sustaining the market conditions which underpin owner occupation, on the one hand, and the redistributive policy discourses which characterise social housing provision, on the other hand. Esping-Anderson's typology of welfare regimes has provided a convenient tool for organising a discussion of the different ways in which neighbourhoods may be affected by transnational processes of change related to class and citizenship in the European Union. This is because national welfare systems play an important role in transmitting and shaping the impact of these wider changes on those people who find themselves being excluded. Yet national welfare systems are, themselves, configured very differently in different countries. Esping-Anderson's typolo~ thus, helps in abstracting the major components of these configurations which shape specific impacts

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differently. Five major themes emerge from this analysis: the role ofthe social partners in different systems; the role of non-state entities; the division between central and local responsibilities; the social construction of reciprocity and deviance; and the role of residence. Each of these themes provides a dimension along which it is possible to begin to predict how welfare systems shape the impact of transnational economic and political change on those households who are most likely to be adversely affected by these broader changes. The weakness of ideal typical analysis, such as Esping-Anderson's, is that it always oversimplifies the phenomena which it is designed to reflect. However, in the context ofthe wider analysis in this chapter, this simplification allows the identification ofa number of middle level themes which can provide a framework for looking at different types of neighbourhoods in different countries. Such a detailed investigation, framed in terms of the middle level, would, ofcourse, show that each national welfare system creatively combines elements from each of the ideal typical welfare regimes while also illuminating how welfare regimes interact with broader social and economic changes to shape social exclusion in vulnerable neighbourhoods. Conclusions: ever-closer union and social fragmentation The main aim ofthis chapter has been to identify a set ofnarratives which explain however-closer union within Europe shapes some of the important macro-processes which affect vulnerable neighbourhoods. Three groups of narratives have been identified. First, the accelerating development of the Union over the last fifteen years has been a direct response to globalisation. The most vulnerable neighbourhoods are both directly affected by globalisation and affected by the Union's attempts to regulate its effects, including the increasingly casualised labour market which globaIisation has engendered. Second, ever-closer union has led to changes in formal rights associated with nationality and citizenship. These changes have enhanced race and ethnicity as a dimension of social cleavage and exclusion while, at the same time, the fiscal austerity associated with achieving monetary union has brought into question the ways that citizenship rights are guaranteed and delivered within the member states. Third, the variously configured welfare systems among the Fifteen are both affected directly by harmonisation within the Union and by the ways that labour markets and citizenship are changing. They, thus, playa significant role in shaping the effects of these changes on vulnerable neighbourhoods. Two main themes emerge from taking these narratives together. The first is the significance of transnational processes, that is, processes which spring

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from the changing relationships among the member states, associated both with giobalisation and with the formation of the European Union as a response to globalisation. The second theme is the complexity and interwoven nature of the three groups of narratives. Each group of narratives only makes sense when set against the other two groups. The analysis in this chapter has largely addressed aspects ofstructural change, seeking to identify three components of explanations of such change: theoretical views about the appropriate way to analyse social structures and processes, normative views about the right way to address problems of social equity, and descriptive elements concerned with the institutions ofwelfare delivery. The interwoven nature of the narratives of change arises from the way this analytical approach emphasises common assumptions in different approaches to issues of class change, citizenship and nationality, and changing welfare regimes. However, structural analysis always raises questions ofsocial agency. Asking however-closer union has affected the most vulnerable neighbourhoods in Europe risks casting these neighbourhoods in the role of passive victims of wider changes. Thus, this chapter has sought to formulate its analysis in a way which highlights a second question: how can and do people actively respond to these changes? Much of the work reported in this book as a whole takes this problem further by identifying the active responses open both to people living in these neighbourhoods and to those who have responsibility for managing the collective lives of these neighbourhoods. The implicit practical aim ofall the work included in this book is to identify the kinds of policy changes and frameworks which can be implemented at the level of the European Union and which would strengthen the position of excluded people living in vulnerable neighbourhoods. Such policy proposals need to rest on an explicit framework within which the Europeanwide processes discussed in this chapter and European-wide policy processes can be linked with the active responses of people in neighbourhoods. Abrahamson's (1992) work provides some pointers towards constructing such a framework. He argues that the changing ways in which the delivery of welfare to households is organised can be analysed by locating these changes in relationship to three (changing) societal systems: market, state and civil society: While this framework is broadly based in a Habermasian view ofsocietal structure, it does not replicate Habermas' normatively problematic dualism between the state and economy, on the one hand, and the life world, on the other hand. Rather it sees civil society itselfas a structured societal system, in tension with the systems of both state and economy: In this way, Abrahamson's framework locates the concept of citizenship in terms of the relationship between civil society and state and locates relational (rather than categorising) concepts of class in terms ofthe relationship between civil soci-

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ety and the economy. Most importantly, by making civil society a systemic actor, this framework highlights a perspective which sees residents and households as actively co-producing their own welfare together with the newly emerging forms of organisation which link civil society with the state and econom~ It therefore provides a basis for studying vulnerable neighbourhoods which locates them within wider European processes while acknowledging their creative and active responses to these processes. Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who have helped me to pull together the arguments in this chapter: Anna Haworth and Keith Jacobs at the University of Westminter; my co-editors, Ali Madanipour and Goran Cars; members of the CIB Housing Sociology Group; and all the participants at the ESRC seminar in Newcastle whose work stimulated me to develop these ideas. References Abrahamson, P. (1992) 'Welfare pluralism: towards a new consensus for a European social policy?' In L. Hantrais, S. Mangen and M. O'Brien (eds) The Mixed Economy of welfare. Loughborough: Cross-National Research Papers, Loughborough Universit)!. Amin, A. and Hausner, J. (1997) 'Interactive governance and social complexit)!.' In A. Amin and J. Hausner (eds) Beyond Market and Hierarchy: Interactive Governance and Social Complexity. Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar. Batley, R. and Stoker, G. (1991) 'Introduction: trends in western European local government.' In R. Batley and G. Stoker (eds) Local Government in Europe: Trends and Developments. London: Macmillan. Bennington, J. and Taylor, M. (1993) 'Changes and challenges facing the UK welfare state in the Europe of the 1980s.' Policy and Politics. Special issue on The Europeanisation of Social Welfare, 21, 2, (April), 121-134. Blanc, M. (1996) 'A critical appraisal of the notions of social integration and exclusion.' Paper presented to the ENHR Conference, Helsingor, Denmark, August 26-31. Unpublished. Cochrane, A. and Doogan, K. (199 3) 'Welfare policy: the dynamics of European integration: Policy and Politics. Special issue on The Europeanisation of Social Welfare 21, 2, (April), 85-96. Cram, L. (1993) (Calling the tune without paying the piper? Social policy regulation: the role of the Commission in European Community social policy:' Policy and Politics. Special issue on The Europeanisation of Social Welfare 21, 2, (April), 135-147.

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Deakin, N., Davis, A. and Thomas, N. (1995) Public Welfare Services and Social Exclusion: The Development of Consumer-Oriented Initiatives in the European Union. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Emms, P. (1990) Social Housing: A European Dilemma? Bristol: School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol. Esping-Anderson, G. (1985) Politics against Markets. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Eyal, G., Szelenyi, I. and Townsley, E. (1997) 'The theory of post-Communist managerialism.' New Left Review 222, (Marl Apr), 60-92. Forrest, R. and Williams, P. (1997) 'Future Directions?' In P. Williams (ed) Directions in Housing Policy: Towards Sustainable Housing Policiesfor the UK. London: Paul Chapman

M.J. (1993) 'What (can) change after being relocated.' In Housing Policies and Housing Programmes: Orientation~ Strategies and Evaluation. Lisbon: Laboratorio

Freitas,

Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Grupo de Ecologia Social. Friedrichs, J. (1997) 'Context effects of poverty neighbourhoods on residents.' In H. Vestergaard (ed) Housing in Europe. Hersholm, Denmark: Statens Byggeforskninsinstitut. Galster, G.C. and Killen, S.~ (1995) 'The geography of metropolitan opportunity: a reconnaissance and conceptual framework.' Housing Policy Debate 6, 1,7-44. Gamble, A. and Kelly, G. (1996) 'The new politics of ownership.' New Left Review 220 (Nov/Dec), 62-97. Gans, H.]. (1993) 'From "underclass" to "undercaste": some observations about the future of the postindustrial economy and its major victims.' InternationalJournalof Urban and Regional Research. Special issue on The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass, 17, 3, (Sep.), 327-335. Garcia, S. (1996) 'Cities and citizenship.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research 20, 1, (Mar.), 7-21. Giddens, A. (1994) Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Habermas, J. (1996) 'National unification and popular sovereignty.' New Left Review 219, (Sep/Oct), 3-13. Hall, S. et ale (1 978) Policing the Crisis: Muggin~ the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Hantrais, L. (1995) Social Policy in the European Union. London: Macmillan. Harloe, M. (1995) The People's Home? Social Rented Housing in Europe and America. Oxford: Blackwell Press. Hastings, A., McArthur, A. and McGregor, A. (1996) Less than Equal? Community Organisations and Estate Regeneration PartnershIps. Bristol: The Policy Press. Hill, M. (1993) New Agendas in the Study of the Policy Process. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Hirschman, A. (1995) A Propensity to Se!fSubversion. London: Harvard University Press.

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Hupe, P. (1993) 'The politics of implementation: individual, organisational and political co-production in social services delivery.' In M. Hill (ed) New Agendas in the Study ofthe Policy Process. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Hutton, W. (1996) The State mJre In. (Revised edition). London: Vintage. van Kempen, E. (1993) 'Housing the poor: a moral dilemma of public housing associations in a post-modern welfare state.' In Housing Policies and Housing Programmes: Orientation~ Strategies and Evaluation. Lisbon: Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Grupo de Ecologia Social. van Kempen, E. (1996) 'Social citizenship rights, organisations and the locale.' In J. Allen, I. Ambrose and E. Kaltenberg-Kwiatkowska (eds) Housing Sociology and Societal Change: New Challenges and New Directions. Warsaw: Warsaw Technical University, Centre for Social Sciences. Kemeny, J. (1992) Housing and Social Theory. London: Routledge. Kemeny, J. (1994) Understanding European Rental Systems. Bristol: SAUS Publications, Working Paper 120. Kleinman, M. (1996) Housin~ Welfare and the State in Europe. Cheltenham, Glos: Edward Elgar. Kouwenhoven, V. (1993) 'Public-private partnership: a model for the management of public-private cooperation.' In J. Kooiman (ed) Modern Governance: New Government-Society Interactions. London: Sage. Lee, ~, Murie, A., Marsh, A. and Riseborough, M. (1995) The Price ofSocial Exclusion. London: National Federation of Housing Associations. Le Grand, J. and Bartlett, W (1993) OJ!,asi-Markets and Social Poliry. London: Macmillan. Liebfried, S. (1993) 'Towards a European welfare state? On integrating poverty regimes into the European Community.' In C. Jones (ed) New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe. London: Routledge. Machonin, P. (1992) 'Political and economic transition, or social transformation?'

Sisyphus Social Studies. Special issue on Dilemmas of Transitions and TransformationsJ W W Adamski (ed)J 2, VIII, 125-134. Marcuse, ~ (1993) 'What's so new about divided cities?' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research. Special issue on The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass, 17,3, (Sep), 355-365. McLellan, D. and Sayers, S. (eds) (1991) Socialism and Democrary. London: Macmillan. Mingione, E. (1993) 'The new urban poverty and the underclass: introduction.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research. Special Issue on The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass 17, 3, (Sep), 324-326. Mingione, E. (1995) 'New Aspects of Marginality in Europe.' In C. Hadjirnichalis and D. Sadler (eds) Europe at the Margins: New Mosaics ofInequality. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Mingione, E. and Morlicchio, E. (1993) 'New forms of urban poverty in Italy: risk path models in the North and South.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional

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Research. Special issue on 'The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass' 17, 3, (Sep), 413-428. Page, O. (1993) Buildingftr Communities. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Potter, ~ (1996) 'Alternatives to the concept ofUintegration" in the struggle against exclusion.' Paper presented to the ENHR Housing Research Conference, Helsingor, Denmark, Aug 26-31. Power, A. (1993) Hovels to High Rise: State Housing in Europe Since 1850. London: Routledge. Pugliese, E. (1995) 'New international migrations and the "European Fortress".' In C. Hadjimichalis and D. Sadler (eds) Europe at the Margins: New Mosaics of Inequality. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. Room, G. (1995) 'Poverty in Europe: competing paradigms of analysis.' Policy and Politics 23, 2, (April), 103-113. Rose, R. (1993) 'Bringing freedom back in: rethinking priorities of the welfare state.' In C. Jones (ed) New Perspectives on the welfare State in Europe. London: Routledge. Sahlin, I. (1995) 'Strategies for exclusion from social housing.' Housing Studies 10, 3,

381-401. Schartau, M. (1993) 'Headteachers as managers in Sweden and Britain.' In M. Hill (ed) New Agendas in the Study of the Policy Process. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Silver, H. (1993) 'National conceptions of the new urban poverty: social structural change in Britain, France and the United States.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research. Special issue on The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass 17, 3, (Sep.), 336-354. Smith, D.N. and Blanc, M. (1996) 'Citizenship, nationality and ethnic minorities in three European Countries.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research. Special issue on Cities and Citizenship 20, 1, (Mar), 66-82. van Vliet, W. (1997) Affordable Housing and Urban Redevelopment in the United States. Urban Affairs Annual Review 46. London: Sage Publications. Wacquant, L.J.O. (1993) 'Urban outcasts: stigma and division in the black American ghetto and the French urban periphery.' InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research. Special edition on The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass 17, 3, (Sep), 366-383. Weiss, K. (1 994) 'On the power and frailty of Utopia.' In M. Kennedy (ed) Envisioning Eastern Europe: Postcommunist Cultural Studies. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press. Wilson, J. (1978) The Declining Significance ofRace: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago: University of Chicago. Wilson, J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner Ci~ the Underclass and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Young, K. and Kramer, J. (1978) Strategy and Conflict in Metropolitan Housing: Suburbia versus the Greater London Council. London: Heinemann.

CHAPTER THREE

Institutionalist Theo~ Social Exclusion 1 and Governance Patsy Healey

~ality

of life and living places A key focus ofhousing and planning policy this century has been on the provision of living environments in which ordinary people could dwell in comfort. In mid-century, planners gave a lot of attention to the design of residential neighbourhoods and to how these fitted into the overall patterning and functioning oftowns and cities. By the 1960s, the policy emphasis in many countries had narrowed down to the mass production of low-cost housing. How people lived their lives receded to the background ofpolicy attention in favour of their assumed need for a dwelling with particular 'modern' attributes. Relations with the city were also largely neglected. The adverse consequences ofthis narrowing are still with us. As economic growth weakened, the emphasis in spatial planning policy shifted, in turn, from housing provision to concerns with economic development and environmental sustainabili~ Despite recent interest in the design and management ofsustainable living environments, the quality of the living environment, the place around the home, has been largely neglected in spatial planning in recent years and left to those concerned with urban design. The exception has been the interest among those concerned with social housing and quartiers en crise with areas of concentrated disadvantage and, particularly, the social conditions on housing estates where people on low incomes, out ofwork and often from ethnic minorities, find themselves concentrated. Here, policy analysts and researchers have increasingly shifted 1

An earlier version of this paper appears in H. Vestergaard (ed) (1997) Housing in Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish Building Institute.

53

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attention from the quality of housing provision to overall living conditions and ways oflife in neighbourhoods. This work highlights, first, that these 'li_ ving places' may become social worlds which shape attitudes and aspirations and, second, that these attitudes and aspirations may be significantly different from those people who live in other parts ofthe city and may be internally differentiated as well (Duggan and Ronayne 1991; Mayo 1994; Thake 1995; Wood etal. 1995). This links the discussion of the quality of neighbourhood life to contemporary policy concerns with the dynamics of social exclusion and cohesion processes. These concepts are highly contested and have many possible meanings (Mingione 1996; Room 1995; Madanipour, Chapter 4 in this volume). For example, in British urban policy discussion, the phrase is commonly being used to imply that some people and some neighbourhoods are drifting away from the norms ofsociety as a whole. Policy action is then targeted to bringing them back and to re-establishing cohesion. This assumes that governance action is outside the situation and can, if designed appropriately, have benign effects. However, much community development action and research engaging with the social worlds ofsuch places shows that such governance action itself encourages the drift. The aim of this chapter is to examine the processes ofsocial exclusion and cohesion operating at the level of the living place, or neighbourhood, and how governance policies and practices contribute to these processes. It does this through using the insights ofan institutionalist conception ofsocial relations and governance activity, and a specific focus on everyday life and the qualities of living places. This leads to a discussion of the role of urban governance in building up relational qualities which have the potential to reduce rather than enhance exclusionary processes. An institutionalist understanding of social exclusion and neighbourhood life The ideas outlined below draw on the more sociological emphases in the new institutionalism and socio-economics and the more fine-grained analyses now appearing in regulation theory They are also influenced by contemporary communicative planning theory (Amin and Hausner 1996; Healey 1997a; Healey et ale 1995). This section of the chapter outlines key concepts about institutionalism and draws out their implications for the meaning of social exclusion and the significance of place and neighbourhood. The concepts discussed are: social relational webs; structure and agency, socio-spatial relations; everyday life; and neighbourhoods as living places. The next section builds on these ideas by discussing how these ideas help us to understand the links between social exclusion and the governance ofliving places.

INSTITUTIONALIST THEORY

55

Relational webs and social worlds A relational view ofsocial process takes a view of individuals, not as autonomous subjects with individual preferences, but as formed within social contexts. It emphasises the social relations within which we live and the social worlds within which we construct our identities and our relations with others. The term 'social network' is often used to describe this relational conception. An institutionalist approach tends to take an anthropological conception of networks. These are seen as more than just sets of relational links through which people can get access to material resources, knowledge and power. Different networks or relational webs embody and express social worlds through which local knowledge flows, framing how people think and give value (Geertz 1983). It is in the context ofthese worlds that identities are constructed ('we', 'you', 'them'). In the sociological ideal type of the placebased, gemeinschaft community, people's networks were densely concentrated among a group of people who shared a common life and living space. It is often claimed that modernity and postmodernity have disrupted gemeinschaftrelations. These days, many people live in several networks at once, choosing alternative identities and living with the possibilities of multiple identities. Social networks intersect with each other and cluster in particular places, but these places are not necessarily residential neighbourhoods. They may not even be physical spaces but may exist on the airwaves or the Internet. How, then, can the idea of social exclusion and cohesion be understood? One way to explore such concepts is through analysis of the degree of intersection of social networks (their density and nodal points), and the extent to which such intersections draw people together into common social worlds and relations or, in contrast, force divisions and exclusions. This would describe social exclusion and cohesion as states of existence. An institutionalist view emphasises, over and above this, the active process of building relationships and meanings. This highlights the importance ofprocesses ofexclusion and cohesion and presents the phenomenon of social exclusion as an active social process, likely to vary in its forms and processes from one situation to another. It also suggests that exclusion is not the opposite ofcohesion but that the two are integral to each other. Exclusion presupposes some active work of cohesion (see Chapter 4 by Madanipour in this volume). Building and stabilising relational bonds in one direction means that another direction is neglected. For example, strengthening community cohesion in a disadvantaged neighbourhood could have the consequence of reinforcing its social distance and exclusion from other opportunities within the urban region. This suggests we need to understand social exclusion and cohesion as group building and mobilising processes which generate boundary making and breaking and create labels of ,we', 'you' and 'they'. Some cohesions may be constrain-

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ing and limiting, unable to respond to new conditions. They may also exclude others from opportunities to which they have a right. This suggests that research and policy attention needs to be directed at discriminating between forms of cohesion and of exclusion which are supportive and which give strength and identity to people in vulnerable situations, 2 and those which actively seek to prevent others participating in their opportunities and social worlds. 3

Structure and agency While a focus on relational webs highlights the significance ofagency, the institutionalist approach re-works marxist political economy to recognise the role of structuring, or 'driving', forces in shaping social worlds. Following Giddens (1984), structuring as an active force occurs as people draw on material resources, rule structures and ways of thinking (discourses) in the ongoing flow of living in the world. As Foucault emphasises (Rabinow 1991), these practices embody an archaeology of past patterns which carry power forward to the present in the micropolitics ofwhat we do. Yet, because we are active agents, continually adapting, reinterpreting, making new relationships, developing new ideas about rules and finding new material possibilities, the creative work of living in the world has the potential to change the structuring dynamics. Social practices and worlds, thus, both carry structuring power and have the capacity to transform it. However much structuring forces may be interconnected at the macro-level, the institutionalist approach tends to emphasise that several driving forces may impact on the microrelations ofsocial life, some perhaps fostering social cohesion in some places, others encouragingfractureand division. This serves to highlight the limits of economic determination and the significance of the social embeddedness of economic life. For example, in neighbourhoods in the northeast of England, the impact ofeconomic restructuring on social life in neighbourhoods where place, folk and work were once closely interrelated has been devastating (Hudson 1989; Pattison 1996). But other factors are at work too. Residents comment that the younger generation do not get involved in community development in the wayan older generation did, or that the community that once existed in a neighbourhood (a gemeinschaft conception) is fading away (Mayo 1994; 2

3

For example, the maintenance of the peaceline between Protestant and Catholic communities in Belfast. For example, the motives behind exclusionary zoning in the USA, and the way greenbelt politics are often used in the UK, or attempts to use housing allocation policies to allow dominance by one ethnic group.

INSTITUTIONALIST THEORY

57

Wood et ale 1995). Recent reports on community involvement in Britain talk ofa crisis ofvolunteering among groups experiencing long working hours in situations where both men and women are in work and sharing family responsibilities. 4 So people are often left to overcome barriers to opportunity through personal effort, rather than through collective, community-based action. Structuring or driving forces generate fractures and divisions. For example, in British public policy debate and left of centre political practice, these fractures were traditionally discussed in the language of class and distribution. Such discourses still frame attitudes to local government practice and grassroots social mobilisation. In this frame of reference, public sector action is presented as benefiting (working class) community and private sector action as promoting the interests ofcapital. Social exclusion, in this case, is class based, the exclusion of the working class from access to the fruits of their labour. But the working class are not outside economic dynamics since their labour is central to it. In the late 1980s, government urban policy introduced a different conception, of a mainstream of economic, social and political life, from which some people seemed to have become disconnected. This led to the use ofterms such as marginalised, disenfranchised and underclass. It drew heavily on US conceptions (see Bendick and Egan 1993). 5 It is in this context that exclusion comes to mean exclusion from the mainstream. Such a conception gives support to the notion ofan underclass of people, who are somehow excluded from participation in normal socie~ There is another conception ofpower and structure which seeks to replace the political discourse of distribution and class division with one of domination and oppression (Young 1990). This focuses attention on power relations at two levels: one within living places, as in situations where gangs, particular families, or money lenders and exploitative landlords control territory and access to opportunity; and the other where agencies outside the living place control access to opportunity (through discriminating against people from particular places, or with particular characteristics or histories). The dominated in this conception are not exactly excluded since they serve to define the identity of the dominant groups. An institutionalist account of processes of social exclusion and cohesion, thus, examines the way micro-relations of social interaction are shaped by

4

5

There is a lot of evidence from the UK that voluntary engagement is linked to being in work (see Williams and Windebank 1995 for a review). The term mainstream society seems to be common parlance in US urban politics. See the use of the term in conversation in an oral history account of an urban activist's life in Detroit (Mast 1994).

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their history and context and, particularly, by the practices and discourses surrounding the flows of material resources and the interpretation of rule structures. It also emphasises the active work of interpretation and invention through which people create and transform the meaning structures of their social worlds. Such an account forms the basis for understanding the significance of governance processes in the flow of social interaction.

Socio-spatial relations All social existence inherently occurs in time and space. But in contemporary societies, with complex economic relations and socio-cultural opportunities, different relational webs may have very different time/space dimensions. One person may be involved in several at once. Any specific space may have passing across it very many different relational webs. There is no necessary connection between the relational webs of those who share the same space and who are physically neighbours. Yet coexisting in shared spaces has effects. A place may be a locus ofaccess to relational resources. Living in a place exposes people to particular processes of constraint and opportunity which significantly shape their social worlds. People may consider that the quality of their town or their living place is a significant dimension of their own sense of themselves. Much neighbourhood regeneration and community development policy assumes that building community, that is, place-based community, is an important task. Social relations, thus, occur in space, and often spaces become places with particular qualities which have material and symbolic meaning for people. This relates to contemporary policy discourses on social exclusion in two ways. First, some living places, that is, neighbourhoods, seem to be excluded from normal life. They are places of divergent behaviour, associated, for example, ·with high levels of crime and criminals. Second, building up neighbourhood organising capacity is seen as a way of drawing people who seem to be suffering from exclusion back into the mainstream, as in building routes to jobs (Gilroy 1996) or empowerment through participation in community governance (Friedmann 1992). The terms empowerment, citizenship, and building democracy are widely used in contemporary community development literature. Much ofthis policy and political discourse is underpinned by romantic notions of gemeinschaft, the family and the moral individual which have little relation to the realities of social life today, even in what is taken to be mainstream social life. More realistic reasons for public policy to focus on the neighbourhood, or the housing estate, relate to governance problems such as recovering politicallegitimac~ offioading public sector costs, targeting policy effort to the most needy, reducing the adverse effects of social al-

INSTITUTIONALIST THEORY

59

ienation, etc. In this context, the neighbourhood, or residential area, as a focus of policy becomes a useful net within which to capture a target group of people. The institutionalist approach emphasises the importance of paying attention to when and in what way being in a place matters to people and how this may differ among those who live and work there and among those elsewhere who label it in some way.6 This suggests that in any kind of policy work directed at overcoming the adverse effects of social exclusion, it would be useful to look at: (1) how social worlds of place affect people in terms of mobilising for change (where do people look for allies, who are they mobilising for and against, etc.?); (2) what brings outsiders to seek to engage in place-based mobilising in someone else's place; and (3) what conceptions of place and community are used in these insider/outsider mobilisation processes? In order to get an understanding of what living in a place means to people, we need a way of looking at social life which reflects the way we live, not the divisions of policy delivery agencies or academic disciplines. The concept of everyday life offers such an approach.

Everyday lift This concept provides more focus to what living in a place means. It serves, first, to counterbalance the contemporary emphasis in Europe on the point of view of business life and the firm. 7 Second, it challenges the policy literature which treats people's concerns in terms of separate areas of service delivery, such as health, education, training and employment. This splits up people's lives (Nord 1991) and tends to emphasise a service producer view ofpeople's needs and concerns. An everyday life perspective focuses instead on the multiplicity ofroles people play and the services they use as they accomplish each day. It has been strongly influenced by work on women's daily lives and interaction with living environments (Altman and Churchman 1994). Within an institutionalist perspective, the concept of everyday life means the social relations through which we accomplish human existence, in daily, weekly, yearly, lifespan and intergenerational time. 8 This is encapsulated in how peo6

7

8

For example, in the redIining practices of finance lenders, insurance companies and employers. This is not to deny the importance of economic activity, but just to look at it from both the point of view of the accomplishment of daily life and the accomplishment of business production. Social and economic dimensions are intertwined in both. The concept of everyday life is grounded theoretically; see Giddens (1984), who draws on Hagerstrand, to discuss everyday life in space and time, and the opportunity/constraint negotiation through which life is lived; see the recent Scandinavian work on women's daily lives (Friberg 1993; Nord 1991), and Lefebvre (1991), who uses the marxist terminology of

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pIe achieve daily life, their strategies of survival and coping (Mingione 1992), the tasks ofacquiring the material means ofexistence, the social supports for existence (social care, emotional support, moral development) and the aesthetic and expressive enrichment of life (enjoyment, exercise, sexual fulfilment, etc.).9 This everyday life point ofview not only provides an account ofhow people come to think about, use and value their living spaces. It also offers an evaluative perspective for public policy. Much policy debate focusing on citizens has emphasised rights and/or needs. Both are clearly important. But to evaluate policy solely in terms of whether it contributes to meeting needs or providing for rights narrows and homogenises our evaluative judgement. A richer concept is that ofchuman flourishing'. 10 It expresses a concern for ourselves and our fellow citizens, that we should all flourish, limited only by respect for each other's right to flourish and by local and global considerations ofsustainability. Public policy and governance activity can be judged in terms oftheir contribution to human flourishing, in the diverse ways in which people grow and develop. It is clear that the place where daily life is located is important in helping people to flourish. Some living places are easy to navigate and rich in resources for support and enhancement. Others are an obstacle course of hurdles and barriers, environmental and social contaminations which undermine physical and mental health and the development ofaspirations. In this context, social exclusion could mean being cut out ofopportunities to live with people and in places which enhance the chance of flourishing, in whatever way people may want to flourish. Recent research in northern England provides many illustrations of the problems people face in their living spaces. Single parents find themselves on estates with limited access to family and friends, lack ofchildcare, costly journeys to shop and to work and often with gardens to care for without the time, energy or funds for garden tools (Speak et ale 1995). People in some inner city neighbourhoods have to navigate a route to local shops through streets controlled by gangs ofyoung people or families for whom all conflicts are solved by physical means, or find their children playing with drug users' syringes (Taylor, Evans and Fraser 1996; Wood et ale 1995). Residents of small settledaily life as a space of reproduction. Habermas (1984) uses the term lifeworld, but in a rather dualistic way. 9 See Habermas (1984) for these distinctions and the need to grasp material, moral and expressive issues in any public realm activity. 10 This concept is already creeping into British social policy literature. It has deep philosophical roots. In western culture, it can be traced back to interpretations of the Greek concept of eudaimonia. Although translated by utilitarians into the concept of happiness, Nussbaum (1986) argues that the original concept as used by Aristotle was much richer.

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61

ments in rural areas find their local shops disappearing in the face ofcompetition from the large new edge of town centres, leading to a deteriorating image for their place which undermines their sense oftheir own quality ofHfe (Gilroy 1997). Such living places increasingly become abandoned by all except those with no choice. The everyday life concept thus focuses considerations of social exclusion and cohesion into an evaluative concern with how far processes of exclusion and cohesion make life easier or more difficult for people in the context of getting along and flourishing in the course of daily life.

Neighbourhoods as living places Much of daily life is spent transecting the space around the home. But for some people this space has little meaning. They come and go, usually by car, between the space behind the front door or garden gate and other spaces: the school, the workplace, the shopping centre, the leisure complex, the grandparents' house. For others, almost their whole year is spent in and around a particular place (Gilroy 1997). People's social relations inherently occur in place and time. People are in motion through space, encountering others, encountering opportunities and resources, challenges, threats and constraints. There is for all of us a living space around the home, a passive neighbourhood. But this becomes a living place, an active neighbourhood, as people come to use, enjoy and identify with its qualities and develop interactions with others. In social terms, neighbourhoods are places of multiple motion. People who live there become familiar with the social-physical landscape as they learn to negotiate their way around. In some neighbourhoods, the defining characteristics are the sense of neighbourliness and community as people greet each other, help each other out and work together on neighbourhood activities. These begin to develop some of the qualities which are implied in the concept of social cohesion, even if people do not have the tight nexus of social relations with each other implied by the gemeinschaft notion. In other neighbourhoods, people are uneasily bound together by the problems and tensions which they face. Gemeinschaft qualities (cohesive, place-based social worlds) develop where people who share a common space build up relational resources among themselves in order to reduce the impact ofthreats and constraints and to create the opportunities of place-based collaboration. For example, some old industrial neighbourhoods in northern England still have this quality and many have a memory of it, linked to the production relations ofthe mining and shipbuilding industries in particular. So different places offer different relational environments for social life. For many people, these environments are the key places which define their social worlds, particularly

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for those with limited mobility and limited access to work and leisure opportunities. The quality of the social worlds of living places, particularly for these groups, makes a difference to people's ability to flourish. These relational qualities of neighbourhoods do not, however, occur in isolation. How they develop is intimately linked to the way the relational webs of those living there link to other people in other places. Many residents may have stakes in all kinds of other places, through work, family, leisure, etc. A living place could be evaluated in terms both of its internal supports for cohesion and human flourishing and the richness of its connections to opportunities outside. Many people elsewhere may have a stake in what happens in a neighbourhood. Some people may seek to get to live there. Or they may fear its difference from other neighbourhoods. Once a neighbourhood gets involved in policy-driven community development, all kinds of outsiders may come peering in. Figure 3.1 illustrates this in a stakeholder map ofthose drawn into a community development initiative in the West End of Newcastle in Britain. 11 This highlights the way social exclusions and cohesions are expressed in the mental maps through which residents, employers and service providers view the social space of the city or region. Neighbourhoods are symbolised in people's conceptions of place, leading to valuing and devaluing processes which can be very exclusionary, such as low property values, redlining, etc. This is tied up in conceptions of,my place', 'your place', 'their place'. To take one example, a Newcastle neighbourhood was both 'the place I call home' (for an insider) and 'an appalling place' (for an outsider) (Wood et ale 1995). An important dimension ofneighbourhood improvement work is to consider how people value their living places, how they compare them with others, and within what social context this valuing takes place. Social exclusion and governance capacity An institutionalist approach emphasises the social relational processes through which living places are given importance to those with a stake in them and how this may produce exclusions and inclusions, cohesions and fragmentations. Governance actions clearly have the potential to influence these processes in significant and diverse ways. To explore the way this influence could be exercised and its potential for enhancing or reducing exclusionary processes requires a shift in thinking away from public action as the delivery of products by specific agencies to a relational view of governance 11 See Bryson and Crosby (1992) for the concept of stakeholder and stakeholder mapping.

Age Concern

Inner City Forum

RESIDENTS

*. Residents * Tenants Association

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Business in the Community

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Chambers of Commerce

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- Tyne and Wear UDC - *Tyneside TEC *. Northumbria Police * Newcastle Health Authority

- - (-)Dept Environment - ·Dept of Education * Dept Trade & Industry G.O.N.E.

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS

Figure 3.1 Stakeholder map of a community development initiative in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the northeast of England

VOLUNTARyrrHIRD SECTOR ORGANISATIONS

ENTRUST Save the Children Fund Princes Volunteer Trust Tyne and Wear Foundation Gay Rights MESMAC Newcastle Arch Wshop Racial Equality Council

Officers: * Chief Execs Dept • * Housing Dept Social Services Dept Development Dept

NEWCASTL'E CITY COUNCIL

• • Councillors

SOCIAL SECTOR PROFESSIONAL GROUPS

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processes and the way these influence the relational resources available in an urban region. How do the forms and processes of governance impinge on these social processes? This will be explored through two concepts: that of governance as collective action, wherever it originates, and that of institutional capacity: Governance as collective action In an institutionalist approach, governance is taken to mean any kind of process or activity where people come together to perform activities of mutual benefit or where agencies perform what is justified as in the collective or public interest. Such collective activity can take many forms, from managing family affairs to organising the delivery of social welfare benefits. Formal government is only a part of this. The boundaries between what formal government does, what is done in a market form, what is done by organised voluntary bodies and what is done informally are always being negotiated and renegotiated (Healey 1997a; Judge, Stoker and Wolman 1995; Mayo 1994). Formal government in our societies has grown into a powerful force, structuring opportunities and constraints. A key normative interest for many concerned with citizenship and democracy at present is how to shift the juggernaut (Towers 1995) to reduce its oppressive qualities and make it a force to provide support for rather than constraints on people's capacity to flourish. We can also ask how far formal government activity, and governance more widely, contributes to developing and maintaining exclusionary processes which limit people's capacity to flourish, and how far it contributes towards cohesions and inclusions which promote this capacit~ The British situation illustrates the contradictory tendencies at work. During the 1980s and 1990s, national government policy has been both reducing the burden ofgovernment and reinforcing its power (Gamble 1988). This is evident in urban policy initiatives which emphasise giving autonomy to new partnerships (often a sort of third sector agency) while subjecting them to strict requirements as regards annual output performance indicators (Oatley 1995). Due to national policy changes and economic changes, people in neighbourhoods where many poor people live find they have both fewer job opportunities and reduced welfare benefits. They are excluded from work in the formal economy and doubly squeezed in terms of material resources. At the same time, they are being asked to participate in more tenant management and community development, to take on governance roles sloughed off by government. Those interested in community development, both community members and outsiders, welcome this new preparedness on the part of government to be responsive to what people want, but can see that people's

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time and energy to respond to this marginal opening of the public sector is undermined by the other pressures they face as a result of political and economic restructuring (Mayo 1994; Thake 1995). A key resource in this context is access to the various networks generated by these new initiatives. These provide access to influence over power, to knowledge, to social and leisure opportunities and to training and sometimes even jobs. Social exclusion could therefore have a meaning relating to isolation from these relational resources. But it is not clear that these new forms of partnership and new opportunities for circulating government resources around places generate an enduring cohesion. Their current form is largely ephemeral, a sort oflurching gravy train which halts for a while in a place and then moves on. Unless an initiative is really generated from within the community or driven by facilitators extremely sensitive to the dynamics of local social relations, little attention is likely to be given to the relational resources and forms of collective management which already exist in a place, typically informal and centred on the world offamily and neighbours. As a result, far from building more cohesive relationships around people's living place, the gravy train could render them more unstable. 12 This suggests that research and public policy attention should be given to: (1) how formal government actions currently impact on people in the context of their everyday lives in neighbourhoods, and whether these actions contribute to or detract from the reinforcement of exclusionary processes; (2) what forms of governance exist, both formal and informal, which ones really make a difference to people's quality of life in their living places, and who gets access to these; and (3) what relational resources already exist and could provide a basis for sustainable improvements to the quality of neighbourhood life.

Institutional capacity Ifgovernance is described in this way, how are we to describe and evaluate it? One way is to map the stakeholders and the networks which connect them. This helps to provide a picture of the pattern and density of interaction, but provides little information about what flows through the interactions. An institutionalist approach emphasises the quality of the relationships and their relation to the social worlds which bind and divide political communities. 12 There is some evidence of these adverse effects in studies of the dynamics of partnership

(Hastings 1996), including our own work (Wood ct al. 1995). See also Schneekloth and Shibley (1995) on what it takes to help communities develop their place-making capabilities and how consultants can facilitate such processes. Note that the new 1997 Labour government promises to remove the competitive funding urban policy regime.

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The overall quality of governance as it affects individuals, their living places and their city or region is captured in the concept of institutional capacity, that is, the capability ofthe collection ofrelationships through which governance tasks are accomplished in any jurisdiction or political community. Like network, it is just a descriptive word until evaluated. Such evaluation can focus on whether the capability of the relational webs of a place contributes to or detracts from human flourishing and for whom. This in turn relates to what it is capable of achieving. There are a range of characteristics of institutional capacity which analysts in the institutionalist tradition focus on (Amin and Hausner 1996; Amin and Thrift 1995; Healey 1997a). These include: 1. The relational forms and processes of governance (who is involved, in relation to who could be involved (the stakeholders versus those with voice); the density of relations (their cohesion and stability); the spatial and social reach of the relationships (who gets access to influencing them and the benefits which flow from them); the key nodes and arenas of interaction; the forms and styles of discourse (whom they privilege, whom they dominate). 2. What gets circulated around (material resources, people skills, knowledge resources, social trust and cultural mores, and political capabilities and influence), the intellectual, social and political capital which develops (Innes et al. 1994). 3. The performance of particular governance tasks, in the social context of their performance (such as delivering inward investment strategies, sustenance for a rich small firm sector, or nurturing a context within which grassroots community development initiatives can flourish). An institutionalist approach emphasises, in particular, the building up ofrelational resources for public realm activities, as well as mobilising, making and sustaining relational links. Community development in neighbourhoods is rich with experience of such activity, with what it takes to keep going, and what undermines the possibility ofbuilding up community organisations and their survival. The role ofarenas and key networkers and community activists (brokers or social entrepreneurs) can be critical here (Mayo 1994; Schneekloth and Shibley 1995; Thake 1995). Social exclusion in this context could mean being poor in relational resources through which to get access to material capital, but also to intellectual, social and political capital. 13 It could also mean mobilising on a narrow base, to build up boundaries around a group in a defensive way, i.e. deliberately excluding. Many elite governance practices I 3 This can be considered as institutional or relational capital.

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are, ofcourse, ofthis form. This could provide another direction for assessing how far people in places are being excluded from access to the governance affecting their lives, and, in contrast, the degree of empowerment they experience, through voice, through being accorded attention (listened to), and through engagement in practical action (policy development, delivery and management). Recent British policy history provides a case study in how government actions can encourage exclusionary tendencies in cities and regions. Public policy in Britain has affected social life in neighbourhoods both through its people-focused policies and through place-based policies. The former (functional policies) have all been working together, along with changes in the economy and social life, to lead both to concentrations of the people with least resources (material or relational) in particular neighbourhoods and to defensive strategies ofdiscrimination, differentiation and exclusion as people try to protect the assets they do have (i.e. people have exclusion thrust upon them). Changes to social benefits policy, housing allocation policies and the general thrust of economic policy (luring the inward investor, emphasising large companies) have been perhaps the most significant here. Central and local government and quangos have mostly been following the same direction in these respects. Further, the restructuring of government agencies has not only re-targeted policies. It has also fractured relational links among agencies and between agencies and clients. Added to this, competition between government agencies for political and ideological reasons has led to a local politics of turf, as each agency tries to build up new relational resources for practical and political reasons. This produces a micropolitics ofexclusion and inclusion and adds to the fragmenting ofplace-based relationships, including those within neighbourhoods. The problem here is the failure to consider the relational resources through which governance activity is accomplished and to assess what it takes to build institutional capacity (Healey 1997b; Mayo 1994; Taylor 1995; Thake 1995). A similar failure is evident in place-targeted, micro-territorial policies. Britain has had a long history ofplace-targeted policies, and ofdebates about the relative merit of place versus people targeting (Blackman 1995; Cameron and Davoudi, Chapter 12 in this volume). In the 1980s, national government policy replaced place targeting with 'trickle down'. The failure oftrickle was partly due to the overall lack of flo~ But it was also because there were breaks and barriers impeding the trickle. Using this metaphor, policy makers began to suggest that social exclusion could be overcome by mending the breaks and hauling people back on board (Healey 1997b). This led to a concern with community development work to open up the routes to jobs (Gilroy 1996). This was combined with ideas of reconstituting governance by

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drawing in more private sector involvement and more self-help initiatives. It has led to a scattergun approach to promoting time-limited integrated initiatives based on partnership through which most targeted urban subsidy was delivered. 14 Ideas of giving citizens more control and empowerment, of the social responsibility of business, of the social responsibility of citizens for each other's care, and of offioading public sector costs were all wrapped into this. The criticism that a whole range of substantial and complex tasks were being offloaded on the most needy and vulnerable has been widely voiced. There are lots ofquestions, too, about the meaning ofempowerment in a governance context. Increasingly, the various partnerships look more like a sort of local corporatism than citizen empowerment, though they are leading to quite a bit of innovation in relation building, including changes in how local authorities are working (Bailey, Barker and McDonald 1995; Hastings 1996). Meanwhile, grassroots initiatives are being squeezed by the lack ofresources, the barriers to volunteering and the terms ofengagement demanded by those who trickle funds in their direction (Mayo 1994; Thake 1995). There are also significant tensions because of the different styles and routines of governance. Business groups, local government, grassroots organisations, and informal organisations all have different ways of going about doing things. This causes problems in efforts to coordinate among different government agencies. People learn how to link to one segment of government, but this relational capital is not much help when they come to have to make links to another (Le. the capital is not transferable). This is, in part, a reflection ofthe competition among government agencies. But it also arises because of the heavy functional centralism of the British state. The way governance arrangements in Britain split up everyday life is probably more extreme than in countries with more decentralised forms ofdelivery ofsocial welfare, as in Scandinavia. 15 There is considerable evidence of people and groups being excluded from governance initiatives because of mutual failure to notice differences in assumptions about routines and styles of organising (Davoudi and Healey 1995; Healey 1997b). Despite considerable efforts in community development in Britain, the overall consequence of these tendencies is that, in the neighbourhoods with most evidence ofexclusionary processes, current governance activity leads to the more vulnerable moving in and the stronger moving out. This reinforces exclusionary processes and adds to the stresses that go with adjusting to new living places and new relationships. Although there has been a lot of effort 14 See the City Challenge initiative and its successor, the Single Regeneration Budget.

I 5 Even here, there are complaints about the way policy delivery is sectoralised (see Nord 1991;

Cars and Edgren-Schori, Chapter 13 in this volume).

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within some neighbourhoods and by some activists and community professionals, it is difficult to build up neighbourhood-based community initiatives which have the capacity to endure beyond the starter initiative. So relational capital is not built up. Further, the tensions and difficulties ofthe mode ofdelivery ofgovernance tend to generate difficult choices for those involved as to whether to focus on building gemeinschaft, internal relations within the neighbourhood, or building links to the outside or mainstream. Since the outside is itselffragmented, in tension and changing, building up enduring external relationallinks is difficult (cf. Healey 1997b; Wood et al. 1995).

Concluding comments There has been continual debate in social and urban policy about whether policy should focus on people as individuals or on people in the areas where those with problems find themselves concentrated. This chapter has argued for a focus on people in their social worlds and on the extent to which the places where they live, their living environments, provide a supportive context within which to accomplish the challenges of daily living and which enable human flourishing. It is in this context that the neighbourhood provides a useful focus, seen not as socially and spatially integrated gemeinschaft community, but as a key living space through which people get access to material and social resources, across which they pass to reach other opportunities and which symbolises aspects of the identity of those living there, to themselves and to outsiders. Place-based disadvantage certainly exists, but not just because of the position of a place in local housing markets and the social maps people have of their city. The social experience that develops in places where those in particularly difficult situations find themselves concentrated adds to the difficulties people already experience. Some people in some neighbourhoods in such conditions do find ways to maximise their chances of flourishing. A key variable in whether this happens or not is the social world which builds up through social interaction in the living place. Such a conception of people in their living places requires a perspective which weaves together social relations and their spatial manifestation. This chapter has used an institutionalist point of view to provide such a perspective. This emphasises the social relational webs within which we develop activities and ways of thinking, and the way these provide us with access to material, as well as moral and emotional, resources. These webs act as a sort of relational capital. This perspective provides a particular meaning to the currently fashionable but contested concepts of social exclusion and social cohesion. All relational webs highlight some sorts of connections and ignore others. Some

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people are deeply embedded in a particular network, others are on the margins. Some cohesive relational webs develop social worlds which are supportive to members, enabling them to flourish in many dimensions. Others are limiting and exploitative. Some forms of exclusion allow particular people and groups to flourish in protected environments. Others limit people's opportunities to get access to a wide range of resources and supportive relationships, diminishing their chances of flourishing. These relational potentials are not easily captured in simple measures ofsocial exclusion and inclusion or cohesion and disintegration. This means that a key focus of policy research and action which aims to help those experiencing hardship in our societies needs to be on the social worlds in which people are living and their relational qualities. This requires an integrated view of what accomplishing and enriching daily, yearly, generational and intergenerational life involves, and the social worlds through which people shape their activities, aspirations and value-giving judgements. I argue that this may be provided through a focus on everyday life. From this point of vie~ what those policy makers concerned about social exclusion should be focusing on are those forms ofsocial exclusion which detract from the accomplishment ofa fulfilling everyday life and the kinds of social cohesion which enrich it. Such a relational focus on social exclusion and cohesion and on the social worlds of daily life also puts the spotlight on the quality of governance action. Many ofthe problematic exclusions which people face are generated by the way government agencies and initiatives operate, changing or ignoring the life conditions and social relationships of people living in neighbourhoods of concentrated disadvantage. This leads to questions about the kind of governance capacity which would help people in their living places to build richer relational resources without undermining the cohesions which provide a foundation for living. Top down, functionally separate, peopletargeted programmes have a role to play in public policy but, by themselves, merely distribute segments of resources or rights. They do not add much value to the process of expanding people's social worlds and making them more relationally rich. The scatter of initiatives which characterised British urban policy in the 1980s and 1990s under the Conservative government may also have had a valuable role where they locked into local relationbuilding dynamics. If this did not happen, the waves of initiatives may have damaged the social worlds people need to sustain themselves. The implication is that policy development for areas where human flourishing is currently very difficult to achieve should be founded in the aim to build up and enrich the social worlds of people in their living places, in both material and social ways. This demands an integrated and people-centred understanding from policy communities. A useful input into such community development

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processes could be some kind ofqualitative audit of the kind of relational resources available to a group of people in a place and what people consider to be the significant constraints on their capacity to flourish. But frequently, in places labelled by policy makers as neighbourhoods of social exclusion, the real exclusion is from the processes of governance. By this is meant not merely the capacity for voice and influence, but a sympathetic and respectful grasp by those controlling governance resources (material, regulatory, relational) of what living in a place is like. UntH those with governance power have a respectful grasp ofthe social worlds in which those in difficulty live, and until the processes through which governance initiatives become open to the voices and ways of thinking of the people who are the targets ofurban policy, governance processes will achieve only limited reductions in overcoming social exclusion. References Altman, I. and Churchman, A. (eds) (1994) WOmen and the Built Environment. New York: Plenum Press. Amin, A. and Hausner, J. (1996) 'Interactive governance and social complexit}'-' In A. Amin and J. Hausner (eds) Bryond Market and Hierarchy: Social Complexity and Interactive Governance. Aldershot: Edward Elgar. Amin, A. and Thrift, N. (1995) 'Globalisation, "institutional thickness" and the local economy.' In P. Healey, S. Cameron, S. Davoudi, S. Graham and A. Madanipour (eds) Managing Cities. London: John Wile)!. Baile~ N., Barker, A. and McDonald, K. (1995) Partnerships in Practice. London: UCL Press. Bendick, M. and Egan, M.L. (1993) 'Linking business development and community development in inner cities.' Journal ofPlanning Literature 8, 3-19. Blackman, T. (1995) Urban Polity in Practice. London: Routledge. Bryson, J. and Crosby, B. (1992) Leadership in the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared Power World. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Davoudi, S. and Heale~ P. (1995) 'City Challenge: sustainable process of temporary gesture.' Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 13, 79-95. Duggan, C. and Ronayne, T. (1991) J+arking Partners? The State and the Community Sector. Dublin: Work Research Centre. Friberg, T. (1993) Everyday Lift: WOmens Adaptive Strategies in Time and Space. Stockholm: Swedish Building Research Institute. Friedmann, J. (1992) Empowmnmt. Oxford: Blackwell. Gamble, A. (1988) The Free Economy and the Strong State. London: Macmillan. Geertz, C. (1983) Local Knowledge. New York: Basic Books. Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Gilroy, R. (1996) 'Building routes to power: lessons from Cruddas Park.' Local Economy ", 4. Gilroy, R. (1997) Social Lift: Everyday Lift in Sedge/ield Borough. Report for Sedgefield District Council. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action} Vol 1. London: Heinemann. Hastings, A. (1996) 'Unravelling the process of "partnership" in urban regeneration policy.' Urban Studies 33, 2, 253-268. Healey, ~ (1997a) Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies. London: Macmillan. Healey, ~ (1997b) 'City fathers, mandarins and neighbours.' In O. Kalltorp, I. Elander, 00 Ericcsson and M. Franzen (eds) Cities in Transftrmation: Transformation in Cities: Social and Symbolic Changes in Urban Space. Aldershot, Hants: Avebu~ Healey, ~, Cameron, S., Davoudi, So, Graham, S. and Madanipour, A. (1995) 'Introduction: the city - crisis - change and invention.' In ~ Heale~ S. Cameron, S. Davoudi, S. Graham and A. Madanipour (eds) Managing Cities. London: John Wiley. Hudson, R. (1989) Wrecking the Region: State Policie~ Party Politics and Regional Change in North East England. London: Pion. Innes, J., Gruber, Jo, Thompson, R. and Neuman, M. (1994) 'Co-ordinating growth and environmental management through consensus-building.' Report to the California Policy Seminar, University of California, Berkeley. Unpublished. Judge, D., Stoker, G. and Wolman, H. (1995) Theories of Urban Politics. London: Sage. Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Social Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell. Mast, R. (ed) (1994) Detroit Lives. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Mayo, M. (1994) Communities and Caring. London: Macmillan. Mingione, E. (1992) Fragmented Societies: A Sociology ofEconomic Lift Beyond the Market Paradigm. Oxford: Blackwell. Mingione, E. (ed) (1996) Urban Poverty and the Underclass: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. Nord (1991) The New Everyday Lift. Stockholm: Nordic Council. Nussbaum, M. (1986) The Fragility of Goodness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oatley, N. (1995) 'Competitive urban policy and the regeneration game.' Town Planning Review 66, 1, 1-14. Pattison, G. (1996) Restructuring culture: identification of difference and the regulation of change in the ex-mining communities of East Durham. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Rabinow, R (ed) (1991) The Foucault Reader. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Room, G. (ed) (1995) The Measurement and Analysis ofSocial Exclusion. Bristol: Policy Press. Schneekloth, L. and Shibley, R. (1995) Place-Making: The Art and Practice of Building Communities. New York: John Wiley.

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Speak, S., Gilroy, R., Cameron, S. and Woods, R. (1995) Young Single Mothers: Barriers to Independent Living. London: Family Policy Studies Centre. Taylor, M. (1995) Unleashing the Potential: Bringing Residents to the Centre of Regeneration. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Taylor, I., Evans, K. and Fraser, P. (1996) A Tale of Two Cities: A Study ofManchester and Sheffield. London: Routledge. Thake, S. (1995) Staying the Course: The Role and Structure of Community Regeneration Organizations. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Towers, G. (1995) Building Democracy. London: VCL Press. Williams, C.C. and Windebanck, J. (1 995) 'Spatial variations in the informal sector: a review of evidence from the European Union.' Regional Studies 28,8,819-825. Wood, J., Gilroy, R., Healey, P. and Speak, S. (1995) Changing the ~y we Do Things Here: The Cruddas Park Initiative. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Young, I. (1990)Justice and the Politics ofDifference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

CHAPTER FOUR

Social Exclusion and Space Ali Madantpour

This chapter concentrates on the relationship between social exclusion and space, exploring some of the frameworks which institute barriers to spatial practices. Its particular emphasis is on the way these barriers to movement are intertwined with social exclusionary processes. This shows that exclusion should be regarded as a socio-spatial phenomenon. After exploring the dimensions of social exclusion, the spatiality of social exclusion is asserted. We explore the way difference is approached in space and how it lies at the foundation of socio-spatial exclusion. We look at how exclusion is experienced in our spatial practices and explore some forms of institutionalised spatial barriers. These include the national space and, at the local level, how difference finds spatial manifestation through land and property markets, the regulatory framework of town planning, and the public-private distinction. The chapter concludes by arguing that spatial planning's contribution to social integration should include promoting accessibility and spatial freedom.

Dimensions of social exclusion There is little disagreement on some of the major problems facing European cities (Borooah and Hart 1995; European Commission 1994; Mingione 1991; 1996). Challenges ofcompetition from a global economy marked by a multiplicity ofcompetitors and the European response in the form ofmoving into an integrative partnership are both aspects of globalisation which have reshaped the social and spatial geography ofcities. The restructuring ofcities and societies, however, has been a costly exercise, as it has been parallel with a growing social divide, long-term unemployment and joblessness, especially for men, and casualisation of work, undermining the quality of life for large groups of the population. These symptoms have led to concerns for the frag75

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mentation of the social world, where some members of society are excluded from the 'mainstream' and where this exclusion is painful for the excluded and harmful for society as a whole. Yet the concept of social exclusion still appears to be in need of clarification due to the variety of the cultural and political contexts in which it has been used. For some it is the question ofpoverty which should remain the focus of attention, while for others social exclusion makes sense in the broader perspective of citizenship and integration into the social context (Duffy 1995; Room 1995; Spieker 1996). Social exclusion, therefore, is not necessarily equated with economic exclusion, although this form of exclusion is often the cause of a wider suffering and deprivation. As a concept, social exclusion still suffers from a lack of clarity, as it is interpreted and analysed differently. We come across a degree of ambiguity especially between poverty and social exclusion. Some researchers, who have concentrated on the problems of poverty, find social exclusion a vague concept which, for whatever reason, takes attention away from poverty and deprivation. Furthermore, it is argued that the concept of social exclusion is rooted in a certain intellectual and cultural tradition (Catholic, solidarity) (Spieker 1996) and a particular welfare regime (corporatist) and as such is not shared by other (especially liberal) cultures and welfare regimes. On the other hand, those who find social exclusion a useful concept criticise an emphasis on poverty as too narrow. They seek to open the discussion to accommodate the general issues ofsocial integration and citizenship. To confront this ambiguity and contradiction, we need to clarify the concept of social exclusion first (Madanipour 1996a). The overall constitution of the social world is such that different forms of exclusion are fundamental to any social relationship. For example, the division of social life into public and private spheres means drawing boundaries around some spatial and temporal domains and excluding others from these domains. In this way, exclusion becomes an operating mechanism, an institutionalised form of controlling access: to places, to activities, to resources and to information. Individual actions as well as legal, political and cultural structures rely heavily upon this operating mechanism and reproduce it constantly (Benn and Gaus 1983a, b; Habermas 1989). Institutionally organised or individually improvised, it appears that we are all engaged in exclusionary processes that are essential for our social life. Yet we know that, whatever their importance, these exclusionary processes work in close relationship with inclusionary activities to maintain a social fabric. Maintaining the continuity of the social world is only possible through a combination ofand a fine balance between these two processes. At the individual level, seeking privacy without seeking social interaction

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would lead to isolation. At the social level, exclusion without inclusion would lead to a collapse ofsocial structures. What is a negative state ofaffairs, therefore, is not exclusion in all its forms but an absence of inclusionary processes, a lack of a balance between exclusion and inclusion. But what are the dimensions of the social world in which inclusion and exclusion take place? It is often mentioned that social exclusion is multidimensional (e.g. Room 1995). To be able to identify and analyse these dimensions, we should look at the dimensions of the social world in which exclusion and inclusion take place. We can identify economic, political and cultural arenas as the three broad spheres of social life in which social inclusion and exclusion are manifested and, therefore, can be analysed and understood. In the economic arena, the main form of inclusion is access to resources, which is normally secured through employment. The main form ofexclusion, therefore, is a lack of access to employment. Marginalisation and long-term exclusion from the labour market lead to an absence of opportunity for production and consumption, which can in turn lead to acute forms ofsocial exclusion. Exclusion from the economic arena is often considered to be a crucial and painful form of exclusion. Poverty and unemployment are therefore frequently at the heart of most discussions of social exclusion, to the extent that poverty and economic exclusion are equated with social exclusion (Duffy 1995). There is a tendency in the literature to use these terms interchangeably: It is true that long-term economic exclusion can break down the political and cultural ties of the affected individuals and social groups. It is important, however, to note that there are other forms ofsocial exclusion in political and cultural spheres. In the political arena, the main form of inclusion is to have a stake in power, to participate in decision making. In European liberal democracies, inclusion is often ensured through voting and other processes associated with it. The most obvious form of social exclusion, therefore, is lack of political representation. This may take various forms: from the under-representation of women in parliaments and governments, to the complete exclusion of immigrant groups from political decision making; from the argument by smaller political parties for a new system ofrepresentation which would allow them a fairer share of power, to a withdrawal from political participation by those excluded in the economic and cultural arenas. In the cultural arena, the main form ofinclusion is to share a set ofsymbols and meanings. The most powerful of these have historically been language, religion and nationality: Some of the new sets of symbolic relationships include the way individual and group identities are formed through association

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with patterns of consumption, from necessities of daily life to cultural products. For example, in what has been termed a visual culture, aesthetics of social behaviour has become an essential part of social life. The main form of exclusion in the cultural arena, therefore, becomes a marginalisation from these symbols, meanings, rituals and discourses. The forms of cultural exclusion vary widely, as experienced by minorities whose language, race, religion and lifestyle are different from those of the larger society. Different social groups may experience varying degrees ofthese different but highly interrelated forms ofsocial exclusion. The most acute forms ofsocial exclusion, however, are those that simultaneously include elements of economic, political and cultural exclusion. The other end of the spectrum is occupied by citizens who are fully integrated in the mainstream of society through these three dimensions. Between these two extremes, there is a wide range ofvariations in which individuals and groups are included in some arenas but excluded in others. A major trend is that more and more people suffer from anxiety and uncertainty, as there are ever larger numbers in transition from inclusion to exclusion. Spatiality of social exclusion

Social exclusion, therefore, should be understood in its political, economic and cultural dimensions. Exclusion from the political arena, i.e. the denial of participation in decision making, can alienate individuals and social groups. In the cultural arena, exclusion from common channels of cultural communication and integration can have similar effects. The exclusion from work and its impacts are widely known as undermining the ability of individuals and households to participate actively in social processes. When combined, these forms of exclusion can create an acute form of social exclusion which keeps the excluded at the very margins of the society, a phenomenon all too often marked by a clear spatial manifestation in deprived inner city or peripheral areas. A major problem in the study ofsocial exclusion is that it often concentrates on individuals and households. Room (1995) is rightly arguing for a shift in research from households to local communities, which would deal with the spatial dimensions of social exclusion. Here lies a severe problem, as Touraine reminds us. As societies increasingly resemble firms fighting for their survival in the global market place, the real danger lies in: 'a complete dissociation between system and actors, between the technical or economic world and the world of subjectivity' (Touraine 1995, p.5). In such dissociation, the marginalised people and marginalised places undermine the legitimacy and authority ofthese systems and threaten to block the route to survival. Tackling the problems of social

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exclusion becomes ever more crucial, as these areas become scenes of riots and social unrest. In the past, this spatiality of social exclusion had led to attempts to dismantle such pockets of deprivation without necessarily dismantling the causes of deprivation or the forces bringing them together in particular enclaves. The dismantling of spatial concentrations of deprivation has been a continuous trend: from Baron Haussmann's wide boulevards in the middle of poor neighbourhoods in the nineteenth century, to the slum clearance programmes and more subtle forms of housing management in the twentieth century. These have been attempts to de-spatialise social exclusion, which is evidence of its inherent and re-emerging spatiality: The latest form of despatialisation and re-spatialisation of social exclusion is homelessness, a process in which some groups are cut off from their previous socio-spatial contexts and are apparently without a home base. They, however, have clustered in particular parts of cities, spatialising again what was thought to be despatialised.

Spatiality and difference The absence of homogeneity is most apparent in cities, as they are sites ofdifference. Large cities have often grown by attracting people from around the country in which they are located or even from around the world. Cities have always been known as the meeting places of different people. As Aristotle noted: 'A city is composed of different kinds of men; similar people cannot bring a city into existence' (quoted in Sennett 1994, p.13). The unprecedented growth of cities since the nineteenth century has permanently brought forward the issue of difference in the city as a feature of urban life. Wirth (1964) in his celebrated theory ofurbanism saw heterogeneity as a determining feature ofthe city, along with population size and density: For him, the city was a 'melting-pot of races, peoples, and cultures, and a most favourable breeding-ground of new biological and cultural hybrids' (Wirth 1964, p.69). In the city, individual differences have 'not only [been] tolerated but rewarded' (Wirth 1964, p.69). Such emphasis on the heterogeneity ofcities has led to conceiving it as a world of strangers (Karp, Stone and Yoels 1991). Two sets ofreactions to the diversity in the city can be identified: there are those who have tried to impose an order onto it so that it becomes understandable and manageable and those who promote a celebration of diversity: However, both these reactions, which indeed represent modernist and postmodernist thinking (Madanipour 1995), have been unable to deal with the issue ofsocial marginalisation and exclusion. Concentrations ofdisadvantage have remained in cities, despite the large-scale redevelopment schemes of the

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rationalist tendency and the more sensitive spatial transformations which followed. On the one hand, emphasis on the eradication of difference and seeing the city as a melting pot has led to undermining sensitivities and to disruption oftives. On the other hand, the emphasis on difference has led to social fragmentation and tribalism. Both have failed to cure the wounds of those living on the edge of the societ~ Barriers to spatial practices

But how do we analyse space? There are many gaps and dilemmas associated with understanding space. From the centuries-old philosophical divide between absolute and relational space, to the gap between mental and real space, between physical and social space, between abstract and differential space, to the relationship between space and mass, space and time, and the variety of perspectives from which space can be studied, all bear the possibility of confusion and collision (Madanipour 1996a). It is possible to show, however, that to avoid the gaps and dilemmas associated with understanding space, we need to concentrate on the processes which produce the built environment. By analysing the intersection between space production and everyday life practices, we will be able to arrive at a dynamic understanding of space. We will then be able to understand and explain material space and its social and psychological contexts and attributes. The question ofsocial exclusion and integration, it can be argued, largely revolves around access. It is access to decision making, access to resources, and access to common narratives, which enable social integration. Many of these forms of access have clear spatial manifestations, as space is the site in which these different forms of access are made possible or denied. There is a direct relationship between our general sense of freedom and well-being with the choices open to us in our spatial practices. The more restricted our social options, the more restricted will be our spatial options, and the more excluded we feel or become. On the other hand, if we have a wide range of social options, we would have a wide range of places to go to, places for living, working and entertainment. Two extreme cases of the existence or absence of spatial freedom may be jetsetting executives versus prisoners. Whereas for one, the world may be shrinking to seem like a global village open for communication and interaction, for the other the world outside is large and out of reach. For most of us, however, our spaces are a continuum from accessible to non-accessible places. The space around us is a collection of open, closed or controlled places. But how is the urban space organised and how are spatial practices controlled and regulated? We all have an understanding of the places where we

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can or cannot go, as over the years through our spatial practices, we have accumulated a knowledge about places and their patterns of accessibility: The physical organisation of space, using elements from the natural or the built environment, has been socially and symbolically employed to put visible and strict limits on our spatial practices. For example, topography has always been used to institute difference and segregation, from ancient times when the hilltops were the place of gods for Greeks and Mesopotamians, to our own time when they are the living places of the rich and powerful. There is also a mental space, our perceptions ofspace. This may be regulated through codes and signs, preventing us from entering some spaces through outright warning or more subtle deterrents. Mental space may also be controlled through our fears and perceptions ofactivities in places. For example, we may be hesitant to enter an expensive-looking shopping centre if we do not have access to the resources needed for the activities there, even though there may not be any physical barriers which would prevent us from going there. A third form of barrier to our spatial behaviour is social control, which can range from legal prohibitions on entering places to constructing formal barriers along publicly recognised borders. National borders and public-private boundaries are examples of this form. A combination of formalised rules and regulations, informal codes and signs, and fears and desires control our spatial behaviour and alert us to the limitations on our access. Through these, we have come to know whether we can enter a place, are welcomed in another and excluded from others. More restrictions on our access to our surroundings would bring about the feeling of being trapped, alienated and excluded from our social space. Space has, therefore, a major role in the integration or segregation of urban society. It is a manifestation of social relationships while affecting and shaping the geometries of these relationships. This leads us to the argument that social exclusion cannot be studied without also looking at spatial segregation and exclusion. Social cohesion or exclusion, therefore, are indeed socio-spatial phenomena. As Lefebvre (1991) put it, every society creates its own space. Exclusionary spatial organisation is in close relationship to social systems whose constitution is inherently built upon some form of social exclusionary processes. We know that all human societies have their own forms of social and spatial exclusion. So exclusionary processes per se are not the source of social fragmentation and disintegration. It is the absence of social integration which causes social exclusion, as individuals do not find the possibility and channels of participating in the mainstream socie~

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Global and national space National borders are the largest means of socio-spatial exclusion. The modern nation state exerts an exclusionary process along its boundaries, from lines on maps to barbed wires on the landscape. Those who are left outside need to go through special checks and controls to be allowed in. The same applies to those who are in and want to go out. The control of cross-border movement by the nation state, or by blocks ofnation states as in the European Union, is a form of exclusion legitimated openly through political processes. Anational territory, therefore, is a spatial manifestation ofan institutionalised exclusionary process. Other administrative boundaries, although potentially exclusionary, do not have such a forceful character, nor are they associated with such a degree of public awareness, such historical significance, or guarded by military might. No other form of exclusion has been associated with such high costs in human life, sacrifice and misery Attempts to change or to protect national borders have inflicted the highest cost in human lives in the twentieth century, as experienced by two world wars and many regional conflicts. The birth ofa nation state, when the multi-ethnic empires and states break up, can be a bloody process in which every means is used to exclude others. The surgical subdivision of national space, whether through external forces as in postwar Germany or by exploding internal forces as in the former Yugoslavia, has been equally difficult for those excluded from what they have regarded as their home. In the national space enclosed within these boundaries, narratives of nationalism have been employed to legitimise the exclusion of others beyond these boundaries. Indeed, exclusionary narratives, which determine how 'we' are different from others, are often essential in binding individuals together as a group. The most dangerous of these narratives has been the rhetoric of hatred against other nations, races and groups. But there are many such exclusionary narratives which do not necessarily promote violence and hatred and still have a binding power. With these narratives, which often rely on a common historical experience, large groups of people have been associated with each other. The focal point ofthis association has been the nation state, which holds the power of controlling the national borders. The narratives of nationalism attempt to create homogeneity out of an enormous diversity. As individuals have come together to create a democratic civil society, such narratives have helped the organisation of modern democratic states. As Habermas notes, however, the assumption that the 'bonding energy of a homogenous nation' is a necessary prerequisite for democracy is 'both empirically false and politically dangerous' (Habermas 1996, p.lO). The national space that has been created in this way, therefore, may be considered an abstract space imposed on the rich diversity of the human world.

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In reaction to this imposition, Lefebvre (1991) argues, there is a need for differential space, where the right to be different is recognised. This new differentiation is particularly visible in the disintegration of imperial realms, such as in the case of the former Soviet Union, but also in the case of the declining power of nation states in the global marketplace. The new emphasis is on the historical fbrces, the common cultural traditions that bind people together, the forces of religion and ethnicity with which large groups can identify themselves. Yet we are aware of the difficulties that such differentiation may bring about. From Belfast to Sarajevo and Beirut, these diverse loyalties have been in collision, causing large-scale human suffering. These conflicts and collisions have found clear spatial manifestations, creating barriers which include and exclude entire social groups. Here the line between differential space and confrontational space has been very thin. However, such loyalties are not all dangerous and militant. Without some form of common cultural communication, there is a danger of extreme individualism, whereby social disintegration may threaten the social fabric without a recipe for replacement. From elitist artists to popular musicians and football players, there is competition to create common meaning and a shared, albeit short-term, experience. These attempts, however, often take place in the mainstream. Ifsections ofthe population, all too often those with the greatest degree of difference, are isolated from these shared experiences, they experience a visible form of social exclusion. This may not find a spatial manifestation, unless it is combined with other forms ofeconomic and political exclusion. In this case, it grows out of socio-spatial exclusion, where concentrations ofdeprivation and exclusion act as barriers to social integration.

Neighbourhoods, markets and regulation At the local level, by following two processes, land and property development on the one hand and spatial planning on the other hand, we can see how a socio-spatial geometry of difference and segregation, which is the foundation of exclusion, emerges. We come across the term neighbourhood in a variety of distinct but interrelated usages. In one sense, the term is used loosely to address a locality. This daily usage is based on the images and understandings by individuals and groups of their surroundings. This is a view from below and, as such, can lead us to see a city as a collection ofoverlapping neighbourhoods. Research on people's perception of neighbourhood shows major differences according to age, gender, class and ethnicity. At the other end of the scale, there is a concept of neighbourhood from above, from the viewpoint of such experts as managers, planners and designers. Here neighbourhood refers to a particular part ofa town and is used to understand urban

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structure and change in urban societ}T. It is also used as a tool for management. From this viewpoint, the city is seen as a collection ofsegregated neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods as constituent parts of cities have long been the focus of attention by urban designers and planners. Drawing upon historic precedents and for practical reasons, neighbourhood has provided them with an intimate scale of the urban whole to understand and to deal with. Historicall~ neighbourhoods have been the sites and physical manifestations of close social relationships and so have been praised by town planners, especially those who have looked nostalgically to the feudal bonds of the medieval towns and the communal bonds of working class neighbourhoods in the industrial city. A dichotomy emerged as a result ofthe unprecedented growth of the cities: between gesellschafi and gemeinschaft, between the alienation of the big city and the romanticised, small communities of towns and villages. To recreate the social cohesion of these small communities, it was thought, cities should be broken into smaller parts, into neighbourhoods. On the other hand, it was thought that the communitarianism of small neighbourhoods could overcome the individualism of the suburbs, those bourgeois utopias. It is this association of neighbourhood as a physical entity with neighbourhood as a cohesive social unit that led to a series of reformist ideas throughout the twentieth century. From the widely used, and discredited, concept of neighbourhood unit (Mumford 1954; Bartley, Chapter 7 in this volume), to Lynch's (1979) districts, which are still promoted to make cities legible (Bentley et ale 1985; Worpole 1992) and today's urban villages and new urbanist neighbourhoods (Katz 1994), there has been a long line of managerial attempts to promote social cohesion by spatial organisation. Along with this promotion ofspatial subdivision by town planning, there has been a promotion of socio-spatial segregation by market forces through the ways in which space is produced, exchanged and used. The producers of space, such as volume housebuilders, tend to build in large-scale housing estates, creating an urban fabric which is a collection of different subdivisions. The land and property markets have operated so as to ensure the segregation ofincome groups and social classes. Commodification ofspace has led to different patterns ofaccess to space and hence a differential spatial organisation and townscape. Wherever there has been a tendency to decommodify space, as in the postwar social housing schemes, town planners and designers have ensured that a degree of spatial subdivision still prevailed. We can therefore identify two processes: a land and property market which sees space as a commodity and tends to create socio-spatial segregation through differential access to this commodity, and a town planning and design tendency to regulate and rationalise space production by the imposi-

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tion ofsome form oforder. When we look at these two processes together, the picture which emerges is a collectivisation of difference, of exclusion, which can lead to enclaves for the rich and the creation ofnew ghettos for the poor. This is a picture of the city as a mosaic of segregated socio-spatial neighbourhoods, created as a result of the market and the intended or unintended consequences of town planning. It is a reflection of how the producers and managers of space prefer to subdivide urban space into smaller, manageable units. The users of urban space, however, have different tendencies, depending on their access to space and their social and spatial mobility: Suburbanisation has been a major indication of how social and spatial mobility are interconnected. For those who can afford to choose, a new neighbourhood is a new social atmosphere. For those who cannot move, however, a neighbourhood is a boundary which is very difficult to cross. This shows how space is a barrier and can act to exclude. It is also freedom from being included, from being subordinated. Space, therefore, can be utilised in both ways. What is needed is an urban form which allows freedom and security but not by segregation and exclusion.

Public and private space Another form of socio-spatial exclusion, which is enforced with a rigour somewhat similar to the protection of national borders, is the separation between public and private territories. We guard our private spheres from intruders by whatever means, in some countries even legitimately by firearms. Privacy, private property and private space are intertwined, demarcated through a variety of objects and signs: from subtle variations of colour and texture to fences and high walls. Those who are in are entitled to be, excluding those who are not. This is an exclusionary process legitimised through public discourse, through custom or law. Violation of this exclusionary process is regarded as, at best, inconvenience and, at worst, crime. Public space, which is one ofthe manifestations ofsociety's public sphere, is maintained by public agencies in the public interest and is accessible to the public (Benn and Gaus 1983a). Access to public space, however, is subject to exclusionary processes. Public space is guarded from intrusion by private interests, a process which is regarded as essential for the health of the society (Habermas 1989). Some of the main currents in social and political thought that offer concepts of public space appear to stress the need to keep the public and private spheres distinctive and apart (Arendt 1958; Benhabib 1992; Benn and Gaus 1983b; Calhoun 1992; Habermas 1989; Rosenau 1992), despite the criticism that this idealises the distinction (Fraser 1989).

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The relevance of public sphere theories to investigations into space is becoming paramount (Howell 1993). These concepts are echoed in various definitions of public space. Carr et ale (1992) regard public space as: 'the common ground where people carry out the functional and ritual activities that bind a communit~ whether in the normal routines of daily life or in periodic festivities' (p.xi). They see it as: 'The stage upon which the drama of communal life unfolds' (p.3). For Walzer: 'Public space is space we share with strangers, people who aren't our relatives, friends, or work associates. It is space for politics, religion, commerce, sport; space for peaceful coexistence and impersonal encounter,' and the character of public space 'expresses and also conditions our public life, civic culture, everyday discourse' (Walzer 1986, p.470). Tibbalds saw the public realm as: 'all the parts of the urban fabric to which the public have physical and visual access. Thus, it extends from the streets, parks and squares of a town or city into the buildings which enclose and line them.' For him, the public realm was, therefore: 'the most important part of our towns and cities. It is where the greatest amount ofhuman contact and interaction takes place' (Tibbalds 1992, p. 1). The changing nature of development companies and the entry of the finance industry into built environment production and management has partly led to what is widely known as the privatisation ofspace (Madanipour 1996b). Large-scale developers and financiers expect their commodities to be safe for investment and maintenance, hence their inclination to reduce as much as possible all the levels ofuncertainty which could threaten their interests. This trend is parallel with the increasing fear of crime, rising competition from similar developments, and the rising expectations ofthe consumers, all encouraging the development oftotally managed environments. What has emerged is an urban space where increasingly large sections are managed by private companies, as distinctive from those controlled by public authorities. Examples of these fragmented and privatised spaces are gated neighbourhoods, shopping malls and city centre walkways, under heavy private surveillance and separated from the public realm by controlled access and clear boundaries. This total management of parts ofthe city is in part an attempt to control crime. Crime acts as a counter-claim to space and as such is itself an exclusionary force, keeping many groups vulnerable and marginalised. Conclusion: social integration and spatial freedom Social exclusion combines lack of access to resources, to decision making, and to common narratives. The multidimensional phenomenon of social exclusion finds spatial manifestation, in its acute forms, in deprived inner or peripheral urban areas. This spatiality ofsocial exclusion is constructed through

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the physical organisation of space as well as through the social control of space, as ensured by informal codes and signs and formal rules and regulations. These formal channels act at all scales of space. Global space is fragmented by national spaces, which have a tendency to deny difference and homogenise social groups. At the scale of local space, spatialisation of social exclusion takes place through land and property markets. These markets tend to fragment, differentiate and commodify space through town planning mechanisms which tend to fragment, rationalise and manage space, and also through the legal and customary distinctions between the public and private spheres, with a constant tension between the two and a tendency for the privatisation of space. To break the trap ofsocio-spatial exclusion, one strategy could be to challenge these deep-seated forms of differentiation. We know, however, that wholesale challenges can be problematic themselves, as exemplified by attempts to redefine the public-private relationship in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, we know that any human society is likely to have some form of exclusionary process in its constitution. Nevertheless, it is true that the form of these exclusionary processes changes over time. A reflexive revisiting of the processes ofdifferentiation is therefore a constantly necessary task. At the same time what is necessary and urgent is to institute and promote inclusionary processes, to strike a balance between exclusion and integration, to provide the possibility of integration and to break the trap of socio-spatial exclusion. We have seen that space is a major component part ofsocial exclusion. Revisiting spatial barriers and promoting accessibility and more spatial freedom can therefore be the way spatial planning can contribute to promoting social integration.

References Arendt, H. (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago, University of Chicago P(ess. Benhabib, S. (1992) 'Models of public space: Hannah Arendt, the liberal tradition, and Jurgen Habermas.' In C. Calhoun (ed) Habmnas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Benn, S. and Gaus, G. (1983a) 'The public and the private: conc~pts and action.' In S. Benn and G. Gaus (eds) Public and Private in Social Lift. London: Croom Helm. Benn, S. and Gaus, G. (1983b) 'The liberal conception of the public and the private.' In S. Benn and G. Gaus (eds) Public and Pn·vate in Social Lift. London: Croom Helm. Bentley, I., Alcock, A., Murrain, P., McGlynn, S. and Smith, G. (1985) Responsive Environments: A Manualfor Designers. Oxford: Butterworth Architecture. Borooah, Y. and Hart, M. (1995) 'Labour market outcomes and economic exclusion.' Regional Studies 29, 5,433-38.

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Calhoun, C. (ed) (1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Carr, S., Francis, M., Rivlin, L. and Stone, A. (1992) Public Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Duffy, K. (1995) Social Exclusion and Human Dignity in Europe. Background report for the proposed initiative by the Council of Europe, Steering Committee on Social Policy (COPS), Strasbourg. European Commission (1994) Europe 2000+: Cooperation for European Territorial Development. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Fraser, N. (1989) Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minnesota, Minnesota University Press. Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Habermas, J. (1996) 'National unification and popular sovereignty.' NLR, No. 219, September/October 1996, 3-13. Howell, P. (1993) 'Public space and the public sphere: political theory and the historical geography of modernity.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 3,303-22.

1"

Karp, D., Stone, G. and Yoels, W. (1991) Being Urban: A Sociology of City Lift. New York: Praeger. Katz, ~ (ed) (1994) The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. New York: McGraw Hill. Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production ofSpace. Oxford: Blackwell. Lynch, K. (1979) The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Madanipour, A. (1995) 'Reading the city.' In P. Healey, S. Cameron, S. Davoudi, S. Graham and A. Madanipour (eds) Managing Cities: The New Urban Context. London: John Wiley. Madanipour, A. (1996a) 'Urban design and dilemmas of space.' Environment and Planning D, Society and Space 14, 33 1- 55. Madanipour, A. (1996b) Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry Into a Socio-Spatial Process. Chichester: John Wiley. Mingione, E. (1991) Fragmented Societies: A Sociology ofEconomic Lift Beyond the Market Paradigm. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Mingione, E. (1996) Urban Poverty and the Underclass: A Reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Mumford, L. (1954) 'The neighbourhood unit.' Town Planning Review 24,256-70. Room, G. (ed) (1995) Beyond the Threshold: The Measurement and Anarysis ofSocial Exclusion. Bristol: The Policy Press. Rosenau, ~M. (1992) Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Sennett, R. (1994) Flesh and Stone. London: Faber and Faber.

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Spieker, ~ (1996) 'The French perspective on, and understanding of, exclusion and inclusion,' Paper presented to the ESRC seminar on 'Concepts of Social Exclusion', 15th March 1996, London. Unpublished. Tibbalds, E (1992) Making People-Friendly Towns: Improving the Public Environment in Towns and Cities. Harlow, Essex: Longman. Touraine, A. (1995) Critique ofModernity. Oxford: Blackwell. Walzer, M. (1986) 'Pleasures and costs of urbanity.' Dissent} Public Space: A Discussion on the Shape of our Cities (Fall 1986), 470-75. Wirth, L. (1964) On Cities and Social Lift: Selected Papers. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Worpole, K. (1992) Towns fOr People: TransfOnning Urban Lift. Buckingham: Open University Press.

PART TWO

Experiences of Social Exclusion

Introduction The four chapters which follow develop the themes established in Part One of this book. They show how structural change affects the everyday lives of excluded people in four countries: England, Denmark, Ireland and France. Two aspects of social exclusion are highlighted. First, it is seen as a set of social practices which create a variety of social barriers which 'box people in', narrowing the range of opportunities open to them and dividing them from the rest of societ~ Second, this loss ofconnection with the wider society generates social fragmentation, fracturing social unity and supporting wider social practices which further isolate those whose position is already precarious. The first two chapters in this section take everyday life as their starting point. This perspective focuses on all those basic and routine activities which are carried out each day to sustain one's own life and that of others. Gilroy and Speak in Chapter 5 use this approach to identify the subtle social barriers which disconnect people from the wider society in England. They show how the fundamental social distinction between insiders and outsiders is reinforced by messages encoded in the physical environment ('I wouldn't venture there!'), by internalised psychological barriers ('I can't do that!') and byexternal organisational barriers ('It's a good idea, but we can't change the way we do things!'). They then explore how these barriers shape people's life journeys, concentrating on the transition from adolescence to independent adulthood. By examining in detail how these barriers shape the processes of getting a job and establishing a home, they illustrate how social and spatial barriers make it difficult to achieve a successful outcome of this normal life process, thus keeping young people in 'their place'. Vestergaard in Chapter 6 uses the everyday-life perspective to look at the experience of troubled housing estates in Denmark. Criminal activity, violence and theft, people drinking in public, gangs of youths, young men with big dogs and 'non-Danish looking' immigrants were all problems which led to high levels of dissatisfaction on these estates, coupled with their general social stigmatisation which was signalled to all by their run down and unkempt appearance. If the aim is to improve the quality of everyday life for all residents, then, Vestergaard argues, the focus ofsocial action must be on integrating those socially excluded groups whose behaviour is seen as destructive and disturbing by other tenants. She also argues that the specific way in which 'social caring' has been institutionalised within the Danish welfare 92

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state has created important barriers to recognising this new kind of problem. More optimistically, she argues that as the welfare state is being cut and reformed and as ethnic politics have become much more salient in Denmark, then the move to locate 'caring work' in civil society, outside both state and market, makes new approaches more possible simply because the old ways are no longer feasible. The second two chapters in this part of the book take the social management of space through town planning as their starting point. Bartley in Chapter 7 outlines how the development of the neighbourhood concept in town planning and its implementation in Dublin's new towns has led to low-rise peripheral housing estates characterised by road patterns which create cul-de-sacs into which no outsiders venture. Dublin's poorest population is trapped in these hidden estates, invisible, isolated from the wider society and spatially divided from each other. Bartley argues that one of the main functions of town planning is to fragment and isolate the working class, albeit in improved living conditions, while at the same time facilitating the redevelopment of inner Dublin said to be necessary for world competitiveness. While the specific spatial forms of exclusion may be specific to Dublin, the general argument is applicable to all cities where global competitiveness is seen as a major imperative. In contrast, Vrychea and Golemis in Chapter 8 trace the history ofManiatika, a neighbourhood within the city of Piraeus which has been settled by a group of people mostly drawn from a small part of the Peloponnese. They show how a succession of regional and local plans have scarcely touched this neighbourhood. These plans have, nonetheless, underpinned the development of the surrounding area in ways which further isolate this small area. Spatial isolation, together with the very low level ofwelfare state provision in Greece, has, in turn, supported the maintenance of a very traditional and patriarchal subculture. This, in turn, means that the main form of adaptation to modern society available to young people and to women is to move away from the area, further reinforcing patriarchal social relations within it. Vrychea and Golemis outline how a fine-grained approach based on understanding the dynamics of social life and the relational resources available in the area suggests a mix of socio-spatial projects with the potential to break this cycle of isolation. Three important themes run through these four chapters. First, the interaction between social and spatial barriers works to differentiate, contain and isolate the people living in these places and inhibits human flourishing. Second, impoverished people living in excluded neighbourhoods are especially affected by the (re)organisation of the welfare state. Although the specific institutional structures vary from country to country, the organisation of the

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welfare state presents important problems in everyday life which create barriers to social integration. The professionalisation of caring' in Denmark, the inability of parts of the system to cooperate with each other in England, a town planning system which isolates and hides the poor in Ireland and the absence of welfare state provision in Greece: in every case, the institutionalised structures of modern state intervention bring the dead weight of inertia to the task of finding new solutions in a changed social structure within which social exclusion is an important emergent feature. Two important lessons can be drawn from the experiences reported in Part Two. First, understanding the nature ofeveryday life in these neighbourhoods is essential to designing new responses which challenge the emergence of social exclusion in a changing European societal order. Second, people make their own living places from the relational resources available to them and within the constraints posed by the socio-spatial organisation of society as a whole. Mechanisms for combating social exclusion must take account of these two lessons if they are to be effective. Part Three of this book thus examines a variety of responses to this situation in five European countries, illustrating the complexity and difficulty offinding ways to combat social exclusion as well as the significance of making living places which support human flourishing. C

CHAPTER FIVE

Barriers, Boxes and Catapults Social Exclusion and Everyday Life Rose Gilroy and Suzanne Speak

The everyday-life perspective is a way oflooking at life as a network ofsocial relations through which we accomplish human existence in time (Booth and Gilroy 1996; Healey 1996b; Mingione 1991). It is a perspective which concentrates on how people accomplish their daily life activities; what strategies they use for survival and coping; the tasks of acquiring the material means of existence; the social supports for existence (social care, moral development, emotional support); and the expressive enrichment of life (enjoyment). It seeks to provide a framework within which to link the different services provided by central and local government fOr people. Figure 5.1 illustrates the building blocks of everyday life and shows how local governance agencies may directly and indirectly affect the quality of life (Healey, Gilroy and Norwood 1997). There have been a plethora of policies and a weight of policy literature directed at urban problems but almost all ofthese cut up everyday life into separate compartments as dictated by providers of services. So they have focused on crime or on job creation or on improvements to housing but have not made connections among these policy areas. British planning has also taken this provider stance and created planning zones which function like watertight compartments (Worpole 1992), so that we live in one place, we work in a different place, shop in another, and spend our leisure time in yet another. All ofthis has been done without any thinking about how these pieces of life can be stitched together. What has been created is a modern city based on provider perceptions of the modular man (Healey 1994). What is needed is a postmodern response which recognises diversity, the multiplicity of roles performed by people in the course oftheir daily life and the services they use. This approach has been strongly influenced by feminist thinking (Hayden 95

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Government involvement

Leisure facilities

Schools/FE.

services

Family and friends

Figure 5. 1 A holistic view ofeveryday lift and the impact ofgovernance

1980; Horelli and Vepsa 1994; Nord 1991) which has drawn out the fine grain ofwomen's lives and the way women's activities and duties are aided or hindered by the current provision ofservices and by the built environment. What follows is a fine-grain exploration of the struggles and dreams of people living in socially and spatially segregated places. We draw upon recently completed ethnographic research in two white working class areas in England, one in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a metropolitan area, and the other in a rural town in County Durham (Healey eta/. 1997; Speak eta/. 1995; Wood et ale 1995). We use the voices we heard to uncover critical elements of daily life. We concentrate on only a few of these: the dream of getting a job; the need to live somewhere decent; the struggle to make ends meet. The metaphor we employ - the barrier, the box and the catapult - demonstrates the very real constraints under which many people have to live their lives. The first section of the chapter considers the barriers of perception, of organisational myopia and of poor selfimage which daily prevent people from accessing life opportunities and quality services. The chapter goes on to consider

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how the usual pattern oflife is stopped, or, in some cases, accelerated through the process ofexclusion as well the policies and practices set up by the welfare state to deal with issues of poverty in a period of restricted state spending.

The insider/ outsider barrier To define is to limit: to set up a distinction between those inside a group and those who belong outside. So definitions ofsocial exclusion, no matter which definition is chosen, set up a crude division of insiders and outsiders: those with work and those unemployed; 1 those who have access to decision making arenas and those who do not; those who suffer discrimination because of race, gender or disability and those who are outside these groupings. To be inside the group defined as 'the norm' is to have power. This section examines a range of insider/outsider barriers and their impacts on life chances. The significance of insider/ outsider barriers can be illustrated by the process oflooking for a job. Where do most people get information about job vacancies? It might be supposed that most vacancies are advertised either in the newspaper or in the job centre. In fact, a significant number are never advertised at all. Employers rely on their workers using word of mouth to recruit someone from their own circle. It follows that it is important to have friends who have jobs to gain a chance of getting one yourself. On some estates the level of unemployment among adult men is so high that the jobless are surrounded by other jobless men. This may be exacerbated by another insider/ outsider barrier which means that those who work have somehow crossed the line, in the eyes oftheir peers, so that they become targets for violence: People were not going to even think about jobs if they were ... likely to be harassed and abused because they were the only ones in the block working. (Wood 1994) or, by virtue of their employment, are judged to have adopted a different set of expectations and values: When I got this job, someone asked me if d be moving off the estate and buying somewhere. (Gilroy 1994)

r

I

See Levitas (1996) for criticism of the European definition of exclusion which focuses almost exclusively on employment. First, it sets up a false dichotomy between the employed and the unemployed and, second, it takes a narrow view of work, thus excluding many forms of work undertaken by women.

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Perceptual environmental barriers Environmental barriers are usually understood as issues ofpoor access for less mobile citizens such as older people, those with young children in pushchairs and people with disabilities. However qualitative work discloses that the perception of environment and the messages given out by space and place can create intangible but no less real deterrents. It may be said that all areas have opened out in that fewer opportunities and support services are rooted in the place of residence, neighbourhood and settlement. Yet for many people, especially children, older people, those without waged work and those with poor health, most of their life is spent in 'their place'. (See Healey and Madanipour, Chapters 3 and 4 respectively in this volume, for a discussion of the general significance of such 'places' in looking at social exclusion.) The quality of conditions and opportunities in those neighbourhoods is, therefore, important in affecting and reflecting people's sense of themselves. People's sense of wellbeing and identity is strongly linked both to how they think about where they live and to how outsiders view their place. Focus group work in rural Durham reveals people wanting to feel proud oftheir town but conscious that people from other settlements never come there to shop or refer to their place as 'Tin City' because of the number of boarded up and shuttered empty shop units (Healey et ale 1997). For some Cruddas Park residents the neighbourhood was 'the place I call home', but to outsiders: It was a daunting place to visit, a shock to the system and frightening. If you didn't know the area, you felt threatened. (Wood etal. 1995, p.12) For those in excluded neighbourhoods, other people's perceptions of the places in which they live may serve to imprison residents. The virtual withdrawal of insurance cover for the contents of their home can be effective in keeping them at home, afraid to go far because of fear of crime. Those who are job seekers are acutely aware of how their address may be enough to block their chances: Employers see a stigma about Cruddas Park. I usually write Park Road as my address and leave off Cruddas Park - I know I should try and be proud of the area but I don't want to be judged by where I live. (Gilroy 1994)

In Newcastle, it is a common experience that ifstopped and asked about mail order catalogues, those who give their address as Scotswood (a poor people's estate) will never receive their catalogue while those who smudge the truth and say Denton Burn will receive it. This judgement by address is nothing new. Doubtless all of us can paint mental maps of our home town with annotations indicating where the posh,

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decent, rough and no-go places are located. How we build these perceptions is interesting and needs to be addressed by those who are working in urban regeneration. If the ability to get a job or get access to credit depends on the perceptions of outsiders, then it is these perceptions that should be targeted rather than the improvements to the micro-environment of an estate which may impact only on insiders. What does impact on gatekeepers? This is a question which needs further exploration. What is new is that: 'These vivid social maps of the city are also used for navigational purposes by banks, insurance companies, the police and social services, but their spatial demarcations become more visible only through practices such as the withdrawal of financial services from "high risk" localities' (Sibley 1995, p.62). The extent to which this mapping blights places and people is beyond the scope ofthis discussion. Nevertheless many service providers are guilty of withdrawal (Leyshon and Thrift 1995), of imposing differential entry rules for residents of some areas (Graham and Marvin 1994) and of using the plethora of postaIIy coded information to target their services to carefully chosen lifestyle and location groups (Birkin 1995). Sometimes it is insider perceptions which cause residents to cling to their territory, where their mental maps can help them navigate. In Cruddas Park, women could not go beyond the boundaries of their estate to a family planning clinic, though this was located at no great distance. The nursery school eventually gave a room after school hours for the health service to set up a clinic there. As the teacher states: There was a lot ofneed and it was no use saying these things were on offer somewhere else, parents needed them here. (Gilroy 1994) The same mental maps excluded different buildings from being used for neighbourhood meetings on the grounds that they belonged to particular groups and therefore were unsafe for those outside that grouping. Many services are located away from the neighbourhood, and citizens are asked to journey out from their own place to access a range ofservices. Looking at employment, many jobs are sent to the Job Centre where job seeker services are now focused. Some years ago the Department of Employment made a policy decision to concentrate their job centres in town centres. It may well have been on the basis that the town centre has the best transport links to other parts of the town and is the place to which people gravitate. But what sort of places have our city centres become? In Newcastle, major new investment by retailers has increased the floor space of two major stores, one of which is Marks and Spencer. Of all the Marks and Spencer stores in the world, the Newcastle store has the largest foodhall, stretching a quarter mile from end to end. Takings on Northumberland Street (the main shopping street on which Marks and Spencer is located) are second only to London's

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Oxford Street. The city centre of Newcastle is a place of conspicuous, some might say gross, consumption. The impact of this is that it is rare to see anyone there who looks poor. Discussions with poor people on council estates reveal a sense of shame at their shabbiness and a feeling of being literally out of place among the smart shops and the well dressed people who frequent them. 2 Sibley (1995) talks of the way boundaries between the consuming and nonconsuming public are being strengthened with nonconsumption being constructed as a form of deviance. In Newcastle this construction of space may have had the effect of keeping those who needed the services of the Job Centre out of the city centre. These perceptions of space were not lost on the Department of Employment who, in their efforts to cooperate with a local community development trust, created a neighbourhood employment and enterprise office for the estate with casually dressed officers so that as many perceptual barriers as possible could be eradicated. This change oflocation was a factor in more jobless people going to the new enterprise centre and getting on track to employment. Psychological barriers What is it like to live with little choice because there is little money? For those living in stigmatised spaces and struggling to make ends meet, there is the dreary daily round: There is just nothing. All there is, is the kettle and a few cups in somebody's house. (Healey et ale 1997, p.97) and the problem of trying to keep children in touch with activities that all children expect: When you are on the social and you have got four bairns [children], for them to go swimming you just can't afford it. I mean it costs £ 1.50 to go swimming and you are only in an hour, half an hour. It cost me £8 on Saturday. By the time you get them a ring and things like that, it is just too expensive ... It all boils down to money though - if you have got three children in the family, you can't afford to send three children to a leisure centre. (Healey et ale 1997, p.95) What is it like to be without work as a man in an area where men are 'breadwinners' and have no other role (Gilroy 1996)? Many fall into despair caused by applications for jobs which never bring positive results. Many are so dam-

2

We are grateful to Debbie Shearer for sharing this finding from her housing practice experience.

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aged by constant failure that they are reduced to cruelly oscillating between hope and hopelessness: Although many people felt that they had no access to job opportunities, the majority said that all they wanted was a job. The three main obstacles were: a lack ofjobs; low level ofskills and selfconfidence; a perception that jobs were inaccessible making training a pointless exercise. Many people had given up even applying for jobs, after years of rejection. There was a feeling of hopelessness and yet at the same time a feeling that if they could get a job, then all their problems would be solved. (Wood et ale 1995, p.BO) One-to-one counselling to help people build their self esteem can help here as evidence from the Cruddas Park employment counsellors demonstrates: The group I try to target is the long term unemployed. I talk to them and say, 'Look I was the same and I got a job. I didn't get this job as a direct result of going on a course but the courses did give me confidence to try for a job.' I talk to people about what work is about. I had been out of work for so long that I'd forgotten what work was about. (Wood et ale 1995, p.93) I went and talked to people and didn't mention training except at the end mentioning that I was there to help if they wanted to talk at any time about those things. I talk to people about what they want and then move on to think how they can get those things from training, I don't start with the training and show them where they fit in. (Gilroy 1994)

Organisational barriers Barriers are also created and sustained by service providers in the delivery of their services. A long-standing problem for many parents, particularly single mothers, is the serious omission ofchild care. On one stigmatised estate in rural Durham, single mothers spoke of the high cost: None ofthe local employers offer creche facilities. There's a day nursery at £75 a week, if you are lucky and get a place. I had to leave work - 'cos I couldn't get a baby sitter, or I had to pay £12.50 a day over there. I had to leave. (Healey et ale 1997, p.67)

In Cruddas Park, while the lack of child care was seen by many service providers as a major issue, the lack of a corporate and coordinated policy across the authority meant that the barriers between departments of the local authority constantly surfaced to prevent good ideas becoming live projects:

A joint play scheme was planned at Cruddas Park Nursery School, with Social Services paying for the Under 5's and providing lunch, with a

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contribution being asked from Education. I sent a letter to the Chief Executive of Newcastle City Council asking him to expedite this interdepartmental arrangement. The response to the letter was a puzzled Cwhat are we meant to do with this?' The result was no play scheme bringing together the needs of all age groups because Education would not pay for cleaning and caretaking fees ... Real issues of the relationship between Social Services and Education Nursery provision could not be addressed at the level of the Cruddas Park Trust, because the way was not paved by management policy decisions that could enable this to take place. (Wood et ale 1995, p.103) It took some six years for a corporate policy to be forged and implemented across the city, benefiting not only the disadvantaged of Cruddas Park but also other parents who needed and wanted to work but could not afford or find child care. Programmes such as City Challenge have highlighted the difficulties in working in a partnership mode for local authorities, the business sector and the community (Davoudi and Healey 1995). However, there may be more barriers between departments of the authority than between it and other sectors. The problems ofdifferent subcultures within local government, which serve to undermine citizen-centred government, need further exploration (Gilroy 1996). In the next section, we go on to consider how the lack of financial and relational resources prevents some citizens from moving on through the life process while others are forced to shoulder responsibilities without adequate preparation. (For a general discussion of relational resources, see Chapter 3 by Healey in this volume.)

Boxes and catapults An examination of everyday existence reveals the way exclusion from services, facilities and, most of all, opportunities impacts on people's ability to function in society. It is these restrictions which form part of our understanding ofthe concept ofsocial exclusion. They still focus on the social aspects of economic exclusion to an extent, and rightly so, as the link between social exclusion and poverty cannot be denied. However, these issues themselves do not fully express the impact of social exclusion. Nor do they describe truly how social exclusion, that is, exclusion from the full society rather than from economic society, manifests itself. In the 1990s, greater emphasis has been placed on understanding process. The processes involved in the development of policy, partnership, collaboration (Healey 1996a) and urban governance (Healey 1996b) have all come under scrutiny. However, by focusing on the daily life of those in our most

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marginalised and disadvantaged neighbourhoods, we are in danger of missing the relationship between individual issues, such as housing, employment or enrichment on a daily basis, and the process ofHfe itself over decades and across generations. The remainder ofthis chapter focuses on getting a job and having a home. We begin by considering the broader picture ofHfe as a process made up of smaller subprocesses (childhood, adolescence, adulthood and family formation), each with its natural transition stage to the next (Erikson 1968). Returning to our metaphor - the barrier, the box and the catapult - we will see how some people face barriers to accessing the services, facilities and opportunities which are considered part of normal contemporary society In this metaphor, the box describes the constraints placed on the subprocesses of life. We use the metaphor of the box and the catapult to describe the stages of life and highlight the transition points from one to the next, bringing into focus the way in which exclusion boxes people into a subprocess - a life stage and prevents the normal transition to the next or, in some cases, catapults people ill-prepared into the next stage. We argue that it is in this interruption, the speeding up or slowing down of a 'normal' process, where we see both the cause and the effect of social exclusion.

The interruption of process Each subprocess of life, each stage, has its own set of requirements, brings its own set ofconstraints and, most importantly, has a specific timescale dictated by a number offactors including cultural, social, biological and technological changes. (Erikson 1968; Levinson 1978). It is important to understand and accept the changing nature of these requirements, constraints and timescales if we are to make sense of the way in which social exclusion impacts on the process of life. We will take young adulthood as our starting point. We concentrate in this discussion on only two of what might be considered the critical elements of everyday life: a job and a home. What is a young adult's relation to these? What part do these play in the process of becoming a young adult? Equally important is the question ofwhat part exclusion from these elements plays, not just in the lives of the excluded young adults but in the lives and life processes of those around them. Early adulthood is the time in life when young people begin to develop independence. They must learn the skills needed to earn a living and feed themselves. They must leave the family home at some point. They must undergo the rites of passage which establish both their personal identity and their place within the hierarchy of their own contemporary society (Erikson 1968). For man~ however, these things, as we have seen, are out of reach.

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While we are beginning to understand the mechanics of this distancing of everyday services, commodities and opportunities, we have yet to grasp its full significance for social cohesion.

A job Concerns about increased youth unemployment and the number of policies and initiatives in recent years to tackle it highlight the importance which society places on young people accessing the labour market (European Foundation 1991). Yet job creation and skills training persistently fail to connect people, especially disadvantaged young people, with what they see as valid employment. The reasons are many: the changing nature of the labour market; the benefits trap set by the current welfare system; crime; and the fragile balance ofexistence in many ofour inner city neighbourhoods. Some studies show clearly that it is more difficult to get a job if you live in the wrong area, as not only employers but employment services discriminate by postcode (Wood et al. 1995). Attempts to re-balance the skills mismatch between young potential employees and employers have hit difficulties as many have lost confidence in training. Nationally, an estimated 5 per cent of 16 to 18 year olds are not in employment, education or on a training scheme, and in some areas with significant levels of unemployment, this is estimated at over 9 per cent (NACRO 1993). The immediate financial implications of unemployment for young people are obvious but what are the long-term implications, both for the unemployed and their families? How might unemployment trap young people in their family homes past the point when they should be independent, and how might that entrapment compound difficult circumstances for both the young adult and the family? Are policies devised to keep the young unemployed at home really beneficial in the long term? Not all young people are jobless, of course, and temporary or part-time work is common. However, while work can be found to provide some income, most young people can make a distinction between work and a job providing not only financial security but also personal satisfaction and the basis for a future (Hollands 1997): There's work, aye, here and there I can find a bit ofwork like in the town but it's not what you'd call a job, is it? It's not for the long term. (Speak, Cameron and Gilroy 1997) For some young people, delay in entering the job market is the result ofcontinuing their education. However, despite the difficulties it brings, the poverty facing many students could be considered as part of the process of transition rather than a delaying factor in it. Student poverty is generally

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short term, leading to increased prospects of prosperity later. Furthermore, their poverty is viewed differently in the eyes of society. Whereas a young person on income support would have difficulty in accessing a bank loan, young students with no greater income levels are targeted by banks. They are increasingly encouraged to take out student loans in order to complete their education and progress. Conversely, offering credit or a loan to a young person on a low wage or on income support would be considered an unacceptable financial risk by lenders. One of the first requirements towards successful passage through young adulthood to full and independent adulthood, a job, is often denied. Without a job, the material requirements of youth and young adulthood, the fashion or the social life which mark young people's place in their cultural hierarchy, are denied. This denial both of material goods and of status is reinforced by the focus of current debates throughout Europe on unemployment. Levitas (1996) argues in her analysis that the debates about European policy on social exclusion are guilty of linking unemployment, rather than poverty, with social exclusion. The route, therefore, to social integration is made by getting a job. Such reasoning creates a polarisation between the unemployed who are on the outside, as an underclass, and those in work who are, by virtue of their employment, enjoying a whole range of economic and social benefits. This view disregards the very real and growing divisions among those in work. Furthermore, this stance devalues unpaid work and what might be termed active citizenship. It holds employment as the only solution in the context of jobless growth and a loss ofopportunities for any meaningful work. Finally, it suggests that crossing the divide between having work and not working means that all other inequalities will be eradicated. However, work itselfcan have its drawbacks and can serve to exclude people from other vital facets of life. Research is beginning to show that many people must make a choice between their tenancy and a job (Ford and England 1996). A property which was affordable when paid for wholly or partly by housing benefit may become unaffordable when even the poorest wage can take a tenant out ofbenefit eligibility: Ifemployment does not necessarily convey a passport to a decent home, then how do young people make the transition from parental homes to their own homes? A home

For many young people, higher education, low wages or failure to access the labour market with any degree of permanence means they must delay their transition to independence. Some young people have safe and supportive family homes in which they may remain until they can provide a home for

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themselves. Even if they do choose to leave, they may be assisted by their families and ultimately welcomed back if the first attempt at independence doesn't work out. They are protected by a nursery period during which they may come and go and make mistakes with some impunity Students, again, are at an advantage as they often leave home for the first time on a temporary basis but are welcomed back frequently. Often going into halls ofresidence for the first year, they do not usually suffer the isolation which other young people can experience. For them, leaving home early and on a low income is part of the process of transition. For others, however, this nursery period is not available, and for many, delay is not an option. For a variety of reasons, some young people must try to make the transition to independence quickly, at a young age and at the mercy of the state for both their income and their housing. For them, the process is not delayed but often speeded up, and they are catapulted unprepared into independent adulthood. A number ofstudies have shown the difficulty young people face in making the transition to independence (Morrow and Richards 1996). Other studies show how crucial continued family support is during this period and how much strain this can put on families, delaying the family's own progress (Jones 1995). Changes in recent years to both housing and welfare policy have assumed that young people can continue to live in their family homes throughout adolescence and into young adulthood. The previous section discussed the increasingly poor prospects ofan adequate, secure wage for young people. However, for those young people without a job, the situation is worse as a number of changes to the welfare benefits structure have made it more difficult to make the transition to an independent life and a home of their own. The support and education of younger siblings may be hampered if older children remain at home and dependent on the family into their twenties. The parents' own progress towards preparing for their third age will also be impaired. A change of housing may be delayed, and saving for retirement may well not be possible. Thus, we can see that policies which were designed to control the behaviour of one group, young unemployed people, not only lead to their exclusion from society but also impinge on the progress of their families. Even where housing is available, the compartmentalisation of local authority services means that it is often provided in isolation from other vital services. Thus, young people are housed without support and with little thought for the way that their housing relates to other facets ofHfe. In Newcastle, for example, where the surplus of local authority one- and twobedroomed flats, often in areas of high crime, results in 25 per cent of new lets going to young single people under 25 years ofage, many young people

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are housed with relative ease but far away from their neighbourhood and family support networks. This may explain why over 40 per cent ofthese tenancies end within twelve weeks. Independence may have been achieved, but it is often not maintained. The areas where there is ample available property are the areas which are particularly difficult to let. The property may be in good condition, but the neighbourhood may suffer from high crime rates, vandalism and misuse. It may be isolated from relevant services, such as employment services, job clubs, training centres or youth services. Young people housed in such areas may find it hard to settle and to maintain independence. Unfortunately, housing allocations policy, especially in relation to those applying under the homelessness legislation, serves to trap young people in what may be suitable properties in unsuitable locations. Those applying under homelessness legislation must accept the first offer of a property made to them unless they can prove it to be unsuitable. Few young people would be willing or able to argue the suitability of a property when leaving home in a crisis. Changes to homelessness legislation have made it more difficult for young people to get permanent local authority housing. Legislation relating to the provision of local authority housing can place young people in an unstable situation where they cannot consider the roof over their heads to be a permanent home. Thus, they may be more likely to drift between their family home, friends and occasional temporary accommodation. This situation is likely to impact on their chances ofgetting a job, and, thus, increases their dependence not only on the state but also on their families. Further, social housing allocation policy places young people under a different set ofconstraints than would be the case for those able to cater for their housing needs in the private sector. Young people, especially those on low incomes, can make the normal, if undesirable, errors attached to this learning period and get into debt, resulting in rent arrears. This perfectly natural part of the process of transition to independence is not recognised by social landlords. Newcastle City Council is typical in preventing transfers within their stock for those with arrears. Arrears may deter other social landlords from accepting a nomination or application. The operation of the private lettings market is very different, and debt with one private landlord might remain a private matter so that it does not automatically influence another's decision in relation to a prospective tenant. Those with sufficient income are able to seek housing within the private sector and are free to move as their needs change. Those dependent on the social landlords for their housing are dependent on the landlords' criteria of need. Once adequately housed in the eyes ofthe local authori~ which generally means living in the right number of rooms, rehousing is severely restricted:

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I'm on the (council housing) list like but I don't know how long it will take. It's shocking round here now ... I can't take much more, daren't hardly go out of my house. (Speak et al. 1995) Despite this complex relationship between housing and other aspects of everyday living, housing is still largely viewed as an end in itself, being considered only in terms ofshelter. The notion is that if housing is available, the homeless will move in and their problems will be solved. Clearly this is false, and other variables come into the equation, as demonstrated by the irony of Newcastle City Council's Housing Department advertising houses and flats in the Big Issue, a magazine sold by and in support of homeless people in the city. It is this view of the provision of housing as shelter or the greater availability ofjobs as the means by which to address issues of marginalisation and exclusion which is problematic. However, if viewed not in isolation nor in terms ofquantity, but as part ofa process, either of these elements can assume the crucial role of acting as an agent ofexclusion. If the issue were simply the availability of housing, then ample supply could be argued to be beneficial. Here, though, we see that the housing process can interrupt and interfere with the process of transition to independence. It can do this by the lack of affordable housing in some areas, while in other areas it can do so by a plentiful supply of undesirable housing. The availabifity assists, even encourages, transition, but because ofthe allocations policy and because it is isolated from other vital services, it compounds the difficulties of those who are forced to leave home ill-prepared. We have looked at how two of the central elements of everyday life, employment and housing, conspire to exclude young people from the process of normal transition to independence. What we see is a group of people being unable to complete a subprocess in the time accepted by the wider society. It could be argued that it is the way these elements interrupt or exclude people from the process of life which constitutes true social exclusion. Although we have concentrated on young people and the process of transition to adulthood, the view of exclusion from lifetime process can be transferred to any stage of life. It is not hard to make the connection between delayed independence and the delayed formation of new family units. Likewise, if the young are late in establishing themselves independently of their parents, the parents' transition to a phase ofHfe when they can begin to relax, enjoy themselves and prepare for their retirement is also delayed. However, exclusion may occur both by the delay of process and by the speeding up of process. In later life, many have found themselves excluded from the process of preparing for their old age by exclusion from the labour market. Indeed, many who have been worst hit in mid-life by unemployment,

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perhaps due to the closure of old industries, are precisely those who had to support their children for a longer period oftime because they were unable to find jobs and leave the family home. In their later years, these people cannot hope to be as prepared, particularly financially, for their new role in society. They may not have been able to save, to have considered their changing housing needs or to have provided the material comforts they will need to see them through the rest of their lives. For those who have unexpectedly been made unemployed in later life, the process has been speeded up as they have been catapulted into retirement too early: Early retirement is not necessarily problematic in itself, and many people choose to accept retirement after 20 or 25 years in the armed forces or the police force. However, these people will retire with a reasonable, even very good, pension and may also be in a position to get another job should they wish. Other people plan for an early retirement throughout their working lives, paying into private pension schemes to provide for their loss of income. For these people, the early transition from work to retirement is an integral part of their life process. However, for those less fortunate, who have neither planned to retire early nor been able to prepare financially for early retirement, redundancy or loss ofemployment comes as an interruption ofthe process of earning an income and preparing for later life. We might ask why it matters if all people do not follow the same timetable. Indeed, it should not, except that some events or stages in life come with a pre-set timetable. We all age. Many of us may experience frailty and, thus, may need to prepare for our third age, especially in a society which is fast relinquishing the responsibility to care for us. Even in earlier life, sexual maturity and activity, childbirth and raising a family are, if not entirely predetermined, at least likely to happen within a specific time span. However. what we have been faced with in recent years is the notion that if, for social or economic reasons, some people cannot progress from one life stage to another at the 'normal' rate, then they should, in some way, delay other progressions. The early 1990s paranoia about young motherhood, especially among young single women, was a good example. In reality, conception rates to younger unmarried women (under 20) have remained fairly constant, although they have risen among the 20 to 24 age group. The real change has been the outcome of such conceptions, with far more resulting in either termination or a birth out of marriage than was the case in previous decades. Thus, for a number of reasons, some young women find themselves raising children, not necessarily without the support of a partner but outside the socially accepted sequence of events. Many of the youngest of these women represent a group of people who have had their process ofadolescence inter-

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rupted by being catapulted into motherhood, often ill prepared. They are condemned for not taking control of one process (the biological) but denied control over another (that of becoming self-supporting adults). While it is a matter for conjecture whether or not people can or should be expected to take control over their reproductive processes before they are economically self-sufficient, there are many processes, such as ageing, over which they cannot take control. Conclusions In this discussion we argue for a deeper understanding ofthe social exclusion process and for solutions to arise from holistic thinking. What has happened throughout the 1980s has been a process of residualisation. A whole set of policies has been developed in order to target public services to those in need, that is, those who cannot afford to buy the services they need in the market. Housing has been at the forefront of this, in the form of privatisation, restrictions on supply, downward pressure on standards, upward pressure on rents and the parallel shifts from bricks and mortar subsidies to housing benefit. The socially excluded, the unskilled, those failed by the education system, the long-term unemployed - whatever term we choose - these people are the tenants of the social housing sector because housing policies have set out to make them so (Malpass 1996). This targeting ofresources could be described as a success, but these people are now locked into communities labelled as market failures and locked out ofopportunities to lever themselves into situations more conducive to human flourishing. In these communities, barriers to opportunity ofall kinds box people in at all stages ofthe life cycle but particularly affect the young, who are denied the usual rites of passage into adulthood. Greater family pressure in times of reductions to family support from local authorities and voluntary agencies leads to some being catapulted into another box, perhaps one labelled unmarried mother, street homeless, young criminal. What characterises all of these images - the barrier, the box and the catapult - is the lack ofchoice and control which these individuals are able to exercise over their lives as individuals. We began by discussing the way in which policy makers have cut up everyday life into a series of separate compartments dictated by the service providers. We urge a new approach based on the everyday-life perspective which is beginning to filter through to urban policy, and which recognises the complex and interrelated nature of the different elements of life. There is, at last, some understanding of the connection between housing and employment, between the built environment and domestic functioning, between people's personal social worlds and their ability to take advantage of improved facili-

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ties and opportunities. We are beginning to break down the spatial barriers and segregation between the delivery of services. We can see the need for welfare rights advice in a housing office or a women's health clinic in a nursery school (Wood et al. 199 5). What is needed is interagency collaboration starting with an understanding of how daily life is constructed in order to identify what initiatives can unlock the boxes and break down the barriers rather than simply create new ones. Having re-focused on everyday life, we also need to be aware of temporal barriers to ensure that not only are services and facilities provided in a holistic and interrelated way, but that they are provided in a way which does not hamper people's progress throughout their life cycles and which recognises the damage which has already been done to the progress ofmany families and individuals, especially young people. Furthermore, we must recognise that life is played out on a continuum. People flow in and out of employment, or dependency or lone parenthood. None of these states are necessarily permanent, but they can be made more so by policies which effectively interrupt life cycle processes. Not, only are day-to-day activities made more difficult by many current policies, but those increased difficulties impact on the ability of individuals and whole families to progress through their life cycles in the way that contemporary British society has come to expect. References Birkin, M. (1995) 'Customer targeting, geodemographics and lifestyle approaches.' In ~ Longley and G. Clarke (eds) GISfor Business and Service Planning. London: Geoinformation International. Booth, C. and Gilroy, R. (1996) 'Dreaming the possibility of change.' Built Environment 22, 1,72-82. Davoudi, S. and Healey, ~ (1995) 'City challenge: sustainable process or temporary gesture?' Environment and Planning C: Government and Planning 13, 79-95. Erikson, H.E. (1968) Identity: Youth and Crisis. London: Faber. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1991) Paths of Young People towards Autonomy. Report of Seminar. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Commission. Ford, J. and England J. (1996) Into WOrk? The impact ofHousing Costs and the Benefit System on Peoples Decision to WOrk. York: York Publishing. Gilroy, R. (1994) Interviews for Cruddas Park evaluation study. Gilroy, R. (1996) 'Building routes to power: lessons from Cruddas Park.' Local Economy 10,4, 248-258. Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (1994) 'Cherry picking and social dumping: utilities in the 1990s.' Utility Policy 4, 2, 113-119.

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Hayden, D. (1980) 'vVhat would the non sexist city be like? Speculations on housing, urban design, and human work.' Signs 5, 3, 17-187. Healey, P. (1994) 'Bringing women into urban and regional planning: slow progress for big gains.' Paper to the Council of Europe Co!loquy: 'The challenges facing European Society with the approach of the year 2000: role and representation of women in urban and regional planing aiming at sustainable development,' Paris, France. Unpublished. Healey, P. (1996a) 'Consensus-building across difficult divisions: a new approach to collaborative strategy making.' Planning Practice and Research 11, 2, 207-216. Healey, P. (1996b) 'Social exclusion, neighbourhood life and governance capacity.' Paper to the European Network of Housing Research, Copenhagen. Unpublished. Healey, P., Gilroy, R. and Norwood, T. (1997) Social Lift: The State of Everyday Lift in the District. Report to Sedgefield District Council, Newcastie-upon-Tyne: CREVE, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Hollands, R. (1997) 'From shipyards to night-clubs: the reconstructing of young Geordie work, home and consumption identities.' In A. Mariussen and J. Wheelock (eds) Households., Work and Economic Change: A Northern European Perspective. Boston, MA: Kluwer. Horelli, L. and Vepsa, K. (1994) 'In search of supportive structures for everyday life.' In I. Altman and A. Churchman (eds) Women and the Environment. New York: Plenum Press. Jones, G. (1995) Family Supportfor Young People. London: Family Policy Studies Centre. Levinson, D.J. (1978) The Seasons ofa Mans Lift. New York: Knopf. Levitas, R. (1996) 'The concept of social exclusion and the new Durkheimian hegemony.' Critical Social Policy 46, 16, 5-20. Leyshon, A. and Thrift, N. (1995) 'Geographies of financial exclusion: financial abandonment in Britain and the United States.' Transactions ofthe Institute ofBritish Geographers 20, 3 12-341. Malpass, P. (1996) 'The poor get poorer.' Housing, May, p.14. Mingione, E. (1 991) Fragmented Societies: A Sociology ofEconomic Lift Beyond the Market Paradigm. Oxford: Blackwell. Morrow, V. and Richards, M. (1996) Transition to Adulthood: A Family Matter? York: York Publicising Services. NACRO (1993) Youth Choices: Improving the Take Up of Training by Unemployed Young People. London: NACRO. Nord (1991) The New Everyday Lift. Stockholm: Nordic Council. Sibley, D. (1995) Geographies of Exclusion. London: Routledge. Speak,S., Cameron, S. and Gilroy, R. (1997) Young Single Non-Residential Fathers: Their ParticIpation in Fatherhood. London: Family Policy Studies Centre for Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

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Speak, S., Cameron, C., Woods, R. and Gilroy, R. (1995) Young Single Mothers: Ban-iers to Independent Living. London: Family Policy Studies for Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Wood,

J. (1994) Personal log on Cruddas Park Comknunity Development Trust.

Wood, J., Gilroy, R., Healey, P. and Speak, S. (1995) Changing the way Here. CREVE, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

we Do Things

\\lorpole, K. (1992) 'Cities: the buzz and the burn.' The Guardian, May 25, p.21.

CHAPTER SIX

Troubled Housing Estates in Denmark H edvig Vestergaard

During the first half ofthe 1980s, one problem followed another on some of the large industrialised estates which were built during the 1960s and 1970s. The physical problems were apparent to everybody: leaking roofs, crumbling concrete, rotting window and door frames, cold and damp walls. The effect was aggravated by worn-out recreation areas, often vandalised, with snapped-off trees, dilapidated playgrounds and broken play equipment. While both tenants and their visitors were depressed by the sight of the buildings and their surroundings, the resources available for general maintenance were insufficient to make any lasting improvements. Economic problems were less conspicuous but equally threatening. Some of these estates were on the verge of economic collapse. Their financial position was progressively undermined by increasing losses from high rent arrears and from empty flats and the high costs of repairs associated with reletting the flats. A less acute, but equally threatening, problem was a long established 'slummification' process. Many nuclear families left the estates during the 1970s, leaving behind them social groups who were experiencing difficulties in the labour market and with life in general. An increasing proportion oftenants were receiving assistance from social services, or were retired, immigrants or suffering long-term unemployment. Fear of violence, vandalism and burglary became part ofdaily life on these estates. Dramatic press reports helped to firmly fix the negative reputation of these estates in the minds of the rest of societ~ Thus, their decline was rapid and seemed inexorable. Starting out ten years earlier as the latest and best non-profit housing, they became a symbol of a more general change from an optimistic, dynamic and growing society in the late 1960s to a stagnating, troubled, debt-ridden society in the mid-1980s.

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In Denmark, these troubled estates tend to be concentrated in the nonprofit housing association stock, which constitutes 19 per cent of all Danish housing and 47 per cent of all rented housing. Programmes to address the problems on these estates need to recognise the specific organisational features of Danish housing associations. There are approximately 650 associations, with stock concentrated in and around the larger cities. Associations are divided into sections, which constitute separate estates. Each section is run as a separate financial enterprise, setting its rents to cover its costs, and is governed by a democratically elected local board, although ultimate legal and financial responsibility rests with the board of the parent association. Danish housing associations do not aim to provide for any particular sector of the population, and access to their housing is through a waiting list to which anyone can apply. However, 25 per cent of their dwellings are made available to local authorities, who may allocate these properties on the basis ofsocial need. While associations are formally private organisations, they receive general subsidies to support interest and mortgage repayments and all tenants in rented housing are eligible for subsidies to cover their rents, based on household income and size. Because they receive subsidies, associations are also regulated and monitored by both the state and local authorities. Housing associations owned approximately five per cent of the housing stock in 1950 and now own approximately 19 per cent. Their increasing importance is a consequence of three factors. First, they have had a stable building programme over the years. Second, almost no new private rented housing has been built since the 1960s, and much formerly private rented housing has become owner occupied. Finally, since the middle of the 1980s, very little new housing has been built for owner occupation. Most western European countries experienced problems during the 1980s with the large housing estates which have been built since the Second War. There is typically an interaction among economic, physical, social and organisational problems (Harloe 1994; 1995; Power 1993). Several countries have implemented initiatives in an attempt to improve and rehabilitate these estates. These efforts have been very different, in terms of the extent to which they have tackled social and economic problems, and in terms of the extent of physical and organisational change (Vestergaard 1996). One general conclusion that can be drawn from these initiatives is that physical changes, both major improvements and high levels of repair and maintenance, are necessary but not sufficient to secure a socially balanced housing environment. At the same time, programmes which emphasise general community activity on estates may achieve local cooperation, but tend not to reach socially troubled groups (Carlson 1992; Jreger 1993; Kjrer Jensen 1992; Seholt 1992). Moreover, the way the population becomes segregated

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in terms of class, culture, ethnic background and so on, and in terms ofhousing standards is influenced by a wide variety of housing, social and urban policies, which need to be included within the overall frame of reference in analysing local initiatives (Huttman et ale 1991). Thus, more closely targeted actions to improve the social environment need to be made an integral part of housing management, especially in those socially depressed areas with a high concentration of tenants with social problems (Allen 1994; Bonetti 1994; Christiansen et ale 1993; Kempen 1994; Liedholm and Lindberg 1994).

Problem estates: physical improvements In 1985, the Danish Folketing passed legislation supporting grants to remedy the environmental, building, technical and financial problems on these estates. This programme was closely monitored and the overall results were published in 199 3 (Christiansen et ale 1993). This research reached five important general conclusions. First, the estates were characterised by a growing number of households who depended on income transfer payments, mainly single person households and individuals without Danish citizenship. Second, the research concluded that although there had been many positive results from renovating the physical surroundings, no substantial improvements in the social conditions on the estates could be attributed to this renovation. It, thus, recommended that efforts aimed directly at improving social conditions should become an integral part of housing management. Third, at the time of the research, a continued crisis in the market for owner-occupied housing supported the relative market position of these estates. This crisis made it relatively easier to attract tenants and to keep existing tenants who were in employment and who had sufficient incomes to pay their own rent for the large and relatively expensive non-profit apartments. Fourth, the research concluded that it was crucially important to establish close and mutually binding collaboration between housing organisations, associated community workers and advisers, on the one side, and local authority social services departments on the other side, in order to solve the social problems on the troubled housing estates. Fifth, the research also suggested that a number of other actors should be involved in this collaboration, including voluntary organisations, church representatives and the police, all of whom had not been commonly involved in such collaboration at the time. An important part of the research concentrated on establishing the views of tenants on these estates. All replies pointed in the same direction. Tenants expressed satisfaction with the improved apartments and new green areas. Their dissatisfaction centred around a social environment in which there was a large concentration of alcoholics, drug abusers, troublemakers and loud

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neighbours. Dissatisfaction was also caused by the bad general reputation of the estates. In some areas, where there were large concentrations of immigrants, this was also a cause for dissatisfaction, although this was partly due to family patterns among immigrant families who often had many children, causing problems with noise. The research also looked at the effectiveness of local projects designed to enhance community involvement in the process ofimproving the estates. Despite considerable variation in the nature of the projects, the main conclusion was that unless they were targeted directly at the lowest income groups or individuals and unless there was a major preparatory effort to set up the interaction among actors involved so that it worked smoothly, then the projects did not reach the worst-off groups. This result confirmed other research evaluations of projects financed with development funds from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the European Community Poverty Programme. The experience showed that social problems are best solved through projects directly aimed at specific problems, rather than being aimed at general activities at a community level. More generalised community projects also tend to use a disproportionate amount of resources in achieving cooperation among institutional actors, although all the evidence shows that even specifically targeted projects required considerable resources and a lengthy proce~s (Andersen 1994; Kjeldsen 1992; Pedersen 1994). The research evaluating the 1985 improvement grant programme also looked specifically at the process of collaboration between the housing estates, local authorities and other local actors. A subsequent survey of local authorities by the Ministry ofSocial Affairs (Socialministeriet 1994) showed that collaboration between local authority social services departments and other actors, including the police, county health organisations, tenants associations, and housing associations, already exists on many estates. Halfthe local authorities who were already engaged in such collaboration expressed a wish to increase it. They were especially eager to improve collaboration with county health services. There was, however, much less collaborative work with ethnic minority organisations, sports organisations and voluntary social workers. The survey also indicated that there was a common tension in using limited resources to achieve a balance between establishing collaboration between different bureaucratic structures and solving the problems the collaboration is designed to address. 1993: a turning point 1993 marked an important turning point in the Danish approach to troubled housing estates. Up until 1993, ethnic questions were officially a non-

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problem on the estates although the presence ofa large group of'non-Danish looking' tenants and children on the estates and in local schools was clearly one of the factors which led to negative labelling of the estates. The question was generally being ignored politically, both by local politicians and in the Folketing, although right-wing politicians were very open in stating their opposition to immigrants. In the summer before the local government elections, social democratic mayors in several Copenhagen suburbs began to demand the right to decide who could live on the estates in their authorities. They argued that criteria based on waiting lists or having sufficient income to pay the rent were inadequate to avoid the creation of low income 'ghetto' estates within their jurisdictions. Seven months after the new Social Democratic-led coalition government took office and one month before the local elections, a Governmental Urban Committee was created with the aim of developing a programme to solve Denmark's 'ghetto' problem. The Committee was chaired by the Minister of the Interior, and included the Ministers of Social Affairs, Housing, Justice, Church and Education. The Committee commissioned an investigation of the extent of the 'ghetto' problem, which showed that 72 out of 275 local authorities claimed to have one or more troubled housing areas, practically all of which were social housing estates. The investigation also established a rank ordering ofthe importance ofspecific problems on troubled housing estates, based on local authority views. The first four problems concerned the Danish population. Problems with immigrants were ranked as fifth most important. Based on this investigation, the Urban Committee rapidly published a strategy plan which reflected the now very much higher political salience of issues relating to immigrants across a much broader political spectrum. Ofthe thirty points in the strategy plan, twenty were concerned with immigrants and refugees (Byudvalget 1994a). In the autumn of 1994, the Urban Committee launched a new general programme for troubled housing estates. It included a package of measures dealing with physical renovation, refinancing and employing social workers on the estates. The programme is based on joint applications between housing estates and local authorities. Only projects based on very detailed plans, stipulating tasks and costs, can be funded under the programme, and applications need to demonstrate the local partners' willingness and ability to cooperate in solving local problems in order to get resources. Funding for the package is shared between the state, local authorities and the national Fund of Housing Associations. It is based on a refinancing package ofDKK 10bn for more recently built social housing estates, in order to allow rent reductions, physical improvement projects, economic reconstruction and social ini-

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tiatives. In addition, another DKK 1.2bn was allocated for social activities during 1994-1997. The main strategy can be characterised as a change from an indirect to a direct approach to solving social problems (Byudvalget 1994b). In 1996, the Urban Committee extended its activities to include plans for a new urban policy based on neighbourhood upgrading, which is defined by the Ministry of Housing and Building as a broad approach aimed at improving the social, building, technical and cultural conditions in urban areas (80ligministeriet 1996). This strategy focuses on areas, not on individual buildings or tenants, and it is aimed at areas with mixed social composition and housing. It is based on broad programmes to upgrade areas socially, culturally and technically, through local programmes of coordinated and integrated measures. Activities within these local programmes are to be primarily based on local actors and needs, involving local authorities, residents, local businesses and other local organisations. The vision behind this strategy is one of a bottom-up, holistic approach, and the Committee plans to fund between four and eight model projects which demonstrate this approach. The Urban Committee's work is characterised by two general aims. The first is that tenants should get a sense ofhaving their daily lives improved, and the second is that social problems should be limited, both qualitatively and quantitatively. More generally, these aims are set within a vision of strengthening, improving and establishing local communities which allow all individuals to participate in the community life of a housing area, by both encouraging positive behaviour and limiting negative behaviour and other processes. In order to assess whether these aims can be achieved, it is necessary to develop an understanding of how everyday life is shaped both by the activities of tenants and by the wider structures within which these activities are set. Everyday life, marginalisation and social exclusion The concept of everyday life is defined by all those basic and routine activities which are carried out each day to sustain one's own life and that ofothers. An important aspect of everyday life is the individual actor's ability to influence his or her environment. Thus, everyday life, within a given social and material structure, is the sum ofindividual efforts to create personal identities and a common framework ofmeaning, a framework that binds together various actions, experiences and things in a meaningful way (Forskergruppen for det nye hverdagslivet 1987). People create both their own everyday life and that of each other. Even though resourceful individuals may have an everyday life which does not

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involve activities in their local communit}!, living in an area where there are possibilities of occasional participation in local activities, such as local cultural events, may still be important for individuals. An equally important factor is the presence of 'loose ties': saying hello to one's neighbours, showing each other a certain amount of attention, etc. Without loose contacts, indifferent and negative behaviour is encouraged (cf Liedholm and Lindberg 1994). What characterises socially depressed housing estates is that everyday life is threatened for both socially burdened and socially and economically well functioning individuals. The research evaluating the physical improvement programme on troubled Danish housing estates between 1985 and 1993 showed unambiguously that tenants did not think that the renovation projects had contributed to giving them more contacts or friends on the estates (Christiansen et ale 1993). Rather, problems related to alcohol and narcotics abuse, as well as crime, were destructive not only to the individuals concerned, but to the everyday life of all residents on the estates. In the context of building strong, well functioning community organisations on these estates, social and economically well-functioning tenants are naturally seen as assets in this process. Without these tenants, it would be impossible to establish commitment on the part of the tenants to the improvement process. But, what do economically and socially well-functioning tenants want from everyday life in order to remain as tenants on the estates? Would increased co-responsibility for the development of the area and strengthening local social relationships provide this group with a better everyday life and thereby succeed in keeping them as tenants? There are two reasons for thinking that this approach will not work. First, no research has shown that improved opportunities for these tenants to take co-responsibility and to participate in activities generally changes their desire to move away from the estates. In any case, such possibilities for participation already exist. The problem seems to be that many socially and economically well functioning tenants do not wish to make use ofthese possibilities ifit means being in contact with and having co-responsibility for the socially and economically burdened tenants. Tenants who are socially and economically well functioning prefer to focus on each other and on their own often very busy lives. Second, nothing seems to indicate that socially and economically well functioning tenants on troubled estates have fewer social relations and networks than people living elsewhere (Kj~r Jensen 1988). On the contrary, those tenants who are most active in the clubs and recreational activities established on the estates and who participate in the different ways in which tenants in

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Denmark can democratically influence their environment are drawn from precisely this group. What economically and socially well-functioning tenants find unpleasant in their daily lives and what makes them dissatisfied with living on troubled estates is the presence of marginalised individuals and groups with destructive, disturbing, threatening or deviant behaviour: groups of individuals drinking in public, gangs ofyoung people, young men with big dogs and immigrants with a 'non-Danish' appearance. Their dissatisfaction is often related to fear of criminal activities, of walking outside in the housing areas in the evenings and at night time, and finally the fact that their belongings - bicycles, baby carriages, cars and so on - are often stolen or vandalised (Christiansen et ale 1993). The situation is different for economically and socially burdened tenants and for immigrants. To begin with, they participate much less frequently in general community activities and in the democratic control of the estates. Previous initiatives focusing on these groups have been designed to make them less visible within the troubled estates, as a way ofreducing the conflicts between 'normal' and 'deviant' tenants. This has been done, for example, by creating recreational and meeting places outside the estates, by forcing unwanted tenants off the grounds of the estates by zealously enforcing local rules, and by terminating the leases oftenants, either because they are serving prison sentences or in connection with rebuilding projects. Specific activities focused on young tenants have had positive effects as long as the activities lasted, but once they finished these effects seemed to vanish. There are obvious reasons for wanting to create opportunities to improve the daily lives ofthis group oftenants, many ofwhom are unemployed. In the survey by the Ministry of Social Affairs (Socialministeriet 1994), local authorities singled out unemployment as the most pressing problem within the troubled estates. The general issue is the extent to which consciously targeting local public initiatives, aimed at supporting care taking tasks, local service and small scale production, can work as a catalyst for building up local groups with more long lasting and locally relevant activities (Milj0verndepartementet 1994; Nordahl 1994; Seholt 1992). General local community activities, which may benefit daily life for all tenants, are very difficult to establish in housing areas which are characterised by social unrest and latent clashes between different groups of tenants. This suggests that establishing and maintaining such activities needs to be seen in the context of a strategy which focuses on marginal groups, finding ways to support changes in the disturbing behaviour which leads both to the dissatisfaction of the economically and socially well-functioning tenants and to the exclusion of the marginal groups themselves. Thus, the main focus of

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measures designed to intervene in the social relationships on troubled estates should not be, in the first instance, on increasing opportunities for coresponsibility and general community activities, but on activating the social relationships of the marginal groups. Improvements at the level of general community activity can be expected to follow on from this approach.

Troubled estates: the Urban Committee's initiatives This consideration of the dynamics of everyday life on troubled estates needs to be seen in the context of the material and structural relationships which surround the estates, because these broader relationships shape the possible outcomes of the dynamics on the estates. This wider situation is shown in Figure 6.1, which illustrates how internal and external conditions have a mutually reinforcing and dynamic negative effect.

Poor reputation

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Figure 6.1 The mutually reinftrcing and negative rjficts ofinternal and external conditions on the material and structural relationships surrounding troubled estates

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Excessive rent levels are a consequence of the financial problems experienced by the housing associations and reduce the estate's competitiveness in local housing markets. This leads economically be~ter-off tenants to leave the estate. This, in turn, leads to an increase in the number ofsocial problems on the estate. At the same time, the financial problems also imply that there are fewer resources for cleaning and maintenance as well as for organising tenantbased work and social activities. The decline in social development work, coupled with increasing physical decay, further weakens tenant democracy and activities. This inner spiral of decline has a further negative effect on the external reputation of the estates, which intensifies the social problems through further selective turnover. Decay of the physical surroundings decreases the physical attractiveness of the estate and makes it more difficult to attract better-off tenants. At the same time, the need for increased spending on maintenance puts further pressures on the financial and organisational resources of the housing association, which may lead to less effective and more expensive housing management and more poorly organised maintenance and cleaning activities. These financial and organisational pressures, in turn, also mean fewer resources for the activation oftenants and this may result in a further increase in social problems. The Urban Committee's initiatives to influence these situations and processes are illustrated in Figure 6.2. Refinancing represents an improvement of the estate's economy which may be used for improvement in the physical surroundings, for strengthening the organisation, for increased levels of social work or for reduced rent levels. The aim is to reduce the number of better-off tenants leaving the estate, and thus to strengthen the competitiveness of the estate in the local housing markets. Measures which are especially aimed at an overall strengthening of the organisational situation include increased cooperation between local authority social services and housing associations, the involvement ofother local networks and other innovations in the day-to-day management of troubled housing estates. Support for tenants' advisors and social activities are aimed both at strengthening the organisational functioning of housing associations and improving the social conditions and functioning of specific groups of tenants. Finally, there are a number of specific measures which aim to improve the social conditions of immigrant groups. Civil society: where is Denmark heading? The Urban Committee's initiatives can be seen in terms ofa coherent strategy to intervene in the downward spirals of troubled housing estates. However, they raise much wider questions about the future direction of the welfare state in Denmark.

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Figure 6.2 Initiatives to influence positively the problems of troubled estates

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The Nordic welfare model is based on both a common history and a common mentality: 'We have a social responsibility for those who cannot care for themselves.' In Denmark, this model has become a well established system characterised by three general social processes. First, it has supported the development of a very strong bureaucracy based on the concept of equalit~ or equal possibilities for everyone. Second, the management ofsocietal responsibility for individuals has become strongly professionalised. Third, very strongly institutionalised solutions have been developed for handling individual needs and as part of a need to contain bureaucratic and professionalised practices within the welfare state. Over a long period of time, bureaucratisation, professionalisation and institutionalisation have come to dominate the original aim of entering into a caring social relationship with individuals/who have needs (Vestergaard 1992). As a consequence, the marginalised and excluded individuals who are concentrated in troubled estates are victims ofthe general development ofthe welfare state, and, even more, of more recent changes designed to keep the costs ofthe welfare state down in a period of slow or stagnant economic growth. At the same time, it is important to locate troubled estates in the context of changes in the general housing market. Between 1950 and the mid-1980s, the steady increase in social housing played an extremely important and stabilising role in the relationships between social rented and private rented housing, on the one hand, and between rented housing and owner occupied housing, on the other hand. In the middle ofthe 1980s, the balance between rented housing and owner-occupied housing shifted dramatically, partly as a consequence of tax reforms which reduced the value of deductions for interest payments on mortgages in the calculation of taxable income and which contributed to the crisis in owner-occupied housing. This was the beginning of a larger strategy to cut the very high level of direct and indirect subsidy in the housing market and has been reinforced by further tax reforms. At the same time, the private rented housing market is virtually immobilised by rent regulations introduced during the Second War. The sector is characterised by very low rent levels, by an unwillingness of tenants to move out and by landlords who let their property deteriorate. Three years of committee work to change the regulations governing the private rented sector have not led to any politically feasible proposals for change (Boligministeriet 1997). This is creating a major obstacle to reducing subsidy levels generally in the housing market. Finally, the financial arrangements for social housing mean that rent levels in the older stock are very much lower than in the newer stock. These imbalances throughout the housing market mean that households who will never be in a position to pay their own housing costs are trapped in the newest and most expensive housing in the social sector.

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The general aim ofwelfare state, housing and taxation reform in Denmark is to fundamentally alter a situation in which very high taxation levels feed a high level of direct and indirect subsid~ In housing, the specific aim is to move to a system in which households are subsidised according to their social needs and not according to the type of tenure which they happen to occupy. However, it is clear that this specific aim for housing cannot be achieved without more general reforms in the welfare state and taxation structures. In debates about the welfare society in Denmark, it is often claimed that neither the state nor the market can solve current social problems or meet needs for social caring (cf. Vestergaard 1992). The intended direction of change is neither more state nor more market, but more community or civil societ~ The challenge is to define what community means in practice since it is often only noticed by its absence. Within this context, the Urban Committee's initiatives can be seen as an attempt to change a smaIl part of the welfare system in the direction of communication between social groups in order to help the local community organise itselfto fulfil the societal responsibility which in the past has been met by the welfare state. The initiative stresses the significance of strengthening locally self-organised groups and initiatives, such as self-help groups, local recreational and cultural activities, etc. It acknowledges that the main problem, unemployment, cannot be solved through traditional initiatives either from the state or the market. The vision behind the initiative echoes the ideas which gave rise to the welfare state in Denmark, that all individuals must be given the opportunity to establish good everyday lives for themselves and that nobody should have to live in an area in which accelerating physical and social decay is an accepted realit~ Through the Urban Committee's initiatives to improve social housing, housing areas and their surrounding environment have become the central focus for efforts to improve everyday life for tenants.

References Allen, B. (1994) 'The social structuring of relationships between organisations and inhabitants.' CSTB, Paris. Paper presented to ENHR Conference, Glasgow. Andersen, J. (1994) Erfaringerne med EUs tredjefitttigdomsprogram i Danmark. Kebenhavn: Center for Social Integration and Differentiation'. Copenhagen Business School. Boligministeriet (1996) Kravspecifikation vedn~rende 'Kvartersleft-model-projekter'. Byudvalget (The Governmental Urban Committee), Boligministeriet (Danish Ministry of Housing and Building). Boligministeriet (1997) 'Lejelovskommissionens betrenkning.' Betrenkning nr. 1331.

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Bonetti, M. (1994) 'The joint production of social relationships by urban management systems and inhabitants.' CSTB. Paris. Paper presented to ENHR Conference, Glasgow. Byudvalget (1994a) Rapport fra byudvalget 1. K"benhavn: Indenrigsministeren, boligministeren, justitsministeren, kirkeministeren, socialministeren og undervisningsministeren. Byudvalget (1994b) Rapport fra byudvalget 2. Kebenhavn: Indenrigsministeren, boligministeren, justitsministeren, kirkeministeren, socialministeren og undervisningsministeren. Carlson, Y. (1992) Det kompIiserte nremilj"arbeidet: Om muligheter og hindringer i arbejdet med a utvikle lokalsamfunn. Erfaringer fra nremiljofors"kene 1987-1991. Norsk institut for by- og regionsforskning, NIBR. Oslo. Christiansen, V., Kristensen, H., Prag, S. and Yestergaard, H. (1991) Blev bebyggelserne bedre? Forelebige erfaringerfraforbedn'ngen at 5 nyert etageboligomrado; (The Housing

Estates - Was the Improvement Successful? Preliminary Experiencefrom the Improvement of 5 Recent Multi-Storey Estates). H"rsholm: Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut. Forskergruppen for det nye hverdagsIivet (1987) Yeier til det nye hverdagsIivet. Om integrering av hverdagslivets opgaver pa et mellomniva. Nordisk Ministerrad 1987. Harloe, M. (1994) 'Social housing - past, present and future.' Housing Studies 9, 3. Harloe, M. (1995) The Peoples Home? Social Rented Housing in Europe and America. Oxford: Blackwell. Huttman, E.D., Blauw, W., and Saltman, J. (eds) (1991) Urban Housing Segregation of Minorities in western Europe and the United States. London: Duke University Press. Jreger, B. (ed) (1993) 'Development programmes as a strategy to innovate social policy:' Konferencerapport AKF og SFI. Conference paper, Copenhagen. Kempen, E.T. van (1994) 'High-rise living: the social limits to design.' In B. Danermark and I. Elander (eds) Social Rented Housing in Europe: Policy) Tenure and Design. Delft: Delft University Press.

J. (1992) Havde de rad nok - lokalt? - Naede de malene med Borgerinddragelse- og Koordineringsprojektet i Aalborg 0st. En evaluering af et SUM-projekt. Aalborg: Alfuff.

Kjeldsen,

Kjzr Jensen, M. (1988) 'Undersegelse af sociale netvzrk i Ballerup og Horsens kommuner.' Ikke publiceret notat. Unpublished. Kjzr Jensen, M. (1992) Slut-SUM. En sammenfatning at projekterfan"ngernefra Socialministeriets Udviklingsprogram. K"benhavn: Socialforskningsinstituttet. Rapport 92:18. Liedholm, M. and Lindberg, G. (1994) 'Breaking vicious circles: objects and ways of how housing enterprises and residents can stop the deprivation of the neighbourhood.' Lund University, Sweden. Paper presented to ENHR Conference, Glasgow. Milj"verndepartementet (1994) 'Yeiledning. Det organiserte mangfold.' Erfaringer fra statslige nrermilj"fors"k 1987-1991. Oslo.

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Nordahl, B. (1994) 'Social integration og sociale relationer i boligomrader' Problemstillingsnotat for sammenlignende studier i Norske boligomrader. Internt notat Norges Byggforskningsinstitutt. Pedersen, K. (1994) Samiko-projektet. Evalueringsrapport - 5. Afslutning. Kebenhavn: SAMIKOprojektet Power, A. (1993) Hovels to High Rise. State Housing in Europe Since 1850. London: Routledge. Socialministeriet (1 994) Boligomrader med sociaIe problemer. Kobenhavn: Socialministeriet. Seholt, S. (1992) 'Lokalt samarbeid mellom tredje sektor og kommuner. Ny giv for velfcerdsstaten. Tendensanalyse av 25 forsek med lokalt samarbeid.' Norges byggforskningsinstitutt. Vestergaard, H. (1992) 'The changing fate of social housing in a small welfare state the Danish case.' In L.]. Lundqvist (ed) Policy, Organization, Tenure - A Comparative History ofHousing in Small Welfare States. Goteborg: Scandinavian University Press. pp.37-4S. Vestergaard, H. (1996) Improvement of deprived urban housing areas - current policies in seven european countries.' Paper for the ENHR Housing Research Conference in Denmark: 'Housing and European Integration, Workshop 20: The Future of High-Rise and Other Problematic Housing Estates,' HeIsinger August 26-31, 1996.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Exclusion, Invisibility and the Neighbourhood in West Dublin Brendan Bartley

Recent research suggests that contemporary economic and political forces are creating new forms of urban identity as cities become more competitive and entrepreneurial in an era of intensifying globalisation of manufacturing, trade and finance (Brotchie et ale 1995). Understanding the connections between places and prosperity has gained a particular urgency in the face of the increasing economic exclusion and social polarisation that has accompanied economic restructuring over the past two decades in Europe and North America. During this period, urban living environments have been fundamentally altered as many cities transform into post-industrial or postmodern settlements. While new types of job are created in the high technology production, communications and service sectors, unskilled and lesser skilled jobs in advanced economies have increasingly been exported to the less developed regions. The net result is the coexistence ofurban areas and populations experiencing spiralling levels of unemployment, deprivation and marginalisation alongside areas and populations experiencing unprecedented increases in affluenee. Ireland is now purported to possess a booming econom~ as reflected in the 'tiger economy' status attributed to it by economic commentators in the mass media. However, it also possesses a set of urban problems recognisable from accounts presented by studies of so-called underclass populations derived from scholarly work in other parts of Europe and North America (Andersen and Larsen 1995; Commission of the European Communities 1992; 1993; Mingione 1996; Wilson 1992). Unfortunately, the research results of such scholarly work and consequent policy initiatives are often obscured by the term 'underclass'. The underclass argument recognises that certain populations suffer at once from both social and spatial exclusion, but it gives rela131

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tively little content to this exclusion. The term social exclusion features increasingly in policy debates about poverty in Ireland; however, while there has been some interest in both the construction of space and the ways that community life is organised and managed in space, most ofthe research work conducted in Ireland has applied the term to rural settings and relatively little attention has been paid to urban areas. Consequently, there is an absence of detailed knowledge about the actual neighbourhoods which contain the socially excluded in urban areas. Moreover, the link between the role ofthe state as a provider of public sector housing and the diminishing visibility of increasingly spatially and socially marginalised populations of urban poor is yet another area which has not been explored to any great extent in Ireland. That the marginalisation of specific populations is bound up with the built environment is now widely accepted. In particular, the geographical concentration of excluded populations is acknowledged as an inherent, if not always visible, dimension ofcontemporary socio-economic reorganisation (Harvey 1989; Lefebvre 1974; Massey 1994; Soja 1996). At a time when Irish governments are pursuing policies of efficiency and flexibility in the delivery of public services, the former working class populations in some neighbourhoods experience a seemingly inexorable decline into excluded underclass status and sociospatial invisibility. The phenomenon of the invisibility of poor places is the reverse side ofthe trend towards the provision in cities ofsafe, controlled and exclusionary spaces of consumption, to which access is monitored and policed by surveillance technologies (such as closed circuit television) and where only those with the requisite purchasing power are welcome (see Madanipour, Chapter 4 in this volume). This area has also received little attention in Irish urban research (Bartley, forthcoming). This chapter attempts to redress some of the deficiencies highlighted above by providing a preliminary account of the situation experienced by a disadvantaged urban community in Ireland. It shows how the neighbourhood unit has been used as the basic planning component ofthe planned new town to the west of Dublin city. The spatial layout, urban design and housing management features ofthe disadvantaged North Clondalkin area, located in one of the new towns, are examined to illustrate: first, the extent and variation ofsegregation and social problems within this part ofthe new town; and second, the manner in which North Clondalkin is isolated from and its problems rendered invisible to residents of more prosperous parts of the ci~ Finally, the present situation and future prospects of North Clondalkin are reviewed in the context of the current debate about the links between social polarisation and macroeconomic policy in a time of rapidly intensifying global competition.

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Modern planning Ronanstown (Lucan/Clondalkin) is one of three new planned towns in west Dublin built to accommodate the future growth of the city. The new towns were designated on the basis ofa deliberate planning strategy adopted by the Dublin local authorities for the Dublin Region in the 1960s and 1970s. The new emphasis on planning and an accompanying settlement strategy was linked to a change in macroeconomic policies at the time. Following the introduction of the new open trade economic policies of the Lemass era in the early 1960s, the Irish government accepted expert advice from the World Bank and United Nations about the need to introduce a new physical planning system to facilitate and regulate the changes which were expected to emanate from the newly embarked-upon course of economic development (Bannon 1989; Downey 1996). New planning legislation was introduced in 1963 and local authorities throughout the country were assigned the responsibility for devising and implementing spatial development plans for their areas of jurisdiction. Scope existed at this time for executive agencies other than local authorities to be given the role of overseeing the preparation and implementation ofdevelopment plans by using, for example, semi-state bodies. However, this did not happen and state land use planning in Ireland thus became a purely local government function. To reflect this, local authorities were also given the formal title of planning authorities. To assist the recently established planning authorities with their new tasks, prominent British planners were commissioned by the Irish Government to prepare regional scale strategy plans as frameworks for the preparation of the statutory local plans. In 1964 the Government's Programme for Economic Expansion defined nine planning regions for the country. The planning consultants Nathaniel Litchfield and Myles Wright were asked to produce advisory plans for Dublin City and the Dublin Region, respectively, which would spatially articulate the national economic policies and provide the physical basis for their implementation by the Dublin planning authorities. The eminent planner, Colin Buchanan, was given the broader remit of providing a regional planning framework for the rest of the country (Bannon 1989; Davis and Prendergast 1995).

New towns For Myles Wright, the main problem facing the Dublin Region was rapid population growth. He forecast that the population of the region would increase by about 300,000 between 1961 and 1985 with much of this growth taking place as suburban development in the metropolitan area. Wright did not envisage any serious potential for increasing the residential function of

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the central city area and, accordingly, prepared a plan to accommodate the anticipated population overspill from the city. He identified the major geographical constraints to future growth and, by process of elimination, suggested that the main location for future settlement growth should be to the west of the cit~ To the east lay the natural barrier of the Irish Sea while development to the south ofDublin was blocked by the Wicklow Mountains. Dublin Airport and its flight zone hinterland was an obstacle to northerly development. West Dublin was thus selected by default as the most appropriate area to cater for future growth (Wright 1967). Wright recommended the creation of four new towns in this part of Dublin linked to the four existing villages of Blanchardstown, Tallaght, Lucan and Clondalkin. The Dublin planning authorities incorporated the Wright proposals in modified form in their Development Plans from 1972 onwards. The Lucan and Clondalkin axes ofWright's scheme were amalgamated under the proposed name of Ronanstown. In summary, instead of providing four linear shaped towns to accommodate the expected 300,000 population growth, three concentric new towns were designated with target populations of 100,000 each. The village areas around which the new towns were to be built would eventually form an outer arc from the south west to the north east of the city, transforming Dublin from a small, compact high-density city into a large, sprawling decentralised metropolis around a declining inner city (Conlon 1988; Downey 1996). The development ofthe new towns was generally allowed to occur on a laissez-faire market basis with guid'ance for prospective developers about the locations of commercial and community infrastructure being provided by the Development Plans of the two Dublin planning authorities. It was envisaged that mutual and complementary planning and housing objectives could be pursued through cooperation as the two authorities shared the same chief planning officer and a joint City and County Manager (Bannon 1989; Davis and Prendergast 1995).

The neighbourhood unit While the new towns were to be located in the Dublin County area, the City planning authority was the prime mover in the programme. They had the greatest housing needs and purchased large tracts of lands in each ofthe new town areas in the County. The neighbourhood unit was adopted as the overall design principle for the layout ofthe new towns. The neighbourhood unit had first appeared as a planning concept in the work ofClarence Perry in the United States in the 1920s. Writing about 'Housing for the Machine Age', Perry proposed that housing layouts should be designed on a cellular basis which would confine local vehicular access to terminating traffic which had

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genuine calls to make in the area, and divert all other through traffic to bypass the area along major traffic roads which would form unit boundaries. Within these roads, the location ofshops, schools, churches and other community facilities would be decided in advance with a view to maximising access and safety for pedestrians generally and young people in particular. The underlying philosophy of this approach was that small-scale arrangements of dwellings could permanently enrich community life by stimulating frequent interaction between residents and engendering a spirit of neighbourliness through spontaneous cooperation (Hall 1989). Perry's ideas were imported to Dublin via British planning. The neighbourhood unit was endorsed in Britain by the Dudley Report on Housing Standards and the Reith Commission Report on New Towns, both of which were adopted by the British Government at the end ofthe Second World War. The Reith Commission proposed that residential areas should be planned in the form of neighbourhood units of 5000 to 12,000 population, each with its own amenities (shops, community centre, primary school and chapel). The aim was that every primary school child should have a walk to school of no more than five minutes and that all housewives would have similar access to local neighbourhood shops. It was also envisaged that new towns produced on the neighbourhood principle would help to reduce class segregation and produce socially balanced communities (Cullingworth and Nadin 1994; Greed 1993; Hall 1989).

Social engineering: designing the transformed city The new towns built in Britain over the next twenty years became laboratories for testing many social engineering principles, including those of the neighbourhood unit. In the period immediately after the war, the neighbourhood concept with its associated low density, low rise housing was generally accepted by planners as the basic building block of the new towns. The neighbourhood unit was successively adopted (Mark One new towns) and abandoned (Mark Two version) as a basic building block of the new town in the UK until it reappeared in some of the 1960s (Mark Three) new towns which were designed to facilitate the increased choice available to residents through the liberating benefits of the enhanced mobility afforded by car ownership. It was one ofthese Mark Three new towns, Milton Keynes, which Myles Wright attempted to emulate in his plan for Dublin. Milton Keynes was constructed around a lattice of roads designed to enhance the accessibility of the dispersed inhabitants to the spread-out services and activities of the town. Basically, it was assumed that almost all households would have access to a car and that residents could now travel longer distances by road to avail

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themselves ofa wider selection ofgeographically dispersed services. A single, high density, multi-functional urban centre was no longer essential in the new motorised age where freedom ofchoice was afforded by mass car ownership. The road network based Milton Keynes framework was also the model adopted by the 1971 Dublin Transportation Study, which was effectively a transportation plan follow-up to Wright's settlement plan. Although the Myles Wright plan was never formally adopted by the Irish government and the 1967 Draft Dublin County Development Plan took little account of his proposals, the situation changed dramatically with the 1972 County Plan. The Myles Wright strategy was now embraced for its potential to take pressure off Dublin City's growing population and reduce pressure on its radial traffic routes. It was the subsequent Plan of 1983 which made the clearest statement of the commitment to the neighbourhood concept as an integrated element of new town strategy for Dublin. Policy 2.4 of the 1983 Plan contains the following statement: In the case ofresidential development for development areas, it is Council policy to implement a strategy of neighbourhood community development based on the residential community requirements of a population ofapproximately 5000 persons. Aside from the provision of dwellings, this concept includes the provision of a primary school, church, local neighbourhood shopping and commercial facilities, sites for a community centre and youth club and a local park. It is policy to group these facilities in order to provide a focal point for each neighbourhood. (Dublin County Development Plan 1983, pp.53-54) In short, the 1983 Plan attempted to produce a Dublin version of Milton Keynes by marrying Perry's neighbourhood idea to Wright's new town overspill philosophy and the associated road network proposals contained in the 1971 Dublin Transportation Study. The separate neighbourhood communities would be integrated by the provision of additional services (based on higher levels of population) at central locations which would incorporate the catchment population of the aggregated neighbourhoods. In the case of the three new towns, the highest population aggregate would obviously be the new town itself and the highest level services and facilities available in each would be located in a town centre at the heart of the new town. Assessment of the Dublin new towns strategy In early 1997, none of the three new towns has achieved their 1991 target population of 100,000 and Tallaght is the only one with an operating town centre. A town centre complex is currently under construction in Blanchardstown. Ronanstown (Lucan/Clondalkin) has the second highest population

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of the three new towns but it appears that it will not now have a centrally located town centre due to the recent rezoning of, and granting of planning permission for, an alternative edge of town site to allow a major regional shopping and commercial complex to be developed at a geographically strategic node adjacent to the junction of the upgraded Galway Road (N4) and the Dublin Orbital Motorway (M50). It may be too early to judge whether or not the Dublin new towns have been a success. Critics can certainly point to the time lag involved in providing them with town centres and other essential services. Perhaps these facilities would have been available earlier if special executive development corporations similar to those in the UK had been given the task of ensuring their success instead of leaving their development to the vagaries of the private market. However, this is a criticism of the approach adopted to implementation rather than ofthe need for or objective of providing new towns per see Perhaps the new towns were also built too close to the metropolis to become autonomous, self-contained entities in the short term (Dublin Transportation Task Force 1986). At a superficial level, the aim ofachieving social balance in the new towns appears to have been achieved. Analysis of 1991 census results suggests that the social class profile of the new towns compares favourably with distributions for other single class areas in Dublin. However, this global picture ofthe social composition of the new towns is seriously misleading insofar as it masks significant internal patterns of socio-spatial segregation. Far from creating balanced communities the new towns may have accentuated social segregation by contributing to the creation of new ghettos, areas of physical marginalisation as well as social and economic exclusion, in the suburbs. This issue will be explored further here through an examination of the case study of North Clondalkin in Ronanstown but many of the points made could apply with equal validity to problem areas in the other new towns.

Case study: North Clondalkin North Clondalkin contains the three neighbourhoods of Neilstown, Rowlagh and Qyarryvale (see Figure 7.1). Its boundaries are formed by the Western Parkway Motorway (M50) to the east, the Lucan Bypass (N4 Maynooth/Galway Road) to the north, the Balgaddy/Fonthill Road to the west and the Grand Canal and Cork railway line to the south. There are approximately 3600 houses in the area with very little variety in the type or size of housing available: Virtually all ofthe houses in the area are three-bedroom, two-storey buildings.

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What one sees if one ventures into North Clondalkin are littered and unkempt approach roads, run-down neighbourhood centres, public buildings which are invariably surrounded by large palisade fencing and shuttering, poorly kept open spaces, a skyline dominated by large electricity pylons and housing estates which face inward and turn their back on the public areas. The neighbourhood centres which were to be at the heart ofeach neighbourhood have failed. They are run down and often contain many empty units. In the meantime, the villages of Lucan and Clondalkin, located at the edges of the proposed new town, have become thriving shopping and business centres while North Clondalkin, which was intended to be at the heart of the new town, is effectively isolated from both villages and is almost devoid of facilities (Clondalkin Partnership 1996). The population of the area is estimated by the 1993 North Clondalkin Task Force Report to be about 16,300. This figure includes an estimated 450 travellers who live in unofficial halting sites in the area. Looking at the comparative age structure ofthe area relative to both Dublin City and County and the State, the 1991 Census confirms that North Clondalkin has an unbalanced age structure comprised essentially of young to middle aged parents with young children. More than 30 per cent ofthe population are in the 25 to 44 age group and over 40 per cent are less than 14 years of age: The age structure is just one reason why North Clondalkin poses particular social planning problems. As a new community with little history it has not inherited any ready made solutions or structures °to cope with the demands confronting it now and in the future. (Collins and Crowley 1993) Economic and social marginalisation: some indicators of exclusion North Clondalkin is in many respects on the wrong side of the tracks. The railway line is a major boundary severing it from Clondalkin village, from the extensive private housing areas of both South and East Clondalkin, and from the predominantly County Council housing estates in the neighbourhoods of West Clondalkin. The North Clondalkin neighbourhoods consist mainly of public housing estates built by Dublin Corporation since the mid-1970s alongside a smaller number of private estates. Precise information about the socio-economic structure of the area based on occupation is difficult to extract from the census because the enumeration districts used for North Clondalkin include parts of West Palmerstown and South Clondalkin, both of which are known to contain a relatively high proportion ofresidents who fall into the professional and managerial classes. The high percentage of local authority housing is probably the best general indicator of the social class

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Table 7.1 Profile of areas of need

North C/ondalkin Indicators

Neilstown

Rowlagh

OE,arryvale

Population

4523

6855

2516

Average household size

4.0

4.38

4.5

0/0 Households of 6 or more

18.7%

22.9%

24.3%

Primary school enrolment

632

886

935

% Lone parent households

22.7%

23.8%

27.30/0

Private housing

41.40/0

35.40/0

0.00/0

% Tenant purchase

1.6%

30.2%

24.7%

No. on transfer list

17.9%

22.30/0

32%

Unemployment rate ofprinciple earners

55.9 %

73.4%

59.50/0

Average gross income*

£123

£121.93

£131.72

0/0 Principle income < £ 150 gross

75.40/0

77.6%

73.4%

% Principle income> £200 gross

7.3%

5.6%

10.20/0

structure in North Clondalkin. Local authority houses account for 75 per cent of all housing in the area. Neilstown, Rowlagh and ~arryvale are all included in South Dublin County Council's 1994 'Areas of Need' (CODAN) study. The CODAN report provides information for a wide range of indicators of disadvantage, including details about income and unemployment rates for principal earners. Table 7. 1 summarises its findings in respect of some key indicators for the North Clondalkin neighbourhoods. The socio-economic profile of the area depicted by the CODAN Report indicates a population experiencing generally low levels of income and high levels of unemployment and dependenc)T. It is particularly noteworthy that over 80 per cent of principal earners in the area fall below the national mean average weekly disposable income of £ 198. The report confirms what was already known, that the neighbourhoods of North Clondalkin fall well below the national norms in terms of income, status and job security. The absence of a major employer either in or adjacent to the area compounds the effects of marginalisation experienced by the community (Collins and Crowley 1993).

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North Clondalkin occasionally features in the wider media. When this occurs, it is usually as a result of some major law and order disturbances in the area. Homicides, drugs marches and riots, and assaults on Fire Brigade and Garda vehicles have been among the more prominent events to have reached public attention through the national print and broadcast media in recent years. Perpetual problems such as joy riding receive little media coverage unless they are associated with a catastrophic outcome, such as a crash involving death or serious injury: The Gardaiare under instructions not to pursue stolen cars into a number ofthe estates in the North Clondalkin neighbourhoods. A report on Urban Crime and Disorder in North Clondalkin was produced in 1992 by a Government interdepartmental group following a number of media reports on major calamities in the area (Department ofJustice 1992). This report contains very little contextual information about North Clondalkin and no comparative or historical crime data. Not surprisingly, therefore, the analysis section of the report is weak. It does, however, supply an extensive range of conclusions and recommendations. One proposal considered by the Gardai but not included in the report was the feasibility of installing a closed circuit television (CCTV) system for the purpose of monitoring potential criminal activities on the approaches to and within the area, particularly along the central road spine (Neilstown Road). A number of the suggestions for improvement which appear in the report concern specific aspects of law and order, health care, education and environmental matters involving various bodies in the public sector. There is an implicit acknowledgement in the report that North Clondalkin is a marginalised area which has been neglected by the public authorities. Another North Clondalkin Task Force Report, commissioned by the local communities themselves, goes further in its analysis of the difficulties facing the area. It points out that the failure to provide the planned town centre for Ronanstown, coupled with the fall-off in housing construction in the area since the mid-1980s (only about half of the allocated space has been built upon), has seriously impinged on the quality of life in the isolated area of North Clondalkin: 'The area remains in something ofa planning limbo, lacking amenities, industrial, recreational and commercial infrastructure and embodying a general sense of being unfinished' (Collins and Crowley 1993, p.7). North Clondalkin has been included in those areas which are to receive funding under the European Union Urban Initiative (Taoiseach's Office 1996). The area has also been included in the DraftArea Action Plan prepared by the Clondalkin Partnership for the wider Clondalkin area. Energ~ enthusiasm and resources are being mobilised within the area and it will be interesting to see where this leads. In the meantime, North Clondalkin continues

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to be physically and socially isolated from, and invisible to, more prosperous parts of the city.

Transportation: exclusion, entrapment and fragmentation The physical isolation of North Clondalkin is ironic given that it is defined geographically by major road networks. The only available direct access to the villages of Lucan and Clondalkin for the residents of North Clondalkin is provided by the Fonthill/Newlands Road which crosses a narrow single-lane bridge over the railway line to the southeast ofNeilstown. In reference to this geographical divide, the local community information newsletter has commented: It's only a 19th Century crossing over some railway tracks, yet it must rank as one of the great physical dividers of our time. Not as internationally famous as the Allenby Bridge across the River Jordan but every bit as divisive. (The Buzz, November 1994) The provision of a planned internal road which it is claimed would unite Clondalkin (the Fonthill Road extension) has until recently remained low on the Council's list of priorities for new road spending. While the construction of this road might improve the situation for pedestrians and public transport services in the area, such benefits are not self-evident since the road is not designed to cater for them but for private and commercial traffic. Car owners would certainly be amongst the chief beneficiaries of the new link road. However, it would not significantly enhance accessibility by means of private car for most residents of North Clondalkin: 'Car ownership is much lower in the area than nationally, reflecting higher levels of unemployment and poverty. 67% of households in Rowlagh for instance are without a car' (Clondalkin Partnership 1996, p.20). This raises some further ironic points about the layout of the new town neighbourhoods in North Clondalkin: in addition to being defined by road boundaries, the housing estates which comprise the neighbourhoods are intentionally designed to cater for the needs of the private car. The estates with most roadspace are the local authority estates. These, ofcourse, have the lowest levels of car ownership. Viewed from aerial photographs, the cul-de-sac style layouts ofthe public housing areas display far more imagination and design variation than the straight line rows of housing which are more typical of the private estates. The fundamental influence on the layout patterns in all cases is the roads hierarchy with roads at each level feeding sequentially into higher order networks to provide a widening range of access for motorists. Yet, because of their low car ownership rates, the households with the highest percentage oflocal roadspace (i.e. local authority estate residents) are least

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able to take advantage of the potential of the wider roads system. Moreover, the resulting reliance on public transport does not provide much compensation for this deficiency. Sprawling, low density, low rise, cul-de-sac style suburbs provide the worst possible operating environment for urban bus services. This is reflected in North Clondalkin where buses are not free to enter and wind their way around the various estates to collect passengers, with the result that the available service is confined to just two main routes (Neilstown Road and Coldcut/Balgaddy). The assumptions of the Milton Keynes model that residents would have the freedom to avail themselves of services and facilities spread over a wide geographical area do not apply to the imported version implemented in North Clondalkin. Instead of an expansive outward linking orientation, the area has the restricted inward focus of an isolated enclave. This implosive quality is reinforced by the fragmenting effect created by the internal design of the neighbourhood housing estates with their emphasis on separateness: separate neighbourhoods, separate estates, separate house clusters and culde-sacs. In the absence of opportunities for social interaction due to the limited public transport service and the anti-pedestrian bias of the road-oriented estate layouts, this accent on diminishing, small scale identity militates against the development of social cohesion in the area. Internal differentiation and competition is stressed at the expense of local integration and area unit~

The internal geography of exclusion: housing status and segregation The CODAN report presents aggregate results for neighbourhoods which mask internal differences between the neighbourhood estates. Apart from the clear cut distinction between private and public authority estates there are very definite distinctions between the local authority estates. There is a spatial pattern and logic to the apparent differentiation. The ratio of public to private housing in the three neighbourhoods increases with distance (and isolation) from Clondalkin village. Neilstown, the neighbourhood nearest to the village, has 42 per cent private housing. This compares with 35 per cent for Rowlagh, which is located between Neilstown and the most northerly neighbourhood, Qyarryvale, which has no private housing. Moreover, the local reputation of the public housing estates appears to be positively correlated with proximity to Clondalkin village. The status of the local authority estates diminishes as one proceeds northwards away from the railway bridge which connects North Clondalkin with the village. This directional pattern is also apparent with the variation in visual quality of the estates: there is a progressive decline in the appearance of the local en-

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vironment as one moves northwards, with the interiors of the local authority estates closest to the Lucan bypass showing the greatest evidence ofdegradation and neglect. Interestingly, the appearance of the housing terraces fronting onto the roads which bypass these estates is usually amongst the finest in the locality. However, the visual amenity of the housing and its surrounding environment deteriorates as one penetrates deeper into the estates. Once again, the best is on the outside while the worst is hidden away from public view. A survey by the author of one edge of estate street at Shancastle in Qyarryvale revealed that all but one of thirty houses facing onto the main road were being purchased by the occupiers from the local authority. This is far above the prevailing 18 per cent average rate of tenant purchase for this 240 house estate as a whole. With one exception, the principal earner in all of the households in the surveyed street was in paid employment. Again, this is totally at variance with the general pattern of income for an estate where less than 27 per cent of principal earners are in paid employment. The local authority housing departments do not appear to have formal policies about entitlement to housing at specific locations within estates. However, the extent of the clustering pattern along the boundaries of the estate suggests that some sort of housing selection or allocation mechanism is at work in this instance. The private housing estates in North Clondalkin are located along the outside boundaries of the three neighbourhoods. It is the private estates which abut the most expansive areas of open parklands in North Clondalkin. The value of private houses, as determined by price on the secondhand housing market, diminishes with distance from Clondalkin village. The more northerly the house is located in North Clondalkin, the less it is likely to fetch a good price on the open market. The private housing estate nearest to the village and shown on all maps as part of the neighbourhood of Neilstown is, in fact, physically separated from the rest of the neighbourhood. This estate, Palmerstown Woods, is walled off from the surrounding local authority estates and has a separate, external link road to Clondalkin village. Despite having the closest proximity to Clondalkin village of all the estates in North Clondalkin, the claim to separate identity of this estate is asserted further through its being named after an entirely different, higher status village (Palmerstown) in the west Dublin area. The recent resurgence ofsales in the private housing market in Dublin has not given rise to further house construction in North Clondalkin. New low to medium cost residential development in West Dublin has tended to occur instead at the Lucan end of Ronanstown. Estate agents in Lucan say that most new housing in the vicinity is sold on the basis that the Lucan area is distinct from and clearly unattached to North Clondalkin. Purchasers feel that they

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are buying into a more exclusive area which, despite its proximity to North Clondalkin, is clearly separated from it, not only in terms of status but also geographically because of the absence of connecting roads and the presence ofan undeveloped buffer zone between the two areas. An attempt in 1990 to have the formal single town (Ronanstown) development strategy overturned and replaced by two autonomous town developments was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the sense of exclusivity in Lucan with regard to North Clondalkin still prevails and is reinforced by the fact that virtually all of the new housing complexes have been provided with protective boundary fencing which usually takes the form ofornate railed walls and gateways which restrict entry to the estates. The wider geography of exclusion: physical isolation and invisibility If their social and economic circumstances, together with the isolated location and internal design of their neighbourhoods, combine to entrap many local residents in North Clondalkin, these same features also serve to keep outsiders away from the area. It requires a special effort to enter North Clondalkin. The structure of the roads network hierarchy is such that anybody who does not need to visit the area for a specific purpose will automatically bypass it. Ofcourse, it is unlikely that residents from more prosperous parts of the city would seek out the limited range of facilities in North Clondalkin in preference to the presumably more extensive range available in'their own localities. The problem reputation of North Clondalkin is another factor likely to deter potential 'tourists' from visiting the area. Even when it is entered by outsiders, penetration is limited by the cellular layout structure of the neighbourhoods and the restricted access of the local authority housing estates. It is usually not possible to drive directly through these estates: motorists entering the maze ofcul-de-sacs in one estate must find their way out again before they can enter the next such maze in the adjacent estate. There is, therefore, no inducement to enter a particular estate unless one has a definite reason to be there. In short, the overall effect of the location and spatial design of North Clondalkin is to make less visible the social exclusion experienced by the isolated and fragmented communities of the area and to obscure from general view the specific problems of its inhabitants. In 1844 a German, Friedrich Engels, arrived in England. He travelled to Manchester and immediately made an effort to understand its overall structure, how each part related to the other. Making connections, seeing both the details and the whole, Engels wrote one of the first accounts of what would later be called the sociological view of the city. He noted that the wealthy

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were seldom obliged to see the real living conditions of the poor labouring districts: The town itselfis peculiarly built so that someone can live in it for years, travel into it and out of it daily, without ever coming into contact with the working class quarters or even with the workers. I have never come across so systematic a seclusion of the working class from the main streets as in Manchester. I have never elsewhere seen a concealment of such fine sensitivity ofeverything that might offend the eyes and ears of the middle classes. (Engels 1969, p.80) Engels ventured into the back streets to see for himself the living conditions of the poor. He was shocked at what he saw and expressed his amazement that 'such a district exists in the very centre ofthe second city of England, the most important factory town in the world' (Engels 1969, p.86). The description provided here of North Clondalkin has many similarities with the inner city ghetto described by Engels. It is easier today to be aware ofthe problems of inner city areas because of their immediate proximity to busy commercial and employment districts. The problems in the suburban areas are harder to see. Areas like North Clondalkin appear to be the relocated equivalent of old industrial inner city problem areas, now moved to the invisible suburbs ofthe new towns away from, and out of the sight of, residents and workers in the more prosperous parts of the city. In spite of the isolating effects described above, and despite evidence in the CODAN survey results that many respondents in the disadvantaged neighbourhoods wish to move away from the housing estates in which they now live, local residents are reported by the planners to be satisfied with the neighbourhood approach to the development of the new towns. A planning survey carried out by Dublin County Council in 1986 as part of the Development Plan Review sought to establish the extent to which the application of the neighbourhood concept by the Council had been successful in physical and community terms. The survey consisted of interviews with the residents of eight neighbourhoods, two of which (NeiIstown and Rowlagh) are located in North Clondalkin. The general findings of the report were that the neighbourhood approach to the development of the new towns had worked satisfactorily. Overall, it was found that, 'taking everything into account', most residents were satisfied with their neighbourhood. In particular, residents expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the design layout (emphasis added) of their local areas and neighbourhoods (McCarron 1988, p.4). This situation can be explained by a critical review of the role of planning in the shaping and reshaping of modern cities.

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Planning and social engineering In broad terms, urban planning is thought to be concerned with the coordination of land uses and development activities. It professes to ensure that future development is rational and that it does not unnecessarily damage or waste architectural, environmental or community resources. Beyond this, it is difficult to pin down exactly what planning is about. The role of planning and the range of purposes it ought to serve are matters of continual debate. Within this debate, however, the justification for the intervention ofplanning is usually attributed to the concept of the public interest. Planners are typically portrayed as politically neutral, technical experts who serve the public by providing advice about the best use ofstate resources and warning against potentially damaging developments. However, like most human activities, planning can have positive and negative outcomes in that different groups experience its results as beneficial or detrimental to their interests. There is a growing literature illustrating the way in which the social engineering side of planning has, through the introduction and use of land zoning and development controls, 'inadvertently' contributed to the problems of residential segregation by allowing the wealthy to distance themselves from the problems of the poor (see Gerckens 1994; Hartshorn 1992; Knox 1994). Urban planners are also, therefore, often depicted in the literature as urban managers or social engineers (Kirk 1980; Knox 1995; Pahl 1971; Saunders 1986) and as professing to be concerned with issues of social justice (Greed 1993; McGuirk 1995). As such, one would expect them to be concerned about the issues of marginalisation and social exclusion which affect places like North Clondalkin. Urban problems and urban analysis Table 7.2 summarises the various approaches which have been developed to explain and tackle the social problems associated with marginal urban areas. Most of these approaches assume that the causes of the problems are located within the areas themselves or the individuals and groups who occupy them. Others attribute the problems to institutional malfunctioning or political manipulation and assert that they can be remedied by appropriate corrective action. I believe that the role of planners as urban managers and social engineers can usefully be understood in terms ofthe wider social system emphasis which is provided by the structural conflict approach to urban analysis and that is the approach which is adopted in this chapter. For structuralists it is not so much planning decisions as the underlying pressures associated with business competition and profits which determine the shape oftowns and cities in modern market economies. In this view, planning

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Table 7.2 Differing explanations of urban problems

Theoretical model of Explanation problem the problem

of the

Location of the problem

Key concept

Type of change aimedfor

Method of change

Better adjusted Social and less education and deviant people social work treatment of groups

Culture of poverty

Problems arising In the internal Poverty from the internal dynamics of deviant groups pathology of deviant

Cycle of deprivation

Problems arising from individual psychological handicaps and inadequacies transmitted from one generation to the next

In the relationships between individuals, families and groups

Institutional malfunctioning

Problems arising from failures of planning, management or administration

Disadvantage In the relationship between the 'disadvantaged' and the bureaucracy

More total and Rational social coordinated planning approaches by the bureaucracy

Maldistribution of resources and opportu nities

Problems arising from an inequitable distribution of resources

U nderprivilege Relationship between the underprivilege d and the formal political machine

Reallocation of Positive resources discrimination policies

Structural class conflict

Problems arising from the divisions necessary to maintain an economic system based on private profit

Relationship betweeen the working class and the political and economic structure

Inequality

Redistribution of power and control

Changes in political consciousness and organization

Social polarisation

Problems arising Relationship from between marginalization marginalised' of 'weak' groups groups and political and economic structure

Exclusion

Inclusion of marginalised groups in political, social and economic decision making processes

Creation of forums and structures to secure involvement of marginalised in decision making processes

Deprivation

More integrated self-supporting families

Compensatory social work, support and self-help

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plays an important but secondary supportive role in the shaping of the built environment. The emerging spatial arrangements, or city shapes, which facilitate competitiveness and profitability are those which planning, in the public interest, is expected to secure. The patterns produced are, ofcourse, complex and dynamic because in an open market system of intensifying, globalising economic competition, the unrelenting application ofmore efficient technology and innovative practices creates a continuous need for appropriate new urban environments. Thus, cities in the twentieth century have a very different appearance to that of their predecessors. They are characterised by the development of high rise offices in the central business district, decentralisation of industry and residential suburbanisation, all of which can be shown to be important facets of the modern market economy (Fainstein 1994; Knox 1994; 1995). The fluctuating urban patterns facilitated at different periods of city growth in this century have included urban intensification (high density, high rise development), de-urbanisation (decentralisation/suburbanisation) and reurbanisation (inner city renewal). All of these changes have been accompanied by increased residential segregation (Bartley 1995). Town planning: managing transformation and problems Planning as a state activity has played a role in smoothing the way for the emergence of these new city shapes or patterns. It manages these transformations (through development plan zoning and control policies) so that future change is rationalised and undesirable change restricted where necessar~ It also manages the potential conflicts which arise in the course of these transformations. In particular, urban planning plays a particularly important role in fragmenting, or atomising, the labour force while simultaneously defusing conflict by ameliorating its living conditions. Urban growth and change helps to promote profitability and competition for the business sectors. However, by spatially concentrating urban populations as labour and consumer markets, urbanisation also increases the potential for a united opposition to the prevailing social and economic arrangements. This prospect is preempted by the state through various forms ofcontrol including the planning and management of segregated housing markets and submarkets for people with low incomes (Bartley 1995). Thus, the widening social and geographical distance associated with the growing polarisation of the wealthy and poor is one trend that accompanies city expansion in modern market economy societies. Another is the increasing residential segregation attributable to the fragmentation of the labour force (including the unemployed) in an increasingly subdivided housing mar-

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keto Housing is a commodity which can be produced and exchanged for profit and, as such, the private housing market is part of the functioning market economy. However, housing also features as a welfare function supplied to the poor by the state, which has the dual role of both regulating conflicts between competing business sectors and mollifying the labour force byensuring that it receives basic essential services. State housing, therefore, plays an essential role in pacifying and stabilising the existing workforce. The creation of an urban environment based on homogenised but distinctive and competing residential communities inhibits the labouring class occupants from recognising their common interest in the economic system. They are encouraged to identify with their respective communities and to compete with each other on a local scale, so undermining their potential to develop a sense of solidarity and their ability to seriously challenge the existing rewards system. This, together with the activities of other state-controlled institutions (e.g. education, the legal system, the media), serves to nullify latent opposition to the existing economic arrangements, thereby reinforcing the authority of the dominant groups who benefit from it. Planning is im plicated in this process but in the guise ofa neutral technical arbiter. Its biased influence on the distribution of resources is disguised behind its supposedly apolitical mask of serving the public interest. Applying these arguments to North Clondalkin, we can observe that one of the main tasks of modern planning has been to accommodate expanding business in the city centre together with the resolution of prospective housing crises in the cit)!. This has involved breaking up and dispersing established communities and the creation of new dispersed and weakened communities based on the concept of the neighbourhood unit. This idea has the objective of 'recreating' community identity by dividing urban areas up into the smallest possible groups consistent with the efficient delivery ofstate-provided essential services such as roads and schools. The neighbourhood, as we have seen in the case of North Clondalkin, is usually constructed around the provision of a primary school and local shops which are within a few minutes walk of all households in the unit and will usually have a population which falls within the required efficiency threshold of 5000 to 12,000 people. A secondary school and other higher order services can be provided efficiently in an amalgamated area consisting of two to four such neighbourhoods. The dispersed and segmented population catchments of these amalgamated areas can then be combined to justify the provision of further higher order facilities and so on. Thus, improved living standards are provided in the most cost-effective way for the relocated population who are both pacified and fragmented in the process. The reality in

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many places, such as North Clondalkin, is not an integrated larger community but an isolated labyrinth of differentiated housing enclaves. Integration in such cases only applies to the population figures used to calculate the optimal location of necessary services. In summary, the creation and reinforcement of community identity has been a traditional aspiration ofmodern town planning in Ireland. This objective underpins the neighbourhood principle upon which many new towns, including Clondalkin, have been constructed since the establishment of the Irish planning system in the mid-1960s. However, it has become increasingly evident in recent times that the neighbourhood-based new towns settlement strategy has not secured social cohesion. On the contrary, it would appear that this form of spatial planning has actually served to fragment communities and reinforce social segregation, as well as making the socially excluded less visible, through its policies of relocating populations at the edge of the built up area. Local problems, the state and wider economic forces The structuralist approach employed in this examination of the planning and development of North Clondalkin throws an extremely negative light on the problems facing the marginalised communities in the area. Urban planning, in this view, was involved in the creation of North Clondalkin and is associated with many ofits secondary problems ofisolation, fragmentation and invisibility. Local government planning is also unable to solve the primary problems of unemployment, deprivation and exclusion created by the macroeconomic policies decided at central government level. Such problems are a common consequence of macroeconomic policies which promote and support competitiveness and profit maximisation in open market economy conditions. The processes of economic restructuring underway since the early 1970s have been accompanied by a homogenisation ofmacroeconomic policies across the nation states of the developed world. Increasingly, as the integration of foreign exchange markets and the globalisation of finance capital links together their economies and leaves them exposed to the potential flight of capital, many national governments have replaced Keynesian job creation, growth oriented strategies with monetarist macroeconomic policies designed to control inflation at the expense of their job creation and economic growth priorities (Leyshon 1995). Paradoxically, in an era ofunprecedented work restructuring, unemployment and job insecurity, this has contributed to redefining the role ofthe state and the emergence of powerful neoliberal political ideologies which advocate that government can best help to provide new jobs by letting business competition take its course. Central

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government is urged to be more supportive of the business sector and to further assist by both relinquishing control over public resources (privatisation) and adopting a non-interventionist approach to market competition (deregulation). Where the central state adopts this ideology, the locally experienced effects of (and obligations associated with) the consequent economic, social and environmental restructuring are typically the responsibility of local government. Ireland is a highly centralised state in which local government has virtually no political power or autonomy. Town planning is part of the Irish local (not central) government system. Area-based planning at this level cannot provide definitive solutions to the problems created by the wider socioeconomic system when it is itself a subordinate part of that system. It is especially ineffective at addressing local problems where it is obliged to protect and advance the interests of the wider system. Urban planners in Irish local authorities are in an invidious position. Criticisms of the localised outcomes of macroeconomic policies are typically directed not at the instigators and upholders of these central state policies, but at the local authority planners who, as we have seen, playa mainly supportive and ameliorative role in implementing them. The planners, therefore, are fall guys or piggies in the middle, providing a safe buffer zone for those business interests and central state brokers who actually influence and make the key economic decisions which ultimately affect local areas.

Conclusion As the divergence between rich and poor grows in the western economies, we now have a growing debate about the development of an urban underclass for whom the drugs trade and crime increasingly offer the best opportunities for advancement (Mingione 1996; Musterd 1994). The circumstances ofthis underclass and the deprived neighbourhoods in which they live did not just invent themselves. They are a by-product of the economic restructuring engendered by free market forces and the social and economic policies to which national governments subscribe (Barrf 1995; Hutton 1996). The pressure on national governments in an increasingly open and, therefore, competitive international arena is to implement market regimes and labour controls that will attract mobile investment and promote international trade in goods and services. The resultant emphasis on business shareholder interests at the expense of community stakeholder concerns produces the social polarisation and segregation which translate at their extremities into the secured fortresses (gated communities) of the included wealthy and the marginalised reservations (hidden ghettos) of the excluded poor (Davis 1992; Hutton 1996;

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Painter 1995). Meanwhile, the wealthy increasingly choose to provide their own private pension and insurance cover and opt out of public welfare schemes so that the welfare state and the wider community consensus it embodies is continuously eroded. The diminishing contribution of the wealthy also undermines the ability of the state to provide an adequate welfare safety net for the unemployed as well as for the chronically insecure workers and the new poor (low waged, contracted and casual labour) created by economic restructuring. A negative cycle is engendered whereby those who have wellpaid employment increasingly complain about the welfare drain on the exchequer (and their tax contributions) arising from the growing demands associated with the increased poverty. The welfare state becomes a target of criticism. An increasing reluctance to subsidise or support the besieged welfare regime translates into discussions which define welfare, rather than poverty and unemployment, as the problem to be addressed. Where the debate calls for the replacement of welfare by workfare, with its emphasis on personal responsibility and the need for work incentives, unemployment and poverty are redefined as individual, personal problems (relating to some lack of will to work) rather than structural ones (to do with lack of, and poorly paid, jobs) (Painter 1995; Peck 1996). Structuralist analyses typically assume that the actions of individuals and groups are not autonomous, but are shaped by the imperatives of an economic system which is driven by competition, profit accumulation and technological change. It has been criticised for its failure to make allowances for the scope and ability ofsmall, independent groups to influence urban change. Many of the newer area-based approaches to local development are more flexible in this regard. They fall into the category of approaches designed to address the problems of social exclusion (see Table 7.2). Conceptually, the social-exclusion focused strategies claim to combine the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the failed older approaches to tackling poverty (Room 1993). At a practical level, they enhance the prospects of implementing grassroots, bottom-up initiatives through the involvement of local groups in partnerships that link them with private enterprise, local government and state sector agencies (Nexus, 1996). There has been much experimentation with local development initiatives over recent years in Ireland which have been favourably reviewed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). O'Toole (1996), in a recent review of an OECD evaluation by Sabel (1996) of area-based partnerships, attributes the success of these partnerships to the fortuitous coincidence of their flexible, middle way approach (,between free market anarchy and statist inertia') with the emergence of new decentralised and flexible business models in the global economy. Walsh (forthcoming) has pointed out that virtually none of these

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local development initiatives has a specific remit to target those who are socially excluded or in danger ofbecoming so. He also reiterates the concerns of Pringle (forthcoming), who argues that it is a mistake to assume that resources will be effectively directed to those in most need simply because programmes are administered locally and, in practice, it is those who are already well resourced who are best placed to tap into new sources of public funding. In short, where funding is the product of a bidding process, the inverse care principle usually applies, Le. the likelihood of an area receiving assistance is inversely related to its need for assistance. In such situations, funding tends to be allocated to those areas which make the strongest case (because they already have the capacity and resources to do so) while those which are most in need receive least because they lack the capacity to stake their claim effectivel~

The area-based partnerships are still experimental and may become useful additions to the array ofstrategies available for tackling the problems that accompany marginalisation and social exclusion. However, the problems also need to be addressed at a higher level. It is difficult to see how local, areabased solutions can eliminate the problems experienced in areas of multiple deprivation where the causes of those problems originate outside and not within the area. There is a danger that these new area-based approaches may turn out to be a cosmetic exercise that simply tackles the symptoms of the problems without addressing their real causes. It would be a tragedy ifthe impression is again created that something is being done if in reality these efforts simply serve to deflect attention from the macroeconomic policies and the wider forces of global economic development which ultimately produce and compound the processes of social exclusion and marginalisation. This chapter has attempted to fill some gaps in Irish planning and social policy research by providing a preliminary account of the situation experienced by a disadvantaged urban community in Ireland. Although it describes a specific situation (that is, a particular place at a particular time), the analytical terms employed, such as exclusion and marginalisation, are understood to refer to processes in which individuals and groups are gradually excluded or sidelined from mainstream societ~ Of course, it is accepted that any understanding of such phenomena is further challenged by the fact that marginal or excluded are at best abstract words. Any person in concrete social and historical circumstances, at a particular age, has access to certain resources and not others. Indeed, one explanation of the current inadequacy of social policies relates to a lack of knowledge about these exclusionary processes. Clearly, we need to develop our understanding of the mechanisms leading to exclusion. The process of social exclusion cannot readily be explained by simple indicators. It involves a multidimensional and contextualised explora-

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tion. It is about but is not limited to being poor, or unemployed, or belonging to a minority in a segregated neighbourhood, or being geographically trapped in an invisible part of town. The challenge before us is to develop ways of thinking and writing about social exclusion that give it content,

while maintaining its flexibility: References Andersen, J. and Larsen, E. (1995) 'The underclass debate - a spreading disease?' In Mortensen and Olofsson (eds) Essays on Integration and Marginalisation. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. Bannon, M.J. (1989) 'Development planning and the neglect of the critical regional dimension.' In M.J. Bannon (ed) Planning: The Irish Experience 1920-1988. Dublin: Wolfhound Press. Bartley, B. (1995) 'Managing cities - conflict interpretations of city organisation.' In Sociology: The Changing Social Environment. Dublin: OSCAIL, Dublin City University. Bartley, B. (forthcoming) 'Consuming Dublin - the transforming city: visibility and invisibility - spaces of control and excluded places.' Pleanail, Journal of the Irish Planning Institute. Barrf, R. (1995) 'Multinational corporations and the new international division of labour.' In R.J. Johnston, P.J. Taylor and M.). Watts (eds) Geographies of Global Change. Oxford: Blackwell. Brotchie, )., Batty, M., Blakely, E., Hall, ~ and Newman, ~ (eds) (1995) Cities in Competition: Productive and Sustainable Citiesfor the 21st Century. Australia: Longman. Clondalkin Partnership (1996) Draft Area Action Plan: A Plan for the 21st Century. Dublin: Clondalkin Partnership, Camac House, Oakfield Estate, Clondalkin, Dublin 22. Collins, T. and Crowley, G. (1993) Plan for the Development ofNorth C/ondalkin: Report of the North Clondalkin Task Force. Dublin: North Clondalkin Community Development Programme, Neilstown Park, Dublin 22. Commission of the European Communities (1992) Social Europe. Luxembourg: Urban Social Development, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, Office of the Official Publications of the European Communities. Commission of the European Communities (1993) Green Paper. European Social Policy: Optionsfor the Union. Luxembourg: Urban Social Development, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, Office Social Europe: Urban Social Development, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, Office of the Official Publications of the European Communities. Conlon, R (1988) 4public transport - what is its role?' In J. Blackwell and J. Convery (eds) RtVita/ising Dublin - What Works? Dublin: Resource and Environmental Policy Centre, University College Dublin, Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin.

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Cullingworth, J.B. and Nadin, V. (1994) Town and Country Planning in Bn"tain. London: Routledge. Davis, J. and Prendergast, T. (1995) 'Dublin.' In J. Berry and S. McGreal (eds) European Citie~ Planning Systems and Property Markets. London: Spon. Davis, M. (1992) City of O!:!artz; Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage. Department of Justice (1992) Urban Crime and Disorder: Report of the Interdepartmental Group. Dublin: Stationery Office. Downey, D. (1996) cDublin: writing and re-writing the urban palimpsest.' Planning Theory 15, (Winter). Dublin Transportation Task Force (1986) The East Regional Development Report - Review and Prospects. Dublin: Department of Transport. Engels, F. (1969) The Conditions of the Working Class in England (first published in German, 1845; in English, 1892). London: Panther. Fainstein, S. (1994) The City Builders: Property, Politics and Planning in London and New York. Oxford: Blackwell. Gerckens, L.C. (1994) 'American zoning and the physical isolation of uses.' Planning

CommissionersJournal 15. Greed, C. (1993) Introducing Town Planning. Harlow: Longman UK. Hall, ~ (1989) Urban and Regional Planning, 3rd edn. London: Unwin. Hartshorn, T.L. (1992) Interpreting the City: An Urban Geography, 2nd edition. New York: Wiley. Heale)f, ~, Cameron, S., Davoudi, S., Graham, S. and Madanipour, A. (eds) (1995) Managing Cities: The New Urban Context. Chichester: Wiley. Hutton, W. (1996) The State

we~re

In. London: Vintage. Kirk, G. (1980) Urban Planning in a Capitalist Society. London: Croom Helm. Knox, ~L. (1994) Urbanisation: An Introduction to Urban Geography. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Knox, P (1995) Urban Social Geography, 3rd edn. London: Longman. Lefebvre, H. (1974) La Production De L~espace. Paris: Anthropos. Leyshon, A. (1995) 'Annihilating space? The speed-up of world communications.' In J. Allen and C. Hamnett (eds) A Shrinking World? Global Unevenness and Inequality. Oxford and Milton Keynes: Oxford University Press in association with the Open Universi~

Massey, D. (1 994) Space~ Place and Gender. London: Polity Press. McCarron, G. (1998) County of Dublin Development Plan Review: Working Paper No. 10The Neighbourhood Concept. Dublin: County Council Planning Department. McGuirk (1995) 'Power and influence in urban planning: community and property interests in Dublin's planning system.' Irish Geography 28, 1. Mingione, E. (ed) (1996) Urban Poverty and the Underc/ass: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. Musterd, S. (1994) 'A rising European underclass? Social polarization and spatial segregation in European cities.' Built Environment 20, 3.

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Nexus (1996) Partnershtp in Action. Dublin: Community Workers' Co-Operative. O'Toole, F: (1996) 'Walking a fine line between anarchy and inertia.' Irish Times, 6 September. Painter, J. (1995) 'The regulatory state: the corporate welfare state and beyond.' In R.J. Johnston, P.J. Taylor and M.J. Watts (eds) Geographies of Global Change. Oxford: Blackwell. Peck, J. (1996) 'Loose talk and tight fists.' The Guardian, 17 August. Pringle, D.G.P. (forthcoming) 'Something old, something new: lessons to be learnt from previous strategies of positive territorial discrimination.' In Pringle et al. (eds) Poor People - Poor Places: Poverty Patterns} Processes and Policies. Maynooth: Geographical Society of Ireland. Room, G. (1993) Antt'-Poverty Action-Research in Europe. Bristol: School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol. Sabel,

c. (1996) Local Partnershtps and Social Innovation. Paris: OECD.

Saunders, P (1986) Social Theory and the Urban OE,estion, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Soja, E. (1996) Thirdspace:Joumey to Los Angeles and Other Real and Imagined Places. Oxford: Blackwell. Sibley, D. (1995) Geographies of Exclusion: Society and Difftrences in the west. London: Routledge. Taoiseach's Office (1996) Operational Programme: URBAN - Ireland. Dublin: Stationery Office. Walsh, J. (forthcoming) 'Integration and exclusion in rural Ireland.' In D.G.P. Pringle et al. (eds) Poor People - Poor Places: Poverty Patt~ Processes and Policies. Maynooth: Geographical Society of Ireland. Wilson, W.J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner Ci~ The Underclas~ and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wilson, W.J. (1992) 'Another look at the truly disadvantaged.' Political Science QE,arterly 106, 4, 639-656. Wright, M. (1967) The Dublin Region: Advisory Regional Plan and Final Report, Vols 1 and 2. Dublin: Stationery Office.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Spatial Segregation and Social Exclusion in a Peripheral Greek Neighbourhood Annie Vrychea and ebara/ambos Go/emis

Any effort to provide a comprehensive description of social and economic developments in modern Greek urban centres must include the importance of two factors contributing to the eventual creation ofserious problems ofsocial segregation and exclusion: the almost total absence of public housing policy and the limited applicability of town planning. The first factor is largely due to the virtual non-existence ofa welfare state in Greece and its consequent substitution by the family unit whose activities extend to large areas ofsocial and economic life, including housing as well as education and employment. This structural characteristic of Greek society not only was not averted by the state, but has actually been reinforced through specific policies, non-policies and incentives. Trust in the effectiveness of the family's invisible hand, together with the power of the prevailing system of political clientelism which promotes illegitimate claims or prevents decided policies being implemented in all fields of public policy, lies behind the inability to apply in practice various existing projects of town planning. Small land ownership, another specificity of the Greek economy, further discourages any substantial intervention in space. Initially, the absence of state intervention seemed not to have any serious effect on social cohesion. However, more recentl)!, this superficial conclusion has proved false. The traditionally strong ties ofthe Greek family, though still existing, are not as close as in the past. Furthermore, family income has been severely reduced following the restrictive macroeconomic policies started by the mid-1980s and intensified during the 1990s. These developments, together with a sharp rise in the number offoreign immigrants, mainly from the Balkans and the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the repatriation of refugees of Greek origin from the countries of the 157

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former Soviet Union, all ofwhom flooded into the urban centres in search of jobs, increased the number of segregated and socially excluded neighbourhoods, especially in the Greater Athens area. This chapter examines spatial segregation and social exclusion in Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, a peripheral neighbourhood in Piraeus, the biggest Greek port. It is based on a EUROPIL project entitled 4 QE,artiers - 4 Vtlles: Transfer Methodologique et Technologique de Requalification de QE,artiers en crise. The project was effected in the programme Exchange d' Experience and was submitted in April 1994. I Housing policy and home ownership During the 1950s and 1960s, self settlement was the predominant way of housing all over Greece. This pattern was the result of deliberate state policy and was followed not only by the upper classes, who assigned the construction of their homes to architects and civil engineers, but also by the lower social strata in the urban centres, which included those peasants who had abandoned the countryside during and immediately after the civil war (1945-1949). This latter category built their dwellings almost completely on their own, following the traditional methods used in their villages. The 1960s marked the start of a new period, in which the market for ready-made houses started to function. One ofthe factors which contributed to this development was the phenomenon of antlparochl~ The term describes a unique situation in Europe, in which land or old houses are purchased by local contractors from their owners, who do not receive any money in exchange but are given one or more flats in the blocks of flats erected in the site. Since the 1970s and up to the present, self settlement has been continuously declining, especially among the lower social strata. The stated aim of postwar housing policy was the provision ofa home for everybody. This was not, however, pursued through public housing, which amounted to less than 0.02 per cent oftotal housing production (Economou and Sapounakis 1966, p.204). State intervention was based on a number of direct and indirect incentives aiming to promote home ownership and the market for rented houses. These incentives ranged from tolerating the construction of houses in areas not included in the city plans (and eventually legalising the houses) to increasing plot ratios and controlling the prices of raw materials for building. I

Annie Vrychea was the project leader and Charalambos Golemis one of the team's consultants and responsible for the case study of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, together with Vasso Trova, Nikos Belavilas and Notis Ananiadis.

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Judging from the percentage of home ownership in Greece, which is one ofthe highest in the European Union (70 per cent in 1986), this housing policy could be considered as highly successful. However, the so-called building miracle of the postwar period, which led the authorities to claim that no serious housing problems existed in the country, soon proved not to have particularly affected housing conditions. A number of studies published since 1980 have shown that the situation is far from ideal. Housing conditions for more than 65 per cent ofhouseholds living in privately owned flats or houses are low or very low by all acceptable standards. Pensioner couples and aged single women are the two groups most seriously affected by bad housing conditions (Kouveli and Sakellaropoulos 1996). In addition, more than 30 per cent ofhouseholds owning or renting better quality flats live in extremely densely populated areas. Further, the number of degraded urban neighbourhoods where social exclusion prevails and reproduces itself is steadily increasing. Finally, foreign immigrants and refugees are in a continuous search for housing, and homelessness, a phenomenon largely unknown in postwar Greece, has already started to make its threatening appearance.

Maniatika-Aghia Sofia The area of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia occupies the northwestern part of the municipality ofPiraeus, one ofthe biggest Mediterranean ports. It is a peripheral neighbourhood separated from the city by an industrial zone known as the Agios Dionysios area. According to the population census of 1981, its permanent population was 49,268 persons, which amounted to 25.1 per cent of the total population of Piraeus. Maniatika is the product of the self construction of unplanned houses, built over a period of almost a century. One can distinguish four periods in the neighbourhood's historical development.

First period: end of the 19th century unti/1922 During this period, the area could not be considered a proper neighbourhood. It was more an aggregation of one-storey houses, scattered around the Karavas and Vokos hills overlooking the port of Piraeus. The area was mainly inhabited by Maniates, whose place oforigin, Mani in the southeastern Peloponnesus, was (and, to a certain extent, still is) renowned for its extreme poverty and its puritan and patriarchal social ethics.

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Second period:

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1922 until 1944

In 1922, following the defeat ofthe Greek army in the war against the Turks, a huge wave of refugees flooded into Greece. Alarge number ofthem came to Piraeus, which doubled its population during the period 1920-1924. The situation was really dramatic and people were literally living in the city's streets. For those who could afford to pay rent, Maniatika was an ideal place to stay as it was located near the port and the factories where refugees were trying to earn their living. The house owners of Maniatika grasped this opportunity and started renting rooms at exorbitant prices. As space was limited and in high demand, most of them started building new rooms, even in the yards of their houses.

Third period: 1944 until the end of the 19605 The period starting immediately after the Second World War marked the transformation of the area into a densely populated neighbourhood. The Greek Civil War (1945-1949) forced people living in the countryside to leave their villages and settle in the urban centres. This was especially true for the inhabitants of Mani, which was the site of fierce battles between rival forces. During the 1950s a large number ofManiates immigrants came to Piraeus and either stayed with their relatives in Maniatika or bought tiny plots in the area's hills, where they built their own small houses. Internal immigration continued until the end of the 1960s as the underdevelopment of the countryside forced more Maniates to leave their villages and come to Piraeus in search of a job. Fourth period:ftom the 19705 onwards During this period, the neighbourhood has undergone major changes regarding both its spatial and its social and economic characteristics. Blocks of flats, constructed mainly through anttparocht: replaced the old one or two storey family houses. The new buildings were of rather low standards as local constructors tried to minimise costs. These deficiencies were subsequently 'repaired' by the owners themselves either through personal work or through paid work financed from their own small savings. Maniates immigrants of previous decades, although still retaining extended family traditions, with groups offamilies consisting ofrelatives living in the same neighbourhood and sharing tasks on a daily basis, started gradually to feel the air of the new times. At the same time, the new generations, through their education and living practices, developed a new urban identity

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which differed substantially from that of the elder inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Further changes in the characteristics of Maniatika have become evident during the late 1980s and the 1990s. During this period, a large number of low income wage earners and illegal foreign immigrants acquired rented accommodation in the area, while a number of well-off inhabitants moved out in search of a more respectable neighbourhood.

Present economic and social characteristics of the neighbourhood Maniatika-Aghia Sophia is a degraded area, inhabited by a mainly young population (children up to the age of fourteen comprise 21.3 per cent of the total population in 1981 and, according to reliable sources of information, today most of the inhabitants are less than thirty years ofage). The number of illegal immigrants is high and steadily increasing. Most people living in the neighbourhood belong to the lower income strata and work in Piraeus or in the Greater Athens area. They are labourers in the port, sailors, workers in factories or low-paid employees in the public or private services sector. The inhabitants of Maniatika working in Piraeus use the local bus service, while those working in the Greater Athens area use their own private cars as public transport services are completely inadequate. Some of the neighbourhood's inhabitants work in local food stores, bakeries, butcher shops, furniture stores and shops for domestic appliances. However, most people prefer central Piraeus for their shopping as there they can find a wider range of goods. Unemployment in the area is higher than in Piraeus, with a rate which exceeds the national average, and hits mostly young people. Social services are extremely limited and do not play any substantial role in people's lives. The area lacks a hospital and the existing schools and nurseries cannot meet local needs. There is only a small sports centre and two cultural centres, neither of which was functioning during the period of the EUROPIL study: The area is not a pole of attraction for outsiders, while inhabitants gather either in cafeterias and bars (young people) or in coffee shops (older people) or, finall)T, in the centre ofthe neighbourhood where the shops are located. Despite changes in the population over the years, the larger part of the neighbourhood's inhabitants are Maniates. These people, having arrived from Mani during various time periods, have created a closely knit social group whose members support each other in all fields ofsocial and economic life. They have transplanted their villages' traditions and way of life to the

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city and they have tended to stick to them as a method of survival in an unfriendly environment, resisting societal and cultural changes. Some decades ago the extended family was a common phenomenon in Maniatika. Even today, the head of the family (father or grandfather) has the first say in the family's decision making, while the role of women and children in this process is very limited. Old people and children are taken care of within the family, almost exclusively by women, who care even for distant relatives or neighbours. Thus, an informal support network is created, which substitutes for the almost non-existent welfare state and provides the necessary social services. The process of degradation The neighbourhood's degradation is the product of its historical development, a long-term process associated with its spatial, social and cultural segregation. The absence of any effective state or local authority intervention, based on a study of the neighbourhood itself and a well defined plan of action, is another aggravating factor. On the spatial front, Maniatika-Aghia Sophia is virtually blocked along three-quarters of its borders. To the north, the hills of Vokos and Karavas separate it from the adjacent neighbourhoods ofPalia Kokinia and Nikea. To the south and the south-east, three barriers separate the area from the centre of Piraeus. The first is the railway lines, which are part ofthe national railway network; the second is Piraeus street, a heavy traffic road which connects Athens with the port of Piraeus; and the third is the industrial zone, the Aghios Dionysios area, which is located between the neighbourhood and Piraeus. The main road connecting Maniatika with the centre of Piraeus passes through Aghios Dionysios which, during the night, becomes a no-man's land. It is evident that the neighbourhood is almost completely isolated from Piraeus, which is its main reference point for working, shopping, administrative and cultural activities. Although the area is not stigmatised in the literal use of the word, the degree of its social segregation is very high. This segregation has accompanied Maniatika right from its birth and has come of age together with its growth. Maniatika has traditionally been a neighbourhood of relatively poor or low income inhabitants, mainly factory workers or labourers in the port of Piraeus. The expansion of Piraeus during the 1960s created new areas within its borders, which were also populated by people with low incomes. During this phase many ofits traditional working class neighbourhoods also became middle class. Maniatika-Aghia Sophia did not follow this trend, most probably because ofits proximity to the industrial zone and the port. The composi-

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tion of its population gradually changed with better-off inhabitants moving to more respectable neighbourhoods and the void being filled by poor incomers, a high proportion of whom are illegal foreign immigrants. Cultural segregation is certainly to be associated with space, but also with the social ethics of Maniates, who are still the majority of the neighbourhood's population. In fact, Maniates share two opposing identities. On the one hand, they live and work within the wider society with its modern and postmodern values; on the other hand, they still retain (most of them, at least) a strong cultural identity based on puritan and patriarchal values. For women and young people, who do not have a decisive word in the society of Maniatika, there is only one choice if they do not agree with these traditional values: they have to leave the neighbourhood. Their departure widens the social and spatial segregation of the area, depriving it of its more dynamic population, and increases its degradation. Houses which were meant to shelter the daughter's family have to be rented as the new family chooses another neighbourhood to start its new life.

Existing policies to combat degradation and social exclusion According to the prevailing official view, Greece has not, until recently, faced any serious problems of housing and social exclusion. As we have said in the first part of this chapter and tried to analyse through the experience of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, this view is completely incorrect. Reality has become evident through a number of studies and has recently started to worry the authorities, who are in search of the appropriate policies. However, even now the interdependence of spatial problems and social exclusion has not been fully realised and solutions are sought separately for each ofthese problems. Furthermore, intervention at either the spatial or the social level is of a rather general character and not directed towards the solution of the particular problems of a certain neighbourhood, taking into consideration its history, its social composition or its cultural values, that is, its specific problems in space and society. The rehabilitation of Maniatika is an example of such a general approach. The situation in the area has been examined (and a number of measures were suggested) in numerous studies of agglomeration. The most important among them are the Spatial Project and PlanningfOr the Greater Athens Area (a study undertaken by Doxiadis Technical Office on behalf of the Ministry of Planning and Coordination, Athens 1976), the project Capital 2000 (Loukakis et al. on behalf of the Ministry of Planning and Environment, Athens 1981), the Regulation Plan fOr Athens and the Area ofPiraeus (Ministry of Envi-

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ronment, Planning and Public Works, Athens 1985), the study Dalt Acropoli diAtene al Porto di Pire (National Technical University ofAthens, Politechnico di Milano, Athens 1989), the Project FrameworkfOr Aghios Dionysios- Piraeus (Athens Organisation, Ministry of Environment, Planning and Public Works, Athens 1991), and the Planning StudyfOr the Rehabilitation of the Area ofAghios Dionysios of Piraeus (Association of Merchants of Piraeus, Piraeus 1993). The Doxiadis Project envisaged the setting up of regional and planning policies for the Greater Athens area with a 30 year horizon. The project did not refer specifically to Maniatika, but to Piraeus, identifying a number ofenvironmental, social and spatial problems, problems ofeducation, bad housing and infrastructure, and its suggested solutions were inspired by modern movement ideas based on decentralisation and the sharing of inequalities within the Great Athens area. Today, 20 years after the publication of the study, Maniatika-Aghia Sophia is still trapped behind the industrial zone and suffers from all kinds of degradation and social exclusion. The Loukakis project was part ofa general study to revise the Greater Athens master plan, and by dealing specifically with Piraeus and the islands of the Sapronicos Bay, provided the biggest Greek port with its first complete master plan. The project endorsed Doxiadis' proposals on decentralisation and made some reference to Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, proposing to end its isolation by constructing a passage through the industrial zone of Agios Dionysios which would connect the neighbourhood with the east coast of Piraeus. The project also proposed a general framework for housing policy, which included subsidising the construction of low-cost houses to shelter people with limited financial resources, upgrading the housing in the area and renovating its open spaces. The Regulation PlanfOr Athens and the Area of Piraeus referred to the need to rehabilitate the area of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia through the creation of four local centres inside (or on) the borders of the neighbourhood (Aghios Dionysios, Aghia Sophia, Maniatika, Aghia Marina). The study foresaw the activities of the centre of Piraeus expanding to the southeastern part of the industrial zone and suggested a number of measures to protect the vulnerable housing area from this expansion. One of the proposals was the construction ofa pedestrian network which would link the local centres, as well as a pedestrian ring road which would encircle the whole neighbourhood. Regarding the question ofspatial segregation behind the industrial area, the Regulation Plan proposed the rehabilitation of the coastal area between Keratsini and Fatiro and the construction of a network of open and sheltered public spaces to be used for recreation and cultural activities and which would lie on the periphery of the neighbourhood.

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The Athens Technical UniversityIPolitecnico di Milano study proposed the rehabilitation of abandoned industrial complexes, especially a former ceramics factory, which it suggested should become a centre for avant garde cultural activities. The Athens Organisation's Aghios Dionysios Project deals exclusively with the industrial zone but, due to the close proximity ofthe latter to Maniatika, the project could have a great impact on the neighbourhood itself The major objective of the project was to transform the industrial area into an administrative centre which could host banks, shipping enterprises and various services. The proposals attempt to combine the development of the industrial zone with the improvement of the housing areas lying behind it. The Association of the Merchants of Piraeus study is very similar to the Athens Organisation Project in that it stresses the necessity of creating an administrative and shipping centre in the industrial zone. However, ifone looks more closely at its proposals, it is evident that no reference is made to issues of private or social housing in Maniatika or to the conservation of industrial buildings of unique architectural character. The authorities have decided to accept the Athens Organisation Project for the rehabilitation of the Aghios Dionysios area, which would also affect the adjacent housing areas of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia. The reason for this choice is that the Athens Organisation is an institution incorporated in the Ministry ofEnvironment, Planning and Public Works, which was responsible for the Regulation Plan for Piraeus. In fact, the works have followed the guidelines set by the Plan. Although the Plan tries to combine the development of the industrial zone with the improvement of the nearby housing areas, the first task is clearly favoured. The industrial area is now being transformed into an administrative and shipping centre, an outcome which, when completed, will reinforce the housing area's spatial segregation. In addition, the project by the Association of the Merchants of Piraeus, which completely ignores the housing area, was approved by the Piraeus Municipal Council in May 1993. The expected outcome of these interventions will not stop the spatial, social and cultural degradation of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia since they rest exclusively on the invisible hand of market forces. They neither promote specific measures to improve public and private middle class or lower class housing nor measures on the social and cultural level. Unfortunately, the final outcome of this intervention will tend to further isolate the inhabitants of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, not preventing the area's degradation but making it invisible to outsiders.

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An alternative strategy The rights to housing and to citizenship are two principles on which the revitalisation of neighbourhoods in crisis must be based. Every neighbourhood is an exceptional case and the same holds true for every inhabitant. Hence, all actions should respect the history of the place and the people. A dynamic and consistent method of resolving the problem of degradation of everyday life in any neighbourhood requires the active involvement of inhabitants in order to release all their hidden human potential. Not only should one abstain from policies imposed on people without their participation in the decision making, but respect for cultural and social identity is also a prerequisite of every successful attempt to reverse degradation. An innovative and alternative policy for the rehabilitation of neighbourhoods in crisis and the integration of their citizens demands a profound understanding and critical review of the disappointing consequences of traditional abstract programming which is based solely on quantitative data and on the logic of averages, i.e. the 'average needs' of the 'average user', who is the 'average inhabitant'. Therefore, an alternative strategy must be based on a sound knowledge of all the specific parameters of the problem of social exclusion in a particular neighbourhood and a fine-grained, detailed analysis of people and spaces. In this context, the collection of data consistent with this type of analysis is of great importance and requires the construction of a new methodology based on action, i.e. on the cooperation and active involvement of the inhabitants. More specifically, this new strategy against social exclusion in a neighbourhood should rest on the following points: 1.

An interdisciplinary approach In order to understand the complexities and particularities ofspaces and persons and avoid one-sided answers to the questions raised, there is a need to refer to a variety of disciplines, such as sociology, demography, economics, as well as architecture and urban design. This does not mean that every member of an organisation dealing with the problems of social exclusion will serve his or her own discipline, as is the usual practice in traditional approaches. Instead, all members in a research-action team should be guided by a set of general principles and should have a high degree of 'homogeneity' among themselves. What is needed, in fact, is the creation ofa new type of multidisciplinary expert, all of whom share the same view on the necessity for a global approach.

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2.

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Fine-grained social and spatial analysis Apart from sociological, economic and demographic research, the new approach requires a detailed analysis of people and spaces. This analysis, which is absent from traditional approaches, is the only possible way to gain a thorough understanding of the existing situation in the neighbourhood.

3.

Learning to listen The views of the inhabitants, their institutions and associations should be an indispensable part of the whole effort. Listening without a questionnaire means listening without prejudice, respecting the people. An application of this alternative approach was attempted in the EUROPIL Project. In Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, the study suggested the adoption of both spatial planning and social interventions aimed at integrating the neighbourhood into the broader society of the city of Piraeus, according to Figure 8.1.

Planning interventions alone cannot rehabilitate an area in a balanced way which will secure its inhabitants' future. Interventions in space should be planned together with interventions in society. Social interventions themselves should reflect the mobilisation of the inhabitants rather than be a kind of philanthrop}!. Social groups or individuals living at the margin need to be integrated and accepted in society and not just supported to survive. Therefore, education and training are essential for mobilising the inhabitants at various levels (communal1ife, working conditions, infrastructure, personal and family situation, etc.). The integration/segregation criterion should be used to evaluate both spatial and social interventions.

INTEGRATION

SOCIETY --~ .....-

.....- -

inhabitant's education

- - SPACE

planning interventions

SEGREGATION Figure 8. 1 Spatial planning and social intervention to integrate the neighbourhood

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Mobilisation should be organised on various levels, for different groups and for a number of objectives. Participants have to realise the effect or the value participation may have on upgrading their own lives. Participation should focus on mobilising people towards the ends which are most important in their lives, Le. employment, solving family or personal problems, recreation, etc. The existence of groups with different needs, expectations or socia-cultural identities implies that different objectives should be pursued and different forms of intervention should be chosen for each of them. The reinforcement of these groups may provide the basis for a dynamic internal restructuring of the neighbourhood. As has been described above, the neighbourhood's degradation has been a long-term process and is due to its spatial, social and cultural segregation. These forms of segregation are interrelated. Spatial segregation has facilitated the reproduction of a specific cultural identity, thus reinforcing social segregation, while, at the same time, social exclusion took form in space. Following the social and spatial analysis of Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, two main lines of possible intervention were suggested by the research-action team which made the study of the neighbourhood. 1.

Interventions on a spatial level We have already referred to the extensive degree of spatial segregation between the neighbourhood and central Piraeus. Nothing has been done so far to solve the problem, while, at the same time, the inhabitants are constantly commuting to the centre of their municipality. It is evident that the spatial gap between Maniatika and the centre of the city should be bridged. In planning terms, this implies that it is necessary to extend the local centre towards the centre of Piraeus, along the main connecting roads. If this happens, the industrial barrier may be broken in certain areas, thus contributing to the neighbourhood's spatial integration. Just facilitating traffic through the industrial zone is not enough. The connecting roads should be functional axes, and they should incorporate a mixture ofhousing and recreation functions, shops and offices, education and services. The upgrading of the area should have an axial logic rather than being based on the development ofan interior network oflocal centres. This policy will increase communication between the various parts of the city and will eventually contribute to the spatial integration of the neighbourhood.

2.

Interventions on a social and cultural level The origins of the social segregation of Maniatika may be traced to the different cultural values and social forms which are dominant in the local community: The extended family, male dominated, includes two cru-

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cial factors which separate certain groups within the community. On the one hand, male dominance forces women outside the neighbourhood. On the other hand, elders' control ousts the youth. At the same time, the extended family functions positively as an informal support network in the community: This is a strong point of the local culture which should be reinforced. Following these conclusions, the research-action team made a number of proposals. The first set ofproposals is intended to build women's confidence. In this context, three measures were suggested: a.

Establishing a Business Advisory Centre, which would help local women to start small businesses in the area, so that they could become financially independent without having to leave the neighbourhood. The Centre should provide legal advice as well as assistance associated with the start-up period. It would also train women who are currently working and encourage them to be more efficient in the labour market. .

b.

Establishing a Women's Advisory Centre, which would provide information on subjects traditionally forbidden in the closed society of Maniatika, such as health issues (contraception, personal health, protection against cancer, etc.), family issues (divorce, conjugal relationships, etc.) and issues concerning the state-citizen relationship (pensions, social security, etc.).

The second set of proposals were directed towards the youth and aimed at encouraging them to stay in the neighbourhood. These were the following: a.

Supporting the local sports club.

b.

Viewing pubs and cafeterias where young people gather not as the locus of crime but as essential places for recreation, building up the identity of the young people.

c.

Establishing a Youth Centre, which would give advice on opportunities for local employment, health issues, provide psychological support, short-term training programmes for employed and unemployed young people and legal advice on various issues.

d. Turning the local Centre for Musical Studies into a Municipal Musical Centre which could attract students and audiences not only from Maniatika-Aghia Sophia, but also from other neighbourhoods. The existence of such a pole of attraction

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with an appeal to the whole of Piraeus would contribute to the creation of a local youth identity. The third set of proposals aimed at strengthening the existing informal network, which is a strong point ofthe local culture ofManiatika. Ifthis network is left to itself, it will certainly stop functioning. According to the research-action team, this network should be reinforced and upgraded for two reasons. First, it has proved to be a consolidating factor within the specific society: Its function integrates different social groups (old or ill people, children and adults, etc.) and creates a strong communal identity. Second, the informal network can be used as an opportunity to improve the position of women in the neighbourhood. The majority ofwomen belonging to this informal network are middle-aged housewives with minimal formal education and, consequently, no chance of entering the job market. However, this same network ma~ under certain conditions, offer opportunities to work and possibly a source of income. The way of strengthening the internal network is through more professional women's training in various fields, such as the provision of first aid, nursing, baby-sitting, etc. This training could be assigned to or assisted by the Women's Advisory Centre. Finally, the last set of proposals refers to the cultural upgrading of Maniatika through the creation ofa locus for patrimonial values. Traditions of Mani and the Maniates are a subject of exceptional historical and ethnographic value. Detailed interdisciplinary research (ethnographic, historical, architectural, social, etc.) could collect and classify information and material describing their way of life during different periods in Mani as well as in Piraeus. Thus, past patrimonial values may find a new way ofsurviving in the present. Such a project, aimed at motivating the older generation, could contribute to the collection ofitems and historical memory: An Institute for the Study ofMani and the Maniates could be established, which could be involved in various research activities. It is certain that this action could have the social and financial support of all the Maniates, wherever they may live. Conclusions The social and spatial isolation of Maniatika-Aghia Sofia results from the conjunction of a number of factors: the general reliance on households, rather than the state, for the provision of welfare within Greek society; the strong cultural values of its inhabitants; and an approach to spatial planning which does not take into account the specific nature and needs oflocal populations. Consequently, in this area of Piraeus, the local social structure has

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been as important as spatial factors in keeping this community isolated. This local social structure has generated strong informal networks which compensates for the lack of provision of services by the Greek state. If the area is to become less isolated, then these informal networks will be threatened. Change, therefore, requires that Maniatika be linked into at least some basic services which could be provided on a voluntary basis and which will support the Maniates in adapting. However, access to these services by women and youth may also challenge the traditional male-dominated culture of the area, and this problem must also be addressed if the spatial and social exclusion of the area is to be successfully combated.

References Economou, D. and Sapounakis. A. (1996) 4Housing policy and social exclusion.' In Dimensions of Social Exclusion in Greece (in Greek). Athens: National Centre of Social Research (EKKE). Kouveli, A. and Sakellaropoulos, K. (1996) 4Socio-economic inequalities in housing sector.' In Dimensions of Social Exclusion in Greece (in Greek). Athens: National Centre of Social Research (EKKE).

PART THREE

Responses to Social Exclusion

Introduction The chapters in Part Three report on efforts to combat social exclusion and promote social integration in five countries: France, Germany, Portugal, Britain and Sweden. Three common themes emerge from these reports. First, all ofthem emphasise the point that many traditional policies and approaches to improving socially excluded neighbourhoods have come to an impasse. Today's problems are different from and more complex than yesterday's. Structural changes in society limit the success of measures traditionally used to combat social exclusion. The second common theme in these chapters is the failure ofmeasures which have been implemented as single isolated initiatives and not coordinated with other measures. Many of the measures \vhich have failed also have in common that they were developed without much consideration of the conditions in specific neighbourhoods. The third theme uniting the chapters is the necessity of adopting a regeneration process that provides a framework within which residents can exercise substantial influence while working with other local actors who have interests at stake in the neighbourhoods. This part of the book is introduced by a chapter which takes a structural perspective, establishing a framework within which the micro-orientation of the four remaining chapters can be understood and analysed. Lipietz (Chapter 9) takes globalisation and the transition to a postfordist regime, manifest in flexible wage relations, as his starting point. He argues that falling wages for large parts of the population, together with increasingly precarious employment, means that the fordist solution to housing problems, mass production coupled with personalised housing assistance for paying the rents, is no longer appropriate. Postfordist wage relations increase demand for social housing at precisely the moment when it is no longer feasible to provide it. He outlines three possible responses to solving this problem. The first is a neoliberal solution, a return to slum housing, ghettoising the poor on the urban periphery. The second solution is to continue to fight for fordist standards of social housing, accepting that personal housing subsidies will continue to be an important subsidy but that the scale of provision will be restricted. The third solution is to accept that housing standards for the poorest groups will fall and to engage in physical and institutional bricolage in finding new ways to provide decent housing for them.

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The remaining four chapters report results ranging from success to failure in specific schemes which have been implemented in various countries. These chapters can be discussed in terms of Lipietz' three solutions. None of the authors provides a neoliberal response. Developing new approaches is the response most commonly reported, although some of the reports also include features of Lipietz' fordist solution. Kiirpick and Weck in Chapter 10 present a new approach to regeneration developed in the Ruhr region in Germany. The starting point was a realisation that sustainable results presuppose institutional reorganisation and innovation. This institutional approach required targeting both existing political bodies and networking at the local level. Networking was aimed at enhancing the local capacity to respond to social exclusion processes by involving all those with a stake in the area. The challenge lay in enabling civic involvement and actively developing agendas with neighbourhood residents and community representatives. A number of different approaches to facilitating such participation in the regeneration process were developed. An important lesson is to start with small projects which improve immediate economic and social conditions. The key to success lies in building the confidence of local residents in their own capacity to participate in planning and decision making about the future of their own neighbourhood. Portugal is a poor country and a substantial part of the population lives in slums with houses of very poor quality. In this situation, large-scale housing construction programmes might be seen as the most urgent ingredient in housing policy: But Freitas in Chapter 11· argues that it is not. In analysing Portuguese ambitions to improve housing conditions in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto, she points out that areas which may look the same from the outside can function very differently for historic, social, cultural and other reasons. Consequently, strategies for improving living conditions must be based on knowledge about local conditions. She presents seven innovative strategies of intervention, aimed at creating both lasting change and assuring citizenship, and seeking to establish operational priorities and guide the choices that need to be made in implementing any complex programme. Cameron and Davoudi's presentation of the situation in Britain (Chapter 12) starts by taking a retrospective look at regeneration policies between the 1960s and the mid-1990s. Their analysis makes a clear distinction between improvement measures taken from 'outside' and from 'inside' the area. 'Outside' measures aim at strengthening the neighbourhood by providing qualities that are essential for the wellbeing of people living in the area. Providing enhanced employment opportunities is one such action of significant importance. 'Inside' activities are directly targeted at the neighbourhood. They can include changing physical conditions as well as those changes which flow

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from empowering residents in the neighbourhood. Cameron and Davoudi observe that the coordination of 'outside' and 'inside' activities is often very poor and that improved efficiency in regeneration requires more effective coordination focusing on the neighbourhood itself. The closing chapter in this section presents Swedish responses to social exclusion. Cars and Edgren-Schori in Chapter 13 report on a country which is currently questioning and challenging what used to be regarded as conventional wisdom. Traditionally, experts have both formed the 'picture of the problem' and designed models, strategies and measures based on this picture. Problems have been framed in relation to ideas of normality and norms set by outsiders. Measures have been implemented to solve these problems and to return conditions in the neighbourhood to a pre-existing idea of'order'. This perspective is now being abandoned and replaced with approaches which take their start in local needs and ambitions and which view residents not as passive consumers, but rather as active decision makers in shaping their neighbourhood. Thus, Part Three of this book surveys the lessons which can be learned from responses to social exclusion in a variety of countries. The final Conclusions (Chapter 14) present the general themes which run throughout the book, building on the wider perspectives outline in Part One, the descriptions of the experience ofsocial exclusion in Part Two, and the analysis ofinnovative responses to it in Part Three.

CHAPTER NINE

Rethinking Social Housing in the Hour-Glass Society Alain Ltpietz

In France, as in many countries, social housing is in a state of crisis. Homeless people are invading the streets. The level of unpaid rents and mortgages is soaring. But this crisis is not simply sectoral in nature. On the contrary, the neocraft character of this industry would seem to facilitate a switch to the newly fashionable post-fordist methods of organising production. Restrictions on public spending and rising interest rates have little to do with the sector itself, and do not reflect, at least in France, a decrease in the social legitimacy of housing assistance: they are only the specific consequences of a general economic crisis. The explosion of the property market in the late 1980s has not affected those suburban areas devoted to social housing, although it has affected the coveted de facto social housing zones in the city centres. In fact, the land question was much more urgent at the end ofthe 'glorious years of fordism' when France was building more than 700,000 homes a year. Similarly, the bursting of the speculative bubble and consequent depression of the building sector in the early 1990s have not affected the construction of mainstream social housing. One cannot maintain, however, that the causes ofthe crisis ofsocial housing are purely and simply exogenous, a by-product of a more general crisis. The crisis ofsocial housing is not simply a reflection ofthe fall in households' creditworthiness or in public funding. The cause of the crisis is much more profound. It involves the housing status of the most destitute of the popular classes and is, essentially, a crisis ofthe unity ofthe social body and ofthe role that social housing has played in cementing this unity.

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From the montgo!fier society... Fordism, the development model that characterised postwar France, as in all western Europe, was founded on three pillars:

• An organisation of labour which allowed for rapid and durable productivity gains. • The systematic redistribution of these productivity gains to all social classes, and, in particular, to all wage workers. • The centralised and rigid organisation of this redistribution, stabilised by a network of collective agreements, social legislation and the welfare state. The resulting income distribution could thus be conceived of as a montgolfier, a hot air balloon, ascending harmoniously. There were a few poor people,a few rich people and a huge waged middle class, all ofthem growing richer together. The income hierarchy was rigidly constrained by collective agreements. Higher classes, middle classes, popular classes, each successively reached similar consumption patterns, which rose along similar trajectories but were lagging after each other in time. The lifestyle of the engineer preceded that of the technician by a few years, which showed the way for the highly skilled factory worker, which, in turn, pointed to the path for the unskilled worker. We can also imagine society being carried on an escalator where social distances remained stable but where all rose. The newcomers, from the rural areas and immigrants, took their position on the last step. Housing mediated this general access to the consumer society. And yet it is the most expensive durable good which a household must acquire. Housing is the basis for access to the more typical products of fordism, such as household electrical appliances and individual transport vehicles. It could, thus, be considered as a social stepping stone and its structuring role, as part ofa general cultural integration, justified a policy of extensive public financing, directly or through privileged access to credit. This was particularly so for the popular classes, and even more so for the latecomers. These poorest groups had been confined since the nineteenth century to shanty housing, leased by owners more concerned with enhancing the value oftheir rent than with property investment. The small and unstable income of these workers meant that they could only aspire to furnished accommodation or shacks crammed into the courtyards oflarger buildings. The few examples of 'normal popular housing', available on a lifelong basis, were found only in regions ofindustrial paternalism, anticipating fordist precepts at a local level. The programmed and anticipated rise in the purchasing power of an immense labour force, together with full employment, ensured a massive demand for the production of workers' housing. In the 1960s, the building

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industry employed about 40 per cent of the work force and produced more than a third of the net national product. Everything changed with the advent offordism. Coming out of their shanty housing, or shanty towns in the case of immigrants, the lower stratum of wage workers, with little to worry about on the job front, thus progressively entered heavily subsidised social housing. Everything seemed to suggest that, just as they were exchanging their bicycles for motorcycles and, later, cars, they would also move into the semi-subsidised housing sector and, later, into the free sector. When this occurred, society would no longer have to worry about financing social housing. This sort of assistance to household income through subsidising the building industry had the same advantages and disadvantages as assistance to farmers through subsidised product prices. It ensured effective mass production, but at the cost of an ecologically disastrous standardisation of the product and also carried the risk of overproduction. It was not desirable, therefore, that it should continue. With faith in the regularity of progress, and assured that the montgolfier of income distribution as a whole would continuously rise to eventually allow everyone access to basic normal housing on the basis oftheir own wages, the Barre reform (1978) moved away from the principle of subsidising building and towards the principle of personal assistance. Everyone would be entitled to basic normal housing, and the state would help pay for it as long as necessary, which, of course, would not be eternally. Unfortunately, just as this anticipated perfection of a fordist housing system, the Aide Personna/isle au Logement(APL), was implemented, fordism generally came under strain. In the late 1970s, the montgolfier was about to become transformed into an hour-glass.

. . .to the hour-glass society The political, ideological and institutional shifts, which started as early as 1978 in the AnglO-Saxon countries and then spread through southern Europe and France, and which justified themselves in the name of competitiveness, fighting inflation, and restoring business profitability, signalled the end of fordism and the gradual advent ofa new model of development in the 1980s, despite a brief respite in France in 1981-1982. An important aspect ofthese changes was the drive to create flexible wage relations. This process involved challenging the rigid links between firms and employees (e.g. abolishing requirements for administrative authorisation for redundancy; generalising part-time and fixed-term employment, which especially affects the young) as well as restricting eligibility for unemployment in-

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surance. These changes generally weakened the employment stability of the middle and lower strata ofwage earners. Meanwhile, the resulting increase in profits, especially those based on an increase in financial revenues linked to monetarist policies and high interest rates, created a concentration ofincome around the 'saving' strata (wealthy independent producers, employers and the upper layer of salaried workers). These processes affected some countries more than others. In some countries, inequalities in income decreased in the 1970s and have remained stable since then (Italy) or have only increased mildly (German~ Japan, Sweden). These latter countries are the homelands of a negotiated involvement of the workforce in new technologies. In other countries, income inequalities increased even more strongly in the 1980s than in the 1970s (UK and the USA). These countries are the homelands of flexibiIisation. Inequalities in these countries are the result of three broad tendencies: • Larger increases in property incomes compared with wage incomes. • Decreases in welfare income per household. • Increasing disparities of income among wage earners, especially between highly skilled workers and executives, on the one hand, and unskilled, marginalised and precarious workers, on the other hand. In these countries, unskilled and semi-skilled workers are more and more in competition with Third World workers. A typical metal worker in the Midwest in the United States earned USD 24 per hour in the early 1980s. His/her substitute earned half this amount in Ohio at the end of the 1980s, and was still in competition with a worker in Brazil earning USD 4 per hour. British workers, especially in Wales and Scotland, are now less expensive than Korean workers. In contrast, France experienced social democratic management during its turn towards neoliberal flexibility after 1983. Thus, while the pre-tax, prewelfare distribution of incomes presents the AnglO-Saxon evolution to 'Brazilianisation', the after-tax, after-welfare distribution remained basically the same in 1990 as in 1982 or even 1975. This was due to the effect ofan extensive retirement system created in 1945, which produced full retirement pensions forty years later, and to the creation in 1988 of a guaranteed minimum income (revenu minimum dJinsertion) of FF 2400 (around USD 450) a month per adult. Nevertheless, a classical hour-glass distribution ofincomes is obvious when considering the pre-tax, pre-welfare distribution. The rich are becoming richer and richer, there is a shrinking middle class and an increasing proportion of very poor households.

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Figure 9.1 expresses these tendencies. The data is taken from taxable income declarations by households (Lipietz 1996). The top part of the figure is ordered by household income deciles and the length of the bars represents the share of total income accruing to each decile. Year after year the upper part has grown, while the share of the three bottom deciles has shrunk from 10 per cent in 1986 to 7.05 per cent in 1994. I

It is impossible to distinguish among the three lowest deciles, an indication that the percentage of the excluded is becoming very large, and is another manifestation of social fragmentation.

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The bottom part of the figure reorganises this data to illustrate the cumulative distribution of household income. It shows the number of households, ranked by income, sharing successive tenths of total household income. Thus, at the top ofthe figure the richest 1.56 per cent of households account for ten per cent of total household income. This percentage has not changed significantly since 1986. However, middle-ranking households have seen their incomes shrinking while a growing number of poor households are left to share the last 10 per cent. The percentage of households in this last group has increased rapidly from 29.7 per cent in 1986, to 31.6 per cent in 1989 and reached 36.5 per cent in 1994. The superposition of the two figures makes it clear why these social changes can be compared to an hour-glass, where grains of sand represent households desperately falling to the bottom and money is like air accumulating in the upper part. This income distribution not only looks like an hour-glass, but the metaphor also describes an economic "mechanism. It: under fordism, one could argue that 'the rich lived off the expenditure of the poor', Le. wage workers' expenditure accounted for the turnover of entrepreneurs, in the case of the hour-glass society 'the poor live offwhat trickles down from the expenditure of the rich'. This shift in the economic regime, and, in particular, the shift in the regulation of social relations, has enormous consequences for the status of social housing. To start with, in an hour-glass society the global advancement ofincomes is no longer programmed, let alone guaranteed. Instead, the regime's dynamics lead to a thinning of the hour-glass's neck and a swelling number of households with no access to non-assisted housing. Thus, the volume of individual housing aid (APL) is no longer destined to diminish under the sway ofsocial progress, as the initiators ofthe Barre reform thought it would, since only the upper third of the hour-glass society benefits from rising incomes. Consequently, the shift in wage relations is translated into a rising demand for social housing, which comes up against the fiscal crisis of the state. Here lies the exogenous aspect of the current social housing crisis. But a focus on these developments is insufficient because it tends to enclose the debate within the question of public budget priorities. For example, there is the radical option: why not allocate peace dividends to an increase in the APL budget, financed by a drop in the military budget? Or there is the rationalist option: why should we allow the nation's health budget to swell indefinitely, and yet constrain its housing budget? It is precisely in this debate that we find the heirs of the fordist era, the administrators of social housing and those who long for its return, trades unions, left-wing political parties and tenants' associations.

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Unfortunately these questions, however pertinent they may be, hardly cover the topic in its entirety, since the shift towards flexibility in regulating wage relations carries even more serious consequences. For the majority in the lower strata ofthe income distribution, the stability ofindividual incomes is no longer guaranteed. Integration into wage society is no longer an assured lifelong progression. To be more precise, we see on the one hand a significant, yet unpredictable, fraction of households destined to experience a lasting, perhaps even permanent, loss of income. On the other hand, in the case of certain social groups, and in particular newcomers to the labour force, the young and, specifically, non-white youths, we see the strong possibility of never entering wage society at all. In this context, the right to normal basic housing for all can no longer rely on a progressive extension of the individual housing assistance budget. It is no longer a case of helping a significant fraction of people to pay a part of their rent beyond what they can afford from their own income. It is more likely that society will have to take care of the totality of their rent, on a longterm basis for some, and intermittently for others. This perspective is far from absurd. But the immediate question for the sociologist, the economist or the politician becomes: from the moment when a fraction of the population can no longer contribute, or can contribute only intermittently, to financing their housing through their wages, is it possible to retain as a common basic norm a type of housing which expressed, on the contrary, the general integration of the social body in wage society? This is the key question at the heart of the current social housing crisis.

Social housing policy in the hour-glass society Faced with a profoundly altered macro-social situation characterised by income polarisation and social exclusion, social housing decision makers can adopt one of three attitudes (Ballain and Benguigui 1995): • 'The situation is not shocking, and I will adapt to it.' • 'The situation has become shocking, but I will continue as before.' • 'The situation has become shocking, but we have to adapt to it.' The strength ofthe first position is that it articulates a response which derives directly from neoliberal doctrine. The general idea is that, on the world market, the social benefits in terms of income and housing norms gained by European wage workers a quarter of a century ago appear as distortions in competition which cause unemployment and the housing crisis. Given the superior productivity of European capital, there must exist an income level, clearly higher than that in the Third World, yet less than the current average

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income level, which would restore labour competitiveness in France and Europe. A recent governmental proposition seemed to estimate this equilibrium wage at 70 per cent ofthe present minimum wage (after two years ofcollege studies and with two years of experience).2 This works out at around USD 4 per hour, which is equivalent to the income ofan aeronautical technician in Brazil. At this wage level, it would be possible to find accommodation, that is, ifone is prepared to accept a certain return to slum housing, not necessarily the slum housing of 19th century France or the Brazilianfave/as. Technical progress in construction allows for improvement. This first answer must be taken into consideration for it will inevitably, unless current developments in wage relations are seriously called into question, be a necessary part of the new policy of social housing. The rehousing of Malian road sweepers working in Paris by the regional prefect into prefabricated sheds in the remote suburbs, 50 km from the centre, after their attempt to open a shanty town on the Vincennes esplanade sheds light on a number of problems associated with this first option. In the town centres, there is no more room for slum housing to be provided by individual land owners. The middle classes and office users are prepared to pay a price which prevents such a usage in the city centres ofEurope. There are spaces in the rural areas and they will become the location par excellencefor experimenting with industrially produced substandard housing. But these spaces are far away and will become increasingly so since the hour-glass development model encourages megapolisation (Lipietz 1995). It is, however, possible to reconstitute in the near periphery ofcity centres an area of slum housing, defacto social housing, under two conditions: if the area is already in decline and marked by a predominance of an excluded population; and if no land agent can manage to upgrade the social purpose of the area in a Single renovation project. This situation is ideally present in the case of co-ownership of de facto social housing (for example, in Bosquets housing estate in Montfermeil, 15 km from Paris) and sets a vicious spiral in motion. No investor-owner can remain a landlord of property which is deteriorating and losing its land value. Therefore, he offers to sell the accommodation which he previously rented. Conversely, buying normal degraded accommodation remains the only means of access to standard housing for a casualised wage worker. The worker can pay in one go while in work and can later rely on community solidarity. At a later stage, co-ownerShip paves the way to subletting to increasingly marginal populations and, finally, to aband2

This proposition was rejected in 1993 by a massive protest by French youth.

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onment for squatters (more like Brazilian corticos than fave/as). 3 As we can see, the neoliberal path leads to the formation ofghettos for the excluded (ethnic or social, or both) since it is the only way to bypass the land question. This solution, in keeping with neoliberallogic, is a real solution to the housing question and not a problem. 4 We can disapprove of it on ethical grounds, but we must be aware that, as a logical solution to a situation which goes far beyond the housing issue, it has a powerful attraction, structuring not only much ofthe world's southern and eastern urbanisation, but also that in the developed countries which have gone furthest down the path of flexibilisation, the Anglo-Saxon countries. The ethical objections to allowing the further development ofa neoliberal housing strategy considered as shocking constitute at the same time the strength and the weakness of the two next strategies. As one moves away from a compromise between what one might wish for and what is economically possible, the gap between ethics and reality does indeed become shocking. The criticisms twenty years ago of the fordist, mass production solution to the housing question remain all the more valid since this solution has become the material basis of an urban ecological crisis (layered urbanisation, rabbit hutch effect, etc.). But it seems obvious that this solution constitutes, retrospectively, a sort of paradise lost for the return of which the poorly housed and the homeless are ready to fight. This is the social basis for the second standpoint. Its main message is that the social situation is shocking, but it would be even more shocking to give up on the most important achievement of the 1970s, the right to normal social housing. As we have seen, this standpoint has an institutional answer, the extension of personal housing assistance (APL), but this answer relies on reducing the crisis of social housing to the problem of income distribution. And, in all probability, personal housing assistance will also constitute part of the real solution to the social housing crisis, simply because the heirs of the fordist model, including the builders and those committed to the idea of progress attached to the model, are powerful enough to ensure this. But one must not disguise the difficulties involved. This solution amounts to using APL, originally conceived as a transitory supplement to normal employment income in order to give access to normal accommodation, as a basic public housing subsidy, whereby the state finances housing for the totality of

3

4

A fi;tvela is a gathering of self built, personally owned houses on illegally occupied land. Corticos are gatherings of families in rooms of abandoned buildings. As a Brazilian bishop said, lEave/as are not a problem, they are a solution.'

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excluded people and casualised workers. Such an approach leads to a number of perverse effects. APL was designed to be a supplement to employment income for a normal, close to minimum waged couple, in order to pay the rent for their basic normal housing. But in France the legal minimum wage tends to remain minimum in name only: part-time working and lower wage workfare is spreading. At the same time, regular monthly wage payments are becoming problematic for both members of the couple, and, in addition, the stability of the couple itself is becoming more precarious. The result is that since employment income tends to become the most precarious share ofa household's income, the public social housing organisations tend to favour those households best endowed with APL: large families. Thus, the 'good' white couples without dependent children will be evicted while immigrant 'tribes' will be housed, 'paid for by child benefits', or so the National Front frequently asserts in its propaganda. There are other examples. Tenants with precarious or low income live in normal degraded accommodation. The backer or the co-ownership union negotiates refurbishment, financed by a public loan. This improvement, up to standard norms, brings about rent increases leading to the eviction ofinhabitants who were originally satisfied with slightly subnormal housing. Another example relates to families who exceed density norms (inhabitants per square metre) and so are not entitled to APL. They have a choice between hiding in order to remain together but not being able to claim benefits, or receiving benefits but being separated. This is the case not only for African families living in standard four-room flats, but also for single or divorced mothers with two children living in studios. Personal housing assistance is running out as it tries to fill the gap between post- (or pre-) fordist income levels and the cost of normal fordist housing. Within this context, a third solution is spreading among many housing policy managers and decision makers, as well as among activists protesting for improved living conditions. While being indignant at the 'shocking' gap between fordist housing norms, which were considered as having been won, and the impossibility of guaranteeing them for everyone without reforms at the level ofincome distribution and stabiIit~ they are looking for a way to renewed social housing action. FollOWing the words ofthe Abbe Pierre, 'By refusing to house the poor at lower norms, we end up not housing them at all', these officials and activists are forced to reconsider the notion of normal housing. This approach leads to distinguishing three notions: • The right to normal fordist housing. This norm was based on three elements: a standard of comfort, industrial standardisation in production and structuring domestic space to support participation

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in a consumer society (allowing space for furniture and household appliances, even space for cars). Since the last two elements no longer mean much for the lower part of the hour-glass society, this normality becomes obsolete. • The right to dignified, decent housing. This is no doubt the aim to pursue, but it has become a fuzzy objective which eludes standardisation and which must take account of cultural, familial and micro-ethnographic elements. Converted lofts around an industrial yard can offer decent accommodation and a dignified, indeed happy, life in certain organisational conditions of everyday life. • The right to shelter. This issue is raised by the proliferation of homeless people. It is probably the only part of the mythical 'right to housing'S which can give rise to a legal obligation, through the appointment of a responsible authority (who can therefore be sued) for its effective implementation. Pursuing this third objective calls for international juridical comparisons, for instance with countries where vagrancy is illegal and certain authorities are ipso facto responsible for providing shelter. Pursuing the second objective opens a vast theoretical and practical field around the physical and institutional brico/ageinvolved in making a new type of social housing: self construction, improving old or degraded housing, renovating squats and lofts, policies for 'sensitive' neighbourhoods, etc. How can decent accommodation be created with a minimum of heavy work and without buying land? How can rent be secured for people with precarious or nonexistent incomes? How can people feel that they are participating in the improvement of their own living conditions? In the face of this sad, modest and noble ambition, there are two dangers. On the one hand, the definition of decency may be lowered to an absolute minimum, or on the other hand, the definition of decency may be pulled towards fordist norms, for example, by imposing requirements for car parking or electrical heating systems, which would only reproduce situations of exclusion. In the context of the general degradation of housing conditions, demanding the best may be tantamount to denying the good.

5

The problematic constitutionality of the right to housing was confirmed by the judgement on the occupation of a building in avenue Reni Coty by migrant squatters organised by the association Droit au Logonrnt.

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References Ballain, R. and Benguigui, F. (1995) Loger /es personnes defavorisees. La documentation fran~aise,

Paris (mai).

Lipietz, A. (1995) 'Avoiding megapolization: the battle of Ile-de-France: European Planing Studies 3, 2. Lipietz, A. (1 996) La societe en sab/ier. Le partage du travail contre la dichirure socia/e. Paris: Editions La Decouverte.

CHAPTER TEN

Policies Against Social Exclusion at the Neighbourhood Level in Germany The Case Study of Northrhine-Westphalia Susanne Kurpiek and Sabine week

Economic restructuring and increased socio-economic polarisation can be observed in Germany, as in other countries in the Western industrialised world. In parallel the political and social sectors have been deregulated. The social achievements of the welfare state have been questioned. It is, above all, the municipal level that is challenged to cope with the negative effects of the secular trend from the 'welfare state' to the 'entrepreneurial state'. The large German municipalities, especiall~ find themselves in a dilemma, caught between tightened financial budgets and an urgent need to respond more closely than ever to growing internal disparities and processes of socioeconomic polarisation. The extent to which social polarisation has increased in the recent past is illustrated by data on the changing income distribution. Increasingly, the working middle class and low wage workers who, 10 or 15 years ago, felt themselves to be in a relatively safe position, now see themselves threatened with becoming cut offfrom the mainstream. A recent study commissioned by the German trade unions association showed that the wages of nearly 12 per cent of socially insured employees working full time were below the relative poverty line, defined by having an income ofless than 50 per cent ofthe average wage. The trend to increasing socio-economic polarisation is paralleled by growing spatial disparities. Until now polarisation processes in Germany have not resulted in severe manifestations of destruction and devastation, such as in the distressed inner city neighbourhoods of the United States, nor expressed themselves in violent actions, such as on the periphery ofcities like 189

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Paris or Lyon (Dubet and Lapeyronnie 1994). And yet there is an obvious danger of whole neighbourhoods sliding into a state of social deprivation, cut offfrom the urban and regional mainstream, as not only the traditional labour market but also the welfare state lose their socially integrative power and previous social achievements and standards are put into question. As Henning Voscherau, Mayor of the City of Hamburg, put it: 'The classical compensation and integration mechanisms of a social market economy during a period of growth are having no effect, and the Federal Government doesn't even appear to want it' (Voscherau 1994, p.256). And while: Cities have always been characterised by unequal opportunities ... until now the spatial proximity of poverty and prosperity offered, in principle, the opportunity ofgradual integration and social mobility. The current social polarisation processes are dangerous for the reason that at the end of this development there will be a totally polarised separation of these social and economic spheres. (Voscherau 1994, p.259) This chapter concentrates on the Land of Northrhine-Westphalia in order to show the nature of social exclusion processes in Germany and policies for combating them at the neighbourhood level.

Economic restructuring and social exclusion processes in Northrhine-Westphalia Economic restructuring has had an especially strong impact on the densely populated area of Northrhine-Westphalia with its tradition of large-scale industry. In particular, the district along the river Ruhr, an area of about 4400 sq. km with a population of about 5.4 million, has been affected by the impact of restructuring processes which have led to the closure of coal mines, steel plants and associated supply industries. Today, the former bases for economic growth, the steel and coal mining industries, are heavily subsidised. Together with functionally related sectors, they still offer relevant potential jobs, but what had once been the basis for economic growth has been reduced to a few plants, themselves currently threatened with closure. With the dismantling of industrial activity, work and the social networks surrounding it lost their socially integrative power. The erosion'ofthese processes had wide-ranging repercussions on the stability of whole neighbourhoods. Everyday life for many families in the Ruhr District was centred on work in the coal mines, steel works or other large factories. Large works housing schemes provided housing, as well as social life and leisure activities, developed on the basis of the common work experience (Aring et ale 1989). With the closure of plants and whole industries, these traditional social networks and milieus have been eroded. With growing social inequality, certain

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individuals or groups of individuals have become vulnerable to social exclusion. Above all the long-term unemployed, but also the second and third generations of the (overwhelmingly Turkish) foreign population and newly arrived migrants, are in danger ofbecoming permanently excluded (Staubach 1996, p.20), not only from the formal labour market but also from social and cultural opportunities. The social integration of migrants in this region has traditionally always taken place via work (IBA 1995, p.9), a path that is now blocked for many non-Germans. Although the social integration of individuals does not depend entirely on monetary income and paid employment, work and access to education and qualifications are central to it. It is especially hard on young people to be excluded from the labour market and the 'normal' opportunities and practices linked with it, such as personal income, credit and a range of other facilities. Those without work define themselves not through what they do, but what they are, that is, as members ofthe local groups they belong to or as members of ethnic or national communities (Touraine 1996), a process which may also sharpen intercultural conflicts or promote extreme political positions. The extensive switch of the labour force to the tertiary sector, a trend at the national level in the 1980s, bypassed the Ruhr District. The growth in producer and financial services has favoured urban regions like Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, and, in Northrhine-Westphalia, DUsseldorf. The trend was relatively weak in the Ruhr District and did not compensate for the collapse in manufacturing employment. The absolute dominance of a few large industrial clusters in the past had a strong influence on the structure of settlement in this region, its infrastructure and the qualifications profile of its workforce. While the existing infrastructure is still efficient, it is inadequate to the needs of modern growth industries. Settlement structures have developed in a somewhat disordered way based on the interests of heavy industry: Thousands of hectares of dangerously wasted derelict land are another heritage of rapid industrialisation in the Ruhr District. Also, the qualifications profile required for new jobs in the tertiary sector does not match the profile of the workforce laid off from the industrial sectors. All these factors affect the innovation potential ofthe Ruhr District and Northrhine-Westphalia as a whole and have been focus of various modernisation policies and regional structural programmes by the Land of Northrhine-Westphalia over the last two decades, among others the structural programme of the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park. A further funding programme, aimed at the promotion ofintegrated approaches to the regeneration ofdisadvantaged urban neighbourhoods, was launched in 1993. Currently 21 local priority regeneration areas are included in this programme.

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In the national context, the Northrhine-Westphalia Land initiative stands out. Only the city states ofHamburg and Bremen have promoted similar integrated approaches. The remainder of this chapter discusses the different organisational approaches towards, and early results in, promoting social integration at the neighbourhood level in Duisburg-Marxloh and Hamm-Norden in Northrhine-Westphalia. Key features of the Northrhine-Westphalia Land funding programme

Currently 21 neighbourhoods in 18 cities in Northrhine-Westphalia have been included in the funding programme, which is designed to be open to further neighbourhoods. The programme targets those neighbourhoods that show increasing instability in their social structure, economic base, physical structure and quality of housing. The focus on neighbourhood is essential to the programme's objectives. The neighbourhood is the spatial point of reference for everyday life. It is, simultaneously, a place to live, to earn one's livelihood, to participate in social institutions and to engage in social interchange (Alisch 1996; Herlyn, Lajemann and Lettko 1991). Approaches and strategies aimed at the improvement of living and working conditions must start with the everyday life experience of target groups. In each of the neighbourhoods, action concepts have been developed which reflect the specific nature of its everyday life. The neighbourhoods included in the programme so far can be divided into two groups. The first group is made up of inner city areas, often close to industrial areas or derelict land, with ecological and environmental problems resulting from past industrial activities. These areas are often predominantly working class areas. Social links were based on work in local steel or coal mining plants and with the close down of the traditional industries these links and traditional milieus disintegrated. Yet there is often still a vivid socio-culturallife and a trades union based political culture in these areas. Examples of this type of area are the neighbourhoods of Duisburg-Marxloh, Duisburg-Bruckhausen, Dortmund-Nordstadt, Essen-Katernberg and Cologne-Kalk, among others. The second group of neighbourhoods are found on peripheral housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s, with their well known environmental and structural defects: an often monotonous physical environment lacking much in the way of amenities, infrastructure and services, and isolated from employment opportunities. Social identity and networks are normally weak and there is a tendency to social disintegration. These areas include Cologne-Chorweiler, Dortmund-Scharnhorst, Monheim-Berliner Viertel and Hamm-Nord, among others.

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Selection of target areas included in the state funding programme is not based on statistical data only, but also on the local political commitment to institutional innovation and the development of integrated regeneration action N , E DER SA C H SEN

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concepts. Instead ofan overly rigid application process, it has been left to municipal authorities to select those urban neighbourhoods, within certain socio-economic criteria, which they were committed to and wanted to see involved in the programme. The funding is targeted at measures for urban rehabilitation, economic development, training and qualification schemes, social initiatives, support for local initiatives and associations, and improving social services and cultural facilities. The institutional emphasis ofthe programme is targeted at both transcending traditional departmental thinking and enhancing partnership and networking at the local level. One of the most innovative characteristics of the Northrhine-Westphalia state funding programme in the German context is that it is funded from various state department budgets. When the programme was launched, it was claimed that urban rehabilitation policies or social policies, implemented in isolation from each other, had limited scope for stabilising regeneration areas. A more coordinated and effective deployment of departmental funds was seen to be essential to trigger off wide ranging, rapid and sustainable improvements in economic and social living conditions in the targeted areas. Thus, one of the key objectives of the programme is to promote coordinated funding for complex projects at the neighbourhood level. Although additional projects also get funded, the programme is aimed above all at exploiting the synergy effects from a more coordinated deployment of already existing funds. Since the Programme for Neighbourhoods with Special Regeneration Needs was launched in 1993, it has clearly developed as one of the main action fields in Northrhine-Westphalia structural politics. An interdepartmental steering group has been built up for coordinating strategies and managing the whole programme, in which nearly all Land departments participate. Projects developed within the action concepts for the neighbourhoods are approved by this steering group and then receive funding priority in the budgets of the various departments. In addition to the coordination of sectoral departmental funds, a fund 'with no specific designation', available for unrestricted use, was also established for greater flexibility in reacting to local problems and opportunities.

Underlying prinCiples On the basis of the experience of pilot projects in a few innovative municipalities, the Land funding programme was designed following four key principles. First, the programme is aimed at a more integrated regeneration approach at the neighbourhood level, promoting a holistic approach and stronger linkages between regeneration strategies in different, traditionally separated,

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policy fields. It has become clear in the last few years that effective approaches towards the revitalisation of deprived areas require transcending narrowly defined categorical initiatives and establishing strong linkages between them (for example, between economic development, investment measures and active employment policies, sports activities and social objectives, qualification programmes and general public improvements) in order to promote synergy effects between the different activities. Second, it focuses on networking of actors both horizontally, at the neighbourhood level, and vertically within the established policy system. Previous experience showed clearly that successful and sustainable regeneration strategies must foster strong linkages among all those with a stake in the neighbourhood. There is an obvious need for a partnership approach between the local authority, business and residential community in order to respond more closely to local needs, adapt standard programmes to specific local needs and opportunities, concentrate all available resources on the local level and mobilise the critical mass of the area's own resources and knowhovi. This vision calls for the establishment of an adequate organisational framework for networking and a more communicative, cooperative and participative approach. In most of the neighbourhoods selected for funding, regeneration initiatives had already been launched by quite a variety of different actors, for example by a group of parents and teachers who had been scared by growing violence at school, or by an association oflocal retail traders faced with decreasing purchasing power in the neighbourhood. The crucial point is to pick up these local initiatives and bundle endogeneous potential together.

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Figure 10.2 Vertical and horizontal networking within the Northrhine- Westphalia fUnding programme (adaptedfrom Kiirpick 1995)

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An area-based approach at the neighbourhood level creates added value that cannot be realised with centrally devised policies or standard programmes at the city or higher policy levels. Neighbourhood-based regeneration initiatives are more apt to identify local opportunities and develop synergistic activities in regenerating the area. Yet concentration of resources on geographically small areas will be ineffective ifthe neighbourhood approach is not embedded within a city-wide strategic approach and a coherent and supportive system of policies at higher policy levels. Thus, the financial and organisational support from the Land is contingent on a clear statement by the municipal authorities of their willingness to develop an integrated approach towards the regeneration ofa specific neighbourhood. The city council must demonstrate its political will to make a concerted, medium to long term effort by formally adopting a resolution based on the action concept developed for the specific neighbourhood. The third key principle ofthe programme is to allow flexibility at the local level in the management and implementation of strategies. Neighbourhood regeneration approaches are embedded in quite different organisational ways in each of the cities involved in the programme. The organisational arrangements vary according to local problems and potentials, as well as specific historical, political and institutional settings. There is, of course, no one single way to organise the regeneration process. As a rule the neighbourhood approach is implemented under the overall control of a particular city department, most frequently the planning or urban development department. Less frequently, the social or youth welfare department may be responsible for its overall management. Different forms for interdepartmental action have been developed by different municipal authorities. They include the establishment of interdepartmental project teams, the establishment of development agencies outside administration, or setting up new decentralised interdisciplinary administrative units. In most cases, small public neighbourhood management offices have been established in the neighbourhood areas, operating in an active, open and flexible way. The objectives of these neighbourhood offices are primarily to develop and promote projects in cooperation with local actors and residents, to coordinate public policies and adapt them to local needs, and to promote networking among all those with a stake in the area. Besides coordination and moderation, some ofthem also actively develop social and cultural infrastructure. Finally, the fourth characteristic of the programme is the transfer of know-how and exchange of experience in order to learn from each other. Neighbourhood conferences have been or will be organised in each neighbourhood to provide a forum for presenting and discussing the strategies and projects developed in the neighbourhood. The Land Government has com-

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missioned the publicly financed Research Institute of the Land of Northrhine-Westphalia (ILS) to organise and promote the exchange ofexperience within the network of cities included in the programme. In order to give deeper insight into the objectives and principles behind the programme, its implementation in two neighbourhoods will be presented in more detail. The two examples vary considerably in terms ofthe characteristics of the areas as well as in the organisation of the local regeneration strategy. While the first example, DUisburg-Marxloh, represents a lively inner city area with housing dating back to the end ofthe 19th century and containing substantial commercial and industrial zones, the second example, HammNorden, is characterised by a heterogeneous mix of housing and a residential population with weakly developed social networks. In both these neighbourhoods, fairly institutionalised and formal structures have been set up, whereas in other neighbourhoods within the programme, regeneration approaches have been characterised by more open and flexible forms. In DuisburgMarxloh, a development corporation acting in cooperation with an administrative unit has been established in the neighbourhood. Hamm-Norden started with decentralisation of social services and their cooperation with other actors in the neighbourhood.

The example of Duisburg-Marxloh The City ofDuisburg, with more than halfa million inhabitants, is one ofthe most important economic centres in the Ruhr District. Due to its centrallocation in the rail and road networks and the fact that it hosts the largest European river port, it plays a role even in the European context. With industrialisation in the last century, Duisburg developed into a prosperous industrial ci~ whose outward appearance, architecture, function, quality ofHfe and population structure were shaped by the coal and steel industries. Over and above the trends of structural crisis affecting the whole Ruhr District, Duisburg is exposed to particular pressures on its urban economy and is challenged to reinforce its role in the regional, national and international context. The neighbourhood of Marxloh is situated on the northern fringe of the city. It used to be industrial, with the coal and steel industries providing both jobs and housing. Forty-six per cent ofthe land in Marxloh is still in commercial or industrial use. The fortunes of the neighbourhood have always been dominated by pits, blast furnaces and metallurgical companies which border it. Today, its close proximity to industrial uses is considered as one of the dominant factors in the decline of the neighbourhood. Apart from its closeness to industrial sites, the area also suffers from heavy traffic. Both these fac-

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tors strongly affect the local environment and the health of the local population. Structural crisis in the coal and steel industries has hit Marxloh quite hard. In the last five years only, 6000 jobs in the bordering factories and pits have been lost, with consequent effects on locally dependent small and medium size enterprises and on local purchasing power (Projekt Marxlob 1996, p.4). Abandonment by private capital and deterioration of the physical environment brought with them a spiral of deprivation, resulting in further economic and environmental deterioration. Selective emigration of the economically better-off population has contributed to increasing socioeconomic imbalance in the neighbourhood and accelerated the decline ofthe area as the traditional trading centre in the north of Duisburg. About 21,000 people live in the neighbourhood. In relation to the City of Duisburg, Marxloh has a high unemployment rate, 25 per cent, versus 19 per cent in the whole city. Fifteen per cent of the population in Marxloh live on social welfare, and 15 per cent leave school without certificates. At 36 per cent, the proportion of foreign nationals, mostly of Turkish origin, is well over the city average of 17 per cent (ProjektMarxloh 1996). But there are also specific opportunities arising out of the population structure and the economic development potential in Marxloh. For example, the high concentration of mostly Turkish nationals in the neighbourhood has already led to the development of lively and diverse ethnically based economic and social networks.

Organisational approach The City of Duisburg has promoted an active and integrated approach towards the regeneration ofthe district Duisburg-Marxloh, establishing Projekt Marx/ohin 1994. The objectives ofthe action concept for Marxloh are to improve, in a sustainable way, the economic base and housing situation in the neighbourhood, to improve relationships between Germans and nonGermans by developing adequate social infrastructure, and to improve the ecological and environmental situation in the neighbourhood. The approach is characterised by two goals: first, to link employment and structural policies, such as establishing the interlinkage ofurban renewal measures with employment and training schemes; and second, to develop and exploit the potential for self help (Projekt Marx/oh 1996, p.6). Projekt Marxloh is divided into two organisational parts, both established since 1994 in the neighbourhood. The first part of the regeneration approach is promoted by the locally based Duisburg-Marxloh development corporation EGM (Entwicklungsgese/lschaft Duisburg-Marx/oh), which is re-

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sponsible for physical and economic regeneration strategies in Marxloh. EGM is a corporation set up outside the city administration, but 100 per cent owned by the City of Duisburg and receiving 90 per cent of its funding from the Land of Northrhine-Westphalia. It, thus has arm's-length freedom in budgeting and managing its activities. In 1996 EGM established, with financial support from Communitary Initiative URBAN, a small local economic development company (EGM Wirtschaft), which, together with an initiative in Bremen, is a pioneering project in Germany for promoting the local economy in a neighbourhood. The objectives of EGM Wirtschaft are to improve job and income opportunities, to stabilise the number of local residents and purchasing power in the area, and to strengthen the identification ofthe local business community with the neighbourhood. Its activities aim at stimulating new economic activities, improving the rate and quality of new-start businesses, and promoting networking among the business communities, with a special focus on the ethnic minority economy. Pro;ekt Marxloh District Project

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Employment and qualification schemes in both social and commercial trades Improving the social infrastructure Providing additional services Stabilisation of social structure and relations between Germans and non-Germans Involvement and mobilsation of residents

Duisburg-Marxloh Development Corporation EGM Physical regeneration and modernization

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Business information and advice, especially business start-up advice Development of industrial/commercial sites Creating employment opportunities Stabilizing of purchasing power and number of residential population Strengthening the residential and business communities' identification with their neighbourhood Activating self-help potential Strengthening cooperation between German and non-German business community

Figure 10.3 Organisational approach lifProjekt Marxloh (based on Projekt Marxloh 1996)

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EGM cooperates very closely with the second organisational part of Projekt Marx/oh, which is a local administrative unit for promoting social regeneration strategies in Marxloh, called the district project (Stadttei/projektMarx/oh). The activities of Stadttei/projekt Marx/oh are to carry out employment and qualification schemes focusing on young people, the long-term unemployed and social w~lfare recipients, to improve relationships between Germans and non-Germans, to develop adequate local social and cultural infrastructure and to activate residents' involvement in the regeneration process (Projekt Marx/oh 1996, p.7). The approach of Stadttei/projekt Marx/oh is aimed at linking qualification and employment schemes with work which benefits the local neighbourhood, that is, carrying out work in socially useful areas. Although these qualification and employment schemes in the secondary labour market cannot compensate for the continuing industrial job losses, they give an essential impulse to the neighbourhood and activate residents. Already 360 individuals in both social and commercial trades are employed through Stadttei/projekt Marx/oh. All projects and schemes follow the principle that it should be primarily local residents who carry out work in their neighbourhood, that is, more than 50 per cent of the individuals employed in the schemes should be local residents. In addition, non-Germans, with a special focus on women, are participating in the schemes according to their share in the residential population. In the commercial sector, projects in fields such as landscape design, catering or construction have been established. In the social sector projects for the promotion of self help, child care and care for the elderly have been set up. All the projects combine training opportunities, advice and access to formal qualifications.

Experiences The stable and professional organisational framework for regeneration set up by EGM and the district project, with their personnel and financial resources, has both provided the base for effective organisational structures linking the neighbourhood and the city level and developed a point of reference for all actors in the neighbourhood. It has been most important that city level politicians and officials have backed the action concept and that a continuing, organised and efficient dialogue between the neighbourhood and the city council and its administration has been established. The neighbourhood centre, which includes a cafe, neighbourhood office offering advice and help with official issues, correspondence and translation, and the office of EGM, has become a job and communication centre for the whole neighbourhood. The crucial point of such an organisational approach is that the administrative actor does not dominate the regeneration process. Given the fact that

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both organisational parts of ProjektMarx/oh are established in the neighbourhood on a limited time scale, their strategies must focus on 'initialising' networks and being a pacemaker in a process in which other local actors and community organisations take over more and more responsibility and control before the administrative actor is withdrawn from the process. For sustainable development, roles and objectives in the regeneration process must be organised according to this goal from the beginning, promoting self help and the active involvement of the residential and business communitr The close interlinkage between EGM and the district project within an integrated action concept has been very important for strengthening social networks and intercultural links in the neighbourhood. Associations, organisations, institutions, individuals and local enterprises have been involved in the process of developing ideas and concepts and in the practical implementation of various measures. Duisburg-Marxloh is an example of a neighbourhood in which the German population was more socially destabilised and isolated than the non-German population. Behavioural attitudes and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit seemed to constrain self-organisation and bottom-up initiatives among the local German population. Linking employment and structural policies has been especially useful for both giving a clear and visible sign ofimprovements in immediate living conditions and providing essential economic opportunities for the neighbourhood. The qualification and job schemes of the district project are directed to socially useful areas of work that could not be otherwise covered by the municipal authority due to financial restrictions. To involve local residents in projects which benefit the whole neighbourhood both strengthens local identification and also makes them central actors, generating multiplier effects for the neighbourhood (see ILS 1996; Projekt Marx/oh 1996).

The example of Hamm-Norden The City ofHamm, situated in the east of Northrhine-Westphalia, and more precisely, on the eastern periphery of the Ruhr District, is a relatively small city with 189,000 inhabitants. For decades, coal mining and related industries had a strong influence on its economy and urban shape. Hamm-Norden is a traditional working class neighbourhood, located on the fringe of the municipal area of Hamm. Due to its geographical location, separated from the rest of the town by a river and a canal, the area has always suffered from spatial disadvantage. Apart from the typical problems due to its isolation and difficult access, Hamm-Norden also suffers from considerable traffic and pollution. In addition, the rail infrastructure cuts the neighbourhood in two.

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Apart from its spatial disadvantage, the area is characterised by dilapidated social housing estates and a highly heterogeneous residential population. The neighbourhood, mainly built up between 1950 and 1970, falls into several parts. It is essentially composed ofsocial housing estates, mostly residential blocks with 6 to 8 floors. In the 1980s, due to changing rents and social housing regulations, many families with low incomes and of migrant origin moved into the area. As a consequence ofstructural neglect over many years, the housing estates are in a poor state of repair. Housing renewal work is targeted on some of the blocks and is being carried out by a state-owned development corporation. Apart from the social housing estates there are also areas with detached and semi-detached houses in private ownership and areas with municipal emergency accommodation built especially for the accommodation of migrants. Over 14 per cent of the area's total population of about 14,100 is of migrant origin, compared with 11 per cent in the city as a whole (municipal data, December 1994), while in some of the blocks this proportion is up to 56 per cent (ILS 1995a, p.9). Fifty-two per cent ofthe population of migrant origin is Turkish, and 12 per cent is Moroccan. The non-German population is younger than the population elsewhere in the city. In some of the blocks, more than 50 per cent of the children are of migrant origin (ILS 199 Sa, p.9). The co-existence ofcommunities with different cultures, nationalities and interests and, above all, the lack of links among these groups has led to severe conflicts, especially in the geographically small part of the neighbourhood with residential blocks built during the 1960s and 1970s. The population has grown rapidly over the last three decades and although the rapid housing and population development was evident and easy to foresee, adequate social and transport infrastructure for the residential population was not provided. There is a clear lack of social, cultural and leisure opportunities which could foster links between the different residential communities. Also links between the neighbourhood and the whole town have been missing. Due to the lack ofadequate and culturally sensitive infrastructure, especially for children and young people, the area has suffered from a high propensity to violence among adolescents, high rates of delinquency, drug consumption and traffic, conflicts between various youth gangs and violence against children and adults. All socio-economic indicators, such as the unemployment rate, the high proportion of social welfare clients, and so on, characterise the area as one with special regeneration needs. On top of that, the residential population is suffering from the stigmatised image of the neighbourhood. Young people, for example, are reluctant to name their home address when applying for jobs, as they are aware of the effect of the negative image of the area.

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Organisational approach and actors irrvolved Against the background of increased violence and delinquency among young people, a neighbourhood initiative aimed primarily at preventive youth work was established in 1992. The initiative was launched by a local secondary school that had been frightened by the high propensity to violence among schoolchildren. Local residents, various social work professionals and local authority officials participate in the preventive youth work initiative, Prdventivkreis Hammer Norden, which brings together representatives from churches, local associations, independent welfare agencies, youth and social welfare departments, and politicians from the City and District Councils. It was the initiative ofthis body that led to the development ofa more decentralised and coherent approach to social revitalisation in the neighbourhood. The youth work initiative developed an action concept for the social regeneration of the neighbourhood, called for concrete improvements, and achieved the establishment of a neighbourhood centre as a base for social service delivery organisations. At the time the youth work initiative was set up, there were parallel discussions within the local authority about reorganising its social services delivery structures, and the neighbourhood Hamm-Norden was chosen as a pilot project area. Also, within the planning department there were endeavours to focus on the physical regeneration of the area and to put a stronger emphasis on social factors and the participation of local residents. All these endeavours and initiatives were bundled into the project for a Social and Community Orientated Action Concept Hammer Norden which was agreed by the City Council in 1993. The neighbourhood was one of the first areas included in the regeneration funding programme of Northrhine-Westphalia. Shortly after the city council approved the action concept, two independent welfare agencies moved into the area and started work in July 1993 in one of the conflict areas in the social housing estates. A planning office, specialised in the involvement of local residents into urban renewal processes, moved into the area shortly afterwards and in November 1994, locally based units ofthe youth welfare and social welfare agencies joined them in a former school building, called the neighbourhood centre Hamm-Norden (Stadtteilzentrum Hamm-Norden). The underlying rationale of the neighbourhood centre is to bring all the social and youth services delivery organisations together in the neighbourhood and link their activities and services to support targetoriented community work. The neighbourhood-based approach is aimed at being more responsive to local needs and to realising synergy effects through more coordinated and decentralised action among the different services. It has been especially useful that the social welfare department, which usually works through departments organised on the basis of the alphabetical order

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Figure 10.4 Organisational approach ofHamm-Norden

of clients' names, reorganised its delivery structure into a geographically based system. The more combined approach in community work is fostered by regular meetings of a coordinating group, Arbeitskreis Hamm-Norden, in which all locally based units and agencies in the neighbourhood centre participate. The coordinating group initiates meetings of a steering group, Lenkungsgruppe, in which the heads of the respective municipal departments and welfare agencies are represented and which is responsible for strategic decisions, coordinating departmental policies and controlling input-output effects. Coordinating group members attend the meetings of the steering group and participate in the decision making. There is an established system of reporting from the coordinating group to the preventive youth work initiative through regular meetings, and the youth work initiative receives the minutes of the coordinating group meetings. The neighbourhood conference is the arena for discussions with the local residential population. These conferences are serviced and supported by both the coordinating group and the youth work initiative. All the relevant issues

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and activities facing the neighbourhood are presented and discussed with local residents. The ideas, comments and criticisms of the local residents are channelled to the relevant local authority officials and results fed back at the next conference. Parallel to the neighbourhood conferences, which give every resident the chance to bring forward his or her ideas and get involved in the development ofthe neighbourhood, special emphasis has been put on establishing adequate forms of participation and involvement fer each of the specific projects being implemented in the area. The participation mechanisms are responsive to cultural and language barriers and have a much more proactive approach than traditional participation mechanisms in order to encourage residents to share in decisions about the future of their area. For example, in the context of urban planning projects related to the immediate housing environment, photo excursions with children have taken place and workshops have been organised for women only.

Experiences The action concept for the neighbourhood explicitly focuses on small projects and steps towards improving the immediate living conditions in the neighbourhood. Projects developed so far have targeted the lack ofadequate infrastructure for children and young people, such as the creation of meeting and leisure places for young people, attractive playgrounds for children, and a variety of socio-cultural initiatives, both intercultural initiatives and initiatives responsive to the special needs of non-Germans, have been developed for all age groups. Activities focus on the mobilisation and motivation of young people, especially those marginalised due to drug addiction, language problems or lack of access to work and qualifications. 'Street workers' approach young people at their meeting places and have developed advisory services that are easy for young people to access. For example, containers, such as those used on construction sites, have been provided for young people and are used both as a meeting place and a place for offering social services. Prevention of crime and the establishment of projects preventing drug abuse and addiction have been prioritised in the action concept. Key persons in the neighbourhood, for example, have received qualifications in dealing with drug addiction and related problems. Also, various initiatives aimed at capacity building among the local residents have been launched, for exampl~ one especially among women of migrant origin. The action concept focuses on small projects that are easily and rapidly translated into action and the visible improvement of immediate living conditions. This approach is seen as an important stepping stone for strengthening the involvement of local residents in future neighbourhood

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action. The philosophy behind this approach is that it strengthens both the motivation of local residents to become actively involved in the regeneration process and gives them confidence in the regeneration process as a whole as well as in their own capacity: The active involvement of local residents takes place both in the preventive youth work initiative and its committees and through the neighbourhood conferences. One of the neighbourhood conferences, for example, has been held for children and young people only: But although these formal bodies offer possibilities for getting involved in the regeneration process, it is also obvious that in a neighbourhood where there is no local tradition in the establishment of social networks and political representation, these bodies will not clearly fulfil their function to represent the interests of the residents until small and adequate forms of participation, 'consulting the clients', have created confidence and trust among the residents and helped them to develop their own voice. Three years after the establishment ofthe initiative, positive developments can already be observed in the fact that socio-cultural offerings in the area are regularly used and residents are showing increased activity in developing social initiatives on their own. For example, a health initiative offering advice has been established for Turkish women, and also a women's group has been funded. A neighbourhood cafe has been established, which especially reflects a high degree of personal commitment among local residents and is regularly used. Plans for the future include the development of employment and training schemes for young people, confronting the high unemployment rate among them. Confidence and capacity building will continue to be a priority in the neighbourhood in order to broaden the still relatively small circle of people involved in its development. Community work in the neighbourhood calls for still more extensive reorganisation of existing financial and personnel resources. Also, more flexibility in funding social work is proving to be necessary. For example, because funds that had been assigned to the youth project in and around the containers were not made available to the neighbourhood in time, due to administrative problems, this offer of meeting and advisory services had to stop. Consequently, three years of successful prevention work were reversed and old phenomena, such as groups ofyouths meeting in the cellars ofthe blocks, emerged again. Direct contact between the 'servers' and the 'served' has proved to be an essential factor for the stabilisation of the neighbourhood. Social welfare clients are 'served' in their neighbourhood by persons with whom they become familiar and vice versa. To support this more target-oriented community

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work, administrative delivery structures have been reorganised and the 'moving into the neighbourhood' ofsocial services has been a clear sign for residents that their needs were being taken seriousl~ The approach pioneered in the area has proved to be efficient and it is planned to implement it in other areas of disadvantage in the City of Hamm. In the context of the Northrhine-Westphalian programme, Hammer Norden is a good example of institutional innovation and the development of effective organisational structures linking the neighbourhood and the city government.

Conclusions The sustainability of the efforts undertaken in the neighbourhoods depends very much on the institutional reorganisations which have taken place, that is, on the extent of institutional innovation. As to the intentions of the programme, the institutional emphasis is targeted both at transcending traditional departmental thinking and at networking on the locallevel to enhance the local capacity to respond to social exclusion processes by involving all those with a stake in the area. Preliminary conclusions concentrate on these two points since it is too early for a systematic review of all the outcomes of the programme. Also, such a systematic review would be somewhat misleading, as integrative regeneration approaches have a long tradition in some cities, while in others such approaches were only started with the launch of the Northrhine-Westphalia programme. It has become obvious in the first four years of the programme's implementation that the organisational and political embeddedness of the regeneration approach has a lasting influence on the success and progress of neighbourhood initiatives. It also has become clear that in most of the cities, interdepartmental thinking and acting is easier to achieve around individual, concrete projects at the neighbourhood level than at a more programmatic level. Qyite a range of different organisational approaches has been developed. Whereas some cities gave 'arm's-length' freedom to the neighbourhood offices in budgeting and managing the regeneration process, in other cities administrative regulation sets limits on progress as each single project implemented in the neighbourhood has to pass the city council or its committees. Whereas neighbourhood regeneration in some cities is dealt with at the level of the political executive, in other cities political support and consensus could be improved. Some ofthe neighbourhood agency officials claim that targeting actions to combat exclusion processes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods is still not being given the priority it should have with city councils.

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As to the active involvement of key persons and residents in the development and management of projects, different positions and philosophies can

be observed in different cities. Drawing on discussions by Davoudi and Healey (1995), local governance processes may be characterised as either more technocorporate, narrowly focused on professionals and administrators, or more participatory, widening the range of those involved as well as expanding their interests and forms of discourse towards more participatory democratic forms. As a rule, administrative actors still tend to control agenda setting and management process in the neighbourhoods. But in many of the neighbourhood areas included in the programme, there are clear signs of a shift from an essentially paternalist or welfare approach to politics to encouraging civic involvement and actively developing the agenda with neighbourhood residents and community representatives and, in some rare cases, the business sector. Although much of the agenda of the projects was determined relatively early in the process, there is still flexibility in setting up new priorities and projects at the neighbourhood level. As an ideal case, while the political or administrative actor may still be the pacemaker in the regeneration process, the focus of the approach is on promoting the potential for self help, allowing for mutual learning processes, and promoting the development of self-regulating social systems and networks. There are also differences in the baseline positions of local communities. Whilst local capacity in some communities is developed enough to enable them to make an effective contribution to the neighbourhood regeneration process, in other communities this capacity and self help potential is less developed for a variety of reasons, be it widespread apathy or resignation, distrust towards politics and administration, or the fact that individuals are simply busy with organising their everyday lives. A whole range of different mechanisms to get residents and community representatives actively involved in the regeneration process has been developed, such as consultative forums, regular conferences with all relevant agencies and actors, informal meetings with community initiatives and so on. Although the development of formal bodies for the involvement of residents in the regeneration process is an important step forward, it is not in itself sufficient to increase the civic engagement of local residents. The most important thing in activating and involving people in disadvantaged communities is an approach that starts with small projects which improve immediate economic and social living conditions, building the confidence of local residents both in the revitalisation process and in their own capacity to share in decisions about the future of the area. New attitudes of 'servers' are equally important, making the interests and needs of the residential population the starting point for any strategies in or-

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der to make a difference to the life of people in disadvantaged areas and enable them to take an active part in urban society. As to the thematic focal points ofthe Northrhine-Westphalia programme, it will focus more on opening up the schools and bringing their resources into the neighbourhoods. Community economic development, enhancing access to jobs and improving prospects, especially for young people, will also be more stressed in the future (Northrhine-Westphalia Minister ofUrban Development, Culture and Sports 1997). One of the clear benefits of the programme is that it has increased the sensitivity of local authority politicians and officials to exclusion processes. Every deutschmark that has come into any of the 21 areas with special regeneration needs through the NorthrhineWestphalia programme has attracted seven to eight deutschmarks more in public and private resources (Northrhine-Westphalia Minister of Urban Development, Culture and Sports 1997). Although much has been achieved in the interdepartmental thinking at the level of the Land, more integration is still needed. A long-term perspective in funding of the programme is also important in order to be effective in improving the immediate living conditions in neighbourhoods with special regeneration needs. Fighting social exclusion will have to be increasingly aimed at turning around distribution mechanisms and allocating resources to the spatial areas most in need. One of the main objectives will still be to increase the geographical targeting of existing programmes and resources, from the Land as well as from the municipal authorities, to areas of disadvantage. Linking the focus on priority groups, which is the predominant element in the vast majority of social and structural policies and programmes, with the geographic component is essential for community development work at the neighbourhood level. The Northrhine-Westphalia funding programme is certainly an important step forward, yet its scope for effective action in the long run will always be limited as long as the federal level does not make use ofits scope for action and national policy settings are not more responsive to the challenge of fighting social exclusion in neighbourhoods with special regeneration needs.

References Alisch, M. (1996) 'Strategien fUr den sozialen Ausgleich. Handlungsspielraume im Stadtstaat Hamburg.' Afk 11/96, 291-303. Aring, )., Butzin, B., Danielzyk, R. and Helbrecht, I. (1989) 'Krisengebiet Ruhrgebiet? Alterung, Strukturwandel und Planung.' Wahrnehmungsgeographische Studien zur Regionalentwicklung 8, Oldenburg.

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Davoudi, S. and Heale~ ~ (1995) 'City challenge: sustainable process or temporary gesture?' Environment and Planning C 13, 79-95. Dubet, E and Lapeyronnie, D. (1994) 1m Aus der Vorstadte. Der Zerfall der demokratischen Gesellschaft, Stuttgart. Herlyn, U., Lajemann, U. and Lettko, B. (1991) Armut und Milieu. Benachteiligte Bewohner in groBstadtischen ~artieren, Stadtforschung aktuell Bd. 33, Basel u.a. IBA (Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park) (1995): IBA-Positionspapier Benachteiligte Stadtteile'. Author: R. Staubach. ILS (Institut ftir Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen) (1995a): Handlungskonzept Hammer Norden, Materialien ftir die weitere Diskussion, Dortmund. ILS (199 5b) Handlungskonzept Duisburg-Marxloh. Materialien ftir die weitere Diskussion, Dortmund. ILS (1996): Die Menschen machen ihren Stadtteil selbst ... Soziale Netze und Bewohner/ -innenbeteiligung in Stadtteilen mit besonderem Erneuerungsbedarf. ILS Schriftenreihe 11 7. KUrpick, S. (1995) Organisations- und Kooperationsstrukturen in integrierten Stadterneuerungsprozessen (Diplomarbeit), Universitat Bochum. Northrhine-Westphalia Minister of Urban Development, Culture and Sports (1997): Speech of the Minister at the Neighbourhood Conference in Dortmund-Nordstadt, 26.04.1997. Projekt Marxloh (1996) Das Projekt Marxloh. Neue Wege der Stadterneuerung. Aktivitaten 1994 bis 1996. Stadt Duisburg. Staubach, R. (1996) 'Solidarische Stadt?' Zukunfte 16, 20-23. Voscherau, H. (1994) 'Die Grosstadt als socialer Brennpunkt - am Beispiel Hamburg.' In L. Carlson and E Unger (eds) Highland Park oder die ZukunJt der Stadt. Berlin: Weimar. Zimmer-Hegmann, R. (1996) 'Stadtteilerneuerung tiber das Vernetzen von Planungen - Das integrierte Handlungskonzept des Landes Northrhine-Westphalia ftir Stadtteile mit besonderem Erneuerungsbedar(' Paper presented at Landesjugendamt Westfalen, MUnster, 11.06.1996.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Mobilising Community Resources in Portugal MariaJoao Lopes Freitas

From the concept of poverty to the concept of social exclusion Portugal has always presented very high rates of poverty compared with other European countries, and, even now, the latest EC Report on Poverty still places Portugal last among the fifteen member states. Most studies of poverty in Portugal have been carried out by economists using social and economic indicators. However, more culturally and locally based micro-studies raise questions about the most appropriate concepts to use in studying this phenomenon. The first studies of poverty in urban areas focused on families or communities living in shanties. For some time, this was the main face of poverty in towns: families having difficulty competing in the housing market, sharing housing and other conditions which were below acceptable standards, living in slums or other neighbourhoods without infrastructure, with very low levels ofeducational attainment and vocational skills, very low incomes and very high birth rates. But the studies also showed that it was impossible to generalise across situations and that, over time, while some features changed in these scenarios, others did not change even when family income increased or housing conditions were improved, for example through resettlement programmes. What the studies showed was that family dynamics were very complex and a variety ofdifferent residential and social trajectories could be observed. These different trajectories reflected differences in histories ofsettlement, social composition, neighbourhood dynamics, housing and residential contexts, housing and social needs and expectations, and abilities to be proactive and participate in the wider society. Studies using a very broad and generalised concept of poverty did not seem to capture these complexities. 211

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Consequently, the local studies raised new questions and the idea ofsocial and spatial exclusion appeared to be more appropriate in framing studies about the ways ofHfe in shanties or transformation in social rehousing settlements. What this approach revealed was that it was not simply the common characteristic ofpast or present poverty which unified these family dynamics. These families also shared a complex accumulation of 'gaps' which led them to be socially excluded: gaps in their cultural and educational attainments, in vocational and social skills, in access to public services and their bureaucracies, in access to better housing conditions and living areas, in access to participation and to full citizenship rights and duties. Using the concept of social exclusion in these studies has three advantages. First, it can be applied across a great diversity of social situations and problems, including issues of low family income, unemployment, housing deprivation, ageing, homelessness, and the new urban poverty, among others. Second, and more importantly, it deals with these issues as dynamic processes. Third, and most importantly, it shows that these situations arise through the interaction of endogenous social factors, the social characteristics of the populations, and exogenous social factors. The most important exogenous factors include the limits, flexibility and permeability of projects proposed for social promotion, architectonic and urbanistic factors such as the quality ofdomestic and residential environments, factors related to political processes which surround developing and implementing housing and social policy projects. However, the most important insight gained from using concepts of social exclusion was that the ways in which endogenous and exogenous factors are combined underlies the development of a broader social dynamic which creates exclusion or cohesion at both local and more global levels. Thus, it is possible to say that social exclusion is both a concept, useful for looking at issues around poverty and housing in particular, and a problem, related to others. It is the interaction between these two aspects ofsocial exclusion which makes it so useful in raising questions and seeing new challenges. The PER programme: housing need and new challenges Around 550,000 families in Portugal are in housing need. They include young couples who have difficulty accessing the housing market, overcrowded families, families living in older central urban areas or industrial courtyards, families living in badly dilapidated or temporary social housing or in uncompleted buildings, families living in areas without basic urban infrastructure and families living in slums. In order to improve living conditions, the central government can support low-income households by

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subsidising interest payments when they buy or build a house. Some government support is also given for the construction of social housing. The extent of this support is, due to financial constraints, rather limited. In 1993, the Central Government initiated a large resettlement programme (Program Especial de Realojament, PER) as a political response to social and housing problems, mainly for families living in shanties. The programme aims to improve housing conditions for approximately 50,000 families living in barracas in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto. Implementation is based on formal contracts between the central and local governments and has recently been extended to establish direct contracts with families and non-government organisations. Within these contracts, the central government provides a direct subsidy of 40 per cent ofthe cost ofnew apartments and lends another 40 per cent ofthe cost at very low interest rates. It is not exactly new to talk about resettlement programmes and processes in Portugal, but the PER does introduce some new ideas and practices. Up until 1993, all resettlement programmes were partial. However, the social and political timing of the PER has combined with a new approach to implementation, involving wider discussion among politicians, technicians and the public. It reflects both a wide public discussion about the failure of other resettlement experiences and the problems they caused and an ambition to eradicate all slums and barracas before the end of the centur~ It, thus, aims to transform the ways ofHfe ofa very large number offamilies, either directly or indirectly, and to transform the urban landscape of Portugal's two metropolitan areas. The programme is expected to have a major impact, both in requalifying the urban built environment and in improving the housing quality of families. However, the ambitions ofthe PER are wider than simply the physical improvement of urban areas and living conditions. It also aims to contribute to the social promotion of the families who will be resettled and, thus, to be a tool in fighting social exclusion. While such an aim is not new, the methods and intensity of intervention pose some new and difficult challenges in thinking about how such programmes can contribute to promoting social cohesion and full citizenship roles. Consequently, it has led to a very wideranging reassessment of resettlement programmes as a policy tool. At the political level, discussion has centred around the roles, rights, duties and competences ofdifferent social actors in defining the significance ofparticipation in the implementation processes. What is, or should be, the role of resettlement programmes, as a political tool, in housing policies and policies for improving the urban environment? What housing rights do people have and what should they have? What are, and should be, the boundaries between the competences of the central government (the welfare state), local

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municipal or regional governments, and private actors, such as NGOs and families? This discussion is very broad and some important philosophical and ethical questions emerge from it: What meaning can be given to equity, equality and social justice? What meaning can be given to citizenship and participation? How are these concepts relevant to the practical tasks ofdefining and managing priorities? What do these ideas mean in the context ofcomprehensive, global, continuous, dynamic and complex processes? The very ambitious aims of the PER also widen the field of intervention and introduce new kinds ofpsychological, social and cultural issues about the relationships among different actors. What is meant by social change in this context? How is it possible to deal with, prepare for, anticipate the nature of, influence the course of and manage the process of social change? How should the specificities of individual, social, local and cultural identities be treated in designing'cohabitation scenarios', issues of integration and segregation, insertion and exclusion, salience and non-salience? What is housing quality? What do different actors need in order to face, prepare for and manage new challenges, in terms of technical skills, forming new social relations, patterns of ownership and use of space, and being satisfied with the outcomes? Other practical questions follow on from these questions. How can resettlement and participation processes be successful and what should they avoid? Is innovative praxis possible within them? What kinds of innovation are possible in promoting and managing local social development, in promoting changes in the relationships among different actors in order to develop synergistic changes supporting participation and citizenship? How can all these complex processes be made transparent, visible, efficient and effective? Mobilising community resources in the PER in Cascais The implementation ofthe PER in Cascais illustrates the significance ofthese questions. Cascais is a municipality within the Lisbon metropolitan area. It has a territory of97 sq. km and approximately 170,000 inhabitants. The 20 sq. km which lie along the coast and railway line are intensively urbanised, dominated by hotel and service industries. The settlement pattern in the interior consists primarily ofvillages and neighbourhoods, where some electronics firms have recently located. The PER encourages local solutions based on specific conditions and needs. Consequently, the profile ofrenewal in Cascais reflects the municipality's perspective on local conditions, as well as its own specific ambitions for

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... •

ri •••

.. . ..

a ••~

.-

a

•

Small Settlements (1-9 Barracas) Medium Settlements (10-50 Barracas) Large Settlements (More than 50 Barracas)

Figure 11.1 Location ofbarracas in Cascais

the programme. In terms of managing and implementing the programme, Cascais is a clear example of best practice. There were 1304 barracasin Cascais in 1993. They lodged 2039 families and 5371 individuals. Forty-two per cent of the barracas are concentrated in two neighbourhoods, one with 338 barracas and the second with 207. The remainder are dispersed in 118 small settlements (Figure 11.1). This dispersion is unusual in Portugal. In Lisbon, where it is estimated that there are 35,000 barracas, the settlements are usually much larger and more concentrated. Vector 1

Change Social and urban qualification and promotion

Inertia dependency passivity

Scenario 1 directive

Scenario 4 innovation

Participation protagonism autonomy

Scenario 2 Scenario 3 dependency discontinuity Reproduction of unfavourable and social exclusion situations

Figure 11.2 Two possibleframes fOr defining priorities and choices

Vector 2

Citizenship

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However, from the beginning, the municipality of Cascais has been unusual in developing a very different orientation to the PER, based on an extended and highly participative discussion of the philosophy and principles that should guide its actions, the settlement scenarios that could be developed and strategies for implementation. These discussions have involved and mobilised technicians, politicians, non-governmental organisations and families in expressing their opinions and suggestions. As a consequence, the project began with: • outlining, debating, formulating and analysing the main problems and anxieties associated with implementing the programme's philosophy as a basis for formulating proposals for the overall development of the project • involving technicians, politicians and other partners who would be involved in implementing the project in order to mobilise their engagement in it and develop working relationships among them • creating a document based on these discussions which can be used as a guide to preferred strategies and approaches during the implementation of the programme. Mobilising the political will ofthe municipality, the interest and engagement ofother partners and the local population in a participative process was a fundamental choice made by the municipality to strengthen and guide the implementation ofthis project from the beginning. Consequently, it provides an excellent case study for reflecting, not only on good practices within PER, but also on some of the main problems involved in it. Change and citizenship: the main challenges of PER in Cascais Reflecting on previous resettlement programmes indicates some ofthe things that should be avoided in developing new programmes. Analysing previous experience in Portugal and elsewhere shows that the projects:

• should not be seen as simply physical and financial interventions • do not generate multiplier or other wider effects on the development of social dynamics simply as a consequence of providing new homes for individuals • should not be reduced to and concentrated on the gift of a new home • should avoid reproducing dependency situations

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• should not be developed without involving the participation and engagement of all actors (technicians, politicians, private partner agencies and the population of the area affected). Designing a programme to avoid these pitfalls, however, is more difficult. Two vectors were identified as possible frames for defining priorities and choices: Change and Citizenship. These are illustrated in Figure 11.2. Each one is treated as a polarity, and taken together they present four different general scenarios for the outcome of a resettlement programme. The vector of Change contrasts the reproduction of social exclusion in the new residential context (nothing changes or it even becomes worse) with the promotion of social change, generating social and urban qualification and cohesion through local social development approaches (something changes in a positive way). The vector of Citizenship contrasts the development of inertia, passivity, dependency and exclusion from participation mechanisms with the use of dynamic and protagonistic participation processes based on supporting the development of actors' autonomy in managing social change, social mobility and social insertion. Promoting social and urban developments versus fa~~de solutions Q!.1ality versus deterioration Involvement versus wasting Strategic management versus short-term perspectives Sustainability versus immediatism Global analysis of costs and investments versus short-term expensesmanagements Communication and information versus surprise effects Global resource management versus inefficiency and ineffectiveness Figure 11.3 Eight significant challengesfOr the resettlement programme

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The intersection of these vectors presents four generalised scenarios within which the project as a whole can be conceptualised. They also provide a basis for guiding the organisation, management and ongoing evaluation ofa project which is expected to evolve and change as it is implemented. In addition, the scenarios also provide a relatively fixed basis for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of a project in which 'unexpected' consequences and impacts are to be expected as a consequence of the involvement ofa wide range of actors and the emphasis on mobilisation and participation in promoting a dynamic process. Indeed, promoting this kind of social dynamism in a complex, intersectoral project is a major aim of the PER in Cascais. Using these four scenarios allowed the municipality to identify eight significant challenges it would need to meet in order to realise and operationalise its basic aims for the resettlement programme (see Figure 11.3). 1. Promoting social and urban development versusfafade solutions The issue is the extent to which a resettlement programme can be used to promote the larger objectives of promoting social and urban development rather than simply achieving the fa~ade solution of replacing shanties with permanent housing. Previous experience had shown that fa~ade solutions could, in practice, simply lead to new and deeper social and urban problems and social exclusion in the new settlements. 2. ~ality versus deterioration This challenge requires paying attention to guaranteeing quality in both architectural and urban management processes. It is more than a technical issue, since it involves considering the social needs and aspirations not only of the families being resettled, but also those of their new neighbours. Neglecting this aspect of the problem would mean that new architectural and urbanistic solutions could lead to stigmatisation and a sense of the deterioration of the quality of urban life, rather than supporting improvements. 3. Involvement versus wasting potentials This challenge is connected with mobilising the participation of different actors in the process, recognising them as fellow partners and allowing them to feel and act accordingly in order to develop concerted actions based on the negotiation of solutions acceptable to all. Without this kind of mobilisation and participation, socially dynamic forces and potentialities are wasted and the process of intervention becomes more difficult and possibly rejected altogether.

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4. Strategic management versus short-term perspectives One of the problems of managing a complex project is facing the implications of the different time perspectives governing different parts of the programme. The success of the whole project can be jeopardised by urgent problems which require immediate solutions. The commitment to promoting social change and cohesion requires recognising that these social dynamics have their own temporality and rhythm and that other parts of the project may both influence them and profit from them.

5. Sustainability versus immediatism To think about a programme as being sustainable means looking beyond its immediate results. Its success depends not only on the achievement of immediate goals, but also on its capacity to build the social mechanisms which will ensure that this success is not compromised in the long run. The perspective needs to be dynamic and cross-generational, so that achieving immediate goals is seen as a basis for sustaining and empowering social groups in the longer run. The issue is to understand how a more immediate perspective in resettlement programmes can strengthen social and spatial exclusion processes, thus threatening the sustainability of the processes of social cohesion, promotion and change which form the wider aims for the project. 6.

Global analysis of costs and investment versus short-term expenses management A real difficulty in projects of this nature arises from having to manage fixed budgets and justify investment expenditure. The problem is more complex when the aim of the project is to generate social change, since the indicators of change are not often reflected in financial evaluations; and, even when they are included, they are much more difficult to measure because they reflect subjective evaluations and are spread over long time periods. Their diffuseness contrasts with the immediate visibility of financial indicators. The challenge is to develop measurement techniques which are appropriate to these wider aims in order to avoid cheap projects which only become more expensive in future. In this sense, this challenge interacts with promoting sustainable development.

7. Communication and infOrmation versus surprise efficts Aiming to involve all actors as partners in producing a social dynamic supporting cohesion requires that all actors are always permanently aware of what is happening and Con line'. If communication channels,

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methods and rules are not established and used by all actors in a guaranteed and mutually respected way, then it is not possible to achieve the social aims of the programme. Such communication procedures are fundamental parts of mobilisation, participation, engagement and citizenship. Without them, 'surprise effects' generated by rumours and unknown social dynamics among those directly and indirectly affected by the project prejudice permeate its implementation and mean that it will not achieve its social aims. Good communication can, thus, be considered as both a means of implementation and a part of the aims of the programme. 8.

Global resource management versus inefficiency and ine.ffictiveness Most of the time, organising political, technical, logistical and human resources in managing resettlement programmes is considered as a secondary problem in project management, leading to sectoral and partial perspectives. Using a global perspective on resource management is necessary to avoid discontinuity, rigidity, inflexibility and plain nonsense, that is inefficiency and ineffectiveness, in project implementation. The global perspective becomes even more important where resources are scarce and difficult to mobilise, and is key to developing projects which are more global, sustainable and based on engagement and participation.

The importance ofthinking through these challenges before starting is that it allowed the Municipality of Cascais to formulate a strategy for intervention which reflected the capacities and resources available to it, while at the same time linking the strategy to achieving its aims of promoting lasting change and assuring the active citizenship rights of all those involved.

Seven innovative intervention strategies The Municipality of Cascais formulated seven innovative strategies of intervention, aimed at creating both lasting change and assuring citizenship, to establish operational priorities and guide the choices that need to be made in implementing any complex programme. These strategies have structured the entire resettlement project (see Figure 11.4). 1. Understanding when and how to step in

Several of the challenges that were identified centred around building a positive social dynamic which would sustain the overall objectives in the long run. Thus, the first addresses the problems of understanding the role of intervention by the municipality in this wider social and economic process, in

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Understanding when and how to step in Diagnosing, programming and evaluating to guarantee effectiveness and efficiency Using PER as a strategic tool to widen the domain of intervention Organising partnerships to empower synergies Developing the architectural and urban quality of proposed building programmes Promoting information and communication Innovation in know-how Figure 11.4 Seven innovative intervention strategies

other words, how to understand the municipality's role as only one among a number of important actors, so that its interventions would support the development of this dynamic. Three analytical research exercises provided an important orientation in developing this strategy. The first exercise was designed to generate a broad and comprehensive understanding of post-resettlement dynamics, based on studies ofprevious resettlement programmes. The research contributed to defining this strategy by identifying the main factors that would require attention throughout the project and help to clarify priorities for managing the project. The second exercise focused on a study of the community which was to be subject to resettlement. It identified a significant number ofis'olated foreign male residents, and highlighted the need to understand what they wanted from their settlement, their ways of life generally and how they organised their daily life and networking strategies. This research gave detailed knowledge about this group and helped the operational team to understand their needs and so to tailor rehousing solutions to the needs of the group and individuals within it. The third research exercise was based on a census in 1993 ofthe families to be resettled, which has provided a basis for observing their social dynamics, e.g. residential mobility, demographic profile, family strategies, etc. The results of this observation show a complex dynamic motivated as much by natural increase as by migration. These results have formed

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the basis for discussion among all the partners in the project in order to gain a better understanding of the specific dynamic needs of the families, which, in turn, has informed the programming of both new building and promoting the autonomy of the group as part of assuring citizenship rights.

Diagnosing, programming and evaluating to guarantee effectiveness and efficiency The central idea behind the Cascais PER programme was to generate a social dynamic, which would become self-sustaining in the long run. Consequently, it is very important to observe the development of this dynamic and to take account of it in a continuous feedback with the designing and managing of specific interventions. Dynamic diagnosis is the tool that allows this permanent feedback between intervention and the development of an autonomous social dynamic. It ensures flexibility and adaptiveness in responding to the specific events, needs and trends which emerge during the process of intervention and allows the programming ofthe project to be altered accordingl}'Dynamic diagnosis has three main elements: pre-diagnosis, programming and evaluation. It has been organised on the basis of defining 'territories of intervention', which include both the communities or groups of dispersed ba"acas as well as the neighbourhoods which will welcome these families when the new housing has been built. The pre-diagnosis characterises the main particularities of each of these areas, their needs and problems, attitudes towards the resettlement programme, and the potential for developing the social dynamics supporting cohesion and citizenship in these areas. Much of the data for the pre-diagnosis is qualitative, based on visits to the areas and direct contact with residents, neighbourhood associations, organisations which work with the residents, and informal and formal leaders. An important part of the technique is promoting partnership discussion groups in the areas. This pre-diagnosis generates specific programmes of intervention in each of the areas, with specific goals and paths to reaching them, within the main strategies and goals of the overall programme. The dynamism, flexibility and adaptability ofthe specific intervention programmes are assured by on-going evaluation at three levels: at the level ofthe specific programme; at the level of the organisation ofdifferent teams throughout the project development; and at the level ofthe programme as a whole. Three main criteria guide evaluation at each of these levels: 2.

• effectiveness: goals achievement, adhesion, sustainability, autonomy, innovation, satisfaction • efficiency: goals achievement and management, articulation of actions, cost/benefit analysis

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• impacts: expected/unexpected, positive/negative, reproducibility. For each level, the specific content of each of these criteria is elaborated in a grid which includes both external and internal evaluation. External evaluation, by observers and experts, allows a more distant and less constrained contribution to developing the project, while internal evaluation by promoters and participants is also a way ofpromoting their involvement and engagement in the evaluation process and ensures permanent discussion and feedback about both the project and the social dynamics which it is generating. Both dynamic diagnosis and generative programs are necessary in an 'open programme', but they also allow much better use to be made of the development of social dynamics and allow mistakes to be put right much more quickly: The process is very useful in addressing the needs and expectations created by the project and empowers the dynamics which are being produced. 3. Using PER as a strategic tool to wIden the domain

of intervention

Politicians and technicians often confuse large intervention programmes with policy. However, an intervention programme is a tool of polic~ and relates the policy to the real context within which it is being developed. Stressing this distinction allows the implementation of a policy to be integrated with other programmes, which will enhance the outcomes. Thus, it is important to remember that PER is simply a programme that only finances building construction. Using it as a strategic tool to support the social promotion of families and local development strategies requires integrating it with other initiatives and understanding how its domain of intervention is wider than simply building construction. In Cascais, the PER programme has been profitably linked with other intervention programmes primarily concerned with financing urban renewal and social development. This integration of programmes has been developed by: • Learning from local social dynamics prior to resettlement, both with the families to be resettled and their future neighbours and working at the psychological, social and cultural level: improving the self-esteem and self-respect of individuals and groups, improving vocational and social skills; motivating and contributing to the development of individual and social life projects; supporting the initiatives and participation of individuals and groups; working with different age and other groups in the population to understand their difficulties and anxieties and the new challenges they will face

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around the changes in their life associated with new housing and habitats. • Planning and investing in the improvement of the neighbourhoods of resettlement: providing better architectural and urbanistic solutions, more integrated into the environment and with better designed public spaces; providing new settlements with complementary facilities, such as schools and community facilities, the provision of commercial and industrial buildings to support continued economic activity by those being resettled; and in general improving the urban context for these new buildings so that the host community benefits as well as those families being resettled. • Developing the intervention programme in a way which supports the creation of positive dynamics between host communities and their new inhabitants, by paying attention to the interaction between the two groups and the challenges this poses. The main idea is to ensure in programme management that these different activities connect in the right way and at the right time, taking into account the specific characteristics and needs of each of the local areas. However, some very basic difficulties need to be overcome in doing this. The most common problem is ensuring that the complementarity between separate activities is realised, beyond each one meeting its own objectives. There are two aspects to this problem. The first aspect comes from the tension inherent in implementing a generative programme, which requires working with global, complex, dynamic and participative processes at a local level. The symbiosis between global and local perspectives is often very difficult to make and control, although it is fundamental. It is very easy to retreat into the global programme, on the one hand, or simply avoid all kinds of programming, on the other hand. Both these responses have the effect of limiting the ability to identify and use all the instruments that may be available. They also tend to lead to a commitment to pre-established certainties, the idea that a specific strategy which has succeeded in one place will have exactly the same effect in other circumstances. The second aspect of this problem is much more common, a part of daily project management: political, technical and administrative time schedules frequently do not match up. Sometimes it is possible to negotiate these problems, but the success ofsuch negotiations depends on a shared commitment to the project itself. While reconciling timetables has been an important part of project management in Cascais, it has also been used as a means of building wider support for a more integrated and global perspective for the project itself

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Organising partnershtps to empower synergies

Promoting and developing participation is an important objective for all 10cal social development programmes, and there are always some basic questions to be answered in building participation. What kind of participation? How is participation made operational? How to set about encouraging it? What means can be used to make it possible? What are the obstacles that may make it impossible? How can these obstacles be overcome? In brief, what does participation really mean in practice? In Cascais, these questions were not answered at the outset, but were built into a project orientation designed to build on the potential and motivations of all actors and on the dynamics that developed between them. Special attention was paid to mobilising the interest and participation of politicians, municipal technicians, other organisations, the population living in the ban-acas, their future neighbours and general public opinion. While this was a big challenge, it has also been a major success for the project since participation is now taken for granted by all actors, whether they are directly or indirectly involved in the project. MOBILISING THE POLITICIANS

Political and technical logics are very different in terms of how they look at problems, their practices and timing. These differences reflect the different dynamics and competences of political and technical work. While technicians often see political logic as an obstacle to effectiveness and efficienc)l, the problem is rather to recognise, accept and profit from the differences. In Cascais, considerable thought was devoted to understanding these differences as a basis for mobilising and coordinating both kinds of activity. Thus, politicians have been involved in discussing with technicians the main principles and strategies behind the programme and specific features of its development, as well as participating actively, along with other partners and the population, at key moments in implementation. This contact between politicians and technicians has been supported and maintained by formal and informal presentations and discussion of progress reports. In this context, both technicians and politicians have been able to develop an appreciation of the complementarity of their roles and to develop a common language for discussing problems, supporting the motivation, engagement and participation of both sides. MOBILISING MUNICIPAL TECHNICIANS

The broad goal ofintegrated local social development within which the PER was set implies that it cannot be implemented only by the PER team. Thus, an

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important first step was to involve and mobilise the whole local authority organisation in contributing to this broad objective. Commonly, departmentalism is a significant obstacle in achieving this wider involvement. Thus, when the PER team was first formed, it set itself the objective of developing collaborative links within the local authority by identifying collaboration which could benefit other departments within Cascais City Council. In turn, this has generated a new project-centred organisational culture within the authority, so that technical and managerial staffin all departments have been involved in discussing the principles and main strategies for the project, as well as being involved in designing integrated subprojects which support the main project, in setting up partnership groups with other organisations, in the process of pre-diagnosis and in thinking through the management of the future housing and neighbourhoods. MOBILISING OTHER INSTITlITIONS

In addition to the local authority, a variety of other institutions are also involved in working with the population ofCascais. The Cascais PER team saw their participation in developing the project as fundamental, and proposed the idea of constituting formal partnerships with them. Previous experience with partnerships, however, provided little basis for this, since they had been based either on profit-sharing arrangements or on formal requirements. In these circumstances, it was necessary to think through ways of working which would be mutually beneficial, in order to motivate these other organisations to participate in the project and mobilise their contribution. The strategy was to let formal partnerships evolve 'naturally' through a process of discussion. All potential partners were involved in the process of local diagnosis and in discussing the main issues around resettlement. The range of organisations was very broad, including: education, health, police and security forces, religious organisations, social security, employment and training, other local authority and non-governmental organisations. Informal partnership teams were formed to work together on general problems and thematic partnership teams worked on common interests and competences. More recentl~ these partnerships have been constituted formally. To date, there have been three partnership 'commissions', dealing with programming investment in technical equipment, with family issues and with the theme 'changes and habitat'. This last commission is the most developed and innovative of the three, involving mainly organisations working with education, training and extra-curricular activities based on schooling from nursery school through to the twelfth year. The participants chose the theme themselves, as work to be done in anticipation ofresettlement, and defined its main goals. The idea was that each of the partners would introduce these

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themes in their own activities with those to be resettled and the future host settlements. This was an important strategy because it bypassed the common resistance to participating in partnerships based on additional effort, work and costs. Due to the variety of organisations involved, their target populations and competences, a very large number ofissues were identified and specific activities developed to achieve the main goals that had been identified in earlier discussions. This group serves as an excellent example of the value of the synergy that can be achieved from this approach. It rapidly passed beyond the work of the PER team, and members of the group have achieved a remarkable mobilisation and autonomy in this way of working which has strengthened their communication, contacts and links with other initiatives. This same strategy for constituting partnerships has also been applied in working with organisations in the future host communities, who have been involved from an early stage with the PER team and local teams. The step-by-step strategy towards constituting these partnerships has allowed each to develop its own dynamic, based on the interests and motivations of the partners, to their mutual benefit and to the benefit of the specific communities they serve. MOBILISING THE POPULATION

Mobilising the participation of the population is important in securing their satisfaction with changes, but is also central to developing the ability of groups to promote themselves, to be autonomous and to benefit from exercising their full rights as citizens. In Cascais, both the families who will be resettled and the residents of the host neighbourhoods have been involved. The main basis for mobilising participation has been identifying the specific potentials, and obstacles to realising it, of the individuals, families and local areas. For example, previous studies ofpeople who lived in slum areas, especially those emphasising the culture of pover~ have noted the tendency of these families to 'submit to destiny or fate' and to external control in resolving structural or individual problems. Initiatives supporting their protagonism had very little impact over time and tended to be concentrated on individuals' own life projects. The population in these areas was very deeply dependent on state or local government solutions to their housing or other structural problems, and this dependency was effectively cultivated by these organisations and their policy approaches. At the same time, these groups were also very sceptical about the solutions proposed and this made local intervention even more difficult. On the other hand, some families showed a very high level of initiative demonstrated by cumulative investment in their housing or by other community initiatives. However, this potential was not always devel-

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oped, because these families were more strongly opposed to innovative or alternative housing solutions, which they saw as threatening their ability to maintain or continue to improve their own quality of life. In Cascais PER, two typical examples illustrate how participation can mean different things in different situations, and thus requires different strategies. In one situation, the residents had very few resources to improve their own circumstances and were strongly in favour of being resettled as a solution both to their housing problems and to the stigma attached to living in an area with a high level of drug trafficking. They expected some support from the City Council, but did not believe that they would receive it. There was very little formal organisation in this area, but very strong informal support networks among a community of immigrants. In the other situation, the neighbourhood was very well situated and was strongly controlled by its residents. Most of the residents had arrived in the ba"acas as a consequence of decolonisation, and saw their situation as a temporary phase in building new lives. Consequently, they had invested in improving their housing conditions in the locality. This group had already started a process of protagonism to improve their own life conditions and social position. They also had considerable experience of neighbourhood-based organisation, even though it was not active when the PER team began work in the area. In both cases, the initial steps taken by the Cascais PER team were similar: • General meetings of the whole population in which the Mayor of the City Council introduced the local PER team and in which the main goals of the project were presented and discussed. • Smaller meetings with a group of residents who volunteered, to discuss their anxieties, fears, motivations and expectations about the way the project would develop. • Mobilisation of a team including residents to work on the issues which were felt to be most important to the community. This team provided an important channel of communication between the PER team and residents and participated in organising the local office and neighbourhood activities, and provided a basis for promoting communication with the future host neighbours. • Mobilisation of the participation of each family in choosing their future neighbours, future neighbourhoods and future tenant status. • Development of local social dynamics by sharing the organisation of activities which would allow this group of residents to get used to working within an organisation and which would support them in presenting themselves positively to the Cascais community.

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The mobilisation of this participatory structure took a different length of time and yielded different results in the two situations. The differences were in: the path taken to constituting the teamwork groups; the fears, expectations and motivations of the residents and the solutions they desired; the engagement of the population during the process; the structure of individual choices; and attitudes toward and relationships with future neighbours and neighbourhoods. The host populations had been mobilised to participate before the resettlement process began. Initially, their reaction to their new future neighbours was very negative, and in some cases was very strongly organised. From the beginning, the PER team listened to these reactions and fears and promoted discussion of them, both with residents and with other local authority staff. The process of preparing the host neighbourhoods for the resettlement also included systematic contact with neighbourhood organisations and residents groups, local leaders, organisations and their staff. This contact was designed to discover their expectations, anxieties and fears about the process and to identify ways in which they could benefit from the process. Discussion therefore was aimed at introducing these organisations to the process of preparing for resettlement and building an information bridge with the neighbourhoods in which doubts could be clarified. The aim was also to support contacts between partner institutions and with neighbourhood groups. This work has been very difficult, especially the work with families and their future neighbours. It has taken a long time and great persistence to gain their confidence and involvement in the process, and successes are, as yet, still small. It is important to remember, however, that this is a process which is integral to the whole resettlement programme and that it needs to be continued during and after resettlement, so that its success can only be evaluated in the long term. MOBILISING PUBLIC OPINION

Mobilising public opinion is a direct consequence ofthe Cascais PER's aim to improve the quality and social development of the entire area. Thus, disseminating information about the project and allowing participation by all Cascais citizens was seen as a very important task. The main idea was to involve as many people as possible in order to combat the negative social images of this kind of programme and the families involved. The main techniques which have been used are periodic mailings, setting up Local Information Points open to everyone, and encouraging public presentations of some of the activities developed by people directly or indirectly involved in the project.

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5. Developing the architectural and urban quality ofproposed building programmes

One of the most visible problems of resettlement programmes is often the poor quality of what is built, both technically in terms of the design of new housing and in terms ofits public image. The new settlements are, most ofthe time, very easily identifiable as social housing in its most negative symbolic meaning. Many studies have identified the architectural and urbanistic features of these settlements which create (visible obstacles' both to quality and to the promotion of social and spatial insertion. These include: • construction of very large and dense neighbourhoods • failure to supply other facilities in the neighbourhoods and their surrounding areas • massive visual discontinuities between the new neighbourhoods and their surrounding areas • architectural solutions which reinforce the stigmatisation of these spaces and their inhabitants • rehousing people in the neighbourhoods before the building work is complete • poor layout and maintenance of external spaces • poor quality of building materials and fittings • designing dwellings which did not fit with the living habits of their residents, making them difficult to use and identify with. The Cascais PER saw these obstacles as an important challenge in developing its programme. In particular, it aimed to: • promote architectural and urban quality and turn on its head the negative image of these areas, in order to use them as a tool in an integrated social and urban development process • develop a concept of quality based both on technical excellence and on the wishes of future residents, in terms of how they wished to use the dwellings and what features were important for their satisfaction • create a collaborative working process among architects, housing promoters, technical experts and the population throughout the whole process of planning, promoting, designing, building, allocating, living in, managing and maintaining the buildings. This was a big challenge for a number of reasons. First, the building norms are very inflexible in some ways. Second, the administrative processes associ-

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ated with promoting new municipal housing are long and complex and it is difficult to introduce procedural innovation into them. And finaII~ previous experience of popular participation in these processes in the mid-1970s was marked more by failure than success. In Cascais, the main strategy for meeting these challenges was to include a large number of housing promoters in the programme, both to assure diversity in housing and urban design and to widen the choice open to families being resettled. Thus, from the beginning, the City Council was committed to supporting both social and private housing promoters providing different tenures and to considering the possibility of supporting cooperative and self-build solutions. This last possibility is still embryonic, because it requires sustained work with the population and needs to grow out of the development of local social dynamics. The overall programme will provide about 1200 new dwellings, on about 22 sites, each with between 24 and 110 flats. By deciding on a programme of small sites, the PER team is working with existing housing promoters to meet a number of architectural and urbanistic goals: • To integrate new buildings into the urban fabric in a way which ensures continuity with their general environment. • To ensure that the human scale of these new settlements facilitates their use by residents and commitment to living in them. • To programme and build, if necessary, both urban services and supporting facilities which can be used by both the new population and the host population, so that the new developments are open to their general environment. • To use architectural solutions which are not yet stigmatised in public perceptions. • To ensure that the layout, completion and maintenance of the new development and its surroundings are considered in the design. • To use building materials and fittings which do not deteriorate rapidly; to design the flats and buildings in ways which fit with the families' desires in terms of privacy, security, function, size, storage capacity, daily domestic activities and ways of life. The local decision to promote diversity in new development was supported by the way the national PER programme is open to financing and promoting the direct choice of housing solutions by the families in a free market. A diverse set of promoters also supports the use of different architects and architectural solutions within a framework of recommendations about the expectations, needs and desires of the families based on earlier studies.

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Since there was no time to consult families directly about their future dwellings, the key issue was to promote a 'social housing market logic', widening the choices open to families and motivating them to exercise this possibility of choice. The idea was that families would be able to choose their preferred tenure (renting, owner occupation, self-build), the type of neighbourhood they wished to live in, and their neighbours from among the families to be resettled, thus maintaining old networks or gaining the possibility of building new ones. To support making these choices, families have been given information about the possibilities open to them and are being asked about their preferences and the way these are ranked. This consultation is integrated with the work oflearning about, mobilising and supporting families in their own life project strategies associated with the social promotion and insertion objectives of the overall project. The use of this strategy shows that it is possible to incorporate considerations of housing and urban quality into programmes of social housing promotion, even when time is short and housing needs are large and urgent.

6. Promoting infonnation and communication The investment in information and communication in the PER has been broad and fundamental. Opening the project, making it visible and participatory, has allowed the use offeedback to improve the programme as it goes, reducing perverse rumours, gaining the confidence and participation of many actors, ensuring the coherence ofthe project and the way in which it continues to develop as it is being implemented. There have been some interesting difficulties, however, in building these communication processes. At the formal level, neither population, technical experts, partner organisations or politicians were used to being kept informed and asked to participate, and so were sceptical as to whether the process would be sustained during the whole project. In one sense, the construction of credible means of information exchange and channels of communication, as well as creating the rules for managing them, has only been possible because everyone has been involved in doing it and has gained from this participation, thus making the information and communication process 'user friendly'. At the same time, the necessity to ensure that the messages being communicated were comprehensible to all participants intensified the communication process, leading to a better knowledge by all of the logics and dynamics affecting each and so building closer relationships within the whole group of participants.

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7. Innovation in know-how

Thinking about local social development implies thinking about what can and should be done, but also thinking about how it should be done. The Cascais PER rose to this challenge, which resulted from starting with discussions among those who would be responsible for implementing the project. The first initiatives were based on constituting a flexible operational team and establishing links with other teams, other partners, politicians and the population. Innovation at the know-how level is not just a matter of innovative outcomes or products, it is also a matter of innovation in the process of implementation. Any action, in this kind of process, is a small piece of a dynamic and generative puzzle aimed at local social promotion and improving the quality of life. These aims also imply that putting the puzzle together must also be participatory, but without losing sight of the main goals of the programme. As with any jigsaw puzzle, the project as a whole is built up step by step and the picture is achieved by putting the right pieces in the right place, taking into account the progressive development of the overall picture. Some pieces only make sense when they are joined with other pieces. Some larger parts of the whole only cohere when they fit with other parts, even if these parts are built separately. This is the real innovative challenge, to work with the problems but also the emerging possibilities that different pieces offer, making them fit in a generative and harmonious way, without losing sight of the overall goals and objectives. Figure 11.5 shows that orchestrating the resettlement process is complex. It deals with several dimensions and strategic tools which are very different in nature. The fundamental idea is that the process is complex and needs to evolve as it proceeds. Equally important is recognising that there are no ready-made recipes for the process. The specific contribution of the Cascais PER project is that it began with these two ideas, that the process was complex and that a part ofit was developing an internal evolutionary dynamic, related to the dynamics of all parties involved in it. It was an act offaith to start with the idea that more could be achieved if potential achievements could be defined in the course of this evolving dynamic rather than at the outset. In this sense, the project aims to release further potential possibilities as it unfolds, and the skill of managing the project consists of understanding when and how to step into this complexity to promote a positive dynamic within each of the main actors and through their relationships with each other. When complexity and dynamism are joined together, there is an infinity of specific paths which can be followed. Both social exclusion and social cohesion processes are dynamic and complex and we are just beginning to understand them. In this case, the uncertainties are still bigger and more obvious

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Principles ethics values

Politicians decisionmakers

Flexibility

Concilation

Resettlement process orchestration Nature of technical action

Empowerment Dynamism

Opportunity

Partners in social/local development

Population Figure 11.5 Dimensions and strategic tools in the resettlement process

than secure and sustainable outcomes. Developing, analysing and experimenting with new ways to understand these complex social processes is a long-run challenge, one which needs to engage social analysts, politicians, technical experts and all the other social actors who are involved in them. Further contributions to developing this understanding are needed and expected.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Combating Social Exclusion Looking In or Looking Out? Stuart Cameron and Simin Davoudi

Over the past decades, various terminologies have been used to define a persistent phenomenon in the advanced industrial societies. The Victorians and their American counterparts called it the problem ofthe vicious, the degenerate and semi-criminal classes. The more enlightened late twentieth century calls it the problem of the disadvantaged and the underprivileged (Hall 1994). More recently, the term underclass has been widely used both sociologically and in public life. Further, within the European Union, the term social exclusion has been given a central place in the discussion of social inequalities and social policies in Europe. These terms refer to an increasing isolated mass of impoverished people whose chances of upward social and economic mobility are minimal. However, the ways in which the terms are interpreted and used by various critics of social policy differ substantially (Fainstein, Gordon and Harloe 1992). These can be grouped into two broad categories: the structural explanation of poverty, and the cultural definition of the phenomenon. In Hall's words: 'Some blame the system, others original sin' (Hall 1994, p.400). The term social exclusion was first introduced by Jacques Delors. It derives from its use in French social policy which, as defined by Esping-Anderson (1985), is characterised by a corporatist/conservative model of welfare regime. Such a model is based on a concept of society which is composed of groups with reciprocal rights and obligations and which seeks to ensure the participation ofall within the moral order ofsociety. As Atkinson (1996) suggests, this conception of social exclusion differs from the concept of poverty which lies within the Anglo-Saxon tradition where, according to EspingAnderson (1985), a liberal model dominates. The liberal model is based on the idea that society is fragmented and is composed of individuals who are 235

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engaged in constant competition with each other. It is held that the state seeks to ensure a minimum material standard of wellbeing for each individual. Within this context, poverty is viewed as a static concept, an outcome rather than a dynamic process, and is mainly concerned with income distribution and defining what constitutes an adequate level of income (Atkinson 1996).

Some (such as Allen 1996) argue that Delors failed to achieve political centrality for the concept partly because he introduced a concept appropriate to one type of welfare regime (French corporatist model) into a negotiating framework which needed to be also appropriate to another type of regime (Anglo-Saxon liberal model). However, the concept has remained at the centre ofthe European Union's discourse and has provided two useful discursive aspects: • It relates the incidence of poverty and disadvantage among some groups and in some locations to wider processes of restructuring of economies and welfare states. • It emphasises the multiple nature of disadvantage and looks beyond issues of income inequality. In The Community's Battle Against Poverty, it is stated that: Poverty is a complex, heterogeneous phenomenon and can not be defined solely in terms oflow income levels ... The European Community and several of its Member States now consequently tend to define poverty in terms of 'social exclusion' ... It serves also to emphasise the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon and the multiplicity and diversity of the factors which combine to exclude individuals, groups and even regions from those exchanges, activities and social rights which are an inherent part of social integration (CEC 1992, p.3). The concept of social exclusion has shifted the debate away from merely focusing on the issues ofincome inequality and material exclusion dominant in the Anglo-Saxon view of poverty to incorporate the social and cultural dimension of the exclusionary processes emphasised by the French corporatist model. The latter view of exclusion puts much greater emphasis on the need to create social solidarity and seeks to ensure that individuals are integrated into the social and moral order. As Atkinson suggests, social exclusion in this context: ... is primarily concerned wit~ relational issues and the dynamic processes which lead to the breaking of social ties and marginalisation of groups in relation to the nation ... The nation as a living, almost spiritual, organism lies at the heart ofthis conception (Atkinson 1996, p. 3).

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Lipietz, Chapter 9 in this volume, outlines the economic dynamics which underlie such processes of marginalisation. Within the EU policy debate, the term social exclusion conveys isolation from the moral order of the wider society (Room 1995). ED documents on social exclusion stress that exclusion is not wholly economic, nor confined to the problem oflow money incomes, but to: 'multiple and changing factors resulting in people being excluded from the normal exchanges, practices and rights of modern society' (CEC 1993, p.1). The multidimensional nature of social exclusion at the level of the neighbourhood has also been identified in programmes of exchange of experience between EU countries (for example, CCRE 1994). Therefore, the concept of social exclusion incorporates both the French corporatist interpretation with its emphasis on social aspects and cultural exclusion, and the Anglo-Saxon tradition with its focus on income inequality and material exclusion. (see Allen, Chapter 2 in this volume, for further comparisons of different welfare regimes.) In this chapter, we argue that in combating exclusionary processes, the United Kingdom's urban regeneration policies of the 1990s have engraved on them, ifnot fully endorsed, elements ofthe various dimensions ofthe concept of social exclusion. On the one hand, they focus on the material dimension of poverty and seek to link the 'excluded' to mainstream economic life through training and employment measures. We call this looking out. On the other hand, they are concerned with the social and cultural dimension of exclusion and seek to provide linkages between the 'excluded' and the mainstream norms of civic society through community empowerment measures. We call this looking in. The spatial metaphor used to distinguish the two approaches reflects the significance of the role of place in the process of exclusion (see Madanipour, Chapter 4 in this volume, for an extended discussion of why space matters). Although social and spatial exclusion may not be related, in capitalist cities social divisions go hand in hand with spatial segregation (Mollenkopf and Castells 1991). The operation of the housing market and the price mechanism have resulted in an increasing spatial concentration of poverty. Our case study areas in Tyneside, in the northeast of England, are examples of such processes. Within the looking out perspective, policies are focused on making people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods more able to compete for the employment opportunities which exist outside those neighbourhoods. Within the looking in perspective, policies are focused on improving the social, cultural and environmental conditions within the area. They aim to build up social and institutional capacities within the area in order to integrate the disadvantaged

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neighbourhoods into the mainstream society. Healey, Chapter 3 in this volume, discusses the issues which underlie building institutional capacity. The remaining part of this chapter will expand and clarify this argument by using examples from our research on two disadvantaged areas in Tyneside. First, we briefly review the history of UK urban regeneration policies over the last 30 years in order to highlight the shifting emphasis of the policies and the length of the time taken to develop an approach which attempts, albeit tentatively, to link the looking in and the looking out dimensions. Social exclusion and UK urban regeneration policy In the UK, explicit urban regeneration policies (which used to be called inner city policies) are usually regarded as dating from the second halfofthe 1960s (although it is somewhat misleading to talk of UK policies since Northern Ireland and Scotland, in particular, have a different history ofpolicy development from England and Wales). Of the four main phases of inner city and/or urban regeneration policy which might be identified, each can be seen as having a characteristic relationship to the concept of social exclusion and the looking in/ looking out distinction.

Phase 1: Late 19605 and social policies In the late 1960s, when central government in Britain first explicitly recognised the existence ofan inner city problem and introduced new measures to address this issue, a major motivation was awareness of the problems of ethnic minorities in the decaying inner areas ofAmerican cities, which had led to widespread rioting. This brought fears of similar events in Britain. Understanding of the nature of the inner city was strongly influenced by American ideas. The issue was seen mainly in terms of the social problems created by the inadequacies and antisocial culture ofsome inner city residents and communities. Two concepts, derived from the USA, described mechanisms which were said to transmit deprivation between the generations and trap people in inner city areas. The first concept, the cycle ofdeprivation, suggested that inner city children, disadvantaged by a poor home background and poor school facilities, would fail in the education system resulting in poor job opportunities which would, in turn, trap them and their families in the inner cit~ with the cycle then moving on to the next generation. The second concept, the culture of poverty, suggested that deprived inner city areas developed their own deviant subculture which rejected dominant values in society, in particular the

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idea ofstriving for success and achievement. This rejection then led to apathy and alienation from the rest of society, as well as antisocial behaviour, crime, addiction and so on. A key concept in the perception of inner city problems in the 1960s was the idea of multiple deprivation: people experiencing a range of mutually reinforcing social problems. The concept of multiple deprivation was seen at this time to apply not only to families, but also to whole areas, particularly those parts of the inner city referred to as twilight areas. These were conceptualised as quite small areas, often of subdivided old housing on the edge of the city centre - the rooming house areas of much American urban sociology - with a racially mixed, unstable, transient population. The problem ofthe inner city was seen as involving small pockets of deprivation arising from the inadequacies of individuals and families in an otherwise healthy society and economy. As can be seen, the conceptualisation of inner city problems in this phase had much in common with the image inherent in the concept ofsocial exclusion, an image of locations and sectors of the population which are detached and isolated from the social, cultural and economic mainstream of society. The central idea of multiple deprivation also foreshadowed the use of the concept of social exclusion to refer explicitly to a range of deprivation and disadvantage as opposed to a more limited concept ofpoverty as low income. The conceptualisation also has much in common with recent discussion of the development of an underclass. In particular, it shares with some versions ofthe underclass theory a tendency to locate the origins ofthe problem in the behavioural and cultural practices of the populations of disadvantaged areas (Edwards and Batley 1978).

Phase 2: Mid to late 19705 and local economic development In the second phase in the 1970s, the focus of attention began to change to the employment problems ofinner city residents created by the decline ofindustry in the older industrial cores ofcities. This change in focus came in part from a challenge to the assumptions ofearlier analysis and policy ofthe inner city problem. The development of the Community Development Project (CDP) with its neomarxist analysis was particularly interesting. Established in the late 1960s, the task of CDPs was seen as helping deprived communities to help themselves: overcoming apathy, helping them to organise to press for rights and to provide themselves with services. The CDPs soon came to challenge the assumptions on which this role was based. They suggested that the main problems of inner city areas stemmed from the withdrawal of investment by private capital from what were the tra-

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ditional industrial areas of Britain. The problems of inner city areas did not arise from the inadequacies of individuals or from deviant cultural traditions within these areas themselves, and their problems could not be overcome by self help and community development. The title ofone ofthe key COP publications, The Costs ofIndustrial Change, reflects the key focus of this analysis, which can be seen in a quotation from this publication, describing the making and breaking of five urban industrial locations: The fortunes of each community are intimately related to the state oflocal industry, which in turn is dependent on processes at work in the wider community. As the economic role of each area changes over time, so the basis of the local economy is transformed. The symptoms of 'deprivation' appear as industrial change shifts areas that were once important industrial centres to the periphery of the economy (COP 1977,

p.S). The interest in the issues of social exclusion and social cohesion within the EU also arises from concern about the costs and the casualties ofeconomic restructuring: The single frontier-free market and monetary union constitute growth factors for Europe as a whole, but they are also risk factors for the weakest regions and social groups and must be accompanied by more dynamic policies in the field ofeconomic and social cohesion (CEC 1992, p.4). Of course, this parallel does not extend to an acceptance of the radical, neomarxist analysis of the COPs, which located urban problems in the very nature of capitalism. It perhaps has more in common with the subsequent conceptual changes in official inner city policies, which saw urban problems as arising from economic decline and affecting much larger areas of cities. From the mid-1970s, the lead was taken by local government in creating local economic development policies to assist local firms and create employment through the provision of industrial land and buildings, environmental improvements and loans and grants to firms. The 1978 Inner Urban Areas Act was the climax ofthis approach. The White Paper which led up to the Act recognised the importance of economic decline, stating that: 'The decline in the economic fortunes ofthe inner areas often lies at the heart ofthe problem' (DoE 1977, p.2). The emphasis in this phase on the impact of de-industrialisation and the effects on inner urban areas of the decline of traditional manufacturing industries echoes the element in the concept of social exclusion which is concerned with those groups of the population and locations which can be seen

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as the casualties of economic restructuring. The policies of the 1970s represented an attempt to respond very directly to this process by re-creating primarily manufacturing employment within inner urban neighbourhoods (although, in practice, on a scale which was dwarfed by the extent ofemployment decline).

Phase 3: 19805 andproperty-led regeneration In the third phase in the 1980s, economic objectives remained central, but while in the 1970s local government had taken the lead in local economic policies, the Thatcher government sought to reduce the role of local government and increase the role ofthe private sector. The main thrust ofthese policies was commercial property development-led regeneration (Healey et al. 1992). The spatial focus was under-used urban land with commercial development potential in central areas or former industrial locations. The very evolution in terminology, which in the 1980s referred to urban regeneration, as opposed to inner city policies, reflected this change of emphasis from a concern with the social and economic problems of inner city communities to the physical and economic renewal of the ci~ This was, of course, best exemplified by the flagships of 1980s urban regeneration policies, the Urban Development Corporations (UDCs). These were government appointed bodies with development powers which were transferred to them from local authorities. Their main task was to open up development opportunities for private sector development (Imrie and Thomas 1993). Typically, UDC development schemes reflected the international fashion for waterfront regeneration begun in the USA. In contrast to the 1970s, when reviving the manufacturing economy ofinner cities was given first priority, in the 1980s the emphasis was on commercial and leisure development. The UDCs often literally turned their backs on existing inner city communities by excluding virtually all established residential areas from within their boundaries. Little direct attention was given to the needs of deprived inner city communities, with the assumption that the prosperity created by new development would trickle down to the most deprived. The concept of social exclusion, especially as it has been used and developed in the discourse of the European Union, suggests the image of a coin with t\\'o sides. On one side there is a process ofeconomic integration and restructuring which is seen as both inevitable and desirable in terms ofthe overall economy of Europe; on the other side is the creation of casualties, of populations and locations excluded and disadvantaged by these processes. The urban regeneration initiatives ofthe 1980s were characterised most ofall

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by the one-sided nature of their approach. They enthusiastically embraced processes of economic restructuring by enabling their implementation in physical development terms while, at the same time, gave almost no recognition or attention to the processes of exclusion beyond the crudest of spatial targeting. In that sense, the dominant urban regeneration policies of the 1980s could be seen as mirroring the one-sidedness of the general approach of the UK government of that time to the European project in its emphasis on a free market Europe and rejection of a social Europe, best exemplified by the optout from the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty: They mirror, too, a rejection of the premise on which concern with social exclusion is based. In fact, some of the same limitations and conflicts exist within the discussion of policies relating to social exclusion and cohesion in the EU. For example, the issue ofsubsidiarity and the extent of the EU's role in tackling social exclusion, as opposed to that of individual member states, has been a matter of contention (see CEC 1992; 1994). It is not only economic restructuring, but also the restructuring of welfare states which form part of the explicit context for the European discourse on exclusion and cohesion. If there are limits to the EU's competence to intervene, there is also assumed to be a limit to the extent to which social exclusion will be addressed by comprehensive, publicly financed welfare state provision. Elements of the EU project itself, for example, the cuts in public spending imposed by the movement towards monetary union, reinforce this limitation (CEC 1993). There is, rather, an emphasis in the EU policy discourse on utilising the capacity of the voluntary sector (Chanan 1992).

Phase 4: 19905 and people-centred policies? The fourth phase ofurban regeneration policies in the 1990s could be said to reflect some disillusionment with the approach of the 1980s, specifically with the assumption that the benefits of commercial property developmentbased approaches to regeneration would trickle down to the deprived communities of the city. There was a discernible return to the social objectives of the 1960s with a shift of emphasis from property to people. This change ofemphasis came first in Scotland with the policy document New Liftfor Urban Scotland (Scottish Office 1988) signalling a shift in emphasis to tackling the problems of the large peripheral housing estates around Scottish cities. In England, this change was subsequently reflected in the City Challenge programme which clearly involved a move away from the land and commercial development approach of the earlier policies and a return to a more people-centred concept of urban regeneration (Davoudi 1996). A total

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of 3 1 challenge authorities were declared in 1991 and 1992. In comparison with the UDCs, they tend to have large residential areas and a substantial resident population within their boundaries. The City Challenge initiative is based on a partnership which includes local authorities, local businesses, the voluntary sector and local communities. The intention was that City Challenge would develop policies which more directly addressed the problems of deprived communities and promised the integration of physical, economic and social regeneration. In fact, the integration of different aspects of urban policy is one of the key features of City Challenge. It is in City Challenge and the related British urban regeneration programmes of the 1990s that the link to the concept ofsocial exclusion is most clear. It is also in City Challenge where attempts have been made to link the looking in and the looking out perspectives. The objectives identified for City Challenge in the initial guidelines from the Department of the Environment (DoE 1991) included: • developing disadvantaged areas which have significant development potential for the city and are a major constraint on city wide development • providing disadvantaged residents with access to opportunities produced by regeneration through specific measures • linking disadvantaged areas and residents to a city's mainstream economy. These are clearly couched in the language of social exclusion in, for example, the reference to 'linking ... to the city's economic mainstream'. The underlying assumptions about the nature of the problems experienced by particular sectors and neighbourhoods in cities mirror many of the basic statements made about social exclusion in EU documents, for example the statement that: 'The Community cannot be satisfied with a "two-speed society" breeding, as it would, poverty, exclusion and frustration' (CEC 1992, p.4). The recognition that some people and some places do not automatically benefit from economic change, that specific processes exclude them and that specific measures are necessary to re-integrate them is found in both discourses. The redefinition ofthe objectives ofurban regeneration programmes in the late 1980s and early 1990s involved a re-focusing on people in more than spatial terms. The problems ofareas ofsocial exclusion may be rooted in economic change - and a defining characteristic of these areas in the UK has been the experience of high levels of long-term unemployment - but there are social and cultural patterns within these communities which inhibit and disable their populations from taking advantage of new economic opportuni-

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ties. Gilroy and Speak, Chapter 5 in this volume, discuss some of these mechanisms in more depth. All ofthis is closely related to the ideas expressed in the recent British concern with re-integrating disadvantaged groups, such as the long-term unemployed, back into the mainstream society (Davoudi and Healey 1995). This concept in itself draws heavily on the US literature on community development (Bendick and Egan 1993). The policy response ofthe 1990s also has echoes ofthe 1960s, involving, on the one hand, education and training programmes to improve skills (Le. the focus of the looking out approach) and, on the other hand, programmes and structures for community development and empowerment (i.e. the focus of the looking in approach). The Tyneside case studies

Some of these issues are illustrated below with reference to two neighbourhoods in two adjacent local authorities within the Tyneside area: Meadow Well in North Tyneside and Cruddas Park in the West End of Newcastleupon-Tyne. Three features of these neighbourhoods make them especially interesting: • They are classic examples of communities suffering from the most severe problems. Both are areas of local authority housing in which problems of poverty, social disadvantage, crime and insecurity occur to an extreme degree and where long-term unemployment is at such a level that it could be said that they are virtually excluded from access to the labour market. Both the Meadow Well estate and the West End of Newcastle, in which Cruddas Park is located, were scenes of serious disturbances and rioting in September 1991. • Both estates have Community Development Trusts (COT). These are local multifunctional community organisations of which there are now over 200 in the UK. They vary greatly in form and emphasis, but are essentially about a bottom-up approach to the regeneration of disadvantaged neighbourhoods. They are typically run by local people with some professional support and address a wide range of issues for the improvement of the neighbourhood. In Tyneside, the Cruddas Park CDT and Meadow Well CDT are examples of great intrinsic interest in terms of the innovative nature of their organisation and their genesis. • Both areas have a long history of community development work and have been the sites of various government regeneration

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initiatives since the 1970s. They share a similar spatial location and juxtaposition with regard to two major central government initiated urban regeneration programmes in Tyneside. Both neighbourhoods fall within the area of a City Challenge initiative and each is immediately adjacent to the boundary of a UDC, the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation (TWDC). Therefore, the two neighbourhoods have experienced both the looking out and the looking in aspects of urban regeneration initiatives over time. The following sections illustrate how the two neighbourhoods have been affected by these approaches since the 1980s.

Looking out: linking to the economic mainstream As mentioned earlier in the chapter, this dimension of urban regeneration policy has been most clearly reflected in the objectives and practices of the UDCs since the 1980s. The Development Corporations' focus on property development in targeted areas and its assumption that the disadvantaged people in those areas or the areas adjacent to them would eventually benefit from such developments are a clear indication ofa looking out approach, although in its crudest sense. Our two case study neighbourhoods provide a classic test ofthe question widely raised about the operation ofthe UDCs: do they bring benefits to deprived and disadvantaged residents in adjacent areas? In this regard, the House of Commons Employment Committee in 1989 stated that: 'UDCs cannot be regarded as a success if buildings and land are regenerated but the local community are bypassed and do not benefit from regeneration' (House of Commons 1988, para 89). Cruddas Park is adjacent to the Newcastle Business Park and Meadow Well is close to the Royal ~ays Development in North Tyneside. Both developments are considered as being two of the TWDC's most prestigious schemes, known as flagship projects. Both have brought large-scale investment with substantial jobs which either have been or are being created. However while detailed data on the employment of local people in the two TWDC development areas is not available, it is clear from local knowledge that the extent of employment is extremely limited. It can be said with confidence that the TWDC has not delivered employment benefits to the case study areas despite their desperate need for employment, the success of the TWDC in attracting investment, development and jobs and the propinquity of one to the other. What is less certain, though, is whether this can be seen as a failure ofthe UDC concept, as such, with its exclusion of residential communities from its area ofoperation, its emphasis on commercial property

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development and reliance on a trickle down of benefits to deprived residential areas. The Tyne and Wear Development Corporation has been aware ofthis potential criticism of UDCs and has, in schemes such as Royal Qyays and the Newcastle Business Park, attempted to facilitate local employment and provide training. In general, though, these efforts have met with limited success. To quote the Director of the Cruddas Park Community Development Trust with reference to the Newcastle Business Park: cAs far as the residents of Cruddas Park were concerned, the whole Business Park development might as well have been on the moon.' With the advent ofCity Challenge in the 1990s the two neighbourhoods, Cruddas Park and Meadow Well, were included within the boundaries of two City Challenge areas, one in North Tyneside and the other in the Newcastle West End. While City Challenge brought in a new dimension to urban regeneration policy, that of looking in, as mentioned before, it also continued with policies and practices which have been associated with the looking out perspective, Le. property development and job creation. Such measures vary according to the type and nature of each City Challenge programme, as our case studies show. But, in general, they have been more concerned than the UDCs with the provision of education and training schemes as part of their job creation and economic development programmes. It can, therefore, be said that the City Challenge approach to the looking out dimension has been a step forward compared with the UDC's approach, which, to a large extent, has merely focused on property development. However, the questions remain. What difference did the inclusion of the two neighbourhoods in the boundaries of the City Challenge areas make? Has there been a significant change in terms ofaccess to employment opportunities arising from incorporation into a City Challenge area? To some extent, the context does differ between the two areas because of differences in the nature of the two City Challenge programmes. The area of operation of the Newcastle City Challenge contained little potential for large-scale new development and employment creation, and housing renewal was very much the main focus of the investment programme. In contrast, the strategy adopted by the North Tyneside City Challenge was to include within the designated area a large area ofland with potential for new industrial development (referred to as the A 19 corridor; see Figure 12.1), and its investment programme includes major spending on economic development. While the development of the new industrial areas within the North Tyneside City Challenge has been rather slow (inhibited by uncertainty over the provision of Enterprise Zone status for part ofthe land, a status which offered tax relief and relaxation of planning regulations for ten years), the pic-

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ture has been recently transformed in dramatic fashion with the construction ofa major new development in the area by the German electronics company, Siemens, involving inward investment of £ 1.1 billion and the creation of almost 2000 jobs.

~ ~

Local Authority Boundaries Inner City Partnership/Programme

111111/1,'11 Tyne Wear Development Corporation

'tIP City Challenge Figure 12.1 Tyneside inner-city initiatives

Does this imply that the residents of Meadow Well have benefited, or will benefit, much more from access to new employment opportunities than the residents of Cruddas Park? It must be said that it is too early to judge. However, the experience of the failure of the residents of Cruddas Park to benefit substantially from the new employment in the adjacent Newcastle Business Park clearly provides a warning. Even in terms of physical propinquity and accessibility, there is a distance between Meadow Well and the new jobs. The main development areas ofthe A 19 corridor, including the location of the Siemens plant, are some distance to the north of the residential parts ofthe City Challenge area. Moreover, the grain of existing public transport facilities in the area is predominantly east-west. The new jobs are not, therefore, in a location which is easily accessible, even in purely physical terms, to the low-mobility residents ofMeadow

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Well. A public transport and accessibility strategy to link Meadow Well and similar areas to the main new employment locations has been notably absent from the plans and spending programmes of City Challenge, although this may change with the advent of the Siemens investment. However, physical accessibility is not the only, or even the main, constraint. It is social access, relating to issues such as qualifications, training, work experience, confidence, and a range of other factors which inhibit the people of an area such as Meadow Well or Cruddas Park from taking advantage ofeven the most physically accessible employment opportunities. This is one ofthe key issues which the initial guidelines for City Challenge sought to address, with their reference to the need for specific measures to give residents access to opportunities. It must be admitted, though, that neither ofthe City Challenge programmes could be said to have successfully developed a large-scale, comprehensive strategy of training, education, job placement, etc., to provide these links. Training and related measures have formed a relatively minor element of their spending programmes in comparison with, in particular, housing and economic development. In the case of the Newcastle City Challenge, there has been a wide range of training and education initiatives within the programme, but these are generally small scale. The North Tyneside City Challenge, too, has developed some (mostly capital) schemes, but it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the development of a strategy and programme for training and employment access has been one of the less successful elements of their action programme, in contrast to their success in attracting investment to the area. It can be concluded that neither the TWDC's flagship projects nor the City Challenge training and education programmes has been able to fully deliver the main policy aim ofthe looking out approach, which is to link the people ofCruddas Park and Meadow Well to the economic opportunities which were created immediately adjacent to these areas. Looking in: partnership and empowerment As mentioned earlier, the looking in approach with its focus on partnership and empowerment has been a key theme in recent urban regeneration policies, in City Challenge and in its recent replacement, the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). The latter consolidated a variety ofurban policy funding programmes and put more emphasis on the involvement of the community and the voluntary sector in the formulation and delivery of regeneration programmes. It does seem clear that in relation to the two Tyneside examples, the nexus ofurban policy making processes provided by the combination ofCity

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Challenge and the Community Development Trusts has made a significant difference. In the past, North Tyneside was seen by the Conservative government as a rather radical and confrontational Labour council. City Challenge has been central to an explicit strategy to change this image and approach and to work in partnership with central government, the private sector and the community (Davoudi and Healey 1995). The partnership approach has been very successful. City Challenge itself has, given its quite limited budget in relation to its size, provided a generally well targeted and relatively high impact action programme. Over and above this, though, the partnership approach has had a number of major successes in attracting both private investment and further public funding (from the National Lottery, Single Regeneration Budget, etc.). In Newcastle, too, the infrastructure of partnership within City Challenge has been successfully utilised, especially in a number ofsuccessful bids to the Single Regeneration Budget which is based on competition rather than need (Oatley 1994). In the West End of Newcastle, with a longer, more organised history of community action, it does seem, too, that the element of community representation in these partnership structures has been more evident. The evidence in relation to the empowerment oflocal communities is perhaps more ambiguous. The structures of City Challenge and related initiatives do have a place for community representatives. In addition, the examples of Community Development Trusts discussed in this chapter have both involved very ambitious and exceptional processes of democratic control by local residents over organisations which have, in theory, taken on a wide-ranging responsibility for the regeneration of their area. Major areas of difficulty have, though, been apparent. While these Community Development Trusts have aroused widespread interest and admiration for their innovative nature, they have proved to be quite fragile and problematic as organisations. They have been given a high level of responsibility for a wide range of objectives but with severe limitations in their actual level ofcontrol and resources. They have, moreover, been characterised by a high level of internal conflict. The term community gives scant impression of the tensions between individuals, families and groups within these neighbourhoods. The Director of the Cruddas Park Trust says: 'The word "community" conveys a nice cosy feeling of supportive togetherness, but working in our most marginalised communities can be one of the most vicious, frustrating and destructive of personal experiences as well as one ofthe most rewarding.' The collapse in 1995 of the Meadow Well Community Development Trust in its original form perhaps exemplified some of these potential problems.

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There are also some questions about the extent of empowerment and involvement in decision making by community representatives. In North Tyneside, for example, local community representatives in general, and the Meadow Well CDT in particular, seem to have had little impact on decision making regarding the major programmes of economic development by City Challenge and have not really seriously raised the issue of access to the jobs these create. Both the narrow horizons and inward-looking approach to employment by the community itself and the business-like style of City Challenge seem to have militated against this. The mechanisms of community representation have generally been largely focused on narrow community issues of local facilities involving quite small-scale resources. While effective partnership involving those with a stake in an area is one of the main objectives of City Challenge, in reality the community partners have only been given a mere presence rather than voice. It can, therefore, be concluded that the government's rules and procedures for providing resources and monitoring the City Challenge and SRB programmes have remained deeply technocratic.

Concluding remarks Recent developments in urban regeneration policies, as exemplified in the Tyneside area, do seem to represent a more wide-ranging and integrated approach to regeneration, which relates, to an extent, to the issue of social exclusion in both its material and cultural dimensions. There are elements which look out to address the economic and environmental context of deprived neighbourhoods and elements which look in to address issues of empowerment and citizenship. However, the coexistence of the two dimensions does not necessarily mean that a closely integrated approach has been achieved. The main area ofdoubt which remains is the effectiveness of the links between the excluded neighbourhood and the mainstream in terms of access to employment, on the one hand, and in terms of empowerment beyond the confines of the neighbourhood itself, on the other hand. The examples from the Tyneside area shed serious doubt on the success of various urban policy programmes in providing sustainable economic, social and political links between disadvantaged areas and the mainstream. Both neighbourhoods, Cruddas Park and Meadow Well, still suffer from high levels of unemployment, social marginalisation, environmental degradation and stigmatisation. The most immediate question which comes to mind is: why? To that question, research as yet provides no answer. But a simple observation suggests

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that there is a need for more effective links between those aspects of policy which look out with those which look in.

References Allen, J. (1996) 'Europe of the neighbourhoods: four questions on social exclusion and neighbourhoods.' Paper presented at 'Social Exclusion and the Neighbourhood' Seminar, Newcastle, 19-20 January. Atkinson, R. (1996) 'Housing, spatial segregation and social exclusion.' Paper presented at ENHR Housing Research Conference, Denmark, 26-31 August. Bendick, M. and Egan, M.L. (1993) 'Linking business development and community development in inner cities.' Journal of Planning Literature 8, 1, 3-19. CCRE (1994) Echange dJExperience: Projet N093R6: Rapport de Synthese. Brussels: CEC OeXVI 31/4/94. COP (1977) The Costs ofIndustrial Change: Industry, the State and the Older Urban Areas. London: COP Inter-Project Team. CEC (1992) The Community's Battle against Poverty. Brussels: Commission of European Communi~ European File 4/1992. CEC (1993) Social Exclusion - Poverty and Other Social Problems in the EC Brussels: CEC Background Report, ISEC/B11/93 6/4193. CEC (1994) Solidarity. Issue 1. Brussels: DGV. Chanan, G. (1992) Out ofthe Shadows: Local Community Actio.n and the European Community. Dublin: European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Davoudi, S. (1996) 'City challenge, the three-way partnership.' Planning Practice and Research 10, 3/4, 333-344. Davoudi, S. and Healey, ~ (1995): 'City challenge: sustainable process or temporary gesture?' Environment and Planning C 13, 79-95. DoE (1977) PolicyfOr the Inner Cities. Cmnd 6845, London: HMSO. DoE (1991) City Challenge: Draft Guidance. London: Department of the Environment. Edwards, J. and Batley, R. (1978) The Politics of Positive Discrimination. London: Tavistock. Esping-Anderson, G. (1985) Politics against Market. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Fainstein, S., Gordon, I. and Harloe, M. (1992) Divided Cities: New York and London in the Contemporary World. Oxford: Blackwell. Hall,

~

(1994) Cities of Tomorrow. Oxford: Blackwell.

Healey, ~, Davoudi, S., O'Tool, M., Tavasanoglu, S. and Usher, D. (eds) (1992) Rebuilding the City: Property-led Urban Regeneration. London: Spon. House of Commons (1988) Employment Committee Third Report, The Employment Efficts of Urban Development Corporations. HoC Report 323-1, 1987-88. London: HMSO.

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Imrie, R. and Thomas, H. (eds) (1993) Bn'tish Urban Policy and the Development Corporations. London: Paul Chapman. Mollenkopf, J.H. and Castells, M. (1991) Dual City: Restructuring New York. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Oatley, N. (1994) 'Winners and losers in the regeneration game.' Planning 1068 (13 May). Room, G. (1995) 'Poverty in Europe: competing paradigms of analysis.' Policy and Politics 23, 2, 103-11 3. Scottish Office (1988) New Lift for Urban Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Office.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Social Integration and Exclusion The Response of Swedish Society G6ran Cars and Maud Edgren-Schori

This chapter describes and analyses social exclusion in Sweden, its starting point being a short presentation oftraditional policies and approaches to prevent social exclusion. A case study, with a focus on immigrants, then illustrates social exclusion in the Swedish context. The final section discusses new and emerging approaches and policies to combat social exclusion. Sweden is a highly urbanised countr¥ It has an international reputation for having not only a high GOP but also an even distribution of welfare among the population. Equality has been an important political objective over a long period of time. In this context, Sweden is currently debating whether social exclusion is a new phenomenon or whether Swedes are just paying attention to something that has always been present but not previously recognised. Ifsocial conditions are looked at in retrospect, it is obvious that expressions ofsocial exclusion have always existed, in terms ofeconomically segregated neighbourhoods and marginalised individuals and groups. Excluded groups can be identified throughout the postwar period: the mentally disabled, the homeless and some minority groups have certainly been living outside the mainstream society. In this respect the phenomenon is not new. However, until the 1980s, the concept ofsocial exclusion described the situation of only a small part of the population. Today the situation is different, mainly as a consequence of increased unemployment, changes in public housing policy and cuts in various welfare programmes. A large and rapidly growing proportion of the population is either excluded or in the process of being excluded from daily life in Swedish societ~ In order to analyse why social exclusion is emerging and to define measures to combat it, it is necessary to briefly examine how Swedish society and social policy have developed over the past decades. 253

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The Swedish social welfare model

The Swedish welfare model has been characterised by a broad definition of social policy, which includes housing policy and labour market policy within its ambit. This model is usually defined as an institutional redistributive model. In contrast to most other capitalist welfare states, where family rights are the base for social policy, Sweden has developed a social concept based on the right of the individual (Esping-Anderson 1990). Each individual is given support without making other family members, or members of an extended family, subject to a means test. Means tested benefits have a subordinate role; instead, welfare policies and public services are designed to apply to the entire population. This has resulted in an extensive public sector providing a wide variety of social services, including health care and social insurance benefits. Redistribution becomes a characteristic feature. The general, a11inclusive character ofbenefits is also meant to avoid or minimise the stigmatisation of individuals. The different social programmes have been largely financed by taxes. To create legitimacy, there has been an ambition to involve the entire population in social welfare programmes. Everybody contributes to financing the system and everybody can receive subsidies at different stages in the life cycle. This welfare model has, as its central ambition, an aim to reduce social inequalities and promote social equali~ Labour market policy has also been an important part of social policy in Sweden since the Second War. A re-employment policy, as opposed to an income support policy, has dominated and consequently labour market training has received a lot of attention. The unemployment insurance benefit system is an exception to the universalism and direct public sector provision which generally characterise the Swedish welfare state. Unemployment insurance is administered by the trades unions and financed by government, trades union and employer contributions. If a person has qualified through earlier periods in work, and he or she is included in the scheme (for example, has been a member of the unemployment insurance fund for a period of at least twelve months), then financial support is related to the previous wage. People who do not qualify get substantially less economic support, usually as social welfare payments. The relatively extensive demand for benefits from unemployment insurance has resulted in many immigrants living on welfare support, which provides a much lower level of payments and is more stigmatising than the income-related benefits paid by the social insurance system including unemployment insurance. The closed door to the labour market is the principal obstacle to qualifying within the unemployment insurance programme. Unemployment, especially for those who do not qualify for unemployment

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insurance, often results in the exclusion of individuals and households as it decreases all sorts of choice in daily life. The general principles of housing policy were forged by the Swedish Parliament in a series of decisions taken after the Second War. These policies were meant to provide all households with healthy and spacious homes at affordable costs. Municipalities were given responsibility for implementing programmes to develop local housing supplies in order to ensure sufficient and modern housing for the population. In order to accomplish this task, municipalities were encouraged to create their own local housing associations, set up as non-profit companies. The objective has been to ensure that the entire population, regardless of income and social affiliation, had adequate housing. This means that the public housing stock includes a great variety of dwellings in terms of size and quality and every fifth Swede lives in a dwelling owned by a public housing association. Legal restrictions on immigration have significantly influenced the process of social exclusion. Immigration was not regulated until very recently in Sweden. During the 19605 and 1970s, Sweden imported a large workforce, mainly from Italy, Finland, Greece and former Yugoslavia. In the middle of the 1970s, the trades unions called for a more restricted immigration policy in the face of rising unemployment. Since 1975, immigration to Sweden has consisted mainly of refugees and relatives joining people who have already established their right to asylum in Sweden. The aims of policy towards immigrants since 1975 are expressed in three concepts. Equality means that immigrants should have the same standards and living conditions as Swedes. Freedom of choice refers to the individual's or household's own choice to assimilate or to retain his or her own culture and ethnic background. Cooperation indicates the authority of immigrant organisations to take part in planning for the quality ofHfe at different levels in the process of integration into Swedish society. During the long period of time when there was no legal regulation of immigration, public policy was based on assimilating immigrants into Swedish socie~ This aim was not expressed in active policies, but through an inactivity which presupposed that the best situation for immigrants was to become 'Swedes' as soon as possible. In the 1970s, public policy became based on the concept ofintegration. The aim was to support different ethnic groups in preserving their characteristics while still being incorporated in Swedish society. Integration is still the official goal, but the consequences of changes in social policies, housing policies, values in mainstream socie~ high rates of unemployment, etc., have increased the marginalisation and exclusion of large groups of immigrants. This is particularly visible in ethnically segregated neighbourhoods.

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Something has happened: traditional policies at an impasse As in other West European countries, the economic and social situation changed in the early 1990s. This change was characterised by economic recession, changing values and increasing differences in ways of life among different groups ofthe population. The traditional aims ofwelfare, and especially the role ofthe public sector, were increasingly debated and questioned. Cuts in welfare programmes improved public finances and made tax cuts possible. Improved efficiency in the way traditional public services were delivered could also be observed. However in achieving these objectives, substantial social changes became obvious. The labour market based social insurance programme, for example, presupposed minimal unemployment. With an increasing proportion of the workforce unemployed, this programme could not support all the needs it was intended for. As a consequence, the pressure on other social insurance programmes became very strong. Thus, it become necessary to begin to reconstruct the different programmes (pension, sick pay, parenthood benefit, unemployment benefit, housing benefit etc.). Unemployment rose to levels that, only a few years ago, no one could imagine possible. The number of poor people increased dramatically and the percentage of people dependent on social welfare, housing allowance or other benefits also increased rapidly. Aparallel process ofgrowing social segregation could be noted. The concept of poverty was again introduced into public debate. Sweden today is at a crossroads. Various programmes and previous social policies are facing an impasse. Economic constraints do playa role, but perhaps even more important is the fact that these measures do not meet current social needs efficientl~ It is not possible to identify a consensus on how to reconstruct - or reform - social policy programmes to fit the needs of toda~ However, the mainstream position in the debate clearly seems to favour reconsidering social policies and developing a new social concept for combating social exclusion and promoting social integration. The next section of this chapter looks at the case ofBlakulla (Blue Hill), a suburb located to the northwest of the Stockholm city centre. It provides a starting point for considering how social exclusion can be combated in the Swedish context. Social exclusion in the Swedish context: the case of Blakulla In order to understand social exclusion in the Swedish context we have chosen to briefly present a neighbourhood currently subject to renewal. The purpose is to give an idea of what social and ethnic segregation looks like in

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Sweden. It will also serve as a framework for discussing the processes that can lead to social exclusion and the approaches that can promote integration. On the one hand the neighbourhood ofBHikulla does not represent anything but itself. It is unique and, as with all neighbourhoods, it has a very individual character. On the other hand, many ofthe characteristics ofBlakulla can easily be found in other areas ofa similar nature. Bhlkulla is not one ofthe worst neighbourhoods, but there were many signs ofits deterioration when a regeneration project was introduced in 1991. The current neighbourhood of BHikulIa was constructed in 1970-1971. The area was initially developed at the end ofthe last centur)T. In 1940, it was decided to pull down the 50- or 60-year-old small wooden cottages which were then in very bad condition. Eight fourteen-store~ ice blue prefabricated buildings replaced the small privately owned, hand-made cottages. Very few of the households living in the former ramshackle housing area moved into the new municipally owned flats. Four thousand people live in Blakulla. Its demographic development has led to a very uneven distribution of age groups. 1 Less than 10 per cent of the population is 65 years or older and 25 per cent are younger than 18 years old. Single-parent households, mostly mothers, are very frequent, constituting 42 per cent of all households with children. Twenty-three percent of all households have one child or more. No fewer than 50 countries and nationalities are represented in the neighbourhood. Immigrant workers from Greece, Finland, Italy, Turkey and former Yugoslavia were among the first groups moving into the area. During more recent decades the area has experienced a huge influx of refugees from, for example, Chile, Eritrea and Iran. Today every second person in the neighbourhood has his or her roots in a different culture. Three out offour children in the daycare centre have an immigrant background and 80 per cent of the pupils in the compulsory comprehensive school (grade 1-9) are entitled to parental language training. 2

1 2

All figures are from official statistics (Statistics Sweden) or from the Municipality of 501na. Children are entitled to additional training to master their parental language if: • one of the parents was born in a foreign country • the language is used daily by the family • the language is established with the child

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Regeneration in BlcikuUa In 1991 the Municipality of Solna summarised a picture of the problems in Blakulla as a: • high rate of turnover • high rate of social security allowance • high rate of children's placement in custody • high rate of sick leave and temporary disability pension • high rate of single parents • high rate of unemployment • high rate of immigrants. It was also established that drug abuse, youth criminality, family violence and social exclusion were symptoms of the social problems of the neighbourhood. In addition it was noted that, to some extent, there were tensions between the population ofSwedish origin and immigrants, as well as among the different immigrant groups. These problems formed the base for the regeneration programme in Blakulla. The protocol of decision on the regeneration project in Blcikulla stated that the process must build on the mobilisation and participation of tenants and coordinating the activities of the municipality in the neighbourhood. The protocol also stated that experience from similar regeneration programmes had shown that there could be no long-term progress without the participation of tenants and without coordinated activity. The aim of the regeneration project is to create conditions which would make it possible for people to: • be proud of the neighbourhood • be pleased with the housing environment and the activities of the municipality, housing companies and commercial services in the neighbourhood • feel comfort, care, security and participation in housing • have a dialogue with the stafT on the aims and use of common resources • influence and take the responsibility for issues concerning the environment in the neighbourhood • participate in the process of regeneration.

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The user perspective of the project was clearly framed as follows: The goals are certainly important, but in a process of regeneration the journey to reach the goal is equally important. It is when people meet that they construct and become absorbed in their commitment to the neighbourhood where they live or work. (BHikullafordraget 1991) The project started in 1991 and the process so far can be divided into four phases: • inventory of problems and resources (1991-1992) • ideas (1993) • implementation (1994-1995) • new approaches for collaboration (1996). The discussion below concentrates on the fourth phase, which focuses on social networks, education, health and the labour market. Although tenant participation has been a central element in all discussions of the project, so far few tenants are actively involved in the process and the immigrant population is involved even less. Studies done in the neighbourhood show that people largely feel powerless (Edgren-Schori 1996b). Their expectation of really being able to influence important spheres of their life is very lo~ Many people are, thus, sceptical about participating in decision making and they need time and new forms of exercising power. Blakulla was built during a period when an unemployment rate of two to four per cent was characterised as full employment. The neighbourhood was therefore constructed for people spending at least one-third of the day out of Blakulla. In other words, Blakulla was not designed for people spending twenty-four hours a day there, as many people do today. Its physical structure has many deficiencies and the environment in general creates obstacles to forming a good life in the neighbourhood. It is, thus, important to carry through physical changes in the area in order to break the high rate of turnover and to create the preconditions for improving the quality ofHfe and local welfare. The housing company has been particularly active in making these changes. Efforts have been made to make it possible for people to create new networks by reshaping part of the buildings, resulting in new and better located laundries, a common entrance and a common space, and a residents' centre for organisations and tenants to use. With financial support from the government, there is now a focus on developing new methods to increase the possibilities for unemployed immigrant tenants to get jobs and to increase knowledge of the Swedish language for both children and adults. The residents' centre is intended for tenant services and as an arena for participation.

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Households, organisations, child care services, old age care and health care coexist in the premises of the centre. Together with an international project for women, located in the centre in the same place as an open preschool, the whole concept is aimed at strengthening social networks. Offering arenas, natural meeting places, where people can meet their own needs and wishes is supposed to increase knowledge and respect for various cultures and life styles. In Sweden the expression 'incapacity rate' is used as a measure of people's health condition. It is based on the number ofdays ofsickness allowance per year. In order to decrease the incapacity rate of the people in Blcikulla, the social insurance office, the district health care centre and the employment service have begun to coordinate their activities. In cooperation they will identify the basic foundation of the incapacity. With this knowledge, they are supposed to unconditionally, with no reference to pre-existing ideas and working methods, propose supportive strategies for promoting health and removing obstacles to employment. One strategy discussed in the project is to apply for permission to combine all the individual's financial and other resources from the three authorities in order to give the individual an optimal service corresponding to his or her needs. Professional confidentiality has been an obstacle to close cooperation between independent agencies in dealing with individuals. The high rate ofunemployment among residents in BHikulla will certainly also attract attention within the project. There is, for example, a need for premises in the neighbourhood as some unemployed people want to continue the trades they used to practise previously in their native countries. There is also a need to fully understand the education and training needs of the unemployed. A survey to obtain such information is in progress. The regeneration of Blcikulla is still in progress and it is too early to evaluate its achievements. However, two aspects of the experience can be discussed. The first is the participation of residents and the second concerns the way the problems in the neighbourhood were framed. So far, very few residents in Blcikulla have actively participated in the regeneration programme and participation from the immigrant population has been very minimal. The people responsible for the project argue that opportunities have been offered to influence the development of the neighbourhood, both the physical environment and the quality and quantity of activities. A conclusion that can be drawn is that the forums for decision making do not attract people, probably due to a lack of power. Another conclusion that can be drawn about the participation of immigrant residents is that the forums for decision making are 'too Swedish'. In other words, decision making is a question of culture and the present shape of decision making fo-

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rums is ethnocentric, focusing on 'the Swedish way'. This institutional and cultural obstacle for combating one aspect of social exclusion has to be removed. The authorities need to act as facilitators, giving residents the opportunity to construct their own means of decision making. The second aspect of the experience of the regeneration project is fundamental and concerns the question ofhow the picture ofthe problem was constructed. Many of the so-called problems in Blakulla are structural and can also be found in other neighbourhoods. In spite of this knowledge, the picture of the problem was constructed mainly on the basis of observations of the characteristics of individuals. Unemployment and cuts in welfare programmes can explain many of the signs of social exclusion in Blakulla. The politicians in the local government chose to describe the conditions of the neighbourhood by defining individuals and groups of individuals as lone parents, people on welfare, drug addicts, immigrants, etc. Deficiencies in the structures of the wider society, however, result in difficulties for individuals. Structural deficiencies must be resolved on a macro level by the central government, whereas individual difficulties are handled by the local society.

A theoretical starting point for analysis

A starting point for analysing social exclusion in Sweden can be taken from Castells (1992), who distinguishes three zones oforganisation and social cohesion: a zone ofintegration, a zone ofvulnerability and a zone of exclusion. In the zone of integration people are comfortable and participate in societal activities at different levels and in a variety ofways. The zone ofvulnerability is characterised by precariousness of employment and fragility of relational supports. The third zone is that of exclusion or extreme marginality: Looking into the categorisation, one can observe that the second zone, the zone of vulnerability, is the strategic region for people where conditions can result in social ties being broken. Many of the residents of Blakulla are already in the zone of exclusion. They lack access to many ofthe components ofthe quality oflife which characterises the zone of integration. The majority of residents are in the zone of vulnerability. Looked at in this way, the overarching aim of the regeneration project can be seen as one of making it possible for people to stay in the zone of integration, or to enter it and remain there. Many of the measures implemented so far are slowly making it possible for people to enter the zone ofintegration, but it is not yet clear whether these measures are sufficient for everybody and whether the changes will be permanent. CastelIs' three zones of organisation and social cohesion can also be used to characterise the broad aims of social policy in Sweden. This policy has

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aimed to offer every individual a space in the zone of integration. In spite of this aim, people have in reality been found in the zone ofvulnerability. Only recently has there been a defined population in the zone ofexclusion, largely as a consequence of rising unemployment. Furthermore, combating exclusion requires analysis and action at different geographic levels. While the problems are, to a large extent, regional and national in origin, solutions must be based on local conditions and local participation, working through local welfare policies. Effective strategies rest on coordinating the activities of a variety of actors: national government, local housing companies, municipalities and, not least, people living in the neighbourhoods. Sweden is in the process ofremodelling its social programmes. Difficulties in financing and structural deficiencies in the programmes, the high rate of unemployment and changing values among Swedes are the main reasons for this remodelling. Traditionally, social policy in Sweden has been able to create a rather integrated society, at least in a European perspective. This integrating drive within social policy has been described as one of creating 'harmonic relations between people and groups of people and opposing social tensions, antagonisms, conflicts and confrontations' (Olsson 1992). However, the pattern of social integration is changing rapidly. In a short period oftime, housing districts that once had a mixed population have become segregated. The changes have been most drastic in the least attractive areas. Some neighbourhoods are facing a reality where ethnic minority groups are dominant and where unemployment and poverty are distinctive features. Exclusion is becoming a reality for substantial segments of the population. Combating social exclusion There is a common recognition that a return to the welfare policies characterising the 1970s and 1980s is not possible. Economic constraints and charges of inefficiency are two powerful reasons. But perhaps more important is the general agreement that the policies which met the problems of yesterday are not adequate for addressing the social problems of toda~ This conclusion becomes evident when the results from Blakulla are summed up. The need to develop new methods and approaches is becoming obvious. In this debate, four areas have been identified as being of fundamental importance in order to combat social exclusion and promote integration: social policy, housing policy, labour market policy and immigration policy. It is also necessary to note that combating social exclusion demands action on the macro as well as on the micro level. The responsibility of the municipal authorities on the 10cal level often demands the support ofgovernmental decisions and activities.

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Social policy and public services Swedish comprehensive social policy has a high legitimacy among Swedes. Studies show that confidence in the all-inclusive programmes is generally very high. There is less confidence in social programmes ofa selective character (Svallfors 199 5). For both kinds of programmes there is a commonly accepted view that a reorganisation of the programmes and services offered is necessary, both in order to improve efficiency and in order to meet the most urgent needs of people in excluded neighbourhoods. This reorganisation is a necessary part in a strategy for combating social exclusion. It is now recognised that the problems leading to social exclusion cannot be solved by efforts and measures taken by single actors, Le. the housing companies, social authorities or the police, in an uncoordinated manner. It is also recognised that the national policy in the field of welfare, including social policy, is of decisive importance for local authorities in handling social problems. Local authorities without support from national social policy will only act as 'cleaners', focusing on the symptoms rather than on the roots of problem. The conditions that people consider the most urgent to improve in their neighbourhood must often be handled in a coordinated manner in order to achieve substantial change. This need has been recognised for a long time. However, collaboration has often been no more than ambitious declarations lacking substance. A key problem is that attempts to initiate collaboration have been based on existing structures, organisations and professional roles. More often than not, this has proved to be unsuccessful. Different actors have had different goals and organisational structures, which have created obstacles for effective collaboration. Endless meetings and proud declarations have led to rather modest improvements in the living conditions for people affected. Real tenant participation has been the exception, rather than the rule. Toda~ recognising the necessity of collaboration is linked with the perception that the forums used before are not adequate. A new pattern for collaboration is developing, with two distinct features. First, it is recognised that collaboration cannot be based upon the existing structures and working methods ofthe various actors. The base for collaboration must lie in the needs

and aspirations ofthe people living in a neighbourhood. This means that priorities and working methods must be adjusted to an understanding of how people view their everyday life and what they value in terms of the quality of life. In consequence, the focus has changed from an organisationally based perspective to a perspective in which individuals are the focus for action. Based on knowledge about everyday life for people in a specific neighbourhood, the setting ofgoals is done in a coordinated way for all actors involved.

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The second new feature in the management of services is that agencies have often decentralised their structures. The idea is that staff should work close to the people. They should be visible in the neighbourhood, and work should be organised in such a way that the management of the neighbourhood is carried out in communication with the residents ofthe area. The concept of information is being replaced with a concept of communication. Management and plans for improving the neighbourhood should be continuously communicated with the residents. As a result, collaboration among various authorities and housing companies has taken new forms. Top-down collaboration, characterised by decision making at the top of the organisations, has been replaced by collaboration on a field level, organised by staff who have direct contact with the residents of the neighbourhood, Le. teachers, social workers, police and caretakers and managers from the housing companies. One very obvious consequence of this change is that a clear philosophy and strict rules for the management and provision ofservices have been established. Problems related to security and the daily maintenance of the neighbourhood are often mentioned by people in these neighbourhoods as vital to solve. In many ofthe areas people feel insecure: thefts and violence constitute a major problem for many inhabitants. In parallel, litter, vandalism and abnormal wear and tear are a major reason for feeling dissatisfied with the living environment. In many areas, these problems have led to a reformulation of what inhabitants perceive as right and wrong. The code for behaviour is very different from that ofmainstream societ~ For children who grow up on a rundown estate characterised by litter, graffiti, vandalism and crime, the border between right and wrong becomes blurred. This is one major explanation why antisocial and criminal behaviour in these neighbourhoods has often increased despite ambitious measures by various actors to reduce it. Case studies have shown that the areas fall into a vicious spiral of moral decline (Alfredsson and Cars 1997). Recently new approaches to break this vicious spiral have been successfully developed. These approaches have two common features. The first is that rules for behaviour have been clearly formulated. It is made obvious to everyone what is, and what is not, behaviour that can be accepted. The second feature is a strict follow-up on these rules. The basic idea is that society can never get people to understand and accept rules if their neighbourhood does not meet the qualities that the rules stipulate. For example, people will never stop dropping litter if they live in a filthy and littered neighbourhood, or there will never be an end to graffiti if graffiti can be found in the area. The response from society must be twofold. The responsible authorities must give priority to keeping the environment clean and safe and, at the same time, priority also must be given to approaching or appre-

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hending people in the neighbourhood who are breaking the rules. Throwing paper on the ground is an offence and the offender must be made aware of this and ofthe fact that this behaviour is not accepted in the neighbourhood. The results of this new approach are positive. The clear signal - this is a clean and safe neighbourhood - is understood and appreciated by the inhabitants. The strict follow-up strengthens the impact. Crime and other thefts have dropped significantly and in many areas litter and vandalism have been reduced to marginal or non-existent problems.

Housing policy During the last decade a substantial proportion of investment in the housing sector has been allocated to renewal of declining neighbourhoods. A considerable number of neighbourhoods have been subject to technical improvements, or even turn-around, but there have also been many renewal projects based on the participation oftenants and focusing on the social environment. Looking at Swedish postwar housing policy in retrospect raises questions about efficiency. This is especially true if issues relating to social integration are addressed. Despite ambitious efforts to improve conditions in distressed neighbourhoods, the results have not been very impressive. As Andersson and Molina (1996, p.1 55) put it: 'Socialisation for exclusion is a tragic reality to many children of the rising generation, and spatial segregation is a part of this process.' In ethnically segregated neighbourhoods, daycare centres and schools are often of much lower quality than in other neighbourhoods. They are dominated by minority language groups. Many of the teachers are not graduates, and this lack of competence is more frequent in exposed neighbourhoods. The poor quality of teaching contributes to a lack ofopportunity to learn the Swedish language which, in turn, also contributes to social exclusion. To a large extent, resources to upgrade neighbourhoods have been directed towards physical improvements in the neighbourhoods. Layouts of dwellings have been altered and the standards of flats have been improved. Other physical improvements have dealt with the scale and monotony of design by redesigning the exteriors of buildings. The cost of changing the physical aspects of housing estates, however, has been high. It is not unusual for up to 90 per cent of the total renewal investment to be allocated to physical measures (Carlen and Cars 1990). Yet, these measures have not met the most urgent needs of the residents in the affected areas and have also often had an unwanted impact on adjacent areas (Carlen and Cars 1991; Jensfelt 1991).

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Swedish and international studies confirm the importance ofsocial mobilisation and participation by people living in the area. Without such participation, physical upgrading and other improvements in a stressed neighbourhood most often do not lead to substantial upgrading and sustainable results (Viden and Lundahl 1992) However, the traditional forums for organising tenant participation in planning and maintaining neighbourhoods are not always brought in line with the present social conditions in the neighbourhoods. The many ethnic groups represented in a neighbourhood have cultural backgrounds which are different from the mainstream culture in Sweden. To many of the immigrants, the established organisations for participation are hard to grasp and, thus, do not promote their participation in neighbourhood activities. The Swedish model, built on democratic representation, is not familiar to all members ofa neighbourhood, resulting in the exclusion of ethnic minority tenants from forums for planning and decision making. The problems of mobilisation and participation have come into focus recently in discussion of the need for developing new strategies and neighbourhoods, with particular emphasis on large immigrant populations. In Sweden, as well as in many other European countries, today's housing regeneration needs diverge significantly from those of the past. In many areas, drug abuse is seen as a basic problem. It is a cause as well as a symptom of deterioration. The spread ofdrug abuse in a neighbourhood may be a sign of its weakened attractiveness. At the same time, drug abuse can cause and accelerate crime and social disturbances. As the neighbourhood becomes less safe and secure, those who are socially and economically better off move away from the area. They are largely replaced by people with fewer resources. The number of poor people and people with social problems increases. The area is caught in a vicious spiral of decline (Alterman and Cars 1991). Promoting change in deteriorating areas is a social issue. Today, it is commonly recognised in Sweden that physical upgrading does not solve the problems that these areas are facing and that regeneration must include social improvements. It is also clear that language training and high quality schools are measures that, in a long-term perspective, are necessary to improve the quality ofHfe for the people living in these neighbourhoods as well as for improving the reputation of the areas. The aim of Swedish public housing policy could be characterised by the ambition to provide all households with healthy and spacious buildings at affordable costs. A further goal is that neighbourhoods and housing should be planned for a balanced combination of households. The background for this anti-segregation goal is the negative experience associated with the industrial large-scale production of housing in the 1960s and early 1970s. Thus, the aims of equality and integration have characterised Swedish housing policy

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for some time. However, in spite of the public goals in various policy spheres, as well as ambitious management and the driving force of tenants in many neighbourhoods, the processes of segregation and exclusion have become more intense. An approach that has gained substantial interest and success relates to the role ofthe tenants. Previously, much ofthe services and maintenance in housing areas were provided by the housing associations to the tenants. The tenants were regarded as objects, receivers of services, and considered as guests in the flats. Today, there is a shift in attitude and approach. Increasingly, tenants are being considered as acting subjects, that is, as demanding customers with the right to participate in planning and maintenance. As a consequence of this shift in attitudes, tenants have also gained an obligation to take more responsibility. Thus, in many housing districts tenants are encouraged to take an active part, in various ways, in the maintenance and upkeep of their area. This has at least two positive implications. First, it has been possible to reduce rents as work that was previously carried out by the housing company is now done by tenants. Second, this change has proved to be an interesting measure for fighting exclusion on the neighbourhood level. By actively participating in self-maintenance, many tenants have established and developed social contacts without which they would be excluded from much of the social life in the society surrounding them (Cars 1995). Nevertheless, this type of participation is still more frequent among the population with a Swedish background than among the ethnic minority population, and it is important to continue to seek ways to increase the participation ofdifferent immigrant groups. In the proposal for a new housing policy presented by a governmental committee in 1996, much attention was paid to the concept of segregation and how to combat housing segregation in order to avoid social exclusion (SOU 1996: 156). There was a strong emphasis on coordination and local democracy. All efforts to create better living conditions must be built on coordinating the resources of all the different authorities in the neighbourhood, in the first place, and on the participation of the residents, in the second place. The committee also expressed a strong wish to increase responsibility at the municipality level and proposed long-term financial aid from the government for programmes to develop exposed neighbourhoods. These programmes would have very broad aims. Major components of the proposed programmes include: participation and influence for the residents and for employees of different organisations in the neighbourhood, cooperation, measures for increased employment, special measures for certain groups of people (women immigrants, elderly and handicapped people, long-term unemployed, youth, lone parents, etc.), and basic school education. Developing

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a broad gender perspective, evaluation and follow-up activities are also proposed. At present, there is government financial support for eight specially selected municipalities which contain housing areas with high proportions of immigrants. This support, together with the committee's proposals, presents a picture of governmental engagement. The municipalities are being encouraged to be creative in finding new methods to combat the problems and the government is willing to continue as a financial partner. Labour market policy

The rules governing unemployment benefit are, somehow, paradoxical: the person in question is not allowed to workl This rule also applies to people on temporary disability pension, disability pension, etc. and creates serious obstacles for unemployed people in getting a job. The rule has attracted severe criticism and demands for change, and there are now many projects based on the assumption that unemployment support can be combined with a job. This is a shift in attitude which implies that working can also be regarded as training or education and as an introduction to the labour market. An increasing number of people need this support in order to ever achieve self-sufficiency in the labour market. Sweden} the Future and the Multiplicity is the title of the final report to the Swedish government from the committee on immigration policy (Sver(ge Framtiden oeh Mangfalden, SOU 1996: 55). The committee concludes that a lot ofskilled individuals who are immigrants to Sweden are in long-term unemployment and have not even been given the opportunity to enter the labour market. This is especially true for the refugees who have come to Sweden during the last decade. The main obstacles are poor information and discrimination by employers, and sometimes lack of command of the Swedish language. The long period of welfare dependency while waiting for asylum and permanent residence permits also creates disincentives for self-support (Broome et ale 1996). A comprehensive approach is certainly the most effective way to promote development ofthe labour market and employment, but selective changes are also necessary within this area. Changes in some of the labour market rules, salary subsidies, subsidies to services in private households and loans or other support to immigrants who want to establish an enterprise are some of the suggestions from the governmental committee on immigration poli~ To combat the high rate ofunemployment in general it is important to understand the underlying reasons for the increasing figures. In March 1996, Sweden had an open unemployment rate 3 of8 per cent, an increase of0.7 per J

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cent in one year. Altogether in March 1996, 13.1 percent of the work force was without a job, which included people involved in various labour market activities, such as labour-oriented education, trainees, etc. High unemployment means increasing competition for the few jobs on offer. In these circumstances, individual ability, good qualifications and experience are decisive weapons in the competition. However, some people need to be supported to qualify, to 'sharpen their weapons'. Immigrants frequently fall into this latter group, having lost their capacity to compete as part of the process of migration. Thus, it is also important to focus on immigrants when combating the forms of social exclusion which arise from unemployment. For immigrants, the importance of work cannot be overestimated when it comes to making social contacts, using the Swedish language, learning about social norms and cracking the codes of everyday life. Arai and Schroder (1996) have indicated two reasons why immigrants are systematically excluded from the labour market: first, differences in productivity between recent immigrants and the rest of the work force and, second, a loss of skills connected with migration. They conclude that special measures are necessary for the immigrant workforce, based on the aims of equality within the immigration policy itselfand on reducing inefficiencies in the allocation of the labour force. The optimal situation is open access to the labour market to immigrants without creating inefficiencies in the allocation oflabour. An example illustrating this would be to ensure access to employment interviews for immigrants. In addition, specific educational measures for immigrants, especially for those who are newly arrived, are also necessar~ These approaches may need to combine language training and vocational training to compensate for the loss of skills caused by migration. The high rate of unemployment for women is, to a large extent, the result ofa dramatic cut in public sector social and health services. The cuts have also resulted in strong criticism of these sectors as no longer producing satisfactory services. Thus, the public sector must be given the opportuninr to grow again, but in a more efficiently organised fashion. This is especially important if social exclusion is not to become a gender issue. Combating social exclusion is the most important factor in decreasing the high rate of unemployment. In order to be successful in this urgent task the 3

Open unemployment includes the unemployed who lack other occupation and are, therefore, able to accept a job offer at any time. Consequently those who are unemployed but subject to labour market policy action, such as training programmes, are not included.

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public authorities and the private sector must cooperate. Coordination of activities on regional and local levels is very important. Strict rules of professional confidentiality have, so far, been an important obstacle to coordination among social services, social insurance offices, the employment service, and health care services. However, there are some experimental projects where these barriers have been overcome (Blakulla is one ofthe examples) and some have now been evaluated. These projects focus on coordination in order to optimise the services to the unemployed individual and are based on the belief that general measures and rules do not match everyone's needs. More generally, organisations stick to their own rules and regulations, treating everyone in a similar situation in the same way, as if the clients were a homogenous group of individuals. The insight that clients may be a heterogeneous group of individuals, with various needs and wishes, has created a new attitude to cooperation and a demand for new strategies. Within these experimental projects, the various local agencies gather the resources available for the individual into the same pot. An individualised investigation, carried out by a representative from one of the agencies, focuses on the background to unemployment: social problems, insufficient education, health problems, missing child care, insufficient knowledge of the Swedish language, etc. When the picture of the problem is created together with the client, the resources can be used more efficiently by concentrating on the obstacles to employment. In practice, this means that someone who has been on sick leave for a period of time may be able to continue receiving social insurance benefits while testing out a particular job. Close contact and medical support is intended to speed up the rehabilitation. Another example is when an unemployed client needs to have an introduction to the labour market. He or she may not have worked long enough to receive benefit from unemployment insurance and is, thus, entitled to social welfare benefits. To facilitate getting work experience, it can be possible to keep on receiving social welfare benefits while practising in a work place. Cooperation among local agencies makes the client's experience easier in many ways. Earlier the client may have had contacts with many administrative officials, none of whom had a complete picture of the individual and his or her family. The client also could experience incompatible claims on him or her from the different agencies. With only one administrative official responsible for the client, these obstacles can be avoided. To the local agencies, cooperation means resources can be used more efficiently and directed to more long-lasting achievements. It does, however, also require a different way oforganising services as well as changing professional roles. The latter has, in some cases, turned out to be the difficult part of the projects. Cooperation also implies a more economical use of resources,

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not least because of increased efficienc}l. In some cases, cooperation has enhanced the resources available by diminishing the misuse of benefits. Many projects aimed at making it possible for people to join the labour market are founded on the principle of preventing individuals from becoming passively dependent on benefits. Education, training and other activities are important ways of fighting dependence and resignation. As mentioned before, there has been a dramatic decrease in the public sector workforce. Although the government has decided to support part of the public sector to stop further decreases in this sector, very few believe that there will be increased job opportunities in the public sector. To meet the demands from a growing part ofthe unemployed, not least the immigrants, support of a different character is directed to those who want to run their own businesses. Regional projects have been established to give financial support as well as advice and education. Projects aimed at combating unemployment and preparing unemployed people for the labour market are largely concentrated on young people and immigrants. In Rinkeby, a suburb ofStockholm, for example, a project called 'Wake Up' trains young people in IT, making films, theatre, learning to drive, etc. All activities are carried out in normal working hours to help young people get accustomed to an ordinary working life. In Rinkeby, there is also a 'house of enterprise' for immigrants who have decided to run their own businesses. They have access to certain equipment free of charge, as well as the shared services of a receptionist. The idea is to make it possible for immigrants to create solid enterprises with the potential to grow and employ more people. For a small group of clients, cooperation, no matter how efficiently it is carried out, does not result in integration into the labour market or even rehabilitation to become a prospective employee. This fact, together with the large proportion ofthe workforce which is unemployed, has sparked offa debate in Sweden based upon the charged question: can inactivity be regarded as a legitimate alternative to regular employment? In our view this is mainly a question about financing unemployed people. Our aim is not to answer this question and judge whether Sweden can afford to support these people or not. Rather, we consider employment as a social part of the everyday life and regard unemployment as a severe risk for social exclusion. Work is not only a way ofselfsupport. It is also participating in production, an activity which requires interaction with other people. The longer people are excluded from the process, the more negatively it affects all dimensions of their lives. These effects are still worse for those people who have not even had the opportunity to enter the labour market, mainly young people and immigrants. The possibility of establishing wider social contacts is very limited for these people.

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Immigration policy Immigrants as a group are in general more stigmatised in the exposed neighbourhoods than people with a Swedish background. They are more often unemployed and their dependency on welfare gives them fewer opportunities to choose. The starting point for immigrants in general is lower than that of the Swedish majority. The rate ofunemployment is two to three times higher for immigrants and their share is increasing. The unemployment rate for immigrants from outside the Nordic countries was 30 per cent in 1995 (SeB 1995). Ninety per cent ofimmigrants with an African background are unemployed (Broome et ale 1996). Immigrants often have no choice over which residential area they live in (Ehn 1993; Biterman 1993). Being stigmatised and segregated, from an objective point of vie~ does not necessarily mean being socially excluded in all contexts. However, it frequently does mean exclusion from the democratic processes which surround participation in planning and ~anaging neighbourhoods. Exclusion in this respect is sometimes caused by insufficient knowledge of the Swedish language. But more often it is a structural exclusion founded on the ways in which the traditional arenas oftenants' power constitute the democratic process. The most common forms of tenants' participation are based on ideas about representative democracy and presuppose a homogenous population with relatively homogeneous needs and values. In the exposed neighbourhoods, the population is very heterogeneous and culturally pluralistic and many of the tenants have no experience in the traditions of representative democratic organisations. They often lack the experience before coming to Sweden and they have not gained the experience after arriving in Sweden as they do not have access to the organisations in which they could get this experience. Many immigrants also lack experience and confidence in filling in forms and questionnaires from the housing company (or researchers). Thus, an important part of the population is missing in studies aiming to find out about tenants' needs and wishes. Creating the conditions for participation by all tenants is an important and necessary task in combating exclusion. An overarching aim ofthe immigration policy ofall members ofthe European Union is to minimise migration into the Union and thus to take action on migration pressure and controlling migration flows (COM/94/23). Parallel to these actions each member state should have the aim ofstrengthening integration policies for the benefit of legal immigrants. This is the starting point for national immigration policies. In 1996, the Swedish Parliament formulated new aims for immigration policy (SOU 1996:55). These new aims imply a universal welfare policy which assumes and mirrors the multicultural composition of the society, in turn reflecting political recognition ofa culturally heterogeneous society and

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the desire to create conditions within which integration can take place. The idea is to publicly recognise that Swedish society consists of people from different cultures. This diverse population must coexist and if anyone needs assistance, he or she will receive it on the basis of need whatever their cultural background. Implementation of this policy is based on two specific measures: programmes of introduction and individual plans of action. People newly arrived in Sweden will have a period of five years in which to develop the preconditions for self support and participation. The period of five years coincides with the time of qualification for Swedish citizenship. The programmes of introduction have two important aims: first, to develop knowledge of the Swedish language and, second, to offer possibilities to meet with Swedish society in various arenas. The programme must, from the start, be aimed at generating self support. A governmental authority oversees the programmes which, together with the individual plans ofaction, are carried out by the municipal authorities. Immigrants, together with lone parents, elderly people, handicapped people, drug addicts, etc., are often designated as exposed social' groups. This way of categorising immigrants treats their non-Swedish cultural background as if it were a generally recognised social need and has a negative impact on attitudes towards immigrants. If the new immigration policy can reduce these negative impacts, it may also lead to more positive outcomes for immigrants. Once it is commonly accepted that immigrants may also be lone parents, elderly, handicapped, etc., then it may be possible to develop, throughout social policy and social work, more culturally conscious attitudes which address these other problems. To summarise, immigration policy has an important impact on processes of social exclusion. In the long run, its most important impact, however, may be on attitudes towards immigrants and in providing a basis for the development of a multicultural consciousness in Sweden.

Conclusions In Sweden there has been a tendency to adopt a top-down perspective on exposed neighbourhoods. Experts have formed the picture of the problem and designed models, strategies and measures based on this picture. Problems have been framed in relation to ideas ofnormality and norms set by outsiders. Measures have been implemented to solve these problems and return conditions in the neighbourhood back to a pre-existing idea of 'order'. Our thesis is that it is of the utmost importance to abandon 'thinking of solutions' and replace it by creating 'thinking about processes' based on con-

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tinuous dialogue with the residents of a neighbourhood. Flexible and multiple approaches are demanded, together with listening sensitively and respectfully to residents of the neighbourhood (Oresjo 1996). The task is to encourage processes that can contribute to improvement of the neighbourhood and to social integration, turning around the processes that lead to exclusion. With an increased share of the population with varied cultural backgrounds, flexibility and new visions ofhousing are crucial in order to offer all residents good quality of life. In combating social exclusion, a number of actors on different levels and in various sectors ofsociety play key roles. A successful strategy to achieve integration presupposes action based on knowledge about the residents' assessments of everyday life. Furthermore, local authorities, organisations and other parties must act in a coordinated manner. Goals and strategies for improvement must be accepted by residents as well as other involved actors. It is crucially important that these goals clearly state rules for behaviour and the qualities that should be provided in the area. Based on this foundation, strategies and measures for achieving integration must include action within a number ofsectors. Ofspecial importance is the reorganisation ofpublic and other services in the neighbourhood. Studies show that there is a discrepancy between the preferences ofthe residents and what is actually offered in terms of services. Organisational friction and administrative resistance to change, as well as inadequate knowledge about residents' needs and aspirations, explain these discrepancies. Furthermore, it is important that services are provided close to those affected. The experiences from recent successful projects show that decentralisation of staff and responsibility for various activities can contribute to increased efficienc~ Priorities are better matched to the most urgent needs of residents and service delivery improves if there are channels for continuous feedback by the consumers of a specific service. Also, the Swedish experience shows that this close relation between providers and consumers of services can result in the creation of additional value and higher qualit~ Empowerment of residents may also lead to new and active roles for residents. From having been passive consumers of publicly offered services, residents in some cases have turned into active producers of services. In managing houses, green areas and services, the active participation of residents has contributed to new services and improved the quality of existing services and management. Employment is also an area of vital importance in a strategy for integration. Structural change in the early 1990s meant that Sweden left a state of full employment and unemployment is now very nearly at the average level for the European Union. This calls for new approaches to combat unemployment. In this area, also, there is a need for coordination among various actors,

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the employment offices, the social welfare departments of municipalities and education authorities. The structure ofunemployment is much more complex today compared with the situation ten years ago, so that successful strategies also require coordinated action with education and training, social programmes and other activities which can facilitate the individual's ability to enter the labour market.

References Alfredsson, B. and Cars, G. (1997) Omvarderin~ Omvandling, Omvarld. Stockholm: SABa. Alterman, R. and Cars, G. (1991) Neighbourhood Regeneration - An International Evaluation. London: Mansell. Andersson, R. and Molina (1996) I Sverige, Framtiden oeh Mantftlden (1996) SOU 1996:55. Stockholm: Fritzes. Arai, M. and Schroder, L. (1996) In SOU 1996:55. Stockholm: Fritzes. Biterman, D. (1993) Sa har bor vi. Om invandrares liv oeh boende. Stockholm: BFR. Broome, P., Backlund, A-C, Lund, C. and Ohlsson, R. (1996) Varfor sitter 'brassen' pa banken? Eller Varfor har invandrarna sa svart attfl jobb? Kristianstad: SNS Forlag. Carlen, G. and Cars, G. (1990) Fornyelse av storskaliga bostadsomrCEden. Stockholm: BFR. Carlen, G. and Cars, G. (1991) 'Renewal of large scale post-war housing estates in Sweden.' In R. Alterman and G. Cars (eds) Neighbourhood Regeneration -An international Evaluation. London: Mansell. Cars, G. (1995) 'Metropolitan planning: the ease o/Sweden.' Stockholm: The Royal Institute of Technology. UnpUblished working paper. Castells (1992) In del Castillo, Y. (ed) (1994) 'A comparative approach to social exclusion: Lessons from France and Belgium.' International Labour Review 133, 5-6, 613-633. COM/94/23: Brussels: European Union. Edgren-Schori, M. (1996a) 'Rapport om ett stadsfornyelsearbete i bostadsomdidet Blakulla' (unpublished). Edgren-Schori, M. (1996b) 'Omradesstyrelse - en organisation for okat boendeinflytande for alia' (unpublished). Ehn, S. (ed) (1993) Sa har bor vi. Om invandrares liv oeh boende. Stockholm: BFR. Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of welfare Capitalism. Oxford: Polity. Jensfelt, C. (1991) Forbattring av bostadsomraden. Stockholm: BFR/R 64. Olsson H.S.E. (1992) Segregation - ett svenskt dilemma? Bilaga 9 till LU92. Stockholm: Finansdepartementet. Oresjo, E. (1 996) Att vanda utveeklingen. Kommenterad genomgang av aktuellforskning om segregation i boendet. Stockholm: SABO-utveckling. SCB (Central Bureau of Statistics) (1995) Sweden in Figures 1995. Stockholm: SCB

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SOU (1996:55) Sverige,framtiden oeb manda/den (1996) Stockholm: Fritzes. SOU (1996) Bostadspolitik 2000-fren produktion - till boendepolitik. Stockholm: Fritzes. Svallfors, S. (1995) Valfardsstaten i pressen. Umea universitet. Viden, S. and Lundahl, G. (ed) (1992) Bevara - F6rnya - F6rbiittra. Stockholm: BFR.

PART 4

Conclusions

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Social Exclusion in European Cities G6ran

Car~

Ali Madanipour andJudith Allen

The idea of social exclusion has only recently arrived, though it is now widely used. Consequently, the term is often used interchangeably with other words, as a synonym for social segregation, marginalisation or pover~ Such a broad and careless use of the concept risks diluting and transforming the idea ofsocial exclusion into a term which can characterise any unwanted social situation. Thus, the major aim of this book has been to clarify how processes of social exclusion affect groups of people living in specific neighbourhoods. Such spatial groupings of disadvantaged people may best be described as 'pockets of poverty' or 'pockets of disadvantage', and the book explores how processes ofsocial exclusion lead to the situation of people living in such neighbourhoods, whether they are described as impoverished, disadvantaged or deprived and whether they are found in the decaying inner city areas or isolated peripheral areas of European cities. The main approach throughout the book has been to concentrate on people living in their immediate socio-spatial world. Statistical data about individuals or households may help to identify these neighbourhoods, but it does not provide a sufficient basis for fully appreciating the social processes which have created and maintain these neighbourhoods. Nor does statistical data provide an adequate basis for understanding what these processes mean to people caught within them. Thus, this book contributes to understanding the meaning of social exclusion by concentrating on the everyday lives of people living in specific places and how the processes ofsocial exclusion inhibit human flourishing, in whatever form this may take.

Social exclusion: process and situation Social exclusion cannot readily be explained by simple indicators since it is a multidimensional process. Being poor, or unemployed, or belonging to an 279

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ethnic minority group living in a segregated neighbourhood are not conditions which, in isolation, provide evidence of processes of social exclusion. Individuals can, despite these hardships, very well be part ofa mainstream society. Having rich networks of relationships and taking part in a wide variety of social activities, individuals can have rich social and cultural lives. However, individuals or whole groups become more vulnerable to processes ofsocial exclusion when they face social or economic hardship in one or more dimensions oftheir lives. This exposure increases their risk ofbeing caught in societal processes which lead them away from integration and towards isolation and exclusion. There are three important spheres of daily life which can trap people in processes ofsocial exclusion: economic, political and cultural. In the economic sphere, lack ofaccess to employment is a main contributing factor to social exclusion. The case studies presented in this book provide unvarying evidence that long-term exclusion from the labour market is often followed by exclusion from other societal spheres. All the national cases present evidence that unemployment plays a crucial role in processes ofsocial exclusion. In addition to the direct deterioration in an individual's financial situation, long-term unemployment also has an indirect impact on other aspects of daily life and wellbeing: loss of self esteem, wider social networks and relationships to social and cultural activities outside the immediate neighbourhood. In the political sphere, the issues turn around individuals' power to participate in and influence decision making. One basic form of political participation is ensured through voting in elections. However, even this basic form of political participation may be denied, contributing to social exclusion, where large proportions of the population in neighbourhoods are foreigners without voting rights. But more importantly, many people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are excluded from other networks that would allow them to exercise their power in influencing local conditions and daily life. This aspect of political exclusion is not formalised nor open. Rather, it is most commonly caused by informal codes and invisible barriers which restrict participation in the arenas in which political influence can be exercised. In the cultural sphere, individuals and groups who 'differ' from the values, norms and symbols of mainstream society are exposed to the risk of becoming socially excluded. In many of the national case studies, nationality, ethnicity, language and religion were identified as important dimensions of groups suffering social exclusion. However, other more subtle aspects ofcultural identit)l, such as lifestyle, personal and social values and social identity, were identified as potentially playing a significant role in processes of social exclusion.

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These economic, political and cultural dimensions, when taken as isolated phenomena, seldom lead directly to processes of social exclusion. However, when combined they become a strong force pushing people into the processes ofsocial exclusion. An important conclusion from all the case studies is that social exclusion processes were often initiated by a deterioration in the economic conditions affecting large groups within specific neighbourhoods. This deterioration in economic conditions was followed by a parallel deterioration in political and cultural conditions. Loss of political influence and the labelling of socio-cultural difference as deviant then enhance the economic and political conditions which underlie processes of social exclusion. These interdependencies have important implications for strategies to combat social exclusion. The main objective of this book has been to examine carefully the dimensions ofsocial life which support processes ofsocial exclusion and to identify how those processes work. The main approach to this task was by focusing on the daily lives of the people who are caught in these processes. The ultimate ambition has been to provide a basis for discussing different responses to social exclusion. This has been done in three ways: first, by identifying how processes ofsocial exclusion push people out of the mainstream society and into neighbourhoods which form pockets of poverty and deprivation; second, by analysing how social exclusion works in these areas so that it is difficult for people to extract themselves from this situation; and third, by identifying and analysing initiatives to combat the social exclusion of these neighbourhoods in order to promote processes leading to the social integration of people and neighbourhoods.

Structural change in society: impact on social conditions An important starting point for our concluding remarks is the realisation that today's society is very different from yesterday's. During the 1980s, changes in the economic structures of western Europe have Significantly transformed the social landscape. The key word which characterises this economic development is 'globalisation'. The emergence of the tiger economies in southeast Asia has provoked a rethinking of long-term economic strategies in Europe. The central imperative has been to improve the competitiveness of the 'old' world. In most European countries, liberalisation has been an important pillar of new economic policy responses to the imperatives ofglobalisation. Despite national variations, most European countries have followed the path pioneered by the Thatcher government in Britain in the early 1980s. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, for many policy makers reality provided a clear distinction between what they saw, on the one hand, as desirable, and on

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the other hand, as necessary. Maintaining and improving efficiency and competitiveness have had a high social price throughout Europe. Economic liberalisation has had an important impact on working conditions. The downward adjustment ofwages, improving efficiency through increased labour productivity, declining trades union power, part-time working and short-term contracts in an increasingly casualised labour markets are experiences which all European countries more or less share. In addition, new production technologies have radically improved efficiency in many fields of industry. These technologies have had two important effects on labour markets. First, the number of jobs has decreased, either through improved productivity or because jobs have moved to other parts ofthe world. Second, the composition of jobs has changed. The last decade has witnessed rapidly declining employment in traditional manufacturing sectors and a parallel increase in new technology-based industries, in information technology, services, research and education. Structural economic change, coupled with political commitment to liberalisation and fiscal austerity, has had a significant impact on the European public economy. The tax base has deteriorated as a consequence of both tax cuts and increased unemployment. Former tax payers have been transformed into the recipients of unemployment benefits and other public subsidies. From 1988 onwards, all the European countries have experienced deep recession at one time or another. Such massive economic change has led policy makers throu-ghout Europe to be concerned about the social consequences ofthis change. In many countries, increasingly wide social and economic gaps have emerged between various population groups. While some groups are benefiting from economic change, other groups face increasing difficulties. For large groups, the last decade has been a vicious cycle. Unemployment, deteriorating public welfare systems and sharpened cultural and ethnic conflicts have catapulted many people into very exposed social positions from which they have become trapped in processes of social exclusion. As a consequence, policy makers have begun to place combating social exclusion very high on national agendas while recognising that both the processes ofand solutions to social exclusion are bound together with managing the process of European economic integration. In the long run, social exclusion is a process that threatens the sustainability of European socie~ If an emerging 'two-speed society' across Europe is not to cause social injustice and frustration, then measures to increase social cohesion and reintegrate groups who are being excluded are necessary. Thus, while the new single frontier, liberalised markets and monetary union constitute growth factors

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for Europe as a whole, they must be accompanied by innovative policies which prevent social exclusion and promote reintegration.

Rethinking social strategies Structural change has altered the fundamental conditions for policies aimed at improving social conditions. The first chapter in this book discusses three issues associated with these conditions: class, citizenship and welfare regimes. In concluding, it is important to return to these problems. In the context of structural change, the concept of class has become ambiguous. While there is widespread agreement that Europe's class structure has changed, there is substantial disagreement about how to describe and analyse the structure which has emerged. Changes in the structure of the labour market make it less than fruitful to define the 'working class' as a single distinctive group. The processes of social exclusion which have been documented in this book make it obvious that a different approach to looking at 'class' is required. A significant element in this new approach is based on reconsidering individuals' relationships to the labour market, distinguishing between core and peripheral workers. While core workers are permanently employed, often in well-paid jobs, peripheral workers are in a more precarious position. They are often partially unemployed or are working for wages which do not provide the minimum material conditions for a decent social life. Another important group are the people who are permanently excluded from the labour market altogether. The first issue in developing new approaches to understanding class is long-standing and basic: the matter of identifying the extent to which disparate groups share common interests and needs. The second issue, however, is new: analysing the role of the welfare state in supporting and promoting the social and occupational participation of individuals. The second concept that needs to be addressed as a base for rethinking social strategies is 'citizenship', or the civil, political and social rights that people may claim as a consequence of living in a place. Citizenship becomes a problem because increased mobility is an important issue in Europe today. The Maastricht Treaty gave all European citizens the right to settle in any of the member countries. However, in addition to these migrants, there are a large number of non-European citizens residing in member states. While many immigrants in Europe are long settled in their country of residence, their rights to settle are restricted leading to labour market and social practices which exclude them, their rights to participate in the political life where they live varies greatly among member states, and many are not eligible to claim the social rights available to nationals and migrants. At the same time,

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fiscal austerity and cuts in welfare programmes have led to a worsening in living standards for the poorest groups across Europe. However, households who lack political (and sometimes civil) rights are both much more exposed to these processes and less able to resist them. The end result is that there are three distinctive groups ofpeople residing in Europe: nationals, migrants and immigrants. Each group is differentially placed in relationship to social policies to combat social exclusion, but the consequence is that race and ethnicity form an important dimension ofsocial cleavage along which processes of social exclusion run throughout Europe. The third concept which underlies rethinking social strategies is that of 'welfare regimes'. These regimes vary widely within Europe, and the specific institutions which make up these regimes are changing rapidly alongside political and economic changes. Different welfare regimes have been built on different social bases: employment, citizenship or reciprocity among social groups. The changing structure of employment, cuts in public spending, redefinitions of nationality, and doubts about the capacity of state organisations: all these changes throw into question the issue of how people living in distressed neighbourhoods can be integrated into the wider society. Reconsidering the roles of the social partners, of voluntary organisations, of residents, of local and central governments form important parts of elements in emerging policy responses designed to combat social exclusion. Thus, structural changes affecting all aspects of society have dramatically altered the social context in which processes ofsocial exclusion are emerging and in which governments face the necessity of designing new kinds of policy responses. It is true that many of the specific social problems associated with social exclusion - poverty, sordid living environments, physically segregated neighbourhoods, drug abuse, destructive and violent behaviour - have been present for many decades. But it is also true that solutions which worked yesterday no longer work today. In today's circumstances, unemployment serves as a dead weight actively dragging people into the processes of social exclusion. The barriers of race and ethnicity have been raised by changing definitions of citizenship. And it has become more difficult for residents in excluded neighbourhoods to use the normal mechanisms oflocal governance to voice their frustration and desperation, to express their view ofthemselves as destined for a life excluded from a mainstream society, its jobs, culture, education and services. In these circumstances, the problems have become immensely more complex, signals from these neighbourhoods are easily misunderstood, and effective policy measures require considerable imagination.

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New perspectives in combating social exclusion The case studies in this book support arguments for two new kinds of perspectives to shape policies to combat social exclusion. The first perspective anchors policy responses in those needs which are most urgent from the point of view of inhabitants. The second perspective links 'people'-based and 'place'-based policy approaches. Each of these perspectives requires rethinking basic elements of local governance. Anchoring policy responses in locally articulated needs is essential if policy instruments are to be efficient and effective. In all European states, there is a division of responsibility among local, sometimes regional and central government. On the one hand, measures implemented by local government are constrained to those matters which fall within its remit or competences. Often local governments simply do not have the powers to address those needs which local residents see as most urgent from their point of vie~ On the other hand, measures implemented by regional and national governments lack detailed knowledge about the social conditions and daily life in local areas and may well have objectives which are different from those of local governments. The consequence is that a mix, even hodgepodge, of measures are implemented in neighbourhoods, often poorly coordinated and sometimes very expensive. Synergistic effects are difficult to capture, and the whole ensemble becomes expensive, inefficient and ineffective. The case studies in this book suggest that anchoring initiatives in the needs and ambitions of local residents requires two activities. The first is to collect information, developing methods which address people's problems, needs and aspirations and using this information as a basic input for planning and decision making about neighbourhood development. The second activity is to ensure the participation of residents in their neighbourhood's regeneration and improvement. It is increasingly clear that efficient regeneration requires active resident participation in planning, implementing and managing improvements. These two activities are necessary preconditions for coordinating local, regional and national initiatives and for achieving efficient, synergistic solutions. The second perspective needed in order to shape successful neighbourhood regeneration policies links people-based and place-based strategies. The experiences reported in this book show that neither of these strategies is successful on its own. People-based strategies do not address those aspects of neighbourhoods which make them unsafe or unattractive, so that improving the situation of individuals is hampered by the state of their social and physical environment. At the same time, physical improvements to housing and living environments do not, in themselves, address the wider social problems experienced by residents. Effective and substantial improvements to combat social exclusion in disadvantaged neighbourhoods require combining

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people-based and place-based strategies, in a carefully chosen mix of measures which meet the needs of individuals and groups as well as the needs of the neighbourhood. Responses to social exclusion The main conclusion of this book is that strategies for combating social exclusion must anticipate the complex interrelationships among various problems at individual, group and neighbourhood level. The present poorly blended stew of actors and policies directed at 'upgrading' physical environments and individuals' lives in excluded neighbourhoods is simply ineffective. A more holistic and coordinated approach must begin by recognising two fundamental points: first, that the interrelationships which shape people's lives are very complex and, second, that many social problems are best solved by very directly targeted actions. Resolving the tension between these imperatives needs to start with a fine-grained analysis of everyday life in a neighbourhood, which can serve as a basis for understanding how individuals, households and groups live in their space. On the basis ofthis kind of understanding, it is possible to design a mix of measures which both improve the physical environment and develop the provision of those educational, employment, health, cultural and leisure activities which underpin creating the kinds ofsocial, economic, political and cultural relationships necessary to combat social exclusion. Social exclusion is not a phenomenon caused by a single specific event or problem. Rather, it is the consequence of a number of different processes. However, the case studies in this book point to the centrality oftwo processes which shape social exclusion and influence the ways it can be combated. The first issue relates to employment. A job guarantees an income, and a low-paid job or intermittent work is better than unemployment. Equally important, however, jobs provide social networks which link people to wider social activity while unemployment creates direct and indirect barriers to participation in other social arenas and activities. Thus, employment initiatives are a vital element in combating the social exclusion which leads to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. However, local initiatives on their own