Regeneration in Devonport: New insights into community, participation and empowerment

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative study involving local residents’ accounts of regeneration from the perspective of living and/or working in the area. Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership was one of the 39 New Deal for Communities programmes funded by national government to transform deprived urban communities across England. With reference to both relevant literature and qualitative data, the paper focuses on the tensions that have arisen in the delivery of this project, particularly concerning concepts of community, participation and empowerment. The authors suggest that discontinuities between policy and practice in Devonport are likely to be indicative of frictions at a national level. They conclude with a series of questions intended to assist future proposals for urban regeneration elsewhere.