ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a strategy for change, based on the experience of regeneration. It discusses people in communities in taking action to improve the quality of their lives, through developing networks of mutual support and collective action based on their own definitions of quality of life rather than those imposed from outside. In many cases, marginalised social housing estates are less a ‘community’ than a concentration of isolated individuals. Most estates have many different ‘communities’ within them, groups who, living on the edge themselves, are suspicious and fearful of other groups around them, whether they are young or old, black or white. ‘Capacity-building’ is an overused term in British regeneration policy, but it does convey a sense of the potential to be realised at individual and organisational level. Community festivals have combined entertainment for adults and children with information gathering and giving. As the principles of sustainable development recognise, economic development is essential in tackling poverty.
