ABSTRACT
Why is there an increasing interest in community and community involvement? In contemporary political thinking it has become both philosophically and 'politically' significant. Community has increasingly become the focus of government policy in the UK and the USA. From the 'Third Way' communitarianism of New Labour to the emergence of Compassionate Conservatism, the idea of community is now seen as a key to rethinking the relationship between civil society and the state. Government social policy concerning neighbourhood renewal and urban renaissance stresses the role of citizens in inner-city areas in designing and rebuilding their communities (Sirianni and Friedland, 2002; Taylor, 2003). The Neighbourhood Renewal Programme of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is calling for new ideas on community enterprise, community safety, healthy communities, sustainable communities and learning communities. According to Home Secretary David Blunkett, 'Our challenge today is to provide a meaningful sense of belonging and community engagement, which can be both robust and adaptable in the face of wider change' (Blunkett, 2001, p. 22). Linked to this challenge is the perceived sense of loss of community in contemporary British society. This has been associated with the idea of social capital, popularized by Robert Putnam in his study of the decline of civic engagement and social capital in the USA (Putnam, 2000). The concept of social capital has provided a theoretical basis for understanding the importance of community which, according to the neo-Tocquevillian analysis of Rol>ert Putnam and his colleagues, has important consequences for citizenship and political participation.
