ABSTRACT
Contemporary regeneration policy emphasizes the vertical as well as horizontal integration of key stakeholders in local development partnerships (Ldps) because this is considered to be of critical importance in achieving lasting socioeconomic improvements. Ensuring the integration of residents and third sector organizations (Tsos) is a persistent problem for Ldps, however, and has posed a wide range of challenges for policy and practice ever since national governments started to experiment with area-based approaches to urban regeneration in the 1980s (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2008; Wilks-Hegg, 2000; Carley et al., 2000; Diamond and Liddle, 2005). Over the past twenty years, European Union regional policy has also deployed a range of policy instruments to improve the integration of Tsos and residents in the regeneration process, with mixed results (Commission of the European Communities, 1999; 2007a; 2007c; 2008).
