ABSTRACT
Questions of urban poverty and social exclusion have again re-emerged as central issues in contemporary debate. For those with long enough memories there is a sense of déjà vu in this. The 1960s and early 1970s witnessed a veritable outpouring of academic and polemical material triggered by the American War on Poverty (Marris and Rein 1974) and to a lesser extent the emergence of a specifically inner city dimension to social inequality within the United Kingdom (Edwards and Batley 1978). But although common themes characterise both contemporary and historical discourse, the scale of social exclusion currently evident in many larger towns and cities has undoubtedly fostered a new and more immediate sense of urgency throughout the developed world. This seems to have occurred for a number of reasons.
