Countering Urban Social Exclusion: the Role of Community Participation in Urban Regeneration

Since the end of the 1970s there has been a growing recognition within many West European nations and the European Union that the problem of poverty has not disappeared. During the 1980s the European Union and several member states (most notably France) developed the notion of social exclusion as an approach to problems associated with poverty and multiple deprivation. At the same time there has been a growing recognition that social exclusion is often found in its most concentrated and visible forms in urban areas.