ABSTRACT
The European Community and individual states have acknowledged that neighbourhoods are the key spatial scale for policy intervention and the point around which coordinated action for urban regeneration could revolve. Architects and urban designers must acknowledge the value of integrated neighbourhood development and pursue it combining their experience and awareness of other cognate fields. To address issues of quality of life and in the life in deprived neighbourhoods, actions must be based upon an overview of international globalisation trends, national policies and mechanisms, local agencies and activism, and establish connections and dependencies between levels. Contemporary cities are a mosaic of functionally defined neighbourhoods; understanding how they work, and the neighbourhood structure of cities is paramount to any action of regeneration. Almost all the neighbourhoods studied are facing emerging trends—a direct manifestation of processes of globalisation, and in particular of further changes in the labour market conditions.
