ABSTRACT
T H E P H I L O S O P H I E S O F E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L R E G E N E R A T I O N I N T H E 1 9 8 0 s
The general ideas that shaped the post-1979 approach to urban regeneration were a response to the scal problems which had been building up throughout the 1970s. The key contextual factors were identi ed by Atkinson and Moon (1994a) as de-industrialisation, the urban-rural shift and the widening north-south divide (see Chapter 1 ). The diagnosis of urban problems by the Conservative government at the beginning of the Thatcher years comprised too much state intervention and public spending; individual and group dependency on the state; and restriction of the free market. Therefore, in response, 1980s urban regeneration afforded pre-eminence to the private sector and the pro t motive through the freeing of market forces and use of publicprivate partnerships or growth coalitions (Harding 1991); aimed to roll back the state and marginalise local government; and promoted property-led regeneration and privatism (Barnekov
et al. 1989). In terms of the approach of government, urban policies combined the social pathology model and structural economic approaches as explanations of urban problems. Top-down neoliberal regeneration was the dominant approach, a philosophy that sees markets as the best solution to social problems with social needs largely subordinated to the needs of business. This was characterised by the rolling back of the state and the rise of market-led regeneration, publicprivate partnerships, privatisation, deregulation, liberalisation, centralisation and property-led regeneration, which were all important general themes of the period re ected in the key urban policies implemented. These approaches all came together to characterise an entrepreneurial approach taken by central and local government, succeeding managerialism, advocating risktaking and growth-oriented strategies. Entrepreneurialism emerged as the main form of governance of cities globally (see Wood 1988; Harvey 1989; Hall and Hubbard 1996; 1998; Hall and Barrett 2012, chapter 5 ; Short and Kim 1999; see Chapter 7 ).
