Evidence-based Policies and Indicator Systems WHAT CAN SOCIAL SCIENCE CONTRIBUTE TO NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL Professor Murray Stewart Formerly of the Cities Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol 5th international inter-disciplinary conference, London, 2006

Neighbourhood Renewal My Evidence Base Collaboration and Co-ordination in Area-based Initiatives National Evaluation of New Deal for Communities National Evaluation of Local Strategic Partnerships ESRC Neighbourhoods Centre (Bristol/Glasgow) EU cross-national research PLUS project

Neighbourhood Renewal The Sources of Evidence Statistics and Indicators Programme Evaluations Theory based Understandings Contextual Settings Cross-national Comparison Resident Experience

Neighbourhood Renewal Statistics and Indicators Indices of Deprivation Neighbourhood Statistics Service delivery records Survey data sets (GHS, NDC) Area-based Expenditure (?)

Neighbourhood Renewal Comparative Evidence from within the UK Scotland from the rest of Europe Leadership, Citizenship, Legitimacy from the US Comprehensive Community programmes, theory of change from China Urbanisation

Neighbourhood Renewal Resident Experience Resident involvement in project management, decision making, evaluation Resident voices Local surveys Longitudinal studies??

Neighbourhood Renewal Programme Evaluations Neighbourhood Renewal Fund New Deal for Communities Neighbourhood Management Service provision (street cleansing, policing) Neighbourhood Wardens Single Community Programme

Neighbourhood Renewal The Evidence from Programme Evaluation Useful Additionality, minimal Displacement Differences between target n’hoods and the rest decreasing marginally An ambivalence about community involvement/engagement ABIs strong, mainstreaming weak

Neighbourhood Renewal Theory Driven Evidence Neighbouring, networks, weak and strong ties, e-neighbourhoods – all suggest the concept of n’hood is fragile Tenure change, mixed communities, housing market churning and gated communities pose challenges for policies of integration and cohesion Neighbourhoods in suburbs and growth areas – what do we mean by communities of place? Local government decentralisation, neighbourhood partnerships, agency provider efficiency all pose questions about appropriate scale below the locality New concepts emerge – e.g. psychoanalysis and the vanishing organisation – which offer new insights into the agency/structure and ownership/power dynamics of n’hood working

Neighbourhood Renewal Contextual Evidence The neighbourhood in the city(region) Area based initiatives and mainstreaming Local Strategic partnerships and Local Area Agreements Neighbourhood renewal and sustainable communities

Neighbourhood Renewal Key Issues Context matters – historical, social, economic, political, institutional Attribution and establishing causal relationships Replication and Transferability – e.g. beyond the NRF areas or into the smaller towns Policy Drivers ‘Guesses, hunches, some evidence and political imperatives’