The state and civil society in urban regeneration: Negotiating sustainable participation in Belfast and Dublin

This paper is a work in progress and comments are welcome. Introduction This paper considers aspects of participation processes in urban regeneration, including the results of case study research into two urban regeneration programmes: the North Belfast Housing Strategy in Northern Ireland, and the Ballymun regeneration initiative in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The paper begins with a review of the promotion of public participation in urban regeneration programmes and in sustainable development policies in both Irish jurisdictions. A theoretical discussion follows, observing that the interaction between state agencies and civil society in urban regeneration is mediated through participation structures, and proposing a definition of sustainable participation. Participation is then presented as a hegemonic project within urban regeneration programmes, operationalised through partnership structures. A theoretical framework is put forward to assist the analysis of participation processes as a site of interaction between the state and civil society, in order to assess the effectiveness of participation processes in urban regeneration programmes. The case study research findings are then presented, depicting the gap between the ideology of participation and its complex, uneven reality. Finally, some conclusions are drawn about the nature of participation in the case study areas and some more general points are made. 2 Urban regeneration, participation and sustainability Public participation in Irish urban regeneration programmes The roots of public participation in Irish urban regeneration programmes (North and South) lie in two factors that caused changes in the structures of social administration in western democratic societies: the growth of protest movements during the mid to late 1960s, and the evolution of fiscal crisis during the early to mid 1970s. Governments sought to incorporate public protest, and to gain legitimation for projects which often required cuts in public expenditure, through a move away from relying solely on representative democratic structures towards the inclusion of participatory forums which allowed citizens to contribute directly to decision-making. Previously, mass participation in any form other than voting had been regarded as undemocratic by political theorists (Pateman, 1970). Changes took place more quickly in Britain than in the Irish jurisdictions 1 , with public participation incorporated into British urban regeneration programmes through partnership structures from the mid-1970s onwards (Imrie & Raco, 2003) 2. Northern Ireland was affected in a particular way by the protest movements of the 1960s. The strengthening of agitation for equal rights for the minority Catholic community led to the resurgence of older community …