Purpose – This article aims to introduce the special issue which arose from a conference about urban regeneration in post industrial cities hosted at Bradford University in 2008. The event focused on the sustainable and intangible aspects of individual and community well‐being....

Looks at the rise of managerialism in one part of the public sector in England, that of local authority personal social services departments. Considers the pressures for change which have been operating in this sector and the characteristics of these organizations themselves. Outlines examples...

Purpose – Recent UK policies emphasise increased community participation in decision‐making. However, research points to an “implementation gap” whereby policy has not led to genuine community empowerment in practice. This paper aims to investigate community empowerment and influence...

Purpose – The concepts of well‐being and participation are prevalent in current regeneration policy, being seen as crucial to alleviating disadvantage and marginalisation in deprived communities. However little is understood about how such ambiguous concepts are articulated within urban...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent urban regeneration programmes were targeted at the most deprived geographical areas and populations within the boundaries of nine local authorities (LAs) in the North West of England. Design/methodology/approach – For each...

Purpose – How does women's labour market disconnection impact on health and well‐being? The paper seeks to explain how economic isolation can cause low self esteem for women. Neighbourhood analysis provides the opportunity to explore some of the operational contradictions in public policy...

Purpose – In this article, the aim is to explore the rise of the role of the social enterprise as a “force for good” in the context of social and economic regeneration. Building on the growing importance of the third sector to central government as part of its agenda to diversify the...