Urban Policy - The last 30 years.

After beginning the process of scanning in all of my academic articles in a PDF format - how illegal this is I can't say - I find that it very reassuring using my PC for what it's probably best for. PCs are really a major asset if used for storing vast quantities of information in electronic format - paper articles can take up a large amount of space and on CD virtually no space at all.

After finding the articles I had rather unfathomable about ten years ago I now find them rather easy to get through despite not having the depth of knowledge in economics which I think is necessary to really get to grips with the area. Will I find the articles of any significant use after the Kings Norton New Deal for Communities experience? May I be able to add any advantage to the experience of the New Deal for Communities staff or residents through summaries of the reviews of information? The regular comment from the residents who were on one hand disaffected and disengaged was they had '...heard it all before...'. On the other hand there were some slightly different elements to the programme in terms of the approach and the content of some of the projects that were likely to add a slightly different flavour to the attempts at tackling multiple deprivation. I don't know if the small and appropriate differences in planning and delivery would actually constitute a new paradigm in urban policy as some may claim, there is also the question of whether there have been significant shifts at all in delivery - is urban policy being delivered in a significantly different manner than was actioned under conservative governments of the 1990s?

Urban regeneration is a very complex process involving a number of professional disciplines as social action can be viewed from a great many perspectives in terms of it's suitability and effectiveness. On reflection, urban policy has a heritage as old as cities themselves. To a very large extent it is necessary because cities are geographical forms which exist because of the control of capitalism by an elite has shaped the population that lives in a defined area. Capitalism has functioned through highly controlled rather than free markets and peasants may have migrated towards cities centuries ago because they were offered better living conditions prior to adequate induction into the areas that they moved. Is the longer term history of an area that significant a factor when looking to influence the manner in which urban policy is delivered? It would be interesting to examine what improvements in delivery this would lead to and what problems this would cause if historic influence in its many forms were to be more prominent in regeneration delivery. Do historic factors which shape local culture and regeneration processes adequately come together?