Regeneration as social innovation, not a war game

There is an emerging new debate going on as to what is the value and purpose of community involvement in urban renewal. At the moment, different parts of the urban planning system use 'consultation' in different ways. But more often than not, 'consultation' and 'engagement' are democratic-sounding words for a process of co-option: appointing members of the community to a given strategy or plan. This paper outlines two projects which have brought innovation the role and nature of 'community involvement', but which push to re-frame policy and practice: take methodology away from two-dimensional public relations, the procedural fetishism of local government and the 'Post-it-itis' of public workshops — towards the broader idea of mobilising sustainable networks of local people. Smaller towns and cities have idiosyncratic characters that can be mobilised to support the social and economic benefit of a place, but an appropriate strategy needs to be formulated for public involvement. Community engagement needs to give way to ideas of participation and customer service. It needs to support long-term values and sustainability that will be intrinsic to the viability of the regeneration sector after recession. This is a matter of effective business practice, not just ethics.