Introduction

The Scottish Executive's anti-social behaviour strategy is primarily being delivered at the local authority level, with a particular emphasis on the worst-affected neighbourhoods (Scottish Executive, 2003). The 2004 Anti-social Behaviour (Scotland) Act required each local authority and police chief constable to prepare and implement an anti-social behaviour strategy within their area, supported by additional Scottish Executive funding.

This chapter explores how forms of accountability, partnership and contract play out within anti-social behaviour strategies. Two key dimensions are examined: the dual and simultaneous processes of centralisation and localism within governance frameworks; and the contested concepts of citizenship and responsibility for governing anti-social behaviour, mediated by the interface between formal and informal mechanisms of social control. The chapter concludes by arguing that the ambiguities of roles, the limited scales of intervention and the resistance of actors create a disjunction between strategy rationales and actual delivery of policies on the ground.

The chapter is based on the findings of two research studies: a Scottish Executive-funded assessment of the impact of anti-social behaviour strategies at the neighbourhood level in four Scottish local authorities (Edinburgh, Fife, North Lanarkshire and the Scottish Borders); and an evaluation of the Neighbour Relations policy and practice of the Glasgow Housing Association, which manages 75,000 homes in the city. (For the full findings from these studies and a detailed account of the research methodologies, see Flint et al, 2007a, 2007b).

Multi-level governance, neighbourhood and community

Policy programmes within Scotland are characterised by mechanisms of multi-level governance, through which attempts are made to generate a cohesive government response to social problems at national and local scales (Kearns and Forrest, 2000). These contemporary forms of multi-level governance are based on networks and nodes of multi-agency partnerships, involving state and non-state actors delivering interventions at the local level within a national legislative, regulatory and funding framework. This framework cedes some powers and responsibilities to local agencies while locking them into increasingly transparent forms of accountability, audit and performance measurement, including a revitalised concept of professional responsibility in which front-line officers and organisations are subject to visible accountability from both central government and local citizens (Faulkner, 2003; Scottish Executive, 2005a).