Taking possession of revival

The phrase ‘community-based transformation’ signals a progressive approach to change with its feet on the ground. It draws on a rich tradition of local practice and theory, prioritising local action and empowerment of the most disadvantaged in order to overcome inequality and achieve sustainability. But it also conceals some big uncertainties. Can progress to equality and a sustainable society really be led by communities when inequality, attacks on democracy and unsustainable growth are driven by national and multinational forces?

We generally use the term ‘community’ as code to mean disadvantaged sections of the population or the residents of poorer neighbourhoods. But it can also mean people anywhere with shared values of equality and participation. We have to keep juggling these meanings. On the one hand, action is needed to overcome concentrated disadvantage. On the other, some changes are needed throughout society and government. Changes in communities will only be part of the picture, but a vital part, and one that illuminates the whole. This chapter reflects on the situation in the United Kingdom (UK), especially England, but the issues we will be looking at apply to many other countries where the post-war political consensus has been undermined by the rise of neoliberalism and right-wing demagoguery.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, there has been much talk of getting back to normal. This seldom reflects the complexity of the public mood – a mixture of grief, fear for health and jobs, and amazement that it is possible to stop modern life in its tracks (which may not be entirely for the worse). A return to normal is a return to jobs and social life where possible, but also to the feeling that we cannot go on like this: with a galloping climate crisis, widening inequality, worldwide threats to human rights and debased political discourse.

The regeneration trajectory

Some of the most relevant community-level experience we can call on in the UK lies in the regeneration programmes of 1970 to 2010. Starting with a small number of local economic experiments, these policies eventually became, for a time, a carrier wave for widespread community involvement in social and economic development.

It cannot be accidental, although it was not very clear at the time, that the rise of regeneration schemes paralleled the rise of globalisation.