Developing Community Participation in Deprived Neighbourhoods: A Critical Evaluation of the Third-sector Approach

This paper evaluates critically the third-sector approach that encourages involvement in groups in order to foster community participation in deprived neighbourhoods. Analysing recent government surveys of community participation in the UK, it reveals that a culture of engagement in groups is relatively alien to most people in deprived areas, unlike one-to-one aid that is extensively used. Given this, a complementing of the third-sector route to community participation with a fourth-sector approach that seeks further to bolster one-to-one aid is advocated. The paper concludes by outlining possible policy initiatives to implement this fourth-sector approach.