TY - JOUR
T1 - Theorising participation in urban regeneration partnerships
T2 - an adult education perspective
AU - Galvin, Martin
AU - Mooney Simmie, Geraldine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2017/11/2
Y1 - 2017/11/2
N2 - While the policy approach in Urban Regeneration Partnership tends to be viewed as participatory governance using an urban studies lens, this article posits an alternative theorisation that takes an adult education perspective. We draw from Lefebvre’s notion of space, Engeström’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Holand et al.’s concept of positionality and social identity to theorise Urban Regeneration Partnership as expansive participation that acknowledges discursive struggle and contradiction in authentic democratisation. We argue for a multiscalar understanding of citizenship that attends to sociocultural conditions, challenges hegemonic spatial modalities and inculcates conditions for transformative agency. Our theorising is illustrated using data from a doctoral study examining one Urban Regeneration Partnership in the Republic of Ireland. Three themes emerged from the study: market-led discourse of transformation versus a narrative of community; rhetoric of empowerment versus the unequal positioning of residents, and the dominant hegemony of official knowledge versus community-based experiential knowledge. The article examines whether the academy can make a difference in people’s lives through challenging the prevailing orthodoxy, revealing unexamined assumptions and offering alternative frameworks for deeper understanding of the policy cycle in Urban Regeneration Partnerships.
AB - While the policy approach in Urban Regeneration Partnership tends to be viewed as participatory governance using an urban studies lens, this article posits an alternative theorisation that takes an adult education perspective. We draw from Lefebvre’s notion of space, Engeström’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Holand et al.’s concept of positionality and social identity to theorise Urban Regeneration Partnership as expansive participation that acknowledges discursive struggle and contradiction in authentic democratisation. We argue for a multiscalar understanding of citizenship that attends to sociocultural conditions, challenges hegemonic spatial modalities and inculcates conditions for transformative agency. Our theorising is illustrated using data from a doctoral study examining one Urban Regeneration Partnership in the Republic of Ireland. Three themes emerged from the study: market-led discourse of transformation versus a narrative of community; rhetoric of empowerment versus the unequal positioning of residents, and the dominant hegemony of official knowledge versus community-based experiential knowledge. The article examines whether the academy can make a difference in people’s lives through challenging the prevailing orthodoxy, revealing unexamined assumptions and offering alternative frameworks for deeper understanding of the policy cycle in Urban Regeneration Partnerships.
KW - adult education
KW - citizen participation
KW - community development
KW - Cultural Historical Activity Theory
KW - policy cycle
KW - Urban regeneration partnership
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018184674&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02680939.2017.1320731
DO - 10.1080/02680939.2017.1320731
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018184674
SN - 0268-0939
VL - 32
SP - 809
EP - 831
JO - Journal of Education Policy
JF - Journal of Education Policy
IS - 6
ER -