Narratives of Neglect

Reducing crime and fear of crime has become increasingly central to urban policy in the UK, particularly to regeneration of areas of social exclusion. Encouraging citizen participation is at the heart of these efforts to transform urban areas and build safe, sustainable urban communities. Narratives of Neglect is a timely and very readable ethnographic study from a criminological perspective of a multiply-deprived council estate in the north of England, conducted during a period of consultation with residents prior to regeneration. It takes a markedly different approach to contemporary community studies in its move away from issues of community capacity to resolve local problems and a return to concerns around how local problems are identified and talked about. The book explores residents' and professionals' explanation for the decline of the estate - their narratives of neglect - and the role which crime and disorder plays within them. The analysis highlights the interplay between maintenance of identity and sense of social position and relationships with authorities within residents' accounts, particularly in contributing to a tendency to blame problems on denigrated 'others'. This informs observations of miscommunication between residents and professionals and the potentially exclusionary and punitive effects of participatory processes that do not take account of the way that local problems, particularly of crime and disorder, are politicised. Narratives of Neglect will be essential reading for anybody studying crime, exclusion and urban regeneration, or who is professionally involved in developing or implementing policy, or involved in consultations, in areas of social exclusion.