Matching the process to the challenge within small town regeneration

Abstract

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License Newcastle University ePrints-eprint.ncl.ac.uk Powe NA, Pringle R, Hart T. Matching the process to the challenge within small town regeneration.

Revealing regional regeneration projects in three small towns in Aotearoa—New Zealand

“…Often, they offer fewer amenities or other benefits of agglomeration than larger cities (Lewis & Stillman, ; Maré, ). We also observed that in contradiction to these somewhat depressing prognostications, the international literature suggests that adequately supported locally initiated regeneration efforts can create positive change in regional towns and their rural hinterlands (Powe, Pringle, & Hart, ; Spires & Moore, ). Influenced by this work our research was designed to examine regeneration activities in a sample of regional towns and to add a stronger New Zealand perspective to the small‐town regeneration literature.…”

“…Having much the same foci, regeneration policies and initiatives have also been developed to advance the renewal and development of small regional towns and associated rural areas. As do Roberts et al () in the urban context, Powe et al () suggest in their review of two decades of international literature on small‐town regeneration that the field is challenging and complex. One of the main distinguishing factors between work in larger urban centres, and efforts in small‐town and rural regeneration, is that in the latter, local funding levels are often not sufficient to the task and skilled practitioners are in short supply.…”

“…Powe et al () conclude that adequately supported incremental local collaborative effort by many actors over the long term can be successful (see also Edwards, Goodwin, Pemberton, & Woods, ). A number of authors emphasise, particularly, the long‐term nature of the regeneration process and the fact that “no single stakeholder [such as central or local government] has the resources or jurisdiction [and we would add, the mana or status] to tackle the multidimensional problems faced” (Markey, Halseth, & Manson, , as cited in Powe et al, ). The success of regeneration activities is defined in terms of functional integrated effectiveness in a number of spheres.…”

“…The third strand of the regeneration literature that guided our work focuses on the ways regeneration initiatives can draw on local cultural and environmental assets to improve places for residents in a series of iterative steps and layered, interconnected projects (Powe et al, ). Ruming (, p.5) argues that “regeneration projects (no matter what their size) should not be viewed in isolation but collectively as drivers of city‐wide change.” These perspectives are important in the context of our research, where particularly in one setting the need to integrate a growing number of regeneration efforts was demanding attention.…”

From ‘me towns’ to ‘we towns’: activist citizenship in UK town centres

“…(interview with author, 4 April 2013).Incredible Edible Todmorden, YorkshireTodmorden is a small town on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border that experienced a long decline after the demise of the textile industry in the late 20th century. It has been the subject of numerous 'regeneration' initiatives, with limited evidence of impact(Powe, Pringle and Hart 2015). A turning point for Todmorden was the emergence of the Incredible Edible movement, which encourages local people to grow and share fruit and vegetables.…”