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 replacement of this third sector route to community participation with a fourth sector approach that seeks to further bolster one-to-one aid is advocated. The paper concludes by outlining possible policy initiatives to implement this fourth sector approach