Housing, Neighbourhood Renewal and Social Capital: The Case of Registered Social Landlords in Scotland

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban policy in several European countries is characterized by an increasing emphasis on neighbourhoods as the site for targeted partnership intervention within new forms of multi-level and multi-actor governance. Community processes within distressed neighbourhoods, based on concepts of social capital, are increasingly identified as both the cause of neighbourhood decline and offering mechanisms for achieving social inclusion and social cohesion. Social housing organizations are given a central role within these new forms of governance. This paper utilises a study of registered social landlords (RSLs) in Scotland to explore the role and impact of housing organizations in developing social capital in deprived communities. It identifies a range of mechanisms through which RSLs contribute to social capital and community development, but argues that the limitations and ambiguities of these processes reflect wider problems in the conceptualisation of both social capital and neighbourhood renewal as mechanisms for achieving social inclusion and social cohesion in current European urban policy.