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Building social inclusion: what can partnerships for urban renewal achieve?
Karen Gardner and Cris Fitzpatrick
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health and Bridgewater Gagebrook Urban Renewal Program
Contact Email: Karen.Gardner
anu.edu.au
In Australia there is evidence of an increase in geographic concentrations of poverty with the emergence of new sites of disadvantage in small rural towns, manufacturing centres, coastal welfare regions and outer suburbs of capital cities. Such regions tend to be characterised by a lack of public infrastructure and service delivery, and new patterns of in-migration as people on low incomes become clustered and trapped. Concern about these communities is coinciding with increased government interest in addressing inequality and social exclusion through place based initiatives that involve "joining up" local and state governments with community and business in programs that advocate cross-government coordination and utilise various forms of partnership arrangement.
This paper examines a sophisticated urban renewal project based on an “empowered partnership” between a local community and government in an area once identified as having Australia's lowest level of well-being. The paper discusses the social and geographical context of the area before reflecting on the role that partnership plays in assisting this community to respond to a series of complex and interrelated social and economic problems. It argues that the partnership arrangements support a practical approach to reducing the effects of disadvantage and social exclusion by building a sense of individual and community pride as a central feature of social change. A shift in governance to the local level where decisions about the use of resources are made has been an important part of these arrangements. Challenges remain however in effectively bringing business and community interests together to tackle underlying economic problems that give rise to unemployment.
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