Author Archives: michael

Debbie Humphry, talking to Coventry-based artist, documentary filmmaker and producer, Adrian Dowling. Photographs by Jamie Shufflebotham Adi Dowling arrived in Coventry from Dublin in the late 1970s, into a culture of de-industrialising despair, “as in poverty, racism, serious violence”. But from 1985 this all changed, when the violence of football hooliganism transmuted into the love ofContinue reading “Blog: Claiming space, culture and community through music, ecstasy and dance”

We have added an interactive map to the website which shows the locations of historical community-led-planning (CLP) examples uncovered by the project so far. We want to add as many examples of community-led planning to the map as we can find. So please do tell us about any other examples or send more information aboutContinue reading “Project Updates – May 2022”

How can images and aesthetics support community led campaigns? In this blog, Loraine Leeson draws on her experiences with the Docklands Community Poster Project, describing how certain images can become a powerful ‘currency’ for communicating issues and arguments to wider audiences. The arts can be a highly effective tool in community-led planning due to theirContinue reading “Arts in Regeneration: from creative community-led planning to institutional instrumentalism in East London”

How have ‘ordinary people’ come together to make decisions about their places, spaces and communities? In this research report, Debbie Humphry explores the story of the Golborne Community Plan and Neighbourhood Council in 1970s London, tracing interconnections of personalities, ideologies and campaigns. Figure 1: The Golborne newsletter. Source: Social Rights Council. January 1971 According toContinue reading “Golborne Community Plan and Neighbourhood Council”

What is ‘community-led planning’ and how has it been understood over the years? In this blog, Professor Glen O’Hara traces the history of the concept and its relationships with ‘civic society’, ‘regeneration’ and activism. The concept of ‘community-led planning’ can have as many meanings as there are people to ask about it. Most recently, itContinue reading “Civil society and ‘community-led planning’”

A recent exhibition about community led planning in North Southwark and North Lambeth gives us food for thought about what lessons we can draw from  past  experiences of participatory planning and the importance of not letting these histories get hidden. Our Spaces of Hope principal-investigator, Sue Brownill spoke to Steve Barran and Jane Matheson whoContinue reading “SE1 Stories. Lessons from the History of Community Organising in one Neighbourhood”