Communities in Action: A Critical Analysis of the Barriers to Effective Participation in a Diverse Neighbourhood in Glasgow

  • Rani Dhanda

Student thesis: Masters ThesisMPhil

Abstract

A neighbourhood Glasgow, Scotland (referred to by the pseudonym Tusselton) encountered pronounced social challenges that were further compounded by a recent influx of European migrants, a substantial portion of whom faced economic hardship. Community activists petitioned and pressurised the Scottish government for additional resources and legislative changes. Despite the activists' enthusiasm and efforts to influence community planning, they encountered barriers to greater involvement. The thesis set out to critically investigate the barriers to effective participation. In-depth interviews with activists and minutes of meetings were used to facilitate a fuller picture of the barriers to participation.

This thesis followed the progress of a new community network; some activists had set it up so they could be a united force and challenge the community planners' plans and decisions. However, there was a stark absence of initiatives to bring the diverse activists in Tusselton together, which made the network not a useful space. From a challenging space, the network morphed into a legitimising and itself became a barrier to effective participation.

Several activists challenged city planners to have a seat in partnerships, without success. However, those community representatives who did have a seat in partnerships struggled to influence planning decisions. This was largely because the partnerships operated in a traditional hierarchical style, with decisions made by the City Council.

There is an absence of infrastructure to enable community representatives to conduct their roles sufficiently in partnerships, and happenings and reports were not shared in the networks or spaces in the neighbourhood. Representatives challenged the disempowering factors embedded in the institutional. The restructuring of community planning partnerships ironically further reduced community influence; the new area partnership had a reduced budget and no agenda setting programme.
Date of Award4 Dec 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Bath
SupervisorJoe Devine (Supervisor), Graham Room (Supervisor) & Roy Maconachie (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Community
  • Participation

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