This paper builds on previous work on resident participation and the mediat
ion of housing policy at the residential level. The paper reviews different
types of residential mediation arrangement, that is, types of arrangement
whereby residents become more at home in their living environments, associa
ted with an increase in social control over those environments. After exami
ning evidence from a number of countries, in particular the UK and Sweden,
the authors conclude that five types can be distinguished: marketized arran
gements, personalized arrangements, partnerships, and forms of representati
ve and cooperative resident management. These arrangements differ from one
another with regard to their empowerment effects, the bias in the vertical
direction of power flow within them, their effects on residents' independen
ce, the range over which their effects are mediated, the inclusionary or ex
clusionary bias of their organizational structures, and the homogeneity or
heterogeneity of their social contexts. The authors attempt to make sense o
f this complexity of variation by viewing the arrangements against the back
ground of formal and informal social relations in the local areas where the
arrangements are formed. It is argued that the literature on community and
area regeneration can be used to throw some light on the causal mechanisms
involved. Finally, the authors suggest that the whole constitution of comm
unity and of residential mediation arrangements can be understood in terms
of the development of phenomenological forms of privacy, identity and famil
iarity.