Civic culture, community and citizen participation in contrasting neighbourhoods

This paper uses survey and qualitative evidence from four neighbourhoods in two cities to explore the hypothesis that citizen participation in urban g overnance is fostered by political structures and public policy as well as by a civic culture supportive of citizen involvement. The analysis shows th at although the prospects for citizen participation are likely to be least propitious in poor neighbourhoods demonstrating lower educational attainmen t levels, for example, such factors may be mitigated by political mobilisat ion and the approaches to urban governance, including citizen participation , adopted by local institutions. Citizen participation may be fostered as m uch by the creation of opportunity structures that build confidence in the efficacy of participation as by the intrinsic levels of civic culture. The key policy lesson is that the effort devoted to creating greater institutio nal thickness and participatory structures is not wasted.