Hollowing Out Neighbourhood Governance? Rescaling Revitalization in Baltimore and Bristol

The neighbourhood has been a prominent terrain for revitalisation in recent times, and also for studies by scholars debating the significance of networked governance as the means of public service co-ordination, democratic voice or social control. This study of the governance of neighbourhoods in Baltimore and Bristol suggests that there may be a need to rethink these perspectives, as Bristol begins to converge with Baltimore on the terrain of exclusionary city governance, neighbourhood disinvestment and self-help. If the study is representative, it may point to a retreat from neighbourhood governance and the possibility that, in the era of austerity, economically ‘unviable’ neighbourhoods face abandonment.