Empowerment or Abandonment? Prospects for Neighbourhood Revitalization in the Big Society

This article explores the impact of recent trends towards privatism through a study of neighbourhood governance in Baltimore and Bristol and considers its implications for the big society in the UK. The self-help ideology of the big society has been prevalent in Baltimore for many years and the city’s experience highlights profound difficulties in substituting volunteering for government-led revitalization. The article concludes that the Baltimore experience is a warning to British policy-makers, posing a major dilemma.