This relatively short book is designed to explore ‘projects of government that seek to affect social and behavioural change in and of poor citizens and their lived spaces’ (p. 1). This task is effected through the lens of the 1997–2010 New Labour government's New Deal for Communities (NDC) initiative, which the author sees as a useful exemplar of a regeneration programme designed to recruit citizens as participants in governing change in the culture of poor neighbourhoods.

After an initial introductory overview of themes such as ‘community’, Chapter 2 lays out key conceptual debates underpinning New Labour's perspectives on welfare. This is done by weaving together overarching themes such as ‘The Third Way’ alongside pointed observations in relation to New Labour and its ideological perspectives on issues such as welfare, community and responsibility. Chapter 3 builds on that conceptual framework by developing one theme, the potential shift to governance in policy. This forms the context within which to introduce the NDC Programme, which, ostensibly at least, was designed to encourage local residents to come up with bottom-up solutions to local problems. Within that Programme-wide theatre, the author introduces the case study NDC within which he collated original material: Salford.

Chapter 4 sets out to explore the local articulation of key principles underpinning the Programme and which fall within the remit of ‘contested community’. Within this framework he explores a number of themes and case studies which help disentangle the nature of community contest, the articulation of power, and the realisation of decision making. Issues explored include an exploration of local residents’ attitudes to drug dealers, the residents’ role in ‘policing’ the area, housing redevelopment, responses towards ‘space invaders’, such as students and refugees, and tensions surrounding the provision of facilities for younger people. Whereas Chapter 4 places the emphasis on a model of regeneration rooted in ‘community’, the following section explores relationships between residents and agencies as exemplified by central government and local drivers of change, in particular NDC partnerships. After setting a conceptual framework within which to explore these themes, the author examines issues such as the nature of participation in the NDC, relationships between the NDC and the local authority and the apparently oppositional relationship between the NDC and its local community.

In Chapters 6 and 7, the author uses empirical evidence to reconnect with higher-order debates surrounding social exclusion and the scale of apparent disconnection between a rationality central to this and other New Deal initiatives and the ‘politicised realities of these entities’ (p. 116). A brief final concluding chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the research, whilst reiterating key conclusions.

It is not unreasonable for anyone buying this to expect something significant in a book weighing in at £55 for just 137 pages of text. They will be disappointed: it adds little to our knowledge of regeneration or the complexities of neighbourhood change. There are some positive things to say. It is always useful to have more in-depth investigations of change within neighbourhoods, especially those driven by, or associated with, regeneration schemes, and there is a constant attempt too to locate the experience of this NDC within wider conceptual and policy debate. However, it is not well written or organised. Some of text is far from easy to understand. The third paragraph of the book provides several examples of mangled sentences. The structure is hard to follow. There appears to be a somewhat random distribution of themes and associated empirical material across chapters. A brief section in Chapter 4 headed ‘Other contestations of physical space’ suggests not enough thought has been given to how material might best be organised. There are examples too where more accurate proof-reading would have helped, a ‘compliment’, not complement, on page 77 for instance.

More fundamentally, the author has used a thin evidence base drawn from a relatively small, generally disgruntled, group of individuals in one NDC area on which to build a critique of both the Programme and the communitarian strand of thinking in the Labour government. A more detailed awareness of available evidence should at the very least have made the author pause a little before making such sweeping conclusions. The author quotes references published in 2010, so ought to have been aware of a raft of publications from the national evaluation which emerged either in late 2009 or early 2010 (see for instance DCLG, 2010) Many of the key findings outlined in these reports had anyway been in the public domain for several years before then. This evidence provides a rather different assessment of the Programme than the one painted here. To give a few examples. NDC areas saw positive change across a wide range of indicators in the six-year period 2002–2008. Interestingly, the indicator showing the largest absolute positive change was that asking residents whether they thought their local NDC had improved the area. The main driver of change in any event is not about where people live, but rather instead reflects who they are: area effects are very small. And those involved as resident representatives on NDC Partnerships were overwhelmingly positive about that experience. Incorporating these kinds of inconvenient realities into this local narrative would have helped pitch the book at a level of plausibility. Opting instead to root a ‘grand’ critique of the Programme based on the views of a small number of local residents in one NDC area, whilst avoiding clear lessons from a wealth of other evidence, is fraught with problems. This relatively modest Programme produced some returns, and for most residents the single most obvious gain was that they were generally more, not less, enthusiastic about their Partnership. Too much of this book reads as an uninformed polemic.