The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (NR) has an ambitious vision: ‘no one is seriously disadvantaged by where they live’ (SEU 2001: 5). The old approaches of gardening, a coat of paint, or new sheds for enterprises were not enough. We have seen, and been part of work with people in the most deprived neighbourhoods to overcome the impact of poverty, including health. Tim Blackman's book is at its best as a report from the front line. He gives an excellent summary of the National Strategy (pp. 109ff), useful data on the area-based initiative: the New Deal for Communities (NDC) (p. 137), and examples from the North East and West. It will be useful to have this record. Librarians will not just be reliant on the grey literature of government advice.

Blackman writes as a professor of Sociology and Social Policy so he is eager to structure and theorise about ‘open and dynamic systems nested in other systems with inputs and outputs’ (p. 32). Seeking a theory drives the form of the book but there is something paradoxical about this. His central theory is that we are dealing with complexity when we look at the causes and effects in people's lives. This means that we cannot expect to find a neat mechanism to achieve change. But this does not mean nothing works. He concludes that we are not dealing with ‘zero sums’ (pp. 198f), complex human systems are good and growing. Readers may find these theories helpful to move from instrumental approaches to social policy, but I suspect the readers who will get the most out of the book will already have made that step.

The long-term value of the book is as a collection of neighbourhood renewal challenges, samples of aspects of the complexity of public policy that seek to tackle disadvantage, inequality and shorter life expectancy. In this slim, clearly written book we have a useful resource for those who work in Sustainable Communities programmes. It deserves to have the same sort of long-term value as Townsend (Reference Townsend1979) and Black's (1982) texts.

Policy Action Team Report 18 emphasised the need to have excellent data if we are going to be effective, this book is part of that process. The National Statistics and floor target websites (pp. 111f) are great resources; this book models how that data can be used and how the interaction between practical intervention and research can build on that understanding. Those who improve public health, transform neighbourhoods and overcome poverty want to ‘know what works’. But they will not get the answer from a recipe book of activities. This work is more difficult than rocket science. We send rockets up all the time, but turning round the lives of the most deprived happens less often. There needs to be team work that breaks out of traditional ‘silos’ of public service delivery (p. 54), and it needs to be thoughtful: ‘Lay out the structure you already have, x-ray it for a hairline fracture, and think about it for a week or a year; solve the insoluble problem.’ (Annie Dillard quoted by Williams, Reference Williams2003: 68). Blackman's book does us the service of case histories to widen our experience and challenge simple assumptions. If we are to carry out ‘Realistic evaluation’, we need to see worked-through examples (Pawson and Tilley, Reference Pawson and Tilley1997).

The study of public health smoking, and smoking cessation (e.g. pp. 42f) is a useful example: there is a record of the qualitative indicators and a discussion of how they work. Most readers will not only follow Blackman's analysis but try their own, and by that process learn more from the study. Smoking cessation is a nightmare of bans, short-term off-the-peg programmes and it is all too easy to give up on it as a better bit of agency on the part of the poor than their choice to take part in pseudo scientific party games. Evidence-based medicine can falter at the boundary between epidemiology and sociology.

Housing (e.g.: pp. 25f, 53, 135f and 182f) raises a debate about grand plans that arise from great thoughts. The pattern of housing ownership and management has changed, from local authorities as landlords to being democratic leaders in local partnerships. That civic centre perspective sometimes comes over in a more shocking way, although it is familiar in local practice: ‘A small deprived area takes on the character of a closed system . . . Intervention . . . then means demolition and redevelopment’ (p. 57). This will be manna to some councils eager to make their mark. Yet if the last ten years of programmes show anything, it is that dramatic activities in the past can just move a problem to a different setting: Braunstone was a resettlement of Leicester’ slum dwellers in the 1930s and has been a challenging NDC; Chelmsley Wood and Castle Vale were 1960s relocations from the middle of Birmingham and the work has been redone in the last decade. On the other hand, black and minority ethnic (BME) populations found homes in terraced housing where the existing social housing patterns would not look after them, and by hope, hard work and organisation they have transformed NR areas without the help of public intervention. Though 75 per cent of the BME population lives in NR areas, demolition may look more like clearing a ghetto or undermining achievement in adversity than making the most subtle intervention.

Neighbourhoods are ambiguous places and cause and effect are hard to disentangle. This is thought provoking book to learn from and argue with.