Neighbourhood renewal, participation, and social capital in deprived areas: unintended consequences in a Nordic context

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the use of the concept of social capital in neighbourhood renewal programmes which aim to influence social and health-related processes. Based on a social network analysis of 17 groups comprising 133 members, qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 participants to consider the kinds of patterns and connections that build up in a neighbourhood renewal project in a small, deprived neighbourhood of a provincial town in Denmark. Results show that outcomes of community participation depend on the kind of social capital generated and on who is excluded from these resources or capital. Problems hindering inclusive participatory processes include self-exclusion and exclusionary dynamics in the neighbourhood. These dynamics centre on power struggles that lead the least powerful to opt out. Thus, the Danish ‘Ghetto Strategy’, which aims to increase local community participation and volunteering, could have the unintended consequence of increasing social and health inequalities rather than reducing them.