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AbstractEfforts to promote community empowerment within regeneration management have been persistently critiqued. Particular concern regards the potential capture of civic organizations into the sphere of influence of more powerful governance stakeholders, leaving communities marginalized and frustrated. Although such 'capture' is a discernible threat, this article presents a more nuanced perspective demonstrating the scope for community‐based organizations to dissent from seemingly inexorable regimes of power. The article details a series of tensions that emerged across the evolution of a community‐led regeneration partnership. It then outlines how civil society organizations challenge 'partnership orthodoxies', seeking autonomy albeit nested within—and relative to—formal bureaucratic and administrative regimes. Community partners can therefore assume a hybridity of capture and autonomy—or a mutuality—that is rarely acknowledged by accounts that critique regeneration governance.

This paper analyses contrasting academic understandings of 'equilibrium resilience' and 'evolutionary resilience' and investigates how these nuances are reflected within both policy and practice. We reveal that there is a lack of clarity in policy, where these differences are not acknowledged with resilience mainly discussed as a singular, vague, but optimistic aim. This opaque political treatment of the term and the lack of guidance has affected practice by privileging an equilibrist interpretation over more transformative, evolutionary measures. In short, resilience within spatial planning is characterised by a simple return to normality that is more analogous with planning norms, engineered responses, dominant interests, and technomanagerial trends. The paper argues that, although presented as a possible paradigm shift, resilience policy and practice underpin existing behaviour and normalise risk. It leaves unaddressed wider sociocultural concerns and instead emerges as a narrow, regressive, technorational frame centred on reactive measures at the building scale.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of European Union Objective 1 funding on the development and formalisation of a neighbourhood‐based group situated in a regeneration area in the UK. The role, function and impact of a Community Empowerment Network (CEN) (funded by the Labour Government as part of its Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy) is also examined and assessed.Design/methodology/approachThe findings of the paper are informed by a critique of the policy literature and the ways in which "leadership" roles and responsibilities are played out within neighbourhood settings. The empirical research derives from an analysis of the role and practice of CENs in England.FindingsThe paper argues that the external initiatives restrict the autonomy and independence of community based groups. Furthermore, the paper makes the point that such externally driven programmes are often located within neighbourhoods with little reference to identifying the needs or priorities of residents.Research limitations/implicationsThere are important lessons here for policy makers and practitioners in public policy to reflect upon. The paper seeks to draw connections between the literature on community development and planning/regeneration management. These links are important to sustain and to open the discussion to a broader audience of researchers and practice managers.Practical implicationsThe paper raises questions concerning how local residents/groups can be facilitated into articulating their needs and exercising agency in terms of changing the decision‐making/resource allocation processes.Originality/valueThe paper adds to understanding the practice of empowerment networks.

Insurance and compensation are cited as critical elements of resilience to natural and non-natural hazards alike. As a strategy of risk management, it emphasises peace of mind, financial recompense and the swift restoration of a 'business as usual' status for civil, social and commercial life. Yet despite the contribution of insurance to risk management, the synergies with progressive or adaptive articulations of resilience are not sufficiently explicated. This paper explores the fundamental contradictions of insurance as a form of resilience through a study of flood risk management. It demonstrates how insurance regimes serve to structurally embed risky behaviour and inhibit change after detrimental events. As such, transformative interpretations of resilience conflict with the long-standing principles and operational norms of insurance that privilege normality. The paper concludes that, despite its currency within resilience discourses, insurance is maladaptive and that insurance regimes reinforce exposure and vulnerability through underwriting a return to the 'status-quo' rather than enabling adaptive behaviour.

Urban defences against terrorism have traditionally been based on territorial interventions that sought to seal off and surveil certain public and private spaces considered targets. Lately, though, a much wider range of crowded and public spaces have been viewed as potential targets and thus have been identified as requiring additional security. This has immense implications for the experience of the 'everyday' urban landscape. Drawing on contemporary notions that incorporate the study of aesthetics and emotions within critical security and terrorism studies, this article discusses the visual impact of counter-terrorism security measures. It analyses the 'transmission' of symbolic messages, as well as the variety of ways in which security might be 'received' by various stakeholders. The analysis takes place against the backdrop of concern that obtrusive security measures have the capacity to radically alter public experiences of space and in some cases lead to (intended and unintended) exclusionary practices or a range of negative emotional responses. The article concludes by outlining a 'spectrum of visible security' ranging between traditional obtrusive fortified approaches and approaches that embed security features seamlessly or even 'invisibly' into the urban fabric.

This book analyses the links between climate change adaptation, resilience and the impacts of hazards. The contributors cover topics such as climate change adaptation in coastal zones, the evaluation of community land models, climate change considerations in public health and water resource management, as well as conceptual frameworks for understanding vulnerabilities to extreme climate events. The book focuses on a variety of concrete projects, initiatives and strategies currently being implemented across the world. It also presents case studies, trends, data and projects that illustrate how cities, communities and regions have been striving to achieve resilience and have handled hazards