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6. Key themes and findings:
Thematic evidence from partners’ cities and neighbourhoods across the cases

While reaching a mutual understanding of their respective neighbourhoods and problems, the city teams developed thematic foci on common themes. What were the common denominators behind the cases? What are the lessons to be learnt?

Our work no longer had a neighbourhood focus to understand unique local and national features. Rather, insights from the cases were used as an evidence base and resource in order to exploit them for a more thematic focus. From now on we started concentrating on broader common denominators that were evident in more than one case. Our aim at this stage was to explore a number of themes that reflected more general trends and implications for policy making that were of significance to several, if not all participating cities, and to prepare the ground for policy recommendations that were informed by, and grounded in, our case evidence.

For this comparative exercise, four new cross-city research teams were formed each chaired by two cities. They started gathering the relevant information from each case study, adding further information where necessary. Out of this study – based on the actual problems and issues from the cities – the cross-city research teams synthesised and extracted an array of thematic observations that was then presented to plenary sessions for debate.

The four themes are:

• aims of urban regeneration – how regeneration has become a more complex task and has to adjust to moving targets

• private sector involvement – how local partnerships can include actors from the private sector

• community participation – how participation is changing towards stakeholder involvement

• mainstreaming and anchoring – how to stabilize innovations and change current practices