Citizen Participation in East Manchester: From Practice to Theory

Utilising the major urban regeneration project launched by government in east Manchester in 1998, our aim is to evaluate the nature and extent of the involvement of local residents in the project and to use our findings to review democratic theory. We invert the normal theory and practice relationship to argue that it is sometimes valuable to build on existing practice in assessing democratic involvement rather than to proceed simply on the basis of normative theoretical ideals.