Incentive Schemes and Civil Renewal

Abstract

The problems of halting and reversing a spiral of decline in poorer or disadvantaged neighbourhoods have been studied from a wide range of different perspectives, each of which has tended to contribute a distinct impetus and set of proposals to civil renewal efforts. This study uses a ‘rational interests and beliefs’ perspective to study situations where people must make decisions on what to do at the same time as other people, that is, in ‘collective choice’ contexts. This kind of approach has not been much applied in previous studies of community processes or civil renewal in the UK. We reserve the theory exposition for the end of the chapter, and concentrate first on explaining how we gathered information for the study using surveys and focus groups in four areas, three with incentives schemes and one without. Our surveys interviewed around 200–250 people in each of the four areas, using a questionnaire developed in prior focus groups in each area. We examine what these results show about the factors affecting people’s willingness to behave co-operatively towards each other, to support social norms, and to think better of the authorities. We also explore people’s perceptions of and attitudes towards the incentives schemes and show how they may have a limited but useful effect.