Implementing empowerment projects in urban neighbourhoods: actors and interactions

Local governments support community empowerment in urban neighbourhoods through citizens’ active participation in urban renewal. While specific actors implement empowerment goals using dedicated instruments, implementation gaps remain, partly due to a lack of knowledge of neighbourhood governance. Our study aims to understand the actors’ roles and interactions in four cities of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, combining action research and comparative case-study analysis. Our results illustrate contrasting approaches to empowerment, influenced by cultural and institutional contexts. Local governments that play an enabling role adopt a project-based approach involving internediaries and dedicated governance tools, making it possible for citizens to become co-producers. In contrast, facilitative governments adopt a neighbourhood-based approach relying on third-sector actors and consultation instruments, less favourable to community achievements, unless well-established citizen networks are present. Through the improved understanding of actors’ and institutional settings’ influence on the empowerment process, we hope to feed reflections on innovative empowerment methods that foster collaborative planning.