Sustaining area-based initiatives by developing appropriate “anchors”: the role of social capital

Abstract

This paper focuses on “anchoring”, understood as the process of building project-based organizational networks, or “anchors”, in order to sustain the efforts of area-based initiatives (ABIs) after they leave their targeted neighbourhoods. Drawing on the scholarly literature on social capital and an empirical examination of three different cases from an ABI in Copenhagen, the paper highlights why and how particular models of “anchors” develop in specific local contexts. We conclude by emphasizing the value of the lens of social capital, particularly, in the ABIs’ strategic efforts towards “anchoring”.

Keywords:

• Area-based initiatives
• anchors
• social capital
• organizational networks

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and insightful comments throughout the process of revising this paper.

Notes

1. See for example the City Challenge, Single Regeneration Budget and New Deal for Communities initiated in England; Urban Partnerships and Priority Partnership Areas in Scotland; the German Soziale Stadt; the Dutch Grote-Stedenbeleid; the Danish Kvarterloft.

2. ISP is a place-based social intervention programme targeting public housing estates in Denmark.

3. AC is one of the public social institutions for the homeless.

4. URBACT’s USER is a European Regional Development Fund sponsored programme that aims to develop more inclusive methods of public space planning, use, and maintenance (http://urbact.eu/user).