Resources

This page hosts a range of relevant resources and is being updated over the duration of the project. There are papers, links and  other related works that could be of interest.

This page brings together key outputs, papers, links, and related work connected to the Just Neighbourhoods? research project. It will continue to grow as the project progresses.

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Project Outputs

Towards Everyday Conceptions of Justice in Community-led Planning

This paper draws upon a novel analytical framework to review a sample of community-led plans produced across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It explores how communities interpret issues of (in)justice and how they seek to address them. Focussing on plans produced by communities categorised as more deprived, the analysis shows that abstracted notions of equality, diversity and inclusion are almost entirely absent, with communities more likely to focus on tangible issues of local importance such as access to affordable housing, health and service provision. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these findings for understandings of justice.

Working Papers

 Working Paper 4: Research case overviews

This report sets out the case studies from across the UK, which form the core of the project’s empirical work. The paper includes the emerging profiles of the areas under study, their context, and early observations.

Working Paper 3: Community Plan Content Review

A structured review of over 100 community-led plans from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It analyses local authority status, community-led planning activity, and thematic content within plans from under-represented areas. Includes summary tables and annexes.

Working Paper 2: Literature Review

A synthesis of post-2010 literature on community-led planning. This review grounds the project’s theoretical framing and draws together international and UK research on CLP, participation, justice, and community power.

Working Paper 1: Theoretical Framework

Outlines the theoretical foundations guiding the project, including justice, participation, power, ethics, and scale. This paper supports the development of the methodological approach and later analysis. As such, this paper focuses on the following questions:

  • How has planning theory approached justice?
  • What is the relationship between participation and justice?
  • How do power and ethics shape (in)justice?
  • How can “just” planning be achieved at the neighbourhood scale?

Responses & Commentary

Team response to the Plan for Neighbourhoods March 2025

The research team – Gavin Parker, Matthew Wargent, John Sturzaker and Tessa Lynn – penned a short response to the recently launched ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’ asking how people will actually be involved.

Calls for Evidence

Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON)

Launched in September 2024, ICON is undertaking a comprehensive review of the current state of neighbourhoods across England.

The Commission is examining the role neighbourhoods play in people’s lives and exploring the case for neighbourhood-focused regeneration as a way of supporting wider social and economic objectives. Its work combines quantitative and qualitative evidence and pays particular attention to the experiences of the most deprived and ‘left behind’ communities.

To understand “what works,” ICON is drawing on both international and domestic research, building an evidence base to inform future policy and practice.

You can read ICON’s Interim Report, Neighbourhood Policy Green Paper, and all other publications on their website.

Books

Neighbourhood Planning in Practice

Written by members of the research team, this book examines how communities have used Neighbourhood Planning since the Localism Act (2011), what they achieved, and what challenges they faced. It serves as a practical guide for anyone involved in neighbourhood planning or considering starting a plan.

 

Related Research

Research: Spaces of Hope: People’s Plans

This sister project documents the rich history of community-led planning in the UK since the 1960s, highlighting informal and often overlooked forms of community organising around place and urban change.

More information: PeoplesPlans.org – Exploring the Hidden Histories of Community-led Planning in the UK

 

Research: Just Neighbourhoods. Socio-spatial Justice in Urban Neighbourhoods

Similar project title. Different scope!… This website shares details of research carried out by US and UK universities looking at a case in San Francisco, US. Completed in 2021, this work explored the extent which redevelopment projects at the neighbourhood scale contribute to achieving socially just and fair environments, and who benefits from them. The main objectives of the research included:

  • developing a framework for evaluating different dimensions of injustice in urban redevelopment projects
  • carrying out intensive fieldwork in the Bayview-Hunters Point area, including site observation, participant observation, interview, and archival research
  • studying conflict between the community and the city
  • producing a documentary film that narrates reproduction of urban injustice in BVHP.

See:

Just Neighbourhoods: Socio-Spatial Justice in Urban Neighbourhoods at Oxford Brookes University

Organisations

Here are the  logos of interesting and  useful organisations which are involved with communities and  planning, they might be worth you looking up, just  click on the  icons.