urban regeneration in deprived european neighbourhoods 411
regeneration in cities. The few showpiece cases documented of initiatives
taken by the private sector to promote regeneration, tended to be examples not
of public-private partnership but of private philanthropy providing for the
funding of a publicly managed and delivered service, such as the Cisco
Systems funded educational academy in Glasgow.4 Global capital touches
down in communities making a potentially positive impact, but it is not
anchored in those local communities. Leaving aside examples of philanthropic
enterprise, we found little evidence that the local private sector is motivated
by any sense of civic duty or by any desire to improve the well being of the local
inhabitants. But why should it? The private sector, in the main, is purely
concerned with advancing its own sectoral interests. The examples of public-
private partnership such as those that arise from the tax designation of sites
in Dublin City, suggest the creation of alliances on the part of the local state
with key entrepreneurial individuals rather than with the commercial sector
per se, and the continued role of the public sector as the major agent of social
regeneration.
VI PARTNERING LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS
Small investors, local small and medium sized enterprises are often
targeted by the local state in order to bring new vibrancy into rundown areas.
A key regeneration strategy aimed at local economic development is the
provision of start up facilities for new businesses often in workspace either
purpose built or converted buildings. In almost every city, there were examples
of the re-use of buildings that had lost their original purpose as business
centres or workspaces. These kinds of projects involve partnership between
the public sector and the private sector with a small p - artisans, creatives,
entrepreneurs, with the former providing some incentive to the latter to enter
into a business arrangement. For example, Boxhanger Platz is a neighbour-
hood located in the former East of the city of Berlin, that has been badly
affected by de-industrialisation and job loss. The Boxion project aims to
revitalise vacant street level shops by offering them at subsidised rates to
small businesses in the arts/culture/multimedia sector. There are two targets
underlying this approach: a spatial target (neighbourhood improvement) and
an economic target (creating opportunities for the cultural economy). The
4 The seed funding for the Hills Trust Academy in Govan, Glasgow came from Cisco Systems. The
Academy focuses on industry-led training and brings the latest developments in ICT to the
community. Cisco Systems has since 2003 made a similar investment in three other academies in
the Glasgow area.