Efforts to Combat Urban Decay

As shown in this book, problems of urban decay and deprived neighbourhoods are a result of segregation. A way to combat these problems could then be to take action against the causes of segregation, especially against social inequality. For some researchers (see introduction) such action is the only efficient type of measure against deprived neighbourhoods. However, a main point in the preceding chapters has also been that urban decay in itself is an important cause of segregation and that segregation and decay are processes that are intertwined. It can therefore be claimed that efforts to combat urban decay and deprivation also reduce segregation. It is therefore a main point of view in this chapter that so-called area-based initiatives – social, economic and physical efforts in deprived neighbourhoods – have an important purpose in combating segregation and decay, and that they can work.