Local firms, place and social responsibility

Urban regeneration combining integrated and place-based approaches increasingly aims to involve private companies in social activities in neighbourhood revitalisation. The study examines three case studies in selected urban neighbourhoods in differently sized Danish towns and cities. The cases are investigated by means of field observations and interviews and supplemented with official statistics and planning documents. Findings show that in case of the big city neighbourhood, there is considerable incongruity between the views of public planners and company managers as regards what is at issue in the neighbourhood. In the two other case study neighbourhoods, both in provincial towns, there is a much higher degree of concerted action involving all sorts of businesses in urban regeneration. While in the first case companies were primarily focused on traditional material factors of location in the other cases companies displayed much more attachment to the local place.