Remaking Local Governance through Community Participation? The Case of the UK Community Waste Sector

Abstract

This article explores the role played by community sector organisations in terms of community participation and local governance. It focuses on organisations concerned with waste reduction, reuse and recycling-community waste projects. The current UK government has high expectations of the potential and actual role of the community sector in service delivery. To indicate how these expectations might be fulfilled, the article employs the local governance perspective and reviews claims made for the role played by the community sector in governance processes. The local linkages of community waste projects are then assessed through a 'policy-action' continuum. The article concludes that community waste projects provide significant opportunities for volunteer involvement in their activities. They also have significant impacts on waste governance, through service delivery and participation in related policy processes. However, suggestions that community sector organisations can represent the wishes of local people in policy processes should be treated with caution.