RESOURCES: Review - Welcome insight into improving city societies

Cities are more than their physical fabric, they are about social relationships - without which they would become barren and unbearable places for us - and this is clearly recognised by children and young people.

The manual is the culmination of an international programme initiated in 1994, which encompassed 14 "working-class" sites across the world.

It contains concrete examples of methods that can be used to engage young people in evaluating their local environment, to analyse and prioritise key issues and develop and implement a plan of action.

Until recently, I would have been in agreement with the author's statement that we have moved beyond the "why?" of participation to the "how?" - hence the importance of manuals such as this. However, I think that despite the undoubted progress achieved in the UK, serious fissures are appearing in the landscape of policy formation. There is much to be positive about, but, in other areas, the position is bleaker and contradictory. In the area of criminal justice, children and young people living in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods are constructed as potential criminals in need of diversion. I think the recent green paper is confusing and confused, overemphasising prevention rather than the impact of growing inequality.