Colin C. Williams, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK Jan Windebank, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

’At a time when almost every discipline seems to be dominated by the conventional economic paradigms of market and paid work, Colin Williams is a fresh and realistic voice of sanity. This grounded view of life makes a real contribution to research and new policy thinking to improve day to day experience in disadvantaged areas.’ Ed Mayo, New Economics Foundation, UK ''...the book contains a good deal of useful information about local government finance in Europe.' Local Government Studies

• Contents: Introduction. Rationales for a Self-help Approach: The employment problem; The persistence of self-help; Policy options and their implications. Self-help in Deprived Urban Neighbourhoods: Examining self-help activity; The extent and character of self-help; Providing for ourselves: self provisioning; Helping each other out: unpaid community work; Spreading the cash around: paid informal exchange; Barriers to participation in self-help. Developing Policies to Revitalise Deprived Urban Neighbourhoods: From full-employment to full-engagement; Bottom-up initiatives; Top-down approaches; Conclusions; References; Index.