Introduction Since 1997, the New Labour administration has sought to bring about the wholescale modernisation of local government. Its various reforms have been underpinned by a philosophy that promotes a shift away from traditional representative modes of local democratic engagement to new participation-based systems labelled `community gover- nance' (DETR, 1998; ODPM, 2003a). Local politics has become something of a hybrid between the two with representative, elected, local government now operating along- side a variety of initiatives and institutional structures designed to encourage active citizens and communities to participate directly in the design and implementation of local welfare-delivery programmes. In theory, this process is designed to create new synergies between local citizens and institutions, as enhanced levels of citizen partici- pation will, it is argued, make local policymaking more efficient, equitable, and effective (see Blair, 1996). Such exhortations towards active or engaged citizenship are driven by particularistic and bounded conceptions of citizenship, versions that see institutional restructuring as a mechanism through which a new infrastructure for citizenship can be established (Active Community Unit, 2001; Gyford, 1991; Parker, 2002). However, these reforms also have the potential to create new tensions between different interests, with established representative structures being undermined by the emergence of seemingly participative processes and the enhanced `legitimacy' and `representativeness' that they are perceived to bring. An examination of how these Reshaping spaces of local governance? Community strategies and the modernisation of local government in England Mike Raco} Department of Geography, King's College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England; e-mail: mike.raco@kcl.ac.uk Gavin Parker, Joe Doak Department of Real Estate and Planning, University of Reading, PO Box 219, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AN, England; e-mail: G.Parker@reading.ac.uk, A.J.Doak@reading.ac.uk Received 1 December 2004; in revised form 1 August 2005 Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2006, volume 24, pages 475 ^ 496 Abstract. The preparation of Community Strategies (CS) has been required of Local Strategic Partnerships and local authorities in England since the passing of the Local Government Act 2000. The authors examine the process and content of two CSs in southern England as part of an ongoing project to understand their impact and explore ways in which CSs may be prepared in a meaningful and effective manner. They critically evaluate a number of dimensions of CS formulation, including: the important role of local political and cultural context; the extent to which they reflect and reproduce a shift from representational to participatory forms of democracy; the impact of national policy agendas; the role of place identity; the relative influence of local government officers and members; and the dynamics and implications of particular forms of conflict mediation and consensus building. They conclude that the process of CS formation studied illustrates the tensions and oppor- tunities contained within the Labour government's modernisation agenda. Governmentalities of active citizenship and participatory democracy mingle with more representational and managerial modes of local governance, creating hybrid structures, processes, and outcomes that shape the process of strategy formulation. All this is set within a context of a dynamic and variable set of place identities and pervasive resource (inter)dependencies which both close down and open up the range of issues and interests that are drawn into the process of CS formulation. DOI:10.1068/c51m } Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.