Critical Social Policy © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0261018315575103 csp.sagepub.com 1–19 Critical Social Policy Tottenham after the riots: The chimera of community and the property-led regeneration of ‘broken Britain’ DENIS DILLON First Rung, London, England BRYAN FANNING University College Dublin, Ireland Abstract David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ agenda is best understood in terms of ideo- logical and policy continuities with earlier Conservative and New Labour governments. But where previous post-1979 governments have sought to renegotiate the role of the state mostly through privatisations and marketisations of public services, the ‘Big Society’ agenda also proposed the replacement of the state by individual voluntarism and community enterprise. The accompanying political narrative portrays an atomised ‘broken Britain’ but at the same time insists that untapped community spirit can take the place of the state. This article examines the disjunc- ture between Big Society narratives and urban policy responses to the 2011 Tottenham riots. By comparison with previous local regeneration initiatives in Tottenham there was very little emphasis on community development. Instead explicit goals of gentrification in the Plan for Tot- tenham echo Thatcher-era approaches to ‘place shaping’ and exemplify a wider re-emphasis on property-led regeneration. Corresponding author: Bryan Fanning, A001b Arts Annexe, University College Dublin, Belield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Email: bryan.fanning@ucd.ie 575103CSP 0 0 10.1177/0261018315575103Critical Social PolicyFanning and Dillon research-article 2015 Article at University College Dublin on May 5, 2015 csp.sagepub.com Downloaded from