This paper asks how the livability of socially disadvantaged urban neighborhoods can be improved with the help of publicly funded area-based urban regeneration. It builds on the history of area-based regeneration policies in Germany aiming at upgrading and resolving urban problems at the neighborhood level. Its main argument is as follows. First, the fate of conventional physical upgrading policies focusing on the livability of deprived urban areas depends on the development environment. While successful upgrading sometimes makes inner-city neighborhoods so attractive that they run into a trend towards gentrification and displacement of the urban poor, the stabilization of less privileged areas cannot always be guaranteed. Second, alternative approaches are needed, linking limited physical upgrading with socially oriented policies, building on strategies like neighborhood management and empowerment. Third, they can make a substantial contribution to stabilizing deprived neighborhoods, thereby improving the general living conditions and the opportunities of the urban poor. However, they require at least some permanent intervention. Thus, they transcend the logic of area-based regeneration normally limited to restoring faith into the private real estate market and thereby directing inward investment into them that improves the quality of the physical environment. Fourth, they are hardly able to overcome significant negative stigmatization in cities that are severely hit by economic downturn and population decline. This is especially true when they act as arrival areas for consecutive waves of migrants, making it necessary to redefine the role of those areas in cities and accepting their high concentration of urban problems as a starting point for different area-based policies dealing with them. The key empirical background of the paper is the German system of urban development grants and an evaluation of the so-called program of “socially integrative city”.

本文探讨如何在公共资助的基于区域的城市更新的帮助下提高社会弱势城市社区的宜居性。它建立在德国基于区域的再生政策的历史之上，旨在升级和解决邻里层面的城市问题。其主要论​​据如下。首先，以城市贫困地区宜居性为重点的传统物质升级政策的命运取决于发展环境。虽然成功的升级有时会使市中心社区变得如此有吸引力，以至于它们陷入了高档化和城市贫民流离失所的趋势，但并不总是能保证不太特权地区的稳定。其次，需要替代方法，将有限的物理升级与面向社会的政策联系起来，以邻里管理和赋权等策略为基础。第三，它们可以为稳定贫困社区做出重大贡献，从而改善城市贫民的总体生活条件和机会。然而，它们至少需要一些永久性的干预。因此，它们超越了基于区域的再生逻辑，通常仅限于恢复对私人房地产市场的信心，从而将外来投资引导至改善物质环境的质量。第四，在受经济衰退和人口下降严重打击的城市，他们难以克服重大的负面污名化。当它们作为连续一波移民的到达区时尤其如此，因此有必要重新定义这些地区在城市中的作用，并接受它们高度集中的城市问题，以此作为处理这些问题的不同地区政策的起点。本文的关键实证背景是德国城市发展补助金制度和对所谓“社会一体化城市”计划的评估。