Choosing Confrontation or Consensus in the Inner City: Lessons from a Community–University Partnership.

This article describes the experiences of a Los Angeles inner-city neighbourhood in its attempt for revitalization. The authors headed a Community–University Partnership and worked with graduate students to offer technical support to a neighbourhood-based coalition. The students, local residents, merchants and neighbourhood institutions attempted to follow an asset-based consensus building approach to community development. The article describes the different components of their strategy for physical, economic, cultural and social revitalization, and analyzes the lessons learned from the successes and setbacks of this effort. Finally, the authors discuss some apparent limitations of the asset-based consensus approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]