Book excerpt: Approaches to urban regeneration have changed dramatically throughout Europe and the USA over recent decades, drawing on notions of public-private partnership, growth coalitions and local spatial alliances. In this engaging book John McCarthy provides critical consideration of such theories in terms of their application to practice. He shows how these notions are used to explain the nature and underlying processes of urban development and to further objectives for urban regeneration. To test their applicability, he examines the case of Dundee, including the role of the Dundee Partnership, a model for many aspects of partnership working. The resulting conclusions suggest ways in which the practice of urban regeneration can be improved in terms of inclusion, equity and sustainability.