The lost sense of community, increasing concerns over crime and environmental imperatives combine to suggest the need to re-examine the role of the neighbourhood. The growing presence of multiple housing forms at intermediate densities--such as town or row housing--and the emergence of new legal relationships between residents and their housing--what are referred to as forms of tenure, such as condominium ownership and co-operative membership--suggest the possibility that these might have important effects on the experience of local residential communities.Sociologists have suggested that the neighbourhood is no longer an important aspect of social organization in an age of rationality. Further, participation has been directly related to socioeconomic status. As individual economic self-interest in local areas varies with tenure form, it is reasonable to expect that higher income freehold owners would be more likely to participate in neighbourhood-based voluntary organizations than others. If this is so, a strategy of local empowerment may not enhance social equity.It is suggested that the various forms of housing tenure can be positioned on a continuum in which individual control, self-interest and socioeconomic status decline across the categories of residents, from freehold owners through condominium owners and co-operative members to tenants. Research involving 450 residents of row housing in the Ottawa-Carleton region examined the role housing tenure plays in the realization of community at the local level and in individual participation in neighbourhood organizations and voluntary organizations of all kinds, as well as the consequences of tenure and participation for residents sense of efficacy. Effects of scale of development, that is, the number of homes within building complexes, on participation and sensed efficacy was also examined.Some 77 percent of respondents indicated that their neighbourhood continued to be important to them.It was found that co-operative and, to a lesser degree, condo housing encourages greater participation of residents within the neighbourhood and in organizations in general, although this increased participation did not necessarily lead to enhanced feelings of personal efficacy. Contrary to much previous evidence, it was found that participation and satisfaction were not related to socioeconomic status--co-op residents led all others in these dimensions, even though they ranked third in average levels of education and income. On the other hand, the low levels of satisfaction and participation found among tenants was far lower than could be accounted for by socioeconomic status alone.Medium scale housing developments also contributed to increased participation, neighbouring, and satisfaction. Some combined effects of scale and tenure were found.