Posts

Civic economy
Mutual involvement, active citizenship and the ability to manage for themselves of inhabitants. Themes that, also prompted by cutbacks, become more and more prominent. But does this ‘civil society’ exist in the Netherlands? What can we expect of the self-organizing capacity of inhabitants?  And to what extent can a local authority or corporation stimulate or facilitate this?

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The city from above
At a certain point, each Dutch Urban Planner or Human Geographer has to face it. At least, it used to be compulsory study material: the book ‘Ruimtelijke ordening’ by Van der Cammen and De Klerk. The book represents the history of the planned city and shows how tight The Netherlands is regulated. It does so by using descriptions of a great number of examples of spatial planning and many memoranda. I have no idea whether this book is still compulsory, but at the time I thought it was dry stuff b…

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Living in a City District
It had been in the bookcase for a while now, so this autumn it was about time to start reading it: ‘Afri’ by journalist Jutta Chorus about the Afrikaanderwijk in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). This district is for many the district of the multicultural market and the second generation of Turks and Moroccans that has gone astray. However, the book shows that a lot more, both positive and negative things, is happening in this migrant district.

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Belgian Situations?
This summer, the current Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Space sent the design 'Structuurvisie Infrastructuur en Ruimte' ( Structure vision Infrastructure and Space) to the Dutch lower chamber, in which the word ‘space’ had (both figuratively and literally) the upperhand: “The Netherlands need space. Space to live and to move. Space to be able to grow even further economically. Space for citizens and companies to take initiatives. The government cannot and will not do everything by…

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To Be or Not To Be?
It is already a couple of years ago that I interviewed my former coworker Leeke Reinders (TU Delft) on municipal policy in the French suburbs. In 1998 and 2001, he carried out an anthropological research in Paris into the relation between the city inhabitants and the developed surroundings in Sarcelles, a suburb 15 kilometres north of Paris. He investigated how the developed space (the hard city) transformed into a by people lived and experienced city (the soft city). When I asked him about the…

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The Other Story
Some districts of a city have a national reputation. ‘De jordaan’ in Amsterdam has always been a synonym for popular humour and sociability. No red-light district enjoyed for decades its reputation as much as ‘Katendrecht’ in Rotterdam. And no working-class district enjoyed its reputation as much as the ‘Schilderwijk’ in The Hague, with its street rows and scuffles during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. It is no different in foreign countries. Think, for example, of the French suburbs, the Lon…

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Urban Springtime Books
This blog is on the interface between the planned city and the lived city. It describes inspiring projects, articles, books and private observations. And it represents the beautiful, fun and exciting sides of the city. It is about making the most of opportunities, about creativity and unorthodox regulations. Summed up with the term ‘City in the spring’. This term is hard to define. It’s more a feeling than anything else. Like the first day of spring. In the specialist literature, there are seve…

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