Contextualizing state-led gentrification: goals of governing actors in generating neighbourhood upgrading

Abstract

This paper provides insight into the way in which state-led gentrification unfolded in three neighbourhoods in Amsterdam and The Hague. Although Dutch gentrification has been comparatively mild, state actors increasingly adopted gentrification as a policy tool. However, the Netherlands provides a particular context for state-led gentrification. First, the national government plays a key role, as regeneration policies increasingly promoted gentrification as an instrument for differentiating the housing stock and as necessary to prevent social problems and decline. These goals are adopted by local governments in neighbourhood regeneration. Second, housing associations are important stimulators of gentrification. They are hybrid organizations: although their task is providing affordable housing, they are also market-oriented actors who generate income from market activities. However, power inequalities between actors, different objectives and priorities of actors and different local contexts resulted in processes of negotiation and consequently, diverse regeneration strategies. Although interventions are moving into a neoliberal direction, governments and housing associations still form a strong buffer between market interventions and neighbourhood development.