On the Stickiness of Territorial Stigma: Diverging Experiences in Amsterdam’s Most Notorious Neighbourhood

Fenne M Pinkster,Myrte S Hoekstra,Marijn S Ferier

doi:10.1111/anti.12608

Abstract

AbstractIn Western Europe, a select number of “ghettos” are at the forefront of public anxieties about urban inequality and failed integration. These notorious neighbourhoods at the bottom of the moral spatial order are imagined as different and disconnected from the rest of the city. This paper examines how residents in Amsterdam Bijlmer, a peripheral social housing estate long portrayed as the Dutch ghetto, experience the symbolic denigration of their neighbourhood. Interviews show that all residents are highly aware of the negative racial, cultural and material stereotypes associated with their neighbourhood. However, these negative stereotypes are not equally felt: territorial stigma “sticks” more to some residents than others and substantial inequalities are observed in who carries the burden of renegotiating blemish of place. Differential engagement with stigma depends on how residents’ identity and the materiality of their surroundings intersect with stigmatising narratives of place.

Highlights

Bringing together the geographical literature on sociospatial imaginaries and the sociological literature on territorial stigmatisation, this paper explores how residents in Amsterdam Bijlmer differentially engage with its negative reputation
Considering territorial stigma, we argue that such unequal power relations are manifest in the external production of stigma by governing institutions and social media, but that they may be present within a marginal neighbourhood in the diverging lived experiences of residents
Time and again residents are made aware of the negative racial, cultural and material stereotypes associated with their neighbourhood in their interactions with the outside world and through its portrayal in the media (Arthurson et al 2014; Van Gent and Jaffe 2017). These harsh processes of territorial stigmatisation occur despite the fact that urban marginality in Dutch cities is mild compared to many other countries (Aalbers et al 2011; Musterd 2008)

Summary

Introduction

This includes a shortlist of notorious neighbourhoods, whose names are nationally—and in some cases internationally—known, and which are imagined as different and disconnected from the rest of the city (Dikec 2007) Residents in these iconic neighbourhoods are confronted with stigmatising labels and negative narratives in their everyday lives (De Koning and Vollebergh 2019), in newspapers (Glasze et al 2012), social media (Butler et al 2018), popular culture (Arthurson et al 2014; Van Gent and Jaffe 2017) and urban policies (Kipfer 2015; Tyler and Slater 2018). In The Netherlands, such imaginaries of immoral and dystopian urban spaces frequently appear in political discourse (De Koning 2015; Schinkel and Van den Berg 2011), for example when they are identified as places that need to be “reconquered from the scum of the streets” (press conference by Prime Minister Rutte, 2016) or as places that deserve exceptional treatment through harsher sentencing of crimes (proposal by Member of Parliament Dijkhoff, 2018)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion