Ripples of structural economic transformation: The changing social geographies of Dutch metropolitan regions

Abstract

Socio-economic inequality across countries and urban regions is on the rise across the Global North. Even in formerly strong welfare states, such as the Netherlands, we now see the effects of sustained marketization and liberalization. Rising social inequality can manifest spatially and become reflected in the changing social geography of urban regions. However, the way in which structural changes affect the social geography of an urban region is highly contingent on the historically grown characteristics of that region, particularly the housing market structure and the labour market. Based on detailed register data on income and wealth of individual households for the four largest Dutch metropolitan areas, this paper describes the shifting spatial inequalities between high and lower status groups, unravelling changing patterns of concentrated affluence and poverty within the metropolitan regions of Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague-Rotterdam, and Eindhoven. We demonstrate that spatial patterns and moreover recent trends are quite differentiated between the four urban regions. We argue that these trajectories should be linked to the different urban profiles which are defined by their positions in global networks, the diversity of the economy, and the way in which national and local policies buffered or catalysed demographic and economic trends. Economically multi-layered and well connected cities, such as Utrecht and Amsterdam are most successful economically, spurring gentrification in the core and a push to the periphery of lower status groups. More mono-layered economies such as The Hague and Rotterdam do not experience widespread gentrification and retain poor inner-cities and relatively affluent suburbs.