Urban renewal and regeneration in the Netherlands Integration lost or subordinate?

Abstract

In this paper, Paul Stouten and Edward Hulsbergen revisit some of the on-going, and to some extent intractable, problems embedded in urban renewal and regeneration policies. In the context of the Netherlands, they argue that from the 1970s onwards there has been a growing disconnection between social and physical aspects of urban renewal. The particular problems the authors highlight include: the limited ways in which current problems are identified; the existence of numerous unconnected money flows; a shift in investment priorities, in particular away from public housing schemes; and the segregation of public authorities. The authors' overall concern is with the effects which unconnected, marketdriven urban renewal is having on less affluent residents. Stouten and Hulsbergen suggest that concepts such as the 'Network City' and the role of information and communication technologies, may provide new ways to 'reintegrate' urban policies. They also suggest that there needs to be more consideration of the scale at which many urban problems operate, and that more direct participation with residents, through for example an "active neighbourhood approach", can offer new solutions to old problems. Cities such as the Hague and Rotterdam are experimenting with such new problem statements for urban renewal. The question is: to what effect?