Belgian Cities Research Articles

Party politics across levels of governance: relational dynamics of immigrant integration policy making in Belgian cities

ABSTRACT Whereas authors have increasingly studied immigrant integration policies across governance levels, little has been done to explore how relations between actors at different levels of governance shape immigrant integration policies. This paper examines how a relational approach can shed light on the role of party politics in shaping immigrant integration policies. We explore whether party (in)congruence between the regional and local levels can explain the convergence or divergence of policy frames in four Belgian towns. Our findings indicate that in Flanders – where migration is highly politicised – party (in)congruence plays a role in explaining the convergence and divergence of immigrant integration policy frames, while in Wallonia – where migration is little politicised – party (in)congruence cannot explain divergent policy frames. We argue that the degree of politicisation of migration might impact the extent to which party (in)congruence can explain the consistency of immigrant integration policy frames across governance levels.

Self-reported drink driving, enforcement, crashes, and crash reporting: A 6-country comparison

Objective The objective of this study was to compare drink driving and related road safety issues in 2 urban areas of 6 countries and develop an equation for estimating the rate of crash underreporting to the police in urban areas of countries that lack this information. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of 1 to 2 waves of surveys in pairs of matched medium-sized cities in Belgium, Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa, and Ohio, United States; the surveys supported evaluation of local alcohol harm reduction efforts. Data were from 2017 to 2019 except 2023 for Mexico. Mailed surveys in Ohio and household interviews elsewhere of quota samples matched to census data yielded 23,240 completed interviews. Relevant questions covered drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), DUI enforcement, and, except in South Africa, road crashes. GLM regression provided an equation for estimating police reporting rates of urban injury and no-injury crashes from a country’s purchasing-power parity–adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Results The percentage of drivers driving unlicensed was 30% in Mexico and South Africa, 15% in Brazil, 8% in China, and <1% elsewhere. Among adults who both drove and drank, self-reported urban DUI rates ranged from 12% in China to 53% in South Africa, with 4 countries between 18% and 26%. Among those reporting DUI, the percentage stopped by police for doing so was 14% in Belgium, 15% in Brazil, 25% in China, 31% in Mexico, 45% in South Africa, and only 3% in Ohio. The surveys yielded data on 380 urban crashes. Past-year crash involvement was 2% to 3% in Belgium and China and 5% to 6% elsewhere. The 10% injury rate in Ohio crashes was significantly below the 24% to 35% rates elsewhere. Injury crashes were almost universally reported except in Brazil (60% reported). Only 49% to 56% of non-injury crashes were reported, except in Ohio (73%). Perceived alcohol-involved crash rates of 18% to 19% in Belgium and Ohio were significantly lower than the 32% reported in Brazil, 41% in China, and 57% in Mexico. In the regression, GDP per capita and injury involvement were positively associated with police crash reporting. Conclusions Our equation more closely approximates urban police crash reporting rates than prior studies that assumed that they matched U.S. data. DUI enforcement is weak/ineffective in urban Ohio. With suggested adjustments, our survey questions should be usable in other international road safety and DUI studies.

A travel demand modeling framework based on OpenStreetMap

Demand modeling is an important part of the setup of a traffic model for a city. All travel demand models rely on land use data as the demand for traveling fundamentally stems from activities occurring at different locations; however, many cities lack these data, or experience in estimating travel demand in their region. In response, this study develops a methodology for generating highly detailed land use data in the form of points of interest (POIs) specifically aimed at travel demand estimation purposes. The framework includes a procedure to extract, clean, enhance, and categorize freely available land use data from OpenStreetMap (OSM) into different POI categories, such as residences, schools, and shops. These residential and activity POIs, which are typical origins and/or destinations of trips, serve as the starting point for estimating travel demand. This paper demonstrates the framework’s utility through three case studies across different cities in Belgium. It validates the effectiveness of OSM-derived POIs for travel demand estimation by replicating Antwerp’s existing demand model, examines the POIs classification’s suitability for various travel demand purposes in Leuven, and assesses the transferability of correlations between OSM data and travel demand from Antwerp to Ghent. Beyond the applications illustrated in this paper, the framework provides opportunities for future research on the consistent disaggregation of existing zonal demand estimates and design-based research in which future demand is estimated given the development of POIs. The framework is openly available as a Python tool called Poidpy.

The influence of religion on the care experiences of family carers of older migrants with dementia in Belgian cities

ABSTRACT The number of older migrants with dementia in Western European cities is growing, and so is the share of their family caregivers. This study explores the influence of religion on the caregiving experiences of family caregivers responsible for older labour migrants residing in Belgian cities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 34 family caregivers of older migrants of Moroccan, Turkish, and Italian descent with dementia. Our findings underscore the significance of religion in four key dimensions: (i) as a co-definer of the meaning of dementia, (ii) as a way to deal with dementia and care burden, (iii) as an influencer of family care motives, and (iv) that more religious sensitivity is needed in professional dementia care, especially for Muslims. The discussion advocates for recognising religion as an integral aspect of the multifaceted identity of older migrants. Incorporating religious sensitivity offers a promising pathway toward more comprehensive intersectional-person-centred dementia care.

Unveiling the urban sports landscape: Profiling participants, motives, and policy implications.

The lack of knowledge regarding urban sports poses pressing challenges for governments and sports organisations to deal with in light of its increasing popularity. To develop targeted policy strategies, more insight is needed into the features of urban sports. Therefore, this research aims to establish a profile of urban sports participants in terms of characteristics, behaviours in sports participation, and motives for sports participation. Data was gathered during a large-scale research project on sports participation in the Belgian city of Bruges. A total of 3,951 residents between 6 and 75 years old participated in an online survey. Descriptive statistics and binomial logistic regression analyses were used to examine the differences between urban and traditional sports participants. Based on a binomial regression model, the sports level and location significantly predict urban sports participation. The physical motives for sports participation are significantly less important for urban sports participants compared to the group of traditional sports participants. Urban sports participants value the fun and relaxation motives for sports participation significantly more than traditional sports participants. This paper aimed to establish a comprehensive profile of urban sports participants and juxtaposed it to that of traditional sports participants. While existing literature often portrays urban sports participants as a relatively homogeneous group, our findings reveal a surprising heterogeneity. Consequently, given its increasing popularity, urban sports present a valuable avenue for governments and sports organisations to engage with a diverse range of sports participants.

How human rights implementation by local authorities dealing with Traveller evictions could be improved – Exploring strategies through case study analysis in a Belgian municipality

ABSTRACT This article aims to situate Traveller evictions within discussions on local authorities and their role in realising human rights. It focuses on the scenario where local authorities choose to merely tolerate rather than regularise Travellers’ housing situation, leading to forced evictions without culturally appropriate alternative accommodation. Through a case study in a Belgian city, three aspects will be examined. First, the local authority’s position will be evaluated against the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Second, the article will analyse the involved actors’ human rights engagement. Based on these findings, a third aspect will be to briefly explore three strategies to improve local authorities’ human rights performance in this context: to further develop their position within human rights law and strengthen their engagement with the supranational level; to hold local authorities accountable in terms of human rights law at the domestic level; and to integrate a human rights framework into local authorities’ daily decision-making processes. It will be argued that these strategies show different strengths and weaknesses, highlighting the importance of cooperation between multiple levels and actors. Taken together, they hold the potential to reinforce each other and promote processes and outcomes truly benefitting human rights implementation.

From Mangons to Rewards: Butchery Animals as Revealing the Diversity of Trades in Belgian Cities in the Early Modern Period

Focusing on the Belgian cities of Namur and Liège in the eighteenth century, this article proposes to open a discussion around legal versus illegal butchery, and the description of how it was regulated: by limiting slaughter to specific locations, specific trades, and specific times, and by the work of the people in charge of inspecting foodstuffs. At the heart of this study is the butchery animal—that is, large animals—and the profession in charge of it: the butchers. Given the importance of meat products in consumption practices, the city’s butchers had a central place: gathered in a guild, they had a privileged status, including a virtual monopoly on the slaughter of butchery animals and the sale of raw meat. However, as the meat economy was developing, master butchers were faced with a multitude of vendors who undermined their position and threatened health standards.

Land cover aware temperature correction of bicycle transects: A case study of mapping the air temperature in two Belgian cities

A low-threshold methodology for mapping the nocturnal air temperature in an urbanized region based on bicycle measurements and a number of in-situ weather stations is presented. Firstly, two corrections are applied on the bike measurements: a thermal inertia correction to account for the finite reaction speed of the temperature sensor and a temperature decline correction to offset the background temperature evolution during the mobile measurements. The latter includes for the first time land cover information to account for its impact on the nocturnal cooling rate. Secondly, a linear statistical model is used to produce regional maps of the air temperature based on the relationship between the corrected temperature and land cover around the bicycle transect. Applying this methodology on the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Ghent demonstrates that this low-threshold approach allows for a comprehensive picture of the air temperature and that it has advantages compared to more traditional decline corrections. Further improvements could be made by employing more accurate temperature sensors, applying more complex statistical models and performing multiple measurement campaigns per evening.

Urban growth in the long term: Belgium, 1880–1970

We take advantage of a new data set on Belgian cities to test random growth, that is, Gibrat’s law. This unique data set provides annual population estimates for all Belgian municipalities (2680 cities) from 1880 to 1970. The use of panel data methodology and unit root tests can provide a precise test of Gibrat’s law (a unit root is equivalent to random growth). We run both time series and panel data unit root tests, thus obtaining strong support for random growth in the long term. Results hold when allowing for the presence of one and two structural breaks in the mean, with the timing of the breaks coinciding with some major historical events, such as the World Wars and the economic crisis of 1929–1933.

Nudging people to pay their parking fines on time. Evidence from a cluster-randomized field experiment

The timely payment of municipal parking fines signifies people's acceptance of parking regulations, reduces administrative enforcement costs, and prevents additional late-payment fees for individuals. However, public administrations face challenges in enforcing the timely payment of parking fines. A large group of people fail to pay their fines on time, which requires additional enforcement actions that can result in extra late-payment costs and payment-related stress. In this study we collaborate with the Belgian city of Mechelen and the Behavioral Insights Team of the Flemish regional government to test the compounded effects of three communicative nudges. i.e., simplification, explicit penalty, and social norm, on the timely payment of parking fines. In a cluster-randomized field experiment, parking offenders received either the original notification letter, a simplified notification letter, a simplified notification letter accompanied by an explicit reference to the potential penalties, or a simplified notification letter accompanied by an explicit penalty and a social norm message. The results indicate that people can be nudged to pay their fines on time, but only when multiple nudges are combined and used simultaneously.

Removing Local Nuisances, Arresting Masterless Strangers, and Granting ‘Nights on Request’

This article proposes a comparative study of everyday police controls of vagrants in two Belgian cities – a port city and a capital city – at the end of the nineteenth century, a period that was characterized by heightened mobility and social fear about the so-called ‘masterless poor’. The first section of the article looks at the annual arrest and prosecution rates for vagrancy in Antwerp and Brussels between 1880 and 1910, as well as at the daily instructions from the city authorities and police chiefs to their policemen on how to deal with vagrants and unwanted newcomers. Next, drawing on a selection of archival records of the central police divisions of Antwerp and Brussels from the 1880s, we examine if and how police controls focused on mobile groups when they dealt with vagrancy, and whether they answered the preoccupations of local authorities. In line with the findings of other scholars, we demonstrate that the notion of vagrancy was so elastic that, in both cities, many different groups were arrested and prosecuted for this offence. Next to foreign and internal migrants, the Antwerp and Brussels police also apprehended local people, born in the city or in the surrounding province, who were not necessarily mobile and often known to them. To explain this, we argue that, in practice, the policing of vagrancy was not only shaped by top-down repression, but also by bottom-up uses of the police by vulnerable individuals in need of shelter.

Can co-creation support local heat decarbonisation strategies? Insights from pilot projects in Bruges and Mechelen

Co-creation is often presented as a solution to challenges of achieving energy transitions. However, there is currently little known about how coordinating stakeholders, such as city administrations, interpret co-creation and the extent to which this influences co-creation processes. We draw on a recent project, which embedded co-creation in public decision-making about local-level, sustainable heating transitions. We specifically address the question of how co-creation has been interpreted and implemented by administrations in two major Belgian cities, Bruges and Mechelen, between 2019 and 2023. Data collection included expert interviews, participatory observation, workshops, focus groups, and reviews of action plans and policy documents. We found that a normative understanding of co-creation evolved amongst the project coordinators, who inherently valued the inclusion of citizens in sustainable heat transitions, although actual co-creation only took place at the end of the project (2022–2023). However, we observed structural impediments and contexts that impinge on co-creation: a perceived conflict between community engagement and existing policy agendas, departmental interests; the instrumental framing of projects and the role of co-creation; and the impact of wider political pressures and events (in this case the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions). Conclusions are drawn regarding the longer-term benefits of co-creation for coordinating stakeholders. We also stress the need for research to more fully attend to the structural relations that enable and constrain these actors to practice and innovate with co-creation.

Reconstructing cities: Stimulating redevelopment through the tax code

The welfare effect of urban renewal policies depends on the size of the external effects and the quantity of the building stock that gets redeveloped. While evidence on the externalities is growing, there is still a need for credibly identified estimates of the responsiveness of redevelopment. I exploit a sharp reduction in the value-added tax (VAT) on construction services for redevelopment in a select group of 32 Belgian cities to fill this gap. The results show that a 15 percentage point reduction in the VAT rate leads to an increase in the amount of demolished and redeveloped floorspace of respectively 36% and 35%.

Development and implementation of a community health literacy hub, 'Health Kiosk'-A grassroots innovation.

Being health literate is important to get sufficient health information, to navigate the health system, to access appropriate care and to be able to self-manage health. As such it is a key determinant of health. There is a need for innovative measures to improve health literacy among people living in socioeconomically vulnerable circumstances. Literature shows that this innovation needs to: have "low-threshold access" to health resources in a community-based, outreaching way; be adapted to the needs of the target group; provide reliable and understandable health information adapted to the target population, and support people in developing confidence to act on that knowledge. In response to this need, this article describes-guided by the principles underpinning the Integrated Community Care (ICC) framework-the development and implementation process of a grassroots innovation, namely "Health Kiosk" in a socioeconomically vulnerable area in the northern part of a Belgian city. To be able to focus on the core activity of the Health Kiosk-i.e., stimulating healthy living and health literacy-community building and considering the spatial environment of the neighborhood formed a fundamental basis. Several core ingredients of the Health Kiosk are important to stimulate health literacy among socioeconomically vulnerable groups, namely: (1) working in a community-based, outreaching way; (2) providing accessible health information and support to act on that knowledge; and (3) working in a flexible and independent way to adapt to local needs. As such, the Health Kiosk forms a community health literacy hub with low-threshold access for people living in socioeconomically vulnerable circumstances.

Exploratory compositional analysis of street bin litter: Empirical study in a regional city in Belgium

Street bin litter (SBL) is an overlooked waste stream and its composition has barely been studied. In a first characterization attempt, five sorting experiments were performed on SBL collected in Leuven, Belgium. The waste was sampled and sorted into 8 main and 39 subfractions. The largest main fractions found were illegally dumped waste (33 ± 3%), organics (17 ± 4%) and paper and cardboard (16 ± 2%). On a functional level, the street bins were estimated to contain about 35% packaging, of which beverage and food packaging constituted 46% and 38–44%, respectively. SBL is in relative terms too small a waste stream for economically viable material recovery. However, in order to make a full transition to a circular economy and due to its high visibility, SBL cannot be neglected. Preventive measures and the full application of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes can help to achieve SBL reduction.

Optimization of Water Network Topology and Pipe Sizing to Aid Water Utilities in Deciding on a Design Philosophy: A Real Case Study in Belgium

Numerical optimization is gradually finding its way into drinking water practice. For successful introduction of optimization into the sector, it is important that researchers and utility experts work together on the problem formulation with the water utility experts. Water utilities heed the solutions provided by optimization techniques only when the underlying approach and performance criteria match their specific goals. In this contribution, we demonstrate the application of numerical optimization on a real-life problem. The Belgian utility De Watergroep is looking to not only reinforce its distribution networks but to also structurally modify the network’s topology to enhance the quality of water delivered in the future. To help the utility explore the possibilities of these far-reaching changes in the most flexible way possible, an optimization problem was formulated to optimize topology and pipe sizing simultaneously for the distribution network of a Belgian city. The objective of the problem is to minimize the volume of the looped network and thereby work towards a situation where most of the customers are fed by branched extremities of the network. This objective is constrained by pressure and fire flow requirements and thresholds on the number of customers on the branched sections. The requirements for continuity of supply under failure scenarios are guaranteed by these constraints, as verified in the final solution. The results of the optimization process show that it is possible to design a network which is 18.5% cheaper than the currently existing network. Moreover, it turns out the—previously completely meshed—topology can be restructured so that 67% of the network length is turned into branched clusters, with a meshed superstructure of 33% of the length remaining.

Frailty as a determinant of dental attendance among community-dwelling older adults.

The aim of this study was to assess the association between different levels of frailty and dental attendance among home-dwelling older adults, in Belgium. While many determinants of dental attendance among older adults have been identified, no study has focused on the role of frailty. This was a cross-sectional study on a random sample of home-dwelling adults aged 60 and over from two Belgian cities. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire through a participatory peer-research method. Time since the last dental attendance was the dependent variable. The independent variable was frailty, assessed with the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument, including physical, psychological, social, and environmental subdomains. Covariates were age, gender, having a partner, educational level, and household income, as well as self-perceived oral health. Data analysis included descriptive, bivariate (Chi-Square, ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis), and binomial logistic regression analyses. The sample consisted of 1329 older adults with a mean age of 72.5 years (SD 8.9, range 60-103). In the low frailty group, 73% attended the dentist in the previous 12 months, while it was 62% and 54% in the medium and high frailty groups, respectively. In the fully adjusted model, the initial gradient in the relationship between overall frailty and dental attendance remained; those in the medium and the high frailty groups were respectively 1.46 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.95) and 1.67 (95% CI: 1.15, 2.43) times more likely to report no dental attendance in the previous year than the low frailty group. Similar associations could be seen in the physical and environmental frailty subdomains. Frailty is consistently associated with less favourable dental attendance, independent from age, gender, socioeconomic factors, family composition, and self-perceived oral health. Once frailty has been detected, good interprofessional communication and care are needed to avoid the drop-out of older adults from the oral healthcare system.

Facilitating conditions for staff’s confidence to enforce school tobacco policies: qualitative analysis from seven European cities

BackgroundSchool staff members’ consistent enforcement of school tobacco policies (STPs) is needed to decrease adolescent smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke. Staff’s confidence, indicating their perceived ability to cope with students’ negative responses, explains variations in staff’s STPs enforcement, yet understanding of the determinants for confidence is lacking. We analyzed the conditions in which the staff feel confident in addressing students who violate STPs to support staff’s enforcement. MethodsData consists of 81 semi-structured interviews with the staff members from 26 secondary schools in seven European cities in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and Portugal. In every city, 3–4 staff members (senior management, teachers, supportive staff) in 3–4 schools (academic–vocational, high–low SES area) were interviewed. Transcripts were analyzed with thematic analysis.ResultsWhen staff felt confident in their ability to prevent, diminish, or handle students’ negative responses, they were more likely to address students on STP violations. The staff was more confident (1) when consistent policy enforcement within school and regarding the wider society ensured staff legitimacy for STPs enforcement, (2) when dialog and mutual familiarity with students allowed the staff to facilitate constructive interaction with STP violators, and (3) when organizational backup structures provided staff collegial support to overcome challenges in the enforcement. These conditions would support consistent enforcement, especially with persistent misbehavers and among the more uncertain staff members.ConclusionsOur study stresses the need to implement strategies at multiple levels to strengthen staff’s confidence for STP enforcement. To support staff’s legitimacy for enforcement, we suggest reinforcing structures and practices that facilitate consistency in STP enforcement; to support staff’s ability for constructive interaction with STP violators, we suggest strengthening staff’s social and emotional learning; and to support staff’s experience of collegial support, we suggest reinforcing staff’s collective ability to cope with students’ negative responses.

Response and recovery from Covid-19 in historic urban destinations (cases from Belgium and the Netherlands)

Covid-19 affected tourism in a particularly hard way, forcing stakeholders at all levels to work on recovery while a number of experts pointed out that the pandemic constituted a momentum to change the future face of tourism. This paper focusses on a potential implementation gap, researching the question how local stakeholders handle the Covid-19 pandemic in practice, both in the short run and in longer term recovery strategies. Is a “business as usual” approach prevalent or can the pandemic be a catalyst for (major) transformations? The cases researched are historic cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Although these countries lack a dominant tourism industry, especially their cities, as destinations, suffered considerably. Short-term crisis management as well as the vision, strategy and actions on how to recover in the long term, were the subject of a number of online workshops with tourism planning and management officials. These online workshops used an interesting software (MURAL) to fuel the interactive exchange of information and discussion.

A pessimist’s approach to one-sided matching

Inspired by real-world applications such as the assignment of pupils to schools or the allocation of social housing, the one-sided matching problem studies how a set of agents can be assigned to a set of objects when the agents have preferences over the objects, but not vice versa. For fairness reasons, most mechanisms use randomness, and therefore result in a probabilistic assignment. We study the problem of decomposing these probabilistic assignments into a weighted sum of ex-post (Pareto-)efficient matchings, while maximizing the worst-case number of assigned agents. This decomposition preserves all the assignments’ desirable properties, most notably strategy-proofness. Next to discussing the complexity of the problem, we obtain tight lower and upper bounds on the optimal worst-case number of assigned agents. Moreover, we propose two alternative column generation frameworks for the introduced problem, which prove to be capable of finding decompositions with the theoretically best possible worst-case number of assigned agents, both for randomly generated data, and for real-world school choice data from the Belgian cities Antwerp and Ghent. Lastly, the proposed column generation frameworks are inherently flexible, and can therefore also be applied to settings where other ex-post criteria are desirable, or to find decompositions that satisfy other worst-case measures.