Venue: NYMA makersplaats, Winselingseweg 16, Nijmegen
This programme will be held in English
As trendy cafés, expensive apartments and wealthy newcomers move into poor neighbourhoods, residents with lower incomes are often pushed out. This process is known as gentrification. How does gentrification happen? Why is it a problem? And how can we upgrade neighbourhoods and cities, without excluding people with lower incomes? Come and learn from political philosopher Ronald Sundstrom, sociologist Arnoud Lagendijk and urban developer Minouche Besters about developing the city in a fair way.
Gentrification
Gentrification occurs when low value neighbourhoods become high value, pushing working-class communities out. As the prices of real estate and facilities rise, wealthier residents move in and everything slowly starts to become more and more expensive. Gentrification is a proven urban strategy to uplift neighbourhoods, but it is becoming a major problem due to the ongoing housing crisis. Cities in The Netherlands and other places in the world become unaffordable for lower incomes, physically separating the living worlds of different social classes. Can we design housing, neighbourhoods, and cities fairly, and thereby minimize the harms of gentrification and segregation? And if so, who is responsible for taking on this task?
Spatial justice
Upgrading cities can lead to social inequality. However, making a neighbourhood more attractive and liveable can bring economic prosperity and an improved quality of life for everyone living there. And these renewed urban areas can add a new identity to cities. Therefore, gentrification is a challenging issue for policymakers and philosophers. How can we profit from urban renewal without encouraging gentrification, pushing out people with lower incomes? What urban policies can prevent unwanted market effects? And what degree of separation is acceptable, since people also like to live together with like-minded neighbours?
Come and listen to political philosopher Ronald Sundstrom discuss the harms and benefits of gentrification and segregation. Social geographer Arnoud Lagendijk and urban developer Minouche Besters will join the conversation about urban renewal and gentrification in The Netherlands and Europe, and how we can counter exclusion of citizens by city development.
About the speakers
Ronald Sundstrom is a political philosopher at the University of San Francisco. His latest book is Just Shelter, in which he investigates the core injustices of the contemporary U.S. housing crisis, including a critical examination of gentrification, segregation, and their associated harms and benefits.
Arnoud Lagendijk is a social geographer at Radboud University. He conducts research on regional development and the processes of regional formation in Europe. He also studies the spread of alternative socioeconomic practices and policy concepts worldwide, and has studied processes of gentrification in Arnhem and Vienna.
Minouche Besters is an urban developer and partner at STIPO. She focuses on inclusive cities, upgrading neighbourhoods, mixing strategy and dangers such as gentrification. She edited the book Our City - countering exclusion in public space.
Participation
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