[Seminar - Cities are back in town] Presentation of the book  “Making the middle-class city. The politics of gentrifying Amsterdam”

SEMINAR CITIES ARE BACK IN TOWN

Sciences Po, Room K031, 1 place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris and via Zoom*

Compulsory Registration

Between 1980 and 2015, Amsterdam changed from a poor city under a radical left-wing government to a city dominated by middle classes. Our central concern is to explain and understand this transformation; and to reveal the mechanisms that (re-)made Amsterdam as a middle-class city. This book asks the question how can a city ruled by the socialist or social democratic Labour Party for a century, and internationally famed for its social policies, become a place where gentrification sets the tone and (neo)liberal urbanism takes hold? To answer, we focus on the interlocking socio-economic and political dynamics that have reshaped Amsterdam’s social geography. We study the institutional and symbolic politics that have undergirded Amsterdam’s transformation, showing that the manifestation of hegemonic middle-class politics are not only about electoral dynamics and new urban policies but also about the symbolic moderation of its negative effects.

Speaker 

Willem R. Boterman and Wouter van Gent are urban and political geographers at the University of Amsterdam. Their work focuses on the social class based transformation of cities, urban spatial policies and urban politics.

Collective discussion