- Social Geography, Critical Theory, Qualitative methodology, Whiteness Studies, South Africa, Citizenship identities, and 35 moreDiversity, Urban Studies, Cultural Geography, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Geography, Human Geography, Segregation, Cultural Encounters, Solidarity, Belgium, Race and identity in post-apartheid South Africa, Right to the city, Public Space, Public Art, Rural Sociology, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Jacques Rancière, Rural Geography, Fear of Crime, Electronic Journal, Open Journal, Research and Publications, Extreme Right, Scopus, Research Data Sharing Through Open Acces and Enhanced Publications, Flanders, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, Migration Studies, Migration, Urban Geography, Space and Place, Neoliberalism, and Citizenship(Diversity, Urban Studies, Cultural Geography, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Geography, Human Geography, Segregation, Cultural Encounters, Solidarity, Belgium, Race and identity in post-apartheid South Africa, Right to the city, Public Space, Public Art, Rural Sociology, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Jacques Rancière, Rural Geography, Fear of Crime, Electronic Journal, Open Journal, Research and Publications, Extreme Right, Scopus, Research Data Sharing Through Open Acces and Enhanced Publications, Flanders, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, Migration Studies, Migration, Urban Geography, Space and Place, Neoliberalism, and Citizenship)edit
- I am a postdoctoral researcher and teaching associate at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research at Vrije Universite... moreI am a postdoctoral researcher and teaching associate at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. On the one hand, I am a lecturer in the Erasmus Mundus MSc 4CITIES and the Msc Geography master’s degree programs. On the other, I am the day-to-day coordinator of the interdisciplinary research program on Cities and Newcomers. My current research is situated within this program and builds upon my interest in the geographies of encounter and solidarity. More specifically, it focuses on the role of diverse groups of professionals in the accommodation of newcomers in the city of Brussels.(I am a postdoctoral researcher and teaching associate at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. On the one hand, I am a lecturer in the Erasmus Mundus MSc 4CITIES and the Msc Geography master’s degree programs. On the other, I am the day-to-day coordinator of the interdisciplinary research program on Cities and Newcomers. My current research is situated within this program and builds upon my interest in the geographies of encounter and solidarity. More specifically, it focuses on the role of diverse groups of professionals in the accommodation of newcomers in the city of Brussels.)edit
Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews with 60 middle-class, white residents of two privileged suburbs of Cape Town, this paper focuses on the particularities and the potential effects of mobile encounters with strangers. Starting from... more
Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews with 60 middle-class, white residents of two privileged suburbs of Cape Town, this paper focuses on the particularities and the potential effects of mobile encounters with strangers. Starting from discourses about different means of transportation, it is demonstrated, first, that middle-class, white South Africans prefer cars over public transit not only for safety reasons or matters of practicality but also to circumvent interactions with those whom they consider to be strangers. Yet, based on the ambiguous and ambivalent sensations of fear, shame, guilt, sympathy, apathy and anxiety provoked by glances and glimpses of strangers on drives through the city, it is clarified that particular forms of visual encounter which develop on-the-go can stimulate privileged residents of a very unequal city to develop new engagements with strangers. By analyzing how unfocused interactions through the windshield add up to focused interactions at home and at work, it is shown, more specifically, how different types of encounters at different places complement each other to encourage middle-class, white residents to see the humanity of those whom they had considered to be strange or dangerous before.
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Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews with middle class, white residents of a privileged neighborhood of Cape Town, this paper infers that many scholars rely on a narrow understanding of the nature and the geography of encounters in... more
Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews with middle class, white residents of a privileged neighborhood of Cape Town, this paper infers that many scholars rely on a narrow understanding of the nature and the geography of encounters in cities to make exaggerated claims about the effects of enclave urbanism. Inspired by Amin's (2013a) notion of telescopic urbanism, the author moves beyond the sedentarist focus on residential enclaves to conceptualize a wide range of encounters which may occur inside and in-between enclaves. In the empirical sections, the paper demonstrates that the retreat into patrolled neighborhoods, upscale shopping malls and private transportation is inspired not only by the ambition to avoid crime, but also by the desire to circumvent confrontations with racialized poverty. Yet, by focusing on moments of stasis and mobility inside and in-between various enclaves, the author argues that encounters across lines of race and class still do occur and have the potential to challenge privileged residents to reconsider their stereotypes about the poor and to become aware of their own privileges. As such, the paper ends with a call for more profound, empirical and context-sensitive studies on encounters in enclave cities.
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Dit artikel biedt een korte inleiding tot dit themanummer over solidariteit in diversiteit. We focussen ons daarbij op twee specifieke dimensies uit het analytisch kader van het DieGem-project over innovatieve vormen van solidariteit... more
Dit artikel biedt een korte inleiding tot dit themanummer over solidariteit in diversiteit. We focussen ons daarbij op twee specifieke dimensies uit het analytisch kader van het DieGem-project over innovatieve vormen van solidariteit ‘hier en nu’: de integratieve en transformatieve dynamieken van nieuwe vormen van solidariteit in diversiteit en ‘burgerschapspraktijken’. Op deze manier tonen we aan hoe de DieGem aanpak verschilt van de gangbare praktijken om te werken aan de sociale cohesie in een superdiverse samenleving.
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While policy makers in different parts of the world are worried about the supposedly negative consequences of spatial concentrations of ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged people, researchers continue the debate about the desirability... more
While policy makers in different parts of the world are worried about the supposedly negative consequences of spatial concentrations of ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged people, researchers continue the debate about the desirability and feasibility of social mix. In this article, we add to this literature by focusing on the often neglected, but crucial practices and discourses of the privileged in urban and suburban neighborhoods. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 74 white, middle class residents of eight different neighborhoods of the Ghent urban region in Belgium, we demonstrate that few middle class whites actually want to live in a mixed neighborhood. We also make it clear that those living in diversity do not necessarily take up the roles they are expected to take up by the advocates of social mix policies. Drawing on these findings, we propose to broaden the research agenda of studies on segregation and social mix.
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The final attainment levels of Flemish secondary geography education stress the importance of respect for other societies and the specific way of life of other people. As a consequence, curricula focus more than ever on topics such as the... more
The final attainment levels of Flemish secondary geography education stress the importance of respect for other societies and the specific way of life of other people. As a consequence, curricula focus more than ever on topics such as the global north-south divide, migrations and the multicultural city. Drawing on an analysis of fifty Flemish geography textbooks published between 1896 and 2004, this paper critically addresses the way in which these topics have been presented. The study reveals that an emphasis on racial differences has been largely replaced by a focus on cultural differences. Yet, because of the strong emphasis on cultural otherness, the one-sided explanation of cultural conflicts, the manifest silencing of discrimination and xenophobia and the use of an exclusionary us-them-perspective, the textbooks (re)produce a racist and ethnocentric world view among young people in Flanders. Hence, the article concludes with four propositions for geography textbooks which motivate students to become part of a more inclusive, more diverse and more just society.
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In Vlaanderen heeft onderzoek naar migratie en diversiteit zich sterk toegespitst op stedelijke leefomgevingen. Zowel in populaire discoursen als in academische betogen is etnische en culturele diversiteit onlosmakelijk verbonden met de... more
In Vlaanderen heeft onderzoek naar migratie en diversiteit zich sterk toegespitst op stedelijke leefomgevingen. Zowel in populaire discoursen als in academische betogen is etnische en culturele diversiteit onlosmakelijk verbonden met de stad. Statistieken tonen echter aan dat het aantal vreemdelingen ook in suburbane woonomgevingen toeneemt. Dit roept de vraag op hoe de bewoners van middenklasse suburbs omgaan met etnische en culturele diversiteit. Schermen zij het gemeenschapsleven af voor de nieuwkomers? Zien zij hen als een bedreiging voor de gevestigde waarden? Vindt er uitsluiting en stigmatisatie plaats? Of leidt contact juist tot een beter begrip en wederzijds respect? Speelt het middenklasse ideaal van de homogene suburb hierbij een belangrijke rol? Betekent dit dat mensen uit de lagere middenklasse anders kijken naar de lokale immigratie dan mensen uit de hogere middenklasse? Op basis van theoretische inzichten en internationale studies rond dit thema werken we in dit artikel een onderzoeksagenda rond deze vragen uit.
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Review van Filip Canfyn - Het syndroom van verkavelingsvlaanderen - 2014 - Brussel: VUBPress
Verschenen in Ruimte en Maatschappij 5 (4), 74-76
Verschenen in Ruimte en Maatschappij 5 (4), 74-76
Vlaanderen wordt snel meer divers. Dat moeten we lezers van ALERT niet meer vertellen. En al concentreert deze superdiversiteit zich nog steeds voornamelijk in de steden, stilaan krijgt ook de rest van het Vlaamse land er mee te maken.... more
Vlaanderen wordt snel meer divers. Dat moeten we lezers van ALERT niet meer vertellen. En al concentreert deze superdiversiteit zich nog steeds voornamelijk in de steden, stilaan krijgt ook de rest van het Vlaamse land er mee te maken. Anno 2013 is het omgaan met diversiteit dan ook een belangrijke uitdaging voor gans Vlaanderen. Buren, werknemers en werkgevers, leerlingen en leraars, voetballers en trainers worden allemaal geconfronteerd met meertaligheid, meerlagige identiteiten en culturele verschillen. Dat dit niet altijd even vanzelfsprekend is, spreekt voor zich.
De toenemende diversiteit zet ook druk op solidariteit. Bij veel sociologen heerst er pessimisme over het genereren van solidariteit in heterogene maatschappijen. Op basis van grootschalig onderzoek komen zij tot de conclusie dat diversiteit het totstandkomen van solidariteit in informele netwerken en nationale herverdelingsstructuren bemoeilijkt. We analyseren verderop die relatie tussen superdiversiteit en solidariteit en argumenteren dat solidariteit in diversiteit wel mogelijk is. Alleen moeten we die nieuwe vormen van solidariteit elders zoeken dan in de klassieke registers van de historisch gegroeide nationale gemeenschap en staat.
De toenemende diversiteit zet ook druk op solidariteit. Bij veel sociologen heerst er pessimisme over het genereren van solidariteit in heterogene maatschappijen. Op basis van grootschalig onderzoek komen zij tot de conclusie dat diversiteit het totstandkomen van solidariteit in informele netwerken en nationale herverdelingsstructuren bemoeilijkt. We analyseren verderop die relatie tussen superdiversiteit en solidariteit en argumenteren dat solidariteit in diversiteit wel mogelijk is. Alleen moeten we die nieuwe vormen van solidariteit elders zoeken dan in de klassieke registers van de historisch gegroeide nationale gemeenschap en staat.
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More than twenty years after the repeal of the Group Areas Act, South Africa is facing a number of challenges with regards to housing, spatial planning and urban development. Government institutions, scholars, NGO’s and local communities... more
More than twenty years after the repeal of the Group Areas Act, South Africa is facing a number of challenges with regards to housing, spatial planning and urban development. Government institutions, scholars, NGO’s and local communities have been looking for innovative ways to improve the housing conditions of all South Africans. With this special issue, we aim to demonstrate that international insights cannot only be relevant to understand and enrich South African cases, but that an in-depth analysis of the South African experiments can also be meaningful for academic analyses and political decisions in other parts of the world. In order to stimulate such a cross-fertilization, this article will briefly summarize the current situation in South Africa in the public housing sector, the private housing sector and the self-help approach. We will also introduce the eight papers of this special issue.
Research Interests: Urban Geography, Spatial Analysis, Housing & Residential Design, Urban Planning, Comparative Urbanism, and 12 moreComputer Aided Design, Urban Studies, Urbanism, Housing, Transportation, Affordable Housing, Urban Design, South Africa, City and Regional Planning, Environmental Criminology, Landscape Planning, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Drawing on in-depth interviews with 78 middle class Whites in two neighborhoods of Cape Town, this paper focuses on domestic geographies of encounter. By looking at the motivations to fortify houses with walls, gates and alarms, it will... more
Drawing on in-depth interviews with 78 middle class Whites in two neighborhoods of Cape Town, this paper focuses on domestic geographies of encounter. By looking at the motivations to fortify houses with walls, gates and alarms, it will be demonstrated, first, that seemingly banal actions to secure the residential environment are not only dependent upon the socio-spatial exclusion of poor people, but also specifically targeting it. Secondly, it will be argued that fortified homes provide, nevertheless, one of the rare places where White, middle class South Africans interact across class and race lines. Precisely because of the perceived absence of a crime threat, encounters with domestic workers, builders and homeless people inside and around fortified homes do not only help middle class Whites to shatter their naive assumptions about crime, poverty and privilege, but to set up small-scale acts of generosity as well. Based on these findings, the conclusion raises three issues to take up in the geographies of encounter literature. They relate to the nature of interactions, the conditions under which they emerge and their potential effects.
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Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than 40 White South Africans in a middle class neighborhood of Cape Town, this paper looks at the motivations to secure South African houses and neighbourhoods with perimeter walls, security... more
Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than 40 White South Africans in a middle class neighborhood of Cape Town, this paper looks at the motivations to secure South African houses and neighbourhoods with perimeter walls, security initiatives and neighbourhood watches. The discourses of the residents make it clear that seemingly banal actions to secure the residential environment are motivated as much by the fear of falling property prices and the fear of losing psychological comfort as they are driven by the high levels of crime and fear of crime.
"""Over the last two decades the study of the social and the spatial transitions in South Africa has drawn numerous researchers and postgraduate students from all over the world. Based on our experiences as Belgian doctoral students doing... more
"""Over the last two decades the study of the social and the spatial transitions in South Africa has drawn numerous researchers and postgraduate students from all over the world. Based on our experiences as Belgian doctoral students doing fieldwork in South Africa, we discuss some of the challenges that confront early career human geographers from abroad when conducting research in South Africa. We concentrate on the unequal relations between researchers from the North and research participants from the South.
In this article, we reflect, specifically, upon the potentials and difficulties of establishing a 'space of betweenness' between researchers from the North and the researched from the South. To do so, we first sketch feminist theories that describe the research process in terms of a relation or a dialogue. By confronting these theories with our own research experiences as doctoral students in Cape Town, we aim to contribute to a postcolonial methodology in two critical ways.
First, we show that the betweenness of the research process has often been limited to the research encounter itself, whereas it is also necessary to think about the relation between researchers and research participants beforehand and afterwards. To develop a postcolonial research methodology it is essential, indeed, to rethink how we come to our research questions and how to engage with the research results. As a second point, we will demonstrate that a relational understanding of the research process has different implications in critical scholarship on the powerless as well as the powerful. Even though both types of studies can reveal processes and forces of oppression, they entail a different ethical stance regarding the role of the researched in the research process."""
In this article, we reflect, specifically, upon the potentials and difficulties of establishing a 'space of betweenness' between researchers from the North and the researched from the South. To do so, we first sketch feminist theories that describe the research process in terms of a relation or a dialogue. By confronting these theories with our own research experiences as doctoral students in Cape Town, we aim to contribute to a postcolonial methodology in two critical ways.
First, we show that the betweenness of the research process has often been limited to the research encounter itself, whereas it is also necessary to think about the relation between researchers and research participants beforehand and afterwards. To develop a postcolonial research methodology it is essential, indeed, to rethink how we come to our research questions and how to engage with the research results. As a second point, we will demonstrate that a relational understanding of the research process has different implications in critical scholarship on the powerless as well as the powerful. Even though both types of studies can reveal processes and forces of oppression, they entail a different ethical stance regarding the role of the researched in the research process."""
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A full version of the article can be found on http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GqzYwpy5RfsHCGDa2SSW/full
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On 8–9 May 2010, a deprived chengzhongcun (urban village) in the city of Hefei hosted a session of the Second Hefei Contemporary Art Biennale. In this article, we focus on the artistic practices and the online and offline discussions that... more
On 8–9 May 2010, a deprived chengzhongcun (urban village) in the city of Hefei hosted a session of the Second Hefei Contemporary Art Biennale. In this article, we focus on the artistic practices and the online and offline discussions that they evoked. Drawing upon literature on citizenship, public art, public space and public pedagogy, we analyse the exhibition and its social and political potentialities. Looking at a case study in a country where fear of an aggressive crackdown is part and parcel of the psychology of urban protest, we reflect upon the pedagogical potential of public art in the struggle for equal rights to housing, education and urban space. By paying special attention to the geographical and the pedagogical dimensions of this extraordinary event, we demonstrate that public art can play a role in Chinese citizenship struggles.
I am only allowed to put the final version online myself in on year's time. If you don't have access to the article, and if you would like to read it, please do not hesitate to ask a pdf from me: nick.schuermans@ees.kuleuven.be
I am only allowed to put the final version online myself in on year's time. If you don't have access to the article, and if you would like to read it, please do not hesitate to ask a pdf from me: nick.schuermans@ees.kuleuven.be
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Because research on the publication practices of academic geographers has been limited to the quantification of journal articles cited in easily searchable databases such as Thomson Reuters' Web of Science or Elsevier's Scopus, the... more
Because research on the publication practices of academic geographers has been limited to the quantification of journal articles cited in easily searchable databases such as Thomson Reuters' Web of Science or Elsevier's Scopus, the question remains whether journals that are not indexed by these databases flourish or perish under the increasing pressure to publish in outlets with the highest impact factors. To answer this question, we have compiled a database with the complete bibliographies of all Belgian professors that have been working in Belgium in the field of human geography over the last 40 years. Based on our quantitative analysis of 810 articles published in 304 different journals, we come to the conclusion that human geographers from the Dutch-speaking north of the country are currently publishing more in English-language journals and in journals indexed by the Web of Science than their colleagues in the seventies or the eighties, but less in the Dutch and the French languages and in Belgian geographical journals. In the French-speaking south of the country, this evolution is less pronounced, but still present. Even though we applaud the tendency to publish in English and in Web of Science journals because it increases the academic rigour of scholarly research, we are afraid that it hampers the role of academic geography in geography education and society as a whole.
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In this article, we discuss the recent success of extreme right politicians in the Flemish countryside. Because the Vlaams Belang, the dominant extreme right-wing party in Flanders, plays to racist attitudes and everyday fears, we study... more
In this article, we discuss the recent success of extreme right politicians in the Flemish countryside. Because the Vlaams Belang, the dominant extreme right-wing party in Flanders, plays to racist attitudes and everyday fears, we study the interrelations between the rise of the extreme right, racism and a spatialized and racialized culture of fear. Based on a multi-level analysis of spatial variations of racism and a qualitative analysis of focus group interviews on fear of crime, we suggest that a rural or suburban vote for the extreme right Vlaams Belang has to be understood as a protest vote against the racialization and the insecurity of the central cities and as an anticipatory vote that has to stop the imagined infection of the 'white' and 'safe' countryside with urban 'diseases' like crime and foreigners.
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Kritisch omgaan met tijd is in de ruimtelijke wetenschappen eigenlijk nooit een prioriteit geweest. Tijd loopt en lijkt een eenvoudig constant gegeven. Maar is dat wel zo? Was het niet Einstein die beweerde dat de tijd relatief is? Dat... more
Kritisch omgaan met tijd is in de ruimtelijke wetenschappen eigenlijk nooit een prioriteit geweest. Tijd loopt en lijkt een eenvoudig constant gegeven. Maar is dat wel zo? Was het niet Einstein die beweerde dat de tijd relatief is? Dat tijd verschilt naargelang waar je je bevindt?
Zeker nu populisten als Filip Dewinter en Geert Wilders teren op een brede maatschappelijke onderstroom van angst en xenofobie, moeten we ons afvragen of Roosevelt geen gelijk had toen hij zei dat het enige waar we echt bang voor moeten... more
Zeker nu populisten als Filip Dewinter en Geert Wilders teren op een brede maatschappelijke onderstroom van angst en xenofobie, moeten we ons afvragen of Roosevelt geen gelijk had toen hij zei dat het enige waar we echt bang voor moeten zijn de angst zelf is.
In het werk van David Sibley staan gevoelens van onveiligheid, onzekerheid en ongerustheid centraal. In zijn bureau in Leeds vroegen we hem hoe hij dat soort van angsten in verband brengt met het psychoanalytische, het ruimtelijke, het... more
In het werk van David Sibley staan gevoelens van onveiligheid, onzekerheid en ongerustheid centraal. In zijn bureau in Leeds vroegen we hem hoe hij dat soort van angsten in verband brengt met het psychoanalytische, het ruimtelijke, het politieke en het economische.
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Associatie KULeuven. ...
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