Social Polis Social Platform on Cities and Social Cohesion

Social PolisSocial Platform on Cities and Social Cohesion www.socialpolis.eu EF 8 Social and spatial inequalities

Outline Workshop • Introduction • Theoretical input • Comments by • Johannes Novy (TU Berlin) • Graça Rojão (Coolabora) • Etienne Christiaens (Grootstedenbeleid België) • Discussion • Practical input • Piet Van Meerbeek (Bral vzw) • Niels De Block (BON vzw) • Discussion

Objectives • Future research agenda on urban and regional inequalities • Rudimentary proposals for future research programs integrating research, civil society and policy makers. • Redraft survey paper

EF8 - activities • Survey of European research programs importance of (local) context focus on locality offers only partial solutions household as main policy focus • Brussels conference role of networks inertia of spatial configurations conflict & mediation

continued... • Drafting the FRAs • Local workshop Leuven exogenous vs endogenous growth strategies privatisation of public space focus on deprived areas plea for integrated research programs involving science, civil society and policy • Survey paper • Vienna conference

Contemporary social changes and spatial inequalities in urban Europe Tim Cassiers, Chris Kesteloot EES, KULeuven

Outline • Main research question • Introduction to EF • Societal changes and social inequalities • Spatial segregation • Policy approaches • Social cohesion • Space and social cohesion • Conclusion and future research

Main research question Survey on research on the most recent layer of urban space, as a product of economic, political and cultural changes. How does the spatial organisation of European cities affect social cohesion?

Introduction to EF Spatial structures as social products Every social phenomenon has its spatial dimension social system spatial organisation social groups spatial structures spatial structuring Spatial structures as social reproduction Determine possibilities and constraints for social action social system spatial organisation social groups spatial structures social reproduction

continued... Urban and regional inequalities reflect the social inequalities on a spatial level • Through accumulation of historic layers • Inertia of the build environment • Selective processes of location of different social groups

Societal changes and social inequalities Globalisation (geographical extension) Financialisation (extension of financial and real estate markets) Flexibilisation (differentiation and variation of consumption State restructuring (privatisation of state activities Extending fields of operation Deepening exploitation Relocation in low wage countries Outsourcing Immigration Geographical competition Transnational elite & underclass Empoverishement of private tenants and newcomers Polarisation between designers/managers and producers Social Exclusion Social inequalities Collective wages and welfare provision decrease wage agreements Unemployment Unsecure and low wage jobs Marginalisation/ informalisation

Spatial segregation Social Inequalities Spatial Inequalities Geographical uneven processes of capital accumulation Segregation on a rise Segregation level in Europe varies from city to city Social Inequalities Spatial Inequalities Pattern: spatial mismatch Content: neighbourhood effects Configuration: sprawl, gentrification, gating, ghetto’s

Policy approaches • Shift towards spatial targetting (neighbourhood renewal, social mix,...) • Critisized  residential mobility  scale  “spaces not people need to be integrated” • Impact is real, but effects on overall exclusion is limited

Social cohesion • Foucauldian approach confrontation, conflict, arrangement The capacity of the city to acknowledge the existence of different social and territorial groups present in the city, their diverse and sometimes contradictory interests as well as the capacity for these groups to organize themselves and for the city to create institutions in which these groups can confront each other and decide about the city’s future.

Space and social cohesion • Social cohesion: local focus within policy approaches • Locality as basis for fostering social cohesion in city as a whole  within social innovation literature • Role of actual spatial lay-out for social cohesion in city as a whole is less explored  Negociated city in opposition to repressive city or topological city

Conclusion • Socio-spatial inequalities are well documented in two ways  Overall changes in society and their implications on inequalities Interaction of this new layer with social inequalities • However, the impact of the new layer on the capacity to form an urban community capable of deciding about a common urban future is less explored

Future research • Socio-spatial typology of European cities  truly-comparative research explaining diversity of socio-spatial structures of European cities  policy-relevant typology

continued... • Understanding of institutional structures and analysing experimental structures like area policies and participation  potential in enabling entrance of excluded groups in city arena  potential in connecting to regional and global scales

continued... • Role of capital flows and financialisation  redistributing value of the city  dismystifying exogenous growth

continued... • Role of transnational immigrant communities  non-European dimension of European cities

Social Polis Social Platform on Cities and Social Cohesion