white paper - CiteSeerX

e d i t o r i a l b o a r d

Linda Boudry

Peter Cabus

Eric Corijn

Filip De Rynck

Chris Kesteloot

André Loeckx

w h i t e pa p e rThe Century of the CityCity republics and grid cit ies

C o l o p h o n

A publication of theUrban Policy ProjectForeign Affairs AdministrationMinistry of the Flemish Communityrue du Marquis 11ooo Brussels Tel. 02 553 40 28 www.thuisindestad.be

EditorGuido DecosterGeneral Manager

Editorial team of the White PaperFilip De Rynck (editor-in-chief)Linda Boudry, Peter Cabus, Eric Corijn,Christian Kesteloot and André Loeckx

Final editingLiesje SchetsMinistry of the Flemish Community

PhotographyKoen Broos, Cobdenstraat 34,2o18 Antwerp

Graphic designMegaluna + Triumviraat, av. Laarbeek 70,1000 Brussels

PrintingMinistry of the Flemish Community

Registration number D/2005/3241/023

Edition 2005

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w h i t e pa p e rThe Century of the CityCity republics and grid cit ies

Geert BouckaertLinda BoudryLuk BraiPeter CabusEric CorijnGuido De BrabanderFilip De RynckMoira HeynMyriam Jansen-VerbekeChristian KestelootAndré LoeckxWilly MiermansPaul PonsaersRuth SoenenLudo StruyvenMarc VerlotJan Vranken

Editorial BoardFilip De Rynck (editor in chief)Linda BoudryPeter CabusEric CorijnChristian KestelootAndré Loeckx

Commissioned by Paul Van Grembergen, Flemish Minister ofHome Affairs, Culture, Youth and Civil Service Administration,competent for urban policy

The Century of the CityCity republics and grid cit ies

This White Paper is the result of an intensiveprocess which was started by my predecessor inDecember 2000. The Task Force which had beenset up at the time was commissioned to drawup a white paper on urban policy. We had greatexpectations. In fact, we wanted to gain aninsight into the desirable developments for thecoming years in order to evolve towards moredynamic, balanced cities that are better to livein. This was based on a perspective of twentyyears. Furthermore, the Task Force was askednot to limit itself to perspectives that were out-lined, but to also look at the possible implica-tions for policy. We ourselves identified five clus-ters which could be worked on: the theoreticalframework to create clear concepts and defini-tions, also devoting attention to the economic,social and physical, as well as the administrativeenvironment of our cities.

When the Task Force was composed, we optedto bring all the academic know-how together. Infact, we found that a great deal of interestingresearch was available, but that it either con-sists of fragmentary material which approachesthe urban environment from a particular disci-pline, or concerns global analyses which actuallyrequired a translation into or a focus on urbanmatters. Therefore, we opted for a multidiscipli-nary composition of the Task Force. This meantthat every member could make his own contri-bution on the basis of his own specialist area ofexpertise, though with the aim of achievingadded value by putting together all the avail-able material. In order to avoid this becoming apurely academic exercise, it was agreed fromthe very beginning that the white paper wouldbe developed with people responsible for policy,officials and local partners.

It is worth remembering the entire process pre-ceding the publication of the white paper.

In the first half of 2001, the members of the TaskForce wrote the working texts together withacademic experts with experience in the fieldand competent officials. In the autumn of 2001,14 workshops were held, each organised in coop-eration with one of the 14 cities in the centre.The participants were recruited through target-ed mail shots and advertisements in daily andweekly newspapers. Approximately 1,000 peo-ple participated in these workshops. In view ofthe importance of their contribution, theirnames were included in this white paper.

The texts of the experts were discussed, supple-mented or amended during the workshops. Atthe end of 2001, the members of the Task Forceformulated the texts in a final form, taking con-tribution of the participants in the workshopsinto account as far as possible. Subjects whichwere missing or inadequately dealt with wereincluded in additional working texts. In order togive everybody the opportunity to closely followthe entire process, all the available material wasmade available in digital form on the websitewww.thuisindestad.be. All these basic textswere included in the book with preliminarystudies.

In the course of 2002, the Task Force started onthe second stage which consisted of developingan integrated vision of the future of the city andthe urban environment. An editorial board inthe Task Force went to work on the final form ofall the texts.

According to the dictionary, a white paper is a“policy document published by the governmentin book form (originally with a white cover)”.This document deviates from this definitionbecause it is not a government document. Themembers of the Task Force were able to workwith complete academic freedom from the verystart. We did not intervene in the process at any

The Century of the City | W H ITE PA P E R

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Fo r e w o r d

time in terms of content as the Government ofFlanders. It was important to us to encouragean open social debate. I would like to emphasisethat the Task Force more than fulfilled its task.On the basis of a thorough and integratedanalysis, it made clear choices which translatedinto both policy and methodological recommen-dations. It is now up to policy and the local part-ners to respond to this.

I would like to warmly thank all the members ofthe Task Force, and in particular the editorialboard for all the work they have done. I am con-vinced that this special working method wasalso very valuable for them. I would like toextend my special thanks to Linda Boudry, whosuccessfully conducted the entire process as theproject leader of the urban policy unit.

Paul Van Grembergen

Flemish Minister of Home Affairs, Culture, Youthand Civil Service Administration, competent forurban policy

6

Introduction 15

1. Impressions and expressions: six views of the city 251. The built-up city 26A. The threat to the historical city 26

1. The urban sprawl and de-urbanisation 272. The city is superseded 283. A culture without a focusdoes not need a city 31

B. The other perspective: the city returns 311. A new look at potential: the increased scope of the city 312. Ambiguous urban development 323. Cities make plans:do plans also make cities? 354. The city in a holographic perspective 36

2. The public city 36A. The erosion of the public space 37

1. Creeping privatisation 382. Beyond the physical public space? 40

B. The public space as an aid to urban development 413. The enterprising city 42A. The new urban economic space 43

1. The expansion and impoverishment of the city 432. Post-Fordism: the network city and dualisation 443. Enlargement of scale and reduction of scale: the global-local paradox 49

B. What is the future for the city in the network economy? 491. Urban characteristics as a threat and as an advantage 492. The urban development coalition for an economic city project 52

4. The city based on solidarity 54A. The marketing of solidarity 54

1. Competition puts solidarityunder pressure 542. A divided city 56

B. What kind of solidarity in the city? Two roads 571. The recognition and organisation of social-spatial groups 572. Everyday types of interrelationships 61

5. The multicultural city 61A. The breakdown of cultural identities 62B. A new challenge for culture: living together on the basis of differences 63

1. From a uniform to a pluriform frame of reference 632. The city as the centre for cultural development 66

6. The participating city 67A. A city without politics? 68B. The city: a new framework for participation 70


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i n h o u d

10 1. Social learning as a connection 702. Networks focusing on cooperation 723. Open representation of the people 734. The foundations and networks for urban policy 745. The city and Flanders in Europe 75

Conclusion 76The city as the harbinger of the new society 76Changing the perspective: looking from six different perspectives 76New spaces, new public access, 78new democratic forms 78The urban character as a lever 80

2. The urban character as a political project 831. The city as a centre for political and social reconstruction 86The process of globalisation: a precarious balance 86The paradox: glocalisation 88The city as the focus of rescaling 882. Urban character, the policy on cities, urban policy 89Urban character and anti-urban character 90Urban policy in the grid city 93Urban policy based on a vision 973. Another tri-polar relationship: government – civil society – population 984. The city republic revisited 100ConclusionA revolution in the urban policy 104

3. The new urban character, a matter of policy 107Line 1Glocal strategy 107Field 1An open attitude on the part of the city and its citizens 108Field 2Strengthening the urban character in the Flemish urban network 108Field 3A comprehensive economic profile 110Line 2Coordination in town and country planning 111Field 4Strengthen coordination with cooperation 112Field 5A policy corresponding to the grid city 114Field 6Connections with (infra)structures 115Line 3Qualitative density 117Field 7More, high quality and safe public spaces 117Field 8Invest in high quality urban housing 118Field 9Implement an active housing policy 122Field 10Invest in a healthy environment 12 124Line 4 127Innovative and creative strength 127

Field 11Cultural creativity: give innovation a chance 127Field 12Recreation as a lever 128Line 5Identity on the basis of diversity 129Field 13Strengthen the basis for art and culture 130Field 14Use differences and contradictions 132Line 6A city polis based on solidarity 134Field 15Invest in new forms of solidarity 136Field 16Active investments in a strong development coalition 138Field 17Value new forms of social integration 139Field 18Invest in social learning 141Field 19The tax system which supports the urban character and solidarity 142Conclusion 144

4. Urban debate and urban project, determining the form of the grid city 1491. Project, urban project, urban debate, a first description 1492. The ‘urban debate’:efforts, object and procedure 1512.1 One debate, two registers, three tracks… 151

1. Beyond the master planning and the lack of planning 1512. A guiding framework which still has an open character 1523. Different rhythms and durations 1534. Communication no longer as an afterthought 1545. The ambition of the urban debate 154

2.2 What is this urban project about and what is the point of this urban vision? 1551. The example of structural planning 1552. The grid city as a generic image of the built-up area 1553. More than one theme 157

2.3 The procedure of the urban debate, a few introductions 1591. The urban debate as a locus 1592 The locus of the urban debate 160

3. Urban projects 1613.1 A short list of criteria for the urban project 161

1. An example of an urban project 1622. Structure, leverage, strategy 1623. Connections, mediation, coordination 1634. Feasibility, visibility, innovation 164

3.2 Urban projects: genres, bases, emphases 1664. Instruments from the planning discipline 1674.1 The urban debate and municipal structural planning for town and country planning 1684.2 The urban design 1704.3 Structural planning and urban design, beyond the schism 172


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5. Towards the urban debate and the urban project: Brussels, Kortrijk and Mechelen 1725.1 A neo-realistic perspective 1725.2 The Brabant district, from a network for a district contract to an urban project 1735.3 The Arsenaal site, the city boulevard setting the economic pace 1785.4 Kortrijk, art is/as urban renovation 182

5. Government and citizenship in the city republic 1891. Urban citizenship in the city republic 1901.1 Models of urban democracy 1901.2 The central position of citizenship 1912. More politics in the urban republic 1942.1 The city republic: working on breaking down the boundaries 1952.2 The whole city is politics 1953. Urban citizenship in a participatory democracy 1963.1 The urban debate 1963.2 Creating conditions for citizenship and participation 197

1. Time and work 1972. Space 1973. Creativity 1974. Giving opportunities to capacities 1985. An open and public character 198

3.3 Dealing with the initiatives of citizens 1983.4 Participatory democracy at the district level 2003.5 Participatory democracy in the budget of the city 2023.6 Participation in the planning 202

1. The growth of new planning practices 2022. Conditions for interactive planning 204

3.7 People’s initiatives and referendums 2064. Turning the urban administrative organisation upside-down 2064.1 The past works against us 2074.2 The financial problems of the cities 2084.3 The relationship between politicians and civil servants 2094.4 Government by the town council 2104.5 New capacities for new roles 2114.6 The town council: the city parliament of the city republic 2144.7 Cooperation between cities 2155. The city republic in the urban policy 2175.1 A tax system which supports the urban character and solidarity 2175.2. Liberate and support the city republic 2175.3 The organisation of the urban policyat the Flemish level 2195.4 The grid city: central focus of the Flemish urban policy 219

i n h o u d

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Epiloque 225

Index 233

Bibliography 235


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Flanders has become urbanised to an importantextent. In this urbanised area, Antwerp, Ghentand Brussels, Ostend and Hasselt are compactcities with their own urban evolution. Flandersis a network of small and very small towns andcities in a limited area, fanning out into manysuburban zones, a short distance from eachother and interacting with Brussels. These speci-fic characteristics mean that this White Paperon cities and urban development in Flandersand Brussels cannot be merely a copy of similarworking documents in other countries.1

The historical cities of Flanders have made itgreat. They focused on the world with theirtrade, scientists and cosmopolitan composition.During the period of the creation of states andnation states, the cities tended to become partof the national development and lost theirglory. 2 In this White Paper we look forward, andthe basic idea once again is that Flanders isworking on its future through and in the townsand cities. They can be the centres of social, eco-nomic, cultural and community innovation. Theyserve as the link between local and globalevents, and the way in which urban societydevelops determines the way in which a colour-ful Flanders tackles modern social issues. Thetowns and cities will give Flanders its future.

Flanders is having problems with its cities. Inrecent decades, the general Flemish culture hasnot had a particularly urban character. The larg-er cities in particular have a poor reputation:‘They’re dirty’, ‘They’re full of foreigners’, ‘Theyaren’t safe’ and ‘They’re badly governed’.However, in recent years, the image has, at thevery least, become ambiguous: innovation inadministration takes place more quickly in citiesthan in other places in Flanders 3, some cities areattracting new inhabitants 4, the number ofcommuters is increasing, and many people visitthe cities for longer or shorter periods. The cities

are bursting with life. The Zinneke parade inBrussels, Bruges 2002, the summer of Antwerp,the celebrations in Ghent… all this is not partic-ularly an image of dire distress. The Flemishtowns and cities have a magnificent historicalheritage, and tourists think they are wonderful.In the last ten years, there have been big invest-ments in towns and cities: many public placeshave been reorganised, and cars no longer dom-inate everywhere quite as forcefully. In all thecities there are interesting examples of initia-tives taken by citizens and of projects for socialand cultural innovation. Towns and cities arefascinating; they also repel.

The problems are enormous and complex. Muchof the housing in the cities is of poor quality anda great deal of the infrastructure is worn out.There are tensions between different populationgroups. Exclusion in the employment market isunremitting. The effects of the mismanagementof traffic and the lack of concern for the environ-ment have reached critical levels. We see thetensions between the old urban arrangementsand the need for new places where we can keepup with economic and cultural developments.There are tensions between the cities wherepoor inhabitants collect together, and themunicipalities in the green periphery around thecities. There is tension between the density ofhousing and the space required for better livingconditions. There are tensions between the indi-vidual and society, between the search for a per-sonal identity and urban pluriculturalism. Thereare many conflicts in the cities, and this resultsin a overloaded political agenda.

We can once again allow the towns and cities toplay a role as vibrant social laboratories, whereold structures and new processes challenge theinhabitants and the users of the cities to devel-op new forms of living together. What is thebest way of governing cities, using and trans-


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I n t r o d u c t i o n

forming them to achieve all sorts of social, eco-nomic, cultural and political possibilities, so thatFlanders can be in the forefront of sustainabledevelopment? That is the question whichinspired the White Paper.

Flanders has carefully and hesitantly developedan urban policy. In the cities themselves, manypeople involved in local government or socialorganisations are inspired by their city. There aremany questions, many projects and a great dealof searching. Can we think ahead? What is ourlong-term vision of the cities of Flanders? Whatis the social and political agenda for the nextfew decades?

This book is the work of academics who dis-cussed matters together on the basis of theirown different disciplines, and took pains to findareas where their concerns overlap. We can seethis as a first vision of the city: a groundbreak-ing vision. The White Paper cuts across manyboundaries: boundaries between disciplines andsectors, boundaries between governments andbetween institutions. However, the book ismainly concerned with mental barriers: theviews and attitudes of people, both politiciansand the inhabitants and users of the towns andcities.

And yet the White Paper is not a neutral aca-demic work. We not only describe and analyse,we also adopt a position, make choices and lookto the future. We look at the towns and cities,we see the problems, we make our choices andshow how we tackle problems. This is a politicaldocument and is therefore open to a lot of dis-cussion. That is the aim of this book, and there-fore it will also give rise to many doubts. We willnot get anywhere with a false sense of assur-ance. This book is not finished. In places it is stilla closed book, and sometimes it says too much:the book is like the city itself.

Five chapters in two parts

The book consists of two main sections, and inthese each chapter has its own colour and style.Chapters 1, 2 and 3, on the one hand, and chap-ters 4 and 5, on the other hand, comprise thetwo sections. The first three chapters are mainlyabout the content of urban policy; the last twodescribe the practice of planning and theadministrative organisation which results fromthese choices in terms of content.

Chapter 1 contains analyses and attempts tosummarise problems and perspectives. Wemake choices from the large amount of materialthat was examined more thoroughly in the pre-liminary study book. It is searching, hesitating,and sometimes quite provocative. This chapterputs forward the basic terms on which the bookis structured. The grid city, the city republic, den-sity, sustainability… These terms are used herein an intuitive way and are not described indetail. That happens in chapter 2.

Chapter 2 is a manifesto, the basic plan of ourbook. It has a contentious and motivating style.The choices are explained and illustrated withdiagrams. If you want to gain an insight intothese basic elements straightaway, read thischapter first.

Chapter 3 was not written to be read throughquickly. It is meant as a reference text, aframework for the evaluation of strategic dis-cussions in every town and city, and at thecentral policy level. It does not have a narra-tive character, but adopts a broad perspectiveon urban policy.

Chapters 4 and 5 both deal with working meth-ods, ways of tackling issues, planning andadministrative organisation. Chapter 4 particu-larly focuses on the questions of urban building

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17C i t y re p u b l i c

‘Res Publica’ is Latin for ‘public affairs’. For us, towns and cities serve as the first level of the political order, hencethe term:‘city republic’. After all, the city is both sufficiently complex to experience the problems of globalisation,as well as sufficiently comprehensive to organise these experiences and complexity in forms of democratic gov-ernment.

Therefore the city more than ever should become a forum for negotiations on arrangements for living togetheron the basis of cultural diversity, to create skills and new traditions, in order to deal with diversity and change, fora dialogue on the future of the city, and for the settlement of conflicts and conflicting interests. The density anddiversity of the city should be used as a strength and an opportunity to develop public affairs (the general inter-est in the city) in new forms of democratic government. The place, the city, is the link between citizens, organisa-tions and institutions. The ‘right to the city’ is not based on origin or background. The city republic is based on anopen-scale approach to the grid city: it unites the inhabitants of the city and the users of the city.

The city republic requires policy frameworks, a vision, a recruitment strategy, an integrated approach, and anadapted organisation of the city. In order to determine the content of the city republic, we argue for a revolutionof the administrative and social organisation of the city. A change to more local responsibility, more decentrali-sation, towards a local initiative and the stimulation of citizenship. A change to an urban democracy which focus-es more on participation, the promotion of joint actions of administrative and social partners in the city. Thisstands for a democracy based on debate, with a central place for politics. In this social organisation, the councilplays a crucial governing and responsible role. The Flemish and federal governments can facilitate the city repub-lic in different ways.

Reading guideThe following reading guide will help readers who would like to know how the term ‘city republic’ isdefined,See chapter 1 for the analysis, particularly in the sections on the ‘pluricultural’ and the ‘participatory’ city.The term is described in a theoretical way in chapter 2 (see page xxx), while chapter 3 uses the term main-ly on lines 3 and 4.The principles of the city republic inspire the design of the urban debate in chapter 4.Chapter 5 explores the concept in most detail. How can we organise the city and urban policy in such a waythat it gives the greatest chances to the principles of the city republic? What is the role of the city councilsand central government in this?

and planning, while chapter 5 is based more onthe politicological and administrative issues.

Content per chapter

Chapter 1 looks at the city from different pointsof view. We unravel complex contemporaryurban problems. The phenomena which charac-terise the city are examined and enlarged fromsix different perspectives (the built-up city,the public city, the city of enterprise, the city ofsolidarity, the pluricultural city and the partici-patory city). The six perspectives provide adepth of insight with a sharp focus whichenables us to outline the problems and poten-tial of the city. We produce six diagnoses: what

developments can we see in the city? We out-line six sources of the city’s strength: in whatway can the city be innovative for society inFlanders? Each section has an A-side (diagnosis)and a B-side (perspective).

The chapter ends with a cross section. What canwe contribute in terms of new insights in com-parison with the already existing visions interms of innovative ways of seeing the city, andin terms of new contributions to often tired andeven worn out debates?

From analysis to action. Within these differentaspects which are explored through the specta-cles of the grid city, it is possible to developappropriate actions. In this case, a particular

18G r i d c i t y

We use the term ‘grid city’ to indicate a flexible way of looking at cities, which is independent of any boundaries,and avoids the stereotypes which we no longer consider to be appropriate: the city versus the countryside, the cityversus the peripheral area. We look at the sprawling city in the broader urban environment as the real startingpoint and as a framework for new cityscapes. This sprawling development is analysed from different perspectivesin chapter 1. For us, it is a central factor that the urban sprawl and urban features form the characteristic appear-ance of the city in Flanders. The way in which we look at the city and our actions in urban policy must be adaptedto this.

The term contains both an analytical and an action-oriented element. Sometimes we see (possible) physical infra-structural lines between centres through the spectacles of the grid city, while at other times we see links whichshould be strengthened between residential areas in the city and open areas in the periphery, or between newresidential areas in the urban sprawl and open areas in the city centre. We see possible ecological corridors, recre-ational lines, etc. With the term ‘grid city’, we are referring to compact and less compact, central and peripheral,built up and open, physical, social and economic parts of the city. The themes which characterise the grid city andthe scales which are used therefore vary, depending on the nature of the places, the theme concerned or the pointof view that is adopted: within city centres or between different parts of the urban sprawl. In the widest use ofthe term, the grid city presents a view of networks between different parts of the city, different cities and urbanareas in the whole of Flanders, between cities in Europe and at the global level. Therefore the grid city is a multi-faceted instrument of analysis. At the same time, it gathers together a whole series of windows which make it

interpretation of the grid city serves as a socialand administrative platform which bringstogether administrative and private partners tocarry out programmes: to strengthen recreation-al paths, to link residential zones with the citycentre, for the infrastructural reinforcement ofthe relationship between parts of the grid city,etc. On a wider scale, it can lead to cooperationbetween Flemish cities at the level of culturalinfrastructure, and to economic cooperationbetween Flemish cities and Brussels or betweenFlemish cities and cities in Europe and the rest ofthe world. This action-oriented approach avoidssterile debates on amalgamations and forms ofgovernment based on urban districts, but placesthe emphasis on the dynamics, processes andnetworking between partners involved.

After all, it is primarily a matter of a perception,a particular way of looking at the city. Ideally,chapter 1 should expand the reader’s perspec-tive. It is a different way of looking to arrive at adifferent way of acting.

Chapter 2 presents a range of ways of seeingand choices on the role of the city in the worldof today and tomorrow. It does not draw conclu-sions from over-elaborate studies and is notdogmatic, but provides clear arguments forpoints of view and the basis for our choices. Weexamine the crucial role of the city: in the ten-sions between local and global aspects, thenation state seems to cede its central positionto transnational bodies and movements on theone hand, and to cities or urban networks on


19possible to click forward and back between different scales and perspectives: from the point of view of one scale,a particular part of the city is linked to other districts, while from another point of view, the district is an impor-tant link with areas outside the city, and from yet another window we see the links of that part of the city withthe rest of the world.

Reading guideAnyone who wishes to examine how we used the term ‘grid city’ in this book can use the followingreading guide for this purpose.

Chapter 1 illustrates the need to use the urban sprawl and networks between cities as a focus of analy-sis and discussion. In the conclusions of chapter 1, the term grid city is a central element.Chapter 2 (page 93) explores the term in a theoretical sense.Chapter 3 uses the concept in connection with the strategic policy in a number of policy areas (partic-ularly on lines 1 and 2).In chapters 4 and 5, the term grid city is linked to methods of planning and administrative organisa-tion. The urban debate (open vision and urban projects) in chapter 4 can be organised and developedon different scales of the grid city. In chapter 5 the users of the city are considered full participants inurban democracy.We consider that stimulating programmes and actions on different scales in the gridcity should be one of the core tasks of the Government of Flanders. Town and country planning is animportant lever in this respect.

the other hand. Local aspects must be seentogether with the global aspects and the globalaspects should be localised within a perspectiveof sustainable development. The city will onlybe able to meet this challenge if it can decipherthe basic components of its own DNA, and makeuse of them. This is a matter of approaching theurban character on the basis of an open atti-tude, cohesion, density, diversity, social justiceand democracy. For us, these are the elementsof sustainability. The city and the urban charac-ter form the start of the social and politicalrestructuring. This chapter is aimed at convinc-ing the reader that the urban character and theurban policy are both necessary and a lever forsocial innovation in Flanders.

Chapter 3 extrapolates the six perspectives ofchapter 1 and interrelates them with the basesof chapter 2. We provide a programme for policy,which is based on six foundations or ‘lines’: theneed for an own ‘glocal’ strategy’, coordinationin the grid city in terms of planning, densitywith quality, innovation and creativity as astrength, identity as the basis of cultural diversi-ty and an urban polis based on solidarity. Foreach line we outline the areas to tackle policy.This produces 19 fields which serve as the strate-gic beacons for our urban policy. Chapter 3 aimsto outline that policy in Flanders: the social andpolitical debate in every city and at the Flemishlevel should deal with these fields. For us, look-ing at where we come from, the debate is moreimportant than the question whether all thishas already been developed in a sufficiently con-crete way in this book. That is not the case, andin fact it is not possible: converting the debateinto operational plans must take place for eachcity individually.

Chapter 3 contains critical but fairly generalanalyses of existing policy or of its absence. It isnot an in-depth evaluation of policy and certain-

ly not a thorough examination of the differentsectors. In fact, we wish to avoid the sector-by-sector approach. This chapter is aimed at bring-ing together, not dividing, people and partnersconcerned with common themes.

Chapters 4 and 5 open up yet another perspec-tive. The organisation, planning and administra-tive translation of urban policy have a centralplace. The choices result from the contents ofthe chapters.

Chapter 4 places the social discussion and theplanning on two levels which are jointlydescribed as the ‘urban debate’: on the onehand, the open vision of the city; on the other,the urban projects. Both levels of approach arenecessary, and interconnected. We place thesocial debate on the future of the city at thelevel of the city, with an open scale and openparticipation: the city in movement, the city as aplatform for confrontations. This is not with anambition to draw up a ‘master plan’, but toencourage planning and action with discussion.

The difficult translation of a vision and princi-ples into an innovative policy should also begiven strong encouragement from time to time.Testing grounds are necessary to test the city.These are the urban projects. Urban projectstake place in time and space: that is what wewill be working on in the months and years tocome. They turn the White Paper black: blackwith dust, the rubble of demolition and con-struction, tensions linked to conflicting interestsand the conflicts related to cross-sectoral proj-ects. In turn, these projects stimulate and nour-ish the vision of the city. The path of communi-cation and participation lies between the visionand the projects, and there is an emphasis onthe importance of good government andprocess management by city councils.

20

We use three concrete examples of urban loca-tions: one in Brussels, one in Mechelen and onein Courtrai. They could also have been places inany of the other towns and cities. The approachthat is adopted is neo-realistic. In fact, we attrib-ute characteristics which are not yet present tothe examples described. In this way we illustrateboth the content of the urban policy and thesignificance of the urban debate.

Chapter 5 is about the organisation of politicsand administration. For us, the city is the firstlevel of the political order. The involvement ofthe inhabitants and users of the city, of socialgroups and partners in the city, links them in ageneral interest (the ‘res publica’). Citizenship isthe central concept of this chapter, involvingpeople in the city, giving them responsibilityand encouraging them to take responsibility.This requires a more participatory democracy,and an administrative organisation of the citythat is adapted to this. The greater involvement,increased responsibility, stronger sense of citi-zenship and a political and administrative par-ticipatory democracy that responds to this moreeffectively can be described as the ‘city republic’.

The city republic requires breaking open aclosed and atrophied administrative democracyto achieve a participatory democracy. We givesome pointers for this. The city republic at thelevel of the grid city in the urban region requiresadapted forms of administration, with theinvolvement of everyone who lives in and usesthe city. Municipal policy and the policy on citiesat the local and Flemish level should be interre-lated to a greater extent and have the samefocus. Municipal councils play a central role inthe local networks. They often do not have suffi-cient capacity at the moment to achieve theambitions of this White Paper, and their organi-sation is not really geared to it. A revolution inthe urban administrative organisation will benecessary to develop new capacity and workingmethods, both at the political level and at thelevel of management. The Government ofFlanders has the keys in hand to strengthen thecity republic. The most important administrativecore task of the government is to stimulateactions for the various aspects and levels of thegrid city.

Chapters 4 and 5 permit the reader to take acritical look at the administration and manage-


21U r b a n c h a ra c t e r , t h e m u n i c i p a l p o l i c y, t h e p o l i c y o n c i t i e s ,a n d u r b a n p o l i c y

This is how these terms are used:

Urban character is a quality. It describes the characteristics of the way people live in cities, and reinforcing thesecharacteristics is the aim of the policy: density, diversity and democracy. This leads to sustainable development.Municipal policy is the policy at the local level, in particular, the policy which falls under the political responsibilityof the municipal council, together with social partners.The policy on cities is the policy of the central governments: from the global level to the Flemish level. As instruct-ed by the Flemish minister, we focus particularly on the Government of Flanders.Urban policy is the term which gathers together municipal policy and the policy on cities: all the efforts of govern-ments and social partners, at the central and local level, focusing on the city and reinforcing the urban character.

ment of their own city and the organisation ofurban policy in Flanders. These chapters have amobilising effect: in this way we can improveour organisation and ways of tackling issues.They should indicate the direction for socialorganisations in the city, for municipal councilsand for the Government of Flanders.

Conclusion

This book is an interim product of many fasci-nating discussions with many interested parties,a laborious honing of visions and texts. At theback of the book you will find the names ofeveryone who participated in this process in anyway. The book is presented as a synthesis of theprocess up to now, based on a platform for dis-cussion supported by our arguments. We wishto provide support for the debate on the urbancharacter, cities and urban policy, bring peopletogether, support and encourage movements.This book should collect together peopleresponsible for policy, academics and socialorganisations. This movement is more impor-tant than the book itself. It does not provide anyready-made recipes, but we hope that it canlead to a debate in all the towns and cities citiesand in Flanders as a whole.

Furthermore, anyone who is familiar with thecomplexity of towns and cities will know thatfor many of the issues described in this book itis not possible to simply come up with ready-made solutions.

We have not written an encyclopaedia aboutthe city. Certain policy areas have been analysedor elaborated to a greater extent than others.Other people might well emphasise differentaspects, for example, by focusing more on eco-logical aspects of sustainable urban manage-ment. In this book a great deal of attention is

devoted to strategies for town and countryplanning and the economy, as well as the politi-cal and administrative conditions. Aspects ofcity life and mobility were not examined to thesame extent. However, we did not attempt to becomplete, the intention was rather to outline acoherent and coordinated framework for policywhich reveals the connections between allthese fragmentary developments, the manyprojects, the different debates inspired above allby sectoral issues throughout the towns andcities in Flanders. If the framework presentedhere is coherent, it will have a motivating effectand will serve as the basis for evaluation anddiscussion. It can also be used to determine thedirection of sectors and projects, including thosesectors and projects which are not dealt with inthis book (in detail). We would like to beassessed in terms of those questions.

The central focus is on the urban character andurban policy. We opt for an open and coordinat-ed approach, for density and diversity, for soli-darity and democracy: the characteristics of theurban character. Together they form the neces-sary basis for sustainable development, and forus they are the basic principles for tackling thechallenges of our time. The city is the best andthe necessary place for this. These principles canonly be achieved in Brussels and Flanders with acoherent, solid and integrated urban and munic-ipal policy. This is not something that is just apossibility, it is not one choice of many. For us itis absolutely essential and the heart of thefuture project for Brussels and Flanders. Thestart of the century of the city.

Urban policy Task Force

22


231 Example: Urban Task Force (1999), Towards an Urban

Renaissance, final report of the Urban Task Force

Department of the Environment, Transport and the

Regions, London. For a critical appraisal of this report:

Amin, A., D. Massey and N. Thrift (2000), Cities for the

many, not the few, the Policy Press, Bristol. The Blair govern-

ment used the work of the Urban Task Force as the basis for

an ‘Urban White Paper: delivering an Urban Renaissance’,

(2000), see website: www.detr.gov.uk

2 For a historical description, see: Le Galès, (2002), European

Cities. Social Conflicts and Governance, Oxford University

Press, Oxford. In particular, chapter 2: The Long History of

the European City (pp. 31-72).

3 Vanderhaeghe, S. (1999), De lange weg. Modernisering in de

Vlaamse steden en gemeenten, SER-STV-Innovatie en

Arbeid, SERV, Brussels.

4 he series of monographs on cities is a publication of the

Urban policy project, Home Affairs Administration, Ministry

of the Flemish Community, and of the Planning and

Statistics Administration, Ministry of the Flemish

Community.

There are six approaches, six perspectives fordescribing the contemporary Flemish city. Theyreveal that the world is changing and that theold social, economic, cultural and political orderin our cities no longer works. This does not meanthe end or loss of the cities. On the contrary, thegreatest potential for tackling the challenges ofa new society can be found in the cities. Everyperspective focuses on developments which canbe viewed in two ways: as problems or as possi-bilities, an A-side and a B-side.

Obviously the six perspectives are interrelated.Problems in one perspective are also caused byevolutions which arise in another perspective.This always concerns the same inhabitants andusers of the city.

We describe problems and opportunities: whatare the threats to the city in its development,and what could be the strength of the city forthis development? We roughly outline an overalllong-term view: what is the desirable directionfor the basis of a new or changing policy?

We briefly place the six perspectives in a con-text: the built-up city, the public city, the city ofenterprise, the city based on solidarity, the pluri-cultural city and the participatory city.

All urban developments are linked to a commonbasis, the basis of the way in which our societyacquired its design in the past: the built- up city.It is exactly because the built-up environment ischanging slowly, dragging so much of the pastin its wake, that it determines the limitationsand possibilities of urban evolution to a verylarge extent. If we make choices for the city oftomorrow, we are not only making choicesabout changes to this built-up environment, butalso about the way in which we deal with whathas been passed down from the past. Thereforeit is logical to start with this perspective.

Towns and cities are places where many peoplelive close together. They are the places wherethe collective use of the urban infrastructureand of the built-up environment create a publiccity. This collective and public nature of the cityis problematical. It creates the wealth of thecity, but at the same time it makes the city andthe people in the city vulnerable to individualswho seek to gain an advantage from notrespecting the rules for the use of those areas.The public nature and collectivity are diametri-cally opposed to individualism.

Towns and cities are also places where manypeople work. These are by no means only thepeople who live there. On the contrary, some ofthe inhabitants are unemployed, while com-muters fill up the available jobs. In contrast withwhat is usually thought, employment, invest-ments and enterprise are still concentrated inthe city. Therefore we examine the evolution ofthe city of enterprise. The exposure of cities tothe global economy has led to a complete revo-lution in the relationship between working andliving and between working and social integra-tion. This requires an appropriate strategy.

Living together in a dense residential and work-ing environment leads to tensions which can bea threat to society itself. In the history of themodern city, the greatest source of tension hasfor a long time been the distribution of wealthacross the social classes. The cities were theplaces where the workers’ struggle took place,where there were demonstrations and strikes,but also where public order was maintained andprotests were suppressed. These tensions haveled to greater democracy and more social jus-tice. Therefore up to now we have seen the phe-nomenon of the city based on solidarity; the sol-idarity was largely imposed by the government,which translated it into political, social and tax-related rights and obligations.


25

1. Impressions and expressions: six views of the city

Today we see new forms of tensions created bynew social groups with conflicting interests,which require new – though not always obvious– forms of solidarity.

The inhabitants and users of the city are forcedto get on together in a densely populated city.The cities are the places where there are con-tacts with other people, with new and foreignaspects. They are the places where learning tolive together is, in a way, imposed by circum-stances. Nowadays this aspect of urban living isreflected in the pluricultural city. The cityattracts people with so many different back-grounds that relationships and a common histo-ry no longer connect its citizens. These are nolonger the factors which produce a commonsense of identity. Therefore learning to relate toan increasing diversity of people and situationsin the city will have to become the source of anew sense of identity, an identity based on theurban character and on relating to diversity.

Towns and cities are the places where livingtogether leads to democratic institutions whichweigh up our collective interests and attempt toimplement the decisions which are taken.Flanders has a rich democratic urban tradition. Itis no coincidence that the word ‘politics’ comesfrom Polis, the democratically governed city ofGreek antiquity. The quality of urban democracyis threatened by populism and by an excessivelyclosed administrative democracy, which doesnot sufficiently correspond to society and is notadequately built on the sense of a commonresponsibility for the city. Big social changeshave cast doubt on the effectiveness of our rep-resentative democracy. It is necessary to findnew forms of collective discussion and decisionmaking. Nowhere is more suitable for this thanthe city. This is why the participatory city is soimportant.

1. The built-up city

The cities of Flanders are proud of their past, butthe built-up infrastructure of the cities is thor-oughly worn out. The city has rarely found theright answer to the social problems of achievinga good quality of life in a densely populatedarea, mobility, and its different functions. Citieshave spread, thinned out, and seem to dissolvein the urban sprawl. The city has lost its signifi-cance, and the citizens seem to feel less and lessattachment to urban territories. However, thisdefensive image can be reversed when theexpanding and thinned-out city is used as a ref-erence. The new built-up and non-built-upurban environment can become the basis forstrengthening urban characteristics 1.

A. The threat to the historical cityThere are no suitable terms or conclusive argu-ments, and yet it could be said that the histori-cal city in its physical form and the actual way inwhich it is used, the inhabited stone city, is amasterwork of European culture. Flanders hasundeniably made a contribution to this. Heretoo, this collective oeuvre has been built up anddemolished for centuries. What developed wasan astonishing and effective heritage, full ofvibrant monuments, in which the best of thepast served as the basis for the future. Againand again urban culture succeeded in tran-scending social contrasts – between the rich andthe poor, the governing and governed classes,the individual and the community, tradition andprogress, everyday life and exceptional events –and to combine them in a complex residentialurban area which serves as a dialectical model.You can see how the concentric development ofwalls and city defences in the traditional citydevelopment represented a sense of security,exclusion and defending interests, while theradial connecting roads from every city resultedin the networking with all the surrounding

1 . I M P R E S S I O N S A N D EX P R E S S I O N S : S I X VI EWS O F TH E C IT Y

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cities. Or how the built-up fabric of squares,streets, alleys and houses served as a form ofnegotiation for space between public and pri-vate interests. There was plenty of misery in thehistorical city. Nevertheless, it succeededremarkably well in rising above disasters andconflicts of all sorts and sizes, despite all theprophesies of doom. Even the industrial revolu-tion led to a larger, better equipped and cultur-ally enriched built-up city.

However, what has happened since approxi-mately 1960 makes the destiny of this historicalcity very uncertain. It is not so much a tremor,but more a slow mutation which turns the basicprinciples of an urban culture and area upsidedown, slowly but surely. This silent revolutiondoes not make the news, although it is carefullyconcealed in countless related items: the riots inMollenbeek, traffic congestion, grumbling aboutexpensive building plots, the cordon sanitaire,

the police on the streets, the refusal to use thevote, flooded plots of land. The factor whichlinks this variety of news items is the tensionsand interconnections which have developedbetween social evolution and the framework forit in city planning, the built-up environment.There are blemishes on the masterwork ofEuropean culture. The city no longer suffices,and nor does the countryside. The traditionalurban framework cannot provide the answers,but there is no new framework available yet. Ashort diagnosis will suffice to assess the scopeof the problem.

1. The urban sprawl and de-urbanisation

The most striking transformation of the histori-cal city is generally described in fairly negativeterms: de-urbanisation, the dispersal of munici-pal functions, the unravelling of the urban fab-ric. ‘The historical city’ refers here not only to the


27

On this map of land use in Flanders and Brussels (2000), the shaded areas show the built-up areas (not to be con-fused with the shaded areas for heathland in Limburg). The residential and industrial sprawl around the large citiesof Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels is clearly visible. The southwest of Flanders also reveals a strongly diffuse pattern.The urban sprawl can also be identified around the regional towns on a smaller scale.

U r b a n s p ra w l

pre-industrial heart of the city, dating from thelate Middle Ages, but also to the impressivenineteenth-century expansion which took placeduring industrialisation. It also includes some ofthe expansion of the city which is characteristicof the post-war growth period. The compact his-torical city becomes fragmented, the fabricunravels, the complex body of the city is dis-solved in a sort of dispersed urban area.Supported by technology, which allows for gen-eral mobility and communication, the obviouslink between people, organisations, jobs andservices and the urban (or village) space is lost,and they start looking for the location which ismost suitable at that moment in a much largerarea. The built-up area becomes diffuse: in prin-ciple, everyone and everything can come fromanywhere and go anywhere. Looking for imme-diately suitable niches, urban installations, activ-ities and investments spread out across aboundless hinterland. This is less and less oftenon the periphery of a particular urban centre,but spreads to create a sort of ‘third space’,which develops between the cities and thereceding countryside, where identical evolutionsare taking place at the same time. In all this, thehistorical city loses its urban character – density,complexity, diversity – while the areas outside itlose their rural character: the landscape, openspace, nature, rural cohesion. Whether theuntidy sprawl of urban characteristics across theareas outside is a new sort of city that is emerg-ing, or whether it means the end of the city, isnot yet clear.

Why is it that the historical city is losing itsattraction and the ability to form connections inspace? Why is it that this time, the city does notappear to be able to keep up with socialchanges, let alone take the lead? As regards thebuilt-up area, it is not really possible to distin-guish cause and effect. The transformationtowards an economic pattern based on globali-

sation and flexibility (so-called post-Fordism, seebelow) has placed the city in a nebulous area.The capacity of cities to take the lead has there-fore been literally reduced. The contemporaryurban situation is also related, both as causeand effect, to previous and contemporary socialideas and culture. Perhaps it goes too far to saythis, but we consider that there is an anti-urbanpolicy, an anti-urban culture, an economy whichturns its back on the city, and possibly even ananti-urban pattern of settlement. Weak andoften fragmentary attempts to reverse this cul-ture, for example, in the Structural Plan fortown and country planning in Flanders have notyet been able to break through this dominantpattern.

The result of all this is the spread of urbandevelopment, leading to an imbalance andexpensive infrastructure in the different parts ofthe city (as regards accessibility, provisions andsecurity), a problematical level of sustainability(wasteful use of land, underused heritage, vio-lated nature), inadequate mobility (traffic jams,congestion, poor public transport), an unattrac-tive residential framework (uninspired architec-ture, chaotic planning, empty housing), zoning,and a divisive development of the urban envi-ronment (the periphery of the city versus thecity centre, rundown districts versus the com-mercial centre).

2. The city is supersededThe above reads like a lament about a lost para-dise, a genre that repeatedly emerges in the lit-erature on cities and urban characteristics.However, the rhetoric of loss is not appropriate.There are good reasons why the historical cityno longer works as the obvious location: itsphysical and functional framework really hasbeen neglected, become outdated and super-seded.


28


29Modernisation has given rise to several issueswhich the city has never resolved. For example,traffic access has continued to be the Achillesheel of urban development. A feasible balancebetween acceptable traffic levels and accessibili-ty is still rarely achieved in a satisfactory way inurban planning. The mixture of functions isanother stumbling block. There is not much leftof the traditional mix of functions, not so muchbecause of the obsession with zoning, but morebecause of the increasing environmental andsafety regulations. Reconciling urban densitywith an affordable contemporary quality ofhousing is a third task, which has not reallybeen achieved. The usual creation of housingrarely goes beyond terraced housing and pro-motional apartments. The suburbs provide anattractive alternative to all these problematicalmatters. There are sites enough along themotorways and exit roads for all sorts of devel-opment. The difficult mixture of functions isavoided with distance and coordination. Formost people in the middle group, a detachedhouse on the edge of the city has (until recently)continued to be a housing ideal that could beachieved.

Almost half of the historical city dates from theindustrial revolution. This includes magnificentresidential districts with parks and impressivepublic buildings, but also untidily sprawlinghousing estates built with the minimum ofinvestment and for maximum profit. Large partsof this nineteenth-century fabric are completelyworn out. The same applies for an extensiveindustrial heritage, spread along railways andwaterways or incorporated in the urban fabric.Despite often attractive locations, empty hous-ing can be found everywhere, because of inap-propriate construction methods, a rundownappearance and industrial pollution. The under-ground infrastructure (pipes and sewerage) islittle better. Like the treacherous decors which

General Potemkin had drawn up to conceal thedecay of the city from the Tsar as he rode by,every historical city has this ‘Potemkin’ qualityto some extent. Behind many of the fences,facades, and wallpaper, under much of thelinoleum and tiling, the city is rotten.

However, sections of the outdated fabric are stillpolished and cosmeticised with unabated ener-gy. Furthermore, the Potemkin layers conceal anunparalleled and undervalued heritage.Unfortunately, valuable sections of the nine-teenth-century city are not old enough and tooworn out to be considered as historical monu-ments. Furthermore, the historical buildingsdepartment prefers to concern itself with theunique but isolated buildings which are, in turn,overprotected. There is little response to theidea of considering the scale and interrelation-ship of buildings and city districts as valuablemonuments in themselves.

It is probably because of the more limiteddemand and capacity for building, but all in all,the historical city managed to assign a limitedbut important place to the natural environ-ment within the built-up fabric up to the twen-tieth century. City gardens, parks, green walls,boulevards, the trees on city squares: these allbear witness to a successful alliance betweennature and urban culture. However, this is for-getting the canalised rivers and industrialworkplaces in the middle of residential buildingblocks. During the course of the twentieth cen-tury, the natural landscape of the city was grad-ually sacrificed to an additional volume ofbuildings and cars. Wherever necessary, fastgrowing vegetation was used as screens or inflowerbeds. This is not, in the first place, a ques-tion of aesthetics; much more serious is, on theone hand, the ecological damage, and on theother hand, the failure to recognize the contri-bution of nature and landscape to the quality

Pe o p l e

Depending on one’s perspective, the process of urbanisation is intriguing or repugnant. In about 1900, 10% of theworld population lived in cities. A hundred years later this has increased to 50% (3 billion people). By 2025, the num-ber of people living in cities may increase to 5 billion. The number of inhabitants of large cities has increased dra-matically in the last century. In 1950, only New York and London had more than 8 million inhabitants.There are now22 of these ‘megalopolises’, the majority of which are in the poorest countries. 1

In Flanders and Brussels, the number of people living in cities has also increased. Depending on the definition thatis used2, the proportion of the urban population as part of the total population varies from 32% (looking only atthe large cities) to 87% (if we look at the all the categories of urban living).

Urban living Inhabitants Built-up plots Density inhab/km2Cumulative inhab. % Cumul. hectares % Category Cumulative

Large Cities 2 223 234 32 34 938 15 6 363 6 363Regional Cities 3 366 839 49 71 771 31 3 105 4 691Small cities supporting 3 973 415 57 95 167 41 2 593 4 175urban structureSmall provincial cities 4 517 237 65 118 049 51 2 377 3 827Additional 5 234 535 76 150 449 65 2 214 3 479conglomeration/suburbanAdditional commuter 6 048 570 87 185 915 80 2 295 3 253residential areaFlanders and Brussels 6 916 957 231 553 2 987 2 987Flanders 5 952 552 224 382 2 653 2 653Brussels 964 405 7 171 13 449 13 449

Source: NIS population statistics 01/01/2001, own processing

Limiting ourselves to the towns and cities which can be considered at least as small towns, approximately 65% ofthe population can still be considered urban. This urban population occupies 51% of the built-up space3; the other35% non-urban population in Flanders therefore takes up 49% of the built-up space. Therefore urban inhabitantsuse space much more efficiently.

––––––––––1 Asbeek Brusse, W., H. Van Dalen en B. Wissink (2002), Stad en land in een nieuwe geografie. Maatschappelijke veranderingen en

ruimtelijke dynamiek, WRR, SDU Uitgevers: Den Haag.

2 De vormen van stedelijkheid werden hier enerzijds gebaseerd op de in het Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen gehanteerde cate-

gorieën en selecties; anderzijds werd voor de ruime definitie van het stedelijk leefcomplex de stadsgewestelijke benadering

gehanteerd, zie: Van Der Haeghen, H., E. Van Hecke en G. Juchtmans, 1996, De Belgische stadsgewesten 1991, NIS, Statistische

Studiën,

nr. 104.


30


31of the city and their ability to serve as a basisfor the development of the city.

3. A culture without a focusdoes not need a city

Apparently it is only normal that the city cannotcontinue to provide suitable locations for con-temporary businesses and households immedi-ately. With the additional congestion and lack ofsafety, the destructive verdict is complete. Orperhaps, not quite… The description of decayand unimaginative development, possibly con-ceals an even greater threat to the historical city.

After all, it is not only the physical condition ofthe urban space that is a matter of discussion;its role as the important material basis, as asignifier of the cultural and social urban charac-ter, are also important. The sociological litera-ture refers to the decline of the traditional linkbetween space and society: the district, the city,the region. The creation of individual and collec-tive identity is less and less related to belongingto an identifiable space where you can identifywith other similar people. Identity is increasing-ly based on the individual and alternating choic-es to log onto to various placeless networks.This choice could also be formed by the idealimages presented in the media. Physical appear-ance and consumer objects, as well as all sortsof communities of interests (which are nolonger linked to a particular place), have result-ed in important new signifiers. The built-upspace only plays a part to the extent that it pro-vides consumer goods which fit within thedesign of these ideal images.

The city is certainly not doing badly as a suppli-er of short-term hype, but there is little sign of acoherent urban space with a strong basis. Thedistinction between private and public space isbecoming blurred. The experience of publicspace is becoming privatised: everyone does

their own thing in the public space. Common‘urban behaviour’ and a shared public experi-ence are becoming increasingly difficult. Thiscreates space for creative improvisation, but alsofor spatial confusion: conduct which is ‘out ofplace’, the excessively proprietorial attitudetowards particular territories and the exagger-ated emphasis on spatial boundaries (see belowunder ‘public city’). This is particularly difficult ina compact city, which depends on a subtle inter-relationship with density and diversity.

B. The other perspective: the city returnsThe change in the city is ambiguous: at thesame time it is cause and effect, irritating andfascinating, a problem and a solution. On thebasis of a different perspective we can also iden-tify the problems of the historical city outlinedabove, and the different social trends whichraise questions about the city, as harbingers of anew urban condition. We can turn the perspec-tive around and in this way evoke enticingimages of the city.

1 . A new look at potential :the increased scope of the city

For this image, we provisionally use a number ofterms side-by-side: the urban sprawl, the dis-persed city, the networking city, city region, citydistrict. Chapter 2 will focus more on the picturefor the future, and describe it in terms of the‘grid city’. The essence of this imagery and thesignificance of all these terms is that theyattract our attention to the increased scope ofthe city. Geographers made themselves veryuseful in this field: they have demonstrated theincreased scope of the city on the map andcalled it the ‘city district’ (see p. 34).2 Otherterms, such as the ‘networking city’, are to someextent reflected, though still only in vagueterms, in the structural plan for town and coun-try planning in Flanders3. Terms such as ‘dis-persed city’ and ‘urban sprawl’ are common in

the literature, but in Flanders they are still fairlyseparate from the discussion on policy.

In order to illustrate the reality of the dispersedcity, we use the geographical concept of the ‘citydistrict’. A town of, for example, 75,000 inhabi-tants, with urban functions and infrastructureextends across a broad hinterland, and becomesa medium-sized city district with approximately145,000 inhabitants and users, which in turnborders on yet another city district. Other smalltowns are incorporated in the suburbs or hinter-land of the large city districts of Antwerp,Brussels and Ghent. The inhabitants and userstogether achieve a size which gradually opensup possibilities for the character of a ‘provincialconurbation’. After all, these are not large cities,but still areas which contain urban potential,provided the correct perspective of scale is used.If a maximum of 10% of Flemish people live inthe city centres, almost 70% live in city districtareas. It is a matter of getting used to this: froma minority of urban inhabitants to a majority ofurban inhabitants and users of the city.

The urban sprawl results in the de-urbanisationof the inner city, and therefore in principle cre-ates space for a better living environment, anacute demand imposed by the city centresthemselves. Added to this, there are the post-industrial vacant sites and the vacant premisesabove shops, so that the city is no longer full up,though this does not prevent some districtsfrom being overcrowded. In general terms, andlooking towards an extended urban scope in theregion around the city, there is therefore spacefor re-urbanisation: for new functions, for greenspaces, for more spacious housing, providedthat the cleaning up of badly polluted sites doesnot become too much of a burden, and thespeculation on empty sites can be restrained.

Politicians are keen to score points with regardto mobility and traffic safety in and around thecity. This can also benefit extended cities: invest-ments in traffic structures and infrastructure areattractive items on the political agenda.Provided that they are planned wisely, they canbe used as a basic principle for the urban devel-opment in the extended area: traffic corridors,loops for public transport, places to changetransport, parking provisions, passageways, cyclepaths and residential streets where the traffic isrestricted.

The same applies for public sensitivity to theecology, nature and landscape. Introducinggreen spaces into the urban area can serve as anincentive for innovation in the urban frame-work. This can improve the quality of life andrecreational possibilities, strengthen urbanstructures, highlight the identity of the urbanlandscape and safeguard the urban area.

2. Ambiguous urban developmentIt is possible that the decay of the city is notlimited to empty industrial sites and a few run-down streets. When the vital districts of the city– for example, a traditional shopping street –fall into a negative spiral and the focus is on abackground of real or perceived lack of safety,this can lead to a politically sensitive situation.However, this could also break down the normallack of concern and change this initially nega-tive view into a positive interest and politicalwill. One example which illustrates this is thepowerful financial support for excellent urbanrenovation projects by the Government ofFlanders.4

Since the last two or three legislative periods,municipal councils have spared no trouble orexpense to improve the image and appearanceof their cities. The reintroduction of publicspaces in all the cities has certainly been a great


32


33achievement. In most cases this is combinedwith the ‘cosmetic’ improvement of streets andsquares, as well as improving the traffic. At first,there was a great lack of inspiration and evenexpertise, but gradually better city planners arealso being given opportunities. The importanceof providing the city with the best possible posi-tion in global city marketing is certainly animportant driving force. However, occasionallythese efforts are also part of and an importantbasis for the approach to district development.

Cities compete with each other more than inthe past to attract investment, visitors andinhabitants. Apart from the industrial sites, thefocus is particularly on the commercial centre,but many residential areas also play a part.Reconstructing streets and squares is only thebeginning. When the competition increases,cities are forced to make use of all their avail-able qualities and characteristics. This is a dan-gerous but fascinating trend. It is dangerousbecause there is a real temptation to improvethe appearance for immediate effect and tosuppress anything which does not fit in the pic-ture straightaway. It is fascinating because lackof mobility is punished while synergy is profi-table, the dialogue with partners who were notconsulted before is inevitable, and qualitybecomes an argument for success.

Recent literature on urban development occa-sionally refers to the ‘Disneyfication’ or themepark development of the historical heritage:improving the appearance of the commercialcity centre, linked to a thorough clean-up orwell-intentioned restoration of monuments, apreference for historical imitation in thestreetscape and the correct level of street eventsand police control. Gradually the revival of thecity centre is managing to transcend this basiclevel. The attractive centre becomes the back-ground for a revival of urban culture and the

public nature of the city. The success and artisticlevel of city festivals cannot be denied (Antwerp93, the Festival des Arts, Brussels 2000, Fashionlanded, Klapstuk, the festivals of Ghent, Bruges2002, etc.). Some cities invest a great deal in thecultural infrastructure of an international cali-bre, together with the Government of Flanders(the concert hall in Bruges, MAS in Antwerp,Smak and Musical forum in Ghent, etc.). Thereare countless small, high quality cultural pro-ductions and locations which attract plenty ofinspiration and audiences. The movement ofyoung intellectuals and artists to the city seemsto be irreversible.

In the western world the concept of the urbanarea is used to describe the post-war form ofthe city. This term emphasises the fact that thecity extends beyond its morphological bound-aries. These urban areas should not be confusedwith the administrative or political division ofthe city. They are purely empirical boundaries ofthe different sections of the city. We use theterm here particularly to illustrate the reality ofthe dispersed city. However, as an instrument ofanalysis and action, it is too rigidly defined, andcannot be used in a sufficiently flexible way.That is why we have used the term ‘grid city’from chapter 2. For an explanation and readingguide, see the box text on pp. 00-00.

In Belgium, three areas are distinguished in theurban areas. The core of the city consists of thecentral, compact, built-up urban district, whichcomprises the real city centre (the heart of thecity), the historical core and the nineteenth-cen-tury expansion of the city. This central part ofthe city corresponds to the modern city beforethe first signs of a dispersal and the urbansprawl became apparent. The unbroken built-uparea is called the conglomeration. The rest ofthe urban area is known as the suburbs, andcomprises the areas which have a predominant-


34T h e d i s p e r s e d c i t y : i l l u s t ra t e d b y t h e t e r m ‘ u r b a n a re a s ’

In the western world the concept of the urban area is used to describe the post-war form of the city. This termemphasises the fact that the city extends beyond its morphological boundaries. These urban areas should not beconfused with the administrative or political division of the city. They are purely empirical boundaries of the dif-ferent sections of the city. We use the term here particularly to illustrate the reality of the dispersed city. However,as an instrument of analysis and action, it is too rigidly defined, and cannot be used in a sufficiently flexible way.That is why we have used the term ‘grid city’ from chapter 2. For an explanation and reading guide, see the box texton pp. 00-00.

In Belgium, three areas are distinguished in the urban areas. The core of the city consists of the central, compact,built-up urban district, which comprises the real city centre (the heart of the city), the historical core and the nine-teenth-century expansion of the city. This central part of the city corresponds to the modern city before the firstsigns of a dispersal and the urban sprawl became apparent. The unbroken built-up area is called the conglomera-tion. The rest of the urban area is known as the suburbs, and comprises the areas which have a predominantly ruralappearance, but where most of the city users live, and the influence of the creation of the urban area results in pop-ulation growth. (The term ‘suburbia’ sometimes evokes an image of compact industrial suburbs, but is used hereas a technical term which refers particularly to migration from and commuting to the conglomeration.) Urbanareas presuppose a large scale. Therefore the term ‘urban area’ only really applies when the number of inhabitantsin the whole region is more than 80,000. In addition to Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent are also metropolitan urbanareas. Hasselt and Genk together form a regional urban area. Other regional urban areas include Ostend, Bruges,Kortrijk, Sint-Niklaas, Meche-len and Leuven.

Finally, the socio-economicinfluence of the city extendsbeyond the urban area. Theresidential commuter areacomprises the municipalitieswhere at least 15% of theworking population commu-tes to the urban conglomera-tion. The entire area formedby this zone and the urbanarea is called the urban resi-dential complex.

ZonesCore (18)Conglomeration (79)Suburbs (116)Residential commuter zone (162)Not an urban area (214)

The urban areas in Belgium – 1991

brugge

oostende

kortrijk

tournai

mons

charleroi

la louviere

namur

liege verviers

brussel

gent st.-niklaas

antwerpen

mechelen

leuven

hasselt

genk

Source: Van der Haeghen c.s., 1996.


35ly rural appearance, but where most of the cityusers live, and the influence of the creation ofthe urban area results in population growth.(The term ‘suburbia’ sometimes evokes animage of compact industrial suburbs, but isused here as a technical term which refers par-ticularly to migration from and commuting tothe conglomeration.) Urban areas presuppose alarge scale. Therefore the term ‘urban area’ onlyreally applies when the number of inhabitantsin the whole region is more than 80,000. Inaddition to Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent arealso metropolitan urban areas. Hasselt andGenk together form a regional urban area.Other regional urban areas include Ostend,Bruges, Kortrijk, Sint-Niklaas, Mechelen andLeuven.

Finally, the socio-economic influence of the cityextends beyond the urban area. The residentialcommuter area comprises the municipalitieswhere at least 15% of the working populationcommutes to the urban conglomeration. Theentire area formed by this zone and the urbanarea is called the urban residential complex.

3. Cities make plans:do plans also make cit ies?

Several cities realize that the minor repairs tothe urban space are no longer sufficient. Theydream of strategic and structural interventionswith the greatest possible visibility and thebroadest possible external funding. Based onthe examples of Antwerp and Leuven, pilot proj-ects such as those for the development of theenvironment around the old station are flour-ishing. Usually, they soon run into problems.Bringing together the interests of residents,politicians, real estate developers and plannersin a targeted way in an ambitious urban projectthat can really be achieved, requires new meth-ods, vision and leadership. These are sometimeslacking, and frequently the required capacity is

not available. However, the tone has been set.At the same time, different cities are elaborat-ing urban structural plans in the context of thedecree on town and country planning, and theFlanders Structural Plan for Town and CountryPlanning, sometimes supplemented with a planfor traffic and a plan for green spaces. In somecases, this exercise has foundered in discussionson whether or not to start on the expansion ofresidential areas or whether or not to createindustrial sites. On the other hand, some citiesorganise a thorough process of reflection and aserious debate on the physical structure andplanning and development of the whole urbanarea.

All this means that cities are increasingly con-cerned with various forms of planning anddesign. Traditional BPAs (special developmentplans), which translate the arbitrary patches ofcolour in the infamous regional plans into build-ing regulations, are no longer sufficient. Newtypes of planning, with a woolly title, hazyobjectives and uncertain procedures are prolifer-ating. The coordination between these has usu-ally been lost. Incompatible terminologies,scales, terms to describe quality and recommen-dations have resulted in a linguistic confusionreminiscent of the Tower of Babel, whichnobody really takes seriously because there islittle interest in yet another plan or yet anotherstudy or memorandum. With a few exceptions,the necessary planning capacity is usually lack-ing to ensure that everything is properly direct-ed, structurally coordinated and realised in situ.Contracting out the work to private agencies isoften exposed to the same problems. Whetherpublic or private, the discipline in planning ordesign in Flanders does not at the momentappear to be able to meet challenges of thechanging city. This phenomenon also results incontradictions: on the one hand, an increase inmediocre and inefficient planning; on the other

hand, a planning environment in which the van-guard is inspired by competitions, study days,the reorganisation of education and tradeunions, inspired mandates, a new administrativeframework and study bureaus looking for inno-vation. A powerful vision of the city and theurban character, and above all, the creation of anew urban policy with an adequate planningframework could turn the tide in this respect.

4 . The city in a holographic perspective

The city as the object of all these enthusiasticplanning developments is confronted with asimilar problem to the planning itself. The flag‘city’ no longer has a clearly defined significance.This apparently familiar word stands for a reali-ty which is much more difficult to define andwhich evokes many different meanings. Is thecity the flourishing city centre, the pedestri-anised shopping city, the background for thesummer festival or the Christmas market? Doesthe city evoke a picture of grey nineteenth-cen-tury districts where you don’t go unless youhave to, or one of sterile apartment blocks? Dothe cobbled roads, shopping malls and industrialsites belong to the city? Is the city empty or full?Is the city the counterpart to open nature?Where does it begin and where does it end?Who is included? Who has something to saythere, and what about? While the home andbeing at home are becoming increasinglyimportant and significant, the concept of thecity as a spatial reality is uncertain. The profes-sional literature has lost its way in desperateattempts to coin terms for the new urban reali-ty: city district, urban area, carpet city, dispersedcity, and compact city. A vision of the built-upcity is even more necessary than a suitableterm. It is no longer a compact fabric of roads,squares and buildings, even if it likes to presentitself in this way. If the city is the place whichbelongs to the urban scope, the place which is

under a strong urban sphere of influence, otherimages and concepts are necessary to evoke this‘city’, to understand, plan and manage it. In thisbook, the term ‘grid city’ attempts to provide afirst hesitant definition.

The contemporary city is like a holographicprint. One view reveals urban decay, the otherthe revival of the urban culture. One person seessuburbia as a malignant cancer, while anothercan discern a burgeoning new type of city. Oneperspective reveals the selling of the collectiveheritage while another perspective shows thenew civil pact between private and public inter-ests. The city is ambivalent by its very nature.Whether the contradictions are destructive orparalysing, or whether they have an innovativeand driving effect, depends less on global forcesthan on local conditions. The aim of this book isto valorise these in such a way that a positivebalance can be achieved.

2. The public city

The public space of the city is a forum, a meet-ing place. It is the ‘political place’ in the mostnoble sense of the word. Citizens can be heardat public events. People look and listen to mes-sages of all sorts: posters, graffiti, flyers, culturalperformances…. The public arena is a backdropfor many types of communication, betweenstrangers and acquaintances, between govern-ment and citizens, between the inhabitants andusers of the city. It provides backgrounds whichstimulate the urban character.

In recent years, cities have invested a great dealin the restoration of some of these spaces.However, this does not mean that they there-fore acquire a more public character or that theyreally meet their function as an arena for com-munication. We will first examine the problem


36


37areas: the mediocre development of the space,the erosion of public spaces by the dispersal offunctions, the privatisation of the managementof the public space, and the use of the space bygroups for their own use. New forms of commu-nication also seem to relativise the significanceof physical public places for people. The use ofthe public space is in danger of becoming moreprivate, less diverse, more volatile, and less com-mitted as a result of these developments. Thisincreases the chances of a lack of public orderand feelings of insecurity. If citizens avoid pubicspaces, they are less and less able to performtheir connecting function.

How are the threats related to the potential?Can we transform the tension between publicand private, between communication and safe-ty, so that public spaces can support new formsof urban character? In point B we indicate howpublic spaces can serve as a basis for the urbancharacter. We outline some of the directions fora policy on public spaces in the city.

Between public and private:types of space in the cityPublic spaces are places which are accessible andcan be used by the general public: streets,squares and parks. Some public spaces are for thewhole city and should therefore be arranged in amultifunctional way (e.g., the Grote Markt, or thepark in the city). Public spaces at district level areexperienced by residents as their own space, andconsequently these spaces are organised in away that is focused more on the district.Problems in public spaces lead to interventionsby the management of the polis, the police.The private space is the other side to this. In thisdomain, the residents themselves determine theorganisation and the rules.The boundary is wherethere are collisions with public order or a violationof the rule of law (family violence, noise at night,

criminal activities, illegal employment, etc.).Semi-public spaces are transitional areas bet-ween the public and private domain: the frontgarden, green spaces on housing estates and in awider sense, the café, the school playground andthe shop. These spaces are accessible, but theyare managed by the private or public owner whodetermines the rules. The visitor is a guest.The privatisation of public spaces occurs whenan owner or manager breaks down the publiccharacter by introducing his own selective rules.Housing complexes, discotheques and a sportsinfrastructure are no longer accessible to every-one. Privatisation also occurs on a small scale:double parking, dog faeces, pavement cafes andclosing alleys are examples of this. They signal: ‘Iam here and I will do what I like here.’ Individualsimpose their own rules on public spaces, withoutasking and without coming to any arrangement.The parochialisation of the public space meansthat a particular group dominates it and makesthis clear: skaters, immigrant youths, old-agepensioners, but also trendy shops, urban yuppies,or church communities. They turn the space intotheir own parish.

A. The erosion of the public spaceSince the 1960s, though not only in that period,the view that a building was an object whichhad to be seen as such was predominant withpolicy makers, estate agents and architects. Thisresulted in uninspired uniformity, with very littleattention to the relationship between the build-ing and the space around it. The building andthe space did not reinforce each other, and thecity was impoverished by a lack of identity andcharacter of the area as a whole. Any buildingcould be built anywhere.

Meanwhile, the concept of zoning was dominat-ing the planning, which reinforced this impover-ishment of space even further. This pattern of

thinking turned parts of the city into ‘mono-environments’: governed by a single function(offices, shops, residential, etc.). People had to beable to move quickly from one function toanother, which meant that public spaces mainlyturned into areas for mobility. Furthermore, thismobility was seen in a one-sided way frombehind the car windscreen. The public space inthe city was increasingly dominated by the wayin which it could serve drivers (accessibility,parking). This also increased the impoverish-ment of public spaces. City centres turned intocar parks and introduced a pattern of behaviourin relation to traffic that is very difficult toreverse. In some Flemish cities (e.g., Bruges andGhent), this has been turned round with anapproach at the level of the city which tran-scends the symbolic projects.

As a result of the separation of different func-tions, the city centre turned above all into acommercial centre. The public space in the heartof the city was organised in relation to com-merce: pedestrianised shopping streets, boule-vards and shopping precincts. Meanwhile, thepublic space seems to be controlled by powerfuldistribution chains. This attracts the masses dur-ing the day, but means that the centre alsoacquires a monotonous character. After 6o’clock, the space is empty. After that time, itrejects and seems unsafe.

Attention to city marketing increased in the1990s. Flemish cities had to compete with othercities and become more attractive to investors,visitors and prosperous residents. The pressureto succeed in this led to glamour projects:expensive and spectacular, but without a strongbasis to increase the functions of the publicspace. The arbitrary introduction of ‘art’ in thecity here and there is an example of this. Sellingthe city and its image was the dominant thing.Responding to the demands of recreation and

tourism in a one-sided way meant that somepublic spaces and parts of the city turned intotheme parks: the Disneyfication of the city.

The uninspired development of the space, theorganisation of the city without a context, andreducing the city to an object for sale resulted inthe opposite of what should have been achievedwith urban public spaces: a mixture and transi-tion of functions, different layers in the urbanfabric depending on the scale of the space andits location in the city, the possibilities for iden-tification and differences in types of spacethroughout the city. The spaces should reflectthe colourful diversity of the city. This is the rev-olution we are aiming for.

1 . Creeping privatisationHowever, there is more going on than just theimpoverishment and unimaginative develop-ment of the city. In recent years there has been agradual privatisation of public spaces, and thisappears to be continuing. New forms of semi-public areas have developed between the largeprivate areas (squares and parks) and the privatespaces (houses). They are accessible to the publicunder certain conditions. Access is arranged in acontract, not determined by government, but byprivate market conditions. An individual enter-ing a football stadium, a dancehall, a depart-ment store, a housing complex, or a secure car-park is subject to the rules of the private con-tract. The management of these zones almostalways implies a restriction of the government’ssphere of influence. The position of the govern-ment and its police becomes unclear. The policeare increasingly leaving the management andsupervision of these semi-public areas to privatemanagers and supervisors. Using the term ‘pub-lic-private’ partnership for what is tantamountto subjecting the area to market mechanismsresults in a very bleak outlook. We would like tostate our position quite clearly: the internal bor-


38

ders in Europe have been abolished to allow forthe free traffic of goods and people, and in themeantime we are creating new walls in our owncities which make free movement of trafficthere more difficult.

Privatisation not only concerns the manage-ment, but also sometimes the use of publicspaces. One unfortunate type of behaviour is theso-called ‘parochalisation’ of public spaces. Whencertain groups take over places for a specific pur-pose, those who are ‘different’ are excluded. Thiscan lead to a sense of insecurity. The parochiali-sation can vary, depending on the time of day. Apark can be for the elderly in the daytime and fora group of young people in the evening.

Legislation has attempted to respond to thiswith the introduction of the notion of ‘publicnuisance’. However, this term tends to refermore to problems of public order, and thereforea matter for the government, while thingswhich have a disruptive effect are actually expe-rienced as such by citizens personally.Ultimately this concerns the level of tolerance ofcitizens. However, complaints do pave the wayfor even further privatisation and to shifting thenuisance to other places. In this way a problemin one place causes a double problem.

2. Beyond the physical public space?But how important are physical public spacesnowadays? Perhaps our references to theimpoverishment and privatisation of physicalspace are out of date because of the arrival ofnew forms of communication in virtual space.The key word for the city is ‘communication’, andthis is undergoing a complete revolution. Inaddition to physical encounters, there are allsorts of communication which are more coinci-dental and short term. Proximity and distancehave become relative terms because of mobilephones, the internet, chat rooms and e-mail.

Private relationships are extended to strangers,invisible, anonymous and occasional contact.Are these things an opportunity or a threat forthe city? There is no simple answer. In themeantime, the hype of virtual space is alsobeing seen in relative terms: less than half ofthe Flemish people have access to the internetat home.5 Furthermore, new forms of communi-cation are not replacing physical contact. In fact,they are more likely to lead to an increase intypes of communication. In short, bold state-ments about the consequences of new forms ofcommunication for the city are not appropriate.We would also like to point out that in themeantime, physical space is gaining a newmeaning, particularly in relation to the increasein recreational demands.

The fear of losing familiar forms of communica-tion in the city can lead to a sort of ‘districtfetishism’. This can be seen in several places inthe debate on the city. It means that the districtstands for the warm level of communication, anantidote to alienation and a level of social cohe-sion that can still be achieved. The social pres-sure of this image is oppressive. The real picturedoes not tally with the everyday patterns ofinteraction between people moving criss-crossthrough the city, the grid city and the networksof cities. For certain groups, the district is moreimportant than for others, and obviously thedistrict can lead to interesting forms of contactand interaction. We only oppose the closedimage of ‘our’ district versus the cold city. For us,the district is part of an open approach to thecity in which people move around the city atmany levels, and where the public space allowsfor many different sorts of encounters and con-tacts at these many levels.

We can identify more easily with this openapproach and the related vision to the publicspace because there are points of contact with


40


41the rapid development in types of communica-tion. The basic philosophy on public space in thecity should probably relate to this: thinking interms of networks of public spaces, with differ-ent qualities, levels of significance and levels ofscale, open to intensive contact but also withopportunities for rapid anonymous surfing inthe city.

B. The public space as an aid to urbandevelopment

The public space is a condition and a require-ment to increase the urban character of citiesfor its inhabitants and users.

The inhabitants of the city live there and wantthe added value from the quality of the publicspace. The public space is the garden of theurban dweller, and streets and squares are theextension of the home. This means that theinhabitants must feel at home and that thereshould be light, flexible and adapted transitionsbetween the entities and functions of the city,via the public spaces. This is diametricallyopposed to the annexation of the public spaceand its appropriation for private use.

Visitors to the city must be able to experiencethe value of the city through its public spaces.The city should be more than a shopping centre,a place to work or a place to go to school. Itshould be pleasant to be assimilated in itsanonymity and fun to ‘hop’ through the city.Significant public spaces provide opportunities,the pleasure of the lightness of a public place,chatting in the city, chances for coincidence andencounters. The experience which many peoplealready have of the proliferation of possibleforms of communication is therefore seen aboveall as an opportunity for the city. These are prac-tices and skills in the private sphere which corre-spond well with the basic conditions of theurban character.

We consider the public space essential to sup-port the diversity of and in the city. The diversityis related both to the contact between peoplewith different backgrounds and to a diversity oftypes of activities in the city, combined with dif-ferent sorts of public spaces in the city.Therefore the public space should be of a goodquality at every level of scale, from the smallestcommunity centre to the largest park in the city.As indicated above, urban public space shouldallow for a combination of functions, incorpo-rate transitions and introduce different levels inthe urban fabric. The task is to achieve the iden-tity of public spaces in a subtle way, at andbetween levels of scale. In this respect, we makea connection with the section on the ‘built-upcity’. There is an interaction between the publicspace and the spatial context: providing andorganising public space valorises the spatialcontext and increases its significance in the gridcity. Public spaces can also generate a new con-text and therefore give a new meaning toplaces in the grid city.

One of the basic requirements is that the publiccharacter and public function of public spacesmust be guaranteed. Therefore we should avoidpublic spaces from being used in a one-sidedway and being considered as monopolies. Weshould probably recover public spaces from pri-vatised spaces in some places. In the semi-publicspaces we will certainly have to adopt a muchmore creative approach to finding a suitablemixture of activities and functions, differing interms of time and space and focusing ongreater flexibility and adaptability. The publicaspect will have to be given a greater emphasisin the public-private partnership for the man-agement of these spaces. More active forms ofcommon management are desirable.

Enterprise and work, recreation and tourism,culture and events can assign a multiple signifi-

cance to public spaces and stimulate a mixtureof uses. Buildings are not only there for theirinternal function, they also help to determinethe mix of uses. The hospital shop can serve as acommercial outlet for the district, the employ-ees’ restaurant can attract ordinary visitors inthe evening, and the school playground canbecome a community playground when schoolis out. We expect architects and architecture tofocus on inclusion, not on rejecting differenturban functions.

The challenge is to organise space in such a waythat it allows for confrontations without lead-ing to conflict.6 This is easy to say, but can onlybe achieved with a long process of searchingand dialogue. The solution is certainly notalways easy to find in many public spaces. Itrequires a strategy which confirms the limits oftolerance and even increases them. This is a wayof diminishing the urban character.

We should organise the public space in such away that we learn to deal with anonymous,occasional contacts in a constructive way and donot increasingly avoid them. In addition to anappropriate organisation, this also requires anew code of conduct and rules, as well as suit-able forms of management, which includes thepolice, on the basis of a concern to ensure secu-rity for the community. The organisation of pub-lic space should contribute to the acceptance ofwhat is strange and should even expresslyrecognise this as an important urban quality.This does not mean that tolerance should leadto a loss of norms, but that the democraticdebate must also incorporate the norms for theuse of the public space.

Organising and designing public spaces is an artin itself, which requires the best planners andhighest standards in terms of quality. This con-cern for quality reveals whether the city is really

opting for an urban character. The planning anddesign require a custom-made approach foreach public space, depending on the current useand on the place and function of the specificspaces in the urban network. Sometimes quickinterventions and short-term investments areneeded to meet direct demands. A systematicapproach to community parks and lost cornerscan have an immediate effect and can also be asign of appreciation. Other public spaces requirea slower approach and sustainable materials, inthis way indicating that they will only graduallyhave an effect and that they require patience,sometimes over several years. Public spaceshould have a very high value for the future. Theappropriate flexibility and adaptability varies foreach space. In many places, historical time mustbe guaranteed by conserving elements from thepast or by giving them a new function.7

In order to respond to public space with adegree of concern, it is necessary to see itsimportance in the context of stimulating theurban character. Public spaces provide addedvalue for density and give opportunities fordiversity. This requires a ‘culture of public spaces’in councils, but also from citizens and residents.In Flanders we have lost this culture to someextent. However, the tide is slowly turning andefforts are increasingly being made. This energyshould lead to more public spaces which func-tion better, and which themselves autonomous-ly generate a greater urban character.

3. The enterprising city

The industrial revolution turned cities into themost important places of employment. Thisthoroughly changed the prospects, form, admin-istration and life in the cities. In the last halfcentury, this relationship between the economyand cities has led to two other fundamental


42


43changes. First, the compact city of the nine-teenth century was transformed into extendedurban areas where the majority of the urbanpopulation started to live in a broad ring aroundthe city. Since the economic revival after the1970s and 1980s, economic processes such asgreater flexibility and globalisation have gener-ated new types of cities in which networks, aswell as social-spatial polarisations between pop-ulation groups, play an important role. The citynow has a central place as a source of economicgrowth and this central position can result bothin great problems and in new opportunities.These opportunities are referred to here as the‘urban development coalition’, which createslinks with other cities in the global economy onthe basis of the social-cultural capital of the city.

A. The new urban economic space1 . The expansion and impoverishment

of the citySince the Second World War, economic growthand the increase in incomes have changed thelarger cities into city districts by means of aprocess of systematic spatial expansion. Thecombination of property acquisition, mobility(cars) and the increased use of domestic appli-ances has temped more and more groups of theFlemish population into suburbia. Anyone whocould afford to, left the city. Initially this subur-banisation was mainly residential, but subse-quently, part of the economy followed. At first,this mainly consisted of a number of caringservices which simply followed their clients, butsubsequently other economic activities also fol-lowed. The explanation for this included the lackof appropriate space, the higher prices of landand the disadvantages of conglomerations inthe central cities. A stricter environmental policyis also driving some businesses out of the city.These activities are then established in the sub-urbs of the city districts or in easily accessiblenon-urban places (cross-roads, complexes of exit

and entry roads, etc.). This economic expansionis particularly strong in the city districts ofBrussels and Antwerp. Nevertheless, the con-glomerations of the central cities continue to bethe most important economic hubs and centresof employment.8 Reference is made to pp. 00-00 for the figures on this development.

The consequence of this movement is certainlynot always positive for the city. Although thecity is still the most important centre foremployment, many jobs are taken up by com-muters, often from the suburban ring aroundthe city, while a proportion of the actual inhabi-tants, particularly those with a lower level ofeducation, are often left on the sidelines. It isundeniable that the fringe areas are becomingricher, while the city centre is becoming poorer.Pp. 00-00 show the differences in income struc-tures between the city centre and fringe areasfor the Antwerp and Brussels urban areasrespectively. These differences in income thengive rise to greater tax pressures in the citiesthan in the periphery. After all, the cities haveless income and greater expenses. Visitors douse the city, but they do not pay for it. Thereforethe costs are passed on to the centre from theperiphery and the city centre ends up payingthe bill.9

The expanding city means that the city centrebecomes less compact. With the disappearanceof purchasing power and the enlargement ofscale of the day-to-day radius of action of manypeople, certain functions are disappearing, suchas district and community-oriented shoppingfacilities. Finally, a gradually insoluble mobilityproblem has developed as a result of an ofteninexpert localisation of new economic activitieson the edge of the city, which leads to new pres-sures on other locations even further away fromthe city.

2. Post-Fordism: the network cityand dualisation

Just as post-war growth has transformed thecity into a city district, new forms of economicgrowth (which are expressed in increasing flexi-bility and globalisation) have incorporated the

city district in a much more complex unit withrelationships between cities, Europe and theworld (vertically) on the one hand, and betweenthe cities themselves (horizontally), on the otherhand. The international literature often refers tothe ‘networking city’ and ‘urban networks’. It is


44E m p l o y m e n t

The city provides a great deal of employment1. In Brussels almost 600,000 people are in employment; Antwerp andGhent together account for more than 350,000 employees. The adjacent districts in the conglomeration of thesethree cities also have great economic significance.Together the three large urban areas account for 47% of the totalemployment in Flanders and Brussels.Adding the regional towns, two thirds of jobs are found in the 13 largest Flemish towns and cities and Brussels,together with the municipalities in their conglomerations. Including the small towns, all the towns and citiestogether account for 81% of employment. The service sector is concentrated in cities to an even greater extent: 52%of jobs are in the conurbations, 71% in the large cities and regional urban areas together.In the last twenty years2, employment in Flanders and Brussels increased by 491,000 jobs.This figure conceals a lossin industry (-20%), and a great increase in the much larger service sector (+47%). In the large cities and regionaltowns, the increase in the service sector was more limited (+36%), while the decrease in the industrial sector wasgreater (-29%). Therefore relative growth was greater in the rest of Flanders, and industry was able to maintain itsposition better. The limited scope of growth in the Brussels-Capital Region, in comparison with the geographicalexpansion of the city, reveals how this deconcentration in the large cities can assume dramatic proportions. TheRegion lost 43% of its industrial employment, and the number of jobs in the service sector increased by only 16%.The net increase in employment was limited to 5%, compared with 23% in the whole of Brussels and Flanders. It isstriking that the highest relative growth figures occur in the municipalities of the conglomerations of large cities(+52%), and in the suburban rings (+67%). However, recent research3 has indicated that we cannot conclude fromthis that a process of erosion is taking place in the city. On the contrary: the economic compact character is increas-ing at an even greater rate there (+179 employees/km2) than outside (+36 employes/km2). Nevertheless, an impor-tant restructuring is taking place: industries which require space and generate mobility, services and trade are leav-ing the city, while conversely, it continues to attract a whole range of activities in the service sector. An economicexpansion in the city is related to this restructuring.

––––––––––1 Deze cijfers houden geen rekening met de bouwsector die wegens de verspreiding van de productieplaatsen weinig ruimtelijke con-

centratie vertoont. Het zijn gegevens van de Rijksdienst voor Sociale Zekerheid, waardoor de zelfstandigen niet meegerekend zijn.We maken ook geen onderscheid tussen voltijdse en deeltijdse betrekkingen en wie meerdere banen heeft, wordt meermaalsgeteld. Niettemin geven deze cijfers een betrouwbaar beeld van de geografische spreiding van de tewerkstelling.

2 Voor een uitgebreide analyse van de werkgelegenheid, werkloosheidskenmerken en -evolutie: zie Struyven en Vandenbrande, 2003.3 Zie Cabus en Vanhaverbeke, 2003.


45

clear that the new city, which has started todevelop since the economic revival in the secondhalf of the 1980s, can no longer be described interms of a single line of development. The usersof the city operate at different levels of scale,with both more local and more supralocal pat-

terns of relationships, which means that theurban character (also in an economic sense) nolonger coincides at all with the traditional city.

The origin of these changes can be traced backto the crisis in the 1970s. This saw the end of the

* = definition, Flanders Town and Country Planning Structural PlanSuburban and commuter residential zone = definition, Van der Haegen, 1991

Employment in 2001Salaried employment

600 000

500 000

400 000

300 000

200 000

100 000

0

Services Industry

brussels antwerp andghent

other municipalities

in conur-bations*

regionalurban*

small towns*

suburban* commuterresidential

zonee*

the rest offlanders

Employment in 1981-2001Salaried employment

140 000

120 000

100 000

80 000

60 000

40 000

20 000

0

-20 000

-40 000

Services Industry

brussels antwerp andghent

other municipalities

in conur-bations*

regionalurban*

small towns*

suburban* commuterresidential

zonee*

the rest offlanders

Source: Van der Haeghen, 1991 and own processing

These figures clearly illus-trate the difference betweenthe large difference betweenincomes in the central citiesand those in the surroundingsuburban rings.

In the Brussels city district,incomes were already rela-tively low in 1985, particularlyin the northern and central

municipalities (Sint-Joost-Ten-Node, Sint Jans-Molenbeek and Schaarbeek). The situation was much more positivein the municipalities in the southeast of the Capital Region, particularly in the suburban rings to the west and cer-tainly to the east and southeast. For all the municipalities taken into account, the highest income (Kraainem) was65% higher than the lowest (Sint-Joost). The evolution of incomes during the period 1985-2000 further accentuat-ed this situation. The highest income (Kraainem) is now almost double (+97%) the lowest (Sint-Joost).

In Antwerp the situation was not yet as extreme as in Brussels in 1985. The income was significantly lower than inthe suburban municipalities (Schilde had a score almost 30% higher than Antwerp), but it was still at an equivalent


46Ce n t ra l c i t i e s a n d s u b u r b a n m u n i c i p a l i t i e s : t h e i n co m e d i v i d e

Average income per tax return for the years 1985 and 2000 along the line from Sint-Niklaas – Turnhout(tax years 1986 and 2001).

31000

29000

27000

25000

23000

21000

19000

17000

15000

13000

Income per tax return 1985IIncome per tax return 2000 n n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

nn

n

n

n nn

n n

n

n

nn

n

n

inko

men

per

aang

ifte

in€

beveren

sint-niklaas

zwijndrecht

antwerpen schilde

wijnegemzoersel

herentals

mallebeerse

vosselaar

turnhout

sint-n

iklaas

bever

enzw

ijndre

cht

antwer

pen

wijneg

em

schild

e

zoer

sel

malle

beers

evoss

elaar

turn

hout

level with that in the ruralarea further out (Malle).However, over the years, thedifferences also became moreacute there and the gapbetween the centre and thesuburban ring increased. Theaverage income per return inSchilde is now almost 50%higher than in Antwerp.

In the regional cities (Sint-Niklaas, Turnhout and Leu-ven) the income is now alsosignificantly lower than inthe suburban municipalities.

47


47

Average income per tax return for the years 1985 and 2000 along the line from Liedekerke – Leuven(tax years 1986 and 2001).

340003200030000280002600024000220002000018000160001400012000

Income per tax return 1985IIncome per tax return 2000 n n

n

n

n

n nn

n n n

n

n

n

n

inko

men

per

aang

ifte

in€

liedek

erke

ternat

dilbee

k

st.-agat

ha-berch

em

st.-ja

ns-molen

beek

koek

elber

gbru

ssel

st.-jo

ost-ten

-node

schaarb

eek

st.-la

mbrech

ts-wolu

wekra

ainem

wezem

beek-o

ppem

zaven

temter

vuren

bertem

oud-hev

erlee

leuven

n

n

n

n

n

nn

n n n

n n

nn

nn

nn

n

n

n

liedekerke

ternat

dilbeek

sint-agatha-berchem

brussel

kraainem

tervuren

leuvenbertem

sint-jans-molenbeek

sint-lambrechts-woluwe

sint-joost-ten-node

oud-heverlee

koekelberg

schaarbeekzaventem

• •• • • •

• • • ••• •••

•

stable relationship between employers, employ-ees and the government, which formed thebasis for mass production and mass consump-tion (Fordism). A post-Ford flexible economicsystem replaced this. In this system, companiesrespond rapidly to changing preferences.Consequently, the government and employeesmust adopt an increasingly flexible approach tocontinue to participate in the economic system.The social conditions developed during the peri-od of Fordism came under pressure.Furthermore, companies increasingly organisethemselves in economic networks, focusing ontheir core activities. In order to limit costs, all theother activities were contracted out. A businessthat is able to produce the best quality underthe best market conditions becomes a link inthe network company. Both large companiesand SMEs are part of these economic networks.The development is further strengthened andfacilitated by ICT.

The increasing flexibility in production was notonly possible because less profitable tasks couldbe moved on to subcontractors, but alsobecause tasks were moved into the area ofinformal employment. Therefore the economicrevival was accompanied by a polarisation in theemployment market. On the one hand, therewas a group of very highly educated managerswho were responsible for designing and main-taining the flexibility and the new growth.Nowadays, economic development is stronglysupported by the service sectors, and in particu-lar by the intensive information technology sec-tor.10 These employees no longer enjoy the sta-ble conditions of work and income of the pre-ceding period, but much higher salaries amplycompensate for this. On the other hand, thereare the employees who carry all the materialburden of this flexibility. They have a lower levelof education and are always available. Theycome and go in the employment market,

depending on the changes in demand and inthe subcontracting sector. They take up the sim-ple service jobs (such as cleaning services,tourism, catering, etc.), and may be rejectedfrom the employment process altogether. Thesepeople find it much more difficult to participatein the new economic sectors because the rou-tine jobs can always be moved to countries withlow salaries by network enterprise. In addition,international capital has penetrated what were– until recently – strongly protected ‘home’ serv-ice sectors. The decline in the profitability ofindustrial activities means that internationalcapital is being invested in necessary, but notreally qualified services. Because of the multina-tionalisation of these types of services, theworking conditions are amongst the poorest,including a high level of occasional employ-ment. Furthermore, this is not a marginal sector,but a central proportion of the working class.11

The result is that the income gap between thepeople with well-paid, information-intensivejobs and those with poorly paid, flexible routinejobs, or those dependent on social securitybenefits, is becoming greater. Because the differ-ent social groups are already divided in terms oflocation in the city districts, this polarisationalso increases the internal differences in the city.

These elements bring us to the paradox of theurban employment market: a large number ofjob vacancies accompanied by high unemploy-ment in the city. Because of the increasingimportance of education and social capital, anincreasingly large proportion of jobseekers arefinding it difficult to integrate in the regularemployment circuit.12 (See pp. 50-51 for figuresand further explanation). The new post-industri-al jobs are then taken by commuters and highlyeducated immigrants. The constantly increasingpermanent reserve of the long-term unem-ployed who are concentrated in the cities is sim-ply passed over. One of the consequences is that


48


49a proportion of these people are forced to sur-vive in the informal economy.

3. Enlargement of scale and reductionof scale: the global-local paradox

This network economy leads to an enlargementof scale because companies are looking for thelowest costs and greatest professional expert-ise, at least on a European scale. This meansthat the Flemish cities and regions are facedwith worldwide competition, and that despitethe global economy, local, social, and culturalcharacteristics play an increasingly importantrole: this is the global-local paradox. It causes anincreasing differentiation between cities, ratherthan the even development which was charac-teristic of the city under Fordism.13 In this con-text, the city is the key to the global economy.

In addition to the geographical enlargement ofscale, there is at the same time an economicreduction of scale, at least at the level of pro-duction, in which the city once again plays acentral role. If smaller companies wish to partic-ipate in the network economy, they will concen-trate on a particular market or market sector.This means that they must cooperate withother small companies, and consequently theytry to establish themselves in the vicinity ofthese other companies. The urban area is anextremely suitable forum for developing theseadvantages of proximity. Furthermore, in citiesthere is an oversupply of central functions,which means that the economic partners in thenetwork can be easily replaced. As a result, thescope of action of many urban economic actorsremains local to a significant extent.

The city is confronted with great uncertainty asthe result of economic changes. Because of thetechnological and organisational evolution, it isprobable that groups with sufficient trainingand education for today’s employment market

will encounter problems in the economy of thefuture. Therefore there is a real risk that in thefuture even more people will drop out of theregular economic circuit. As a result, the regularemployment market loses its function withregard to social integration, which will haveuncertain consequences for the cohesion ofsociety. The internal (economic) stability of soci-ety, and of the city in particular, will thereforecome under even greater pressure. If the prob-lems of economic integration prove to be per-manent, there will also be increased social andcultural uncertainty for even larger groups, par-ticularly urban inhabitants.

Another important factor is the demographicdevelopment. We do not have much control overthis. The constant increase in the age of thepopulation and continuing migration (fromhighly educated immigrants to asylum seekersand illegal immigrants) will undoubtedlychange the social and economic basis of the city.

B. What is the future for the city in the network economy?

1 .Urban characteristics as a threatand as an advantage

In order to tackle the paradox of economic suc-cess and unemployment and deal with theuncertainties, the cities will have to be in astronger position.

This means that the local character, a centralfactor within the global-local paradox, providesboth opportunities and threats. The threat con-sists of the complacent dependence of the cityon itself, which can only lead to its erosionunder pressure from the competition. The citycould also enter the competition with greatenthusiasm and the aim to be successful. In thiscompetition, the economic partners can beinnovative, and the authorities can also follownew paths in the fields of economic, social and


50T h e p a ra d ox o f t h e u r b a n e m p l o y m e n t m a r ke t

The paradox of the urban employment market applies specifically to the city1. As the figures on employment show,the city contains many jobs as well as many vacancies. At the same time, there is high unemployment, which is sys-tematically higher than in the rest of Flanders. The paradox of the employment market reflects this contrast. Thisis represented in the two figures below.

Level of employment and unemployment in the Flemish municipalities and the Brussels-Capital Region (2001)

Source: VDAB, RSZ, RSVZ, RSZPPO, RIZIV (NIS) (Processed by WAV/HIVA), Struyven & Vandenbrande, 2001.

Between 1995 and 2001, unemployment in Flanders fell by 92,000 jobs. This was mainly the result of the growth inemployment (see box on employment). However, the fall in unemployment is relatively greater as the urban char-acter of the region being examined declines.

––––––––––1 Voor een uitgebreide analyse van de werkgelegenheid, werkloosheidskenmerken en -evolutie: zie Struyven en Vandenbrande, 2001.

Level of unemployment

Brussels-Capital Region

Level of employment opportunities


51

This evolution can be explained by a number of interrelated factors. First, we see that most of the unemployed livein the three large cities (68,000 in Brussels and 35,000 in Antwerp and Ghent, together accounting for 47% of theunemployed in Flanders and Brussels), but that employment is particularly increasing in other places (92% of theincrease between 1981 and 2001 is accounted for outside the three large cities). However, we do note that the mostnegative evolution took place before 1995. Between 1995 and 2001, growth in the large cities was definitely morepositive. While only 8% of the growth occurred in the three large cities during the period as a whole, this figureincreases to 22% between 1995 and 2001. This indicates that there has been a possible improvement. 2

One important cause of the employment paradox is the fact that the profile of jobseekers in the city often does notsuit the jobs which are on offer. As a result of recent changes, the new jobs in the city are mainly high level jobs inthe service sector and the public sector, while unemployment affects the most vulnerable groups in the employ-ment market there (as in other places). These groups are concentrated in the large cities to a very large extent: 49%of young unemployed people, and even 80% of foreign unemployed people live in one of the three large urbanareas. Jobseekers with a low level of education, another extremely vulnerable group, are more spread out through-out the whole of Flanders.

––––––––––2 Cabus, P. and W. Vanhaverbeke (2002), Analysis of dynamics in terms of town and country planning and the economy, Strategic

Plan for the Economy in terms of Town and Country Planning, September 2002

130

120

110

100

90

80

70

60

50brussels antwerp and

ghentother munic-

ipalities inlarge cities

urbanregions

small towns

suburban commuterresidential

zone

rest of flan-ders

Level of employment opportunitiesIndex Flanders + Brussels 1995 = 100

Unemployment indexEmployment index

n

n

nn

n nn

n

n n

n nn n

n

n

n n

Source: RSZ, RSVZ, VDAB and RVA.

cultural policy, which could benefit everyone.But where there are winners in the competition,there are also always losers. Without solidarityand mechanisms for redistribution betweenregions and cities, this will encourage unaccept-able inequalities in the regions and inner cities.

In order to attract investors, ever-larger offersare being made, always paid for by the localcommunities, in the form of infrastructuralworks, tax reductions or exemptions andincreasing investment subsidies. On the otherhand, these are often outweighed by less strin-gent social and environmental conditions incompeting areas outside Europe. From the pointof view of investors who are no longer limitedto particular locations, the competition betweencities results in cost reductions, but the localpopulation carries the cost. The competitionalso opens up new markets for infrastructureand equipment: throughout Europe, hotels arebeing built, airports are being modernised andexpanded, teleports and industrial sites arebeing established, industrial and high-techparks are being constructed, conference andexhibition areas are being created … All thisinfrastructure creates a market mechanism withlittle or no interest in overcapacity or the socialand ecological consequences. The competitionleads to speculation and social repression inareas where inhabitants have to move out fornew infrastructure and activities, or for new res-idents with greater purchasing power.

2. The urban development coalit ionfor an economic city project

The opportunities provided by the individualcharacter of cities are based on these threats.The continued development of the networkeconomy and the resulting increasing territorialand urban competition will lead to a need foralliances between cities. Castells, a sociologistwho become world-famous for his analysis of

current social trends, came to this conclusionbecause the local councils as individual actorswere virtually impotent in relation to the globaleconomy.14 The local councils will have tobecome stronger; it is a precondition for govern-ing the European cities. This will have to takeplace at three levels.

First of all, the local councils will have to createa strong basis of authority at the level of thecity/region. This will require a strong internalurban organisation, which has been describedby the term ‘growth coalition’ in the literature.15

In this book we refer to a ‘developmentcoalition’, with which we would like to empha-sise the concern for sustainable development.This means coalitions between the urbanauthorities and private partners, which result inan economic strategy for the city, focusing,amongst other things, on attracting urbaninvestment and decision-making powers. It isessential that this economic vision is expandedto a total economic programme for the city. Allthe economic actors (government, employeesand employers) can play a leading role in this.Not only the economic capital, but all the socialand cultural capital present in the city can serveas a starting point.

Secondly, as soon as an economic programmefor the city has been set up, alliances betweencities can also develop between city councilsthroughout Europe on the basis of the strongposition of the city. This means that the citiesoperate at a level of scale which is more compa-rable to that of the global network economy.Consequently, they do not so easily challengeeach other and will tend to opt for cooperationrather than competition.

Thirdly, the development of a new vision of thecity and society is necessary to tackle the inter-nal urban contradictions which are the result of


52


53globalisation and increasing flexibility. Streng-thening solidarity in the city could be the neces-sary complement to the expansion of the globaleconomy and the creation of a uropean state. Inthis way, the world, Europe and the city will beinterlinked (for further detail, see chapter 2).

It is clear that both the networks of residentialhousing and those of working transcend theadministrative boundaries of the city in theircurrent form. An approach is needed at theregional level of the city. Up to now, there havenot been many results at this level. The competi-tion between the city and its periphery – forexample, in connection with the issue of taxa-tion referred to above – is dependent on cooper-ation. It is clear that there is a danger that thiscompetition between the city and its peripherywill become even greater, and that the city willcertainly be the loser because of the lack ofequal opportunities. Again, the alternative is awin-win situation, in which the existence of acommunity of interests between the city and itsperiphery is established and explored. There isno doubt that the periphery benefits from thelarge number of jobs in the city. Conversely, thecontinuing economic development of the citycould undoubtedly improve in terms of quality ifthe urban periphery were also involved in anexpert, non-competitive way. We attempt toincorporate this win-win relationship at thelevel of the urban region in the term ‘grid city’.

Therefore the total economic programme forthe city is the starting point for forging alliancesbetween cities and increasing the community ofinterests between the city and its periphery. Thismeans that the programme for the city involvesmuch more than devoting attention to ‘strong’economic levers. It certainly also determines theposition of regular employment and of othersocially useful activities as the basis for socialintegration in the city. This broad interpretation

of the total economic programme for the city onthe basis of the local, social and cultural capitalis necessary not only for the administration ofthe city, but also from the perspective of enter-prise. On the one hand, this will undoubtedlylead to further opportunities, for example, forthe leisure economy and the new economicfoundations of the city which can promote inte-gration. On the other hand, it would be a goodscenario, in which the captains of industry inthe city would develop their own ethicalresponses on the basis of their participation inthe urban community and the general interestsof the city, amongst other things, taking intoaccount the existing paradox of the employ-ment market. The government, which is animportant employer in the city, could also play aleading role in this, which it has not done suffi-ciently up to now. The failure to do this wouldincrease the polarisation and therefore thepotential for conflict in the city. This is not a veryattractive starting point as a basis for an eco-nomic strategy.

A pronounced economic profile for the citywould certainly be an advantage for the devel-opment of a total economic programme for thecity. After all, it presupposes the definition of anumber of economic attractions. In addition tothe traditional sectors, the caring sector andother personal and collective services are alsopossible attractive sectors – where possible,within the market sector. A pronounced eco-nomic profile for the city could also benefit theparticipation in an alliance between cities. Afterall, an alliance implies that everyone has some-thing to offer in the network. The economicniches could fill this role. Therefore the cities ofFlanders could play off their differences withother cities. In this first place, there are impor-tant differences in terms of size (e.g., compareAntwerp and Turnhout). In addition, they usuallyhave a different economic profile which is relat-

ed to different factors.16 For example, the geo-graphical position can determine the composi-tion of the urban economic portfolio (e.g., ports).Furthermore, the economic portfolio sometimesreveals a focus on large companies, while inother cases the SMEs tend to have a more cen-tral position. Finally, it is possible to identify eco-nomic niches which have often developed overtime. For example, there are clearly some citieswith an industrial heart (Genk), cities whereinformation is important (Leuven), cities with animportant function as a gateway (Antwerp andGhent), cities where culture is an important fac-tor (Bruges), and cities which serve as a transi-tional area for the larger cities (Mechelen andAalst). The coastal zone is a special type of gridcity with its own economic profile. All these ele-ments help to determine the content of thesocio-cultural capital of the city. They form thebasis for the economic programmes of the citywith which Flanders and the cities of Flanderscan gain a grasp of the future.

4. The city based on solidarity

At various times in the transition of society thequestion arose that society might be underthreat. This happened when the industrial revo-lution caused tens of thousands of people tomove from the countryside to the city in thesecond half of the nineteenth century. It alsohappened after the Second World War, whenmass consumerism changed the traditionallifestyle of all the people. It applies today, nowthat individualism and the consumer culture arecausing traditional society to break down.

There have been profound changes in society.After the Second world War, a welfare state wasbuilt up on the basis of a social contract. Thebasis for mass production was supported bynew technology and a new organisation of

labour, and this increasingly involved the wholeof society in the consumption of luxury goods.Social progress was based on an economy ofconsultation and general employment.Productivity constantly increased, and wasdivided between increasing profits and a socialprogramme on the basis of social agreements.The state kept the cogs turning with a policy ofexpansion, social legislation, education, trainingand research. A redistribution mechanism and asocial security system meant that the unem-ployed population also benefited from theincrease in welfare. The ‘Golden Sixties’ (1965-1974) saw unparalleled growth accompanied byan increase in the standard of living. The post-war generation moved towards the Americanway of life. It also generated a youth culturewhich emphatically placed its own lifestyle onthe social map for the first time.

The generation conflict in the 1960s under-mined the paternalistic, extremely materialisticand rather authoritarian character of theemerging mass consumer society. The emphasison ‘equality’ in a planned standard of living, sup-ported by an ever-increasing pattern of con-sumption, was rejected by giving priority to par-ticipation and a ‘freedom’ of choice. This socio-logical development was further increased bythe economic crisis which affected the princi-ples of the welfare state from the middle of the1970s. Market mechanisms quickly predominat-ed and put pressure on the mechanisms of soli-darity. Solidarity was also undermined by theculture of the individual. In our view, the citycould play a crucial role in the laborious searchfor new forms of solidarity.

A. The marketing of solidarity1 . Competition puts solidarity

under pressureLarge-scale unemployment, deregulation,increasing flexibility and privatisation resulting


54


55in a new structure of the economy. The guidelinewas no longer a social dialogue, but the compet-itive position in the world market. We indicatedabove that the new technologies and flexibleorganization of labour made it possible to trans-form production into a ‘just-in-time’ niche pro-duction, focusing on the demand of new targetgroups. The new professionals who were athome in this new economy had to identifystrongly with their activities and adopt an ambi-tious approach in enterprise and competition. Inexchange, they acquired a purchasing powerwhich formed the basis for a new consumer cul-ture. This ‘new middle class’ distinguished itselffinancially and culturally from the new under-classes, who were economically and/or culturallyexcluded. This led to divisions in society. A diver-sification of lifestyles resulted in the furtherfragmentation of society, in which the elementsbinding different sections became increasinglydifficult to identify. Neo-liberalism and post-modernism reinforced these evolutions. After all,they both argued that it was impossible andundesirable to impose equality. The market wasnot only seen as the ideal model for the distribu-tion of goods and services, it also became ametaphor for all social relations. They were allseen in terms of supply and demand and ofsocial contracts between free individuals.

In this context, the demand for the basis ofsocial equality becomes increasingly urgent.People are seen above all as consumers, clientsand an audience. The market of supply and de-mand is determining more and more elementsin social life. The direction of society seems to beleft to the effects of individual, free decisions.Apparently collective decision making or weigh-ing up conflicting interests has become unnec-essary. Politics are also increasingly based on themodel of the market. Politicians are guided bymarketing and mass communication with afloating electorate.

The basic common goods which used to be pro-duced and distributed on the basis of competi-tion, dialogue and consensus are now increas-ingly regulated by market mechanisms. Publicservices have to work like companies or they areprivatised, the private sector is taking over someof pensions and healthcare, education andresearch have to compete in the market, the pri-vate sector has to help housing projects or com-munity renovation, and cultural subsidiesincreasingly depend on the size of the audience.

Marketing and the related individualisationmean that people are more vulnerable.Competition becomes more important than sol-idarity. Winning becomes more important thanparticipating. The team is no longer concernedwith the people who remain behind, and theyare left to be dealt with by the nanny state.Furthermore, security increasingly depends onindividual purchasing power. However, a grow-ing group of people no longer has the means tosurvive in the market of welfare and happiness.The state appears to have reached the limit ofwhat can be paid in terms of social services withthe existing taxes. Maintaining the welfare pro-visions requires increasing efforts, while thepressure of competition actually forces moreand more tax cuts and salary restrictions.

The effects of these developments can be seenin a concentrated form in the cities. Alienation,mistrust, a sense of insecurity and entrenchmentappear to be synonymous with city life. Thebreakdown of the solidarity organised by thewelfare state needs to be compensated by newforms of urban solidarity. This does not in anyway change the need to adapt this social securi-ty at the level of the state to the new socialproblems and the new visions of employment.Therefore what is said about the city below can-not be put forward in any way as a reason toreplace the welfare state by the welfare city.

2. A divided cityThe process of individualisation reveals that tra-ditional cultural standards have lost their rigidmandatory character. This has led to a greaterfreedom for people to come up with their owninterpretations and implement them. Boththose with a higher and those with a low levelof education wish to choose their own relation-ships; the relationships can be terminated, butdo not stand in the way of commitment. Thisindividualisation supports personal emancipa-tion. However, like so many social developments,there is a dark side to this. The increased free-dom of decision making is also linked to acreeping pressure to make decisions. Traditionsdo limit our range of possible activities, but atthe same time they take away the burden ofhaving to make decisions all the time.Furthermore, the loss of tradition and theincrease in freedom of decision leads to a loss of– or at least, looser – relationships between peo-ple and between individuals and organisations.The most striking phenomena include the lossof factions, the erosion of the midfield (mem-bership of religious, social and cultural associa-tions) and the differentiation in patterns of per-sonal life (the decline of the traditional family).Furthermore, the process of individualisationhas different outcomes within the differentclasses, leading to new fracture lines betweenthose with a high and low level of education.

Individualism is also linked to consumerism. Forexample, this means that the experience ofurban public space mainly coincides with pleas-ant, enriching experiences for the individual.This results in a narrow fringe of activities in theinner city and is accompanied by a specific formof gentrification (a change of the social struc-ture of a district as a result of the introductionof a disproportionately large number of prosper-ous citizens), which is in turn accompanied bysocial repression. The main shopping street and

its direct vicinity are there for the general pub-lic. The professional middle class prefers theslightly more distant streets with a higher quali-ty range of goods on offer. The relationshipbetween commerce and culture consolidatesthe dividing lines which develop between thesocial groups as a result of these decisions.

The relationship between people and their envi-ronment is moving in the same direction.Community life and the life of particular dis-tricts is not disappearing, but their social signifi-cance is reduced because horizons are expand-ed, and community life, factions and localleisure facilities have to make way for virtual,and certainly more distant points of reference.As a result of the increasing flexibility of socialnetworks, permanent community relationshipswith a territorial basis have become relativelyexceptional. Therefore the loss of permanentrelationships has both a social and a territorialdimension.

The segregated city developed on a larger scale.A number of different factors have contributedto this: suburbanisation, an anti-urban attitudeand the related emigration of the middle class-es. The economic restructuring and the strongsocial polarisation have emphasised thesesocial-spatial dividing lines in the large cities.They give rise to a divided city where the socialgroups not only lead separate lives, but no long-er have any connection with the common city.

It is precisely because individualisation and themarketing process are no longer restricted tothe city, but have taken over the whole ofFlanders, that the problem of connections isnow so strongly experienced in the city itself.The task of coping with urban diversity hasbecome more urgent and the possibilities ofwithdrawing to the security of tradition outsidethe city have disappeared.


56


57B. What kind of solidarity in the city? Two roads

We will discuss two roads which can lead to amore ‘solidarity-based city’. The first possibility isthe ‘hard’ aspect of a different social-spatial,electoral and fiscal organisation of urban socie-ty: solidarity that is organised and laid down inlaws and by institutions. The second is therather ‘softer’ promise of everyday relationships:a soft, more informal and latent solidaritybetween citizens. The broader debate on thereform of social security at the level of the stateis not discussed here, but is obviously crucial: wecertainly do not aim to place the need for soli-darity entirely at the level of the city.

1 . The recognition and organisation of social-spatial groups

Up to the early 1970s the city was the stage forwhat we now call the ‘old social issue’. The divi-sion between rich and poor had alreadyemerged during the course of the nineteenthcentury, but the positions of the two groupscould be understood as a starting point fromwhich a consciousness of the conflicting inter-ests of the groups were built up. The groupsorganised themselves to defend their interestsand confronted the other party: working classdistricts against the bourgeois centres.

The city was also the place where employmentwas concentrated, so that conflicts related towork usually became urban conflicts straight-away. In addition, the city was the commonarena, where the conflicts were expressed at thesame time as the need to hold the urban com-munity together. The old social issue concernedthe distribution of income from capitalist pro-duction in terms of profits and salaries, and or ina broader sense, the distribution of wealthacross the social classes. This conflict has contin-ued in European cities for a hundred and fiftyyears. Social, political and cultural questions

were also involved. Initially this greatly in-creased the internal solidarity within the oppos-ing parties, and eventually an enforced solidaritywas achieved between the parties with themediation of the State. This led to an impressiveimprovement in the living conditions of theweaker group, to democracy and social justice.

Therefore conflict and cohesion, struggle andsolidarity, are not mutually exclusive. In fact,that is probably just as well for the continuedexistence of an (urban) society. However, thebasic condition for a creative conflict is that theparties recognise each other, that the arena isdefined, and that the struggle is carried out inaccordance with clear rules.

Today there is a new social issue which can leadto new solidarity in a similar way. This no longerconcerns the confrontation between the work-ing classes and the bourgeoisie. The new issuerelates to social exclusion. The economic, socialand cultural changes which undermine the ear-lier forms of solidarity mean that social integra-tion on the basis of participation in the employ-ment market is no longer always open to every-one. As a result, three groups emerge inFlanders when looking at this issue from anurban perspective. However, these groups arenot equally strong in each city or cannot alwaysbe identified in the same concentrations.

The first group is a still relatively unrelated col-lection of individual groups which are in thegreatest danger of social exclusion. They areconcentrated in the deprived quarters of largecities: the immigrant workers of the 1960s and1970s, the newcomers who came to join themwhen families were reunited or immigrated tomarry, political and economic refugees and awhole range of ‘care’ immigrants, who go to thecity because there are greater opportunities forsurvival.

The second group comprises the better-off(largely) immigrant inhabitants of the city. Theylive in better areas of the cities, and at first sightthey appear to determine the future of the citythrough their political representatives. They arenot only by far the most dominant electoralgroup in the cities, but as long as there is nogeneral right to vote for foreigners, they alsoaccount for the majority of politicians in the city.

The third group consists of the users of the citywho sometimes live far outside the city as aresult of suburbanisation, and enjoy the advan-tages of the city without directly contributing tothe expense because of the Belgian/Flemishorganisation of administration and taxation.Their strength lies in two sources. On the onehand, urban policy is also determined at aregional and federal level, and this group is wellrepresented at those levels; on the other hand,urban political employees are part of partystructures which closely follow the interests ofthis majority of the electorate. Party ideologyand programmes produce a policy in the citieswhich sometimes serves the users more thanthe residents.

We are still a long way away from the mutualrecognition of these groups and their internaland enforced solidarity. On the one hand, thespatial condition of the groups is increased bythe middle classes moving away from the cityand by the constant immigration of sociallyweaker groups and the impoverishment of thelocal population in the inner cities. Territorialhomogonous social groups could end upretreating to their own areas and failing to con-front each other, which would be the end of theurban character. At the same time, a certaindegree of separation is necessary to maintainthe (cultural) identity so that the confrontationwith other (stronger) groups and with the gov-ernment can take place in a productive way. On

the other hand, there are traces of increasingdiversity in the inner cities. Gentrification, usual-ly strongly encouraged by the government to fillthe city coffers, brings more young immigrantsinto the city.

The tension between these two processes – atendency towards increasing uniformity andincreasing diversity – should be seen as a con-text for opportunities rather than as a contrast.The result could be that the gentrifiers opt forthe interests of the impoverished population inthe city centres rather than for social oppres-sion, and for adapting the city to their ownneeds and requirements. This means that theybecome allies, rather than a threat to the poorin the inner cities. In this case, gentrification andthe social mix could stimulate the confrontationat a local level and determine its character.Therefore the essence is a creative, productiveconfrontation between these three groups: aconfrontation which leads to mutual recogni-tion and dialogue. This is the principle on whichthe city republic is based.

A city based on solidarity is a city where there isa dialogue. This term expresses the need for thegroups to be in contact and to communicatebefore a cohesive society can develop. Obviouslythis dialogue cannot take place in a void. Itrequires institutions which recognise everysocial-spatial group and the confrontation relat-ed to the future of the city. A future project forthe city supported by all the social-spatialgroups becomes the aim of that dialogue andthe channel for achieving interrelationships andsolidarity. Therefore structural modifications areneeded in the institutional and spatial organisa-tion of urban politics in three interrelated fields:the territorial, electoral and fiscal fields.

Territorial OrganisationThe territorial organisation of administration


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should allow the social, spatial populationgroups to express their needs better and torecognise each other. On the one hand, this canbe achieved through the organisation of dis-tricts and decentralisation; on the other hand,by means of dialogue and institutions at thelevel of the grid city. This means that at the levelof the district and the city a platform can be cre-ated for a dialogue between the social-spatialgroups on a more equal footing. This is possiblein the context of the urban debate described inchapter 4. It is crucial for the districts and com-munities to acquire greater autonomy so thatthe weaker groups are accorded greater recogni-tion, greater visibility and more decision-makingpowers. The relationship with the users of thecity should be determined by the dialogue atthe level of the ‘grid city’. We will return to thisin chapter 5.

Electoral OrganisationIf the inner city group continues to be facedwith a serious democratic deficit (in some areasthe majority of the population is actually notpolitically represented), territorial reforms willnot achieve a great deal. Modifying the electoralorganisation means giving all the inhabitantsthe right to vote.

Undoubtedly the political organisation of thethree social-spatial groups can itself become anefficient political decision-making instrument inmany urban and supra-urban fields in a repre-sentative democracy. However, this form ofdemocracy is less suitable for learning to livewith the increasing diversity in the city. Theeveryday problems and challenges resultingfrom the double confrontation between increas-ingly diverse inhabitants of the city andbetween the inhabitants and the users of thecity cannot wait for the slow process of politicalexpression, negotiation and decision making.Therefore it is important for participatory

democracy to take place at a local level. Thisdoes not refer to the initiatives which are takento defend a status quo against the challenges ofdiversity. It concerns those initiatives which aretaken on the basis of local representativedemocracy to discuss the problems and projectswith all the interested parties, and if possible,transcend the conflicting interests of the partiesthemselves. Better support must be provided forthis (see chapter 5).

Two policy aspects are suitable for this new typeof administration: planning-related topics andthe participation in the budget (see chapter 5).

The policy on planning (town and country plan-ning, housing, local security) covers a wholeseries of issues with a planning scale whichcoincides with the scale of city districts andareas (depending on the size of the cities),where participatory democracy can be organ-ised. For the participation in the budget, the dis-trict level is the appropriate channel for givingsmall groups responsibility as well, to think anddecide on all the policy areas at a supralocallevel. Therefore these new forms of democracyshould also be opened up to the users of thecity who, as ‘part-time citizens’, are co-responsi-ble, for all the communities in the cities andtheir future. This is reflected by the term ‘cityrepublic’.

Fiscal OrganisationThe fiscal organisation entails a fair division ofthe costs and returns of the character of the cityand the accountability of those who use thefunds. The subsidies for suburbanisation and todefend the character of small cities which aredeeply rooted in the current federal, regionaland municipal fiscal structures must be alteredto finance programmes and projects in the citywhich are supported by all the partners. Wedescribe all this as an urban pact, which means


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61that the urban diversity and dynamics willbenefit every group in Flanders. Obviously this isrelated to electoral and territorial measures. Theareas which contribute and those which mustbe financed will have to be outlined by theGovernment of Flanders, and the funds mustcorrespond to the needs and plans for whichlocal territorial units have decision-making pow-ers. Asking users of the city to contribute taxesto the costs they cause in the cities certainlyjustifies their part-time citizenship so that theyare involved in the decision-making processesrelated to the places in the city where theywork, go to school or shop.

Concrete proposals for redrawing the taxincome are described in chapter 3, field 19.

2. Everyday types of interrelationshipsThe city has always been overflowing withdiversity and – to a greater extent than the restof the population – the inhabitants of the cityhave learnt to cope with this diversity. Thisexperience has developed and been built up his-torically and is reflected in stories, attitudes,institutions and in the urban traditions of open-ness, hospitality and a dynamic character. Thismeans that the city is not only a problem, butalso a source of pleasure: as the generator ofdiversity, a magnet for different groups, a meet-ing place for different people, a place wherethere is a great deal to learn. At the same time,there are the threats of the exodus from thecity, the sense of insecurity, the anti-urban atti-tude and the extreme right-wing view whichwants to turn large cities into uniform villages.This is counter to the nature of the city and itsurban character.

It is precisely the experiences which the inhabi-tants of the city have of ‘foreigners’ that pro-duces the social potential of the city. A superfi-cial contact with diversity – in the community,

on a tram, in department stores – is a character-istic of urban life. It is inescapable. In the citypeople can – and must – develop the ability torelate to each other at a superficial level. Theytalk to strangers who they would never talk tootherwise. This superficial contact means thatother people are seen slightly less as ‘they’ andslightly more as ‘we’. In this way the social life ofthe city is balanced between recognition andanonymity. The fact that traditional aspectsbreak down does not mean that people are nolonger socially active, i.e., no longer relate toeach other. The more casual and changing rela-tionships, the superficial contacts between dif-ferent people in the city, should be given moreattention. The commercialisation of the publicareas in the city not only has a segregatingeffect, but also brings together a broad and var-ied general public. Therefore the combination ofindividualisation and the consumer culture alsohas another (rosy) side. It leads to new forms ofinterrelationships and cultural creativity. This isa common everyday creativity and consequentlyit is not always easy to identify. It is not only thepeople who live in the city who enjoy this andfind it attractive; the attraction of the city canbe attributed to this to a significant extent.These everyday examples of interrelationshipsare a positive factor for the city and can formthe basis for a new solidarity between theinhabitants of the city and the users of the city,as well as within both groups. Several places inthe city already serve as centres for these sortsof relationships.

5. The multicultural city

Cities are, by definition, multicultural places.They have always presented themselves (both inthe feudal order and towards the nationalorder) as places of emancipation and innova-tion. More than ever, this is important now. The

cultural order supported by tradition and con-nections based on belonging to the same com-munity no longer works as a framework forintegration. The city has become the back-ground for many lifestyles as a result of immi-gration, economic processes and the individuali-sation resulting from marketing. But these donot get the same opportunities to expressthemselves and are documented in a veryunequal way in cultural productions. The citycould become the basis of a new culture basedon the recognition of many different frames ofreference. This means that a common cultureemerges on the basis of the area, the communi-ty in the same urban space: a common cultureof the city based on conflict and difference.17

A. The breakdown of cultural identitiesWe live in a time warp where the meaning andsignificance of our lives and the ways in whichour behaviour is influenced are once againchanging enormously. Individual experiences,group behaviour, institutional and professionalcodes and the social and political order can nolonger be encapsulated in a single coordinatedpicture, and no longer have a broad social basis.Traditions and authority are losing their power.The cultural order appears to be separatingaway from the structure of daily life and is nolonger simply the expression of a broadly sharedexperience. It also appears to be losing its unityand cohesion. These are the phenomena whichdefine the concept of post-modernism.

Therefore we are concerned both by the ques-tion to what extent our society has changed(social reality) and with the question to whatextent our view of society has changed (ideology).

The first question indicates a correct assess-ment of social changes: are we actually living ina completely different era, another world in

which the modern project of a feasible world,supported by a reasonable plan and a democrat-ic decision making process has been irrevocablypassed by (a post-modern world)? Or has mod-ern society just become dislocated and a societyin which economics, technology and sciencehave become totally dominant, while otherhuman relationships such as social, ecological,cultural and political (democratic) relationshipshave become subordinate?

The second question concerns our intellectualcapacity, technologies and visions to come to aconclusion about this. Is the modern view of sci-ence (the trust in the observed world and intel-lectual reasoning) the perspective from whichthese changes should be examined in a coher-ent way? Should the changes also change ourways of seeing or should we give up theattempt at objectivity, the aim to achieve a totaland universal view or our views on identity?Therefore the second question concerns theintellectual point of view that we adopt andcorresponds to the debate on modernism andpost-modernism.

Both questions have an important influence onthe whole cultural field. Therefore the widelydiscussed ‘multi-culture’ concerns both a diversi-ty of cultures and a diversity of cultural perspec-tives on this. In so far as we view culture as areflection of the world which gives significanceto our actions, these new questions have alsoled to a cultural revolution.

The social basis of culture has broken down.There is no longer a single common cultural pat-tern of reference, except for those who retreatinto tradition. The relationship between theeveryday experiences of people, the culturalobjects and documents which are produced andthe cultural institutions and policy making hasbecome unclear. Therefore the cohesion and


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63identity which is based on this also seems to belost. For this reason, culture as a practical factorin life is at the same time uncertain and hasbecome crucially important. When culturalexpression is no longer a given fact and has tobe (re)constructed, culture and the policy onculture also become a central focus of atten-tion. The world itself has become more com-plex. The division of labour has become muchgreater, so that common experiences of workare much rarer and different experiences areactually much more common. The income andstandards of living achieved in different work-ing situations have become far more unequal.Society itself is now characterised by many cul-tures, by immigration of people with differentethnic backgrounds, by increasing cultural dif-ferentiation of generations, by local characteris-tics, by pluriform lifestyles. The lack of fixed cul-tural references also increases the sense of inse-curity, which is itself based on a decline in thesocial sense of security and the security ofemployment.

All these objective and subjective changes haveled to a search of ‘common culture’.

B. A new challenge for culture: livingtogether on the basis of differences

1 . From a uniform to a pluriformframe of reference

In the last century a uniform culture and collec-tive identity was developed within the nationstate. Cultural production (ideological, scientificor artistic) and cultural reproduction (school,church, media, socio-cultural work, etc.) wereconceived as an integrated institutional struc-ture. The government, policy and politics werepresented as the synthesis of society. Thisalleged uniformity of culture was based on astrong institutional coherence and on a viewwhich had broad social support.

Today these conditions have disappeared. Welive in a time of de-traditionalisation, de-territo-rialisation and a fairly thorough reconstructionof society. Life is no longer determined bymorals or habits which have been passed down.It is this increased complexity which is referredto by cultural sociologists when they talk aboutindividualisation, about the breakdown andfragmentation of cohesion. It appears thatnowadays the market is the only place where allthese differences are interrelated, where anenormously varied supply meets an extremelyvaried demand. Culture has also taken a post-modern turn in this way: a production of goodsin search of a public of consumers. The con-sumer culture provides the field of expressionwhich will have to replace a collective conscious-ness and collective identity. By marketing cul-ture it is not only public institutions, but increas-ingly private organisations that are involved.This means that the consumer culture is dividedinto many sectors and fragments, depending onthe purchasing power and social capital.

Nevertheless, the breakdown of cultural unitydoes not mean that everyone has become anisolated actor with an individual identity and aspecific cultural expression. Culture remains asocial issue and people do not exist withoutsocial interactions. The social, economic and cul-tural changes do mean that everyone now hasmany different social relationships and socialpractices and also often adopts many different‘identities’ (positions) in this. This has made thecultural field much more complex, and producesa system of multiple meanings and referenceswhich we generally rather carelessly call a mul-ticultural society.

However, these different social relationships,practices and identities of different groups insociety are documented in an unequal way andare not incorporated to the same extent in a col-

lective and institutionalised culture. The moredominant groups and lifestyles are givengreater visibility, while the groups that aresocially excluded suffer a cultural deficit. Thesystem is even further distorted when we exam-ine the cultural sector and institutions. Theseultimately select the cultural elements whichcan lead to a common identity, but these ele-ments are less popular with part of the popula-tion than in the past. They then look for culturalexpression and identity elsewhere: some immi-grants regain their cultural links with theircountry of origin, people who are sociallyexcluded seek an outdated identity, a significantproportion of youth culture focuses on moreglobal forms of expression.

When a specific cultural expression bases itselfon social and economic positions it can con-tribute to the polarisation of society. This iswhat happened in so-called ‘immigrant commu-nities’. They came to the city as ‘guest workers’,and in the working class residential districtsthey saw the social mobility of workers: thegrowth in income leads to upward social mobili-ty through education and by moving to a moreresidential environment. However, the economiccrisis in the mid-1970s obstructed their opportu-nities with regard to this mobility. This impasseled to a ‘culturalisation’ of deprivation, a slowed-down process of modernisation and the reten-tion of traditional relationships. This ‘identity’was reinforced by the fact that many Flemish


64Eve r yd ay c u l t u re , d o c u m e n t e d c u l t u re a n d co l l e c t i ve i d e n t i t y

Describing a culture is no easy matter. Culture is primarily a practical everyday matter and is therefore about morethan the public impact of cultural institutions or products. It is the reference for our everyday life. It provides astructure for our feelings, which determines our relationship with others and the world. It concerns a physical cul-ture which determines our place in the world. It forms the basis for a way of life. That is the social place of culture.This cultural practice is an everyday matter. Everyday culture is the culture of daily life. It consists of a certain regu-larity, or it would not be an everyday matter. This regularity is the result of recurring interactions. People are con-fronted with a series of social practices on a daily basis, each with its own set of rules and rituals, its own balanceof power and distribution of resources. It is these social practices which make use of specific cultures. It is these cul-tures which determine the direction for integration and skills in society. In a sense they ‘test out’ the level of func-tional, moral and expressive integration. This is where ‘cultural competence’ comes in; it determines the culturalexperience of people. In this everyday culture people build up a high level of practical competence in dealing withdiversity.The supermarket, the school, public transport, the street, etc., are all used by people from different culturalbackgrounds, and in general this does not lead to significant problems. Everyday practice leads to quite a lot ofcommon experience, even if it is sometimes only because the differences are ignored.Everyday culture can be compared with what we call documented culture. This is the work of the producers of cul-ture. This not only means the professionals, but all the people who leave behind permanent artefacts that can becommunicated. These producers take elements from everyday experiences, work with them, and in this way pro-vide meaning and significance. It concerns a collective meaning of a world of experience. However, this culture is


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people rejected ‘foreigners’. Subsequently, moreand more newcomers found themselves in thesame cultural isolation.

Therefore it is a problem to find the expressiveelements in the prevailing consumer culturewhich reflect and express people’s own experi-ence, the many different living conditions andlifestyles. In the most immediate everyday situa-tion, popular culture serves as an instruction fordealing with the diversity of the environment.However, this does not provide a common frameof reference and certainly does not constitute acollective identity. This is why many peopleapparently find cultural differences less of aproblem in direct relationships and more of a

problem with regard to expressing their identi-ty. It is not the immigrant neighbour who is theproblem, but the imaginary immigrant commu-nity, the expression of the Other. This is a matterof relating to the Other, with differences withinyour own culture. After all, to say that everydaylife is much more varied and less traditionalnowadays, and to say that it is less based onroutine, is not enough to assume that this diver-sity is also found in your own culture.

Therefore the new challenge for culture is tofind new forms of interrelationships andarrangements which can provide a social mean-ing and frame of reference for extremely diverseand pluriform social practices. It is a search for

certainly not a mirror of everyday experience. It is actually a separate aspect which affects the experience and isinfluenced by the experience, but is not a reflection of it. This meaning is also presented by organisations and insti-tutions which also have their own agenda and are often legitimised on the basis of a difference, an individual char-acter. The rate and rhythm of everyday life are determined by moments of meaning, by distorting mirrors in acounter time. The vita activa and the vita contemplativa are lived in their own register, referring to each other with-out directly representing each other. It is precisely because they do not coincide that they have an impact.Alienation is necessary in every cultural practice. It is in this second register that the common factor acquires a formand the individual or private differences are assimilated in a common frame of reference. It is in that field that theframes of reference are compared.A process of institutionalisation and social assimilation takes place at the level of documented culture. There areconstant selections, cross-references and processes of integration at a higher (more abstract) level. Practices areinstitutionalised, and in this way turn into ‘cultures’. In the end this process gives rise to a selective tradition, acanon which forms the core of the operation of channels for social reproduction (education, the media, etc.). This iswhere the ‘collective identity’ is expressed. Reference is made to this sort of perceived individual character whentalking about ‘our’ values.Therefore the problem of cultural identity is expressed particularly in the specific interaction between (i) the cul-ture of everyday life, (ii) the cultural products and institutions, and (iii) the social and political structures whichlargely govern the selection process. Two questions arise again and again. Is every lifestyle documented and repre-sented in an equivalent way (e.g., in the media)? When a general cultural identity is drawn up, does this take intoaccount all the cultural products? In other words, does the dominant culture express the real diversity, or does ithave an artificial identity? Again, there is a difference between an urban character and a national identity.

living together on the basis of differences,rather than living together on the basis of acommon character (identity). It is more a ques-tion of a relationship based on dialogue than onthe creation of a community. This sort of culturemust be created, it is not a given factor. The cityis an appropriate framework for this search.

2. The city as the centre for culturaldevelopment

The multicultural city is a good stage for build-ing up a pluriform culture which is able toreflect the complexity of the world and createpossibilities for action in this. The city is by defi-nition a place where strangers live together.Diversity, anonymity, pluriform interactions andgreat complexity have always made the city anoutsider in models of cultural integration. It wasbetter to avoid the city and its dangers if youdid not want to stand out or be different.However, in the current cultural revolution thecity is the focus of attention.

The cultural past in Flanders and its links withFlemish patterns of urbanisation do not makethis easy. The spread of the population resultedin a diluted urban character. The increased useof the city as a place for work and leisure, theimages presented by the mass media and adver-tising, and cultural globalisation have meantthat many provincial towns have expanded tobecome small cities. They continued to grow onthe basis of local and private cultures, in contactwith more general, broader and more complexframes of reference. The mass media and youthcultures informed by the mass media were par-ticularly responsible for this.

The cultural landscape was incorporated in aunification supported by secularisation and thebreakdown of factions, the development of auniversal consumer society and the lifestylesrelated to this. We can certainly identify a gen-

eral modern world, which has swallowed up theboundaries between the city and the country-side. However, perhaps we should ask whetherthis generalised modernity has also led to adiluted, poorer modernity. This does contain allthe elements of a complex pluriform society(albeit sometimes in homeopathic quantities),but also rejects this complexity and pluriformityin its own vicinity. The many opportunities ofthe large city (and the world) may serve as aninspiration on television or through other virtualcontacts, or can provide leisure activitiesthrough institutionalised or other types of facili-ties, but they do not have to serve as a reason tolearn to deal with the increased complexity indaily life. In everyday life, in the organisation offeelings about everyday life, preference contin-ues to be given to a less complex, more tradi-tional and controlled way of relating to people.

The cultural policy in the window of culturalautonomy and the development of communitycompetences has contributed to this. There wasan active local policy at the level of economicexpansion, employment and social policy.However, local cultural policy was often limitedto a marginal portfolio in the ‘fine arts’. The gen-eral cultural policy of the Government ofFlanders supervised the modernisation of socie-ty which permeated every level and corner ofFlanders (mainly through institutions and sec-toral developments). The (view of the) local poli-cy did not always follow this dynamic approach.This gave rise to the specific form of the smalltown mentality in which real secularisation,individualisation, increased complexity and mul-ticulturalism – in short, a true increase in urbancharacter – was still reflected at the local level ina picture which ignored or reduced that com-plexity. In the big city, the cultural policy wasalso often reduced to a policy for the culturalsector, without taking account of the socialdynamics. Culture and cultural experience are


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67still strongly subdivided everywhere into differ-ent fields and worlds of experience.

However, this does not deny that the city is thefirst arena in which the possibilities of and con-flicts about cultural differences emerge. The dif-ferences arise from the objective circumstancesof an ethnic, social or generational nature, orthey are related to subjective constructions ofgender, lifestyle and world view. Achieving a cer-tain degree of cohesion in the city requires adose of two – sometimes opposite – aspects. Onthe one hand, different lifestyles must be ableto develop their forms of expression to acquiretheir own identity. On the other hand, the multi-ple interactions between different actors in thecity must also initiate an innovative culturalexpression, based on ambivalence, a hybridcharacter, and even conflict. This will allow themulticultural city to operate, and focuses on thequestion of the limits to maintaining specificidentities and the characteristics of universalmeeting places.

It is a matter of gaining an insight into theframes of reference that are used in differenturban contexts in daily life. There is a differencebetween a small world city such as Brussels,large cities such as Ghent and Antwerp, andsmaller towns such as Bruges, Leuven,Mechelen, and Kortrijk. However, this is not onlya difference in scale. It is not a dilution of a sortof ‘universal’ urban character; nor is it a specificdefinition of a Flemish character. It is rather aspecific relationship to this complexity, based ona particular past and heritage, its own popula-tion composition, its own profile of visitors andusers and its own political policy.

This local colour, this local complex universality,will have to determine the colour of the city.After all, living together is less and less a matterbased on ‘droit du sang’, a blood right (morals

and customs which are inherent in the people),but is rather the ‘droit du sol’, a fundamentalright, a series of laws, rules and agreements forliving together within a particular territory. Thefirst case requires a greater common experiencebetween people. In the second case, culturaldiversity becomes possible because of theemphasis on a series of local procedures. In thetransition to a territorial approach, the city andthe urban character play a pioneering role. It is amatter of assimilating them in terms of rightsand obligations as a result of living together in aparticular place, not in terms of shared normsand values. This is what is meant by the term‘city republic’, which will be further examined inchapter 2.

Therefore, it is the city, not the nation, whichwill have to provide the new anchor for culture.It is no longer a matter of passing on shared cul-tural elements which create an identity basedon the people, in a top-down manner. We stillsee this idea dominating the so-called ‘integra-tion courses’ for newcomers, or in the attain-ment targets in education. For us, it is a matterof constantly developing skills for dealing withdiversity and change in particular places, inother words, with cities and the urbancharacter.

6. The participating city

The big social changes have not made partici-pating in public life or organising politics andthe government of the ‘res publica’ (publicaffairs) any easier. There is a constant increase inpolitical marketing. Representative democracy ismainly concerned with itself, and is leading toan administrative democracy which increasinglytreats citizens only as clients in its administra-tion. However, the city provides an opportunityfor renewing democracy by providing adapted

frameworks for social participation and thedebate about social responsibility. This doesrequire the adaptation of the administrativeorganisation and means that councils will haveto develop new skills. We will present a diagno-sis here and examine the subject in furtherdetail in chapter 5.

A. A city without politics?Politics in general appear to be becomingincreasingly incapable of keeping societytogether. The effect of marketing in differentsocial fields (see above) places people againsteach other as individuals and in a client rela-tionship with the government. This marketingphenomenon is also increasing in politics.Populism in politics, exaggerated by the media,reinforces this trend: it gives people the impres-sion that all their desires can be met, and if thisdoes not work, that it is the fault of the politi-cians.

In our view, the demand for the primacy of poli-tics is in the first place a discussion about therole of politics in the organisation of society, andtherefore also in the city: for example, what roledo politics play in the urban housing market orin relation to businesses and their social respon-sibility? In the past, politics in Flanders actuallystood back from many aspects of urban devel-opment. Some of the current problems in thecities are a result of this. The trend seems to befor less politics. The tenor of this book argues formore politics.

The representative democracy in the cities isalienated from urban society. It has, above all,become an administrative democracy. The rapidgrowth of urban administrations takes up moreand more of the attention of theadministrators.18 Consultants and reforms (orvice versa) follow each other to make theadministration ever more efficient. The world-

wide pressure for the modernisation of govern-ment (the New Public Management) meansthat the government has acquired a centralplace as a service provider. This reinforces theimpression that politics has become – or canbecome – a market pf supply and demand inevery field.

The administrators are in danger of losing their‘eyes and ears’ as a result of these develop-ments.19 The ‘cold city’ is dominant at the admin-istrative level, users and inhabitants feel thatthey are only treated as clients, and thereforebehave as such. They complain endlessly.Representative democracy does not yet see thecitizen as a co-producer. The aspect of represent-ing the people in this system has gradually dis-appeared. Politicians then complain about theegotistical behaviour of citizens, who can onlybe mobilised when their own interests are atstake. The fact that the evolution of politicsitself encourages this behaviour is not suffi-ciently discussed.

Every political party is just another party in thecity. They have evolved from the ‘street to thestate’.20 They became part of the administration,rather than part of society. They are disintegrat-ing, losing members and sometimes lose them-selves in internal discussions on elections, lists,functions, images and marketing. The disinte-grating basis and internal focus mean that peo-ple who are selected by the parties to lead fac-tions feel that, once they have been elected,they are on their own. What are they saying andon whose behalf? The dominance of parties ledto party politics both in the debate on the cityand in urban administrations. This culture ofparty politics is still very strong. The citizens areno longer interested, and they do not want tohave much to do with that system. They want totalk about what is needed in the city, i.e., aboutpolitics, but preferably ‘without politicians’.21


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70 Could the bankruptcy of a system of representa-tion dominated by party political agendas bemore clearly formulated?

In the face of the impoverishment of adminis-trative democracy and the related party politics,the city contains a mosaic of social forums: thedelicate informal wiring between inhabitants atthe district level, pressure groups for particularissues (the environment, living conditions, etc.),community development in population groups(young people, immigrants, leisure groups, etc.),networks in institutions (community centres,cultural centres, sports centres, parents inschools, etc.), patterns of debate and communi-cation in social sectors, public debates on mat-ters relating to the city and formal circuits forparticipation (advisory boards, participation pro-cedures). These patterns reveal many conflictsand opposing interests; there are differences inthe balance of power and different degrees ofparticipation and exclusion. But these are thereal communities to which politics will have torelate. This feeling has become weaker.

In a broad sense, concrete forms of participationin the city are always ‘political’. This applies forthe different degree to which groups have (ordon’t have) opportunities to participate, and forthe unequal division of goods and services inthe city. It also applies for the way in which theparticipation takes place. Someone who alwaysuses a car to move about in the city participatesin a different way from someone who alwayscycles. The different effect on the participationof other users can be deduced from the statis-tics on accidents and environmental effects.

All these forms of using the city in a concreteway bring us to the loaded term ‘responsibility’:weighing up the effects of one’s participation inrelation to that of other users and the effects onthe city as a whole and in the longer term.

Politicians must provide the contexts for thisresponsibility. With these contexts, politics con-stantly comes up against the limits imposed bythe market economy or imposed by politicsitself, which will become the focus of politicaldebate in the next few years. Pushing back theboundaries requires a social basis. The city is theappropriate place for creating that basis.

B. The city: a new framework for participation

According to the most negative prognoses, peo-ple increasingly shut themselves away withinthe four walls of their own home. This is the endof the city and the end of society. This view thendevelops into a negative interpretation of indi-vidualisation, lamenting the loss of publicmorality, appealing to the sense of duty of citi-zens and resulting in authoritarian politics.

Individualisation means that people are moreindependent from factions, churches or pressuregroups, but does not automatically mean thatpeople no longer want to participate in the pub-lic debate. It does result in insecurity: it is nolonger clear how this participation can work,now that the governing frameworks (includingthe political parties) which used to exist for thispurpose no longer operate in this way. As aresult, some people grasp at false assurancesbased on false ideas of society. New frameworkswill have to be developed for these reflectionsabout participation to give people a feeling ofresponsibility with regard to their choices andactions. This is essential to involve politics (themanagement of the polis) more strongly in soci-ety. The city provides this framework.

1 . Social learning as a connectionThe traditional debate on participation is appro-priate here. This focuses on the problem of howcitizens can be involved in government. Therhythm and agenda of government are domi-


71nant and the citizen follows. The question ishow government and politics can be built up inan interactive process together with the citi-zens, in such a way that those citizens and socialorganisations become co-responsible.

The attention devoted in recent years to the‘social capital’, to civilian society forms the basisfor a more interactive definition of the partici-pation of citizens. The literature on ‘social learn-ing’ provides fascinating examples of linksbetween individuals, social processes, policyplans and the organisation of society in cities. Inthis civil society, individual citizens (both inhabi-tants and users) constantly find themselves insituations of informal social learning.22 The aimof the next few years is to look at these con-texts much more carefully at the level of thecity, and to use them in a much more activeway, so that people themselves recognise theneed to see their own behaviour and the way inwhich they use the city in terms of other inter-ests and to look for other options and solutionstogether and at the level of the city. These maybe options and solutions for which the ‘politicalsystem’ is not yet ready, and for which there arenot yet any instruments. Politicians usuallybelieve that the citizens are not yet ready fortheir solutions.

Social learning means that people learn to func-tion as individuals and as members of groups inuncertain and new circumstances in order toresolve collective problems, or at least tacklethem in an active way. The extent to which asolution is found at the level of the city obvious-ly depends on the sort of problem. The sociallearning is characterised by a skills-relatedapproach, using the potential for problem solv-ing which is present in people and groups.Currently, the deficit approach is often domi-nant: what are people not able to do, and whatshould others (the government, politics) do for

them? Social learning depends on questioningthe backgrounds and starting point of familiarproblems. This often means seeing them fromthe point of view of the rationale of organisa-tions or bureaucracies. Social learning is interac-tive because it is supported by communicationbetween those involved, and it is action-orient-ed.23 In these processes of dialogue in sociallearning (on projects related to mobility, publicspaces, town and country planning, culturalprojects, community management, etc.), expertsand administrators also have a place: they canincrease the perspectives and enhance theprocesses but they may also be asked abouttheir own vision and familiar ‘solutions’.

All the themes described in this chapter (dealingwith the built up area, the public area in thecity, economic divisions and innovations, solidar-ity and multiculturalism) are the object of sociallearning. The cities are by definition the forumsfor these sorts of learning communities: all theissues in current society come together there(flexibility in the employment market, environ-mental problems, safety and security, immigra-tion, energy supplies, problems related to mobil-ity, etc.). Cities provide the necessary densityand diversity of groups, cultures, interests andvisions to create a visible content for sociallearning in a practical sense. After all, the prac-tices based on experience are essential. Citieshave the organisational capacities or can buildthem up, to support and add weight to theseprocesses, for example, for an active and stimu-lating policy on education, culture and socialaffairs. There are many key figures in cities whoare able to implement these processes: policeofficers on the beat, compost managers, homecarers, sports trainers, teachers, people workingin the preventive sector, etc.

In this way, ‘learning cities’ form centres for thedevelopment of social innovation and provide a

framework for the search into new types ofadministration at the level of the city, but some-times expanding to the state and the world as awhole, depending on the subjects concerned.

The creation of groups in civilian society isessential for social learning. Views on the ‘par-ticipation in civil society’ can no longer be basedon out-of-date patterns of participation in a tra-ditional society. This is particularly clear fromthe approach to the district in the urban debate.In the past, individual districts tended to beclosed communities of fairly uniform groups;now they are colourful mixtures of people whodevelop networks across cities and countries.The district is a useful and practical level ofworking with different interests for social learn-ing in a functional way. Social learning does notfocus on ‘restoring the district community’.Chapter 5 examines participatory democracy atthe level of the district.

Social learning in the city requires the organisa-tion of urban institutions and areas of life incivil society in such a way that they supportsocial learning. This applies for companies, edu-cational establishments, welfare services, com-munity work, youth associations and culturalinstitutions, in housing companies, etc. If peopledo not have a say in things which concern them,or are not given the opportunity to state theirviews, there is no encouragement for sociallearning, and they will lose all confidence intheir fellow men and politics. These ideas areexplored in the proposals in chapter 5.

In recent years, certain sections of civilian socie-ty in the city appear to have become more diffi-cult to control. In some sectors (the housingmarket, recreation, culture, etc.), the marketmechanism of supply and demand has a verystrong effect as a steering principle. In somecases, the centralisation of policy is dominant

(education, social work, etc.) In other casesbureaucratisation has a paralysing effect onlocal initiatives (economic initiatives, theemployment market, etc.). When politics seemso absent (replaced by the market), take placeelsewhere (in Brussels), or is repressed by uni-form regulations, negotiations between citizens,i.e., social learning, do not appear to be neces-sary. They will not achieve anything anyway. Inthis situation the institutional conditions forsocial learning are lacking. People do have thepractical experiences, but do not feel that it isworth comparing these with those of other peo-ple. A great deal of potential is lost. Therefore ageneral movement of strong decentralisation isessential: creating room for useful social learn-ing, giving a voice to people who wish to takean initiative themselves with regard to arrang-ing certain aspects of living in the city. Thisdecentralisation applies in general: from centralgovernments to cities, in cities by town councilsand in centralised umbrella organisations andtheir links with local actors. Decentralisation isnot a technical or administrative term, butrefers to a movement in which people have asmuch space as possible to arrange their interre-lationships on the basis of negotiations at citylevel. Chapters 4 and 5 examine this concept ingreater detail: adapting the administration andplanning in such a way that the city can becomea city republic.

2. Networks focusing on cooperationFor many political actors, the deficit mentality(what citizens are not able to do, what they donot want to do) and a government-orientedmentality are still very dominant. The latterrefers to a closed vision of government, in whichthe top admittedly provides information, allowssome participation and deals with complaints,but still steers processes on the basis of stronglyrational and technical arguments. This visioncan be recognised in many institutions: from


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73education to government departments, tosocial institutions and even in some communitywork. To some extent this attitude is a closedattitude towards other institutions. People pre-fer to look after their own affairs: educationalestablishments which consider that nobodyshould interfere with drugs at their school, thepolice who think they are the only ones whoknow how to ensure safety and security, socialhousing companies which are only concernedwith their own housing, social services whichdeal with their clients ‘comprehensively’ all ontheir own’… This means they remain outsidethe city: they place themselves on the sidelinesand look on from outside, often even with asense of grievance.

This tradition must be broken down. It is essen-tial to tackle complex problems by networkingwith other actors. In the next few years, partici-pating in policy networks focusing on coopera-tion in the approach to common problems willbecome the core of the strategic activities ofurban institutions. Interesting evolutions arealready taking place in this respect: in educa-tion, in social work, in the employment market,in housing policy, etc. Instruments for network-ing are gradually being incorporated in regula-tions and programmes. However, investmentsin the professionalism and continuity of thesepolicy networks are only poorly developed inFlanders at the moment. This will become cru-cial in the next few years: supporting systemsof networking which involve several differentpartners.

Urban policy must give priority to breakingopen these circuits and to creating and sup-porting the networks. Processes of social learn-ing and networking require municipal authori-ties who govern intelligently: who stimulateand hold back, who act when interests aresuppressed, and who can deal with uncertain

processes, providing room for civilians to organ-ise themselves.

3. Open representation of the peopleParticipation also means taking part in ‘politics’as a system to weigh up different interests. Welook at involvement in a broad sense: not fromthe idea of consensus which conceals and coversup conflicts, but as providing contributions to alively and intense political debate on power inthe city, in the state and in the world, about thedevelopments taking place in the city.Representative democracy remains a necessaryinstrument to make this collective debate – aswell as the collective evaluations and accounta-bility – possible. Elections and the elected par-ties continue to be essential for public accounta-bility, the regulation of the market and the pro-tection of the weakest and the weakest inter-ests. However, from a closed representationwith a narrow basis in society, which is stilloften based on a hierarchy, we should movetowards the open representation of the people,with more participation by citizens and a moreinteractive policy. Open representation of thepeople is aimed at participating in civil societypolitically, finding links with social movements,stimulating conditions for social learning, andsupporting actions on the basis of that sociallearning. Action aimed at support, stimulationand experimentation should make politics lesstechnocratic and more democratic.

Council members in cities are often frustratednowadays: once they have been elected, theirrole is limited to a slavish support for – or pre-dictable attacks on – the governing parties.Turning town councils into an open representa-tion of the people means that the council mem-bers must take on, chair and direct the dialoguewith citizens and civilian society, and mustintroduce processes and communicate them.These activities are also dominated now by

managers and authorised executives. It alsomeans that the town council should not evadeany subject that is relevant for the city polis(exclusion in education, the privatisation of thehousing market, evasive environmental behav-iour by industry, the employment of illegalimmigrants, etc.). This deviates significantlyfrom the traditional and administrative agendasof town councils at the moment. It is self- evi-dent that this means that council members andtown councils must be supported much morestrongly than is the case at the moment. A goodrepresentative democracy costs money.

Interactive forms of democracy and direct formsof democracy are appropriate in an open repre-sentation of the people. For us, direct democracydoes not mean populism, it is not the appeal tohave the ‘voice of the people’ heard (we will dowhat you say’) but forms of politics whichgroups of people wish to take on themselves:for the management of a community centre, aplayground or an apartment building, of budg-ets at community level, of care institutions,housing companies and schools, a naturereserve or windmills, historical monuments orsports infrastructure, etc.

Interactive forms of democracy comprise openand professionally supported processes of plan-ning, networking with institutes involved in theexecution. They are processes in which the solu-tion is not immediately obvious from the begin-ning; even politicians often don’t know the solu-tion. It is arrived at by processes of social learn-ing. We apply this interaction at the level of thecity, in the form of a debate on the developmentof the city, at the level of districts and projects(for a description in greater detail, see chapters4 and 5).

In this change in representation towards anopen representation of the people, there is also

a shift in the administrative organisation oftown councils. Signs of this can already be seenin the emergence of new, more publicly-orient-ed and more interactive civil servants. This willentail rethinking the traditional concept of the‘bureaucratic civil servant’. Some of the civil ser-vants will have to work for the town council toincrease its role in representing the people. Thiscan mean that they also work for civilian socie-ty: they can draw up plans and make alternativecalculations for groups of citizens and in rela-tion to considerations of the town council. Theymay even be commissioned by the town councilto act as the managers of local initiatives by citi-zens. We believe that town councils have animportant responsibility, but this requires capac-ities in the field of policy, management andcommunication which most town councils donot adequately have at the moment.

4 . The foundations and networks for urban policy

One important aspect of the ‘participatory city’is the degree and nature of participation of thebroad Flemish community in urban policy: thegeneral political and cultural basis for urbanpolicy. Is there such a basis, and is it growing? Asurban aspects and the urban character becomemore integrated in the frames of reference ofthe users and inhabitants of the city, the politi-cal culture in Flanders may change. This meansthat there is also a pressure on policy traditionsand ways of thinking which are currently stilltoo often based on an artificial distinctionbetween the city and the countryside, or the cityand the periphery.

The administrative relationships in the dis-persed city, between the city and its periphery,are part of a specific institutional frameworkwhich has solidified in the definition of adminis-trative boundaries, in predictable political dis-cussions (the ‘city’ as the enemy of the ‘periph-


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75ery’), and in the channelling of cash flows(taxes). Although the users of the city partici-pate on a large scale in what there is to do inthe city, the old institutions appear to maintainthe illusion of separate worlds and differentcommunities. Obstinate images, stereotypesand political power have developed in theseinstitutions and this explains the reluctance tochange.

Throughout this chapter we have referred to theneed to look at the city in a broad sense: theexisting boundaries artificially shut off the city.New institutions should have the effect ofremoving boundaries. We see that here andthere some interesting or potentially interestingprojects are being developed between the cityand municipalities on the periphery (definingurban areas, cooperation on the disseminationof culture, arrangements related to social work,etc.). In most cases, civilian society is involved inthis or even acts as the leader in new frame-works for negotiation. This is the direction wewish to move in. The social dynamics shouldlead to greater pressure to transcend the localpolitical agendas. There is also a need to alterthe old institutions on the basis of actions andprogrammes supported by common interests.These changes must focus on showing the citi-zens of Flanders that as users of the city, theyalso become citizens of the city and cannotevade their responsibility.

5 . The city and Flanders in EuropeThe basis for an urban policy is not only neces-sary at the Flemish level. Flanders is not sepa-rate from the rest of the world. In this chapter,we have referred several times to Brussels as thecity in which Flanders can develop the mostimportant relationship with the rest of theworld. Brussels is also the capital of Europe. InEurope, many other regions and cities are con-fronted with the same problems. Politics and

civilian society are attempting to recover controlof social reality everywhere.24 It is certainlyworth looking for solutions together and learn-ing from each other. Some of the challenges,particularly those on the socio-economic level,even require projects which can only be mean-ingful on a European scale, with cooperationbetween cities. Examples include the manage-ment and regulation of intercity competition, orthe search for solutions for new social issues,and the increasing insecurity resulting fromchanging patterns of employment. In fact,Europe increasingly presents itself as an impor-tant political entity in the world economy, butabove all, with too great an interest in the mar-ket, and not enough interest in regulatingmeasures.

Nation states have seen a reduction in theirscope of action and in their effectiveness inthese developments. It is possible that the net-works of cities and regions will become thestrongest institutions to provide a counter-weight against the marketing of the world andto demand the necessary regulatory measuresat the European level. This creation of networks,the lobbying and exchanges between cities andregions are already well developed, particularlyat the scientific, social and cultural level, but arenot yet sufficiently visible or open to a broaderbase. Flanders and the Flemish cities could playa leading role in this respect. This follows auto-matically from our view of cities and the urbancharacter and is diametrically opposed to all themovements and pressure for cities to fall backon themselves to a greater extent. From the citydistrict to the world, ‘open city and open thecity’: that is the basis for every aspect of thischapter.

ConclusionThe city as the harbinger of thenew society

The six perspectives reveal the social changes tothe economy, consumerism, lifestyles, socialrelationships, politics and culture. To differentextents, these changes are related to thechanged economic model (post-Fordism), whichemerged after the crisis of the 1970s. Flexibilitycharacterises production in a globalised econo-my. Social polarisation increases the contrastsbetween a small group which is growing richer,a dwindling middle group and a group of peoplewho never become permanently integrated inthe employment market. Geographical competi-tion results from the large mobility of capital.Throughout all these changes, there has beenan increase in the effects of the market in everysector of society; to an important extent thisexplains the individualisation of society. The oldfoundations of social cohesion disappear as aresult of this individualisation and flexibility.Society is characterised by many lifestyles whichno longer coincide with ethnic and religiouscommunities. There is an ever-greater variationin real life, often related to consumer cultures.

We described how these changes have far-reaching consequences for the different aspectsof urban development from six different per-spectives. The relationship to time and space inthe city changes through all these aspects. Inthe first place, there is a change in the urbanregime of time: inhabitants and users relate tothe city on the basis of a very different arrange-ment of time. Different sorts of time coalesceand shift in accordance with many differentrhythms. The same places in the city have differ-ent functions and a different atmosphere,depending on the time shown by the clock. Thecity no longer breathes at the rate of the fixeddivision of time for work and free time: the city

has become multi-temporal. The relationshipwith space is also changing. The city, the urbandweller and the user of the city operate in a net-work with different scales. Physical and geo-graphical mobility, as well as virtual mobilityand communication, have increased enormous-ly. As result of the flexibility of social networks,permanent community ties with a territorialbasis are becoming relatively rare and are cer-tainly no longer the only relationships.

In the past, the city was always able to protectsociety, sometimes even during turbulent eco-nomic and cultural developments. Nowadays itappears that it must take care. The spatialdesign of the city is no longer adapted to large-scale social changes. It is as though the city hasbeen bypassed, all the more because it has beenwatered down and dispersed across the wholeof Flanders. This means that it has lost the focusto create an identity, introduce cohesion in soci-ety, or achieve sustainability, but is also less ableto provide attractive living conditions. In short,this is the negative interpretation of these per-spectives. This is the A side.

Changing the perspective:looking from six different perspectivesHowever, a good look shows that in these prob-lems there are also signs of new opportunitiesand the strengthening of the urban character.This is the interpretation of this chapter inwhich the voluntary character plays a role:the B side.

The dispersal and expansion of the city makes itinteresting: the enlargement of scale createsroom for good housing, for green spaces and forbetter mobility in the heart of the city. The com-petition between cities to do well in the globalmarket can lead to unimaginative development,wastage and the oppression of weak groups ofinhabitants in the city. However, it also invites


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77the cities to develop their quality and sustain-ability as positive elements in the competition,and to create a comfortable social climate witha fair policy. In the complex tensions betweensocial developments and the design of thebuilt-up space, there are plenty of opportunitiesto think about and debate the future ofFlanders.

This dispersal of the city, the distribution offunctions, the unimaginative development andthe increasingly loose relationships betweenpeople and the places where they spend timecan become a threat to society itself. The city isthe place where people are confronted witheach other, and where information and commu-nication come together. It is precisely thisexchange that creates integration. If the citybecomes impoverished, society is also watereddown. However, if public spaces can beimproved and acquire a multifaceted characterto oppose segmentation and monopolisation, ifa new consensus can be built up with regard tobehaviour and interaction in the public space,the diversity present in the city can become use-ful in choices, interactions, encounters and com-munication.

The city has also expanded economically.Economic activities turned their back on the city,as did parts of the population. This has resultedin increasing inequality between the city andthe periphery. Both, the city and its peripheryare cast into a worldwide competition to attractinvestment, employment and consumers. Thisalso provides new opportunities for closing thegap which existed in the past. Cities are nowthe keys to the global economy. In order to pres-ent themselves in this competition, they mustmake full use of their local advantages, partici-pate in all sorts of networks as a multifacetedpartner, build up urban development coalitionsand cooperate together, at least on a European

scale. This will lead to a new community ofinterests at the level of the dispersed city.

The expanding process of marketing places peo-ple against each other as competitors and leadsto social exclusion. Sustainable community tiesalso disappear because of the proliferation ofnetworks to which people belong and the flexi-bility of the use of time and space. Society is indanger of falling apart like so many grains ofsand – in the cities, but in fact across the wholeof Flanders – as a result of the generalised char-acter of urban life. Traditions no longer providesecurity anywhere. Cities have the potential tooverturn these trends: they can propel Flanderstowards a higher and better society, where peo-ple live together, side by side. In cities, peopledevelop the competence to do things together,beyond their differences, and to develop new –albeit only weak – forms of solidarity. Thisrequires suitable structural reforms in urbanpolitics at the territorial, electoral and fiscallevel. It can lead to a growth in the dialoguebetween the weakest groups, exposed to socialexclusion, the other inhabitants of the city andthe users of the city, and means that there areopportunities for new strong forms of urbanalliances and solidarity.

The great social changes which have taken placesince the end of the Golden Sixties have madeour world even more complex. As the elementwhich provides significance for this world, cul-ture does not seem able to follow thesechanges. Increasingly it corresponds to the con-sumer culture, and this is also broken downinto many sub-cultures adapted to purchasingpower and lifestyles. It also ignores many of theweaker groups who are left behind with out-dated, traditional interpretations of reality. Themulticultural city contains a new identity witha new significance: the search to live togetheron the basis of differences. However, this

means that every group must have the oppor-tunity to express its own cultural identity.Identity can no longer result from common tra-ditional characteristics, but from the capacityto deal with ambivalence, hybrid characters andeven conflict.

Politics do not appear to be able to follow thiseither. Party politics and the administrativedemocracy turn people away from political rep-resentation and participation. The frameworksin which participation was organised no longerwork. The connecting roles of factions, thechurch and pressure groups, have become weak-er. Populism and the emphasis on managementare pushing politics towards individual relation-ships between supply and demand: the politicsof marketing. The frameworks for collectivedebate and collective responsibility are in dan-ger of breaking down. Some citizens turn tomovements which provide an illusion of protec-tion by looking back to collective patterns whichhave been surpassed by the development of thecity. The city provides the right frameworkwhich is feasible for supporting the newdebates on participation in society and responsi-bility. These frameworks will have to developfrom the bottom up, by learning to wrestle withthe problems and look for social innovation: the“learning cities”. The cities collect together allthe subjects which demand collective learningand debate, they provide the required densityand diversity of groups and interests to furnisha debate. This requires the decentralisation ofgovernment to the level where it is accessiblefor and can be negotiated by the citizens them-selves. The correct forms of direct and interac-tive democracy and the correct incorporation oflocal processes in regional, national andEuropean networks can also help to create thebasis which will allow people to take up theresponsibility for their collective future and thatof their cities.

New spaces, new public access,new democratic formsIn all six perspectives there are three central ele-ments which form the core of our ‘strategicvision’: new spaces, new public access and newdemocratic forms.

The city should not be seen separately from therest of the Flemish Region. Flanders is a singleurbanised area with a network of urban centres.The term ‘network city’ is widely used interna-tionally. This refers to the city which is located ina larger network, mainly as a result of the devel-opment of ICT and globalisation. We have optedfor the term “grid city” because it accuratelycovers the reality of a network, but also becauseit neatly describes the very specific spatialdesign of Flanders as an urbanised area. Chapter2 gives more detailed reasons for our choice ofthe concept “grid city”.

Globalisation and the fragmentation of socialreality have multiplied the scales and aspects ofthe city. The grid city provides a series of win-dows which make it possible to click betweendifferent scales and perspectives. On the basisof this grid concept it is possible to zoom in andout, depending on the scale at which we wish toexamine the city and the urban character or theprocess we wish to study (in principle, from anindividual plot up to the global stage of action).Therefore viewing the city as a grid is a way ofincluding the whole of Flanders in the urbanproblem. It focuses on the fact that every inhab-itant of Flanders is an urban dweller in differentways and must take responsibility for this. Itreveals that this urban character is an integralpart of the complex global-local relationships.

The city can be seen as the focus of publicaccess and public affairs. The city is by definitionthe place where the individual is confrontedwith society and must make a choice between


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protecting his own interests and gaining addedvalue from shared negotiation and joint action.This is expressed in the concentration of publicand collective goods and services in the cities. Itis also revealed in the production of commonsignifiers of reality in the form of culture and inthe design and use of the built-up space. Finally,it is expressed in the concentration of socialdiversity in the city. The city must provide quali-ty to ensure that the choices are made alongthe right lines. This not only means quality atthe level of services, but also at the level of pub-lic spaces and types of interaction. The role ofthe city as the harbinger of a new societydepends entirely on the capacity of people toconfront each other. That is why it is so impor-tant to give Flanders an urban identity based onthe capacity to deal creatively with diversity,change and ambivalence. It is also why it is nec-essary to develop new types of urban interac-tion which provide support for that confronta-tion, and a new, more flexible, collective organi-sation of time is needed to increase the chancesof creative encounters.

The city should be seen as a laboratory for newsocial and political contexts for integration.Flanders can be divided into city dwellers(including an uninterrupted stream of newcom-ers) and city users. Flanders can also be dividedinto groups with relatively high job security andpeople who can no longer find permanentaccess to the employment market. Flanders canbe divided into a myriad individual consumerswho sometimes desperately try to distinguishthemselves from others in terms of purchasingpower and lifestyle. Something will have tochange if a democratic society is to be main-tained. This can be achieved by moving thedemocratic institutions to the distinct levels ofthe district, city and grid city, where confronta-tions and negotiations between people are pos-sible. This must be done in the places where the

differences and dividing lines between thegroups coincide in time and space and wherethe best chances exist to achieve a creative inte-gration, i.e., in the cities. In fact, urban policyprovides the greatest support for these matters.After all, institutions and funds must be allocat-ed to this flexible democracy. This brings us to anew administrative architecture for Flanders.

The urban character as a leverThe basic line in all these six perspectives is asfollows: the world has changed, and the urbancharacter can help us to adapt to this andregain a grasp of reality. Again and again, thefocus for all these processes of change, globali-sation, increased flexibility, marketing, individu-alisation and fragmentation is the city. It is aparadox. After all, the above shows how thesechanges break down the city and the urbancharacter. However, if we want to gain a hold ofthe future, gain control over these processes, thecity is the starting point for the actions and theprojects which must be undertaken. This meansthat the city becomes the harbinger of a newsociety.

In Flanders, which has an anti-urban tradition,this will not be possible without a radical revo-lution. Attitudes do not change automaticallyand white papers alone are not sufficient toachieve this. The social changes themselves tosome extent serve as a shock which causes peo-ple to look at reality differently. However, thiscan also lead to defensive reactions, such as theincrease in intolerance and the withdrawal intoa false identity. To avoid this, it is necessary toact on a voluntary basis, and therefore a power-ful urban policy is appropriate. This policy canno longer be supported by old views on the cityand urban problems. A new interpretation isneeded, a new way of thinking about the citywhich encompasses all these social changes.That is the object of this book.


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811 For a more detailed status quaestionis, we refer to Loeckx,

A., and B de Meulder, Wonen op zoek naar stedelijkheid,

dichtheid en duurzaamheid. Debatten, realiteiten, tradities

en perspectieven, Working text for the project, Thuis in de

Stad (At home in the city). A version is included in the pre-

liminary study to this book. This contribution contains a

detailed bibliography.

For this part of chapter 1, and in particular for a description

of the term ‘grid city’ (also see chapter 2), we refer, inter

alia, to:

• Maboungi, A. and F. de Gravelaine (ea.) (2002), Projets

Urbains en France – French Urban Strategies, Editions du

Moniteur: Paris;

• Miles, M. and T. Hall (eds.) (2003), Urban Futures. Critical

commentaries on shaping the city, Routledge: London

and New York;

• De Meulder, B., and M. Dehaene (2002), Atlas Fascikel 1

Zuidelijk West-Vlaanderen, Anno 02: Kortrijk;

• De Meulder, B., J. Schreurs, A. Cock and B. Notteboom

(1999), “Sleutelen aan het Belgisch stadslandschap”, in

Oase, no. 52; themanummer Consumptie en Territorium,

SUN: Nijmegen, pp. 78-113;

• Oase (2000), nr. 53, themanummer Netwerkstedenbouw,

SUN: Nijmegen, 127 pp.

2 Van Der Haeghen, H., E. Van Hecke and G. Juchtmans

(1996), De Belgische Stadsgewesten 1991, NIS, Statistische

Studiën, no. 104.

3 Flanders Structural Plan for Town and Country Planning,

definitive approval by the Government of Flanders, 23

September 1997, binding provisions ratified by the Decree of

17 December 1997; Flanders Structural Plan for Town and

Country Planning, Brussels: Ministry of the Flemish

Community, 535 pp.

4 Decree on the support for urban innovation projects,

Flemish parliament, 13 March 2002.

5 VRIND, 2002, The Flemish regional indicators: 36 % of

Flemish people have an internet connection. In 2001, this

was only 29 %.

6 Ministry of the Flemish Community (2001), Public space,

Brussels, p. 148.

7 bidem, pp. 166 and 176.

8 Struyven, L. and T. Vandenbrande (2001), Creatie van

werkgelegenheid in de stad. HIVA, Steunpunt WAV, Working

text for the project, Thuis in de Stad, included in the prelim-

inary study for this book.

9 Cabus, P. and W. Knaepen (1996), “Centrumfunctie: duur

betaald?” in Ruimtelijke Planning, Kluwer, Katern, pp. 1-38.

10 Struyven en Vandenbrande, ibidem.

11 Allen, J., (1988), “The geographies of service”, in Massey, D.

and J. Allen (eds.), Uneven redevelopment. Cities and

regions in transition, London: Hodder and Stoughton, pp.

124-141.

12 SERV, CESRW and ESRBGH, (2000), Brussel als centrum van

een sociaal-economische belangengemeenschap, Brussels.

13 Paddison, R., (ed.) (2001), Handbook of Urban Studies, Sage

Publications: London.

14 Castells, M., (1993), “European Cities, the informational soci-

ety and the global economy”, in TESG, 84, no. 4, pp. 247-257.

15 Buursink, J., (1992), “Stedelijke groeicoalities en stedelijke

groeicompetitie”, in Van der Haeghen, H., E. Van Hecke, Liber

amicorum Prof. dr. M. Goossens, Acta Geographica

Lovaniensa, Vol. 33, pp. 589-598.

16 De Brabander, G., (2001), Het stedelijke economische

draagvlak. Research paper in the context of the project,

Thuis in de Stad, included in the preliminary study for this

book.

17 Inspired by:

• Bianchini, F. & M. Parkinson (eds.) (1993), Cultural policy

and urban regeneration. The West European Experience,

Manchester University Press: Manchester;

• Corijn, E. (1999), “Kan de stad de wereld redden”, in

Nauwelaerts, M. (ed.), De toekomst van het verleden.

Reflecties over geschiedenis, stedelijkheid en musea,

Antwerp, Musea Antwerpen, pp. 85-103;

• Landry, C. (2000), The creative city. A toolkit for urban

renovation, Earthscan: London;

• Zukin, S. (1995), The Cultures of Cities, Blackwell

Publishers: Oxford.

18 Kalk, E. and F. De Rynck (2002), Bewonersbetrokkenheid en

burgerparticipatie in de steden, discussion text for the proj-

ect, Thuis in de Stad, included in the preliminary study for

this White Paper.

19 Hendriks, F. and P. Tops (2001), “Between democracy and

efficiency: trends in local government reform in the

Netherlands and Germany”, in Public Administration, vol.

79, no. 1, pp. 105-123.

20 Deschouwer, K., (1996), De wortels van de democratie,

Hadewijch: Antwerp.

21 Based on views of members of groups of residents in the

seminar on the involvement of residents and participation

of citizens, in response to the discussion text of Kalk and

De Rynck (see footnote 18), commissioned for the project,

Thuis in de Stad, July 2002 (text included in the prelimi-

nary study for this book).

22 The whole section on social learning in this chapter is

based on: Wildemeersch, D., (2002), “Sociaal leren voor

duurzaamheid in de risicomaatschappij”, in Baert, H., L.

Dekeyser and G. Sterck (eds.), Levenlang leren en de actieve

welvaartsstaat, Leuven: Acco, pp. 67-75.

23 Wildemeersch, ibidem (see previous footnote).

24 For a more detailed description of the networking between

cities at the European level: Le Galès, P., (2002), European

Cities. Social conflicts and governance, Oxford: University

Press (in particular, see chapter 5: pp. 147-179).


82


83T h e g r o w t h a n d s p e c i f i c c h a ra c t e r o f F l e m i s h u r b a n p r o b l e m s

A number of Flemish cities, such as Bruges and Antwerp, form part of the great urban history of the world. In theirtime they were true world cities, with contacts on every continent, and with an extremely diverse cosmopolitanpopulation. Following a period of decline, only Antwerp and Ghent were involved in the new wave of urbanisa-tion introduced by the industrial revolution from the mid-nineteenth century. Brussels developed as the capitalcity of the country.

Apart from that, Flanders remained a predominantly rural area, with numerous centres with good amenities,small towns where commerce and trade were accompanied by urban industry on a small scale. In addition, a morediffuse form of industrialisation developed in specific mining areas (clay, coal) and along infrastructural lines ofcommunication (canals, rivers, railway and tramlines). Furthermore, a far-reaching policy on housing and mobili-ty successfully prevented the strong concentration of the industrial proletariat in the large cities. Workers com-muted to the factories and often combined working in industry with small-scale agriculture and horticulture.

Both phenomena – industrialisation in the large cities and the growth of the nineteenth-century ring, on the onehand; diffuse industrial development and commuting to work, on the other hand – formed the basis for the cur-rent ambivalent structure of settlement in Flanders. The impact of major industrial cities in Flanders was tem-pered, while a diluted form of industrial urbanisation spread across the small towns and rural areas. This alsocharacterised the political and cultural situation between the wars.

During the reconstruction following the Second World War, and above all, during the 1960s, Flanders also contin-ued to be industrialised, often with a great deal of foreign investment. However, with the exception of a fewestablishments in the ports and subsequently the airport, this new wave of industrialisation still did not lead toa new development of large cities. On the contrary, the diffuse industrialisation that was already present wasgiven a new impetus with the development of the road network and absorbed a significant proportion of the newindustrial development in scattered industrial sites along the infrastructural lines of communication and aroundsmall towns. The economic basis for a single large suburban area was expanded. This was no anomaly, but waswonderfully suited to the important social developments taking place and the political choices being made.

The development of the welfare state is based on a social contract which had already been negotiated duringthe Second World War. The aim of this was the constant growth of productivity from labour, and both entrepre-neurs and trade unions agreed that the proceeds of this growth should be divided on the basis of a social dialogue, between profits, on the one hand, and increasing purchasing power and shorter working hours, on theother hand. Fordism, as this economic system was called, was based on a constant expansion of mass produc-tion and mass consumption. A new organisation of labour became dominant. It was based on machines, theconveyor belt and a strict division of labour. It stood for high productivity and the mass production of consumergoods. The prospects of a higher income and increased leisure time compensated for more intensive and lesssatisfactory working conditions, for example, following the introduction of paid holidays. The redistributionintroduced by the welfare state also ensures a broad participation in this rising standard of living. For an ever-growing middle group, the ‘American way of life’ was no longer the stuff of TV soaps, but an ideal that could

2 . T h e u r b a n c h a ra c t e r a s a p o l i t i c a l p r o j e c t

2 . TH E U R BA N C H A RAC TE R A S A PO L IT I CA L P ROJ E C T

be achieved. Living outside the city, and consequently suburbanisation, were important elements in achievingthis dream.

In Flanders this trend was even further strengthened for political and cultural reasons: the government, theunions and management implemented an active policy to keep people in more rural areas. The De Taeye Act(1948) provided cheap loans for building housing. With very few and flexible regulations in town and countryplanning, or even no regulations at all, there was no opposition to the residential spread. Subsequently theregional planners generously designated extensive areas as residential areas or areas for expansion. The BrunfautAct (1949) provided districts of social housing, which could be seen as the urban counterpart to the widespreadprivate home ownership. However, this was soon fragmented across countless local building companies andsmall projects. The continued development of transport between home and work, gradually but increasingly bycar, supported commuting to work. In this way the moderate concentration of the nineteenth-century city, thediffuse industrial developments in small cities in the early twentieth century, the development of commutertraffic, residential suburbanisation and the spread of villages and hamlets gradually merged together in a moreor less general, though diluted form of urbanisation in urban regions.

In the extended city and in the countryside which was opened up, work and housing can develop in differentways. A significant proportion of the affluent population and of the middle group with a relatively high purchas-ing power is leaving the large compact city or choosing alternatives. The big city is seen, above all, as a centre forwork and services. Furthermore, an increasing proportion of employment is moving to the edge of the city. Livingin the city is only for those who cannot leave, and for the newcomers who fill up the gaps in the employment mar-ket and in the housing market. In this way, the attractions of the large city are overshadowed by a negative pic-ture: the city is dirty, strange, dangerous… For the majority of the Flemish population, the large cities do not evokean image of pleasant, useful, habitable spaces. Only the small regional towns still evoke this picture to someextent. In the large cities, only the tourist and commercial districts still have a certain degree of attraction.

Chapter 1 analysed urban problems from six dif-ferent perspectives. In the historical descriptionto this chapter we outlined the main develop-ments in the growth of urban problems, andabove all, the specific character of these prob-lems in Flanders and Brussels. In this chapter weexamine our starting points, which form thebasis of this book. The preceding paragraphsmake it possible to formulate a clear social diag-nosis:a. Living in the city is a problem. The ‘brick in

the Flemish stomach’ is a historical productand explains the desire for an own home: thiscan be found much more easily outside the

compact city. There is not a wide range ofaffordable housing in the city. This also rein-forces the suburban mentality.

b. The city creates divisions. The city concen-trates administrative and economic activitieswhich particularly benefit the periphery, ifonly because a significant proportion of citydwellers do not enter the regular circuit insociety. An economically interesting propor-tion of the historical heritage is becomingricher, while large parts of the old city centre(the historic fabric and nineteenth-centuryring) are becoming impoverished and dilapi-dated.


85Therefore the large majority of Flemish people do not cultivate an attitude that is positive to large cities, but tendto have a frame of reference relating to small towns, or more accurately, to suburbia: neither urban nor rural. The‘good life’ in the Flemish suburbs became part of the ideal of upward social mobility in the 1960s and 1970s. Incontrast with the expanding town and country planning, deep mental and social divides have emerged withinthe increasingly urban region: between the increasingly exclusive commercial centre and the marginalized outerdistricts, between native Belgian and immigrant urban dwellers, and above all, between the compact, large andmedium-sized city as a whole and the expanding suburbs. The small towns have retained an uncertain interme-diary position in all this. In this chapter the term ‘city’ refers primarily to large and medium-sized cities, whereboth the compact urban character and the divisions and new trends are clearly visible. The possible interestingintermediary position of small towns is left out of consideration for the time being. Depending on their specificsituation, they will reveal more or less pronounced characteristics of the urban problems that are discussed here.Their own specific role will be discussed at a later stage.

The economic crisis of the mid-1970s and the subsequent era of post-Fordism with its deregulation, increasedflexibility, liberalisation and privatisation have increased the different divides in the city region even further.1 Thedivisions in society and long-term policy of spending cuts have also led to increased poverty and deprivationeverywhere, but have had an even greater effect in the old city centres and the nineteenth-century ring. At thesame time, feelings of solidarity and tolerance have not improved at all. The exodus from the city, an all too exclu-sive urban character focusing on a layer at the top, and the decision not to opt for the city, mean that suburban-isation has accelerated and the urban fabric becomes even more diluted. Cities are increasingly seen as centresfor work, consumerism, entertainment, culture, visits and tackling problems. The city serves primarily for its ‘bet-ter users’. The problems of living together on a day-to-day basis and of housing are suppressed. Urban housinghas become a residual function. However, at the same time, poverty is increasing, not least because of the crisisin industrial employment. This means that the future prospects of those with a low level of education who areconcentrated in the compact city are diminishing all the time. The city has become the focus of all social conflicts.

c. The gap between rich and poor is growing.Despite the economic success of some histori-cal parts of the city, there is a growing ine-quality in incomes between the compact cityand the peripheral areas extending far beyondthe administrative boundaries. This results infiscal inequality: the municipalities with thepoorest population have the impossible taskof managing the greatest social problems.

d. The growth of populism and the extremeright. This development of the compact cityas a problem area, and the identification ofthese problems with an immigrant popula-tion in the cities, is politically translated into

the growth of the extreme right and in thepolitical response to an almost obsessivesense of insecurity. In this trend a curiouspolitical coalition is taking place between thenative population of the city, threatened byincreasing impoverishment and marginalisa-tion, and a suburban middle class which isafraid that it will have to surrender its recent-ly acquired prosperity. Both groups see foreignnewcomers as hijacking the city. This is anideal climate for populist political activity.

e. The pressures on the environment andmobility are becoming untenable. The divid-ed and expanding city places enormous pres-


86 sure on the environment and on open spaces,and also creates serious pressure on mobility.The need for coherent and sustainable devel-opment clashes with the divided perspectivesor suburban mentality of a significant propor-tion of the population and its political repre-sentatives.

On the basis of these diagnoses we come to thefollowing conclusion: Flanders is in need of adetailed social debate on a new urban policy. Thispolicy should be supported not only by the speci-fic historical development and character of citiesin Flanders, but must also take into account theirreversible urban developments related to far-reaching changes at a global level. The need forthis policy is based on the following statement:the city and urban character are not outdatedphenomena; on the contrary, they can serve asthe basis of a dynamic, future-oriented and sus-tainable development. In this sense, the urbanpolicy becomes the test and conclusion of everygood social project. This point of view is basedon an interpretation of a number of importantcontemporary developments and requires a newperspective of urban space and urban culture. Achange of attitude is needed. It is this changethat we want to discuss below.

We will examine the statement with the help ofthree triangular relationships:world – state – city (1)urban character – urban policy – policy on cities (2)government – civil society – population (3)

The changes and the relationships between thecorners of every triangle form the basis for the‘ideology’ of this book.

In the last section (4), we combine the threefigures in a single comprehensive model, whichfocuses on the city at the level of politicalorganisation. We conclude the chapter with the

four Ds: durable sustainability, density, diversityand democracy, the leading principles for draw-ing up urban programmes which give the urbancharacter a central place. The possible contentsof programmes are dealt with in chapter 3.

1. The city as a centre for politicaland social reconstruction

The process of globalisation:a precarious balanceWe are living in a period of far-reaching socialchanges.2 The umbrella metaphor for thesechanges is the ‘process of globalisation’. Boththe term and the scale of globalisation are amatter for discussion. However, it suffices to saythat one important dimension of the process isthe precarious nature of the balance betweenthe world system, on the one hand, and the sys-tem of nation states, on the other hand. Theworld system, based on the market economy,has had a tendency to expand ever since itsearly emergence during the Renaissance. It con-stantly transcends its borders. This process takesplace with a fluctuating intensity and appearsto be accelerating again today. Furthermore, inthe course of the eighteenth, nineteenth andearly twentieth century, politics and social andcultural developments took place within a sys-tem of nation states. Representative democracy,the social regulation of the market economy,the development of a cultural (national) identi-ty, etc. were conceived, above all, within the bor-ders of the nation state. In addition, the worldwas expanded internationally by governmentsthrough diplomacy and foreign policy. The worldsystem and the system of the nation stateswere in a precarious (im)balance, as revealed bythe history of the twentieth century, accompa-nied by constant international conflicts, twoworld wars and a cold war, violent colonisationand decolonisation.


88 The limits of the possibilities of regulation wereachieved and transcended in most states, in theresponse both to the economic crisis in the mid-1970s and to the implosion of regimes in theEast. The relationship between the market andthe state changed significantly, as did the rela-tionship between the world market and the sys-tem of nation states. On the one hand, theinternational and transnational levels increasedin importance (e.g., the European Union), whileon the other hand, the state became the ally ofthe (local) market economy in the competitionat the global level. Deregulation, privatisationand increased flexibility undermined the Fordistregulatory mechanisms. Protectionism and thephilosophy of the inclusive welfare state weredwindled. In the past the state guaranteed asocial regulation of the market, but now it isunder pressure to operate more in accordancewith the market, focusing on the capacity forcompetition.

The paradox: glocalisationGlobalisation is not a process that takes placeup in the air or outside society and has only amarginal effect, dripping down in differentplaces.

Globalisation is actually taking place every-where at a local level, though always in a veryspecific way. This is the primary paradox: global-isation is accompanied by the increase in itsimportance at the local level, localisation. Tosome extent globalisation is ‘glocalisation’.3 Theprocess of local globalisation is particularly evi-dent in large cities. In fact, some world citiessuch as New York, London, Tokyo and Frankfurtare precisely the places which provide globalinteractions.4 However, in every city of a certainsize there is actually an increasing connectionwith the world through the intensification ofeconomic, social and cultural interactions. Forexample, Brussels has become a minor world

city. The development of Antwerp is related toits role as a world port. In this way, large citiesand small towns are trying to achieve a moreinternational image. The nature of every citytoday is determined both by its place and histo-ry in the nation state and by its links with andspecific incorporation in the processes of global-isation.

The city as the focus of rescalingThe paradox of ‘glocalisation’ leads to the divi-sion of the nation state into new levels of socialregulation (a new scale). On the one hand, thereis a clear move towards supranational, interna-tional, transnational, continental and global lev-els. European unification is both part of globali-sation and a reaction to it. All these transfers ofsovereignty still suffer from a serious democrat-ic and social deficit. On the other hand, local andregional aspects are increasing in importance. Inother words, the simultaneous processes ofdelocalisation and relocalisation appear to beseeking different scales from that of the nationstate, in which conflicting or paradoxical forcescan maintain a (precarious) balance and resultin some sort of synthesis. The transnationalscale is one of these, but at that level it is verydifficult to discover a workable relationship withglobal regulation.

The city operates on another scale. Cities, led bythe large cities, are confronted with a local con-centration of problems to such an extent thatthey are forced to develop their own solutions,and their own policy. Cities become both a vortexof social decline, as well as possible contactpoints for social and political regeneration. Thiswas clearly shown in the A and B interpretationsof chapter 1. On the one hand, cities are largeenough to reflect the complexities of the world,while on the other hand, they are small enoughto develop new and adapted forms of democraticcontrol and discover new local forms of the glob-


89al aspect.5 For this reason, cities can no longer becontent with simply managing sectors of activi-ty (housing, mobility, the economy, town andcountry planning, culture, etc.); they are obligedto develop an integrated urban vision and arelated urban concept. As we will see below,cities have powerful advantages at their dispos-al for tackling these challenges. The mostimportant of these is their urban character orone of its essential components: the everydayexperience of diversity.6

In this perspective, cities and places in generalare no longer the lowest level, dependent andinarticulate aspects of the (nation) state. Withinthe system of nation states, cities fit into a hier-archical order as the only political point of refer-ence: capital city, regional city, smaller town, etc.

world

nation city

Globalisation is suppressing their ‘natural’ or‘organic’ place. In the future, cities will play adouble game: they are part of a nation, and in amuch broader context they are part of a conti-nent, of a world. These relationships are not allnecessarily on the same level. The cities end upin a triangular relationship with ‘the world’ onthe one hand, and the state on the other hand.The global, national and local levels are threedistinct areas, three aspects which interact indifferent combinations, sometimes – as in every

ménage a trois – with two against three.Furthermore, they also occur together in thecity. Therefore the image of the city has to workboth within its own urban reality and within thenational context and international force field.Particular emphases and choices are possible.Some cities are particularly focused on them-selves, while others prefer to opt for a role in thenational environment, and others still tend topresent a profile at the international level. Inshort, the city has links on the one hand withthe state, the country, and on the other handwith what we call ‘the world’, for the sake ofconvenience.

Every graphic representation of these relation-ships plays a part in this respect. The structure israther like an open tripolar force field ratherthan a static, closed triangle. Various relation-ships develop around the three poles: transna-tional relationships, urban networks, worldcities, city states, urban regions, etc. Even withinthe city there are parts which tend to connectmore with one aspect than another: museumsand cultural centres may be active in worldwidenetworks, other parts of the city focus onFlemish users, while others have a district-ori-ented function. Whatever the case may be, thecity can no longer be identified with the lowestlevel of a hierarchical order. It will have animportant role, though this still has to be largelydefined, in the exciting process of globalisa-tion/localisation. In this field there is a greatdeal of room for creativity, initiative and policy.

2. Urban character, the policy oncities, urban policy

Another triangular relationship is that betweenthe concepts of urban character, the policy oncities and urban policy.


90urban character

policy on cities

urban policy

Urban character and anti-urban characterUrban character is a qualitative concept. It isrelated to the characteristics of a place and thementality of the people. This does not concernmerely a connection between a physical spaceand a cultural reality, but rather the interrela-tionship of material and immaterial culture andthe interaction between space and changingattitudes, which both act as cause and effect.This means that urban character is a complexconcept with several dimensions. Amongstother things, urban character reveals the extentof diversity in space and time. This diversity canhave all sorts of different characters: diversepopulation groups, diverse types of housing,diverse activities, diverse experiences, differentfunctions, a variety of cultural expressions, etc.Obviously proximity is largely a matter of acces-sibility, with distances and waiting times whichcan easily be bridged, depending on means oftransport and communication. Both diversityand proximity are determined in relation to thesocial groups involved. But in any case, theurban character develops because of the highlycompact spatial and temporal nature of differ-ent human activities, objects and experiences.This is not an excusive definition, it is more amatter of gradation: a greater or lesser urbancharacter. Nevertheless, the interaction betweentime and space as the best promoter of urbancharacter is important. A compact temporal

event (a festival site) or non-localised immedia-cy (the internet) can contribute to urban charac-ter, but lack the interaction of time and space toact as powerful generators of urban character.

Historically, urban character has been related tothe growth and compact character of urbanactivity in an originally rural environment. Thismade the city a favourable site for modernisa-tion in a predominantly traditional context.Between these polarities, the urban versus therural, and modern versus traditional, there is acertain affinity, but not an exclusive relation-ship: the traditional city exists, the moderncountryside also exists. Nevertheless, the com-pact nature of urban development can be seenas an efficient catalyst of modernisation.

The far-reaching phenomenon of job-sharingand the production of goods generate a diversi-fication which goes right across the traditionalsocial cohesion. In a purely traditional culture,this cohesion is based on the equality of activi-ties and the cyclical and concrete awareness oftime. Day and night determine the rhythms ofsocial life. The seasons and activities are more orless determined by that rhythm of time.Traditions and religion lead to the ritualisationof this behaviour and to a solidarity supportedby a sense of belonging and similar lifestyles.This means there is a community. In urban cul-ture the cohesion focuses rather on exchangeand contracts between strangers, on very differ-ent activities which must be related to eachother. The ubiquity of clocks and timetablesintroduces a more abstract time structure whichis separate from the large variety of concreteactivities. This time passes, goes on, and is seenin linear terms: ‘Time flies, use it well!’ Thedevelopment of other, more abstract measuressuch as money, financial transactions, and timeby the clock result in a social cohesion whichallows for a large degree of concrete diversity. It


91is not so much equality, but complementaritywhich provides the basis for solidarity. This con-cerns society, the community.

Modernisation has reinforced and acceleratedthese processes. Marketing, industrialisationand the division of labour now affect the wholeof society. The great increase in mobility has ledto a larger range in terms of space. There hasbeen a compression of time and space, and con-sequently the most important characteristics ofthe modern urban character have penetratedthe whole of the countryside. The countryside inFlanders (the more rural areas) is now also thor-oughly changing because of its own forms ofmodernisation. The unbroken built-up areas,uninterrupted housing and human activity cre-ates a continuous network which has made itpermanently impossible to clearly divide urbanactivities from those in the countryside inFlanders in terms of space. In addition to themodernisation of rural production and thespread of urban development, education, themass media and travel also promote the generalprocess of modernisation. The urban characterand modern development are no longer charac-teristics only of the compact city, but nowextend to a much larger area. However, thisdoes not undermine the role of the compact cityas an important promoter of the urban charac-ter and modernity. It is just that their scope hasbecome much larger. This requires an adjust-ment of the focus on urban policy.

The urban character also affects attitudes. Lifein a compact city means living with theunknown, whether you like it or not, and thisrequires an open mind and flexible behaviour. Atthis level the gradations in the urban characteralso lead to considerable differences in theexperience of the public domain between thelarger city and the suburbs or the countryside. Inthe last two cases a familiarity with the inhabi-

tants and the users is much greater and is more-over arranged on the basis of customs. In thelarger city, the lack of specificity and theambivalence are greater. This requires an appro-priate attitude. The American sociologistLofland7 refers to five principles of good behav-iour in the city:1. cooperative mobility: so that everyone can

move about;2. a civilised discretion: a certain level of dis-

creet polite behaviour;3. wanting to be an active observer and listener:

showing an interest, being alert and atten-tive;

4. restrained helpfulness: looking after otherpeople;

5. tolerance of diversity: being free of prejudice.It is a matter of learning to live with difference,without aiming to achieve a common experi-ence on the basis of identity. These rules for ac-ceptable behaviour in the city would be a goodstarting point for discussions on civilised citizen-ship. They are now also better adapted to theinevitable exposure to globalisation than thelocalised ‘customs’ of more closed communities.

Therefore it would be wrong to think that theurban character will now emerge in the sameway everywhere. It will certainly continue to bestrongly related to particular places, as a resultof at least three factors: local history, local den-sity and local diversity. Cities, particularly thelarger historical cities, reflect the levels anddepth of modernity. The compact historical fab-ric remains as the location of a high concentra-tion of people and human activity. The largercities continue to be the essential – if no longerexclusive – places for great cultural and socialdiversity.

This resistance to the historical, compact, urbancharacter evokes an equally obstinate anti-urban character which does not cease to point


92 out the negative aspects of the city: foreigners,pollution, crime, nuisance. Greater mobilityincreasingly allows the use of the facilities ofthe city by people who do not live there, andtherefore supports the exodus from the city andthe rejection of the city as an environment forliving in. This rejection of the urban character indaily life encourages suburbanisation, anattempt to design an urban character at somedistance. The complexity of the immediate liv-ing environment is reduced by referring to an(imaginary) rural relationship, and this is com-bined with the predominately utilitarian use ofthe city as a facility. In itself, there is nothingwrong with this old dream of uniting the oppor-tunities of the city with the peace and quiet ofthe countryside, except that by no means every-one can realise that dream, and that in order tofeed the dream there will always have to bepeople living in the city. The privileged peoplewho are able to realise the dream withdrawfrom its two-pronged, social cost price: the priceof using the city, on the one hand (they pay toolittle towards the city), and the price of a non-sustainable use of space, on the other hand(they are subsidised for the added cost of livingoutside the city).

As indicated above, this distant relationshipwith the urban character predominates inFlanders. This means that there is a brake on thedynamic innovation of the current urban char-acter and on the development of an urban atti-tude. The user of the city who does not livethere only wants the city to provide the serviceshe requires without any nuisance or unforeseencircumstances, and wants the suburbs to be lim-ited to providing a quiet residential environ-ment. This narrow view is not really a very goodbasis for relating appropriately to urban reality.It is only the people who are regularly and nec-essarily confronted with the real urban environ-ment in their daily lives, who are obliged to

develop flexible ways of dealing with the city.Without an experience of real urban diversityand the different aspects of the population andhuman activities, the urban character becomesa mythical imported product, and its necessityand creative stimuli are removed. It is preciselybecause of the wide-ranging interrelationshipswith different aspects that the different ways ofrelating can be tested out and adjusted. Theabsence of these relationships maintains thevery different attitudes between the actualurban character of the city and the reducedurban character of the suburbs. In the city, theeveryday practice of living together and dealingwith differences requires an appropriate atti-tude; outside the city, the filtered urban charac-ter or abstract cosmopolitanism are barely test-ed and are in danger of being overturned at thefirst confrontation.

The question arises whether the contrastbetween the big city and the suburbs inFlanders is corrected to some extent by a pat-tern of urbanisation in which numerous medi-um-sized and small towns also play a role. Manymore diffuse processes of industrial develop-ment and compact infrastructural networksstimulate the diluted, generalised urban charac-ter. Perhaps the hypothetical area of the urbanregion which lies between cities of differentsizes with a range of infrastructure has its owncharacteristic model of development. This couldlink real urban dynamics to a recognisableprovincial character, could assimilate the advan-tages of an enlargement of scale and avoid thedisadvantages of increased complexity, withouthaving to exchange the requirements of a com-petitive environment for greater residentialcomfort. Perhaps it is in this sort of medium-sized urban area that it is possible to introducea different relationship to the urban character.The dynamics of the large city would not haveto serve as a model for all forms of urban char-


93acter. It would be possible. The reality inFlanders could generate specific opportunities,but that means that the advantages of inten-sive urban cosmopolitan production would haveto be linked to the advantages of residentialspread.

The urban policy (of town councils and of cen-tral governments) must focus on creating theconditions for the sustainable development ofcities on the one hand, and a sustainable rela-tionship with the urban character in general, onthe other hand. We argue for seeing the urbancharacter as a necessary positive element for asuitable localisation of globalisation, and as astepping stone for the continued incorporationof Flanders into Europe. After all, it is the perfectplace to learn to relate to the stranger and newthings. Without a close experience of that rela-tionship, the idea of a society which focuses onthe world remains an abstract, meaninglessidea. For example, this experience has a positiveeffect on seeing prejudices in relative terms: “AllMoroccans are thieves except for my Moroccanneighbour”, or “All boys are dangerous exceptfor my nephew”. This place to learn about theurban character does not have to be difficult orcomplicated – on the contrary. One importantelement of the urban policy is to support theurban mentality with a pleasant relationship tothe city as a place of diversity. The use of the citymust be seen in much broader terms than thecurrent utilitarian, official or duty-basedexploitation, and the city must be developed asa pleasant place to spend time in. Therefore it ispositive to incorporate the facilities for accom-modation and leisure – which provide morethan consumption and an official culture – inthe fabric of the city itself. Therefore the attrac-tive use of the city for leisure purposes must notbe equated with a harmonious theme park andshould be linked as far as possible to the real liv-ing city.

This sort of policy against the mono-functionalview of the city complements the sustainabledevelopment of the city for various categories ofinhabitants and users. Apart from the invest-ments by buyers of real estate, who have a lot ofpurchasing power, and consumers who like togo shopping, the everyday level of amenities inmany cities leaves a lot to be desired, both interms of quantity and in terms of quality. Greatefforts are expected from urban policy toimprove the physical and infrastructural envi-ronment of the city and make it more inhabi-tant and user- friendly.

Urban policy in the grid cityThe urban policy in Flanders (including Brussels)could extend from Flanders as a double space:on the one hand, the rural landscape with vil-lages and hamlets, agricultural, natural andrecreational areas, and on the other hand, thenetwork city, a collection of large and regionalcities and small towns combined with suburbs,ribbon development and lines connecting them,as well as some open areas here and there. As anetwork city, Flanders needs better town andcountry planning and a cultural transformationwhich will work on a new urban framework andurban culture. The urban policy must focus oncooperation at the level of town and countryplanning and culture, on diversity, density, andsynergy, all characteristics of the urban charac-ter. However, in order to generate an adequateurban character it is also necessary to maintainthe real concentrated cities, to ensure that peo-ple can live in them and develop them in sus-tainable way. Without the network, the compactcity becomes an anachronistic enclave, andwithout the compact city, the network city lacksthe generator which creates the urbancharacter. However, in order to provide bettersupport for the coordination of the diluted andcompact urban character and to develop suit-able forms of urban character and density, both


94 in the compact city centre and in the largerurban region, a more subtle policy is requiredthan that of compact hubs incorporated in theFlemish network city as a whole. For this reasonwe will refer to this below as the ‘grid city’. Thisdescribes the grid-like coordination betweencompact and less compact, central and peripher-al, built-up and open, physical, social and eco-nomic aspects of the city at several different lev-els of scale (sometimes at the same time): with-in the city centres, between parts of the city andthe periphery, within a broader urban regionand for a region which comprises several cities.This requires a different view of the organisa-tion of the urban character, in each case in rela-tion to other parts of the grid.8

We must continue to cherish the historical heartof the city. However, as we indicated above, thecity has now changed completely: the evolutionof planning in the city no longer takes places inconcentric movements. Furthermore, the way inwhich citizens and social partners operate inopen networks creates a different notion ofplanning. The enlargement of scale of areas foraction has turned the city inside out so that weare ready for ‘the reformulation of the tradition-al frameworks for thinking about the city andurban character’.9 The physical boundaries ofthe city have been broken down. Functions atthe level of culture, the economy, housing, etc.are moving from old to new, urbanised and non-urbanised areas. The continued development ofICT adds yet other dimension to this new geog-raphy of the city and countryside. Modern com-munication and open patterns of relationshipsmean that you no longer have to live in the cityor establish activities there in order to benefitfrom the city’s central position. In short, theboundaries between the city and the country-side no longer exist.

The current policy frameworks are often toodefensive, too strongly focused on strictly con-serving the compact city. This means that thepolicy tends to consolidate the existing conflictsrather than providing a solution for them. Thiscertainly applies for the relationship betweenthe city and the periphery, or in an even broadersense, the city and the countryside. It hasbecome a conflict at the level of town and coun-try planning, and even a conflict betweenimages of society. This is certainly not a positiveframework for giving priority to the city and theurban character. We wish to break down thisconfrontation between the two ‘camps’.

A renewal of the policy frameworks could bebased on this changing city as a starting point,and could provide the basis for a proactive poli-cy. We repeat that we also consider that theexpansion of the urban fabric and the use of thespace is taking place in a way that is not suffi-ciently controlled, that the inner cities are disin-tegrating, that divisions are becoming greater,and that the problems of mobility are in dangerof becoming uncontrollable. But we do notbelieve that the clock can simply be turned back– the strategy for tomorrow is not based on theideas of the past. Nor has suburbanisationresponded to a number of requirements relatedto quality of life which the compact city couldnot meet.

Therefore compact urbanisation is not the onlyanswer to the demand for the most sustainableform of urban development. The discussions onthis can be found everywhere in the literature.10

However, we cannot saddle the urban inhabi-tants with all the negative aspects of an ‘openand urban’ policy on town and country planningwhich protects green and suburban areas fromadditional urbanisation. If we interpret sustain-able development in this way, the inhabitants ofthe city bear the entire burden, and there is a


96 danger that the quality of life there will deterio-rate even further. With the current compositionof the urban population this would not besocially just, and therefore would not be sus-tainable.

The existing borders of the urban region in theplanning are in danger of becoming boggeddown in the philosophy behind the compactcity. This will also consolidate the mentalboundary between the city and the non-city.This strengthens the already disastrous gapbetween suburban rings (‘a good place to live’)and the compact city with its concentration ofdifferent problems. Finally, the government doesnot have adequate resources or instruments –or the will to use them – to make sure thattown and country planning is really led alongthe right lines. This means that the situationbetween the ideal and the limited resourcesbecomes very unsatisfactory. There is a dangerthat in the short term this will lead to suppress-ing discussions on quality for the sake of pro-grammes focusing on speed and quantity.

We will therefore take the reality of the dis-persed city and open networks as a startingpoint. There is no longer a sharply defined city.Within the dispersed area, the cityscape willhave to be redefined. New policy frameworkswill provide a framework in which the principlesof cohesion, density, diversity and participationin sustainable policy programmes can beachieved. There are now a lot of descriptive con-cepts to give a name to the new cityscape: thenebulous city, the network city, the dispersedcity, the urban sprawl, città fractale, edge city,ville-territoire… This colourful terminology is yetanother sign of a hazy understanding of thespace. We use the term ‘grid city’ both as adescriptive term and to create some order.

The image of the grid city reveals lines, cross-over points and a mesh of different natures andsizes. These lines can be infrastructural lines, butcan also be green or blue lines. They cross eachother at points of urbanisation or of open space.The mesh – or the windows in the grid – can bedescribed as fields or rooms, depending on whatthey represent: open spaces or built-up areas.The term describes the spatial character of therelationships and the changes of scale in a net-worked space. It indicates that places are inter-connected by social, cultural, economic or otherrelationships in constantly changing networksof different intensities. From that perspectivewe can also describe the blurred or absent func-tional and physical boundaries between the cityand the countryside.

The term ‘grid city’ leads to discussions aboutthe arrangement and development in and ofthis apparent lack of spatial structure. We canzoom in and out, depending on the level of scaleat which we wish to examine the city and theurban character, or the process we wish todirect: from the level of the individual or theindividual plot to links in the grid with globalprocesses.

In the grid city, we can assign a place to differ-ent sorts of boundaries and indicate their rela-tive significance. The boundary of the burgo-master only shows the administrative bound-aries. The geographical boundary shows theboundary of the actual urban region.Institutional boundaries are particularly relevantfor the Brussels grid city: they indicate how theinstitutional boundaries cut off the economicheart of the Brussels urban region from the restof the urban region, which is mainly situated inFlanders. The existing boundaries always aim todefine an urban space which is distinguishedfrom a non-urban space. The two areas are seenseparately, and consequently coordination is


97often lacking in the policy. Therefore coordina-tion is seen as an important aspect in this book.The grid city is the policy framework for achiev-ing the leading principles which we will developbelow. It is the basis for an inclusive urban policy.

Urban policy based on a visionThe principles outlined above must be central,both in the urban policy and in the policy oncities. For us the policy on cities concerns all theactions of central governments (from the globalto the Flemish level), while the urban policycomprises all the actions of local parties.

The urban policy defines and supports the roleof the changing city in an enlarged urban area,as part of the Flemish grid city. It requires itsown policy level (the town council in the broad-est sense of the term: municipal government,city government, forms of consultation in urbanregions, etc.) in consultation with the inhabi-tants of the city, the users of the city, the localsocial and management organisations and theprivate sectors. The urban policy focuses on thedevelopment and implementation of an urbanprogramme. At this level it is also important toachieve greater coordination to strengthen boththe specific and the sustainable character.Therefore the urban programme is, in the firstplace, an inspirational vision for the future, inwhich cohesion on the basis of (local) diversity isprojected and the city is situated in the worldand in the country. Like the urban character, theurban programme is based on an interactionbetween a spatial and a socio-cultural dimen-sion. It is built up on the basis of different ele-ments: (a) its own ‘collection’ (history, heritage,sources, national identity, etc.); (b) the existingand desired social practices (social, economic, cul-tural and political); (c) the creative processes; (d)an expression, an image, a position; and (e) themain strategic lines for policy programmes. Theprogramme is based on clear principles: social jus-

tice, sustainable development, participatorydemocracy, a comprehensive approach and trans-parent government. Planning and design lead tothe concrete implementation of the programme(see chapter 3 for the content of the urban pro-grammes and chapter 4 for planning, projectsand design).

There is a constant interaction in the triangleformed by the urban character, urban policy andthe policy on cities. This requires appropriateinstitutional and policy levels which naturallyinteract. The urban programme is supported bythe local government and its partners, theurban policy by the national government and itspartners (including possibly a network of cities).Urban programmes inspire urban policy, theurban policy stimulates and supports the urbanprogrammes.

However, the urban character often lacks some-one to promote its interests. It is on the samelevel as human rights, pluralism, democracy,etc., and should therefore form part of a generalsocial culture based on the general cultural poli-cy and by the social partners. Every pole in thistripolar constellation also has its own counter-pole. In this way the urban character requires adefinition of the rural character (in Flanders thisrural character also comprises a multi-layered,complex and contemporary reality).11 The urbanpolicy contrasts with a general policy, whichdoes not necessarily use spatial criteria such asscale, distance, locality and density. Urban policyis different again from the policy of the state inthe city. The structure of the state leads to a sec-toral, fragmented policy at different levels, whilean urban policy should actually combine the dif-ferent levels and lines of policy.

This demand for the integration of policy and aclear link with the everyday life of the popula-tion leads to the question of the relationship


98 between ‘politics’ and ‘the citizen’. This relation-ship has also changed thoroughly under theinfluence of the social developments that wereoutlined.

3. Another tri-polar relationship:government – civil society –population

To identify the social developments at the startof the twenty-first century, we discuss anothertriangular relationship: the relationshipbetween the government, the population andcivil society (the social partners). This concernsthe essential links which form the democraticcontent of our social system, and which are alsoinvolved in a process of change.

civil society government

population

The development of the welfare state based onFordism was supported by mass consumerismto stimulate growth. It presupposed andrequired a socio-cultural integration in this con-sumer society based on a social programme, afairly uniform lifestyle and organised leisuretime. In Flanders this integration took place in asystem based on factions. The factions of thesocial midfield stood between politics (the gov-ernment) and the population, as a mediatingorganiser of a range of interrelated associations.These were all interrelated by a strongly domi-nant concept of the ‘good life’, i.e., an ideology.

These relationships have also changed signi-ficantly. The literature refers to the breakdownof factions, about the gap between politics andcitizens, about cocooning and individualisation,about populism, mediatisation, and a crisis ofvalues. References are made to the fragmenta-tion of the market, niche marketing, lifestyleconsumption, etc.. All these analyses refer to thebreakdown of a particular model of social inte-gration and the search for new interrelation-ships. We are cautious about describing thesedevelopments too predictably in terms of a dif-ferent image or cliché, but it is possible to drawa number of conclusions.

Research has shown that participation in sociallife has not declined significantly, and that thisparticipation is an important element in learn-ing about democracy. However, the nature ofmembership has changed. The ideological con-nection has become less important, while mem-bership has become more client-oriented.12 Inother words, the life of associations focusesmore strongly on their own objectives than on abroad social project. Large-scale social organisa-tions also focus more on their own specific serv-ices than on their social position. Civil society,the social partners, have become more inde-pendent of politics, of the parties and of govern-ment. It no longer has the most important ideo-logical connection with the population.

This mediating role has now been taken over bythe mass media. However, television, radio andthe press are very different instruments fromassociations and organisations, particularlywhen they are commercial projects. Theirincreased importance – in fact, their totallydominant position – strongly determines thechanged face of politics: the effect of the mediaand commercialisation, populism, the personali-ty cult, the importance of ‘scoring’, respondingquickly to the current events, the rhetoric of


99innovation, etc. Politics today are above all car-ried out in the media and are determined by itsrules.13 On the one hand, these rules certainlystrengthen the public nature and publicitywhich is needed in public debate, but on theother hand, they also determine the format ofpolitics in a strongly commercial context (cf. theimportance of private companies, soundbites,short statements and sensational news, ratherthan thorough discussion, analytical insightsand broad social issues).

All this increases the crisis in levels of represen-tation. Representation presupposes a certaindegree of cohesion and a certain duration: it isassumed that the elected representatives areable to consider every case thoroughly betweentwo elections, on the basis of a shared ideologywith the electorate. However, the populationtoday is no longer organised and represented onthe basis of social projects. It is no longeraddressed as a citizen or as a ‘militant’, butrather as a client. It is as though there are nolonger any alternative visions of society. Politicalparties are increasingly becoming pure electoralassociations. Public matters are raised in termsof individual supply and demand: What do thepeople want? What is good for the people?”

The crisis is based on profound social changes.Segmentation, fragmentation, individualisa-tion… all make society more complex, less trans-parent and less easy to interpret. This makes‘representation’ much more difficult becausethe population is also constantly moving.Neither the cohesion – different relationshipsare developing between social positions,lifestyles and ideologies – nor the duration –this cohesion is maintained for four or five years– is a permanent factor. Identities change, thereis more ambiguity, more doubt. The correspon-dence between the views of the masses and theinstitutions has become an extremely difficult

matter. That is why democracy is asking formore ‘research’, more participation and consul-tation. Today, this is done with opinion polls andmarket research, which places the population ina rather passive position. It explains why politi-cians are keen on referenda. It also explains whythe concept of a participatory democracy isbecoming stronger to supplement representa-tive democracy. There are enough good reasonsfor at least some of the political decisions, par-ticularly those concerning matters close athand, the direct environment that people live in,to be taken in a participatory process with citi-zens. This sort of direct political involvementcould increase the interest in more generalsocial matters. The population is also increasing-ly turning away from ‘politics’ as the joint steer-ing of society, as a result of social changes. Thepeople have also become absorbed in the con-sumer culture, in which consumer power haspriority and individual taste is the norm.

In the organised structure of society, politics(the government), associations, (civil society)and the population are not all extensions ofeach other. The age of the division of societyinto factions is over.14 Again we see a triangularrelationship. Both politics and the social part-ners constantly have to reassess their relation-ship to (parts of) the population. Power andactivity are not always guarantees of a true rep-resentative legitimacy. Furthermore, this repre-sentative element is no guarantee of a sense ofcitizenship. Populism and clientism are notdirected at citizens, but at supporters or clients.Individuals are all too often treated as interest-ed clients, while it is actually the populationwhich must learn to become disinterested citi-zens from time to time, with a greater concernfor common interests than for individual or pri-vate interests.


100 If politics and political parties are to improvetheir place in society, and if political power is toachieve a new legitimacy, a different relation-ship with the will have to be developedbetween the social partners and the population.In the first place, this change requires a redefi-nition of the mandate of parties: a change ofemphasis from the management of the state topoliticising society. It is against this backgroundthat we argue in this book for more politics inthe city.

4. The city republic revisited

The changes in social relationships and the pro-found changes in attitudes which are necessaryto deal with these changes, place the city andthe urban character at the centre. We see thecity as a grid which can reflect global complexi-ty at a local level and which is open and yet con-trollable: a grid which cultivates the urban char-acter, has a relationship with the Other, withwhat is strange, what is non-urban, with otherplaces, on the basis of difference and equality.

The vision of the city which supports urban poli-cy and the policy on cities and the urban pro-grammes based on these must examine the dif-ferent tripolar aspects of their relationships andinteraction together. We have referred to therelationships between ‘the world, the state andthe city’, we looked at the triangle, ‘urban char-acter-urban policy-policy on cities’, in which weintroduced the concept of the grid city and wediscussed the new political culture in the rela-tionship between politics, civil society and thepopulation. We will now attempt to combinethese different interactions and tensions.

We are convinced that the increased urbancharacter, supported by the local interpretationof globalisation, can exert an important social

dynamic force, which can be expressed in avision for the city through civil society. It is thisdynamic aspect which should be supported bypolicy at different levels (the state, the urbanpolicy). In this book, we support this evolution inthe political world. The diagram on the follow-ing page represents this.

Traditionally, the policy is conceived in accor-dance with the line from the state-urban policy-urban administration-population. This is the lineof government in which the institutions andtheir administration are in a central positionand the population is served at the end. It is astrongly hierarchical line, based on identity andadministration. We have indicated another linein bold: this is more a line of activity whichstarts from the urban character as a globalchange of attitude and passes to the populationvia the ‘world’ and civil society. This line moreclearly reflects practical globalisation, the net-working, the levels of social practices, pluralism,and ambivalence. The first line represents anational policy for cities; the second could bereferred to as an alternative global approach.

The line from the “state-policy on cities-urbanadministration” is one which must be divided inthe analysis into a political and an administra-tive aspect, so that the different parts can beinterrelated. The absence of flexibility in thisline to respond to new problems is usuallyattributed to the political element. However, theinevitable slowness of the administration inresponding to the changes of context shouldnot be underestimated. Politics are not alwaysable to gain a grasp of the customs of adminis-trations which were not elected, and which areoften organised in accordance with their ownarguments, and focus too strongly on manage-ment. This management is then directed moreat the elements and the structures which (will)determine the environment that people live in.


101

Not enough attention is paid to the peoplethemselves. Furthermore, there is also the verti-cal hierarchy of the administration. Both in theadministration and in politics, the division ofcompetences leads to parties defending theirown ‘territory’. Not only is there not enough pol-itics, there is not enough horizontal integration,and there is far too little project management.We consider that the governing role of theurban administration is very important in thisrespect: the strength and power to work on anintegrating policy through all these aspects, toinvolve many organisations and institutions inthe urban programmes and to control complexprocesses for the programmes. This requires the

urban administrations to apply this philosophyto their own services and organisation, and thatis not an obvious process either. We will returnto this in chapter 5.

The interpretation of policy along this first linealso means that politics must focus more onactivating ‘the people’ (the social partners, thepopulation) to manage the environment theylive in together. The modernist, planned, ‘scien-tific’, bureaucratic, ‘cold’ forms of administration,focusing on the management of dossiers, mustchange into a ‘warm’ relationship with the pop-ulation, based more on dialogue, research anddesign. The administration can then make use

U r b a n c h a ra c t e r

G l o b a l i s a t i o n(world)

C i v i lS o c i e t y

STATE

U r b a n p r o g ra m m e(urban debate)

Po p u l a t i o n

© Cosmopolis-Corijn - 2002

P O L I CY O N C ITI E S

U r b a n p o l i c y


102 of this in a network that is also connected tothe ‘world’ on the basis of an urban debate andan urban programme.

Civil society, the social partners, should not beseen as a single sector. It comprises all the non-governmental associations of people. Some ofthese are purely private organisations with pri-vate interests (companies, trade associations);others represent a general or higher interest. Inthis last group it is also possible to distinguishthe more traditional pressure groups, which onthe one hand, try to defend their interests byexerting an influence and lobbying, and on theother hand, the (new) social movements, whichtend to operate more by expressing the inter-ests of (parts of) the population. Therefore notall the movements involving the social partnersare obvious partners in a participatory democra-cy. The practice of an extended democracy willclarify the position of every party.

The category of ‘the population’ is also problem-atical in relation to the urban programme. In thefirst place, it is the most passive partner. Partici-pation is not an easy process, because most peo-ple of working age are overworked and focus onconsumerism and on their private life. Moreover,it is not only the inhabitants, but also the usersof the city who have their own interests. There-fore it is not easy to describe the ‘population con-cerned’ very accurately. Finally, the population is mainly approached as a client (as a privateinterested party), and not as a citizen (as a part-ner in determining the general interest). Mostcitizens do not have extensive experience ofactive citizenship. In most cases, the contributionof the population was and is mediated throughdifferent social partners. It is a matter of devel-oping new mechanisms to involve the popu-lation in drawing up an urban programme intheir capacity as citizens, and making them co-responsible. Chapters 4 and 5 are based on this.

There are two important elements. In the firstplace, the change in the starting point from aprivate interest to a general interest requires acertain degree of involvement. It is much moredifficult to arouse interest and a sense of soli-darity for distant problems. Therefore the easi-est transition from private interests to the gen-eral interest lies in areas close to everyday life. Ingeneral, this is the city, which is why decentrali-sation is so important: valorising the city as apolitical arena. However, sometimes the city isstill too large for intensive involvement. Peopledo not have enough grasp of their immediateenvironment. In this sense, the development ofan urban programme will have to take intoaccount the sustainable development of dis-tricts. The district also appears to be an appro-priate level for introducing participatory democ-racy. Obviously this emphasis should not beexclusive because people can be mobilised incountless ways, particularly in the city.

Secondly, social integration takes place throughprocesses of identification. Therefore an urbanprogramme also comprises an important imagi-nary and cultural aspect. It focuses on a futureidentification in which intercultural and hybridaspects emerge as creative incentives, in whichthe ‘urban character’ is expressed. After all,interculturalism should not be aimed at turningdifferent cultural traditions into a ‘uniform pic-ture’. Living together on the basis of differencesshould focus on a common future which candevelop on the basis of different backgrounds,but which is directed at the same shared publicspace. It is in this sense that we can refer to a‘city republic’ where the term ‘republic’ refers tothose supra-individual and supra-communityvalues that allow a society to exist on the basisof differences (Res Publica: a matter for thewhole of society).


104 The concept of ‘sustainable development’ is cen-tral in these values. The changes should be suchthat they do not put pressure either on the envi-ronment or on society or future generations. Theterm sustainable development indicates thesupport for processes of change. It also refers tointergenerational solidarity, to social solidarityand to the support of the environment. After all,the costs of certain developments have for toolong been passed onto others (economists referto this as ‘externalising costs’). However, in addi-tion to these objective aspects of sustainability,there is also the subjective social basis, withoutwhich sustainable development would remainno more than a technical parameter. Thereforewe believe that a participatory democracy is animportant element in a sustainable urban pro-gramme.

ConclusionA revolution in the urban policy

In this chapter we advocate a new vision for thecity. We look at apparently divergent develop-ments and placed them in a new context, basedon the ‘urban character’. The evolution of thecity should be encompassed in an urban pro-gramme, a general vision, a ‘big story’, whichcould be the start of a social and politicaldebate. Therefore the development of a visionrequires an urban debate: this is the way inwhich the discussions take place (see chapter 4).

This sort of programme will have to be achieved.It does not happen in the traditional plannedway, in which a sort of master plan is systemati-cally carried out in a bureaucratic way. It is achie-ved with concrete, living projects, related to theimmediate environment and objectives, andwith the more general urban dynamics in adynamic, planned process. This sort of vision ofproject-based development is also supported by

another policy framework for the city, given con-crete form in the grid city. It gathers togetherthe strength of politics and of a society of citi-zens. It must focus on an integrated and trans-parent policy.

Integration, combining forces and involving thepopulation are key concepts in both the urbanprogrammes and in the projects. They are notaimed at the harmonious integration of all thepossible aspects of the (grid) city. Within a com-plex reality such as the urban reality, every ima-ge of a comprehensive system is based on anillusion or – worse still – on the rejection of any-thing that does not fit. Freedom, unpredictabili-ty and individuality are basic conditions for ur-ban creativity, another key concept in the urbanprogramme. The urban character and a systemare only possible together to a certain degree.Therefore the urban programme argues for‘coordination’ and ‘open structures’. Coordi-nation gives access to the potential synergy thatis latently present in previously separate areas,functions, groups, events, ideas and capacities,but avoids any inhibitory coalition. Open struc-tures remove the totalitarian tendencies instructured thinking. They introduce the mini-mum necessary coherence, and serve to supportgreater coordination.

In every case, the touchstone is sustainabledevelopment. This means encouraging theurban dynamics which are not at the expenseof other subsystems. Developments in townand country planning and economic develop-ments particularly, as well as social and politicaldevelopments, must not be allowed to consti-tute a risk for society or the environment with-out any repercussions. They must be account-able for the effects on other systems, and thequality of our institutions must also beimproved in this sense. In short, the dynamicsof every subsystem must be conceived (and


105defined) in relation to the other subsystemsand the whole.

In this respect, three principles can serve as aguideline:a. Density: the city should profit as far as possi-

ble from the concept of density so that alarge range of services and activities have asufficiently large basis.

b. Diversity: the large range of cultures,lifestyles, activities and services provide thecity with the complexity it needs for dynamicsurvival.

c. Democracy: the development of greaterdemocracy based on more participation bythe population not only leads to greatersocial involvement and ‘conciliation’, but alsoto better and more transparent government.

We have given a greater insight into the way wepropose to transform the diagnosis in the firstchapter into policy choices, which will be dealtwith in the next chapter. Our starting points forthe other chapters have also been clarified. Inconclusion, we will summarise these below.

Society is going through a stage of thoroughchange, as part of a process of globalisation.This is leading to the accelerated urbanisationof the world, but also to a more urban mentali-ty. In this way, the city and the urban characterare becoming the centres for social and politicalreconstruction, and should be conceived as such.This requires a new political culture, in whichthe urban level becomes at least as importantas the other levels. In order to understand thisspecific urban level, we have used the term ‘gridcity’. This allows us to involve both the compactand the more diffuse aspects of urbancharacter, both large and medium-sized andsmall towns, and both built-up areas and openspaces in the analysis, and to look across exist-ing boundaries, plans and structures. An adapt-

ed policy must be based on an explicit visionwhich provides cohesion and choice within anextremely complex reality. This sort of visionmakes it possible to draw up a general pro-gramme for the city which can be achieved indifferent projects. This requires quite a fewadministrative changes. In the first place, theurban programme must be broadly supportedby a coalition of the administration, civil societyand citizens. Therefore the urban debate is acentral component in our vision of urbandynamics. This change in the vision requires a‘repoliticisation’ of society. Secondly, this sort ofurban programme must focus on sustainabledevelopment. The search for an urban pro-gramme which complies with the four ‘Ds’(durable sustainable development, density,diversity and democracy) is an ambitious chal-lenge at the beginning of this new century.


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3 Swyngedouw, E. (1992), “The Mammon Quest. Glocalisation,

interspatial competition and the monetary order: the con-

struction of new scales”, in: Dunford, M. and G. Kafkalas

(ed.), Cities and regions in the New Europe.

4 Sassen, S. (2000), The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo,

New York: Princeton University Press.

5 Corijn, E. ( 1999), “Kan de stad de wereld redden?”, in:

Nauwelaerts, M. (ed.): De toekomst van het verleden.

Reflecties over geschiedenis, stedelijkheid en musea,

Antwerp, Musea Antwerpen: pp. 85-103.

6 Corijn, E. and W. De Lannoy (ed.) (2000), De kwaliteit van

het verschil – La qualité de la différence, Brussels: VUB-

Press.

7 Lofland, L. (1998), The public realm. Exploring the city’s

quintessential social territory, New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

8 Oase (2000), Themanummer Netwerkstedenbouw, no. 53,

SUN: Nijmegen, 127 pp.

9 Borret, K. (2002), “Nevelstad-spotting: analyses vanuit con-

creet-ruimtelijke invalshoek”, in: Ruimte en Planning, 22, no.

3, p. 244; Asbeek Brusse, W., H. van Dalen and B. Wissink

(2002), Stad en land in een nieuwe geografie.

Maatschappelijke veranderingen en ruimtelijke dynamiek,

WRR, Sdu uitgevers: The Hague.

10 See, for example:

• Van der Knaap, G.A. (2002), Stedelijke bewegingsruimte.

Over veranderingen in stad en land, WRR, Sdu uitgevers:

The Hague.

• De Decker, P. (2001), “Moet de Vlaamse Gaai het RSV

lezen? Over duurzaamheid, sociale bijziendheid en een-

heidsdenken in de ruimtelijke planning”, in: Ruimte en

Planning, 21, no. 1, pp. 73-105.

• Denaeyer, W. (2001), “Mogelijkheden voor de bestrijding

van mobiliteitsproblemen. Een analyse van de

voorstellen tot verdichting van functies, rekeningrijden,

het internaliseren van externe effecten en telewerken”,

in: Ruimte en Planning, 21, no. 1, pp. 9-22.

• Reijndorp, A., V. Kompier, S. Metaal, I. Nio. and B.Truijens

(1998), Buitenwijk. Stedelijkheid op afstand, Nederlands

Architectuurinstituut: Rotterdam.

• De Geyter Xavier Architecten (2002), After-Sprawl, onderzoek

naar de hedendaagse stad, NAI Uitgevers: Rotterdam.

11 De Roo, N., F. De Rynck en S. Vandelannoote (1999), De stille

metamorfose van het Vlaamse platteland, Die Keure:

Bruges; Gullinck, H. (2002), Neo-rurality, lecture for the VRP,

Brussels.

12 Elchardus, M., L. Huyse and M. Hooghe (2000), Het

maatschappelijk middenveld in Vlaanderen. Een onderzoek

naar de sociale constructie van democratisch burgerschap,

Brussel: VUB-Press. On the new client network and cultural

fields in Flanders: Elchardus, M. and I. Glorieux (2002), De

symbolische samenleving. Een exploratie van de nieuwe

sociale en culturele ruimtes, Tielt: Lannoo.

13 See Blommaert, J., E. Corijn, M. Holthof and D. Lesage

(2003): “De ‘kwaliteit’ van de cultuur. Omtrent consumen-

tisme en verrechtsing”, in Momenten, vol. 2003, no. 7, Kunst

en Democratie, Brussels: pp. 3-12.

14 Huyse, L. (1987), De verzuiling voorbij, Kritak: Leuven.


107Chapter 2 introduced the urban programme: theway in which every city determines the contentof the policy on the basis of its own interpreta-tion of the principles of sustainable develop-ment, density, diversity and democracy. In thischapter we outline the main lines of the urbanprogrammes which are desirable. These are thedirections in which we would like to see urbanpolicy evolve in Flanders.

We link the analysis of chapter 1 to the princi-ples of chapter 2 and in this way come up with 6policy lines, which form the basis for urban poli-cy and for the urban programmes. For every linewe develop a number of fields to arrive at amore action-oriented level, and that is as far aswe go. The transformation into concrete opera-tional proposals must be drawn up for each city.These lines and fields provide a framework anda menu of choices which can serve as sugges-tions for the urban debate in every city. The pri-orities and the rate of the approach depend onthe diagnosis and on the vision for every city. Itis impossible to tackle everything at the sametime. Sometimes the legislation is the norm,sometimes a shorter or longer period is neededto develop the actions.

Our society and its problems are complex andtake less and less account of the distribution ofadministrative competences. Many problems inthe city involve several policy fields and manydifferent parties and sectors. Complex problemsand complex interrelationships in societyrequire an approach which transcends the tradi-tional policy areas and their set rules and proce-dures. Breaking through these rules and proce-dures is necessary to achieve cohesion. Weoppose a divided sectoral approach to the city.With an increasing level of complexity and anincreasing need for cohesion, this approachachieves fewer and fewer results. This should bethe innovative aspect of this chapter: thinking

on the basis of cohesion, and designing urbanprogrammes on the basis of the strength of theurban character.

6 lines:

Line 1 Glocal strategyLine 2 Coordination in town and country

planningLine 3 Qualitative densityLine 4 Innovative and creative strengthLine 5 Identity based on diversityLine 6 The city polis based on solidarity

Line 1Glocal strategy

Cities are not islands. Even in the past they werenot islands, and in a networked society thisapplies to an even lesser extent. We will exam-ine the coordination in the network society atdifferent geographical levels of scale. Thereforein this chapter we will look at the district andarea level, the level of the city and the urbanregion, the Flemish, European and global level,and the interrelationships between these levels.

The global economy and the development ofterritorial competition on a European and globalscale require the coordination of urban strate-gies, which should result in greater cooperationbetween cities. This can and must confront thiscompetition. The alternative is an escalatingcompetition between cities which will result innon-sustainable development. Developing thisstrategy in every city requires an open attitudeon the part of the city and its inhabitants(field 1). The specific characteristics of the cityand of the urban character in Flanders (a close

3 . T h e n e w u r b a n c h a ra c t e r , a m at t e r o f p o l i c y

3 . TH E N EW U R BA N C H A RAC TE R , A MAT TE R O F PO L I CY

108 network of cities) constitute a strategic advan-tage of Flemish cities (field 2). Building up astrong economic strategy is supported by theidentity of the city and a strong coalition whichinvolves all the population groups (field 3).

Field 1 An open attitude on the part of the city andits citizensThis field concerns the mentality and attitudes,moving away from closed citizens and theclosed city which fall back upon themselves. It isessential – but not easy – to translate this intohard action, because it is mainly a mentalprocess. The other lines and fields support thiscultural change.

Individual local administrations are fairly impo-tent in the global economy1. They are forced tocompete. The balance of power is distorted: thepolitical and socio-cultural networks no longerhave the same significance now as the economicnetworks. The global economy plays cities andregions off against each other; there are alwayswinners and losers, in Flanders, in Europe andglobally. Progress and ‘sustainable development’in one city are at the expense of other cities.Therefore it is not very sustainable2.

We argue for a strategy of alliances betweencities in Flanders, up to a world level. This is nec-essary to enter into and cope with a dialoguewith the economic actors. One of the conditionsfor this is to strengthen the cities at the level oftheir administration and their strategies: strongalliances can only work if the partners arestrong. In chapter 1 we indicated that the glob-al-local paradox means that for the urban strat-egy, globalisation is accompanied by an increas-ing importance of local socio-cultural networks.This means that an important element of thestrength is the openness of the urban adminis-tration, the openness of the important actors

and the openness of the inhabitants and usersof the city. The strategy and the attitude mustbe ‘open’, focused on networking at every level.This is not an obvious approach in a societywhich is sometimes characterised as one inwhich citizens close their windows. Thereforeencouraging this attitude as the basis for astrong strategic position must be carried downto the level of districts and areas and on thebasis of the social partners in their many differ-ent guises. This openness and mentality formthe socio-cultural capital of the city, essential asthe basis for a ‘glocal strategy’ in the city. It isjust as important, possibly even more importantthan the financial capital.

Field 2Strengthening the urban character in theFlemish urban networkFlanders is a network of medium-sized cites andsmall towns. Apart from Brussels (and eventhen only just), there are no cities in Flanderswith an international image. In the Europeancontext, even Antwerp and Ghent are mediumto small.

However, size does not say everything about thequalities of the city. With regard to someaspects, Flemish cities have a metropolitanimage. In Antwerp this applies for the port andfor diamonds as historical anchors, while fash-ion and culture are possible new beacons. Lesstraditional examples include the JewishMuseum van Deportatie en Verzet (Museum ofDeportation and Resistance) in Mechelen, thepresence of large companies, such as Ford, inGenk, strong football teams, and major sportingevents and festivals such as Rock Werchter (thisis a good example of the way in which urbanqualities operate in a grid city).

The city and the urban character never had acentral place in Flemish policy. This is explained


109by history (see chapter 1 and the box text inchapter 2). Occasionally the city has been theobject of an explicit policy, as in the case of theMunicipal Fund and the Urban Fund. However,these are relatively neutral funding instrumentswhich do not necessarily lead to strengtheningthe urban character. Town and country planningprovides a second focus. The Structural Plan forTown and Country Planning in Flanders incorpo-rates a differentiated policy for cities, focusing inparticular on strengthening the functions relat-ed to housing and work. However, convertingthese into programmes and budgets is stillfoundering in (many) plans, and there is a dan-ger of aiming for quantity in haste at theexpense of quality.

There are also a number of specific policy pro-grammes: the Mercurius programme tostrengthen the commercial inner city, Local JobCentres for supervising the progress of peopleinto work, attention to the cities of art in touristmarketing, urban programmes for problemareas in cities in the context of the EuropeanStructural Fund and investments in public trans-port and infrastructure in the context ofcovenants on mobility.

All this is very interesting, but is still rather hesi-tant, not very consistent, rather fragmented, dis-persed and above all, with little explicit supportfor investments in urban character.Nevertheless, this is necessary to serve and passon the new impulses from global networking.This global interconnection must be reflected ata sufficiently high level of urban development.In other words, this means that if a city has toachieve a particular urban character, it providesadded value for the global urban network. Citieswhich have focused on a specific niche (port,tourism, European capital, financial centre, etc.)can create this metropolitan image and join theforum of international cities. Flemish cities and

Brussels will probably never climb the highestrungs on the ladder of cities. These are taken upby the really big players such as London, Paris,New York and Tokyo.

The basis for the strategy in Flanders should beto create a metropolitan image on the basis ofits very characteristic network of large cities andsmall towns. This network is a specific charac-teristic of Flanders which is not sufficientlyexploited as a strength: there is a lot of city inlittle space, many different types of city closetogether, with good connections. Strengtheningthe strong points in an urban network or gridcan become an important advantage and anelement of the strategy. We have summarised anumber of examples of some of the cities inFlanders which could already achieve a metro-politan image for particular niches, but it isimprobable, and we do not consider it necessarythat every city in Flanders could or should do sofor every aspect. The urban policy and the sup-porting policy on cities could focus on strength-ening aspects for specific cities. The aspirationscan be higher for Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent.For example, for certain aspects such as culture,large cities and small towns can achieve a moreambitious urban character as part of a network.Therefore it is a matter for each city to find nich-es and work together to achieve a critical densi-ty and appropriate scale for its urban character.Cooperation with Brussels is absolutely essen-tial. In Flanders it is the closest thing to a bigcity, and there is already important interactionat the social, economic and cultural level.Therefore there are communities of interest inthis large city which can only be strengthenedby actively responding to them. This can beachieved in the context of urban regions, or atthe level of cooperation between Flemish citiesand Brussels. This cooperation will thereforealso be discussed in chapter 5.


110 Field 3A comprehensive economic profileIn this field we focus on the economic develop-ment of our cities, at the heart of their strategicposition. In our view, it is essential for every cityto develop its own strategy on the basis of itsown economic urban profile, not in the tradi-tional sense, a constant increase in infrastruc-ture, but on the basis of the strengths of thecities: the diversity, the density, the cohesion inthe city, the creativity in the city and on thebasis of the potential of citizens and organisa-tions. We describe this as a comprehensiveprofile, because it is based on a broad coalition,must be part of the socio-cultural capital of thecity and make use of every type of meaningfullabour. The profile and the coalition can only becredible in a strategy if they are supported by abroad interpretation of solidarity. We return tothis part of the comprehensive urban economicpolicy in field 17.

The city has an important economic function.Depending on the definition, the city accountsfor 47-81% of the economy in Flanders andBrussels (see box text, pp. 44-45).

In the future, the central city will undoubtedlycontinue to play an important role. However, thequestion is what relation it will have with otherpaces in the grid city. After all, importantrestructuring is taking place involving industrythat requires space and generates mobility, serv-ices and trade, which are moving away from thecity, while the city continues to attract a wholerange of services. This restructuring is actuallyaccompanied by economic expansion, althoughat the same time the central city is being erod-ed.3

The dynamics in economic developmentincreasingly take place in the service sector withthe development of an information and service

society. Therefore the fact that urban strategiesfocus on information-intensive activities corre-sponds with the current economic evolution,but entails a risk of an ever-increasing mismatchbetween supply and demand on the employ-ment market.

Urban dynamics are strongly related to thecapacity to continue to attract and generate thiseconomic development. This is, in turn, depend-ent on the cultural profile the city can build up.The dominant consumer culture means that‘just-in-time niche production’ is an importanteconomic motor. It is stimulated by very diverseand dynamic developments in lifestyles and inthe expressive value of consumerism. The urbancharacter serves as the frame of reference forthis sort of expression.

Bearing these dangers and possibilities in mind,we refer to a ‘comprehensive economic urbanpolicy’. We will look at some of the different ele-ments of this description below.

It is an urban policy because the city itself sup-ports and develops it. Many aspects of theurban economy are too different to be con-tained in a generic policy: the specific character-istics of the economic portfolio, the local net-works and the local connections with the globaleconomy, the divisions in the employment mar-ket, the planning of the urban fabric, the defi-nition of urban enterprise. Therefore all thesemust be combined in a specific local coalition.This means that the emphases on the participa-tion of the inhabitants and users of the city andof the economic role of the different parts ofthe grid city are very important. A central aspectof this strategy concerns defining and develop-ing both traditional economic attractions andurban economic niches, such as the caring sec-tor and other personal and collective services.


111It is a comprehensive policy because it is notonly the economic parties and a high earning‘glocal’ elite that take up the challenge. Thewhole socio-cultural capital available in the cityis also used as economic capital. Involving everylayer of the divided employment market and allthe districts in the divided city in this process isan important challenge. It results in a vision ofthe city related to ethical and ethnic enterprise,the position of regular employment and theplace of other socially useful activities as theengine of integration in the city and in society. Itis an exceptional and by no means self-evidentchallenge for the market economy in the city todemonstrate at the urban level that it can pro-vide a cohesive social fabric and feels co-respon-sible for this. This is not a matter of philanthro-py or ‘good works’: the success of the economicstrategy depends on it.

Finally, it is a strong policy because the involve-ment of all the parties in the city can bringabout an economic model of the city based onparticipatory democracy: a necessary compo-nent of the new city republic. The developmentof a strong economic urban policy is a gradualprocess which takes place in stages, in which allthe building bricks can be achieved by means ofeconomic urban projects (see chapter 4). With astrong urban policy, the town council can oper-ate in urban alliances with other town councilsin Flanders and Europe. In this way, the urbanalliances will gradually develop towards thesame level of scale as the global network econo-my. They will no longer be set against eachother so easily (also see field 1).

Finally, it is important to be receptive to newdevelopments in the current global networkeconomy. Urban antennae are needed to receivethese signals. This does not mean that every citywill now have to organise economic missions todistant cities, but it does mean the development

of forums at the Flemish and European level,where a learning community of cities can be setup on the basis of an exchange of ideas.

s u m m a r y

1. Focus the urban policy on the creation ofconditions to ensure that the inhabitantsand users of the city become citizens with anopen attitude, from the level of the district tothe world.

2. Being strong as a city means strengtheningthe city as an organisation and administra-tion, and preventing this reinforcement fromallowing the city to withdraw into itself.

3. Focus the strategy on alliances with (Flemishand European) cities, including Brussels, toachieve a stronger position in the worldwidecompetition.

4. Incorporate the strategy of the city in thecharacteristic network of (large) cities inFlanders and Brussels, respond to aspects ofthe metropolitan image, and find the correctscale to achieve a metropolitan image incooperation with other cities.

5. Present the economic niches of the city, con-centrate on information- intensive activities,and make the city a breeding place for localeconomic initiatives. Anchor the economicstrategy in the socio-cultural capital of thecity, work on a broad coalition and view soli-darity as the core of the economic strategy(see line 6).

Line 2Coordination in town and country planning

We will look in more detail at strengthening thecoordination of town and country planning in


112 the grid cities. The explanation of this term canbe found in chapter 1, and particularly in chapter2. We propose developing the strategy in the fol-lowing fields: concrete projects focusing oncooperation (field 4), the modification of theregional images and of the steering instrumentsin the policy for town and country planning(field 5), and the active use of the connectingfunction which transport structures and ecolog-ical infrastructures can fulfil between parts ofthe grid city (field six).

Field 4Strengthen coordination with cooperation We described the causes and effects of the dis-persed city (suburbanisation) in chapters 1 and2: the demographic development, the increasein incomes, increased mobility, the search forsuitable housing and the real or perceived lackof good housing alternatives in the city. Manypeople who live around the central city turnaway from the city, even though they arestrongly dependent on it for their economic sit-uation. For many people the city is an object touse (for education, shopping, culture, etc.). Theseinteractions form part of daily life and are visi-ble in terms of planning in the structure of thecity. The consequences are not alwaysfavourable for the central city: jobs are taken upby commuters, and it is particularly the inhabi-tants of the city with a low level of educationwho remain on the sidelines. The peripherybecomes richer, the city becomes poorer, and theinhabitants of the city foot the bill.

Suburbanisation also creates pressure on thecity as an economic centre. Some of the pur-chasing power disappears with the inhabitantsand moves to the shopping infrastructure inother districts and areas (which has a socialfunction as well as an economic function). Thecity and its periphery compete to attract neweconomic activities. Unwise developments on

the edge of the city increases problems ofmobility, which has the perverse effect thateven more distant locations are chosen.

The development and discussion of costs andreturns is complex and endless. To us it is a basicfact that the city and its periphery cannot dowithout each other. The periphery needs the cityevery day, but the city also needs the peripheryto be able to function as a city. Commuters andother users provide an economic basis.

The contrast between the actual interactionsand the objective alliance on the one hand, andthe mental patterns and subjective resistanceson the other hand, is much too great. The exist-ing policy frameworks now tend to strengthenthis mental schism by placing a great deal ofemphasis on the administrative and politicalboundaries between the city and the peripheralmunicipalities. Attempts to break this down arestill weak.

The term ‘grid city’ is essential to us because wewould like to use it to break down the ideologyof divided worlds. The image of the grid cityautomatically gives rise to projects between thecity and the periphery. After all, it is an imagewhich makes it possible to understand theinteraction between the city and the peripheryand to involve the users of the city in the cityitself. We argue for concrete initiatives in thegrid city, supported by the active involvement ofand dialogue between the inhabitants andusers of the city. These win-win initiatives mustmake groups with common interests in the gridcity a tangible factor.

In line 1, we advocated the development ofurban alliances on Flemish, European and globalscales. It makes sense to begin with thesealliances on our own doorstep. This should hap-pen in the context of the grid, between the city


114 and the periphery and between (not necessarilyadjacent) municipalities. This should lead to net-works related to particular areas which focus onconcluding agreements, on common objectivesor the joint management of certain parts of thegrid. Examples which spring to mind include:• projects related to regional urban mobility;• cooperation in the field of culture;• programmes on housing and the balanced dis-

tribution of social housing;• networking between services in the welfare

sector;• a joint approach to tourism and the recre-

ational infrastructure;• drawing up coherent plans in the field of town

and country planning and projects related tohousing and working;

• agreements on the development of planningand the economy;

• the joint organisation of events related tosport, culture, art, music, etc.

This will not happen automatically. We argue fornew forms of cooperation and frameworks fornegotiation. In chapter 5, we indicate that theGovernment of Flanders has an importantresponsibility in this respect in the context of itsurban policy.

Field 5A policy corresponding to the grid cityThe grid city makes it possible to represent thecontemporary dispersed city and plan the physi-cal and functional space. To achieve this the dif-ferent elements of the grid city must serve as astarting point (centres, meshes, lines, windows,green fields and urban rooms). However, thecharacteristics of these elements overlap, mergetogether and interact. In fact, we see that theFlemish physical space contains both openspaces in the city, as well as urbanised areas inthe countryside. In many cases characteristicsdevelop from this interaction. In the grid city,

exclusive territories which exist on their ownand are meaningful only in their own terms, arequite exceptional.

We want to avoid the overlaps and interactionsfrom undermining the individual character ofthese physical spaces. Therefore their identitymust be strengthened. This identity can be of asocial, economic or cultural nature, or can berelated to town and country planning. Strength-ening the components of the grid city providespoints of contact for new functional interac-tions. For us, the strengthened components andstrengthened interactions serve as a startingpoint for a coherent urban and rural policy in thegrid city. We do not see the city and the country-side as separate entities, but the countryside inthe city and the city in the countryside.

The current policy on town and country plan-ning is based on a division between windows ofopen spaces and urban areas. This division isexternalised in a boundary around the morpho-logical urban area. It corresponds more with theidea of exclusive territories and divided worlds,and would lead to a policy for urban regions anda policy for regions outside. In the current policysituation this approach would increase thechances that the existing physical interaction isignored, even if this probably is not the inten-tion of the designers of this policy. It could alsoincrease the mechanism of passing the buck(the city must be even fuller, the countrysideeven emptier). We consider that this ignores thedispersed city and the physical interactions inthe grid city. Denying reality is never a goodstarting point for future policy. The concept ofthe grid city is incorporated in this reality and isdeveloped on the basis of the existing interac-tions, not to create a single, identical, grey,blurred Flanders, but to increase the social, cul-tural and economic character of built-up andopen spaces.


115The image of an area which dominates townand country planning should therefore be moreopen than the boundary dividing the city andthe outside area. However, the instruments forcontrolling town and country planning in thisgrid are still largely lacking. At the end of thischapter (see field 19) we look at a reallocation ofthe money from taxes which are important forthis. For several decades, policy texts have hadgreat expectations with regard to the policy onland and premises as a powerful steering instru-ment. The Structural Plan for Town and CountryPlanning in Flanders also deals with this, andthere is a decree which forms the basis for this.

However, in order to have an effect on the realestate market, the government has to haveaccess to significant funds and a large stock ofland and premises. No work has been done onthis for decades. It is not possible simply toremove this historical debt now, just like that. Infact, things are actually evolving the other way:the private real estate sector (private developersand real estate companies) is probably the driv-ing force behind the movements in the marketfor land and premises in the grid city, even morethan in the past. Furthermore, it is still mainlythe federal government which can control mat-ters to some extent with contributions fromtaxation. The rhetoric of a strong governmentwith a policy on land and premises should beremoved from the debate. The policy on land isnecessary, above all, with regard to town andcountry planning, based on the management ofthe land available. For the policy on premises,we need different formulae and differentemphases. As the rental market is particularlyan urban phenomenon, this search for otherpaths will have to devote much more attentionto controlling the rental market, both for publicand for private rental housing (see line 3).

In the management of the availability of landand in the policy on premises, there is a roleboth for government and for the private sector.This role can vary from area to area. As regardsthe government, the roles particularly concernregulating the market (price/quality control),forms of public-private partnership, and actingas a director between the actors in the housingmarket in a particular area (at district level or ina regional urban context). The role of the privatesector lies in this context. In this way, the sectorcan help to achieve the policy objectives.

The grid city and public-private partnershipmust result in the joint management of spaceby councils, inhabitants and users. The conceptof the grid city guards against one-way traffic:after all, the users of the city participate in thecity, and the inhabitants of the city participatein the periphery and the countryside. Thereforereal estate actions and new functions shouldtake place on the basis of dialogue at the levelof the grid city. This will not happen without afew setbacks; it is a politically delicate matterand therefore significant conflicts are to beexpected. For example, there is no point in thecity developing programmes to attract familieswith children, if new land becomes available forhousing in other parts of the grid city in anunrestrained way. In chapter 5, we defend theidea that providing these sorts of steeringframeworks at the level of the grid city is one ofthe key tasks of the Government of Flanders.

Field 6Connections with (infra)structuresA good physical infrastructure strengthens thedevelopment of multiple urban structures.However, current policy devotes attention main-ly to ‘centre to centre’ connections between thecentral hubs of large urban entities. This atten-


116 tion should move to connections between coresin the grid city. After all, these types of connec-tions (technically: tangential connections) pro-vide physical and spatial support for the rela-tionships between parts of the grid city. 4 In thecurrent policy on mobility, the grid city is insuffi-ciently used as a starting point. Using it in thisway to a greater extent would, on the one hand,mean implementing a policy which strength-ened the hub with an emphasis on the organi-sation of mobility based on public transport,while on the other hand, it would mean includ-ing important housing and work locations out-side those hubs in the system of public trans-port. One example of a missed opportunity isthe Regional Express Network (GEN), whichshould make Brussels more accessible. In ourview, the GEN is too narrowly focused on com-muter traffic to the centre of Brussels, whilethere is a need and demand for many cross-con-nections between urban centres in the grid city.5

Transport infrastructures and the best possibleuse of the different modes of transport on theseinfrastructures form the background of the poli-cy on mobility. In the current situation regardingmobility, individual transport still pays a majorrole. This also applies for the user of the city,who is therefore part of the cause of the insolu-ble mobility problems. The fact that the inhabi-tants of the city also make use of a car all toooften, even for short distances (partly becauseof the absence safe alternatives), completes thisvicious circle. We do see a limited reversal as aresult of the active promotion of collectivetransport.

Undoubtedly we will have to invest in mobilitywhich benefits both the inhabitants and theusers of the city to develop the grid city, and ininfrastructural networks which will improve thelines of communication between the differentparts of the city.

The so-called blue (water) and green (nature)networks are also supporting structures con-necting different parts of the grid city. They havegreat potential because these structures arealso gradually becoming a matter of public con-cern and are on the political agenda. Thereforethey are extremely suitable for determining thecontent of the grid city in the short term.

The connecting function of green and blue net-works has acquired an important place in thepolicy on town and country planning since theintroduction of the Structural Plan for Town andCountry Planning in Flanders. The physical sys-tem for the structure of town and country plan-ning (blue and green structures, etc.) thereforeacquires an important place in the plans of thedifferent administrative levels. The area-orient-ed approach means that integration is possibleat controllable levels of scale, and it is importantto respond to this in a powerful way. The regu-larly recurring problems of flooding and excesswater have taught us that natural structuresand the landscape ‘naturally’ demand their ownplace in the grid.

s u m m a r y

6. Avoid strengthening the disastrous ideologyof separate worlds between the city and theperiphery. Look at the city and the peripherytogether and manage them together; see allthe parts of the city as coordinating ele-ments in the grid city. Always focus on thiscoordination.

7. Actively work to establish platforms wherethe inhabitants and users of the city can par-ticipate in the city together, and use theseplatforms to create instruments which focuson cooperation.

8. Give priority to projects in a regional urbancontext, invest in them and focus on actions,


117dynamic social movement and not on admin-istrative boundaries.

9. Stop using the words ‘city’ and ‘countryside’.Proceed on the basis of the combination andoverlapping of these terms, not on the basisof exclusive territories. It is only in this waythat it will be possible to develop a coherenturban and rural policy in the Flemish context.

10. Increase the individual character of built-upand open spaces, and on the basis of thischaracter develop platforms for cooperationand frameworks for negotiation for the jointmanagement of the space and for the policyon land.

11. An effective policy on land and premises canno longer be implemented in Flanders with-out the strong involvement of the privatesector. For the policy on premises, concen-trate on professional public-private partner-ship at the level of the grid city.

12. Make use of the political revolution in ideason mobility and ecology to highlight the real-ity of the grid city, and to turn transport in-frastructures and blue and green (infra)struc-tures into supports for a coherent policy ontown and country planning in the grid city.

13. Work on priority actions for investments inmobility, both between city districts andbetween other parts of the grid city whichbenefit the inhabitants and users of the city.

Line 3Qualitative density

Density and proximity distinguish the city fromnon-urban areas. A strategy of urban policy willhave to choose very strongly for the quality ofdensity and proximity. In the most generalsense, this concerns the quality of the urbanspace, devoting attention to the public space,housing and ecological management.

Public spaces make the city recognisable forinhabitants and users. Density is only sustain-able if there are sufficient public spaces and ifwe take their quality and safety into account(field 7).

Sustainable density requires a strategy of devel-opment which takes into account the supportprovided by spaces and inhabitants. We opt fora differentiated management of density,because the housing density differs from city tocity and from district to district (field 8).

The housing policy is a crucial lever. In the citiesthis means that the rental sector must be a highquality housing sector (field 9).

Finally, density requires a viable and green envi-ronment. This supports the actions in the otherfields. It is an essential part of the housing poli-cy, of a sensible development of density and ofgood quality public spaces (field 10).

Field 7More, high quality and safe public spacesThe city is the background of public life. In chap-ter 1, we described the different forms of publicand semi-public spaces. The public city is both abackground and the forum for contacts, andthere are many transitions between public andprivate spaces.

We have seen that there is an increase in pri-vatisation, that public spaces are being erodedand have lost a great deal of their significance.We are still failing to return the space sufficient-ly to the public in the city. There are various rea-sons for this, including the dominant position ofspace for traffic, the actual and subjectively per-ceived lack of safety, and a general lack of quali-ty. However, we did note that all the cities aremaking efforts to make public spaces physicallymore attractive and more accessible.


118 Nevertheless, this is often limited to the centralparts of the grid city and the commercial areas(pedestrianised shopping streets).

We propose an action programme for every cityto take back the public spaces, and in this wayencourage the use of public spaces. The trendtowards increasing privatisation must be stop-ped. This is not an appeal to get everybody stan-ding by his or her own front door on the pave-ment, as in the past. However, we are convincedthat public spaces serve as a catalyst for newurban relationships. When they no longer fulfilthis role, we can no longer really talk of a city.

We will deal only superficially with the concreteorganisation and management. A great deal hasalready been written about this in other publi-cations.6 A creative approach to public and semi-public spaces with town and country planningor the urban design. For larger projects in partic-ular, the quality of the planning and processesare essential. The governing role of the towncouncil must become much more powerful (seechapter 5). The use of high quality, sustainablematerials is important for the construction ofpublic spaces. This increases the slow characterof the space and means that spaces acquire acharacter for a longer period. We also argue formore space for temporary projects. Examplesinclude artistic projects and events in publicspaces.

We advocate that safety should become an inte-gral element in the management of publicspaces. The sensible construction of publicspaces certainly plays a role in this. However,regaining control of public space cannot beachieved at the design stage alone, and is notan action on the part of the government on itsown. It must take place with cooperation andnetworking, obviously also involving the police.In our vision, a community- based police,

together with citizens and the social partnersare jointly responsible for the management ofpublic and semi-public spaces. This entails theaccountability of citizens, which can start withsmall things (dog owners who walk their dogsand who leave the public space clean, groups ofyoung people who open up ‘their part’ of thepublic space to others, home owners who sweepthe pavement in front of their houses, etc.). Infact, this accountability is also an importantaspect of solidarity in the city.

A large proportion of public space is commercialspace (pavement cafés, café terraces, markets,etc.). These centres have a dominant position,particularly in the centres of the grid city. Webelieve that this commercialisation can serve asa source of new social contacts and new urbanconnections, and can certainly also help toimprove the quality of town and country plan-ning, which is lacking to an important extentnowadays. Examples include, in particular,small-scale projects such as a café that providesroom for community artists (e.g., theWentelsteen in Leuven) or a company whichopens up its car parks to residents of the areaand children during the weekend (such as Agfa-Gevaert in Mortsel).

Field 8 Invest in high quality urban housingThe process of urbanisation is a worldwide phe-nomenon and urban housing is also very impor-tant in Flanders and Brussels. Depending on thedefinition used, 7 the urban population variesfrom 32% of the total population (only the bigcity) to 87% (every category of urban housing).Even when it is limited to small towns, 65% ofthe Flemish population is still ‘urban’ (for all thefigures, see box text page 30).

Obviously these figures conceal a number oftransformations. On the one hand, there is the


119Re d u c t i o n i n fa m i l y s i z e

The reduction in family size is an important element in demographic development. It is well known that on aver-age families are becoming smaller and smaller. However, there appear to be big differences between towns andcities and the rest of Flanders, and also between towns and cities themselves.In comparison with the rest of Flanders, families with children are hugely underrepresented in the city. Conversely,single people and couples without children are strongly over-represented in the city. The graph below confirms thissituation.

Bron: NIS 2001

The process of the reduction in family size continued significantly during the period 1981-2001. For example, thegroup of single people increased in Flanders during that period by an average of 48%. The leading towns areHasselt (69%), Turnhout (+64%) and Kortrijk (+61%). In Brussels, where the reduction in family size was alreadystrongest, the growth in the group of single people was slightly smaller (+20%).1 Experts expect that in future thisprocess of reducing family sizes will continue. The graph for 2001 shows 34% of single people in Mechelen, 33% ofcouples without children and 33% of couples with children. By 2007 it is expected that there will be 40% of singlepeople, 32% of couples without children and 28% of couples with children in that town. An important element inthis is that there will be a strong increase in the number of older people at the same time as the continuing reduc-tion in family sizes. 2––––––––––1 In other words, the process of the reduction in family size has the strongest effects where it had progressed least.

2 SEnvironment Study Group, 2002,. Preliminary draft of zoning plan for the regional urban area of Mechelen, commissioned by

Arohm-ARP.

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

brussels

antwer

p

leuven

ostend

ghent

mechelen

turnhout

kortrijk

wallonia

brugges

belgium

hasselt

aalst

sint-n

iklaas

flander

s

roeselare

restof fla

nders

genk

Couple with children

Couple without children Single person

Types of family 2001


120 demographic transformation (ever smaller fami-lies and the ageing population, see box text onthe next page), which is taking place at an evenfaster rate in the cities. This transformationleads to a different demand for housing in thecity and in the periphery. On the other hand,there are also selective migrations between thecity and the periphery, 8 with a negative balancefor Belgian residents and a positive balance forresidents of foreign origin. This leads to a creep-ing change in the composition of the urbanpopulation. In Antwerp more than one in fiveinhabitants is already of immigrant origin. Initself this is not a problem, but it does become aproblem when it is accompanied by increaseddivisions as a result of economic shifts, and byan increased concentration of housing, often inthe nineteenth-century ring. Suburbanisationand the increased divisions in the city thereforego hand-in-hand.

The lack of quality housing in the city partlyexplains these developments. Furthermore, theevolutions that were outlined aggravate theproblem. The quality of urban housing cannotbe sufficiently exploited when choosing a placeto live. In fact, the opposite applies, and living inthe city is too often seen as a transitional situa-tion (as a student, young family, single person,etc.). Once the family situation and/or incomeallow it, people look for quality somewhere elsein the grid city. This factor also often has a nega-tive influence on the quality of the housingstock in the central city, giving rise to a viciouscircle. The city itself depends too much on thenineteenth-century and early twentieth-centuryhousing. We cannot really see the ‘fermettes’(small farmhouses) as a new urban quality.Social housing has also fallen behind.

It has been the case for quite a while that livingin the city will have to provide more quality tobecome attractive. At the moment, there is no

real housing policy in the sense of a large-scalecollective policy on housing and the environ-ment, focusing on high quality urban housing.Occasionally there are some interesting projects,particularly on a small scale, and strategies havebeen announced to increase density by definingurban plans in the context of town and countryplanning. However, we very much doubtwhether sufficient account has been taken ofthe problems of the quality of the current hous-ing stock or the potential of the current urbanspaces and inhabitants. It should not be thecase that the already threatened viability of thecity comes under even greater pressure as aresult of an increased concentration of housingand infrastructure in the city, accompanied by areduction of public and green areas.

Furthermore, there are some specific policy ini-tiatives, such as the successive urban renovationinitiatives and the tax measures for new build-ings. However, the city is only one of the targetgroups in the plans. Inhabitants or entitieswhich comply with the criteria which areimposed are eligible, irrespective of whether ornot they are in an urban environment. Further-more, the policy still does not provide a solutionfor the demographic changes in the city.

In our opinion, quality, affordability and a morecomprehensive social justice should have a cen-tral place in the management of density.Furthermore, the environment clearly plays apart in the housing policy because (the lack of)quality of the environment explains why fami-lies with children, and in general, the moreaffluent inhabitants, are leaving the city. Notyet enough experiments have been carried out,there is not enough research, there are notenough data, and not enough money is investedin contemporary housing.


H o u s i n g

With 72% of housing in privateownership, it might be thoughtthat in principle there are few or noproblems with regard to renting inFlanders. After all, the sense ofsecurity this provides means thathome ownership has an importantplace on the agenda in Flanders. Incomparison with the surrounding countries, Flanders also scores highly in this respect. The very low score for socialrenting, at least in comparison with private renting, is also characteristic. With 43% of social renting, theNetherlands has the highest score. The United Kingdom also has a high percentage, with 24%.

However, moving the focus tourban housing, this reveals verydifferent ratios. The share of therental market in towns and cities ismuch higher than in other placesin Flanders. Brussels comes top ofthe list, with a proportion of 60%of rental housing, followed byAntwerp (53%) and Ghent (51%).The high proportion of rentalhousing is related, amongst otherthings, to the reduction in familysize, which is much stronger intowns and cities than in the rest ofFlanders. This means that there isa larger proportion of buildingswith multiple occupancy (apart-ments). In Brussels, no less than72% of the housing consists ofapartments. In Antwerp andGhent the proportion of apart-ments is also above 50%. In theother towns and cities the propor-tion of housing for family homes issignificantly above 50%. In Flan-ders as a whole, 80% of houses arefamily homes.

Belgium Flanders The Netherlands France Great Britain Owner 66 72 48 56 68Social tenant 8 6 43 16 24Private tenant 22 19 8 23 7Free housing 4 3 1 5 2Total 100 100 100 100 100

Source: Dewilde and De Keulenaer, 2002: 103

The ratio of owned/rented housing in 1991100

80

60

40

20

0

brussels

antwer

pghen

t

ostend

leuven

mechelen

turnhout

bruges

sint-n

iklaasgen

k

kortrijk

roeselare

hasselt

other

municipalit

iesaalst

flander

s

Rented Owned Unknown

38 46 47 48 54 59 60 60 63 64 65 66 67 69 74 68

60 53 51 50 44 40 39 38 37 34 33 32 32 29 25 30

The ratio of apartments/family houses in 2001100

80

60

40

20

0

brussels

antwer

p

ostend

leuven

ghent

turnhout

mechelen

hasselt

genk

sint-n

iklaas

bruggeaalst

kortrijk

flander

s

roeselare

Apartment Family house

28 39 44 60 64 68 70 70 73 74 79 81 81 84 80

72 61 56 40 36 32 30 30 27 26 21 19 19 16 20

Source: NIS census 1991, author’s presentation.1

Source: NIS census 1991, author’s presentation.––––––––––1 No figures for the 2001 census are available yet.


122 As for large projects in public spaces, we advo-cate concentrating on a quality in the planningand processes involved in large housing projectsin order to achieve a high quality. Although theneed for this is recognised more generally, it isstill a basic problem. In our view, the town coun-cil should take the lead in this and strengthenits capacity with regard to directing the processas a whole.

In some parts of the city, a selective demolitionstrategy will be needed, involving the demoli-tion of poor housing and houses which are toosmall. The construction of new (larger) houses,as well as the organisation of new multifunc-tional spaces (playgrounds, meeting areas, etc.)will also be necessary. Therefore open spacesand strategies for green spaces are an integralpart of density management.

Common provisions form part of the policy onthe environment in residential areas. They canincrease social cohesion and provide a solutionfor lack of space and the limited resources ofsome inhabitants: a common transport plan fora street or district, common garages, childcarecentres and support for the organisation ofchildcare for the street or district, etc. Manytypes of initiatives by citizens contribute to anenvironment that is attractive to live in (also seechapter 5). Therefore it is not merely a matter ofbricks and mortar and green spaces.

Field 9Implement an active housing policyIn the last field, the aspects relating to the qual-ity of urban housing were central. However, ahousing policy is about more than quality alone.Ultimately it concerns the right to affordableand good quality housing, and this combinationis a problem in our cities. To outline the wholehousing problem and all the aspects of a hous-ing policy here is beyond the aim of this chapter.

However, we will discuss the position of therental sector, because this specifically urbanaspect has been neglected for a long time. Forthe figures given in this field, reference is madeto the figures on the housing situation in citieson page 121.

With 72% of houses privately owned, it wouldseem that in Flanders there can be little or noproblem with regard to renting. After all, theFlemish people see their home as their castle,which means that the acquisition of propertyhas a high priority in Flanders. In comparisonwith surrounding countries, Flanders also scoreshigh in this field. Another characteristic aspectis the extremely low score for social housing,particularly in relation to private rents. TheNetherlands has the highest score in thisrespect with 43%. In the United Kingdom thescore is also high, at 24%.

However, moving the focus to urban housingreveals very different relationships. The share ofthe rental market in the city is significantlyhigher than elsewhere in Flanders. Brusselscomes at the top with a share of 60% of rentalhousing, followed by Antwerp (53%) and Ghent(51%). This high proportion of rental housing isrelated, amongst other things, to the decliningsize of families, which is much more significantin the city than in the rest of Flanders. Thisexplains a larger proportion of multiple familyoccupancy (apartments).

The Flemish housing policy was traditionallystrongly focused on home acquisition, andbecause of suburbanisation is actually a non-urban policy. The rental policy comes off verybadly. The social rental sector in particular hasbeen at a consistently low level for the lasttwenty years, despite a number of policy efforts(such as Vlabinvest and Domus Flandria).Furthermore, the promised efforts to improve


123this matter with 15,000 extra social housingunits during the 2000-2004 period of legisla-tion will not change this situation to a greatextent. The measures planned for 2003 (easieracquisition of social housing by sitting tenants)mean that the situation is in danger of becom-ing even more desperate than it is already andtherefore extending the waiting times. 9

There are also questions with regard to theposition and quality of private rental housingand the policy on it. In the various polls,Flanders has consistently revealed that thereare 300,000 poor, mainly private, rentalhomes.10 Therefore the situation is not improv-ing. These houses are rented out at prices thatare too high, mainly to poor, weak and vulnera-ble inhabitants. This rental income is not thenreinvested, and is inadequate anyway to raisethe standard of the private rental housingstock. One of the important problems in thisrespect is that the most effective instrumentsare at the federal level (legislation on rentalproperties, and the policy on rental prices). Butit does not stop there: the instruments whichcould be used at the Flemish level on the basisof the Flemish Housing Code are not used (forexample, relating to basic health, safety andhousing quality requirements for every house,i.e., including private rental houses). There aregood Flemish policy frameworks, but they arenot actually enforced, and therefore there is no will to implement policy. The cities are the victims of this.

In order to implement a coherent urban policy,it is necessary that the Flemish Region and theBrussels Region have access to all the instru-ments, including a say in the legislation on pri-vate rental housing. This has nothing to do withblind regionalisation, but is entirely concernedwith the need to employ a sound range ofinstruments for the urban policy at the same

time, and in the context of an integrated hous-ing policy.

We are convinced that a housing policy which ismainly focused on the acquisition of propertyhas missed its goal to a large extent, becausewe believe that a large proportion of the acqui-sition of property concerned would also takeplace without this intervention. After deductingthe housing cost, the owner can maintain hisincome at a (fixed) level, but this is not the casefor the tenant.11 Therefore, purely for reasons offairness, and above all, for a strong urban policy,it is necessary for the housing policy to dealwith the rental sector as a sector that is impor-tant in its own right, and for the cash flows tobe directed more towards the rental sector.Otherwise, the right to good quality (urban)housing will remain a distant dream for manyfamilies.

The quality of a great deal of private rentalhousing is appalling. Therefore the governmentmust use instruments which ensure that rent-ing is dependent on minimum housing quali-ties. It should be possible for the landlord tokeep the quality of his house(s) at a good stan-dard with the rent he receives. Therefore, it isdesirable to involve landlords in the housingpolicy.

The small number of social housing units in Flan-ders and the long waiting lists clearly indicatethat there is a demand for greater efforts in thisfield. These efforts have a place in the town andcountry planning in the grid city: social housingcan be incorporated in the grid in several places.In the cities itself, projects for social housingshould replace the poorest houses in the areaswith the greatest demand for housing first.

New experiments are needed in social housing,as well as investments in new forms of housing


124 and good architecture. Social housing shouldonce again take up this historical tradition (seethe example of urban garden districts), also forthe social housing which is created by privateinvestors or forms of public/private partnership.

We also consider that an efficient approach tosocial housing is only possible with a singlepowerful housing company per city and for thecity. This is also possible at the level of thewhole urban region, in a cooperative venturebetween municipalities (also see field 4). In ouropinion, the current institutions are vestigesfrom a bygone age which have lost their feel forthe current needs of society. Furthermore, frag-mentation is another cause of the poor financialsituation of housing companies which are toosmall. This weakens the already weak govern-ment role in our country even further.

Field 10Invest in a healthy environment 12

Finally, a good quality density requires a viableand green environment, which supports actionsin other fields. The environment is an essentialelement of the housing policy, of judicious den-sity, and good quality public spaces: the samespace and the same green areas are not neces-sary everywhere.

Cities are places for concentrated housing,working culture, traffic, commerce, etc. – inshort, all the characteristic urban functions.Until recently, little attention was devoted toaspects of health, the urban environment,nature and open spaces in the city. Nevertheless,a good quality urban density cannot beachieved without devoting adequate attentionto these (generally described as) ‘green’ aspectsof the urban environment. These green aspectsare characteristics which are naturally attrib-uted to areas outside the city, while they arejust as important in an urban environment. For

example, London is the greenest ‘global city’ inthe world. There are 128 parks, 200 greensquares, and above all, the Thames, which havejust as much influence on the success of Londonas a global city as the historical buildings andthe cityscape.13

The current policy on green space often reducesthe green spaces in the city to ‘cosmetic green’.If it is applied at all, the conservation of naturein cities is often limited to protecting theremaining fragments of ‘natural’ habitats, whileevery part of the city has the potential to con-tribute to the total urban biodiversity. Healthaspects are restricted to the annually recurringsmog warnings in the summer. Building withsustainable materials focuses on insulation, andmore recently also on renewable energysources. Attention for the environment isreflected in the environmental regulations, andextremely expensive investments in infrastruc-ture (sewerage, water purification plants).

Cities and all their functions are more profitableif the quality of the density is taken seriously. Atthe same time, nature and open spaces in thecity are also more profitable: they are seen toomuch as a residual category, and usually not asan element of urban policy that is important inits own right. Although it is probably not inten-tional, this last aspect is even further reinforcedby the policy on town and country planning,which gives a central role to the concentrationof urban functions. The experience gained up tonow of the process of delineation has shownthat a non-compact urban space within theurban perimeter gives rise to problems mostquickly. This is the danger of blind, purely quan-titative density. Nevertheless, it is clear that ahealthy environment, nature and open spaces –obviously within an urban context – are an inte-gral part of a high quality urban density.


125Because of the comprehensive character of thisbook, we would like to present a number ofideas precisely on this policy line, in whichattention is focused on these green aspects. Weare aware that this policy area is not entirelyconsistent with the formulated actions in thisbook and is treated in a rather superficial way.For a more thorough explanation of the subjectof nature in the city, reference is made to thepreliminary study book.

Urban biotopes have an important social signi-ficance for urban dwellers. This social signifi-cance is just as important, or even more impor-tant than their strictly biological role. We arguefor removing nature from its pedestal, where ithas been placed because of a narrow interpreta-tion of sustainability. We believe that natureshould be given a place in the grid city in themiddle of social developments and just next tothem, ‘and there really should also be somegreen spaces’. This means that we should alsoapproach nature from the different perceptionsand experiences of the population in the gridcity. For example, in this context it is also impor-tant to devote more attention to the perceptionof families with children. After all, one impor-tant reason for leaving the city is the lack of(child-friendly) urban green spaces.

Approaching nature in the grid city in this wayalso reveals a whole range of different forms ofurban green spaces, from cultural green spaces(strongly dependent on intensive care) to morespontaneous nature. The enormous range offunctions which this can provide for mankindand society is the ultimate reason for providingurban green spaces. Urban green spaces literallyprovide a more healthy environment, promoteour psychological well-being, provide us withnumerous recreational possibilities and idealmeeting places, bring us into daily contact withnature, make the city more vibrant and more

attractive, can sometimes act as a living witnessto our cultural heritage, help to look after publicspaces and tell us something about the condi-tion of our environment. Therefore it is logical toinvest in all these forms of urban green spaces.

Urban green spaces also have an importantfunction with regard to the conservation ofnature, despite the fact that the pressure onnature is greatest in the built-up environment.Urban green spaces accommodate a great bio-diversity. The urban authorities have an oppor-tunity to deal with nature and natural areasto be developed with greater involvement ofcitizens.

Finally, urban green areas have the unique func-tion of also contributing to the protection ofnature in the countryside. This is achieved main-ly by taking up some of the pressure of recre-ation and by creating social support for the pro-tection of nature and the environment.Furthermore, urban green spaces can relieve thepressure on the environment by their climate-regulating and purifying functions to an extentwhich can be felt outside the city. In this way,the councils’ policy on green spaces can be animportant factor affecting the situation ofnature throughout Flanders.

In addition to investing in nature, attention to ahealthy, green and sustainable environment inthe city also entails greater efforts with regardto a comprehensive management of waste forthe city. For other environmental aspects, prob-lems have to some extent been passed from theperiphery to the city, but in this case, the con-verse often happens. The urban system now isalmost unsustainable by definition because theenvironmental pressure is passed on to theenvironment (pollution, the location of wastecombustion furnaces, etc.).


126 The careful use of raw materials requires greaterefforts to promote the use of sustainable build-ing materials, both for the construction of publicspaces and for housing and other buildings. Thecity uses enormous quantities of energy. It isself-evident that the care for a sustainableurban density coincides with rational energyconsumption and renewable energy sources.

s u m m a r y

14. Stop the trend towards the privatisation ofpublic spaces. Work on a global approach toaccessible spaces which are intensively usedand provide valuable experiences of theseplaces. See this as the heart of the newurban character: support new urban rela-tionships.

15. Safeguard the quality of planning andprocesses for all projects related to and inpublic spaces, provide the organisationalcapacity in the planning in urban organisa-tion, in particular to manage these projects.

16. Ensure that safety is a comprehensive ele-ment in the design, organisation and man-agement of public spaces from the verybeginning. Develop a local, community-ori-ented police force on the basis of the publicspace and involve them in management.

17. Make the management of public spaces thejoint responsibility of government, inhabi-tants, users and the social partners.

18. Invest in high quality sustainable materialsand in temporary projects, and make use ofthe commercialisation of public spaces as asource of new relationships and as a leverfor quality in town and country planning.

19. Invest in the quality of housing as a whole,which comprises both the houses them-selves and the environment, and integratestrategies for green and open spaces. Havethe courage to remove malignant growth in

the city effectively with a view to urban andsocial revitalisation.

20. Reconcile density and affordability through-out the territory of the grid city and investin the quality of planning and processes andin the management of large housing proj-ects.

21. Experiment with, carry out research into andinvest in good quality contemporary formsof housing, and in particular, in new socialhousing and good quality rental housing.

22. Encourage the introduction of commonamenities in districts, and support residentswho make parts of their home available forcommunity facilities.

23. Regionalise the competence for rental legis-lation so that urban policy and housing poli-cy can reinforce each other. Relate the rentalprice of housing to its quality and useinstruments to regulate the private rentalmarket. Make the rental market a priority inthe housing policy.

24. Stop the inverse solidarity in the cash flowin the housing market, which is based onthe current contributions to home owner-ship.

25. Establish one strong housing company percity and for the city.

26. Invest in all types of urban green spaces inthe grid city. Involve the inhabitants andusers of the city in its development to pro-vide support for the protection of natureand the environment.

27. Re-evaluate the importance of nature inrelation to natural diversity and the variousperceptions of the population in the gridcity.

28. Work on a comprehensive management ofwaste, rational energy consumption andrenewable energy sources.


127Line 4Innovative and creative strength

The city has always played an important role incultural, artistic, intellectual, social and politicalinnovation. The multiplicity and diversity ofhuman activities results in inspiration and cre-ativity. Revolutions in the social and economicsystem often start in the city.

The city can be a catalyst for local initiatives andfor innovation. This aspect is described in twofields which in our view do not attract enoughattention in urban policy: one is the function ofcultural creativity as a lever (field 11), and theother concerns the innovation resulting frominvestments in recreational urban infrastructure(12). These two fields attract little attention inthe traditional Flemish discussions on cities.

Field 11Cultural creativity: give innovation a chanceCultural production and art find an appropriatecontext in the city (in terms of the environment,support and innovation). Nowadays, culturalproduction and creativity are even more impor-tant. Modern cities have grown in the wake ofthe development of the industrial society. Infact, many cities were hit hard by the economiccrisis and the economic transformation whichfollowed. They will have to discover a newdynamic strength in a context of new patternsof consumerism (these are different and takeplace in the grid city), and in an economy whichis moving towards service sectors. The arrivalof the information economy and the informa-tion society which is developing form a newbackground against which the city has to findits own way.

Design is an important aspect of the activityitself. In the new consumer society, aestheticsand expression are extremely important. Art

and culture are no longer a ‘sector’ in society,but penetrate every important level of society.The cultural industry is becoming an importanteconomic activity. Design is also less and lesssupported by tradition. We live in an age of‘detraditionalisation’ and far-reaching innova-tion. Furthermore, the multicultural societypresents us with different traditions and societyrequires different forms of combinations andinnovation. In short, urban revitalisation anddynamic activity are largely supported by thecity’s creative advantages.14 The cultural climateand the cultural policy in this way influence vir-tually every field of activity, including economic,social and political innovation.

Targeted attention in policy to the developmentof the creative potential at every level of the cityis therefore extremely important. This concernsattracting and retaining people and activities,and using those people and activities in the con-tinued development and image of the city. Citiesshould cherish their designers, artists and intel-lectuals. They are of essential importance in thedevelopment of the urban character.Furthermore, there appears to be a direct rela-tionship between innovation and economicgrowth and the presence of creative people inthe city – usually people with a high level ofeducation and higher incomes.15 The citiesare/will become laboratories where new goodsand services are designed and developed withthe input of a lot of culture and the help of col-lective new talent in small businesses. Largerbusinesses can go there for new ideas, which iscrucial for survival in a global economy.16 Onceagain, we see how ‘glocalisation’ works.

The city must actively invest in the developmentof innovative ideas and practices. Groupingtogether creative strengths, specific forums andthe support for creative alliances can contributeto this. Creativity can also be expressed in the


128 inventive combination of existing resources,contexts and policy. For example, relationshipscan develop between economic investmentsand employment through social return,between socially responsible enterprise and acoherent integration policy, between ecologyand social investment, etc.

Creativity does not always develop in the estab-lished sectors and institutions. Special attentionshould be devoted to informal actors who areoften active on the margins, in unspecified loca-tions in the city. Finally, we argue for an activeexamination of new urban functions with a cre-ative input and for the recycling or new use ofexisting urban spaces which responds to newsocial needs or possibilities.17 Examples whichspring to mind include old business premisesand warehouses which can be integrated aslofts, spaces for artists, exhibition areas, occa-sional performance areas for theatre, and meet-ing places, which also stimulates gentrification.Large vacant economic spaces (such as Acec inGhent) require a multifunctional use.

It is partly as a result of the pressure on space inthe central cities that other parts of the grid citywill also be able to play a creative role on thebasis of their own characteristics and potentialto a greater extent than they do now. We alsostress that the emphasis on creativity, designand prospective ideas and activity is not a luxu-ry. It is the only way of looking at and then tack-ling specific complex questions in the cities in aliberating and innovative way. It is often thebest way of breaking away from routine bureau-cratic and restrictive policy management.

Field 12Recreation as a leverNowadays, some cities already have an impor-tant recreational and tourist role. For example,there are the artistic cities, and the city of

Bruges which has provided an internationalimage for the background of the city. For Brugesthis is the perfect economic niche for achievingthe image of a global city. The economic impor-tance of leisure time not only plays a big role forBruges. There is no doubt that the leisure sectorhas become an important economic sector andthat its importance will only increase in thefuture.18 From this point of view alone, it isimportant to make maximum use of the leisurepotential of the grid city. The enormous impor-tance of public spaces is also revealed here: inour internet age, they are also increasingly play-ing the role of supporting recreational functions.

We must devote more attention to developing afuture vision of the role of the city as a leisureenvironment. This does not happen enough yetin Flanders. Recognising the new cultural valuesof leisure time is one of the challenges preced-ing decisions to use cultural capital for recre-ation and tourism.19 An insight into the patternsof experience of the visitor, but also into theinvolvement of the inhabitant of the city, is thekey to this. After all, the visitor to the city is notthe only consumer of the city as a place forrecreation. In the first place, this applies for theinhabitants of the city themselves.

The city has a large social-cultural archivingfunction with great symbolic value, which isalso expressed in the built-up fabric. It is thisarchiving function, amongst other things (not ina material sense, but in its symbolic value),which can be used for a strategy to intensify vis-its to the city. In the use of this valuable assetand new cultural values, art and culture obvi-ously also play an important, though certainlynot an exclusive role.

The strength of recreational use implies invest-ments in the physical urban framework and inthe heritage, as well as developing a cultural


129and recreational portfolio, in order to visiblyrevitalise the symbolic function. Both the inhab-itant and the visitor to the city should be able toenjoy these investments, which must be madeboth in the central city and in other places inthe grid city. We interpret leisure time in a broadsense, so that all the places where leisure activi-ties can be carried out are also integrated as acatalyst of urban dynamism.

The visit to the city can make an important con-tribution to the recognition of the city as aframe of reference and as a basis for identifi-cation. The revitalisation of the symbolic func-tion will certainly stimulate this process. Therecreational function develops from a confronta-tion with what is really happening in the city.The city is not a theme park which must presentitself to the visitor as a ‘Disney’ location withoutany conflicts. One example of this confrontation-al identification is the ‘Summer of Antwerp’,where many of the dimensions of the recre-ational city are combined, without descendinginto excessively commercial ‘festivalitis’. The ini-tiative takes into account both the local pointsof contact and interest, and the necessary globalimage of the sorts of events in a city of thisorder. Every Flemish city can draw up this sort ofbalance for itself and achieve it by means of atargeted policy on recreation. The policy onrecreation is part of the strategy of glocalisation.

Finally, it is important that the recreationalfunction is not developed over the heads of theinhabitants and visitors to the city. It is impor-tant to devote attention to the aspect of iden-tification. In this way, recreation can be a rele-vant reinforcement of the socio-cultural capitalof the city and contribute to a greater participa-tion in public and political life.

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29. Implement an active policy focusing oninnovative ideas, designs and practices, oncombining creative strengths. Support cre-ative alliances, provide forums for meetingplaces and for adapted infrastructure.

30. Use existing and new urban areas (includingthose which become available as a result ofeconomic restructuring) for new urban func-tions, and focus on them with adapted ini-tiatives.

31. Draw up a cultural and recreational portfo-lio. Make use of the wealth and attractive-ness of the physical framework and of theheritage of the grid city.

32. Mobilise the leisure function with a view tourban revitalisation in general, also indeprived areas. Make use of all the placeswhere leisure activities are carried out aspossible catalysts in an urban dynamicagenda.

Line 5Identity on the basis of diversity

The economic portfolio is broader in the citythan anywhere else. Nowhere else is livingtogether with what is strange and what is dif-ferent as pronounced and as diverse. Nowhere isthere more culture which is available not onlybecause of the pluricultural population, but alsoin the formal and informal provision of culture.

An ‘urban mentality’ now permeates every layerof society and the whole of Flanders. Neverthe-less, it continues to be crucial to invest in theidentity of the city. This was explained abovewith reference to the global-local paradox. Thecity is the focal point of globalisation. It is be-coming the new frame of reference and the key


130 to the global economy and culture. Thereforethe city must have a clearly recognisable profile.This image is used in external communication,but must also be recognisable to the inhabi-tants and users of the city itself. This sort ofurban identity is above all a strong image of thefuture which incorporates the diversity in thecity and the diversity of places, people and activ-ities in a single creative destiny.

We are certainly aware that diversity is nowa-days sometimes experienced as a threat, some-times justifiably so. The fascination and oppor-tunities which result from diversity can be over-shadowed by this threat, so that relating to thediversity becomes more and more difficult.However, it is important that we learn from thisdifficult relationship to find a way of dealingwith diversity. The only alternative is increasedpolarisation between the rich and poor,between those in work and the unemployed,between white and black, etc. This sort of polari-sation undermines the future of the city andtherefore of the whole of Flanders.

The identity of the city is expressed particularlyin the profile of recognisable and expressiveplaces. This defines multiculturalism to an evengreater extent than the diversity of cultural andethnic common factors. After all, as a rule theinhabitant of the city himself has an extremelybroad range of action and uses different placesin the city for different sorts of action. it is thisconnection between places and activities, whichcharacterises the city and at the same time per-mits the multi-faceted identity of the urbandweller. Those who withdraw into their owncommunities and particular districts are gener-ally obliged to on social-economic grounds. It isonly an expression of a sectarian traditional dis-association in exceptional cases.

Therefore a clear urban identity has severalforms and is supported by a broad measure ofdiversity. In order to maintain this pluralism, theconstant regeneration of an identity related toplace must also be supported. In the firstinstance we consider that urban revitalisationmust be based on an active policy of investmentin art and culture and in the creation of socialsupport for this amongst the population (field13). Diversity and identity can be actively sup-ported by promoting a high quality multifunc-tional approach and by considering the existingdifferences between (the opportunities of)groups and between districts more as an oppor-tunity than as threat (field 14).

In the discussion of this line, the relationshipbetween urban identity and economic develop-ment counts as an essential part of urban cul-ture and of the socio-cultural capital of the city.In this respect, reference is also made to line 1,field 3. The divisions which exist should also betackled on the basis of this attitude. Developingan urban identity is based on integration byopposing exclusion. In addition to the participa-tion in the employment market, other (non-eco-nomic) forms of social integration are also rep-resented in this (see line 6, field 17).

Field 13Strengthen the basis for art and cultureThere is a consensus in the literature both ontown and country planning and the economy,and in rural and cultural literature, that identifi-cation – and in particular, cultural identifiation –is necessary for a local strategy. A communityneeds this identity and sometimes even needs amythology. However, it is clear that an identifi-cation cannot be imposed, but has to grow fromthe bottom up to an important extent. It is thisidentification which must serve as a stimulusfor an economic urban policy (see line 1).


131One characteristic of the global-local paradox isthat the nineteenth-century nation state iscoming under great pressure as a point of refer-ence for a process of cultural identification. It isprobably too optimistic to assume that theregional framework (Flanders) will take over therole of the nation state in this respect. However,in Flanders, identification with the local level isstill fairly strong from the European perspective,for historical reasons, because of the character-istics of the employment market (relatively lowmobility) and because of the housing market(high level of home ownership). In chapter 1 wealso emphasised that this cultural identity mustcome from living together in different groups inthe same territory, rather than on the basis ofoutdated patterns of thought on different cul-tures in which one must adapt to another.

By definition, art and culture must be of a highquality and elitist to operate as a social attrac-tion. At the same time, we see that the urbancontext is of decisive importance for the roleplayed by art and culture in the process of iden-tification. The urban environment certainly pro-vides an environment where there is a whole‘artistic culture’ and ‘culture of relationships’which can be further developed. Furthermore,these two cultures are both catalysts for strate-gies of social involvement and community build-ing. Moreover, we assume that forms of officialart and culture can only be successful in the longterm to the extent that they are incorporated inthe specific cultural capital of the city. As regardsartistic culture and the culture of relationships,there can be strong differences between citiesand between particular districts in cities. It isprecisely these differences which can constitutethe points of contact for identification.

As for many social phenomena, the level of‘mediatisation’ and success in the market arenow almost the only criteria for defining suc-

cess in art and culture. Mediatisation canundoubtedly play a role in the process of iden-tification (if only through the communicationaspect), but it is certainly not on the basis ofgood mediatisation alone that districts, groupsand the population become involved and canidentify with art and culture. We can see therole for the market in the process of culturalidentification. In this case the ‘market’ doesstand for everything that is present in the ‘envi-ronment’ particularly in the non-profit sector.

If we approach art and culture from the urban‘artistic culture’ and ‘culture of relationships’, wesee that every city accommodates numerousother forms of art and culture (for example, inthe field of sport and leisure time) which can beinvolved in the process of identification and inurban revitalisation. Therefore there are differ-ent layers of cultural experience. Involving everylevel of the population in every level of culture isimpossible, and in our view this is not necessary.However, it is essential that there is alwayssome form of ‘raised popular presence’ at everylevel of cultural experience, because this is theessence of culture.

People who take initiatives in this field havefound.20 that it is difficult for the official culturalpolicy to successfully incorporate the existingbottom-up approach in cultural experiences.This results in marginalisation, which finallyleads to the initiative fizzling out, and the peo-ple involved becoming frustrated. This then getsin the ways of new initiatives. Furthermore,Flanders and Brussels have exceptionally fewcultural projects with a metropolitan image.One of the exceptions to this is Antwerp 93. Thecurrent European policy of cultural capitalsfocuses rather strongly on one particular year,and not enough on continuity. This means thatthere may be a temporary surge, but the ques-tion is whether there is really any sustainable


132 urban identification and revitalisation. Possiblycertain aspects of Bruges 2002 are an exceptionto this: the year of culture elicited interestingdiscussions about the profile of the city, perhapsparticularly because questions were also raisedduring the preparations. Professional prepara-tion can provide support.

Urban policy and cultural identification go hand-in-hand. The distinction between high and lowculture plays absolutely no role in this. On thecontrary, every level of society, every populationgroup (of Belgian origin and immigrant origin),every language community (particularly inBrussels) and every level of cultural experienceand all the districts are involved in this processof identification. This does not mean that it iseither a single grey cultural product (with whichno one can identify), or an approach in whichevery culture is only out for itself (such as anethnic culture next to an immigrant culture nextto a French culture next to a Flemish culturenext to a Moroccan culture, etc.). Cultural iden-tification is based on the existing cultural diver-sity (or the diversity to be created) and its owncharacter. It requires the support so that thewhole becomes more than the sum of the parts.

It is undoubtedly necessary to find new forms ofindividual and collective identification.Furthermore, the built-up area (monuments,specific design of districts, etc.) should also sup-port cultural diversity and identification. Publicspaces also play an important role as neutralmeeting places.

In our view, saleability and mediatisation arenot criteria for culture, but it is important thatthe inhabitant of the city can identify with thecultural profile of the city, in which quality is theprimary criterion. We repeat that this does notmean the involvement of all the inhabitants ofthe city in every form of culture. The city is too

diverse a society for this, with too many differ-ent forms of cultural experience. However, itdoes mean that the cultural profile shoulddevote adequate attention to all the subculturesin the city. It also means paying attention toforms of ‘everyday’ culture.21 Documenting it isthe first step.

Finally, the city is like a free port for the artist.Artists should be able to do their own thing inthe city, without compromises, but always basedon the criterion of quality (see field 11 on thecreative city).

Field 14Use differences and contradictionsDensity should automatically lead to urbaninteraction and constructive confrontation. Thisis the general assumption. It is correct that ahigher density increases the chances of encoun-ters and interaction, because diversity is alsogreater when the density is higher. However, ingeneral, this will rarely happen spontaneouslyoutside people’s own immediate circle.Furthermore, people generally organise theirlives in such a way (both physically, socially, cul-turally, economically, etc.) that interaction ismainly limited to contacts with like-minded peo-ple (in the broad sense of the word). Moreover,the current means of communication are suchthat it is not even necessary to find a physicalspace to meet. Nevertheless, physical interactionand constructive confrontation across theboundaries of districts and social groups areessential aspects of diversity and of the city. Thecity, particularly the large city, is essentially anhistorical accumulation of experience of dealingwith diversity. This accumulation is embedded instories, mentalities, attitudes and the urban tra-ditions of openness, hospitality and a dynamicapproach. But at the same time it is threatenedby the urban exodus, the debate on the lack ofsafety, an anti-urban mentality, extreme right


133parties and attitudes, which see diversity as athreat and not as an enrichment.

The current organisation of the city (in terms oftown and country planning) leads to a tendencyin which no room is reserved for specific func-tions or social groups: the space for traffic, pub-lic space, space for housing, etc. Socio-culturaland socio-economic undercurrents reinforce thistendency because they opt for more of thesame, rather than for something different. Thepotential strength of diversity is weakened bythis. We would like to reverse this trend.

The fact that ‘like seeks like’ is an understand-able trend and not a problem in itself, if it is theresult of a conscious choice. However, if thischoice gives rise to town and country planningwhich prevents interaction and constructive con-frontation with other social groups, something isobviously wrong. In Flanders we have not goneas far as in the United States, where gated com-munities have been created in some placeswhere people protect themselves from the restof society. However, some suburban areas dohave some of the characteristics of this. Mentaland metal gates reinforce each other.

Another dimension of this problem is that thereis no freedom of choice, so that people areforced to accept their situation (often linked tothe problem of a divided society). The lack offreedom of choice is also reflected in the townand country planning and prevents the neces-sary interaction. When this goes too far, itresults in segregation through negative selec-tion mechanisms. In this respect, the situationin Flanders has not yet evolved to the extentthat there are real ghettos which are inaccessi-ble to the rest of society.

In our view, both the creation of gated commu-nities and of ghettos must be unambiguously

prevented. We do not argue for the otherextreme, viz. a socio-cultural unformity which isaimed at erasing differences. It is easier saidthan done, but we must find a combinationwith the correct dose of gentrification and socialmix, which means that constructive confronta-tion can spontaneously take place and developat a local level. This dose will and can differ fromplace to place, but an open model which guar-antees the accessibility of the different territo-ries of the grid city should be common to allplaces. This makes the city a laboratory forFlemish society.

Supporting differences means providing oppor-tunities to get to know each other, so that peo-ple learn to deal with differences and misunder-standings disappear. Constructive and creativeconfrontations and a dialogue between inhabi-tants, communities and districts are needed forthis. In this respect, ‘constructive and creative’means the type of confrontation which leads tomutual recognition and dialogue. The organisa-tion and quality of public spaces can supportthis process.

Despite the trend towards mono-functionality,we find that there is still a significant combina-tion of functions and diversity, for example withregard to ecology and the economy. For exam-ple, in addition to the traditional diversity (socialgroups, housing environments, etc.), we alsofind a large biodiversity in urban environments,although many communities are vulnerable andimpoverished.22 80% of our economy is stillinvolved with housing and is not located inspecific sites.23 In order to promote the largedegree of dependency of the economy in theurban fabric, a policy on assimilation is needed,with, amongst other things, a change in theenvironmental regulations which are currentlydirectly leading to a division of functions.


134 In addition, the temporal dimension also rarelyforms part of a multifunctional approach. Thespatial integration of activities cannot really beachieved without a logical arrangement of time(timetable). Therefore it is necessary to makespace for a local temporal policy (cf. arrangingaspects of the temporal policy in Italy with the‘Tempi Della Citta’). It is a matter of giving citiesand even districts the possibility of relating thelocal policy on time more autonomously to thelocal dynamics, as in the Italian example. Theopening hours of services or recreational facili-ties are rarely geared to the working hours inproduction, and public transport, the openinghours of shops and events in the city are notalways interrelated, while certain infrastruc-tures (schools, businesses, commercial places)are monopolised by sectors to a much greaterextent and are not sufficiently open to multi-functional use. In short, unless there is a strongpolicy related to time, it is difficult to intervenein the rhythm of urban activities in an integrat-ed and sustainable way. These rhythms can bevery diverse: a busy and flexible 24-hour econo-my in the city centres compared with a stronglyregulated rhythmical arrangement of time inmore residential districts. This sort of localisedtemporal policy is part of the local urban dia-logue.

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33. Work on a cultural identity supported byevery level of society, population group, lan-guage community and district. Look for newforms of individual and collective identity inthis.

34. Invest in public spaces as a platform formeetings. Ensure that diversity and identityare recognisable in the built-up area.

35. Document all the forms of ‘everyday culture.’Safeguard the autonomy of art. Protect the

quality of cultural products; culture is morethan something to be sold or consumed.

36. Organise the social space in such a way thatgated communities and ghettos do not havea chance.

37. Support differences as a basis for diversity,organise constructive and creative con-frontations and combat socio-cultural uni-formity by means of a differentiated mix ofgentrification and social mix.

38. Ensure that functions are interrelated andprevent the impoverishment of functions ormonofunctional spaces. Make use of archi-tecture and urban development for this.

39. Implement a policy of interaction, adapt theenvironmental regulations, break down themono-functionality of working hours, theeconomy and trade by means of a local tem-poral policy.

Line 6A city polis based on solidarity

Participating in the city is often equated withthe administrative component: how can youensure that the citizen can really participate ingoverning the city republic? The governmentand administration of the city are the subjectsof chapter 5. This (administrative) aspect is notcovered in this section. Here we will discuss par-ticipation in the fundamental sense of socialjustice: opposing exclusion, ensuring that every-one in the city can achieve their basic rights towork, housing, health and a good standard ofeducation. Therefore this means involvement inthe sense in the city of solidarity between theinhabitants and users of the city. After all, howelse could we convince people who are con-fronted with exclusion on a daily basis to legit-imise the institutions of democracy?


135The debate on solidarity combines two widelyused terms: individualisation and egoism.Individualisation relates to the separation fromauthoritarian frameworks which prescribe peo-ple’s behaviour. Egoism relates to turning awayfrom ‘the collective’, from all obligations to thecommunity, a complete isolation from politicsand the state. When people become individu-alised, this does not necessarily mean that theybecome more egotistical. This impression maybe created when you are used to controllingpeople through the group, but this has more todo with individual frames of reference (‘Peopleused to do what we said’). People who turnaway from society altogether are not necessarilymore individualistic either: their behaviour maybe strongly governed by new group norms inthe media, advertising and informal groups.Sociologists claim that these frameworks havetaken over the leading role of the traditionalfactions, so that a great deal of individualisationis merely an illusion.24

The behaviour of most citizens in society is char-acterised by networking. Therefore it is increas-ingly difficult to ‘classify’ people in a particulargroup or to reorganise society on the basis ofthese classifications. It is no longer belonging toa ‘group’ (in the sense of factions, churches, etc.)that determines the behaviour of people. As thenetworking is to some extent (but not for every-one) a virtual networking, the virtual spaceforms an additional dimension for the organisa-tion of involvement. In any case, networks arenot bound by the urban boundaries.

Despite the fact that classifying people in tocertain groups is becoming more difficult, theorganisation of the planning of urban society isstill reflected in recognisable individual plan-ning components. We have already describedhow ‘negative’ selection mechanisms resultingfrom unequal opportunities mean that certain

levels of the population live together in geo-graphically defined districts of the city. This isthe visible component of the divided society,which means that segregation is a reality inevery Flemish city (to different extents and withdifferent natures).

All the social planning groups and networkedcitizens in the city are part of the city. However,there is a fundamental problem of unequal par-ticipation which means that there are individualnetworks and individual territories where thestrongest, the elite, take up too much of theurban arena. These are the more invisible ele-ments of the divisions on society.

For us, participation means investing on newforms of solidarity (field 15), which are aimed atcreating strong urban developmental coalitions(field 16). These coalitions must focus on a broadperspective of integration which cannot takepace only through the regular employmentmarket (field 17).

Participation in the city and the creation of soli-darity to an important extent depend on build-ing up and comparing individual and collectiveknowledge and experience: the reason to investin frameworks for a learning city on a perma-nent basis (field 18).

We would like to conclude this line with a menufor redirecting the income from taxation: thechoices in tax policy should be the result of con-siderations about solidarity: taxation shouldsupport, not erode, the urban character and soli-darity (field 19) between the rich and the poor,between parts of the grid city (districts, areas,the city and the countryside, the city and theperiphery), between inhabitants and users.


136 Field 15Invest in new forms of solidaritySolidarity between the inhabitants of the city isan important component of participating in thecity, and probably also an essential condition foran administration that can generate and retaintrust.

The traditional unions and associations, oftenlinked to employees’ organisations, played animportant role in the solidarity between citizensuntil recently. Nowadays we find that the partic-ipation in unions and associations has notreduced, but that its character has changedsignificantly. Their former ‘educational’ role, inwhich solidarity was an important value,appears to be disappearing. More utilitarianassociations with a greater similarity betweenmembers are flourishing.25

The disappearance of the traditional sense ofcommunity is often related to the process ofurbanisation. The city is seen to be anonymous,while in the countryside ‘everyone knows oneanother’. In the countryside, a common identityis said to dominate, while the individual is dom-inant in the city. It appears that the city turnspeople into anonymous indifferent individualswho only have contact with each other for prag-matic purposes. The ‘district’ may sometimesstill be seen as the ‘village in the city’, the placewhere the traditional community life has sur-vived and should be fostered. However, sociolog-ical studies have disputed virtually all thesestereotypes. Community life in the countrysidein Flanders is not very different from urbanareas. 26 Nor is the district any sort of ‘warmnest’. Individualisation and marketing areunmistakably dominant, but not only in and notonly because of the city.

Marketing, individualisation and the increasinginfluence of the government on solidarity mean

that solidarity is no longer a spontaneous phe-nomenon. It is sliding into a compulsorymechanical solidarity (by values, norms, process-es of socialisation and sanctions imposed fromabove). Solidarity is being degraded to compul-sory financial contributions from the individual,which has become an important emphasis inthe current discussion on solidarity. It all seemsto be just about money.

In our view, more funds are necessary for newforms of imposed solidarity, which can learnfrom the solidarity that has grown organically incities. Therefore spontaneous initiatives onurban interrelationships deserve extra incen-tives to balance (and not to replace) the hardersolidarity imposed in the context of the state.

The social potential of the city lies in the experi-ence of the inhabitants of the city of strangerswho are different from them. A superficial rela-tionship with diversity, for example, in the dis-trict, on the tram or in the supermarket, is aneveryday reality. Therefore in our opinion, it isimportant to adopt an active approach to thisand also study these looser forms of interaction,because they can lead to new forms of solidari-ty. This develops in new social networks. Thereare plenty of points of contact for these formsof interaction, and the city is full of them.Therefore we also argue for the application ofgreater subsidiarity and decentralisation (partic-ularly in chapter 5) so that the discussion on sol-idarity does not only take place over the headsof the citizens and spontaneous networks canbecome more meaningful and have a clearercontent at the level of the city.

The commercialisation of public space in thecity has a segregating effect (not everyone canparticipate in everything), but also bringstogether a broad and diverse public. As a resultof this collective function, the space for con-


138 sumerism in the city generates unintentionalsocial effects. Therefore the fact that the argu-ments for individualisation and consumer coin-cide also has a positive side. The creativityinvolved has a common, everyday character, andconsequently it is not easily perceived. We pro-pose making use of the positive elements of thecontemporary arguments for consumerism todetect and exploit these everyday forms of soli-darity and cultural creativity (for example: cafesand shops are not only commercial areas, butare simultaneously meeting places where ideasare exchanged). This has the potential for newforms of interrelationships and creativity.

Finally, we attach a great deal of importance tothe need to link individual inhabitants and dis-tricts to ICT networks, because these are asource of new contact and therefore also of the(new) urban character.

Field 16Active investments in a strong development coalitionIn line 1 we advocate a strong, comprehensive,economic urban policy and strong economicurban profiles. The economy can only be sup-ported by the local community if it is part of thesocio-cultural capital. Therefore culture itselfalso acts as a central anchor in the economicstrategy of a city. At the same time, we conclud-ed that territorial-cultural identification – thecreation of a form of shared destiny – is essen-tial for a successful urban policy. In that line werefereed to solidarity as an essential componentof this development coalition.

An economic urban policy can only succeed inthe contest of a city based on solidarity. Thismeans that the economic development must besupported by all the parties in the city. As aresult the economic urban policy – like theadministration of the city itself (see chapter 5) –

must be decentralised to the parties in the cityto an important extent. This will have to takeplace on the basis of interaction and network-ing. The concept of the development of a coali-tion presents itself in this respect. We see this asa coalition between public parties (the city as alevel of government, but also as an importanteconomic party and employer) and private par-ties (traditional social partners, but also districtresidents, representatives of the unemployed,the representatives of parties involved in whatare described elsewhere as socially useful activi-ties, etc.). These coalitions can be organised interritories for the city as a whole, or for parts ofthe urban region. One example concerns the so-called ROMe project (Town and CountryPlanning, Environmental Management andEconomic development in the Ghent canalzone). They can also be established for specificproblems (e.g., for a company which has prob-lems relating to the district, for providing eco-nomic space in the city, etc.). Ultimately thisshould lead to a better economic managementof the city and a stronger (competitive) positionof the city.

It is important for all the economic partners(the government, employers and employees) tobe described as key parties and that the coali-tion is incorporated in the urban/socio-culturalcapital. We believe that this will result in win-win situations not only for the city and theurban region, but also for the economic partiesthemselves; perhaps not in the very short term,but certainly in the medium or long term. Atthe moment, many costs (of a social or environ-mental nature or related to mobility) arepassed on to society by companies. A more sus-tainable economic system is based on the inter-nalisation of these costs in the economicprocess. Establishing coalitions is a way oforganising this internalisation in that contextand transforming it into a win-win situation.


139There is no other possibility – at least if we real-ly want to achieve a sustainable urban policy,and are not just saying that we do.

In the larger cities in Flanders in particular therehave been several attempts to set up these sortsof coalitions. The experience in Ghent hasshown that they are difficult to establish, bothat the level of the involvement and commit-ment of the parties and at the level of describ-ing the scope (the involvement of administra-tive peripheral municipalities).27 We find thatthe urban and urban regional contexts are clear-ly characterised by tensions (sometimes withconflicting interests). This example shows thatattempts have been made to establish coali-tions, but that in the first instance, they stillinvolve fairly traditional economic perspectivesand parties.

The democratic control of these developmentcoalitions and the participation of socially weak-er parties are often a problem.28 We make a linkbetween what was written above about solidar-ity and what will be tackled in chapter 5 regard-ing the democratic organisation of the openrepresentation of the people. However, for aclear discussion, we should avoid giving theimpression that the present representativedemocracy operates as an ideal democracy andthat new forms of dialogue and regulation aretherefore a ‘danger’ to democracy. The presentrepresentative democracy is often supported byvery closed networks of interested groups inwhich a few people or a few strong groupsdominate the decision making. This has tradi-tionally always been the case for drawing upeconomic strategies, particularly in cities. Inmost cases representative democracy stood byand looked on. In the current representativedemocracy, the participation of socially weakergroups is generally already a significant –andtherefore not a new – problem that is only

emerging now. It is more a matter of the newforms of coalitions in the city confirming andtaking over the existing problems of closed divi-sion making and inadequate participation.Therefore there could be new opportunities, aswell as new problems.

We take the above warnings very seriously. Thegeneral response is to look towards the develop-ment of a common local interest: an issue forwhich there can be general support, and there-fore also a form of identification. In this contextwe argue for intensive investments in the cre-ation of coalitions within an administrativemodel which responds to the ideas put forwardin chapters 4 and 5: strengthening the publicdebate, investing in projects that serve as a leverand a change to greater accountability at thelevel of the city. It is for this reason that weplaced so much emphasis in line 1 and in thischapter on incorporating the strategy in thesocio-cultural capital of the city, right down tothe level of districts and areas. Investments inpublic spaces, in culture, in recreation, etc. werealso described from this perspective.

The test for the development coalition lies inthe concrete economic urban projects (see chap-ter 4). In addition to their purely economicimportance, we can achieve a greater level ofidentity and attraction with this, as with otherforms of urban projects (commercial, urbandevelopment or cultural projects).

Field 17Value new forms of social integrationA strong comprehensive economic urban policywill not be able to prevent a number of funda-mental inequalities from continuing to exist inour (urban) society. One of these inequalities isreflected in the growth of the divided society.Essentially, this is related to unequal opportuni-ties and chances in the employment market,


140 where service providers and information-inten-sive sectors increasingly determine the jobs onoffer. On the other hand, there is an everincreasing ‘under class’ in the employment mar-ket. Despite every effort, it is impossible for theregular employment circuit to absorb all thesepeople on a permanent basis. In chapter 1 wesaw that social integration through employ-ment is becoming an extremely difficult matterfor ever- larger groups.

There is a strong paradox in the urban employ-ment market. For the figures, reference is madeto chapter 1 (see pp. 50-51). In fact, the city pro-vides many jobs, but these jobs are to a signifi-cant extent taken up by people who do not livein the city, so that those who do live in the cityare often left out in the cold. Therefore a largenumber of job vacancies is accompanied by highunemployment. This paradox in the employ-ment market is present to an extremely strongextent in the metropolitan context and is aston-ishingly high for unemployed immigrants: 80%of this group can be found in the large cities. Wehave also indicated that the decline in unem-ployment which has taken place in recent years,is found particularly outside the towns andcities, and in particular outside the large cities.

Nowadays the policy on unemployment doesnot adopt a specifically urban approach. Astronger policy on target groups focussing ondeprived groups in the employment market isonly indirectly an urban policy because of thepresence of these groups in the cities.

We do not simply accept the divided nature ofthe employment market and certainly not theincreasing trend in these contradictions. We donot see this as an irreversible and inevitablephenomenon. We are also convinced that atten-tion to integration in and through the employ-ment market should be an integral part of coali-

tions at the urban level. It is part of the collec-tive responsibility of industry and trade unionsthat they should ensure that the personnelstructure should reflect the diversity of the pop-ulation wherever possible. A good personnelpolicy does not benefit either from poor corre-spondence between jobs and qualifications. Formany jobs, people with low qualifications canbe used perfectly, possibly with supervision andtraining in the business. Anyone who wishes totake part in the urban development coalitioncannot refuse this social responsibility.

More incentives are needed to make maximumuse of the social capital available in the city inthe regular economic circuit. We believe that theurban entrepreneur can take the lead in this bydeveloping an ethical code in which he assessesthe less privileged citizens of the city only onthe basis of their capacities, and not on thebasis of their external characteristics. It is self-evident that the government itself (as a bigemployer in the city at every administrativelevel) should adopt this ethical attitude.

This vision also entails that, as a forum for con-sumerism, the city should play a more explicitrole in the policy. Nowadays there is a tendencyto move more and more consumer activities tothe fringes of the city, or even outside it alto-gether. Apart from the direct consequences ofthis – a lower level of consumerism and lessinvestment in the city – there is also an indirectresult. Many jobs in the sector of the consumerindustry require relatively little education,which means that the large group of urbandwellers with a low level of education couldalso find jobs there. Moving the consumerindustry to the periphery prevents this in manycases. Added to this, there is the low social andgeographical mobility of people in the city witha low level of education. By the same token,more attention should be devoted to occasional


141or recurrent commercial initiatives in whichinhabitants can participate actively (for exam-ple, in street markets).

However, we are realistic. Even with the maxi-mum local efforts, some of the population willnot be able to integrate in society through regu-lar employment. Therefore paths will have to bedeveloped to ensure that social integration isseparate from participation in the employmentmarket. We will also have to introduce other‘socially useful’ activities to promote social inte-gration. There are also possibilities in initiativeswhich simplify and encourage the transitionfrom the informal to the formal economy. This isalso a way of combating cases of social injustice(for example, illegal workshops in the rag tradepaying very low wages in the city).29

Field 18Invest in social learningWe will open some doors: information and skillsare becoming increasingly important, and inte-gration in society begins with education.Individual and collective knowledge to animportant extent determine the possibilities ofparticipating in the city. Anyone who cannot usethe experience he has had, who does not ‘learn’to negotiate, who does not have anything to sayor is never given anything to say, and is neverstimulated to use his skills, will not developthese competences in traditional politics either.People who are given no opportunities at all(with regard to employment, housing or educa-tion), will not find their way to situations ofsocial learning and will not have any confidencein having a voice in politics. The importance ofthis ‘social learning’ and the strength of the cityas the context for learning were dealt with indetail in chapter 1.

It is curious that the city has such an enormousrange of educational establishments, and that

at the same time there is significant education-al deprivation in the city. There is not only a par-adox with regard to the urban employmentmarket, but also an educational paradox. Inmany cases, not enough attention is devoted toother, mainly more informal ways of acquiringknowledge and skills, which provide a strongercontext for social learning and a stronger basisfor solidarity. By devoting attention to ‘sociallearning’ we can continue to develop this poten-tial.30 Social learning means that groups orsocial relationships learn to operate in uncertainand new circumstances in order to resolve oractively tackle collective problems. This sociallearning is characterised by a competence-based approach: making use of the potential forproblem solving which is present in people andgroups, but which they are often barely awareof themselves. To achieve this, the managementof institutions in the city must be adapted in adecentralised way, so that social learningacquires a meaningful content. The learningshould have a visible effect, it must matter, anddepends on building up something together(see chapter 5).

Up to now, education in the city has not suffi-ciently succeeded in playing a role in social inte-gration as well as it could. Nevertheless, this isan important social responsibility. This not onlyconcerns regular education, but also the inte-gration of forms of social learning in educationand the links with all the other educationalinstruments for lifelong and lifewide learning.

The creation of groups and the contribution ofeducational institutions are essential for sociallearning. An active civilian society supported byall sorts of organisations is the necessary basisfor social learning. This should also become theoperational principle of all sorts of institutionsand services. Many people can play an educa-tional role in civil society (from officers on the


142 beat to gardeners making compost, from homecarers to sports trainers, from teachers to socialworkers involved in prevention, communityworkers, etc.). Through these key figures, sociallearning is related to processes of the organisa-tion and development of urban social patterns.In addition, social learning should also be ableto take place separately from institutions bysupporting informal learning strategies whichplay an important role in learning to deal withdiversity and the ambivalence of the city. Theseinformal networks stretch right across the gridcity with social relationships. For this reason too,investment in public spaces, in culture, in cre-ativity and recreation, etc., is also essential.These investments stimulate the contexts forsocial learning in the city.

In this way the social learning process can beimposed from above (in order to explain thereasons for certain policy actions to citizens). Atthe same time, it must also provide support forthe administration of the city and many institu-tions from the bottom up, so that they have agreater understanding of the learning needs ofinhabitants and districts. Finally, the sociallearning process can also be used to adapt neg-ative patterns of behaviour. Obviously it is anillusion that social learning can achieve this onits own, and it would be misleading to presentit as though it could massage away any conflict-ing interests. In fact, social learning often actu-ally leads to heated conflicts, because peoplebecome more aware of the mechanisms ofwhich they are part. Social learning supportsconflicts in the city republic and provides foodfor political debate. However, in this way it con-tributes to the creation of urban coalitions andraises the question of solidarity. Only those whoare involved in conflicts count.

Cities are by definition learning societies: virtu-ally all the issues of the risk society come

together there (flexibility in the employmentmarket, environmental problems, safety, immi-gration, energy supplies, problems of mobility,etc.). Cities provide the necessary diversity ofinterests and visions to give social learning avisible content in practice: after all, practicesbased on experience are essential. In this way‘learning cities’ become centres for building upsocial innovation and provide a framework forthe search for new forms of solidarity and direc-tion at an urban level, sometimes (depending onthe issues concerned), extending to the level ofthe state, Europe, and the world.

Field 19 The tax system which supports the urbancharacter and solidarityThe cash flows from taxation undermine thecentral city as a concentrated core of theexpanding city. The inhabitants of the city onlypay direct tax in their place of residence.However, the central function entails extracosts, everyone agrees about this. The newMunicipal Fund and the Urban Fund compen-sate for this and redistribute the money; there isconstant controversy about whether or not thisis adequate. The central function also hasbenefits and this is discussed to a lesser extent.Critics refer to the additional costs of bureaucra-cy: they are believed to be greater in larger cities(over 50,000 inhabitants) than in other munici-palities. In some cases, cities too readily adopt adefensive position in this respect. The discussionon and calculation of urban and peripheral costsand benefits can therefore sometimes seem togo on forever. If it goes on forever, nothing willchange.

We do not consider that it is important to con-centrate on a detailed calculation of costs andbenefits. We argue for creating tax flows whichsupport the urban character and correspondbetter with the real interactions in urban areas.


143We do not have any unique solutions, but theissue has been examined by experts in variouspolicy memorandums and scientific texts, andthey have put forward a series of proposalswhich we will adopt here to reinforce the needfor revising the tax system.31

In the first place, there are measures whichcould correct the distorted distribution of costsand benefits between residential and workingmunicipalities by developing different systemsof tax redistribution. In addition, the tax systemon real estate often works to the disadvantageof urban living. Something should also be doneabout this. Removing the tax inequalities couldbe supplemented with tax incentives to pro-mote living in the city. It is self-evident that theinhabitants of deprived areas are the mostimportant targets group in this respect. Associal housing has fallen significantly behind incomparison to that in the countries surroundingus, it would also be possible to provide supportin that field with a range of tax- related instru-ments. We referred earlier to the decline of dis-trict-based local economy. A range of tax meas-ures could also be introduced here.

Finally, we believe that in addition to tax meas-ures, it would also be possible to develop otherfinancial instruments to increase the solidaritybetween the city and the periphery. Examplesthat spring to mind include solidarity contribu-tions by (inhabitants of) the municipalities onthe periphery of the city to social housing or theuse of urban facilities (museums, swimmingpools, etc.). Furthermore, the citizen benefitsfrom a municipal government that works well.Instruments could also be developed to this end.It is also well known that infrastructures whichare used more intensively can be more profi-table. Therefore we argue for a varied range intheir costs depending on the rate of use.

A. Tax redistribution1. A tax system based on place of residence and

work (now only based on place of residence)2. Allocation of additional road tax based on the

intensity of the traffic, or3. (Partial) transfer of the road tax to the munic-

ipalities

B. A tax system which stimulates living in the city4. A new adjustment of the land registry

income (KI), and in anticipation of this, ablocking of the indexation of land registryincome for housing in deprived areas

5. A lower rate of registration fees linked to thearea of the house (which is to the advantageof housing in the city because on averagethey have a smaller surface area)

6. Remove the discrimination between newbuildings and converted buildings withregard to the deduction of interest

7. Delay the entry into effect of the revaluationof land registry income for renovations

8. Increase the level of tax reduction for capitalrepayments and interest payments indeprived areas

9. Increase the threshold (land registry income)and extend the duration of the validity of thereduced rate for real estate tax

10. Reduce the VAT rate for new buildings indeprived areas

C. A tax system for social housing11. A VAT rate of 6% for building social housing12. Exemption of registration fees and stamp

duty for the purchase of housing by socialhousing companies

13. Tax incentives for renting housing to socialhousing companies or OCMWs which sublet

14. Tax incentives for social housing and publicservice centres as part of large building proj-ects


144 D. A tax system to strengthen local economies15. Temporary reduction in the rate of real

estate tax linked to a block of the indexation16. Make government subsidies tax free17. Longer exemption for tax increases as a

result of the failure to pay in advance forself-employed people starting out

18. Automatic allocation of advantages whichare allocated in other areas (e.g., develop-ment areas) for economic activities indeprived areas

E. Other financial instruments19. An obligation for peripheral municipalities

to create their share of social housing or payan equivalent value to the central city

20. Discrimination in the rates (with higher con-tributions for non-urban dwellers), thoughthere is a risk that this will cause conflict

21. The joint funding of joint projects (e.g.,sports infrastructure)

22. Compensations, such as in the currentmunicipal fund, but corrected in accordancewith the performance of the town council

23. A variable charge for costs, depending onthe place of residence (e.g., high public utili-ty infrastructure costs in less densely popu-lated areas).

s u m m a r y

40. Examine and encourage new forms of linksbetween the inhabitants and users of thecity, for example, by district management,cultural investments, contemporary con-sumer activities and leisure time activities.Use the organically growing solidarity toachieve new forms of organised solidarity.

41. Link inhabitants and districts to ICT net-works which support the new urban charac-ter. Virtual and physical encounters aremutually reinforcing.

42. Work on the organisational capacity todevelop coalitions between public and pri-vate actors to attract new investments anddecision-making power. Involve citizens witha low level of education in this coalition.Establish economic urban projects on thebasis of this coalition, with the participationof civilian society and districts.

43. Separate social integration from regular par-ticipation in employment and acknowledgethe value of existing forms of socially usefulactivities in this respect.

44. Work on an urban ethical reflex for the gov-ernment in the city and encourage thisreflex in urban enterprise.

45. Develop new forms of solidarity and culturalcreativity on the basis of contemporary con-sumer activities and leisure activities.

46. Develop activities to lower thresholds, focus-ing on the transition from the informal tothe formal economy.

47. Turn open learning into a crucial part ofsocial integration.

48. Support contexts for informal learningstrategies and for social learning by meansof adaptations to the urban institutions andthe operation of civil society. Actively investin the development of a discussion culture.

49. Reform the tax flows in the grid city so thatthey strengthen the urban character andlead to a tangible solidarity between differ-ent parts of the grid city, between rich andpoor, between districts and between theinhabitants and users of the city.

Conclusion

In this chapter we explained the links betweenurban character and urban programmes alongsix lines and in nineteen fields. Throughout thechapter different threads were drawn to


145strengthen this interaction: between the worldand the district, between public and private,between the collective and the individual,between the traditional sectors, between popu-lation groups, between parts of the grid city andbetween cities, between local and centralaspects.

We consider that these lines and fields deserveto be described as ‘strategic’ lines. The policy dis-cussions are all too often and all too intensivelyconcerned with the question ‘What?’ What arewe going to do today and tomorrow? In thischapter we are concerned mainly with the‘Why?’ which is often ignored because of thepressure of operational considerations. They arealso strategic because they concern structurallines: they go to the essence of what cities couldbe, they create patterns in the city which deter-mine the future. This is not a superficial illusion,not a superficial layer of varnish or impulsesbased on current fads. They are strong founda-tions, powerful and constant driving forces,which can have a motivating effect as well asgathering energy together.

All sorts of things happen in many cities: largeand small initiatives by a multicoloured group ofindividuals, from districts to associations andsocial movements, to businesses and govern-ments. With these lines and fields we try to pro-vide strong links across this whole mix whichgather together individual initiatives so thatthose who take the initiative are aware thatthey are working on common goals.

However, this process (and the book) is onlyhalfway there. After all, sustainable urban devel-opment is not only about content, but alsoabout practice. If the city is to be the first levelof a political order, this must be apparent aboveall from the way in which work is carried out onurban programmes, strategies and projects.

They must develop from practices, from con-frontation and discussion, from a method ofplanning and government based on dialogue.The quality and execution of the strategy, of theprogrammes and projects are mainly deter-mined by the way in which they are developed.That is why the previous chapters and chapters4 and 5 are inseparable. The lines and fields arenot dictated from above. They can only work ifthey are built up with interactive forms of plan-ning (chapter 4) and adapted forms of govern-ment in a participatory democracy (chapter 5).


1461 Castells M. (1993), “European cities, the informational socie-

ty and the global economy”, in TESG, 84, no. 4, pp. 247-257.

2 Wall R. (2002), “Creatief stedelijk netwerk. Een Rotterdams

atelieronderzoek”, in Stedenbouw en Ruimtelijke ordening,

02, pp. 41-43.

3 Cabus P. & W. Vanhaverbeke (2002), Analyse van de

ruimtelijk-economische dynamiek, Strategisch Plan

Ruimtelijke Economie, September 2002.

4 Van der Knaap G.A. (2002), Stedelijke bewegingsruimte.

Over veranderingen in stad en land, WRR, SDU Uitgevers,

The Hague, 186 pp.

5 Gewestelijke Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Vlaams-Brabant

(Regional Development Company of Flemish-Brabant

(2000), Vlaams-Brabant op de drempel van de 21ste eeuw

(Flemish-Brabant on the threshold of the 21st century).

6 See, inter alia: Ministry of the Flemish Community (2001),

Publieke ruimte, een andere aanpak (Public space, a differ-

ent approach), Brussels (produced by Technum nv).

7 The different types of urban character were based, on the

one hand, on the categories and selections used in the

Flanders Structural Plan for Town and Country Planning.

On the other hand, the urban regional approach was used

for the broad definition of the urban complex. See: Van Der

Haeghen H., E. Van Hecke & G. Juchtmans (1996), “De

Belgische stadsgewesten 1991”, NIS, Statistische Studiën, no.

104.

8 Cabus P. (2001), “Blikopener, Nood aan een nieuw stedelijk

model? De compacte stad onder vuur” in Tijdschrift voor

Ruimte en Planning, Jg. 21, pp. 2-8.

9 Winters. S. & B. Van Damme (2003), “Op zoek naar eigen-

dom. Enkele resultaten uit twee HIVA-onderzoeken naar de

overheidssteun voor eigenaars van woningen”, in

Gezinsbeleid in Vlaanderen (Family policy in Flanders),

Brussels.

10 Goossens L. (2002), “Goed om weten omtrent wonen” in

Ruimte & Planning, jg. 22, no. 2, pp. 96-98.

11 De Decker P. (2002), “De huisvestingsval klapt dicht ! Over

wat huishoudens over houden na het betalen van hun

woonkosten en wat de overheid daaraan doet”, in Ruimte

en Planning, 22, no. 2, pp. 119-140.

12 Mainly based on: Heyn M. & M. Hermy (2001), Een groen-

blauw netwerk als drager van een duurzame stadsontwik-

keling en een langetermijnvisie natuurbehoud (A green-

blue network to support sustainable urban development

and a long-term vision of nature conservation), working

text for the White Paper.

13 Greenleese R. (2002), Londen, de creatieve metropool. Naar

een culturele strategie voor Greater London (London, the

creative metropolis. Towards a cultural strategy for greater

London), in Stedenbouw en Ruimtelijke ordening, 02, pp. 32-

36.

Amin and Thrift indicate that angling is one of the most pop-

ular leisure activities in London (200,000 licenses in 2000),

though it is not something usually associated with cities,

see Amin A. & N. Thrift (2002), Cities. Reimaging the Urban,

Polity Press, Cambridge, p. 44.

14. See Bianchini F. & M. Parkinson (eds.) (1993), Cultural Policy

and Urban Regeneration: the West European Experience,

Manchester, Manchester University Press; Landry C.& F.

Bianchini (1995), The Creative City, London, Demos.

15. Florida R. (2002), The rise of the creative class: And how it is

transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life,

Basic Books, 350 pp.

16. Hemel Z. (2002), “Creatieve steden” (Creative cities) in

Stedenbouw en Ruimtelijke ordening, 02, pp. 6-13.

17. Greenleese R. (2002), “Londen, de creatieve metropool. Naar

een culturele strategie voor Greater London” (London, the

creative metropolis. Towards a cultural strategy for greater

London), in Stedenbouw en Ruimtelijke ordening, 02, pp. 32-

36.

18 Wayens B. & J. Grimmeau (2003), L’influence du tourisme

sur l’importance et la structure du commerce de detail en

Belgique, lecture for Belgian geographers’ day, Liège, 12

March.

19 Verbeke M. (2001), De vrijetijdsfunctie ‘van’ en ‘in’ de stad.

Basic text for a workshop in the context of the project Thuis in

de Stad (At home in the city), included in the preliminary

study for this book.

20. Discussion with Guido Minne from the Beursschouwburg

Brussel in the context of the preparation for this book

(2002).

21. Corijn E. (2002), Alledaags is niet gewoon. Reflecties over

volkscultuur en samenleven. King Boudewijn Foundation.

22. Heyn M. & M. Hermy (2001), Een groen-blauw netwerk als


147drager van een duurzame stadsontwikkeling en een

langetermijnvisie natuurbehoud (A green-blue network to

support sustainable urban development and a long-term

vision of nature conservation), working text for White

Paper, pp. 8-9.

23. Cabus P. & W. Vanhaverbeke (2002), Analyse en

kwantificering van de zonevreemde economie en een

insteek voor oplossingen, Strategisch Plan Ruimtelijke

Economie, Academia Press, Ghent.

24. Elchardus M. (2002), De drama-democratie, Lannoo, Tielt.

25. Elchardus M., L. Huyse & M. Hooghe (2001), Het

maatschappelijk middenveld in Vlaanderen. Een onderzoek

naar de sociale constructie van democratisch burgerschap,

VUBPress-Brussel; Hooghe M. (ed.) (2000), Sociaal kapitaal

en democratie. Verenigingsleven, sociaal kapitaal en poli-

tieke cultuur, Acco, Leuven.

26. In this context, see the figures of the various VRIND publi-

cations of the Government of Flanders.

27. Idea-Consult (2002), Bouwstenen voor een dynamisch en

efficiënt subregionaal beleid in Vlaanderen. Research com-

missioned by the Flemish Minister of Employment and

Tourism in the context of the VIONA research programme,

study carried out with the sponsorship of F. De Rynck,

Brussels, 2002.

28. Syngedouw E. (1996), “Reconstructing citizenship,

the rescaling of the State and the new authoritarianism: clos-

ing the Belgian mines”, in Urban Studies, 33, no. 8, pp. 1499-

1521.

29. Kesteloot C. & H. Meert (1993), “Informele Economie: soci-

aal-economische functies en geografische dimensies van

een dubbelzinnig verschijnsel”, in Ruimtelijke Planning,

Quire 4, pp. 51-93, Kluwer.

30. De Rynck F. (2002), Deelnemende stad, working text for

chapter 1, commissioned by Urban policy Task Force.

31. Moesen W. (2001), Openbare financiering en de nieuwe ste-

den, basic text for the workshop on the funding of cities in

the context of the project Thuis in de Stad (At home in the

city); also see the preliminary study for this book; Picqué

Ch. (2000), Grootstedelijk beleid en fiscaliteit, ontwerp van

beleidsnota. The proposals in field 19 are mainly based on

the policy memorandum of the former federal minister for

metropolitan policy, Mr. Picqué.


149

4 . U r b a n d e b a t e a n d u r b a n p r o j e c t ,d e t e r m i n i n g t h e fo r m o f t h e g r i d c i t y

The first three chapters of this book form acoherent triptych, which provides a broad,almost panoramic picture of the contemporarycondition, and the future of the city and of theurban character. First, the complex issues areoutlined in terms of problems and possibilities,from six different perspectives. The second sec-tion can be seen as a paradigm, a theoreticalplatform of perspectives and choices, whichdefines a new critical role for the city and theurban character in a globalised world. The thirdsection defines policy lines and policy fieldswhich work on a glocal strategy, a new spatialcohesion, a high quality density, innovation,identity based on cultural diversity, urban soli-darity, cutting right across the usual policy sec-tors. The proposed policy lines and policy fieldsserve as guidelines and sources of inspirationfor formulating concrete urban programmes forsustainable urban development at different pol-icy level in different cities.

In chapter 4 we will examine the way in whichplanning in the city can be structural, and inchapter 5 we open up this perspective morebroadly, looking at this planning in the contextof the administrative organisation of the city. Inthat chapter we outline two levels, two aspectsof planning and discussion in the city: that ofurban projects and that of the open urbanvision. The two aspects together, and the inter-action between them, are referred to as the‘urban debate’. We explore both aspects. Webegin by introducing the concepts.1 This is fol-lowed by the development of an open urbanvision: the introduction of this vision in the ur-ban debate, the object of the open urban visionand the procedures.2 Subsequently our attentionmoves to the aspect of concrete projects with anemphasis on ‘urban projects’. What are the char-acteristics of a good urban project? What does itdo? Are there different scales and genres?3 Justas the alternating aspects of the urban debate

must ensure that the general development ofthe vision, and the concrete practice of projectscorrect and enrich each other, the more abstractelements alternate in chapter 4 with a discus-sion of concrete project possibilities. In the nextpoint, we look at two planning instruments: thestructural plans in town and country planningand the urban design.4 These are related to theurban debate and to each other. Finally, we par-ticularly focus on three concrete projects5 inBrussels (Brabantwijk), in Mechelen (the Arse-naal site) and in Kortrijk (Buda island). Wedescribe these projects and give them a neo-realistic injection so that they can develop asleading urban projects in leading urban debates.

1. Project, urban project, urbandebate, a first description

In this chapter it is not the structure of the con-tent that changes, but the perspective. The pa-norama of the previous chapters is replaced by anew scene; new principles and programmes areturned into concrete action; the desired policycondition crystallises into a lively project. ‘A proj-ect’ is then seen as a discontinuous event with apermanent effect, an event with a beginningand an end in which an urban need is met, anurban question is answered with a result thatcan be collectively experienced and evaluated.

There are countless conceivable examples:• An abandoned factory track is turned into a

broad cycling and walking avenue and onschool days a boulevard for pupils. New linksare made, former exteriors at the backs ofbuildings are redesigned.

• A housing centre provides expert advice andexpert assistance for a sustainable conversion.A number of show homes reveal how ecologyand the modern urban home can be combinedand be affordable.

4 . U R BA N D E BATE A N D U R BA N P ROJ E C T , D E TE R M I N I N G TH E F O R M O F TH E G R I D C IT Y

150 • Subject to agreements on maintenance, alter-nating use and security, an abandonedmonastery garden is turned into a communitycentre managed by an ad hoc committee.Youth work can be carried out in part of theformer printers. A conference room is plannedin another part and simple cooking facilitiesare installed. The inaugural weekend startswith an Eastern multicultural festival and endswith a dance parade.

• The war between nature lovers and business-men is settled: a neglected dump is turnedinto an urban wood. The disputed industrialsite is moved somewhere else. The businesspeople take advantage by turning it into an‘enterprise park’: a sustainable interaction ofgreen spaces and adaptable industrial build-ings. It wins a provincial prize…

• The city asks artists to present projects on thedistrict and the city. The winning projectorganises the longest dining table in the histo-ry of the city, together with the residents of aboring and very straight residential street: anendless table running straight down the lineof the street with all the residents invitingeach other to sit at the table, with TV and pho-tographs. The street, a grey strip of tarmacwhich is generally used for coming and going,and where you put out the rubbish on a Tues-day, changes into a location for a unique formof urban cohabitation. The party is over a daylater, but there are good memories of a verydifferent street, the contacts, enthusiasm andskills to do something, which remain.

These projects exist in many cities. By projects,we mean something different from the count-less concrete actions which are undertaken dayafter day by the urban policy at the counter or inthe street. This does not mean that the descrip-tion of these projects entails a devaluation ofcurrent everyday work. The ordinary everydaywork is not only exceptionally important, it

must also comply with many qualities. It iseveryday work, but it is not simple. However, acity must be more than a good standard ofeveryday work.

Projects have a quality of a performance, a ‘hap-pening’, involving many efforts which all havethe same goal within a prescribed time span.These projects make the urban reality visible,including the contradictions and restrictions.People, terms, interests, places, boundaries, cus-toms appear in these projects – in other words,they provide a multifaceted context. The projectfocuses on issues, paradigms and policy lines,and tests them out, and possibly adapts them.The expectation that the ‘happening’, theextraordinary and finite event created by theproject, will lead to a greater driving force andforce of argument, which means that fixed posi-tions can be rearranged, determines theapproach to the project to a great extent. Pro-jects work on synergy, on a confluence of ener-gies that is generated, and in this way pushback boundaries, each on their own scale and inaccordance with the effort made.

In this chapter the emphasis will move fromprojects in general, as described above, to a par-ticular category of projects. In a city, certain proj-ects can be seen as the crystallisation of theurban policy: their scope is greater, their struc-ture is more complex and their impact is morestructural. The title ‘urban project’ is reserved forthese projects.

Projects can make use of unforeseen opportuni-ties and depend on coincidence. However, theyusually have to be encouraged, peripheral condi-tions are imposed and they arise from prioritychoices. In other words, most projects require aframework, a foundation and a project strategy.We describe this as the development of an openurban vision which lasts rather longer and still


151constantly remains the subject of amendmentsand enrichment. This open vision, this overallproject framework, focuses on complex projects,but is equally modified by concrete projectexperiences. Projects in a strict sense, on theone hand, and the broad framework, the openurban vision, on the other hand, are the twosides of the same project approach. They are liketwo legs for the new project-based approach tothe city, two tracks towards a new urban charac-ter. This structure is seen in this chapter as a dif-ferent type of urban planning, and in the nextchapter as the core of an interactive and partici-patory democracy.

A broad project framework, an open urbanvision, two tracks, two sides, two legs, a newmethod of planning, a different form of democ-racy: there does not appear to be a shortage ofdescriptive terminology and imagery, thoughthe lack of precision in terminology is all thegreater. This semantic gap is characteristic ofthe search for new forms and contents that thisbook opts for. The terms that are chosen areonly provisional signifiers; the metaphors thatare used clarify and blur the picture at thesame time. In this way, the interaction of thebroad project framework and the concrete proj-ects, including the urban projects are referredto below as the ‘urban debate’. The word‘debate’ should not be interpreted literally, asthough the city and the urban character onlyattain form and content around the discussiontable. The ‘urban debate’ stands for the achieve-ment of a conceptual, professional and interac-tive framework, which organises the interactionbetween the development of a vision, urbanprojects and the development of ideas on sus-tainable urban development and makes it theobject of permanent democratic modificationsand participation.

2. The ‘urban debate’:efforts, object and procedure

2.1 One debate, two registers, three tracks…1 . Beyond the master planning

and the lack of planningThe city is a jigsaw of big and little strategies, offormal plans, of projects and projections, ofunplanned actions, of sudden pieces of luckwhich can lead to rapid progress, and dossierswhich have been groaning for decades underthe weight of countless procedures. Since the1990s, this has been accompanied by a cacopho-ny of planning initiatives and stacks of startingmemorandums, preliminary studies, preliminarydesigns and agreements on town and countryplanning, traffic, green spaces, shops and busi-nesses, each with their own terms of reference,perspectives and recommendations. It seemsjustified to argue for a single large comprehen-sive plan, which will neatly encompass all theindividual plans and all the individual projects,memorandums and agreements, in the light ofan obvious need for a comprehensive vision andefficiency.

This is not a new argument. This appeal to drawup the plan of plans, the master plan, has beenan obstinate feature of international modernplanning theory and practice for many years.However, even if some master plans have suc-cessfully pushed through important interven-tions with regard to zoning and infrastructure, itsoon became apparent that the consecratedplan was not able to lead the actual urbandevelopment along the right lines, let alone togenerate it. In Belgian, and subsequently Flem-ish planning history, these comprehensive plansplayed a rather restrictive role. Although masterplans occasionally emerged as the technocraticlegitimacy of important investments, the pre-dominant situation involved ‘planning if it can’tbe done in any other way’, in the form of prag-


152 matic ad hoc zoning and construction planswhich could be interpreted and manipulated inmany different ways. There is not much sign inthem of a vision, a strategy, flexibility or a bal-ance between public and private interests.Whether a meadow is turned into a construc-tion site or whether the roofline is suitable inthe cityscape are the big questions in this sortof planning. Participation is restricted to theobjections that are submitted, and the informa-tion evening is just about all that is achievedwith regard to communication.

Neither the comprehensive type of planning,nor planning as little as possible correspond tothe visions on the city and the urban characterwhich we advocate in this book. A differentmethod of planning is needed to work towardssuitable urban development, the open grid city,a good quality density, diversity as a form ofidentity and participatory democracy. ‘Masterplanning’ does not correspond with urbandynamics and diversity; a lack of planning andmanipulated planning are diametricallyopposed to solidarity and sustainability.

We opt for a form of urban planning which canbe described under the heading of the ‘urbandebate’. At first site, the term ‘debate’ does notgo with the notion of a ‘plan’. The word ‘debate’is used here as a metaphor for the interplay ofviews and skills, the discursive process of ques-tion and answer, the unprejudiced questionsand the provisional synthesis. The urban debatecreates a multiple framework which links astrong professional basis to an open and criticalattitude and the real participation of thoseinvolved. As indicated above, it relates to twosides of the question at the same time: that ofthe development of an open vision and that ofthe evaluation in concrete projects, including anumber of urban projects. These two sidesenrich and correct each other, lead to new

methods of urban planning and form the motorfor urban participatory democracy.

The projects, and in particular the urban proj-ects are a special form of policy fields which areopened up by the policy lines in chapter 3. Thedistinction is a matter of time, place and strate-gy. Projects are localised, discontinuous andstrategic: in certain places, work is started for aparticular period, and what happens has anoticeable impact on the local situation and aneffect on urban development in a broader sense.These sorts of projects lead to statements andparticipation, render principles visible and acces-sible, evaluate policy lines and instances. With-out these projects there is no urban debate orurban planning, and any development of visionsremains sterile. Projects feed the debate; thedebate formulates projects. The project studiesthe plan; the plan defines the project. The visionsteers the project, while the project focuses onthe vision.

2. A guiding framework which sti l l has an open character

Within the urban debate, the development of anopen vision creates a framework and a basis forthe concrete projects and urban projects. Thisframework must at the same time have a guid-ing and open character. The guidelines of theframework provide support, protect the essen-tial character of the project and draw reliablelines for development. This is based on a cleardiagnosis in which opportunities and obstaclesare clearly presented, it allows for a discussion ofalternative scenarios, and weighs up alternativeson the grounds of issues, ways of seeing andpolicy choices on the city and the urban charac-ter as they were discussed in the previous chap-ters. Therefore this framework is not concernedwith arbitrary factors or illusion. It is not ascreen behind which the real decisions are hid-den. It is far removed from the woolly complexi-


153ty of commonplace factors which so often serveas an introduction to planning documents.

The ‘open’ framework puts an end to the closedmaster plan, the technocratic planning of blue-prints, the plan which will be inevitably taken orabandoned. It concerns a receptive and stimu-lating framework, which not only generatesnew projects for parts of the city, but also takesup existing initiatives and makes them usefulby connecting them with parallel interventionsand programmes, in this way adding a valuabledimension of synergy. The vision of the openplan outlines a few powerful ideas, acts as aninspiration and as a guide, but still leaves manythings open and can respond to unexpectedopportunities and make modifications on thebasis of the project experiences on the ground.

3. Different rhy thms and durationsThe development of a vision is never finishedbecause project experiences, unforeseen oppor-tunities and social developments constantlyrequire modification. The open vision of the cityis always a work in progress. The developmentof a vision can therefore not be based on a sin-gle impressive effort. Cities can become quitebreathless as a result of these sorts of efforts, sothat there is no possibility of further develop-ment in the vision in the next few years. Fur-thermore, it is necessary to guard against theillusion that ‘everything will change now’, anillusion which floats on empty promises, typicalof election programmes. The development of avision cannot and does not have to take placeall at once, encompassing everything at thesame time. It is a form of poetic realism: newconcepts arise and boundaries are pushed backon the basis of a critical insight into what existsand what is feasible, and on the basis of astrategic ability to guide dispersed availableenergies in the same direction. However, theneed for constant adjustment does not mean

that the development of a vision and the urbandebate become a continuous predictable activi-ty, like the weather forecast on the radio or TV.The urban debate and the development of thevision can themselves also be considered as asort of ‘meta-urban project’ and should retainthe energy of a project-based approach, withaspects of creativity and participation, withdeadlines and results. The discussion of theurban debate along two lines does not introducea categorical distinction, but merely indicates arelative difference between the two. The devel-opment of a vision is not necessarily on a largescale, comprehensive or permanent, and nor is aproject always a short intense local event. Thedevelopment of a vision can go through a shortpowerful stage of intensive debate, with crucialchanges of course. However, it is also possiblethat these things require time, that patient littlesteps are required, and that broad preparatorywork must be carried out, that the larger debateconsists of a slow train of ideas and decisions.The same applies for projects: some requirelengthy preparation, others make use of anunexpected opportunity; some are complex andhave an impact on the whole city, others areused as an example because of a simple, localaction which hits the mark. The two sides of theurban debate do not result in a boring littleditty, but in an intriguing melody. The two legsdo not march with uniform paces, but dancewith large and small, fast and slow paces. (Thisis how useful metaphors sometimes are…)

The development of a vision draws lines – some-times broad lines, sometimes vague lines, some-times sharp lines, sometimes just a few mainlines and occasionally a few side lines – whichextend at most ten to twelve years into the futu-re. For the sake of simplicity, let us say two pe-riods of urban administration. This results in aglobal urban vision, an urban manifesto, an ur-ban programme, or perhaps all of these at the


154 same time. The duration of projects can varyenormously. Sometimes they are short actionswhich last one to three years, but real urbanprojects generally have a longer duration, thoughan appropriate division into stages can also leadto visible results after one to three years.

4 . Communication no longer as an afterthought

The two sides of the urban debate are notsomething thought up by the authors of thisbook. The interaction between vision and actionas the motor of development is recognised invarious disciplines which are concerned withplanning, policy and management. For example,in French literature on urban planning, the ‘pro-jet de ville’ refers to the steering framework andthe global urban vision, while the ‘projet urbain’stands for the localised and discontinuous proj-ect.1 In our own literature on strategic structuralplanning, we find a threefold model.2 Betweenthe tracks of the development of a vision and aproject-related intervention, there is a thirdtrack, that of ‘communication and participation’.The three tracks must be followed simultane-ously with regular changes which provide inter-action, overlaps, and occasionally a collision.Every model has its own power of convictionand limitations. The three-track model empha-sises the essential role of communication andparticipation. Returning to our twofold model,we can say that communication and participa-tion form the nervous system which stimulatesthe legs, or that it serves as the wiring and sig-nals between the track of the development of avision and that of the approach to the project.

The choice of terms indicates that communica-tion and participation no longer represent soft,slightly redundant aspects of urban planningand urban development, but are crucial factorswhich arise from a primary need. After all, forsome time, the government has no longer

determined the interaction of different parties,such as that presupposed by a particular type ofmaster plan or structural planning. The govern-ment cannot be replaced and continues to playa role, as we will emphasise in the next chapter,but determining the direction of urban develop-ment also requires a basis and needs coopera-tion and collaboration.

Communication and participation have differentpurposes: not only to provide information,encourage involvement, create a basis andmobilise people, but also to listen, acquire infor-mation and organise participation. This must allbe safeguarded and organised, and that requiresa capable and professional approach. Some-times communication and participation areintensified at the level of (urban) projects; inthis case we refer to the interactivity and publicdebate about projects. At times, this intensifi-cation takes place at the level of the develop-ment of a vision. This can lead, for example, to awell-organised conference which is intensivelyprepared at the district level, or to a one-yearprogramme working with different partners.

5 . The ambition of the urban debateThe urban debate does not lead to a brilliantnew method of planning which makes every-thing else redundant at a stroke. These discover-ies will soon have to make way for the nextfashionable trend. This concerns a structurewhich aims to be complementary, with areforming rather than revolutionary character. Itwould make good use of the existing good prac-tices. It is not particularly relevant whetherthere will be anything new in this, because wecertainly expect a powerful and innovativeimpetus from the new global structure.

Amongst other things, this objective means thatthe urban debate is no longer seen as an alter-native for the new urban policy which was pro-


155posed in chapter 3. It concerns a process thataims to complement the constant and structur-al effects of the proposed policy in the day-to-day practices of urban institutions. Direct coor-dination is necessary between the urban debateand urban policy. On the one hand, the explo-ration, organisation and support of the urbandebate requires important policy decisions; onthe other hand, the urban debate promotes thesame objectives as the new urban policy, and inthe debate important policy aspects are subject-ed to a democratic discussion and a process-ori-ented evaluation.

However, the perspective of coordination, com-plementarity and transformation should not bemisunderstood. The urban debate should notbecome a superfluous re-enactment of thingswhich are arranged elsewhere, nor a sort ofoccupational therapy for dreamers and critics. Itshould gradually reveal itself as the core of theurban participatory democracy – even one ofthe foundations of the new urban character –and as a new method for urban planning.

2.2 What is this urban project about andwhat is the point of this urban vision?

1 . The example of structural planningThe points of view in chapter 2 and the lines inchapter 3 constitute the various dimensionsregarding content which are raised in the urbandebate with its two sides, the creation of avision and the approach to the project. This doesnot have to – and cannot – be achieved all atthe same time. The dimensions do not all haveto be seen equally strongly. This is what wemeant above with the ‘open’ urban vision aswork in progress.

A good start can be made on the actual contentof the urban debate by looking at the effects insome cities such as Ghent, Mechelen and Leu-ven, following the development of the munici-

pal structural plan for town and country plan-ning. From time to time, all the lines of the ‘true’strategic structural planning were followed:broad consultation, a critical diagnosis, a funda-mental intellectual exercise on the future of thecity, a workshop on the aspects of the desiredstructural town and country planning, a focuson the strategic choices, the formulation of pilotprojects, the search for synergy between exist-ing initiatives, etc. In other cities, the new proce-dure for the municipal structural planning thatwas aimed for resulted in an old fashioned,closed planning method, with reports full ofabstract diagrams and woolly texts, revealinganything but a structural or strategic vision, sothat any urban parties that might have beeninterested soon lost interest.

2. The grid city as a generic image of the built-up area

It is self-evident that the dimension of townand country planning which is central in thestrategic structural planning in every city, is animportant element in the new urban characterand can help the coordination of the differentlines in the development of the city. Thereforethe periods for the adjustment of the structuralplan provide the ideal momentum for the urbandebate. In the urban debate, the structural plan-ning turns into complete ‘strategic structuralplanning’, which links the development of thevision to participation and a project-orientedevaluation.

Conversely, the urban debate will also essential-ly be a debate about urban development andtown and country planning. After all, one of themost important tasks of the urban debate is todevelop a vision on the form and achievementof the grid city. The generic image of the gridcity plays a threefold role in this: it works as agenerator of concepts and ideals, as a timetableor frame of reference for the existing urban


156 space, and as an inspiration for the design of aconcrete desirable space for the new urbancharacter.

In the first place, the image of the grid city stim-ulates the creation of concepts and ideals on anew urban character, in which ideas on open-ness, coordination, diversity, high quality density,sustainable development and urban democracyare enriched with images of the desirable urbanspace and scenarios of desirable urban living.The image of the grid city represents the valuegiven to and the use made of the compact his-torical city centre. However, this takes placewithin a mesh of very different types of fabricwith very diverse levels of density. The wholefabric is subject to the management of the qual-ity of the density, which becomes more compactwherever possible and less compact wherevernecessary, safeguarding quality. The image ofthe grid city stands for the interaction betweenurban and rural areas in terms of town andcountry planning. The new urban character andthe new rural character acquire a new look atthe same time, under the responsibility of thelarge group of urban dwellers and urban users.The image of the grid city suggests generalaccessibility and mobility. These are supportedby a fine coordination of public and privatemeans of transport and the classification of thegrid into main corridors, loops, entrance points,junctions and transfer points.

However, this development of the concept neveracquires the status of an autonomous utopia, acastle in the air. It interacts with an understand-ing and interpretation of the town and countryplanning and the operation of the existingurban area in terms of a possible grid city. Thisis the second role of the image of the grid. Itmeans that in the complex patterns of roads,squares, houses, shops, businesses, amenities,gardens, fields and areas of water, and in the

constantly changing activities, interactions andmovements of the urban dwellers and urbanusers, an attempt is made to identify thespecific starting points for the emerging gridcity. At the same time, numerous defects in thegrid will undoubtedly emerge, while possibleopportunities also come to light. In this sense,the development of the vision is never abstractand conceptual, but links abstract concepts toconcrete opportunities in town and countryplanning. In the development of this vision, con-cepts are always supported by a concrete space,and the concrete space acquires a conceptualinterpretation.

In the interaction between concepts and idealimages, on the one hand, and the concrete inter-pretation of a developing grid city, on the otherhand, the third role of the generic image of thegrid city also starts to play a part. On the basisof the image of the grid as the conceptual gen-erator of the new urban character, and as aninterpretation of the existing city, the image ofthe grid city inspires the design of a desirableurban space. The role of the design is of essen-tial importance: the conceptual developmentand interpretation of what exists are necessarybut insufficient conditions to arrive at a visionon the new urban space. This design is at thesame time both virtual and real: it projects avision on a desired future in terms of whatseems possible against the background of aninterpretation of what already exists. The thirdrole introduces a process which is different fromthe conceptual and analytical process: thedesign concerns the synthesis of the momentand poetic creation.

However, an urgent warning is appropriate here.Paradoxically, poetic inspiration does not lastlong in an authoritarian utopia. Theartist/designer places the ideal image he hasdesigned beyond discussion. This must not be


157the case in the urban debate. There are twoprinciples to prevent this. It is expected that theinputs from design will have a character thatsynthesises, attracts and convinces as much aspossible, but this does not prevent every designfrom continuing to be an object of discussion inthe never-ending process of developing a vision.Furthermore, the design works in the first placeon projects which can be achieved and evaluat-ed, and usually alternative scenarios arerequired for their achievement. Designs whichtranscend the scale of the project or avoid aconcrete character have a mainly illustrative anddiscursive value.

In the urban debate, the development of a visionfor the space in the grid city does not progressvery far if the aspect of projects relating to thebuilt-up urban area is not involved in it. Thedescription of priority projects, the managementof the project development, the supervision ofthe project management and the evaluation ofproject results contribute comprehensively tothe development of a vision as described above.The generic image of the grid city plays a fourthrole in this: it supports a latent programme forthe transformation of the existing city into thebuilt-up grid city. With this sort of programmeas a basis, the urban debate can identify priorityprojects. Conversely, it is possible to gauge forevery project the extent to which it contributesto the creation of the built-up grid city.

These projects can concern city living or anyother urban functions. They can concern reliev-ing the pressure on densely populated urbanbuilt-up block, residential expansion to make theperipheral areas more compact, or the realloca-tion of an empty barracks. The projects can alsorelate to infrastructure and the public domain:coordinated interventions can finally ensure thatareas plagued by flooding are freed from thisproblem, an ingenious reorganisation can recon-

cile parking problems with various functions of asquare, a fatal road can become a multifunction-al urban axis. Cities are not made only of bricksand mortar. Open spaces, green areas and waterare important components in the grid: a neglect-ed towpath along a canal can be turned into aneffective cycle path, while a former depot can beturned into a playground in anticipation of aprofitable reallocation of this site.

Projects which contribute to the development ofthe grid city, include an endless variety of loca-tions, scales, genres, actors and budgets: large-scale urban expansion, the strategic correctionof a street profile, public and private aspects, thecentre and the periphery. All these projectsrequire a project framework to guide the plan-ning. This is supported by the continuous devel-opment of a vision inspired by the genericimage of the grid city as a generator of con-cepts, as a framework for interpretive planning,as the inspiration for the design, as a latent pro-gramme of projects. The general impressions ofthe grid city are gradually turned into clearlydefined characteristics in the interactionbetween the development of a vision and theactual projects: the main morphological lines,functional supports, the recognisable mesh ofthe fabric, the scale and the size, a different rela-tionship between the centre and the periphery,a different interaction between built-up andnon-built-up areas, density management, flexi-bility and stages, design, etc.

3. More than one themeThe discussion referred to above certainly doesnot mean that the urban debate deals exclu-sively with the built-up urban area. The plan-ning aspect of the grid city is an importanttheme, but by no means the only one.

It is equally possible that it is not the built-uparea, but urban economic development that will


158 become the focus of the urban debate. This con-cerns initiatives about the establishment of eco-nomic development coalitions with variousurban partners. The central theme of the debateis to improve the economic potential of the gridcity in a globalising economy. The coalition stim-ulates local cooperation in the field of logistics,recruitment, transport, supply, etc. It works on acommon platform which transcends the inter-ests of individual entrepreneurs or trade unions.This platform can raise questions for the policy,draw up a programme of infrastructuralimprovement (mobility, equipment, industrialestate, cleaning up operations, the constructionof public spaces), and make proposals withregard to employment and vocational training.

The incorporation of the urban economic devel-opment in the broader urban debate makes itpossible to look at the economic dimensions ofthemes which are not primarily economicthemes. For example, the socio-cultural capitalof a city – the production of culture, ethnicenterprise, traditional reputation and know-how– can become an important factor in the eco-nomic strategy. Obviously the physical transfor-mation and maintenance of the built-up gridcity create an important market for countlessbusinesses of all sorts of shapes and sizes: fromreal estate developers to plumbers. In a moregeneral sense, the open and many-sided charac-ter, the ability to adapt and the environmentalqualities of the grid city, together with thedynamic character of urban democracy, willbecome important advantages in city market-ing. Like the urban debate on the built-up city,the economic urban debate is not limited to adiscussion forum, but is based on projects:either by describing and defining strategic eco-nomic projects in an urban context, or by focus-ing on the economic aspect of multiple (urban)projects.

The social aspect obviously also constitutes anessential dimension of the urban debate. Thecity more than ever continues to be necessary asa framework and locus of solidarity. Therefore anappropriate approach to inclusion and exclusionand social diversity is necessary. Familiar andnew forms of active solidarity are on the agendafor discussion: solidarity between people of dif-ferent ages, between generations, between therich and the poor, between the users and theinhabitants of the city. Levels of latent solidaritycan be explored and developed. Various socialchanges have provided the material for thedebate: changes between public and privateaspects, between safe and unsafe areas, etc.

Examples of projects which could support thesocial debate are numerous: guaranteeing bothan open approach and the social control ofevents in the city, communication and participa-tion to increase the value of annual collectionactions, effective forms of twinning and exchan-ges with a city in the south, a campaign to stopproperty speculation linked to the developmentof a network of houses that have been renovat-ed for the neediest members of society, supportfor community festivals which promote diversi-ty, a project of schools and centres for the elder-ly on the history of the city and information,employment, awareness raising of young peopleaimed at tidying up the environment andrestoring small-scale environmental damage.

Culture is a crucial point on the programme ofthe urban debate. Every city accommodates acolourful range of cultural associations: from awell-known choir to the carnival association.These form the possible components of aninclusive and contemporary cultural pro-gramme. For some time, prestigious city festi-vals have set the tone: the Zinneke Parade, theArts festival Des Arts, the Summer of Antwerp,the Ghent festivals, Bruges 2000, Anno 02, etc.


159There is no question of their impact on theimage of the city and on the urban economy.Incorporating these events in the urban debatewould promote the synergy with planning,social and economic themes and ensure thatgreater attention is devoted to the broaderimplications and this has an effect as a lever:after-effects and preparation, training and infra-structural support, cultural enterprise, etc.

However, urban culture comprises more thanthe calendar of cultural events. The urbandebate can use multiculturalism as a guideline.How do we deal with cultural density and diver-sity in this city? What are the problem areas andblind spots? How can cultural diversity form thebasis of urban identity, even outside festivalperiods, at work and at school, in councils andassociations, behind the counter and in citymarketing? One essential condition of sustain-able multiculturalism is the development ofcontemporary urban relationships which reflecttolerance and stimulate a sense of security. Theurban debate can take up the cause of promot-ing urban behaviour, a polite approach, as amedium for the public face of the city. The pub-lic domain is an important field of action: it isno easy matter to find the right balancebetween the use of the public space by all thedifferent groups of people at the same time, onthe one hand, and by subcultures appropriatingthe space, on the other hand –skaters, youngimmigrants, cycling tourists, people hastily park-ing their cars, noisy school children or motherswith toddlers. It may help if there are appropri-ate examples, suitable infrastructure and con-trol, behaviour that serves as an example,arrangements about time, participation and co-management. Once again, experiments andprojects can support the debate in this respect.

Finally, the urban debate focuses on the politicaldimension and the organisation of the adminis-

tration of society in the city. The elements of thenext chapter will form the object of the debate.Local democracy itself is obviously the object ofa democratic urban debate within the two linesof the debate: both at the level of the develop-ment of a vision, and at the level of innovativedemocratic projects.

It is clear that these themes and moments ofintensive social debate should actually form thesubject of elections and campaigns. Just as wehope that the different social partners will jointhe debate, it is also self-evident that the politi-cal parties should take up the vision of the cityand the urban projects as an introduction to thedebate. In other words, the discussion in a repre-sentative democracy and the democratic discus-sion on urban development are not two sepa-rate aspects. We have placed participatorydemocracy in such a central position in chapter5 to prevent these two lines of the debate fromgrowing apart (even further), and focus on anew type of town council for both processes.

2.3 The procedure of the urban debate,a few introductions

1 . The urban debate as a locusThere is no blueprint for the operation, the for-mat or the place of the urban debate. It isimportant that the urban debate shows itself asthe locus where the condition of the city, thevision on urban development and the experi-ence with urban projects is formulated, weighedup, revealed, explained and disseminated. Forthis purpose, ‘the debate’ requires a number ofprofessional skills and resources in the field ofdocumentation, planning, and communication.However, the aim is not that the urban debateshould take the place of professional planningand design bureaus, project managers or com-munications specialists. A few ideas are includ-ed here by way of inspiration.


160 The urban debate collects and processes all theavailable knowledge and expertise on the citywhich could form a useful basis for the develop-ment of an urban vision and the formulation of(urban) projects. The emphasis is not on the col-lection of all sorts of documents, but on tracing,making available and evaluating the existingknowledge. This knowledge includes the wealthof individual urban stories, views and eyewit-ness accounts, including all the generally absentor drowned-out voices which also deserve aplace in the databank. This operational docu-mentation provides the basis for a critical analy-sis and diagnosis of the city. It is not presentedas an official urban doctrine, but is in principlemany-sided, and is constantly supplementedand amended in the urban debate itself.

The urban debate organises moments of densityproducing strong interim documents on currentissues (starting memorandums, manifestos,reports on targeted studies, the collection ofrecommendations, summaries of expertises,etc.) These documents give rise to targetedcommunication and participation. The traditionof the report by private experts which is putaway as quickly as possible has therefore cometo an end.

In this age of business and profitability, theurban debate retains a visionary aspect. In orderto locate the generic image of the grid city moreeffectively, the urban debate looks for powerfulimages, metaphors, rhetorical foundations, keyterms which express the desire for a differenturban character, reveal the choices for this andgive form to its realisation. Original metaphorsplay an important role in the development of anopen vision, which by definition presents whatdoes not yet exist. These are not hollow market-ing slogans, but inclusive images which revealthe heart of the debate, elicit opinions, generateactions and are themselves regularly amended.

The urban debate should become the Mecca ofurban communication. The usual media as wellas new forms of communication can be used forthis: workshops, lunch sessions, city newspapers,the internet, regional TV, school activities, com-petitions, information sources, open days, advicecentres, etc. Every member of the public can betargeted: people stuck in a traffic jam, passen-gers on the bus, people shopping, devotees ofdebates, conference visitors, concertgoers, peo-ple involved in social work, single people, schoolchildren, office workers, etc.

At important moments, large-scale festivalsmay be necessary to ‘consecrate’ elements ofthe urban vision with great pomp and circum-stance. A large degree of openness is accompa-nied by some ceremony. People should feel thatthey are participating in a pivotal activity. Thecost shouldn’t matter. Being there is whatcounts.

These key moments can be linked to theapproval and ratification of an ‘urban pact’. Thisis a basic document which powerfully formu-lates the state of affairs with regard to thedebate. It contains a critical balance of successesand failures, it formulates new objectives andrecords the principled commitment of impor-tant partners.

2 The locus of the urban debateThe town council is the referee and organiser ofthe urban debate. However, it should involve alarge number of partners. Therefore we arguefor a sufficient degree of independence. It wouldbe possible to have a mix of ‘inside people’ and‘outside people’, for example, in the form of an‘Urban Bureau’ or a ‘Foundation for the UrbanDebate’ with its own urban officials, as well as‘external people’ who are brought in temporari-ly and specifically for their own particularexpertise. Steering groups and working groups


161also support the ‘Urban Bureau’. Again all sortsof ‘external’ people could be involved, as well asthe urban partners concerned, for example,interested parties from other Flemish cities, citylovers from the green peripheral municipalitiesor Flemish officials who live in the city and areinterested in it.

The urban debate is carried on in the towncouncil. This plays an essential role as a stimula-tor of the debate, as a guardian of the demo-cratic content of the development of the vision,and of the urban projects, and as an authoritywho makes it possible to apply the debate inthe field. However, this requires a modificationof the role of the town council, within an overallre-evaluation of the urban representativedemocracy. This will be dealt with in the nextchapter. At this point we will merely emphasisethat if it is not taken up by the town council, theurban debate is in danger of being submergedby technocratic closed attitudes or being takenover by certain dominant groups and interests.The ‘Urban Bureau’ works for and reports to thetown council, which is re-evaluated in the nextchapter as an important urban parliament.

3. Urban projects

The urban vision and the basic objectives of thenew urban character – such as sustainabledevelopment, openness and coordination, a highquality density, diversity, solidarity and democ-racy – are confronted with a specific context: anactual site, a concrete range of problems, realprogrammes and the people who are involved.The policy fields are stimulated, authoritiesresponsible for policy go into action. The actorsappear on the scene and make every effort topromote their interests. On the basis of thedevelopment of an open vision, a project isdefined which responds to the context, helps to

resolve the contextual problems, and at thesame time moves in the direction of the generalobjectives. This project experience will make itpossible to acquire knowledge on the vision andthe objectives, the policy aspects that are adopt-ed and the establishment of new projects.

3.1 A short list of criteria forthe urban project

There is no book of recipes for good projects. Infact, this would undermine the unrepeatablemix of opportunities and difficulties whichmakes every project unique. Nevertheless, inthis book, the term urban project can be definedin a certain way. Not all the projects in the cityacquire the status of an urban project.

Projects can be tackled well and be more thanwelcome in their own context. Setting up atraining and information centre for ethnic entre-preneurs, consultation of the residents and thereorganisation of parking in a residential areawith parking problems, a new approach to themusic school, opening a footpath along a for-merly inaccessible stream, the demolition of anumber of stubborn slums and the expert incor-poration of a new type of social housing, a reno-vated garage used as a youth centre andrehearsal space, a centre for starters in an oldbarracks, etc. – these projects reveal a caring andeffective policy and deserve praise. Two or threeof these interventions can influence the atmos-phere in an entire district and contribute to sus-tainable urban development. However, in itselfthis does not make such projects ‘urban proj-ects’. The label ‘urban project’ is related to anumber of criteria. However, these are based onaspects of quality and are never decisive inthemselves. Therefore the distinction betweenordinary projects and ‘urban projects’ remains avery relative matter. Their role and value in thedynamic urban debate is in the end the decisivefactor.


162 1 . An example of an urban projectAn empty factory, surrounded by the silted-up,nineteenth-century fabric, is purchased by thecity. A training project for the long-term unem-ployed acquires this robust industrial site and,assisted by an architectural bureau, starts tobuild houses in the concrete shell. The districtneeds green and open spaces, two social housingcompanies are struggling with lengthy waitinglists and want as many houses built as quickly aspossible, if necessary, somewhere in a field at theedge of the city. A competition for a design con-vinces the various parties: a cleverly plannedtype of housing allows for compact developmenton the edges of the site, so that the heart beco-mes a large playing area. Passages facilitate theaccess from the surrounding buildings, whichalso need open space. One building companywants houses for sale, the other houses for rent;the design provides both with adapted types ofbuildings and locations. A private developer firstjoins in, but then decides to wait and see. Thedistrict might continue to be characterised bysocial housing so that it is not appropriate tobuild expensive city apartments. This means thatthe shops which are planned are also postponedand a youth centre becomes established in theabandoned school building. The adjacent culti-vated areas of the urban gardening departmentacquire more surface area and in return providea free carpet of flowers. Private sponsorship paysfor the restoration of the factory as a reminderof the industrial past. The next time, the privatesector wants to join in from the beginning.

2. Structure, leverage, strategyAlthough urban projects are carried out in a par-ticular place for a particular length of time, theytranscend the local boundaries and the one-offeffect. Urban projects make a difference; theymove things towards a new urban characterand the grid city. In other words, they have astructural impact and serve as a lever.

‘Structural’ means that the basic relationshipswhich characterise the city are affected, andthat the result does not disappear straightaway,but continues to have an effect as long as it isneeded. In this way, a new bridge for cyclists andpedestrians which links the two banks of a rail-way cutting heals a historical break in the planof the city. The cooperation in an annual artproject creates a good relationship between stu-dents from a high school and the ethnic entre-preneurs in the district, two groups who mis-trusted each other until recently.

The leverage function relates to positive sideeffects. In the first example, the bridge protectschildren on their way to school from the heavytraffic of cars, and a number of local shops startto do good business again. In the second exam-ple, the good relationship between students andimmigrant shopkeepers leads to the organisa-tion of various job courses by the students inthe top year, to an increase in the quality of stu-dent rooms in the area, and to the provision of astudent service by some of the local restaurants.A project does not have to be large scale toserve as a lever. Smaller experimental attemptscan turn the tide after a long period of stagna-tion, can break down stubborn prejudices andserve as a successful example.

The effect of urban projects is related to boththe strategic and tactical insight which supportsthem. Being part of a broader context, makingthe necessary priority choices, using the appro-priate resources, recognising the availableopportunities and being aware of the possiblesynergies. The principles of sustainability play asignificant role in this, for example, the principleof the intelligent spending of scarce resources,such as land, money, opportunity and good will,or the principle of not passing on excessive proj-ect costs which could undermine the followingprojects. Sustainability is also the prime concern


163for structural depth. However, this does notmean that greed and greyness have the upperhand in the urban project. On the contrary, insome cases, the intended leverage functionrequires the allocation of resources which mayseem excessive at first sight: a lengthy anddetailed procedure, quality of design, specialdesigns, expensive expertise, and valuablematerials. There are issues enough for a heatedurban debate.

3. Connections, mediation,coordination

Urban projects serve as mediators, usually atseveral levels at the same time. Their mediatingrole can relate to the countless gaps and anom-alies in the built-up urban fabric, to divided orabsent urban functions, to policy areas whichoperate too independently, or to isolated partiesin all of this.

At the level of planning, this relates to the richtradition of the European urban morphotypolo-gy, which has successfully interconnected largeand small aspects, inside and outside, public andprivate, green spaces and stone, in a very self-evident way. However, this tradition is all toooften obstructed by a zoning obsession whichfocuses on control and domination, or an obses-sion with divisions, when parties focus on defi-ning their own territory. In this respect, themetaphor of the grid city is not without risk. Thegrid can both divide and connect, it stands foran open network of relationships, but can equal-ly refer to a grid of strictly separate squares. Thisis the start of an important task for designers:to design the connecting function of the lines ofthe grid (a street, a transport route), the conver-gent capacity of focal points (a square, a multi-modal traffic junction), the positive subsidiaryrole of the meshes in the grid (a residential area,a commercial centre, a business park) – in short,the design of the grid city as a vision of an

urban character characterised by openness,coordination, density and diversity. The organi-sation of the spatial relationships betweenrecognised differences means the success orfailure of the grid city: built-up space – greenspace, the city – the countryside, planned space– spontaneous space, historical aspects –con-temporary aspects, permanence – change,accessible places – exclusive territories, residen-tial accommodation – transit areas. This is a veryambitious plan. The grid city aims to be a ‘com-plete city’. This means that in some way it mustachieve a coordination between the historicalcity, the industrial city, the ‘post-Ford city’, theurban region and the green city. There are nomodels of urban development to display thiscomplete range in terms of planning. At thisscale, we are entering a fascinating, butunknown territory with both aspects of theurban debate.

Connections, mediation and interrelationshipsare also relevant on a smaller scale. In manycases, this concerns bringing together conflict-ing elements: cars and pedestrians, the securityof the home and the busy activity of the street,the density of people and services and the needfor space and distance. The fact that multifunc-tionality, density and spatial quality are not eas-ily reconciled is clear from the countless con-flicts in the urban fabric, such as the emptypremises over shops, the dangerous road to theschool, the parking gridlock on streets andsquares, the difficult accessibility to places ofwork in the inner city, the lack of affordablelarger homes in the city. After more than a hun-dred years of modern urbanisation, these long-standing and familiar functional and spatialurban problems are still awaiting a solution of ahigh standard. There is still a lot to do in thisfield, for the urban policy and the urban debatein general, and for urban projects in particular.For example, looking for good quality solutions


164 for housing over shops may sound easy enoughas a project, but it requires original interven-tions and could provide good examples.

The connecting character of urban projects doesnot imply that every project has to fulfil severalfunctions. A project can have a single functionin itself, but nevertheless serve as the missinglink which helps the whole environment to startworking as a multifunctional unit. For example,the incorporation of a carefully designed squarein front a prestigious museum project on theedge of a city district which is characterised bygentrification, can provide a strong link with theresidential district on the other side where thereare far fewer opportunities for development.Two single elements, a square and a museum, inthis way become the mediating elements whichboth create a multifunctional character forthemselves and forge relationships betweenwhat is special and what is ordinary, for the peo-ple and for the elite, the supra local and thelocal, the large and the small.

Connections, mediation and interrelationshipsnot only apply to functional and spatial dimen-sions. The urban project is not concerned withthe usual production of separate urban sectors:planting in the city parks, thirty units of socialhousing, the autumn programme of a theatrecompany. The complexity of urban projects, theirstrategic and structural tasks, requires the com-bination of several dimensions (spatial, econom-ic, social and cultural) and the bringing togetherof agencies and actors which generally operateseparately. This is clearly shown by the exampleof the museum square described above. Suc-cessful mediation requires an ingenious coordi-nation of architectural design, traffic organisa-tion, cultural programming and communitydevelopment. This is not possible without anintensive dialogue and the loyal participation ofpartners with very different interests and skills.

The creation of a strong democratic basis andthe introduction of far reaching communicationplay a crucial role in this.

Public-private partnership makes an importantcontribution to the mediation task of urbanprojects. The urban projects must achieve thecombination of private and public interests in aconcrete and flexible way, going beyond occa-sional sponsorship, but avoiding the overspend-ing of public resources.

The coordination of spatial, economic, social andcultural dimensions, the necessary consultationbetween diverse sectors and actors, and thesearch for cooperation between public and pri-vate interests give the urban project somethingof the complexity of the city itself. The urbanproject becomes ‘pars pro toto’, a monad for thedesired new urban character.

4 . Feasibil ity, visibi l ity, innovationUrban projects translate the urban vision in con-crete terms in the field. They are defined interms of time and space. The task is to be feasi-ble, but ambition serves as the motivation. Inorder not to become bogged down by numerousdelaying tactics after an inspirational start, theymust be propelled on by the urban debate. Thefeasibility of projects also depends on their oper-ational incorporation in existing policy sectorsand their specific programmes. Obviously, a pro-fessional approach must ensure that the projectcan be effectively achieved in terms of funding,period of execution, and technological feasibility.

Urban projects benefit from greater visibility,and therefore this should be achieved as quicklyas possible. There are plenty of ways to achievea far-reaching virtual visibility very quickly: anattractive website, an accessible informationstand in a strategic location, simulation and pre-view (image, logo, model, act). However, the real


165visibility is more important. Appropriate projectplanning and project stages can promote theprompt realisation of the first stage of the proj-ect. Supervised public accessibility to the projectsite during the stage of realisation can also con-tribute to the accelerated presence of the proj-ect. However, this does not mean performing asort of one-way spectacle. Early visibility elicitsopinions and stimulates communication. Thechannelling of these views in the direction offurther project development and the urbandebate is part of this meaningful visibility.

Something which is clearly visible must beworth seeing. The visual appearance, the designand style of the project are aimed at much morethan fancy frills. In the urban projects, the cityreveals its new urban character to its citizensand visitors. Grey mediocrity (or worse) in manyurban structures not only reflects the doubtfullevel of the contractors, decision makers anddesigners concerned, but also has an effect onthe city as a whole. Quality has primacy overlocality, even though this may leave some localdesigners or contractors out in the cold. This haslittle to do with going along with the currenttrends; it concerns urban civilisation, the art ofliving, and a vision of the world. Rather thanmeeting various needs, the urban project isexpected to stimulate a collective sense ofpride. It should support and strengthen theidentity of the city and its inhabitants.

Feasibility and viability are not an acceptableexcuse for mediocrity. Quality is related to costless than to effort and talent. Expectations arehigh for structural and strategic urban projects,even slightly higher than what may appear tobe feasible at first sight. Urban projects by defi-nition push back the boundaries and do so inseveral ways: they create the grid city, come upwith new spatial relationships, test out differentfunctional interactions, encourage sectors which

were formerly divided to work together. Inshort, they manage to break the trend. It is self-evident that this will not always be successful.Both successes and miscalculations are criticallyreviewed in the urban debate.

The term ‘feasibility’ emerges in the criticismsaddressed to modern urban policy and modernurban planning. The problematic feasibility ofthe urban master plan is quite justifiably criti-cised. In a more general sense, the ‘voluntarycharacter’ of the planning and the ‘illusion ofthe feasibility of the world’ are rejected underthe influence of postmodern thinking in relativeterms. The authoritarian modernistic way ofthinking is replaced by a pragmatic ‘surfing onthe waves of the prevailing social trends’. One ofthe most positive consequences of this latetwentieth-century way of thinking is far-reach-ing attention to the recognition and descriptionof the factual context, for example, in so-called‘descriptive urban development’. One of thenegative aspects is the fact that postmodernrelativism is all too often used as an alibi forplanning practice that is uncritical and merelyconfirms trends, flatteringly described by someas ‘post-critical’ planning.

We would like to go one step further in ourapproach to the urban debate.Urban projects turn the objectives and dimen-sions of urban policy and the urban debate intoconcrete form. In the most concise formulation,they lead to the transformation of a city into agrid city, and work on a new urban democracy.This does not mean that urban projects aremerely local applications of the visions of theurban debate translated into recipes. Urbanprojects also discover and explore new possibili-ties, introduce new concepts and modify visions.

Urban projects demonstrate a belief in the ‘rela-tive feasibility’ of the city, but as a local strategy


166 for meaning incorporated in a sort of ‘locallatent utopia’, which is based on the chance of anew urban democracy and the generic image ofa related space. Urban projects achieve a provi-sional synthesis in concrete form, a stage ofcoordination which interacts with a vision of theopen city, in which the vision and the projectconstantly supplement and monitor each other.This approach could be labelled as a ‘neo-volun-tary’ or ‘neo-utopian’ approach.

3.2 Urban projects: genres, bases, emphasesIn principle, the number of possible urban proj-ects is infinite. The concrete interaction of con-textual data, resources, actors and objectivesmeans that every project is unique. Neverthe-less, in many urban projects it is possible toidentify the basis or main object of the pro-gramme which determines everything.

One of these issues concerns the reorganisationof urban traffic. Rethinking the corridors, loops,routes, changeover points and parking provi-sions for both private and public transport,linked to basic infrastructural modifications anda suitable timetable, changes the perceptionand operation of the urban morphology. It is apowerful project which is capable of directingan amorphous urban conglomeration in thedirection of the grid city. This has an immediateimpact on the scope and accessibility of provi-sions, and is therefore a sensitive factor in theurban economy. There are numerous examplesof this sort of sensitivity. For example, conflict-ing visions of urban mobility can lead to adebate on a pedestrianised shopping streetwhich drags on for decades, or to a spectacularreferendum about an underground car park. Anambitious public transport project can con-tribute to the image of a city in an essentialway. The reorganisation of the traffic soonimplies other diverse project possibilities: the re-localisation of facilities, safety, social rates, etc.

Economic development is another possible issuewhich determines all sorts of individual projects,such as promoting the housing market, support-ing the shopping facilities in the inner city, theequipment of industrial estates, the relationshipwith job centres and retraining and employ-ment projects. Economic development projectsraise questions with regard to mobility, housingquality, the social fabric and communication.Within the urban debate there is a possibilitythat complex urban projects based on economicfactors will be managed by urban or interurbandevelopment coalitions.

As indicated above, the cultural programme hasnot been limited to elitist leisure time activitiesfor a long time, but can also serve as a powerfulissue in the urban project. High-level invest-ments in a variety of cultures, genres and infra-structures contribute to the urban economy andthe urban image. It is possible to build bridgesto artistic and logistic training, to youth cultureand the cultural midfield, and to companieswhich support culture.

One of the special objectives and possibleemphases in the urban project concerns therelationship with leisure time. This can involve aspecific objective based on one of the above-mentioned issues, but can also concern a partic-ular issue with applications to diverse projectgenres. After all, diversity and density are notonly concerned with flexibility and multifunc-tionality in the use of the urban space, but alsowith flexibility and multifunctionality in the useof urban time. For example, in the developmentof management forms which permit urban facil-ities to be used by different users at differenttimes, far beyond the usual working or schoolhours, is a step in this direction. Examples whichspring to mind include ticket offices which openafter working hours or a school which opens itssports facilities to the district in the weekend. It


167also means that to a much greater extent thanis the case now, the public space becomes avail-able for temporary events or for different uses inthe daytime and provides different equipmentfor this purpose. In general, the urban fabricgains in terms of sustainability when these verydiverse lifespans are integrated in a flexible way:the long-term aspect of solid structures, themedium term of the functional use and theshort term of momentary appropriation.

Almost all urban projects are related to urbanspace in some way. It could hardly be otherwise.In some way, the urban character is always relat-ed to a particular place in the city. The organisa-tion, equipment and management of the built-up city therefore constitute the main object ofurban policy, the most extensive theme of theurban debate, and a basic dimension of a major-ity of urban projects. The themes of the built-upcity comprise town and country planning, themanagement of density, traffic, the urban land-scape, open and green spaces, the housing stock,the residential environment, various infrastruc-tures and facilities, the historical heritage andpublic spaces – and this list is by no means ex-haustive. More important than this summary isthe role which the built-up space can play as abasis or major issue in multifaceted urban proj-ects. In the built-up space, density, sustainabilityand coordination become characteristics ofeveryday experience which can be evaluated,discussed and corrected. An intelligent arrange-ment means that the co-existence of elementsof diversity becomes self-evident: the house nextto the office, the shop, the school, the café. Care-fully thought-out transitional elements serve tomediate between conflicting places: the balconybetween the house and the street, the square between the museum and the residential district.

All these things mean that the built-up urbanarea is a suitable basis for other types of proj-

ects. As the next example will show, economicaspects, or cultural or social elements can be puttogether in various combinations and grada-tions without too many difficulties. A new foot-path or cycle path can be constructed – in redasphalt – straight through a dilapidated sectorof the nineteenth-century ring. This red carpetconnects several forgotten squares and newsquares which have been built as part of thecarefully planned new social housing. A theatrecompany is established next to the path. A fit-ness centre opens its doors, and a school acqui-res new access. Owners renovate their houses, anumber of cafes and shops do more business. Anew branch of the annual city festival uses thisred carpet, places the district on the calendar ofcity events, and the name of the district entersinto the general consciousness of the city.

4. Instruments from the planning discipline

The intention is not that the two basic sides ofthe urban debate, the development of an openvision, and (urban) projects, should replace thecurrent planning methods which are describedin law and in procedures. The urban debate fo-cuses mainly on planning that determines adirection, and adds what was usually lacking inthe customary planning procedures. The legalstatus and enforceability of the binding planningprocess are not affected, though this does notmean that they may not be revised or adapted.

In the last ten years, planning initiatives havemushroomed, stimulated by policy sectorswhich are in competition with each other, with-out any sense of coordination or priority. Thedrawers of many officials responsible for policyare bulging with starting memorandums andpreliminary drafts. These are used all over theplace to add weight to a variety of project andsubsidy applications (usually in a literal sense).


168 In this proliferation, a number of innovativeplanning methods are almost lost or lose theirinnovative impulse. This also applies in urbandevelopment and town and country planning.Two fairly recent plans in the field of urbandevelopment and town and country planningare discussed below: municipal structural plan-ning (4.1) and the urban design (4.2). Both ofthese can play an important role in the urbandebate.

4.1 The urban debate and municipal structural planning for town and country planning

The urban debate is the appropriate context forstructural planning of town and country plan-ning. As indicated above, the discussion beingconducted in a number of councils on their ownstructural plan corresponds best to the objec-tives of the urban debate. This does not meanthat the current practice of structural planningshould be wholly transferred to the urbandebate without any further thought.

In addition to a communication task, the munic-ipal structural planning for town and countryplanning (GRS) has an extensive planning task,with its own technical demands. This uses spe-cific methods for data processing and identifi-cation, for analysis and synthesis with regard to‘individual spatial structures’ (settlements, openspace, the economy, traffic, landscape, etc.) and‘individual areas’ (city areas, individual commu-nities, districts). The structures which are desiredare proposed on the basis of a critical diagnosisof the existing spatial structures. The planningresults in an information element, a directiveelement and a binding element. In fact, thiswhole planning process can be seen as a sort ofurban project. Like other urban projects, it re-quires its own framework of execution, everydayprocess control, specific resources, knowledgeand expertise. These are not automatically part

of the urban debate. However, the whole controland extensive communication of the GRS (des-cription of tasks, choice of designers, consulta-tions, information sessions, interim presenta-tions, supportive workshops, discussions andamendments) are part of the development of anopen vision in the urban debate and an impor-tant area of operations. These elements can bepresented to the urban debate for evaluationand amendment.

In this way, the structural planning acquires asport of twofold status in the urban debate: onthe one hand, that of an urban project (con-crete, multifunctional, intensive and limited intime), while on the other hand, it has the char-acter of a contribution to the development of anopen vision on the new urban character (vision-ary, democratic and adaptable). This view bringsthe GRS closer to what is meant in the literatureby the ‘three-track approach’ of strategic struc-tural planning. It comprises more than just pro-ducing documents; it requires a never-endingreflection on the permanently changing urbanspace, translating this reflection into concretereality in achievable projects and strengtheningthe social and political basis.

The above illustrates the fact that seeing theurban debate as a background for the GRSinvolves more than simply adopting an officialposition: it raises questions related to the con-tent of planning issues. The urban debate givesthe GRS the opportunity and the task to remedya number of the weaknesses which characterisethe usual planning practice. We restrict our-selves here to three aspects.

In the first place, the quality of the current plan-ning is very variable. Some municipal structuralplans manage to incorporate a powerful visionon the situation as regards town and countryplanning, the coordination and the development


169opportunities for the council within the outlinesof the Structural Plan for Town and CountryPlanning for Flanders. Many others merely whipup some out of date ideas packaged in meaning-less timetables, a confused use of language andendless computer-assisted cut and paste efforts.Structural planning is due for a reorganisation ofits methods, norms and quality criteria. Theseshould be such that clients can demand thehighest quality requirements (obviously in con-junction with a suitable fee), and that the con-tractors know what is expected of them. In thisrespect, the GRS still has a lot of work to do. Inmany cases the procedures suffer from a veryabstract approach, resulting from a lack of abili-ty to describe the actual planning context in crit-ical terms. This descriptive impoverishment isoften followed by conceptual shortcomings: theconcepts and elements of the vision which out-line the main lines of the desired planning struc-ture on the basis of a diagnosis of the existingplanning structure, all too often suffer from alack of inspiration in the design. In some cases,the structural planners appear to forget that thescientific and technical scope of the structuralplanning is not a carte blanche for substandarddesign. Obviously this does not help a successfulpresentation or clear communication.

In the second place, it is expected that in theurban debate the GRS will have an integratingeffect. This applies at several levels. The GRSforms a suitable basis for other forms of plan-ning with a spatial emphasis: the mobility plan,environmental plan, the green plan, the infra-structural plan. The current sectoral breakdownof town and country planning in different plotsactually leads to inefficiency and fragmentation.The structural plan for the municipal planning isthe best chance of guaranteeing the coordina-tion and hierarchy between the different plan-ning initiatives which are concerned with urbanspace. If necessary, the GRS will have to provide

more support for its expertise in this respect. Itis self-evident that the municipal structural planfor town and country planning must also takeinto account the economic, social and culturaldimensions of the urban debate and the urbanpolicy in an expert way, without throwing itselfinto these fields as the comprehensive masterplan. In order to play this integrating role, theGRS will also have to improve its own proce-dures. All too often, the identification of individ-ual structures (settlements, traffic, open spaces,etc.) gains the upper hand, rather than a synthe-sising structure for planning. This means thatthe global structure is no more than the pilingup of individual structures. Another importantaspect of the integrating effect of the GRS con-cerns the interaction with the plans at differentlevels of scale: on a broader scale with the Struc-tural Plan for Town and Country Planning inFlanders, and possibly with provincial or region-al structural plans, or on a more limited scale,the urban design. The term ‘interaction’ is crucial– the higher scale should not lay down the lawfor the lower scale, but can draw the outlineswhich are tested, drawn up, and possiblyamended at a local level.

In the third place, the GRS must be a strategicmethod of planning. The strategic effect refersto the capacity to distinguish structural ele-ments from occasional elements and to presentpriority choices on this basis. This does notmean that one solution is imposed as a top pri-ority. On the contrary, a strategic operation pro-vides for alternative possibilities and tacticalresponses to unforeseeable developments. Boththe clear formulation of priorities and guaran-teeing applicability and the possibility of choicecontribute to honest communication.

In this way, strategic structural planning departsfrom the authoritarian drive for control, whichmade the planning discipline so unpopular and


170 inefficient. Only those things which are worthplanning are planned, with the aim of achievinga new urban character, what can be effectivelyplanned and what can be evaluated in a demo-cratic debate.

4.2 The urban designThe urban design does not have a legal frame-work comparable to that of structural planning.As in other places in Europe, it was introduced inFlanders in the early 1990s. It was accompaniedthere with the introduction of experimentalurban development projects (which served asexamples), such as the redevelopment of theareas surrounding stations. The urban designresults from the will to thoroughly rethink the‘urban development’ discipline following the cri-sis of modernist planning methods in the post-war welfare state and following the wide rangeof criticisms and soul searching in the 1970s and1980s. To an even greater extent than the GRS,the practice of the urban design lacks graduatedstages, clearly defined objectives or quality crite-ria that can be assessed. The term ‘urban design’actually covers a whole range of planning anddesign practices of different qualities.3

Nevertheless, we find that the redevelopment ofareas surrounding stations during the pastdecade has started to serve as a real laboratoryfor urban projects and for urban designs. Tradi-tional planning soon proves to be inadequatefor these commissions. The connections andinterrelationships between activities, sectorsand interests are on the agenda. In fact, projectsfor areas surrounding stations concern the gridcity: the lines of the grid are redrawn, the cross-roads become denser, the mesh is re-evaluated.The whole grid attempts to give form to thenew urban places where daily routes and inter-ests of inhabitants and users of the city cometogether. Structural choices have to be madeabout the urban morphology, mobility and

budget spending. An attempt is made to gain agrasp of divergent patterns of development.This can never be successful without a political,financial and social basis. Numerous partnersemerge. Negotiations are carried out in all sortsof steering groups, commissions and discussiongroups. Ten redevelopment projects for areasaround stations were set up in Flanders andBrussels (in Leuven, Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges,Ghent, Sint-Niklaas, Hasselt, Kortrijk and Aalst).4

Talented designers from Belgium and abroadstarted work on these plans. The effect of thehigh-speed train and a degree of economic opti-mism contributed to the initial enthusiasm andhigh expectations. In the meantime, this hascooled down considerably. Brussels cannotescape from the clutches of mediocrity in realestate and urban development. Antwerp is over-whelmed by the scale of the whole operation.Only Leuven has been able to meet the expecta-tions up to now, but is also suffering from indi-gestion. A number of projects are founderingbecause they are not supported by a coherenturban vision or because of a miscalculation ofthe local possibilities. The negotiation platformsare grossly inadequate and there is a distressinglack of expert project management.

This has been an expensive lesson. Nevertheless,crucial experience was built up with all theseproblems and the urban design is getting itssecond wind. This can be found in the urbandebate. On the basis of the experience that hasbeen gained, the objective and procedure of theurban design, in terms of the urban debate, canbe described as follows.

An urban design no longer aims to be a tradi-tional plan for urban development, but more amedium for examining the possibilities of anurban site, to achieve a consensus on quality,and in this way increase the chances of a suc-cessful conclusion to safeguard essential quali-


171ties throughout the process of development andstill respond to changing circumstances.

An urban design can coincide with the start ofan urban project. In any case, the urban debatehas a say in the preparation (description of task,choice of designers, etc.). The urban design itselfstarts as a design examination. It begins with ananalysis of the characteristics, problems and op-portunities in a given urban site. With a numberof as yet unarticulated questions about the pro-gramme in the background (demand for morehousing, more sanitary facilities, business sites,recreation, more efficient mobility, etc.), the exa-mination of the design explores the individualcharacter of the area being studied and looks atthe possibilities of reorganising or developingurban spaces or activities with an emphasis onquality. In this examination, several areas ofexpertise are explored at the same time: the his-tory of the city, morphotypology and an analysisof the urban landscape, an insight into the socialurban fabric, into the interaction of decision ma-king powers and various market demands, andan insight into the situation in architecture andurban development. From the start, architecturehas been present as a way of questioning theactual and desired interaction in the urban spa-ce and in urban activity: what type of housingcan successfully reconcile higher density withgreater privacy in a particular place? Is there aconceivable solution to parking which makes itpossible to retain sufficient green spaces andalso leave space for as yet unknown purposes?

From the start, this research has also movedbetween analysis and synthesis, between visionand concrete realisation, between a rationalapproach and intuition, between the scale ofstructural planning and that of concrete con-struction, between an existing and a desirablestructure. Information from surveys is comparedto architectural exploration and vice versa.

This exploration results in a provisional synthe-sis, a proposal for a spatial development whichbrings together conflicting concepts and de-mands in a way that only a design can do. Theproposal consists of images and scenarioswhich are sufficiently concrete to be compre-hensible and successful, but sufficiently ab-stract to absorb comments and suggestionswithout capsizing.

This proposal for development forms the start-ing point in the second stage of design: aprocess of several rounds, in which the design-ers engage in discussion with all the partiesinvolved: sectoral specialists (traffic, environ-ment, real estate, etc.), owners and possibleinvestors, inhabitants and users, authorities andcompetent administrations. The urban debatepresents itself more clearly at this point. It pro-vides an opportunity for reflection and negotia-tion. It is the appropriate place for confirmingimportant moments in the dialogue.

The urban design should not allow itself to beoverwhelmed in this dialogue, but should super-vise it in a creative way by responding to com-ments, dealing with suggestions and thinking ofalternatives to avoid conflicts. The art of theurban design consists of keeping this debate ondesign going, by constantly amending thedevelopment proposal without sacrificing itsessential qualities. Direct confrontations shouldbe avoided, but so should complete compro-mise. It is an exhausting process with an uncer-tain result which requires expert supervisionand design talent. A weak development propos-al will not be successful, but nor will an inspira-tional masterwork presented in a “take it orleave it” manner. The insight into the ‘sine quanon’, the essential qualities of the global design,and the quality thresholds of individual compo-nents or possible alternatives grow throughoutthis process. This results in a better insight into


172 priorities and possible stages. At the same time,a number of possibilities remain open and manyissues are postponed.

However, the result is still a plan, a complex syn-thesis. It is not a random collection of individualinterests, but an accurate translation of a jointvision of development in main, structural andstrategic lines, in interrelated scenarios and ver-sions of different quality. The plan summaries aconsidered consensus, and in this way acquires adegree of legitimacy. The urban debate can leadto an appropriate ratification and publication,for example, as part of an urban pact. Importantfactors for reaching a broad consensus includethe supporting strength of common infrastruc-ture, the structural capacity of characteristics inthe urban landscape and the mediating capacityof the public domain.

It is on this basis that the plan becomes a planof reference which can serve as a framework forevaluation for the real plans of execution andconcrete interventions. The legitimacy that isacquired does not mean that the reference planis unassailable but that it is irreversible. Thereare many variations and a response to unex-pected opportunities often takes place withinthe structural and strategic character of theplan. However, revising essential choices is onlypossible on condition of a new design study anddebate on design.

4.3 Structural planning and urban design,beyond the schismIn Flanders, two parallel tracks are followed inthe renovation of the planning discipline, withstructural planning and the urban design. Bothprocedures are a long way away from the mono-lith that was the master plan, and a long wayaway from static zoning plans. Curiously therehas not been much interaction up to now bet-ween these two approaches, and in most cases,

the contracts that are commissioned are veryseparate. Nevertheless, they supplement eachother. The urban design has a lot to learn fromthe broader scale, the broader database, and thestructural perspective of structural planning.Conversely, structural planning could benefitfrom the skills of the urban design to examinecomplex urban spaces and come up with lessobvious solutions. The concrete urban space alsocomes into its own better in the urban design.

The two procedures come together in theurban debate. It is possible that the urbandebate could provide an opportunity for achiev-ing a constructive complementarity betweenstructural planning and urban design. Thiswould be an important step in reversing theunfortunate schism within the planning disci-pline between, on the one hand, town andcountry planning which considers that it canreplace inspiration in design with proceduresand static data, and on the other hand, urbandevelopment which finds it difficult to let go ofits nostalgia for a master plan.

5. Towards the urban debate andthe urban project: Brussels,Kortrijk and Mechelen

5.1 A neo-realistic perspectiveWe no longer have to discover the urban debate.Fragments of it exist in every city: work is car-ried out on projects, people are working on thestructural plan, and various formal and informalplatforms discuss urban issues. It is a matter ofrecognising these fragments, assessing theirvalue and placing them in a framework whichcan develop into a fully-fledged urban debate.Nevertheless, introducing an urban debate is avery demanding task, and it is not enough tomerely stick a new label on what already exists.After all, the urban debate presents itself as a


173different approach to urban planning and as anessential contribution to new urban democracy.In a sense this approach is ‘neo-realistic’. It startswholly inside the urban reality, is supported bybest practices and places these in a new per-spective.

The following three cases are characterised byan analogous neo-realistic character. They con-cern three districts in Brussels, Mechelen andKortrijk respectively, and there was a great dealto be done in each of them. In each of thesecases, the interaction between existing projects,actors, planning initiatives and discussionforums makes it possible to identify the outlinesof a complex urban project and the possibilitiesof an urban debate that serves as a basis. Theextent to which the urban debate and theurban project are already present in the fielddiffers from case to case; what can be added tothese conditionally also differs. In every case, thesituation is different, the balance between whatis and what could be is different. In every case,the road to the urban debate and the urbanproject are different and the result will alwaysbe an individual result, not the final point of aplan in stages that is imposed.

5.2 The Brabant district, from a network for a district contract to an urban projectThe Brabant district, on the border of the Brus-sels municipalities, Schaarbeek and Sint Joostten Node, tells two stories at the same time: thetypical story of the enormous problems and realopportunities of a district in the metropolis, andthe story about the difficulties and opportuni-ties of arriving at a coherent urban project. It isa district with about 8,000 inhabitants or 3,200households in an area of half a square kilome-tre. It is an extremely densely populated districtwith a large number of Mediterranean house-holds, with many young inhabitants (one third),and a large number of people living alone,

including an exceptionally large number ofmen. Half of the inhabitants are not Belgian. Ofthese non-Belgians, three quarters are of Turkishor Moroccan origin. It is a working class areawith a large group of people with a low level ofeducation.

Like many other city districts in the nineteenth-century ring, the Brabant district has anambiguous position in the metropolitan frame-work: it is at the same time central and periph-eral. Important metropolitan infrastructure bor-ders the district on every side, although thereare few points of contact. To the west, the ‘tart-ed-up’ Noord station merely turns its rathergrubby back on the district. In the south, a bendin the railway viaduct virtually cuts off the Bra-bantstraat, the central north-south axis in thedistrict and the obvious connection with the citycentre. The prestigious Herb Garden also lies tothe south, but only turns towards the boulevardand the inner city. Despite the tunnels, this ringboulevard remains a river of traffic that isdifficult to cross. The Royal district to the eastignores the adjacent residential districts.

Squeezed between all of these, the Brabant dis-trict is a virtual enclave with a curious mix ofrestricted central qualities and a moderatedegree of marginalisation. The restricted centralqualities provide the district with its owndynamic character: an ethnic centre of tradewith an international market, an affordableplace for the establishment of important insti-tutes of higher education. The moderate degreeof marginalisation generates the well-knowncharacteristics of a neglected part of the city(facilities in the district that are below par,decaying public spaces, poor housing, depriva-tion), although this cannot be described as anew urban ghetto. All in all, the Brabant districtis a district near to the station, resulting insignificant levels of transit: the stimulating tran-


174 sit of crowds of city users (clients, visitors,employees, students) who cross through the dis-trict every day on their way to the office, college,shop or cultural stage; the problematic transit oftraffic congestion, of the heavy employment cir-cuits, of prostitution tourism and of the home-less, alongside temporary accommodation.

In short, the Brabant district maintains a ‘livingalone together’ relationship with themetropolis, a relationship which hesitatesbetween integration and negation. In this situa-tion, which totters between the density anddiversity of the metropolis on the one hand, andurban misery on the other hand, an urban proj-ect is developing with lots of ups and downs.

It has started with a project in the most tradi-tional sense, focusing on the monumentalurban space as a symbol of the nation. The KingBoudewijn Foundation is focusing on the reor-ganisation of the Royal district lay-out as a formof national urban restoration. The approach issuperficial in a literal sense. The thoroughlydilapidated district is being given a facelift hereand there, while the residential districts behindit around the Brabantstraat are ignored. Itappears that Potemkin still has a say in officialurban development.

In fact, there are critical voices inside and out-side the Foundation, demanding an alternativeapproach based on the endogenous dynamiccharacter of the district. Various parallel initia-tives have been put forward by diverse coali-tions of actors. Together with a committee oftraders in the Brabantstraat, students from theSint-Lucas high school, situated in the district,have created ‘Het Vliegend Tapijt’ (the FlyingCarpet), an artistic, commercial evocation of theidentity of the street, with references to a cele-brated local product. The King Boudewijn Foun-dation is launching the Brabant district discus-

sion platform, which is trying to promote thedebate on the opportunities and problems ofethnic enterprise with the support of research-ers in social and economic geography. Proposalsare being drawn up with regard to the organisa-tion of the Brabantstraat as an urban axis; theseare aimed at developing the image of the localeconomy, communication and self-organisation.

An agreement between the municipality ofSchaarbeek and the Regional Institute for Com-munity Development (Riso- Brussels) resulted inthe establishment of the Brabant district alarmcentre, a sort of ombuds department for prob-lems related to safety and public nuisance. Theproblems of safety were soon extended tobroader issues related to the quality of life, andattention was also devoted to complaints ofdumping, slums and traffic congestion.

The Riso also initiated a cooperative venture inwhich more and more partners are participat-ing: students from the two institutes of highereducation in the district (Sint-Lucas andVlekho), the Riso District partnership, commit-tees of residents and the social-artistic produc-tion centre, City-Mine(d). A network of peopleinterested in the city, and inhabitants and usersof the city was created and later accommodat-ed in the not-for profit Limiet Limite, with thesupport of the Social Impulse Fund. This coop-erative venture took over, for example, thevacant corner plots of the Dupontstraat, one ofthe roads off the Brabantstraat. These micro-urban cancers disfigured the daily route of stu-dents and commuters and affect the look ofthe district. Of the various interventions, theLimiet Limite makes the biggest impact: an ele-gant, striking dome in transparent plastic, serv-ing at the same time as a meeting place and asymbol, a place where views are generated, andthe sanctuary of a new urban character.


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176 This intention reveals the impact of an inspira-tional design and the power of building. Never-theless, the visible effect of these direct inter-ventions and micro interventions is not the mainresult of the cooperation. More important is thedevelopment of a confused, but highly dynamicnetwork of different relationships between verydifferent partners. There is good reason why theterm ‘rhizome’ is used to describe this approach,referring to the image of roots. The main objec-tive is to improve the living conditions of thedistrict by promoting the dialogue and coopera-tion between the inhabitants and users of thedistrict, local organisations, institutions estab-lished locally and community work. This is achie-ved by setting up community projects whichmainly focus on socio-cultural and economic di-mensions (language lessons for residents, book-keeping courses for shopkeepers, youth work),occasionally underlined by random visual events(an illuminated newsreel on the roof of a school.

The ‘rhizome-like urban development’ undoubt-edly enriches the significantly extended urbanrenovation programme for the district and themunicipality. Three district contracts awardedto the two municipalities concerned by theBrussels District ‘cover’ the whole of the Bra-bant district. The district contract, an officialinstrument of the Brussels Region for urbanrenovation comprises interventions in housing,public spaces, collective facilities and social ini-tiatives, programmed on the basis of an urbandevelopment study.

The two councils established a joint permanentcentre for the district contracts in a former shopin the centre of the district. The not-for-profitcompany Renovas, responsible for the adminis-trative, technical and social coordination of thedistrict contracts, organises theme-based work-ing groups to supplement the official participa-tion rounds arranged in the district contracts.

Key figures who are active in the network dotheir best through all sorts of communicationchannels. However, both the coordinationbetween the three district contracts, and theinteraction of the dynamics of the network withthe officially established channels for dialoguein the district contracts, were by no means easy.Nevertheless, the informal dialogue betweenthe different actors in the field, increased, forexample, following a discussion on the resultsof a scientific study which put forward a diagno-sis and the main outlines for a sustainabledevelopment plan.

In contrast with this operation, which is basedon inspiration and enthusiasm, the officialurban renovation carried out by the councilsand the region succeeded in tapping into impor-tant funds from European programmes. Theacquisition of European funds, as well as thosefrom district contracts, allowed for interventionswith a structural impact. For example, two dis-trict parks were designed with facilities forsport, meeting places and leisure activities. Oneof these, the Koningin-Groenpark, took over thegarden of the monumental premises of the for-mer RTT and will provide a new link betweenthe Royal district and the Brabant district. Thebuilding itself will be converted into a multi-functional complex, with offices, apartments,and a business centre for businesses starting upin the ICT sector. With the larger budgets andofficial procedures, the urban renovation processin the Brabant district seems to be movingslightly towards large-scale planning and infra-structural interventions.

The above description illustrates that there is nolack of effort, ideas or initiatives in the Brabantdistrict. Nevertheless, the process of developmentis ready for an improvement in quality. This willhave to prevent two gaps from emerging in thebackground of all this. On the one hand, there is


177a need for a convergent vision on developmentwhich builds on the many different perspectivesand objectives, but in the first place succeeds incoordinating the urban development that hastaken place from the bottom up, and the officialurban development. On the other hand, theexisting interventions, projects, planning propos-als and design suggestions lack a strong urbanproject which makes structural choices and isable to support diverse individual projects.

We will not decide here who is best to take theinitiative, but this seems the right time to bringall the players together to a discussion platformon the development of the Brabant district. Thisforum is a ‘test bank’ for the operation of anurban debate and can later be assimilated in abroader context. The scale on which the urbandebate should be organised in Brussels (region,municipality, district or adjacent parts of thecity), and which competences and compositionshould be adopted, is a complicated matterwhich falls outside the scope of this chapter.However, it is important not to wait for this tobe officially decided, but to continue with thepresent enthusiasm.

The discussion forum – the prospective urbandebate – comprises both the network of the rhi-zome-like urban planning and the official organ-isations which have made a contribution up tonow. The task is to coordinate the ideas andexperiences of the King Boudewijn Foundation,the Brabant district discussion platform, theRiso Brussels, the Brabant district alarm centre,Limiet Limite, Renovas and the district contracts,academic research, designers, urban planners,the Brussels District – and this list is undoubted-ly incomplete.

As indicated above, the crux of the matter is toestablish an original coordination between thenetwork of contacts, ideas and actions, on the

one hand, and the developed official structureof urban planning and development, on theother hand. For the time being, this has not yetbeen allowed in the history of Belgian urbandevelopment. The formulation of an open butcoherent vision of the district and the city, avision which provides synergy and a strategy forthe numerous initiatives without constricting orweakening them, is a precondition for this.

It is best if the development of this vision takesplace in interaction with the definition of a com-prehensive urban project. During the first round,a critical balance is drawn up and the first des-cription of the tasks of the urban project is for-mulated. Amongst other things, this includes abetter position of the Brabant district in Brusselsas a grid city, linked to making the best of thegrid qualities of the district itself. The plannedinterventions, alternatives and suggestions areexamined. These include suggestions for reduc-ing the barrier effect, such as redesigning theback of the station, the reconstruction of thegrubby tunnels under the railway viaduct, theRogierplein as an active link, the passages to theRoyal district, etc., and suggestions to add char-acter and structure to the district, such as a dif-ferent role for the long north-south and shorteast-west routes, an appropriate construction ofresidential and shopping streets, the facilitiesand access to the two district parks, etc. The dis-trict really needs a public domain with character,as well as public facilities with an urban atmos-phere, which provide the district with a face anda heart. However, the example of the Limiet Lim-ite tower also provides perspectives: micro-inter-ventions throughout the district, which are prac-tical and brilliant at the same time, form a gridof fascinating places.

It is not possible to strengthen the grid of thedistrict without at the same time improving thephysical and social fabric of the district. This is


178 also fertile ground for cooperation between thenetwork and official programmes: improvinghousing, combating the exploitation of land-lords, support for an emancipatory local econo-my, promoting safety and social control, and tar-geted training activities.

Innovative urban design supports the creationof a vision and serves as the foundation of theurban project. In the studies and the debate forthe design, problem areas can be clarified, alter-natives can be tested and new routes can beopened up.

The urban project for the Brabant district is de-veloping in interaction with the creation of avision. There are proposals for a limited numberof structural interventions, supplemented witha large number of mutually reinforcing inter-ventions. This allows for new synergies betweenthe freedom and inventiveness of the activitiesof the networks (cf. Limiet Limite) and the insti-tutional support and budgetary aid of officialurban renovation (cf. the RTT restructuring). Theurban project forms the basis for the districtcontracts. It launches design competitions, stim-ulates arts events and supports dossiers forproject subsidies.

The ambitious development of a vision and astrong urban project related to the Brabant dis-trict make a strong contribution to a developingurban debate in Brussels.

This may seem a Utopian perspective, but all inall more than two thirds of the project in theBrabant district has already been completed inthe last ten years.

5.3 The Arsenaal site, the city boulevard setting the economic pace

Mechelen can serve as an example for the situa-tion in which historic Flemish cities still find

themselves after a century and a half of mod-ernisation. Mechelen has enjoyed the delightsand suffered the problems of being a historicalrailway junction. While gigantic railway work-sites provided employment just over the citywalls, the railway cuttings and embankmentscut the suburbs into large peripheral enclaves.And that was not all. Mechelen, just halfwaybetween Brussels and Antwerp, was inevitablyswallowed up by the infrastructure which con-nects the capital city with the port (railway,waterways and motorways). In the post-warFordist apotheosis, these hard, excessive infra-structural works overwhelmed the urban terri-tory with motorways, a ring road, junctions,access roads and endless industrial sites. For thecity, all this was imposed from above, on far toolarge a scale, a framework which was startedtoo late and was never finished.

In fact, a merciless process of de-industrialisationstarted in the 1970s. Rather than being the in-dustrial midpoint between Brussels and Ant-werp, Mechelen turned into a residential mid-point. Mushrooming suburbanisation coalescedin endless residential landscapes in former ruralhamlets, reaching far outside the city. The sub-urbs replaced the city centre as a residentialenvironment and gradually eroded the historicalcity. Traffic jams of commuters between Antwerpand Brussels start in Mechelen. The shoppinginfrastructure in the inner city gradually disap-peared; on the other hand, the peripheral super-stores profited from the multiple access and anincreasingly extensive urban radius.

After twenty years the city suddenly woke upfrom its post-industrial anaesthesia. Initially, ittried to adapt to the age of the motorway byconstructing industrial sites, peripheral publicprogrammes (Technopolis) and office develop-ment, fed by road traffic.


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180 The process of structural planning went perfect-ly. In that process, the city rediscovered its admit-tedly watered-down multifunctional character:Mechelen, historical city, railway city, city of edu-cation, industrial city, motorway city, dispersedresidential city. Important operations for urbanrestructuring were introduced. The multifunc-tional redevelopment of the empty Lamot com-plex right in the historical centre, possibly linkedwith the reorganisation of the banks of the Dijle,will be an example of an urban project whichfocuses on density, diversity and sustainability.

However, the city has a leaden post-war her-itage. All the urban problems appear to cometogether; the political clock is ticking. The longperiod of lethargy prevented the city from build-ing up sufficient planning experience andcapacity. Several blunders have been made. Forexample, a strategic site on the city side of therailway was greedily used for an unimaginativeoffice building, which appears to have ignoredthe most basic lessons of urban architecture.Some of the members of the council and admin-istration were aware of this mistake and suc-ceeded in attracting better national and inter-national expertise. Something is happening inMechelen. The scale of the city, the range ofurban opportunities and problems, the regaineddynamic character and initial successes meanthat in principle, Mechelen is a suitable testingsite for the urban debate.

The plans for the Arsenaal site could serve asthe ultimate urban project. The large-scale Arse-naal site in Mechelen is an archetypal exampleof nineteenth-century ring roads. The site takesup an ambiguous position in the grid city. Onthe one hand, it is an extensive enclave behindthe station, cut off from the inner city by thecanal and by the high railway embankments; onthe other hand, the railway and the road con-nect the enclave with the broader grid city and

the regional cities in the grid. Excessive industri-al development can be found next to inade-quate urban fabric.

The extensive sites of underused railway work-sites have become available for new purposes.The emphasis in the development is on the eco-nomic aspects. Mechelen is aiming for a muchlarger percentage of the office market in theFlemish Diamond, with administrative depart-ments and call centres of large national andinternational companies as the target group.The available area, the reasonable prices andthe many advantages of the city (its position inthe network of cities, the educational provisions,the historical framework, the green and exten-sive residential periphery) serve as bait. All thismust be assimilated in a comprehensive project,in which the economic foundations also lead toother dimensions for the development for abroader area, with the Arsenaal site as the cen-tre. In addition to upgrading the living condi-tions, it is essential to improve the ecologicalaspects and urban development around thecanal and the tributaries of the river that borderthe area. Furthermore, multimodal connectionsmust provide a solution for the excessive divi-sions between rail and road access. Ultimately,the anticipated economic success of the projectdepends on a comprehensive approach, focusingon the development of a high quality workingand living environment which can rely on sus-tainable mobility.

All this corresponds with the structure of theurban project as described in this chapter. Eventhe latent objective of the urban project, viz., tostrengthen the characteristics of the grid city,can be identified in the Arsenaal site project. Thecrux of the whole project lies in achieving thequalities of the grid city, such as the individualcharacter, diversity, capacity to adapt and multi-ple access. After all, the current condition of the


181site is linked to some of the problematic charac-teristics of Mechelen as an incomplete grid city:worn-out fabric, congestion, blocked connec-tions, breaks and missing lines in the grid.

The first steps towards a strong urban designhave also been taken. Various developmentalconcepts were compared in an internationalcompetition. It was won by a consortium ofFlemish and international design bureaus with adesign which was ambitious, though not with-out risk. 5 The core of the proposal goes againstthe usual moratorium of road building and com-prises a new access road. This leaves the south-ern exit from the motorway, passes over thecanal, along the Arsenaal site, across theentrance to the southwest (Leuvense Steenweg)runs parallel to the eastern ringroad by thecommuter car park behind the station, to jointhe north-eastern entrance road which connectsthe ring road with a few peripheral amenities(events hall, leisure centre, cinema complex) andthe green residential area a little further down.

The proposed access road takes the pressure offthe ring road, guarantees perfect access for theArsenaal site by railway and motorway, and ma-

kes use of the existing commuter car park. Onceagain, the proposal can be interpreted in terms of the grid city: the new transverse access road is astructural improvement in the inadequate grid,in which the infrastructural connections bet-ween Brussels and Antwerp are much too domi-nant lengthways, while the cross connections inthe urban area are not sufficiently developed.

One of the crucial aspects of the proposal con-sists of not seeing the new crossroads as anextension of the motorway exit, but as a newsort of ‘city boulevard’. This boulevard is aimed inthe first place as providing a prestigious urbanbackground for a great range of economic devel-opment. As an urban hub of activity, the boule-

vard connects the locations of the industrial areain the south which are dependent on the motor-way (extensive development, large surfaceareas) with the Arsenaal site, with its multipleaccess routes (intensive development, highemployment), and also with the large-scaleperipheral infrastructure around the events hall.Additional accents are aimed at increasing theattraction of the boulevard: an emphasis on themonumental aspects, where the entrance roadsjoin the historical outlines of the inner city, andnatural accents, where the two tributaries of theriver flow into the city. Along the city boulevard,peripheral residential districts alternate withbusiness parks and green spaces. The residentialarea along the canal is being judiciously devel-oped. A bypass reduces the pressure of traffic onthe entrance road to the southeast (LeuvenseSteenweg), to make this historical road animportant urban axis for the residential areas oneither side. All these sections and elements ofthe city boulevard form the start of a demand-ing design which has yet to be completed.

With the city boulevard setting the pace for theurban economic development, Mechelen hasopted for a groundbreaking, but high-risk urbanproject.

Without using the terminology of a grid, thedesigners are assigning a connecting, structuralrole to the city boulevard, which will benefitMechelen as a burgeoning grid city. In fact, theplans at the moment are no more than a strongguideline for a possible urban project. This gui-deline has to be elaborated in detail in one ormore urban designs if it is to be turned into acomplete proposal for development. It will re-quire a great deal of design research and debate.

However, what is needed most is an urbandebate to serve as a framework, in which thefurther creation of visions and project develop-


182 ment can interact. There are certainly somesigns of this happening in Mechelen: the workon the structural plan, on the Keerdok, theLamot and the banks of the Dijle, have generat-ed useful experiences.

A Discussion Forum for the Urban Developmentof Mechelen – or such a forum with a moreinspirational name – could collect all theseexperiences together, for example, in the formof an exhibition or a publication on the workthat has already been completed. This would bea good start for an urban debate. No matterhow experimental, this discussion forum – thestart of an urban debate – would serve as animportant advantage for the Arsenaal site proj-ect – the start of an urban project.

After all, both the grand ambition and the risk ofthe (urban) project for the Arsenaal site requiresthis sort of critical forum. A dynamic city council,a talented consortium of researchers and an effi-cient steering group of partners and advisors areall necessary, but not sufficient to serve as theframework for an (urban) project of this scope. Astronger public basis and more structural visionare needed for the numerous negotiations to beconducted with even more numerous partners.After all, the city boulevard will have to accom-modate a multifunctional urban development,and should certainly not become an extensionof the mono functional motorway infrastructu-re, or, worse still, an unfinished exit road straightthrough the urban landscape. Nor should it turninto a monofunctional economic space. The realestate sector constantly has to be shown theway to high quality urban architecture.

The programme of the Arsenaal site also showsthat the discussion forum or the prospectiveurban debate should not be restricted to aforum of urban planners. The reorganisation orexpert development of the adjacent residential

areas will not be possible without the activecontribution of the inhabitants. The economicactors should also come round the table fromthe very beginning. The discussion forum canserve as a catalyst of an economic developmentcoalition. An active development coalition couldwell be the decisive factor for the success of theArsenaal project: it can work on the develop-ment of a diverse range of businesses, of nation-al and international promotion and of coopera-tion with the school community in Mechelen atthe level of education, research and training.

With the Arsenaal site as an urban project, aspart of the framework of an urban debate, Flan-ders will see the city of Mechelen waking up.

5.4 Kortrijk, art is/as urban renovationKortrijk suffers from the consequences of morethan a century of non-urban or even anti-urbanpolicy in Belgium. It was a policy which not onlyallowed a sprawl of residential developmentand developments related to work and variousurban functions, but also promoted it even longbefore the emergence of post-Fordism, globali-sation, the dispersed city, etc. Kortrijk has notbeen the obvious urban centre of southwestFlanders for a long time, just one of the manycentres which have developed, supplementedwith ribbon development and the parcelling offof land, a virtually uninterrupted urbanisedstretch in the broad valley of the Leie. This devel-opment, with centres which are more or lessstrung together, could rhetorically be called the‘network city of southwest Flanders’. For thetime being, there is no coherent planningframework to justify the name ‘grid city’.

Zooming in on the city and its broader environ-ment, we arrive at a similar diagnosis. In theaerial photograph of the Kortrijk region, thedevelopment in the valley is less prominent, butthe compact historical city is not particularly


183


184 striking either. It is a slightly larger fragment ina patchwork of hamlets, individual communitiesand neighbouring municipalities, alternatingwith fields and industrial sites, roughly threadedtogether by railway lines, motorways and theriver. A more detailed look reveals flashes of starpatterns, grids and rings. Nevertheless, Kortrijkundoubtedly remains a centre, a historical citywith a strong urban tradition which is not foundin most individual and neighbouring municipali-ties. The city has an interesting range of publicfacilities with a regional scope.

For the city, this enforced double character –serving as a knot in a piece of regional urbanmacramé, while at the same time realising itsrole as a historical city – is no easy matter. It is agame played with confused rules on a hazyboard. Kortrijk is one of the few cities in Flan-ders which is still losing inhabitants. The exodusof businesses has resulted in a large number ofvacant or residually recycled industrial premisesand sites with out-of-date infrastructure. Thereare not many applicants to fill the vacancies.The service sector is cautiously growing, butbusinesses and cafés and restaurants in the cityare confronted with the success of superstores.Government departments are only present to alimited extent, and the office market is not verysignificant.

Kortrijk is faced with a twofold developmentparadox. The region justifiably focuses ondynamic enterprise, but the latter prefers thefreedom of the broad valley of the Leie to theprestige of the historical city. Large-scale indus-trial vacancies in the urban fabric certainly rep-resent a great potential for development, but upto now there has not been a dynamic interest indevelopment to match this.

Nevertheless, the availability of inner city sites isa great advantage for urban renovation in Kor-

trijk. It is important to ensure that the largesupply and relatively poor demand do not resultin inferior development, as is already the case insome places along the quays of the Leie. Third-rate real estate does not contribute to the sus-tainable development of parts of the city whichare already faced with problems. The vacantspaces in the fabric, whether public or private,are the valuable land reserves of the city.Because of the limited pressure of building, it ispossible to consider alternatives: to demandhigh quality redevelopment, to resolutely rejectinferior projects, to use the open spaces asempty spaces to compensate – gardens, parks,squares – in the context of a comprehensivemanagement of density, or to choose for theprovisional reallocation and minimal organisa-tion awaiting better opportunities in the future.

A reunion of urban pros and cons appears tomanifest itself on Buda Island, situated in themiddle of the city. The island in its present form,created by the branches of the Old and NewLeie, dates from the beginning of the twentiethcentury. Nevertheless, it remains connected tothe origins of Kortrijk itself as a bridge over theLeie. The historical north-south axis runsstraight across the island. It attempted to linkthe parts of the city on either side of the Leie,running from west to east, but could not pre-vent the southern part from becoming far moredeveloped. On the island itself, urban develop-ment was rather haphazard. On the other sideof the (Old) Leie, there appeared to be littleinterest: a few houses, a monastery, a hospital, afew factories and a brewery, followed by a nurs-ing home, and later a cinema complex, andfinally a large car park. The Pentascoop, a finearchitectural structure cleverly integrated in theurban environment, was the place to be in Kor-trijk for some time, next to the small ‘miraclestreet’ which led there.


185However, Buda is squarely confronted with theparadoxes of Kortrijk. The factories and thebrewery are closing, and the future of the hospi-tal is under threat as a result of all sorts ofmergers. The Pentascoop cannot compete witha much larger complex on the periphery of thecity, near the motorway. The car park is ratherpathetic. Empty buildings, unused areas andfragmentation evoke an atmosphere of urbandecay in Buda. It is only the care of the elderlythat still seems to be successful to some extent.The nursing home and the service flats areexpanding cautiously, unhampered by an exag-gerated sense of architectural style or the quali-ty of planning. But what does it matter? The his-torical Buda-Overleie has become peripheralright in the centre of the city, a vague territory.The old Leie now appears to form the boundaryof the inner city, and integrating the north-south axis has been forgotten. The plannedhydraulic works on the New Leie – ‘recalibration’,i.e., broadening and retracing the course of theriver in the context of international policy onwaterways– threaten to marginalise Buda andOverleie even further.

Fortunately, a ‘vague territory’ is not a blindspot, but a place without a function which lendsitself to conflicting interpretations: a place offragmentation and decay, on the one hand, aplace where it is possible to try something newwithout being interrupted, on the other hand.

The art scene in Kortrijk – always attracted bythe sanctuary of a vague territory – has becomeestablished in Buda. The successful conversionof the Tack brewery tower into a professionalproduction centre for dramatic arts, which wascommissioned by the city, has responded to thisin a decisive way. The availability of unusedbuildings has given artists and art clubs all sortsof ideas. There is a great interest in the inspira-tional Pentascoop. Youth culture has also shown

an interest, though it is not quite sure what toaim for: a ‘dance hall’, a place to party, youthworkshops, rehearsal rooms, etc. These are plansfor an original synergy between youth cultureand professional new art.

The care sector also wants to have its say. Thissector is an urban function which is part of thehistory of Buda/Overleie, and concerns a con-stantly increasing number of people. The nurs-ing home (RVT) is planning additional serviceflats and a project for post-traumatic independ-ent living with care facilities. There are plans fora children’s day centre. The whole developmentis gradually providing a range of provisions forsheltered housing for all ages. In the meantime,a project group and a Leiewerken steering groupare working hard on the recalibration plans ofthe Waterways and Maritime Affairs Admini-stration of the Flemish Region. A study of theneighbouring communities in the Leie valley hasmanaged to transform the rough infrastructuralworks – at least on paper – into real urbandevelopment: bridges are to be turned into realworks of art, the quays on the Leie will be publicpromenades, the raised penisulas will be turnedinto parks by the water, etc.

Buda is really starting to work as a sort of sanc-tuary. The most diverse developments are takingplace at the same time, but independently. It ishardly possible to imagine a greater lack of over-lap than between hydraulic engineering, carehomes and the avant-garde art scene. Even bet-ween the professional art scene and youth cul-ture, the bridges are none too strong. The rud-derless game with all its large and small ma-noeuvres brought the island to the point whereit has almost gone under. Should the peripheralfragmentation be allowed to continue, andshould Buda be seen as an area where everyonecan do their own thing, or should an attempt bemade to direct an original piece of theatre with


186 extremely diverse actors and their even morediverse parts? In the one case, the nebulous citystarts on the other side of the Old Leie; in theother case, the Buda Island is re-evaluated as anindividual part of the city with an importantrole, within a broad urban framework. The city ofKortrijk has chosen for the second option.

The city has collected an extensive steeringgroup around the table. One chair more or less isnot considered important. In addition to thecompetent elected members and officials (muni-cipal departments, the Province, Flemish Com-munity) and a number of external experts, abroad range of parties representing the youthsector, the arts sector and various social entitiesalso participate in the discussions. The steeringgroup, which serves as a forum for the prepara-tion of policy, divides the work into three paralleltracks: one track related to the programme, onelegal-financial track, and one track which focus-es on planning and urban development. A work-ing group has been set up for each of these, andreports back to the steering group. A preparatorystudy in two parts is contracted out. The partdealing with the cultural and sociological as-pects focuses on the art scene and youth culture,explores the possibilities of synergy and drawsup the first outlines for a programme for Buda,island of arts. The part related to planning at-tempts to draw lessons from the ups and downsin the history of the island of Buda, places theisland in a broader urban perspective and makesa start on research into the design for differentplaces and purposes. At the same time, legal andfinancial ideas are explored on exploitationstructures and public/private partnership.

Everyone agrees on the working hypothesis.Buda Island could develop into an island of artswith a regional and even international reputa-tion, an island for the production and experi-ence of the arts, incorporated in the cultural life

of the city and valued at the same time in inter-national art circles. By bringing together asmany initiatives as possible to the island fromthe art and culture sectors, a critical mass coulddevelop to serve as a catalyst for an urban ren-aissance. There are possibilities for synergy onall sides: cultural creation and employment, ini-tiation and professional performances, the artis-tic environment and youth culture, concerts andfestivals, a programme of culture and urbandevelopment, art and sheltered housing, pupilsand the elderly. Once a year, everyone works onthe Buda festival. Enthusiasm alternates withscepticism. The aim – art and urban renovation– requires experimentation in unexplored fields.

This original task cannot work with a closedapproach to research and studies or hermeticdecision-making. Cultural and sociologicalreflection and surveys result in the first vision.This is evaluated, discussed and amended inplanning meetings, round the table with verydiverse partners: cultural institutions, the youthsector, artists, producers of culture and the eco-nomic sectors. At the same time, the workinghypothesis is strongly confronted with the reali-ty in the field. The interconnections betweenyouth culture and professional artistic produc-tion appear to be difficult to achieve becausethe two groups have different socio-culturalobjectives, different expectations, different net-works, different quality criteria and differentinfrastructural needs. Urban development side-by-side with mutual exposure must be possible,but real synergy seems to be an illusion.

However, the planning meetings, workinggroups and steering group do manage to arriveat a workable structure for a programme. Thisconsists of a core of four or five dynamic actorsin the field of contemporary art production,which enters into cooperative ventures forspecific programmes with private organisations


187and public institutions, for example, with theMunicipal Museum, which is also on the island.The emphasis is on contemporary art produc-tion in the field of the dramatic arts and thenew audio-visual media. In addition, there areideas for further education for young artists,between school and their career. A number ofperipheral conditions for planning are put for-ward more clearly in the strongly discursive cre-ation of a vision. A flexible planning frameworkis needed to meet three needs, which has toallow for places with different gradations ofextroversion (halls, stages, exhibition rooms). Itmust be possible to organise places which aresuitable for meetings and exchanges in a highquality environment (foyer, grand café). Finally,there is a need for private spaces which guaran-tee the necessary degree of intimacy for pro-duction and experimentation.

The creation of a vision for planning and urbandevelopment starts with a lecture on the historyof the city and a morphotypological analysis ofthe site, incorporated in a broader urban area.This analytical work soon merges with researchinto design. This time there are no planningmeetings, but a workshop organised by theMunicipal Technical Department, in cooperationwith the linked communities of the Leie valleyand a group of academics. Supported by the localtechnical framework, various teams of youngdesigners and researchers start work. The work-shop results in a provisional urban design whichsynthesises the various results of the researchinto design and the evaluation of the planning.Buda Island is seen as one of the meshes in abroad open urban grid; in turn, this mesh devel-ops grid qualities at the district level in anticipa-tion of the required flexible development.

This vision corresponds with the morphologicalinterpretation of Kortrijk which was proposedby Bernardo Secchi almost ten years ago. Secchi

liberated the image of the city from the old con-centric obsession, which also continues to domi-nate other places in Flanders, with a planningvision of enclosure and demarcation. Accordingto Secchi, the historical north-south axis, thewest-east course of the Leie and the two motor-ways create a rough pattern in Kortrijk whichmakes it possible to identify a prospective gridcity in the sprawling concentric city. Meanwhilethe north-south axis in Kortrijk is once again anestablished concept and serves as a guidelinefor interventions in urban development. It runsalong the Grote Markt and comprises a sophisti-cated shopping street. The new construction ofthe quays on the Leie will assign the same mor-phological value to the east-west direction.

On the scale of the grid, the present urbandesign for Buda assigns a value both to the pas-sage of the historical north-south axis acrossBuda and to the new east-west quays. However,the design highlights yet another axis, paralleland to the east of the historical north-southaxis. The new parallel axis has a very differentcharacter and complements the first one. It runsalong public facilities and collective develop-ments (a number of schools, two parks and anew housing project). Two new bridges forpedestrians and cyclists, planned in the Leiew-erken, extend this route across the Buda Island,and the filled-in green peninsula to the sportsfields of the Sint-Amands college in Overleie.The second axis and the new quays perpendicu-lar to it form important links in the urban net-work for cyclists and pedestrians. As a result,Buda has a central place between a number oflarge schools, and becomes a possible place forpupils to collect together. Perhaps the plansrelated to youth culture can respond to this.

The provisional urban design plans a flexiblegrid of districts, which corresponds with theframework of the larger grid and incorporates


188 elements of the existing built- up environment(the Pentascoop, the Tack Tower, old stables,industrial premises which can be used, the RVTfacilities, the museum). This grid will have toorganise the coexistence of artistic productionand youth culture, amongst other things (sepa-rately where necessary, together where desired).It must meet the three planning conditionsrequired by artistic production (intimacy,exchange and extroversion). In this respect, theurban design notes that the RVT programmebenefits from similar peripheral conditions withregard to planning: intimacy for care and reha-bilitation, meeting places for family and visitors,and easy access to extrovert places where thereis something to see.

On the basis of the report of the provisionalurban design, it is possible to start a new roundof discussions. The Buda steering group is con-fronted with the task of integrating all thesecultural and programme-related ideas, the plan-ning and urban development and legal andfinancial ideas, in a coherent proposal for devel-opment. It will become a really strong urbanproject when this proposal also assimilates theLeiewerken and their implications.

What is happening in Buda as an island of artsis closely related to the urban debate as pre-sented in this book (creation of a vision, urbanproject). In Kortrijk, a lot of attention is focusedon the urban debate, but this takes place in sep-arate debating chambers which are all engagedin separate urban projects (Kortrijk Weide, HoogKortrijk, Leiewerken, etc.). A more global visionwould permit projects to be coordinated, struc-tural choices to be made and priorities to bearranged in stages. For example, the Buda urbanproject is not possible without the Leiewerken.The Buda investments are dependent on choicesabout other projects. Furthermore, the wholething has to be based in an interaction with the

Municipal Structural Plan for Town and CountryPlanning which is being drawn up. Will Kortrijktake the time to engage in an urban debate?

1 See, for example: Rey, J. (1998), “Une nouvelle manière de

faire la ville?”, in: Toussaint, J-Y. & M. Zimmerman (ed.),

Projet urbain - ménager les gens, aménager la ville, Pierre

Mardaga, editor, Sprimont, pp. 35-47.

2 See Van Den Broeck, J. (1987), “Structuurplanning in praktijk:

werken op drie sporen”, in: Ruimtelijke Planning, afl. 19,

II.A.2.c., pp. 53-119, o.m. De driesporenplanning, ibidem pp.

93-110.

In later publications a fourth track was added to the three-

track approach, i.e., that of the ‘empowerment’ of citizens

to build up a form of socio-cultural capital for large plan-

ning projects. See, inter alia, Albrecht, L. and J. Van den

Broeck (2003), From discourse to facts/reality: the case of

the ROM project in Ghent, Belgium, paper Aesop-Acsp con-

ference, Leuven, 2003.

3 Various contributions to the urban design can be found in:

Smets, M., (ed.) (2002), Tussen Stad en Spoor. Project

“Stationsomgeving Leuven”, Ludion, Ghent, 2002, 112 pp.,

with the contribution by Pieter Uyttenhove, Het stadson-

twerp in Vlaanderen: experiment of investering, ibidem, pp.

98-103.

4 See De Meulder, B. (1998), “Herstructurering van Belgische

stationsomgevingen. Een stand van zaken”, in: Facetten no.

4, Stations en hun Omgeving, Antwerpen, Brugge, Brussel,

Leuven, Luik, published by Centrum voor Architectuur en

Design, Kortrijk, pp. 4-14.

5 See: Studio 02, Bernardo Secchi, Paola Vigano, DHV,

Stramien, Meertens & Steffens, Strategisch concept

Mechelen – Arsenaal / Spoorstad. Het ontwikkelen van een

strategie voor de Arsenaalsite in Mechelen, Mechelen,

November 2002.


189A city which is looking for a new character in itsplanning is at the same time at the centre ofsocial and political reconstruction. The transfor-mation in planning is related to the transforma-tion of society. This is the basic premise of thisbook. In this chapter we will explore the concept‘city republic’: the city as the first level of thepolitical order, the forum for the joint construc-tion of the res publica (the general interest), andcity as the platform for cooperation on the basisof diversity and for sharing responsibility.

In the central figure of chapter 2 (p. 101) we pro-posed the traditional, political and administra-tive approach to the city as a descending line(top-down), with the population as the last linkin the chain: state-urban policy-urban govern-ment-population. We described this as anapproach which focuses strongly on institutionsand in which the population is ‘served’ withgoods and services at the end of the productionline. Working on an urban policy on the basis ofthis approach means energy turned inwards:discussions between administrative depart-ments, lengthy administrative reforms, conflictbetween administrative levels about the redis-tribution of powers, attempts to allow the pop-ulation to participate on the basis of the argu-ments of governance. It is predominantly a tech-nocratic and bureaucratic administrativeapproach. The citizens are seen as spectators,electors and clients; in some cases they have avoice, but always on the conditions of this com-plex administrative machinery. This is the coldstyle of government: government which turns inon itself to a great extent.

We placed the basis of this book in the samefigure on a different line, which starts with prac-tices and activities rather than dossiers and pro-cedures. We saw the connections between glob-alisation and the population and civil society.We would like the attention of politics, the

assimilation of politics and the activities ofadministrations to be based more on thedynamic action of the inhabitants and users ofthe city. This focuses on a relationship with thepopulation which is based on dialogue, interac-tion and creativity, on the restoration of com-munication, on confrontation with conflictinginterests, both between the inhabitants of thecity themselves and between the inhabitantsand the users, and between the citizens and theadministration, all focusing on sustainabledevelopment. The objective is the strengtheningof the networks in the city between the eco-nomic world, the cultural world, the social part-ners, administrators and politics. This is a warmstyle of government, with energy radiating out-wards, which is supported by social dynamics. Itis the city republic.

In the first point we clarify how we arrive at ourvision of urban democracy. Citizenship in thecity has a central place. We then indicate whatthis means for our view of politics in the city.Both elements (citizenship and politics) cometogether in the concept of the city republic.

In the third point, we indicate a few directionsto strengthen urban citizenship. We then focuson the change in the administrative organisa-tion of city councils which is required to supportcitizenship and to play a prominent role in thecity republic. This corresponds to chapters 3 and4, which dealt with many of the expectationswith regard to city councils.

In the fifth point, urban policy has a centralplace: the way in which the relationshipsbetween the central governments and the citiescan be developed to help to achieve the above.We focus particularly on the role of theGovernment of Flanders.

5. Government and citizenship in the city republic

5. G OVE R N M E NT A N D C ITI Z E N S H I P I N TH E C IT Y R E P U B L I C

190 1. Urban citizenshipin the city republic

1.1 Models of urban democracyCities are perfect places for participation anddemocracy. They reveal the complexity of theworld, so that it can be experienced, but at thesame time are still sufficiently comprehensiblefor this complexity to be understood and organ-ised. They bring together many organisationsand institutions, provide many public places formeetings and interaction, and serve as forumsfor the daily practices of participation, for con-tacts between public and private elements, andfor confrontation between citizens and institu-tionalised authorities, of which the city councilis one.1 The potential of the infrastructure, peo-ple, interactions and institutions which are nec-essary for democracy is at its best in the city.

However, how can we imagine ‘urban democra-cy’ on the basis of this potential? We make a dis-tinction between a radical and a romanticapproach to urban democracy. There is also anapproach which focuses on institutions and onewhich ignores institutions. We use both modelsto clarify our idea of the city republic.

The romantic and radical visions of urbandemocracy both develop from the conclusionthat representative democracy with elections onits own is not sufficient to create a dynamicurban democracy. This was already analysed inchapter 1.2

In a romantic version of urban democracy, thecity is above all a forum for the creation of con-sensus. There are conflicts of interest in the city,but as long as they are adequately discussed,they can be overcome and result in shared gen-eral urban interests and harmony. This image ofa deliberating democracy3 can be found in theliterature on interactive planning which has

become extremely popular.4 This vision can alsobe found amongst those who want to return tothe village in the city, and who see the districtlevel as a conflict-free unit (‘Us in the district’).

The structural conflicts of interests betweenpeople and classes are misunderstood in thisapproach. After all, not everyone has equalaccess to the debate, there is no question ofequal opportunities during the debate and theresults often consolidate the exclusion.Furthermore, it is assumed that the rationale ofcommunication between people always pro-motes the general interest, while nothing canactually guarantee that the result of a dialoguewill not lead to further exclusion.5

In a radical vision of democracy, the city is thestage of a conflict between classes and inter-ests. It is a matter of exposing those conflicts toavoid democracy from becoming a selective de-mocracy of the middle classes. A greater democ-racy must develop from these conflicts. Thisview recognises the large differences of interestin the world and therefore also in the city. It isnot surprising that this approach has its rootsmainly in America. There the government playsa less prominent role and they are extremelystark social and ethnic contrasts, often rein-forced by spatial segregation in the city.6

The extremes of the soft deliberative conceptand of the hard conflict do not provide a solu-tion. However, it is relevant to ask how thedeliberative potential in the city can be com-bined with the fight against exclusion and aninsight into class-related interests which partlytranscend the city.

A second image which can help to describe thecity republic is that of an institutional and ananti-institutional approach to urban democracy.In the institutional approach, political institu-


191tions have a central place and the discussionconcentrates on official reforms of democracy: adirectly elected burgomaster, the position of thetown council in the relationship with the execu-tive power, the introduction of referendums, theoperation of the administration, forms of decen-tralisation at district level. These are just a fewexamples. This would give rise to a more or lessautomatic improvement in democracy and agreater involvement of citizens. It is a stronglymechanistic approach: if we adapt the institu-tions here and there, the machinery of democra-cy will start going again. On the other hand, inan anti-institutional approach, the dominantview is that institutions are not important andthat the democracy must be supported by formsof self- organisation, by spontaneous interac-tions between citizens who must take as muchindividual responsibility as possible in as manyworlds as possible in their interaction withother citizens. In this sort of literature, termssuch as city government and urban policy areoften not even used.7

Neither the one-sided institutional approach,nor the non-institutional concept is useful to us.However, it is relevant to ask how the potentialof institutional frameworks of politics and ofthe city government in particular, can be com-bined with capacities for initiatives by citizensand self- organisation in society.

1.2 The central position of citizenshipTherefore we have four corner points: delibera-tive forms of discussion, universal rights andconflicts of interest, institutional innovation andthe self-organisation of citizens. Within this fieldwe develop our own vision of urban democracy.The general aim, the central point between thefour corners, is to strengthen urban citizenship.Therefore it is not in the first place, a matter ofinstitutional innovation or the design of deliber-ative or radical democracy. It is a matter of

urban citizenship, and we see all the elementsthat were mentioned as providing a supportiveframework to turn the city into a democraticforum which makes it possible to achieve urbancitizenship. The renovation of certain institu-tions is one aspect of this. Strengthening urbancitizenship must stimulate both deliberativeand radical forms of democracy. We believe thatboth are needed, and that together they turnthe city into a lively democratic scene. Strongconflicts about conflicting interests are also partof this. All this is not the result of one or twonew instruments or of a single strong measure:it develops from an urban democratic culturewhich can be supported in many ways. Publicspace, investment in creativity, the strength ofrecreation, solidarity, etc. These elements (seechapter 3) promote local democracy just asmuch as, for example, strengthening districtmanagement.

For us, urban citizenship means in the firstplace, open access to facilities and services.Therefore it still concerns universal rights. Infact, cities have often played a prominent role inthis struggle in the past.

Cities are not independent city states. They areincorporated in wider forms of social regulationand political organisation. Many conflicts andopposing interests in cities (exclusion in thehousing market, in the employment market, ineducation) are the result of more broadly organ-ised institutions (at the regional, European,global level). Therefore political participation inthe city will, in the first instance, always be amatter of universal rights (to food, housing,work, culture, education, etc.).

Therefore we also included this aspect in chap-ter 3 in the policy lines, amongst other things, inthe proposals for the economic developmentcoalition and for the housing policy.


192 However, the city itself is also one level of regu-lation, and therefore just as much a democraticforum, if only because there is a strong traditionin our country of local elections, autonomouslocal government and a strong local politicalaction. Those who demand and defend autono-my as being important and valuable, mustaccept some responsibility. Exclusion or unequalrights are always linked to the direct responsi-bility of institutions in our society which inter-act with people in a very concrete and specificway, here and now. It is the slum landlord whoexploits illegal immigrants in a particular street.It is the school which subtly turns away immi-grant children in a particular district. It is thebusiness where our neighbours work, but whichdismisses women with a low level of education.Ensuring universal rights must take place hereand now, also in the city.

This essential aspect of our view on the basis ofurban citizenship and its position in the strugglefor universal rights will not be discussed furtherhere, because this would go beyond the scope ofthis book. However, it is important that our viewon citizenship is also supported by stimulatingthe skills of people, just as much as by the crea-tion of facilities. The most efficient way of achie-ving basic rights is to ensure that people arestrong enough to demand these rights themsel-ves. A vibrant and critical urban scene can pro-vide a good framework for strengthening thesecapacities. This approach, based on capacitiesand social learning, fits in the bottom-up visionof urban policy which we outlined in the intro-duction to this chapter and in chapter 3. Here isan example: talking about a better housing poli-cy is certainly important, but squatting in prem-ises which have been vacant for a long time mayhelp local action to move along a bit faster.

Secondly, urban citizenship means opportunitiesfor reciprocity and interaction between people,

so that they can work on common interests. Thecity should be organised in such a way that citi-zenship can be exercised in a concrete way inmany places and at many times, and thereshould be a favourable climate for this.Therefore, the organisation of institutions suchas the employment market is important to pro-vide opportunities for a different relationshipwith time and to make time for citizenship. Theorganisation of public space is essential forinteraction. The way in which education oper-ates, as well as the cultural atmosphere, theurban media, the social partners and politicsitself are also relevant: they can be organised insuch a way that they support responsibility, ini-tiative and interaction. For us, these are institu-tions (we use the term in a broad sense), andthey can be organised in such a way that theyare geared more effectively to a proactive formof citizenship. Therefore we focus particularly onurban citizenship as a practice of intervention,supported by the design of the city through itsinstitutions. The fact that urban citizenship inthis interpretation comprises every aspect of life(work, church, education, culture, housing,traffic, recreation, etc.) is not only self-evident, itis also necessary to achieve that citizenship.

Citizenship is traditionally linked with originand nationality. Urban citizenship is not basedon these sorts of static characteristic in ourview, but is a result of practices in the city. It isself-evident that citizenship is a quality foreveryone who lives or works in the city, uses thecity or stays in the city for a while.

Solidarity, avoiding exclusion, participating indevelopment coalitions, the re-evaluation ofpublic space and the cultural dialogue are allempty objectives if some of the inhabitants ofthe city are excluded from the most elementarybasic right to political participation: the right tovote. This applies for people who do not have


194 Belgian nationality, but play a full part in thecity. Therefore a right to vote at the local level isessential. In a different way, this also applies forthe users of the city, who should be able to havetheir voices heard with regard to urban mattersthat affect them. Therefore we proposed inchapter 3 to do more work on forms of coopera-tion between the city and the periphery on thebasis of concrete projects and the involvementof the users of the city.

2. More politics in the urban republic

Of course, we cannot talk about citizenshipwithout talking about politics, about the way inwhich society is organised, the regulation ofsociety, and the distribution of goods, rights andobligations. Our view on politics, combined withthat on citizenship, leads us to the concept ofthe ‘city republic’. This concept incorporates theLatin ‘Res Publica’: public matters, the generalinterest.8

Elections, parties and elected councils – in otherwords, the whole system of representation (therepresentative democracy) easily loses its credi-bility and legitimacy. Many people only votebecause they have to, the social basis of the par-ties is narrowing, and elected councils inspire lit-tle confidence nowadays. The bridges betweencitizens and politics, the political parties and thebroader social partners appear to be losing theirlinking functions. Everything, even the relation-ship between citizens and politics, is becomingmediatised and commercialised.

This results in a growing populism in politics.Populism means pretending that politicsacquires an unmediated form by a direct rela-tionship between politics and citizenships.Populism means saying that you are doing

‘what the people want’, without all that endlessdiscussion in elected councils, and without thedifficult debates with the social partners.Populism is based on individualism and nuclearissues, and is in danger of leading to con-sumerism: citizens are seen above all as clients.Populism means the market approach in poli-tics. Politics becomes a matter of supply anddemand, and itself erodes citizenship. Wedescribed deliberative democracy as a ‘soft’democracy, but populism undermines even thatform of democracy. After all, it is hardly neces-sary to discuss matters in public anymore. Thereis no longer any time or space for the slowprocess of discussion, the difficult publicdebate, questions and answers, the confronta-tion of views and the discussion about respon-sibility, focusing on the general interest.Common sense is decreed. This is an extremelydangerous and unsustainable development inpolitics. It undermines everything we aim for inthis book, which is based on dialogue, discus-sion, conflict, consultation and the search forcommon significance.

Paradoxically, this evolution in politics isstrengthening technocracy, with a strong focuson management in government, aimed particu-larly at client relationships between the elec-torate and government. This interpretation ofmanagement sees government in the first placeas providing a service, and it leads to a strongemphasis on the efficiency of government. Thegovernment has to perform efficiently, but itappears to be less important that it is stillsocially relevant. Strengthened by the populistmovement, there is a danger that this will nowcontinue into fields which are related to socialchoices and order. Inhabitants have the impres-sion that their individual wishes can simply beachieved in the field of town and country plan-ning, the environment, public health care,traffic, etc. Everyone for themselves, and less


195and less politics for everyone. In this way politicsdigs its own grave.

This road is deplorable for a democratic society.The city and urban democracy can help to turnthe tide of these general trends and are essen-tial elements for achieving this turnaround. Theorganisation of the city will then have to focuson the way in which the city can be steered andturned into the object of political debate withthe inhabitants and users of the city, and withsocial groups. All the subjects for discussion incities, whether the focus is housing, the districtsor the world, are matters related to social choic-es, and they therefore belong on the agenda ofthe democratic city republic. Choices are con-stantly made in every social field in the city (eco-nomics, the employment market, social services,education, the housing market, town and coun-try planning, mobility, etc.) and these determineurban society and the urban environment. Thesechoices must be debated and we must stimulatepeople to contribute to the discussions.

2.1 The city republic: working on breakingdown the boundaries

Therefore politics and the administrative organi-sation of the city republic must work to breakdown boundaries, focusing on connectionsrather than divisions. There are no longer anyboundaries between the city and the world, andeven between cities the boundaries are relative(see chapter 2). The term ‘grid city’ sees theadministrative boundaries between the city andthe peripheral municipalities in relative terms.In chapter 1 this often concerned mental bound-aries, with which we make all sorts of distinc-tions in the city and which are often also reflect-ed in policy boundaries. Boundaries betweensectors, boundaries between people with differ-ent cultural backgrounds, boundaries drawn byso-called target groups of policy, boundarieswhich are the result of broad generalisations

(we and them, immigrants and the originalBelgian population, etc.), boundaries betweenthe government and the market, between thestate and civil society. They are all boundarieswhich divide, rather than connect. With its newadministrative organisation and procedures(also see the urban debate in chapter 4), the cityrepublic should focus on new connections forthe collective and general interest of the city,not on creating divisions. Open up the bound-aries to create a broader scale: this explains whywe devote attention in this chapter to unclog-ging policy, for policy creation at the level of thegrid city, for the relationship with other cities,with other governments. It explains why we donot remain stuck in the divisions between pub-lic and private, between government, the socialpartners and the market, but link these ele-ments together for the sake of the ‘Res Publica’.

In our view, the social debate should be strength-ened in general, and should certainly also have acentral position in representative democracy.However, the old forms are no longer sufficient.Representative democracy at the level of the cityhas become too much of an enclosed adminis-trative democracy. This means that it is moreconcerned with itself (and its own reforms) andwith the management and constant reform ofcomplex official systems than with the dialoguewith citizens and social groups in the city. Thisadministrative democracy has foundered in pat-terns of participation which have become rigid,in patterns of ‘cold’ government, caught up inprocedures, regulations and red tape. In the cur-rent local representative democracy, the towncouncil plays a marginal role and hardly fulfilsany functions that deserve the description: ‘rep-resentation of the people’.

2.2 The whole city is politicsThe city republic is by definition a political proj-ect. There is a need for more politics in the city,


196 the city should become the first level of politicalorganisation. This means that politics itselfmust also become an object of political discus-sion. Where do we want to intervene and howdo we want to steer things? The whole city ispolitics. What does the city itself do (broadlydefined here as a collection of different actors)about environmental problems, how does itgovern the local housing market, what does itdo about exclusion in the employment market,what does it do about looking after the infra-structure, what is its strategy with regard to theeconomy and in what urban networks is itactive? How does the city organise its ownspace, what does it do about the suburbansprawl? These questions must be discussed inthe city in a process of interaction, dialogue andconflicts. This is politics at the urban level. It isthe necessary framework for citizenship.

However, more politics does not automaticallymean more government action in the tradition-al sense (more services provided by the govern-ment). The government can regulate markets,achieve cooperation with the social partners, theprivate sector and authorities, and create frame-works to support initiatives of citizens. Thisrequires different and new capacities on thepart of government, not even more bureaucracyand government which focuses on government.

In our view, the role of politics in the city is irre-placeable: to draw up binding rules, to achievedemocracy and social justice, to protect theinterests of the weakest and the weakest inter-ests. More – rather than less – politics is needed,in the sense of a more conscious way of dealingwith choices, indicating more rights and impos-ing more duties, and more government regula-tions in certain fields where the market has hadtoo great an impact. The governing parties andcivil servants have their own ethical norms,which cannot be defined by market standards

or in terms of figures. In fact, they will probablyincreasingly have to play a deliberating, reconcil-ing, mediating and directing role.9

3. Urban citizenship in a participatory democracy

Chapter 3 dealt with crucial choices related tocontent which must contribute to citizenship. Inthis chapter we restrict ourselves to aspectswhich are related to administrative and organi-sational frameworks to define government andorganise urban society. It is the combination ofthe content-related aspects (chapter 3) and theinstitutional aspects (this chapter) which muststimulate citizenship. The change we aim forcan be described as participatory democracy:what citizens can do themselves does not haveto be taken over by government, the contribu-tion of citizens must be taken seriously anddecisions arise from interaction, discussion andthe arguments put forward. It is a matter ofinvolving the population in decisions (and this isrequired by urban complexity), both at the levelof the city (see the urban debate), and in deci-sions which concern the immediate environ-ment and everyday life (particularly, though notsolely, at the district level).

3.1 The urban debateChapter 4 looked at the urban vision and urbanprojects, important levers for the administrativeand democratic organisation of the city republic.We will look at the urban projects again below:in our view, these are the ideal moments andplaces where participatory democracy shouldtake place. The best practices of participationare applied there in their most intense form.

The city republic requires images and imagina-tion. There is a need for identification, symbols,frameworks for steering the debate, construc-


197tions to empathise with other citizens in the cityand professional organisations where thedebate about the city can take place. Debates asdefined in chapter 4 refer to a mixture of com-munication formulae. The urban debate shouldconfront citizens and users with the city, givethem a sense that they are part of a socialmovement, and give them an opportunity toparticipate and feel part of what is happening indifferent ways, through different channels andat different times. With its organisation andimage, the urban debate has an open and invit-ing character. The contribution is not immedi-ately linked to decisions and the administrationdoes not have to immediately provide a ready-made answer to every contribution that is made.This is not the purpose of the urban debate. It isconcerned with the core of citizenship, becauseit gives everybody the opportunity to partici-pate, because it takes the contribution seriouslyand assimilates it in a broad process of con-frontation and discussion. Therefore it is aboveall a question of creating attitudes. This mentali-ty should contribute to the open city and opencitizens; in chapter 3 (line 1, field 1), this culturalcapital was described as being crucial for thedevelopment of a glocal strategy.

3.2 Creating conditions for citizenshipand participation

Citizenship and participation are activities, prac-tices. They are also positions from which peopletake part in society with a view to achieving thegeneral interest. We have described some of theelements which can have a stimulating effecton this: time, space, creativity, giving an oppor-tunity for capacities, an attitude, and the publiccharacter.

1 . Time and workPeople with busy diaries who are always catch-ing up with themselves do not have time for cit-izenship. They are glad if they manage to make

it to the weekend more or less in one piece.Inhabitants and users of the city should havesufficient time to notice it (and obviously this ispossible in a thousand different ways). Forms ofcareer breaks and time credits are useful to givepeople an opportunity to contribute to someaspect of the city for a particular period. This isin line with the attempts to work on some ofthe many forms of useful local activities (com-munity services, the service economy in the con-text of local job centres). Therefore we mustmake more time for work on citizenship. Inchapter 3 we linked the general policy on time inthe city to this: coordinating time managementwith the many different rhythms of the city.

2. SpaceSpace for citizenship should also be interpretedin a literal way. That is why we devote so muchattention in this book to a concern for the publicspaces in the city. This concerns both publicbuildings (for example, cultural centres), andstreets and squares. This public space providesmany forums for interaction, and in this waycontributes to the public debate in the city onall sorts or major and minor matters. A publicspace of a high standard is the agora in the cityrepublic. Reference is made in this respect tochapters 1 and 3. These spaces also require allsorts of modest forms of public infrastructure,for example, district infrastructure with a lowthreshold, which is open to all the inhabitantsand users of a district.

3 . CreativityA vibrant and creative city stimulates citizenship(see line 3 in chapter 3). Autonomous culturalinitiatives, artistic interventions, experimentsand projects such as the ‘Summer of Antwerp’are proof of this. Crazy events are often not ascrazy as they seem, because they give peopleideas, and that is always a basis for citizenship.The creative city is accompanied by all sorts of


198 creative learning and practice-oriented trainingwhich correspond to the social learningdescribed in chapters 1 and 3.

The services of governments can also focus oncitizenship in a creative way. At the moment,many of the services focus on individuals. Theclient is one citizen. People ask for licenses orpremiums individually. Not enough servicesstimulate group formation, and therefore citi-zenship. This could be achieved, for example, byproviding people with more support if theycooperate with other people in the district or ona particular subject. People who do things as agroup (a district, an association) would thenreceive higher premiums, more support andextra services from the municipal authorities.

4 . Giving opportunities to capacitiesThe profile of the obedient citizen who mustbehave in accordance with the wishes of theinstitution, department, faction or lobby organi-sation still often dominates in many institutionsand departments in the city. The arguments ofthe organisation have a central place. In recentyears, openings have gradually been made for agreater contribution from citizens, though this isstill often on an individual basis, as a client,rather than as a co-producer of the policy of theinstitutions. Like the town council, most institu-tions in the city have become administrativeinstitutions. These administratively-orientedarrangements make citizenship difficult. Citi-zens almost always find themselves in a depen-dent and subordinate position. They rarely havethe opportunity to develop their own skills in afreer environment: according to the institution,there is always something that does not fit or isnot according to the rules. But it is not the citi-zens, rather the rules, which should be adapted.

A client-oriented approach has increasinglybecome part of the credo of these institutions.

This is positive and important, but focusing onlyon this client-oriented approach leads to thesame problems in these institutions as in poli-tics: the citizens only behave as an individualclient and consider that all their wishes shouldbe met. Too much emphasis, or an emphasisonly on the individual, client-oriented approach,can even undermine citizenship in this way.

Therefore the management of these institutionsshould focus more strongly on relying on citizensmore to be prepared to cooperate or supportchange. Obviously this also places part of thecollective responsibility on the citizens them-selves, and that is what it is all about. For exam-ple, this applies to parents and pupils in educa-tion (participation at school), to users of subsidi-sed institutions, to the elderly in residential ho-mes, and to tenants in social housing companies.Obviously, the town council should also applythis idea itself in the management of its ownservices and institutions (cultural centres, sportscentres, libraries, community centres…). TheGovernment of Flanders has some interestingkeys available, because it can influence the rela-tionship between the institutions and citizens inits regulations and with its subsidies (see below).

5 . An open and public characterA general atmosphere of discussion, with anopen and public character has a positive effecton citizenship. Critical urban media and criticalsocial partners play an important role in thisrespect. Information gives rise to surprise andsometimes indignation, it can stimulate discus-sion and may lead to initiatives.

3.3 Dealing with the initiatives of citizensIn a representative democracy and in traditionalforms of participation, the emphasis is alwayson the fact that citizens must participate in poli-tics. However, wouldn’t it become increasinglymeaningful to turn this round and propose that


199politics should participate more in society? Citi-zens will no longer allow political parties to dic-tate to them. The efforts and involvement of citi-zens are often expressed in ways which are notfamiliar to politicians, and in patterns and cul-tures which are difficult to integrate in a closedrepresentative democracy. Failed experienceswith ‘immigrant’ projects (the term says a lot)prove this all too clearly. Traditional forms of par-ticipation (advisory council, hearings) usuallyhave a place here. Citizens also increasinglyorganise themselves on an individual basis innew forms of networks, sometimes on a tempo-rary, sometimes on a permanent basis. Theydevelop their own agendas, which no longerconnect seamlessly with those of the politicalparties, as they did in the past. Therefore astronger participation of politics in society hasbecome necessary to attain and retain legitima-cy. It is no longer even a choice. The whole con-tent of this chapter focuses on the stimulationof the city so that it permanently feeds the in-teraction between citizens and political parties.

We realise that we have moved onto a slipperyslope in this respect. After all, the term ‘initia-tives of citizens’ covers many sorts of initiatives.Politicians are very familiar with action groupswhich oppose any new developments in the dis-trict. Many initiatives by citizens certainly havelimited motives. Some have a temporary inter-est, in which the common aspect consists onlyof being ‘against’ something. Sometimes this iseven further strengthened by aspects revealinga closed character, defending the group’s owninterests and exclusion, which undermine theprinciples of the city republic.

We do not mean that politicians should simplywelcome all these initiatives of citizens and con-vince the organisers to carry them out. This isthe populism, the politics without mediation,from which we distance ourselves. They must be

able to communicate intensively and create ageneral climate which makes it possible toexplain motives and enter into a debate. In thebest cases this leads to an acceptance of deci-sions. The opposition to asylum centres and theextremely different ways with which local politi-cians have dealt with them are extremelyinstructive in this respect. In the absence ofcommunication and debate, some action com-mittees which are ‘against something’ can com-pletely dominate the relationship with the gov-ernment and the way in which matters are pre-sented in the media. Obviously this is not to theadvantage of politicians either.

However, it is just as unfair on initiatives fromcitizens to place them all in the corner of short-sighted PLIMBYs or NIMBYs (‘please in my back-yard’ or ‘not in my backyard’). Initiatives of citi-zens are also involved in many forms of volun-tary enthusiastic efforts and positive participa-tion in the city. In the cities there are an increas-ing number of small and large-scale projects setup on the initiatives of citizens. The ex-journalistwho starts a local paper, a district which rentsan abandoned theatre, community residentswho share transport, many forms of unofficialcare, parents who supervise children in a square,people who participate in the management of awindmill, action groups who draw up their owncultural plan, environmental groups who man-age nature parks, neighbours who organise asystem of informal childcare… It is all thesesmall ‘Res Publicas’ together that create avibrant city. It is crucial to support and stimulatethese. Participating in this process means listen-ing, strengthening, supporting, respectfully tak-ing part in political debates and budget discus-sions, and thinking critically before developinginitiatives on these matters, as the government.

The administration does not always see theseinitiatives, because they often do not fit into


200 patterns or plans drawn up by the governmentitself. Furthermore, they do not only concernofficial organisations (with a chairperson andsecretary). Networks develop in squares, in rela-tion to infrastructure, in shops or cafés, and theinhabitants attach a great deal of importance tothese and organise their relationships there. Wereferred to the ‘soft forms of solidarity’ in chap-ters 1 and 3. Informal networks can cover manyhidden initiatives by citizens.

In cities, both the town councils and other pub-lic authorities often respond to problems byextending the services, with even more initiativefrom ‘the government’. This promotes a generalsense of dependence (the government or insti-tution will sort things out), stimulates an indi-vidual client-oriented approach (what’s in it forme?) and a sense of separation from one’s ownresponsibility or from initiatives by citizens(that’s what we pay taxes for, isn’t it?). The gov-ernment in this way itself stimulates part of therejection of politics which it deplores. We oftensee that initiatives by citizens are initiallyembraced by the government and are then sub-sidised and surrounded by rules, and finallytaken over, and disappear. This is the way inwhich the administrative democracy respondsfrom above to new initiatives. The arguments ofgovernment have the final say.

An intelligent government develops frameworkswhich enable citizens, civil companies, institu-tions, and players on the market to developtheir own initiatives and stimulate them to takeup some of the responsibility. This social self-regulation based on a respect for initiatives ofcitizens is the most consistent application ofsubsidiarity. Plan not to plan. ‘Allow things tohappen’ is the simple basic message – simplyhaving confidence in the potential of citizensand a slightly more healthy suspicion of thepotential of government.

3.4 Participatory democracyat the district level

In our view, the district level is not the only levelof participatory democracy: we have referredbefore to the importance of the urban debate,participation in large projects and participationin choices at the urban level.

We do believe that participatory democracy atthe district level is a suitable additional way oforganising aspects of the collective debate onan identifiable scale, and particularly for citizensthemselves to discuss matters with other citi-zens and make choices. In this way the cityrepublic becomes a very concrete and tangibleconcept. It is not the self as an individualagainst the government, but the inhabitantsand users of the district of the city actingtogether. Obviously there are policy-related lim-its on this, and the town council retains its over-all responsibility for the policy framework forthe city as a whole, and at times the town coun-cil must make choices between the interests ofdifferent districts.

Working in a district or community-orientedway is not a new development: in recent years,Brussels and all the Flemish cities have workedin some way on a greater district-orientedapproach in services and/or in the creation ofpolicy. There is a large range: district services,district programmes and district consultations,advisory district councils, elected district coun-cils in Antwerp, district contracts in the BrusselsRegion. In general, we consider this to be a fasci-nating evolution, and it is this changing practicethat we wish to extend into more radical formsof district management. For no matter how pos-itive the intentions may be, the district-orientedapproach often appears to be yet anotheraspect of the bureaucratic administrativedemocracy. The district approach primarilyserves the administration.


201Participatory democracy at district level can andwill take different forms, in relation to the par-ticular city, and even in relation to the particulardistrict, because not every district is confrontedwith the same problems, and some parts of thecity are probably not districts that can be organ-ised. Therefore we do not consider that everydistrict can be obliged to work with forms of dis-trict management; however, we do believe thatthe introduction of participatory democracy indistricts and responding to demands from dis-tricts can serve as interesting levers, in additionto all the other ideas put forward in this chapter.

Focusing on a district as one level (not the onlylevel), of participatory democracy, is not inspiredby nostalgia, and even less represents a movetowards a new closed attitude (‘us’ and ‘them’).In our view, the district or community is not a‘warm village in the cold city’, but a constructionwhich serves as a useful step up, because itplaces an obvious link between private interestsand the public aspect in the context of thediversity of people. It is an instrument of citizen-ship because it confronts people with discus-sions in and about their own community andvia the community, with the town council, inthe context of an urban project which affectsthe district. It is also a framework for stimulat-ing and supporting forms of initiatives by citi-zens. These are not abstract discussions, butconcrete practices in the district or communityitself. Therefore we envisage a range of effectswhich are all part of the process of stimulatingthe city republic. In chapter 3 we called this the‘socio-cultural capital of the city’. Not all theeffects apply in the same way everywhere, asthe districts themselves differ too much interms of composition and function.

Therefore it is not necessary everywhere, andthe districts can take the initiative themselves.We suggest that in the context of district man-

agement it should be possible to transfer partsof the municipal budget to particular districtsto become the object of consultation amongstcitizens (inhabitants and users), together withthe authorities. Obviously agreements must bemade about this, and minimum procedures willhave to provide a framework. The essence is forcitizens to decide for themselves what shouldhappen to these budgets and what is given pri-ority. The authorities undertake to respect this,after consultation and debate. Legal frame-works must be drawn up for this in the respec-tive municipal decrees in Flanders and theBrussels Region.

The district councils in Antwerp indicate whatshould be avoided: that the party politicaladministrative democracy at the level of the cityis simply replicated on a smaller scale. No onebenefits from duplicating the problems of therepresentative democracy. The experiences ofthe Antwerp district councils are useful for talk-ing about the aspects of the approach to the dis-trict in terms of content (what scale, what com-petences, what resources, what organisation?).

The authorities often focus on uniformity, con-centrating more on the interests of the adminis-trative organisation than those of the district orcommunity itself. Participatory democracy atthe district level means that differentiationshould be given a chance: what works here doesnot necessarily work somewhere else; what isneeded here is not necessarily needed some-where else. This requires the modification ofregular services which often operate on thebasis of a sectoral logic and predeterminedplanning. Breaking through this requires astrong team of a high standard which can workon changing the organisation to focus on a par-ticular area, with a sufficient official and politi-cal scope. Otherwise focusing on the area servesmore to confirm an old problem than to provide


202 a new opportunity, and undermines legitimacyrather than strengthening it.

3.5 Participatory democracy in the budgetof the city

Drawing up the budget of the city (what shouldhappen to the money from taxation?) is at themoment only theoretically an important pointfor local democracy. In many cases this debatetakes place virtually unnoticed in the city. Thebudget is a matter of the administrative democ-racy, of the majority against opposition. With asufficiently professional approach, it should bepossible to reflect participatory democracy indrawing up the budget of the city as well. Thismeans that proposals by citizens are taken seri-ously, and that there is a response to them, stat-ing reasons. The procedures can take place perdistrict, but it is equally possible that the discus-sion on the budget for the city takes place insubject-related debates which cover the wholecity, or that the urban debate provides animportant contribution. By introducing a budgetfor several years the decrees could provide a bet-ter framework for these processes.

The budget for these programmes could bedetermined in a procedure in which opposingviews are confronted with each other. The repre-sentation of the people continues to governmatters at the level of the city. It is essential thatthe participation in the budget leads to an inter-active process, a system of communication, dis-cussion and accountability that is organised andtransparent, and gives an insight into the diffi-cult decisions which the town council has tomake. Most citizens do actually understand thatit is not possible to do everything, and thatchoices must be made, but retaining this under-standing requires honest accountability andopen communication. Moving towards this sortof system of communication and dialogue onthe budget requires time. Therefore it is not

enough to try it out all at once, and then to con-clude with satisfaction that (fortunately) ‘It does-n’t work’. Both the people in government, admin-istrations and citizens, must go through a learn-ing process before this new system will work.

3.6 Participation in the planningThe administration complains about the lack ofpeople who are prepared to participate, or aboutthe selective participation (‘You always see thesame faces’). This is an accurate analysis: manyforms of participation often strengthen citizenswho could also contribute in other ways.However, this always concerns participation inprocedures and processes which were drawn upby those in government, on subjects and attimes chosen by them. In many cases the deci-sion making therefore has a more or less fixedbasis; it may not have been put down on paper,but it is certainly there in the minds of those ingovernment. In many cases participation can atmost lead to a few changes in the details, andobviously citizens are aware of this straight-away. The participants are not given any realdecision-making power. Another even moreimportant criticism is that the citizens are alsoapproached too much as individuals in the par-ticipation. Forms of participation do not suffi-ciently focus on stimulating a debate amongstthe citizens themselves. Hearings often becomeevenings for airing complaints. The last criticismis that the whole process of participationdepends on a verbal process: it is as though youbecome a citizen by talking. This profile of oneparticipation governed by administrators appliesfor most institutions in the city: education, wel-fare work, culture, etc. They are all based on thesame interpretation of representation.

1 . The grow th of new planning practices

In the course of the last few years many newplanning practices have developed, particularly


204 in the cities, often as the result of encourage-ment by central government: safety plans, struc-tural plans for town and country planning,mobility plans, environmental plans, youth workplans, cultural policy plans, district developmentplans…10 These plans are all part of an ‘interac-tive’ rhetoric. They have certainly led to greaterprofessionalism in policy (better support for pol-icy which can be implemented more effectively)and more social involvement (more discussionand consultation). In many cases they resultedin cities exploring certain policy problems in amore systematic way in relation to policy anddiscussing them at a social level. This is a recentdevelopment and is therefore still full ofunfulfilled hopes and desires. The different plan-ning practices have also led to new generationsof officials coming into the cities, which has cer-tainly strengthened the official potential in mid-dle management. This whole development isstill only in its first generation, i.e., at the stageof puberty. Hope and frustration alternate.

The practice of all these plans in the differentcities is very different: from a very closedapproach of drawing up plans from behind thedesk, to a very open preparation, based on nego-tiation in forms which deserve the description,‘participatory planning’. Therefore a great dealdepends on local practices and persons. It is amatter of luck for the citizen. However, a planthat appears to be participatory still often endsup in the mill of routine bureaucracy, both atthe level of the city and at the level of centralgovernment which provides subsidies or cooper-ation for these plans. Central government alsoholds back for other reasons: in some cases thecity is forced to accept a ‘planning model’ impo-sed on the basis of bureaucratic arguments.

As described in chapter 4, new planning figuresin themselves are not enough to create a newpractice in the creation of policy or to provide

greater legitimacy amongst citizens. In somecases having a plan is too much a goal in itself,but often that plan does not have a place in theorganisation, and even less in society. At a morefundamental level, the drawing up of such plansreveals control. As long as everything is antici-pated in the policy plan, and if all the planningprocedures have been properly followed, itseems as though government has society undercontrol. This is a closed, one-sided, administra-tive way of thinking in a fashionable butbureaucratic planning jacket. Social realityimmediately overtakes these plans and meansthat they cannot be implemented. These sortsof plans do not fit in the complex urban envi-ronment where many factors are unknown anduncertainty is often a dominant feature. Theysuggest a certainty where it does not exist, pro-pose quick decisions for which the instrumentsand resources are often lacking, and create anillusion of a comprehensive viability. This sort ofplanning sometimes puts an end to the dia-logue and discussions and reduces the credibili-ty of the government. In many cases this con-frontation does not exist internally either: draw-ing up the plan is restricted to the departmentconcerned, while the implementation of theplans can never be achieved by one departmentalone. An abundance of sectoral plans, particu-larly under the influence of central governmentsworking in a blinkered fashion, leads to evenmore divisions between departments. To eachdistrict, its own plan.

2. Conditions for interactive planningThus a change is gradually taking place, a verylaborious change towards more participatoryforms of planning in which a more open dia-logue with citizens has a central place, and deci-sions are made with less deliberation but moreconsultation. The style of government movesfrom one based on information and consulta-tion on the initiative of the government, to


205forms of co-production in which the governingparties take the proposals of citizens seriouslyand respond to them, giving reasons for theirdecisions. Co-production requires communica-tion and a much more two-sided process thanthe one-sided style based on giving information.The way in which government thinks is impor-tant: an open attitude, a readiness to listen, putforward arguments and give reasons are centralin this. This interaction requires clear agree-ments and procedures, professionally tackledprocesses, official support and help from expertsto tackle projects. Traditionally-organisedmunicipal councils (divided into departments,with few policy officials, a hierarchical approach)cannot really achieve this; therefore it is neces-sary to adapt the organisation (see below). Theurban debates, urban projects and district-ori-ented approach which we advocate are seen aselements to stimulate this change.

The parties which are in government and theexperts often dominate processes of participa-tion, either the officials from town councils orthe experts supervising the processes. In theseprocedures, the citizens are usually the weakestparty. In some cases, legal battles are the onlyway out, and these then obstruct the wholeprocess. In projects in which the citizens them-selves are also experts or have support, they areable to play a full role in the debate. This is whatwe aim for: we do not wish to turn the citizensinto the only party whose will becomes law, butto achieve a better balance in the deliberationsand to ensure that the parties in the debatescan participate fully and are on an equal foot-ing. This means that citizens can play an inde-pendent role and can be involved in the argu-ment in interaction with experts, pressuregroups and administrations. They examinevisions and studies and force experts andadministrations to justify and give reasons forparticular choices (whether or not these have

already been made). This reveals that not allexperts turn out to be real experts. At themoment, citizens are often dependent on coun-cils being prepared to listen to their views andon experts to explain matters to them. If citi-zens are able to organise themselves in a suffi-ciently independent way, they can become criti-cal as well as crucial partners for councils andexperts. By making life difficult for councils, theymake it easier for the process of government.

Special attention should be devoted to groupswhich are at risk of being excluded from theseprocesses, just as they are underrepresented inthe representative democracy (in political par-ties and town councils), in traditional forms ofparticipation (advisory boards and hearings) andin new forms, such as e-government. The gov-erning authorities have a special responsibilityto ensure that these groups are given a voice inthe debate. By now, it has become clear that it isbetter if town councils do not create the newinitiatives for this themselves, but that theysupport people and their projects who arealready working on it: voluntary groups in dis-trict activities, in community work, in socialwork, in trade unions. We also refer to what wassaid above about universal rights, the develop-ment of skills and the conditions for sociallearning in the city.

Chapter 4 described urban projects. In our view,these should be the pilot projects for participa-tory planning, the projects which serve as anexample in which open planning processes areworked out in the most intensive and profes-sional way. Chapter 4 demonstrated how theprofessionalism related to the concept and con-tent should accompany the professionalism ofthe process, insisting on the far-reaching andprogressive professionalism of those responsiblefor projects and the planners. In fact, we consid-er that this is necessary for citizens to be pre-


206 pared to commit themselves: it is impossible toattract first-rate commitment for second-rateprojects. Banality is not stimulating, but boldambitions are challenging.

Participatory planning leaves things open anddoes not aim to be too decisive. That is the plan-ning philosophy of chapter 4. Information, con-sultation, and interim decisions alternate in thisprocess. The primacy of politics can be seen in adynamic way, and consists of an alternation ofroles and interventions: giving the process achance, maintaining a sufficiently open attitude,indicating the limitations, choosing a directionat crucial moments, weighing up the alterna-tives and communicating the decisions. Theplanning also focuses on concluding agree-ments about the division of tasks between thegovernment, social organisations, and privateparties. The execution is discussed straightawayin the planning stage; after all, experience hasshown that the lack of credibility of many won-derful plans starts there. An assessment of thecommitment and of the feasibility of the execu-tion will determine the planning from the start.

3.7 People’s initiatives and referendumsPeople’s initiatives give citizens an opportunityto place their own points on the town council’sagenda. This encourages discussion, organisa-tion and citizenship in the city republic and cor-responds with our approach.

With regard to referendums, we adopt a bal-anced view: we oppose a certain trend in whichreferendums replace the collective debate andthe mediating role of politics in society. Thisview of referendums corresponds with the pop-ulist idea and with marketing. It appears to bedemocratic, but it undermines the city republic.However, we do believe that referendums havea place in the model of the collective debate inthe city. Processes of participatory planning can

result in certain alternatives, which are thenpresented to the whole electorate (in a district,part of the city, city or urban region) as the endof an intensive and public process of discussion.In this case, it a matter of choices between sce-narios which have been discussed by the public.Therefore referendums should be used selec-tively for the really crucial dossiers. Therefore weare for a referendum when it is the well-organ-ised peak of discussion, and against when it isan instrument for making this discussion super-fluous straightaway.

4. Turning the urban administrativeorganisation upside-down

Most town councils are working on reorganisa-tions to establish a more modern system ofgovernment and administration. These changesare being achieved at different rates and to dif-ferent degrees. What is this need for change allabout? We do not believe that every change or‘modernisation’ is positive. All too often, it justrepresents a move towards the corporate cul-ture. We emphasised above that a one-sidedmove towards a client-oriented approach, focus-ing on efficiency, is not desirable. Obviouslythese are important objectives in themselves:services must provide a certain standard ofquality, people must be helped in a correct andefficient way. Therefore we are mainly con-cerned that this aspect of the relationshipbetween the citizens and the governing author-ities is in danger of getting rid of all the otheraspects. Management only appears to be aboutan individual client-oriented approach. Weadvocate a broader debate on the role of thetown council in the city republic – on perform-ance and social relevance, on administrationand politics and citizenship, on managementand the regulation of society, on effectivenessand legitimacy.


207In this section we will therefore not explore theclient-oriented approach of town councils andaspects of internal management relating to thisany further. This book can only repeat what hasbeen explored in greater detail elsewhere. Inorder to achieve a better balance in the publicdebate and on the basis of the objectives of thisbook, we focus particularly on the role of thetown council in society and on the way in whicha change in the organisation and the work ofthe council can support citizenship and politics.

First, we describe how the past continues tohave an effect and causes problems (4.1). Webriefly look at the financial issues (4.2), and ourview of the relationship between civil servantsand politicians (4.3). This is followed by the ‘gov-ernment’ of the town council (4.4): the key wordused to describe the change in the social role.We describe the skills which are required tofulfil this role (4.5), and what this change meansfor the town council (4.6). We conclude with aspecial capacity for the future: that of coopera-tion between cities (4.7).

4.1 The past works against usOn a number of points, the past is counterpro-ductive. Participation, the mushrooming of dif-ferent forms of governance and the out-of-datelegislative framework form important obstacles.

Belgium, Flanders and the towns and cities havea difficult history with regard to the effects ofgovernance, due to the strong politicisation ofthe administration, the party political divisionsof policy sectors and the operation of partypolitical networks which have become estab-lished in and around government (in boards ofgovernors, not-for-profit companies, commis-sions and collections of councils). These forcesprove to be very resistant to attempts to organ-ise government in a more professional and openway. Politicians and civil servants are closely

interrelated, and government is often mainlyconcerned with the governing parties. Thismeans that the towns and cities are situated ona break line between the old – but very obsti-nate – cultures with their ingrained routines,and the innovative practices. New civil servantsand new generations of politicians are balancedon the cutting edge between the past and thepresent. This often leads to painful cuts andgrazes, and sometimes to serious broken bones.There is a danger that any attempt at changewill quickly be assimilated in the familiar cul-ture again. For example, projects related to tack-ling districts will then slide into the party politi-cal games after all.

The local administrative field is a conglomerateof local institutions as a result of the fragmen-tation and mutually inconsistent regulations:the town council, OCMW, church wardens, not-for-profit companies, authorities and municipalcompanies, agglomerates, building companies.They all work in accordance with their ownadministrative systems. There are different rulesfor their operation and management. It isalmost impossible to summarise and integratethe operation and results (consolidate them interms of policy and financially).11 The links withthe town council as an institution are extremelyloose, even though many councillors have accu-mulated a whole series of management man-dates in these institutions. In many cases, theindividual institutions have a far- reachingdegree of autonomy. This development is harm-ful both for efficiency and for achieving a visionin society and the democratic control of thetown council. The municipal authorities arepresent everywhere, but always in differentguises. The citizens can no longer see the ‘poli-tics’ in this conglomerate. This is an unfortunatesituation. We need a greater degree of uniformi-ty in the management, independence related toprogrammes, periods and agreements, greater


208 direction and control by the town council andmore contributions from citizens as a form ofsocial pressure on these institutions (see above).The control and monitoring of this system cer-tainly requires more professional skills at thelevel of the organisation of the city. These areoften inadequate at the moment. If the policydoes not change, our town councils will evolveinto centrifugal organisations: many satellites,but hardly anything of a centre that can directand control.

The ‘New’(!) Municipal Act was based on animage of urban government dating from thelast century. Local authorities were above alladministrations, and responsible for the execu-tion of policy. On many crucial points, this legalframework is no longer appropriate for a mod-ern vision of politics and management. Theregions are currently working on New MunicipalDecrees. However, this is not the appropriateplace to analyse these in detail.12 In general, wedo find that management themes are particu-larly dominant and that the focus on societyserves much less as a basis. There is a dangerthat the balance will move too far towardsinternal reforms and too little towards reformsof the position of government in society. Andthat is exactly what is important. The discussionon the municipal decree is carried out too tech-nically: there are not enough links with broadsocial developments, with the changing role ofpolitical parties, etc.

Party politics, the fragmentation of institutionsand an excessively inward-looking legal frame-work are three strong forces which obstruct theevolution of town councils towards organisa-tions which are open and focus on society.

4.2 The financial problems of the citiesCities are almost drowning. They complain thatboth central government and the peripheral mu-

nicipalities ask them to pay for everything. Dos-siers, such as the liberalisation of the public serv-ice sectors, pension contributions, the reform ofthe police force, etc., are a (very) great burden onthe city coffers. Successive cuts lead to the ter-mination of projects and frustrate the civil ser-vants and politicians. Privatisation seems to bethe only possible way of managing financially.

It is difficult to assess this problem accuratelyand it is beyond the scope of this book to do so.How heavy is the burden of bureaucracy incities, and how important can increasing effi-ciency therefore be as an element in makingsavings?13 What is the burden of the costspassed on by central government, and to whatextent do historical mistakes made by citiescontinue to have an effect? Does the newMunicipal Fund compensate adequately or is ittoo much or too little? Is the tax burden in thecities too heavy or too little?

In this book, and throughout this chapter, weindicate a number of elements which haveimportant consequences for the finances oftowns and cities:• redrawing the tax system in cities (the menu

of reforms was discussed in chapter 3);• the decentralisation of tasks and obligations

for cooperation between parties in the city;• bringing together key tasks, the need for a

debate on key tasks at the level of the city,and strengthening the roles of government bydecree;

• the creative management of the basic infra-structure and more cooperation betweencities;

• greater public-private partnership in manyfields and with different private actors;

• the accumulation of funds in the MunicipalFund, linked to the objective and correct fund-ing of tasks imposed by central government(see below).


209Subsidiarity and decentralisation should lead toa reduction in the pressure of taxation at thecentral level and a proportional increase of thatpressure at the local level. This is the argumentbehind our approach, but it appears to come upagainst political resistance. The local choicesmust be based more strongly on the local level,and their consequences should be paid for as faras possible with local funds. This is simply theconsequence of the argument for subsidiarityand decentralisation, and should be an impor-tant incentive for citizens to take an interest inthe city republic. If the tax system is decided atthe level of the city to a greater extent, we canexpect more interest and involvement on thepart of citizens. Citizenship and taxation gotogether. Which taxes are most suitable for thisis another debate which we will not explore atthis point.

More de-bureaucratisation is needed in everycity. We do not believe that the cities havearrived at the end of their internal reforms; wethink they have just started. Anyone who isoften in contact with cities and departmentswill find obstinate cores of the traditional closedform of bureaucracy in many places, an ineffi-cient deployment of personnel and sub-stan-dard modernisation. The modernisation of towncouncils in Flanders is only in its first stage. TheNew Municipal Decree should accelerate thisprocess of modernisation, but it will have to becarried out at the level of the city in a muchmore radical way.

The financial situation of town councils shouldnot be assessed in isolation either. In accordancewith our philosophy on the city republic, welook at the whole sum of public and privatefunds which are invested in the city. This is amultiple of the urban budget. The question isparticularly how all these funds together can beused for urban policy more efficiently and more

effectively. This concerns both the funds invest-ed by central government (of Europe to theGovernment of Flanders) and the funds whichcentral government spends on private initiativesin the city (via subsidies or tax incentives).Obviously it also concerns the private fundswhich are invested in the city (by companies,the social partners and citizens). How can thisentire financial sum be used in a better way, andwhat is the role which the town council shouldplay in controlling this? That is the basic ques-tion in a city republic.

4.3 The relationship between politiciansand civil servantsAn emphasis on the primacy of politics moreand more strongly, on the one hand, and on theincreasing independence of the administrationon the other hand, appears to underline thedivision between the roles of politicians andthose of civil servants. The danger lies particu-larly in an excessive quantification of perform-ance, an obsession with providing measurableresults, and sometimes an excessive profession-al weight of the unelected responsible parties inthe administration. The image of divided roles ispopular, but we are not convinced.

We do not believe in a general evolutiontowards a separation between political andadministrative tasks. This may work for depart-ments which are clearly defined (and in thatcase, the subsidiary effects will still have to becarefully monitored), but the complex policydossiers of the type which have a central placein this book, the governing roles of the towncouncil requires a combination of political andadministrative leadership. The basic characteris-tics of this leadership are communication, thedevelopment of a strategy, providing a basis tosupport policy and negotiation on the imple-mentation of policy. In our opinion, the successof cities is determined above all by the quality


210 of the cooperation between politicians and civilservants, and the way in which they can com-bine their professional qualities in this coopera-tion. A number of fascinating projects in citiesreflect this pattern: inspirational political leader-ship and continuity in that leadership, space forprofessional civil servants to develop policy, thetraining of teams, an open dialogue betweenpoliticians and society, organised by civil ser-vants in a professional way. Other examplesillustrate what happens when these conditionsare not met.

However, one of the important characteristics ofour current town councils, where a strong rela-tionship is developing between politicians andcivil servants, is that above all, sectoral depend-ency is particularly strengthened. Councillorscontinue to work in their own areas of compe-tence and cooperate with their own civil ser-vants. This increases the so-called blinkered sec-toralisation of the town council and often stim-ulates the (hidden) conflicts between depart-ments and between sectors.

This sectoral approach is out of date. Obviouslythere is a need for specialists in certain fields,but the organisation of the city is now too muchbased on these specialist areas, and not enoughon the universal and comprehensive elementswhich characterise a city. Our town councils areusually weakly – or even very weakly – devel-oped at this level. At the moment, the sectorsdetermine policy. This policy is often an accumu-lation of sectoral interests and of negotiationsand exchanges between sectors. From the pointof view of society and citizens this is increasing-ly artificial; the divisions do not correspond withthe integrated sense which people have of theproblem. The reality and the practical situationin a city cannot be divided into sectors. All towncouncils still have along way to go in thisrespect. The urban projects described in chapter

4 are the ideal testing places for working withintegrated teams and establishing new struc-tures for the administration of the city, includ-ing cooperation between politicians and civilservants across the sectoral boundaries.

4.4 Government by the town councilTraditionally, town councils focus strongly ontheir own responsibilities. This led to a narrowway of thinking, in which certain problems werenot seen as a matter for the town council,although they were things which were of con-cern to citizens. It is not possible to persist withthis attitude and these divisions without losingevery shred of legitimacy.

Chapter 3 described 19 fields. The achievementof the objectives requires the cooperationbetween different public and social organisa-tions. The task of the town council has a role todirect the cooperation of all these organisationstowards a joint approach and to divide the tasksinto programmes, projects and policy processes.

The term ‘directing’ has rapidly gained populari-ty in recent years: at the level of social housing,social services, culture and youth work, theemployment market, education, etc. This trend,strengthened by the Government of Flanders,indicates that the responsibilities of the towncouncil should be interpreted in a broad sense.This is also our view, although the urban author-ities often still see things differently.

Of course, the division of tasks between thesocial partners and the government is not newin Flanders. The subsidised freedom of the socialpartners has a long tradition in Flanders particu-larly in social work, health care, education, andas regards the employment market. In certainfields, this division of tasks between the govern-ment and the traditional social partners, in theform of established pressure groups, finds itself


211under pressure. After all, there are many newgroups which are not represented in the oldarrangements and which are concerned withproblems which do not have a place on the tra-ditional agendas. The traditional division oftasks, particularly with the passive role of the(paying) authority, no longer suffices.

The governing role challenges the urbanauthorities to consider carefully which pro-grammes and actions it will develop itself,which it could leave to the market or to socialorganisations, and for which others it aims toconclude agreements and achieve a division oftasks (in broadly conceived forms of public-pri-vate partnership). In any case, this means thatthe role of the municipal authorities is itselfalso part of the debate. This role can differ,depending on the issue concerned, and evenfrom place to place. Therefore the laboriousdebate on key tasks between central and localgovernments14 does not stop on the borders ofthe city. It is also taking place between publicand private partners in the city itself.Furthermore, this discussion of key tasks is notstatic or a one-off event, but must be constantlyadapted to the specific problems of the city andto new problems. Therefore the results shouldto some extent be different for every city. Wewill not get very far with general slogans aboutthe role of government or by following generalfashionable trends (privatisation). These consid-erations constitute the core of so-called strate-gic planning: what is the role of the market, ofthe social partners, of the individual citizen andof government? Such key questions are oftenignored in current forms of strategic planningin order to arrive at extremely operationalforms of strategic planning. The operationalaspect avoids the big questions. We argue forraising the crucial questions in forms of urbandebate, the questions which deal with responsi-bility in and for the city.

The functions of government require the appro-priate organisation of town councils. The func-tions of government require continuity in policy,a stable organisational framework, strong sup-port and intensive communication, professionalmanagement and the efficient organisation ofconsultation processes with the social partiesinvolved. In our opinion, this consultation shouldbe sufficiently autonomous, so that the role ofthe town council can be viewed critically by thesocial actors. This will not work if this govern-ment takes place too close to the day-to-daypolitical and administrative hierarchy. In thatcase, the critical questions about the towncouncil itself are too easily set aside.

Steering the processes at both levels of theurban debate is one of the important applica-tions of the role of government. In chapter 4 weargued for sufficient autonomy for the organisa-tion of the development of a vision and of proj-ects, for example, in the form of an urbanbureau with its own urban officials and externalpeople who are specifically recruited for a par-ticular field of expertise on a temporary basis.This would be a combination of inside and out-side people. We indicated that the professional-ism and capacity required for this process man-agement is often lacking in cities.

4.5 New capacities for new rolesWe expect a great deal from town councils, andthese expectations require capacities which arecurrently only available to a limited extent inmany cities, or are even absent all together.

For a long time, town councils were executiveorganisations and their personnel was based onthis. Since the 1980s, more highly educated civilservants have entered town councils in smalleror larger numbers. The central governmentshave encouraged specific appointments or evenmade them compulsory in certain fields. All this


212 gradually leads to a different generation and achange in culture. Middle management in towncouncils is becoming younger and is rapidlybecoming more professional. However, in manyplaces there are still gaps in this professional-ism, or it is much too limited in terms of peoplein relation to the complex tasks and new man-dates. Where strong teams have developed, theeffects become visible in the cities almostimmediately. Where professionalism has toovercome a predominantly bureaucratic envi-ronment, this quickly leads to frustration andpeople leave or lose interest. Therefore it is alsoa matter of imposing this new and promisingprofessionalism in cities.

It is a general problem that the capacity forplanning and control is lacking in all the Flemishcities for organisation as whole: the profession-alism in sectoral departments is increasing, butat the top level of town councils responsible forintegration it is not increasing or is not increas-ing enough. This is a serious problem withregard to achieving the objectives of this book:for the evolution towards more integrated proj-ects, and working on targeted fields, for theorganisation of the urban debate, for negotia-tions with the Government of Flanders and formanaging an organisation which provides serv-ices with independent divisions.

In our view, it is absolutely clear that by 2020,town councils will have far fewer executive per-sonnel. The profile we outline for town councilsplaces a much greater emphasis on planning,process management, interactive policy andparticipatory democracy than on the develop-ment of detailed executive departments.15 Thetown council we anticipate is smaller than it isnow, with fewer executive functions, but a largenumber of personnel involved in planning. Thisprospect to some extent means reducing thetasks and contracting them out, as well as pri-

vatisation. This means a smaller government.However, there will be other new tasks: organis-ing the urban debate and the participatorydemocracy, supporting initiatives by citizens,governing tasks, the regulation of the marketsand process management. A new capacity willbe required precisely to support these processesof change. A stronger government.

The ‘key capacity’ throughout this bookundoubtedly concerns communication.16 Thetraditional ‘information policy’ of cities stillfocuses too much on the organisation itself, andtoo little on the city republic as whole. Theurban debate, community action and participa-tory democracy all require a strong and profes-sional approach to communication. This com-munication has both an inward focus (betweenthe departments themselves and betweendepartments and independent institutions), andan external focus, including professional mar-keting. For a further description of the commu-nication policy we refer to the preliminary studybook which accompanies this White Paper.

The last capacity is that of evaluation.Monitoring and amending programmes willhave to be done in interaction with society.Therefore evaluation is part of participatoryplanning. Our cities do not have a tradition inthis field and have little expertise. It is oftencontracted in, but this does not result instrengthening the capacity. The ability of theorganisation to learn is therefore limited. Allsorts of things are tried out, but it is difficult toachieve a higher level of capacities and organi-sational development. Strengthening the cul-ture of evaluation is a priority. The audit is aninteresting aspect of internal evaluation.17 Thecity monitor can be a useful instrument forassessment in society: an instrument for meas-uring and learning to monitor the ‘state of thecity’ with all sorts of social actors, and to identi-


214 fy indicators as an opportunity for discussingamendments to programmes, the division oftasks and the (re)distribution of responsibility.18

4.6 The town council: the city parliament ofthe city republicIn the city republic the town council must pro-vide the open representation of the people. Atthe moment, town councils are marginal in thepolitical system of the cities: their functionswith regard to determining policy, controllingpolicy and representing the people have notbeen sufficiently developed; the emphasis is onthe executive authorities and civil servicedepartments. Consequently, this point is proba-bly what will encounter most scepticism: thepractice in Flanders is a long way away fromwhat we are proposing here.

As we stated in the introduction to this chapter,we are not opting for more populism in urbanpolitics, but for a politicisation of the city. We areopting for more regulations at the level of thecity, for arguments for and against, for debateand a confrontation of views and interests. Forthis reason, we consider that the direct electionof the burgomaster is the wrong choice: itstrengthens the trend to focus politics evenmore on populism and individualism. In ourview, this choice is also irreconcilable withstrengthening the collective debate and con-structive conflicts in and around the town coun-cil, which we support. The town council servesas the emanation of the city republic, as a parlia-ment for the city. Therefore it is logical that thetown council should choose the burgomaster.

In elections citizens indicate which people theyexpect to play a central role in the public debateand in the discussion with society. At themoment this is hardly the case for the membersof the town council or for the councils them-selves. This leads to frustration for councillors.

They are often caught up in a party politicalstraightjacket which deadens the spirit. The factthat the representatives of the people feel frus-trated cannot be healthy for a democracy. Thereare already so many frustrated citizens. It is nec-essary to intervene, if only to continue to attractpeople of the right quality into politics.

We believe that the town council should have acentral place in controlling and directing moreindependent departments in the coordinationof the approach to the region and the governingrole of the city, in the discussion of the contentand the results of the urban debate, and as apublic platform for participatory democracy. Thetown council should no longer present itself as amanager, and should be liberated from all theadministrative dossiers which now overwhelmits operation. A dialogue with society and awell-organised public debate should becomethe main lines of its activities. The members ofthe town council are, in the first place, represen-tatives of the people. The organisation of thetown council should focus on that. At themoment, the town council is all sorts of things,but does not have time for these key tasks.

he urban debate described in chapter 4 servesas an important lever for breaking open theclosed character of representative democracy.The urban debate must be organised in a suffi-ciently autonomous way, but still be politicallyincorporated in the town council, in the sensethat the town council plays an essential linkingrole, to guard and encourage lines of communi-cation, to link the three lines of the urbandebate. However, strengthening this role meansa total change in the political culture and theorganisation of representative urbandemocracy. Without this link, the urban debateis in danger of floating away, and there is a riskof a closed attitude and the dominance of cer-tain groups or interests. The bureau for the


215urban debate works for and reports to the towncouncil as the parliament of the city republicwith a sufficient degree of independence.

We believe there should be time for citizenshipand therefore also time for politicians. It isessential that councillors should have a strongstatus in cities (while the status of politiciansexecuting policy should also be improved). Thenew Flemish municipal decree should certainlydifferentiate sufficiently between small munici-palities and cities in this respect.

Strengthening the town council requires sup-port for councillors for the preparation of theirdossiers and for the discussions in the council.An improved status of the council and a clearerprofile of its activities should make it possible torecruit valuable people and give interested citi-zens an opportunity to fulfil their political func-tion in society in politics (representing the peo-ple), and to strengthen their decision-makingand controlling functions in relation to thosewho implement policy.

4.7 Cooperation between citiesCooperation between cities is a special capacity.In recent years, the dialogue between Flemishcities has grown, but it is still too often limitedto an exchange of information and occasionallya limited joint protest action. In other countries,we see that cities are increasingly organisingthemselves, on the one hand, to strengthentheir capacity, and learning abilities, and on theother hand to adopt a much more assertive atti-tude to other levels of government and socialgroups. One interesting example is theKnowledge Centre for Large Cities in theNetherlands. The box text on the next pageshows the key questions with which theKnowledge Centre wishes to present itself as anorganisation of cities for cities. These are allissues relating to knowledge about cities which

have also been covered in this book. Building upa capacity on these points together is alsoessential in Flanders. Cities do not have to waitfor anyone for this: they can cooperate togetherto achieve this.

Concrete operational cooperation can be con-cerned both with the management of infra-structure and with policy, for example, in thefield of culture, the economy or social policy. Intoo many cases every city tries to resolve itsown problems, often with suboptimal results,for example, to provide electronic services (thecooperation between Ghent and Antwerp oninformation technology is an interesting newdevelopment), for the quality control of publicservices or for the development of the auditingfunction. New fields for cooperation couldinclude the management of public infrastruc-ture and public space, the coordination of capac-ity for organising urban debates, etc.

Cities have important assets in real estate andin immaterial assets. This is probably anotherimportant untapped potential reserve for com-mon management.19 The cooperation for thecross-border leasing of sewers is perhaps ratherquestionable because of reasons related to con-tent, but it does demonstrate that cooperationis certainly possible in unexpected fields andthat it can be organised fairly quickly.

The Government of Flanders can stimulate and sometimes reward the cooperationbetween cities. But it can also focus on citiesand urban policy in a creative and attractiveway, and in this way strengthen the coopera-tion between cities.

Cooperation between cities is also possible onthe basis of healthy competition. Competition


216S t ra t e g i c c re a t i o n o f a k n o w l e d g e b a s e fo r u r b a n p o l i c y

The Dutch Knowledge Centre for Large Cities asked an advisory commission to indicate the main themes for build-ing up a knowledge base about cities and urban policy for the period 2003-2010. In February 2003, the commissionsubmitted a report entitled ‘Strategic Urban Knowledge Themes Agenda 2003-2010. (20). The Knowledge Centreaims to make available scientific research and indicate a direction for the scientific research and to strengthen theknowledge base and learning capacity of cities, inter alia, by stimulating the cooperation between cities.

The twenty themes are collected together in five clusters and deal both with knowledge-related questions (“Whatdo we want to know about cities?”) and action-oriented perspectives (“What can we do?”)

1 The image and identity of cities1.1 The identity of the city1.2 The city as a public domain: significance, function and management1.3 The intangible character of the city: experiment and innovation1.4 The image of the city in an international context

2 Diversity and cohesion2.1 Divisions and interaction in the city2.2 Changes in the ethnic composition and the strength of diversity2.3 The development of social capital: opportunities and restrictions2.4 The emancipatory strength of the city: the city as a social lever

3 Dynamics and stability3.1 Strategy for urban economy in globalisation3.2 Understanding and planning in the polycentric or network city3.3 Links between material and social processes3.4 The vulnerability of the cities in a risk society

4 The individual and society4.1 The development of urban citizenship and of political skills4.2 Urban social security: the balance between self-organisation, prevention and repression4.3 Urban living as a social construction: significance based on social interaction4.4 Urban development through co-production: critical factors for success

5 Networks and institutions5.1 New institutions for cooperation in the urban region5.2 The organisational capacity and the modernisation of urban administrations5.3 Relationships between governments in a national and European context5.4 Impact and role of ICT in the city


217between cities can lead to an improvement intheir individual strategies: for example, citiescan capitalise on their own strong points andhave little interest in competing on pointswhere they are similar. Competition can takeplace particularly by making the best of quality.If cities try to outdo each other with projects ofa high standard, all the cities will benefit fromthis. The campaigns for the ‘At home in the city’prize and for the urban renovation projects in2002 are examples of this.

Cooperation between cities is not restricted toFlanders. Some cities use their twinning actionswith cities in other countries as modest levers todiscuss problems of globalisation by supportingconcrete actions with their partner cities. Thiscooperation and exchange can help to focus thecity republic on the world. We indicated in chap-ter 3 that urban alliances in the Flemish urbannetwork and at the world level are an essentialpart of a glocal urban strategy and of an eco-nomic urban programme.

5. The city republicin the urban policy

In this section we explore the wider circles ofpolicy creation and the organisation of theadministration of the city, which is summed upby the term ‘urban policy’. We restrict ourselvesto the institutional organisation, as the focus oncontent was covered particularly in chapter 3.We see these aspects of the urban policy as animportant framework for achieving the policydirections indicated in chapter 3, the urbandebate of chapter 4, and the content of thischapter 5. For this purpose, adaptations areneeded in the administrative organisations atthe Flemish level, which encompasses urbanpolicy at the moment.

We will briefly look at the tax system (5.1), andthen at the change in the Flemish regulationsto support citizenship (5.2), followed by theorganisation of urban policy at the Flemish level(5.3). We conclude with what should be the cen-tral task of the Government of Flanders in ourview: to promote cooperation at the level of thegrid city (5.4).

5.1 A tax system which supports the urban character and solidarity

In chapter 3 (field 19) we proposed a menu oftax reforms to support the urban character andsolidarity as a subject for discussion. Most ofthese points have been on the political agendafor a long time and occasionally lead to modestresults (for example, the reduction of VAT forthe renovation of urban housing). On this point,the Flemish and federal governments shouldreally concentrate on negotiating an actionplan.

5.2. Liberate and support the city republicOn a number of crucial points, the Governmentof Flanders should adapt its regulations in sucha way that the city republic and urban citizen-ship acquire a greater content: through decen-tralisation, by assigning cooperation a centralrole and by giving the governing roles of thetown council stronger legitimacy in its regula-tions.

We indicated above the need to develop themanagement and policy of all sorts of urbaninstitutions in a more participatory way. With itsregulations, the Government of Flanders has apowerful instrument to open up institutionsand give citizens a more active role and greaterresponsibility (in education, in social housing, inthe cultural sector, in the employment market,etc.). A few key provisions in the framework reg-ulations are sufficient for this. Linking theseframeworks to decentralisation should stimulate


218 the debate between citizens and institutions inthe city. From this perspective of the main lines,the Government of Flanders could examine itsregulations and adapt them in a general pro-gramme: ‘Strengthen the city republic’.

Social housing companies, social work institu-tions, health services, cultural actors, etc. aresubsidised to a large extent by the Governmentof Flanders. They must comply with the Flemishnorms for recognition and are inspected by theGovernment of Flanders. In general, this oftenmeans that these local actors focus on Brusselsrather than on the local situation. They adopt anapproach which is more vertical than horizontal.This is the result of an often strong centralisa-tion, despite the rhetoric of decentralisation anda client-oriented approach.

In order to stimulate citizenship and provide agreater local content for local cooperation, theseadministrative arrangements should evolve inthe direction of local responsibility. This couldmean that local administrations gain a greaterinfluence on the recognition and the strategicplanning of these local subsidised actors. In itssoftest form, this means that their plans areassessed in a local forum by the town council,leading to a discussion and the possibility ofevaluation. In its most far-reaching form, therecognition becomes dependent on the towncouncil (decentralisation) or of shared recogni-tion (Flemish-local). In any case it is necessaryfor the focus of local actors to be concentratedon the city resulting in more ‘horizontal’ links. Inseveral policy areas relationships have devel-oped in the regulations between the govern-ment, subsidised free initiatives and the socialpartners. These regulations often focus largelyon individual institutions and departments,which often leads to a very narrow view on thepart of the actors, focusing on the administra-tion. This prevents an attitude which focuses on

the urban environment. Every institution con-centrates on itself. We suggest thoroughly revis-ing the institutional systems of regulations, sub-sidies and recognition to encourage cooperationand joint projects. That should be the startingpoint. The recognition and subsidies for individ-ual institutions would then be dependent onthis. Anyone who does not subscribe to localurban cooperation would gradually lose theright to government subsidy. Plans for the SocialHouse and the local social policy are moving inthis direction.

In recent years, forms of governing tasks havedeveloped in several different fields: social hous-ing (Flemish Housing Code), culture (the decreeon local cultural policy), the employment marketand job creation (the decree on job centres),youth work (the decree on local youth work),mobility (the decree on mobility), and town andcountry planning (the decree on town and coun-try planning). Slowly but surely, town councilsare adopting the profile of network brokers, whotry to gather together public and private partiesin programmes or try to optimalise the provisionof services. Local enthusiasm and the quality oflocal government vary enormously. The best ex-amples reveal that this governing role can leadto powerful levers and fascinating cooperation(for example, Ghent-working-city for the man-agement of the Ghent employment market.21

The worst examples reveal that in some casesthis governing role is no more than a new formof bureaucracy and control imposed from above.

The Government of Flanders can provide thelegitimacy for these governing roles in decrees.This means that town councils have the autho-rity to carry out these governing roles. Forexample, the governing role with regard to resi-dential and social housing should become com-pulsory, not optional, as in the present FlemishHousing Code.


2195.3 The organisation of the urban policyat the Flemish level

Up to now, the organisation of the urban policyat the Flemish level has rarely been constant,and has never really been fully developed. Theplanned division of the Flemish administration(as a result of the Decree on BetterAdministrative Policy) into 13 departments andindependent entities (agencies) will make itmore difficult to devote integrated attention tourban policy. We consider this to be a dangerousevolution, and ask the Government of Flandersfor a clear commitment to establish a strongand sufficiently independent team which willfocus on urban policy on a constant basis. As theurban policy is still developing, it is probablybest to give this team enough space to play acritical role with regard to innovation in policyfor everything which concerns the Flemishadministration, its independent Flemish institu-tions, cities and the social partners. In our opin-ion, this function to stimulate and innovate ismore important at the moment than the ques-tion where this team should be incorporated inthe administration in the medium term.

We consider the establishment and first actionsof the Flemish City Fund to be a positive step ininter-administrative relations, because it isbased on open negotiation, a process-orientedimplementation of policy, space for tailor-madeactivities and result-oriented forms of evalua-tion (22). The City Fund should gradually developinto a decentralising fund which gatherstogether resources, so that all the importantFlemish resources for cities are put together andlinked to a system of professional negotiationson cost prices between the responsible peopleat the local and Flemish level, and with modernsystems of evaluation and monitoring. All theseelements are present in the City Fund in anembryonic form. The core task of theGovernment of Flanders is to draw up strong

lines for the most important strategic policyfields which outline a general framework for allcities. It is best if the concrete policy pro-grammes and the implementation concentrateon the City Fund.

5.4 The grid city: central focus of the Flemish urban policy

In several places in this book we have referred tothe extremely relative character of administra-tive boundaries. In the past, the geographicaland economic term ‘urban region’ was oftenused to indicate the existence of an economiclink between the city and the peripheral munici-palities. In some cases, particularly in Antwerp,this was linked to a brief debate on the useful-ness of creating a permanent administration forurban regions. The discussion is about bound-aries (how many municipalities?) and alwaysfounders in a war of political positions. Theterms ‘city’ and ‘periphery’ themselves alsoresult in a strong polarisation.

With the term ‘grid city’ in chapter 2 and itsexploration in chapter 3, we believe we haveprovided an innovative framework for a newdiscussion and an approach which focuses moreon activities. We are aware that this debate isonly just starting. We believe that worn out,static discussions which focus far too much onadministrative forms should explore new possi-bilities. It is not a matter of the city versus theperiphery; this is a lost cause. With the grid citywe indicate that all the parts of the entire urbanarea, irrespective of the municipality in whichthey are situated administratively, are interrelat-ed. This is not, to use the traditional terms oncemore, only for the benefit of the city, but also forthe benefit of the areas around the compactcity. Many forms of communal activity arise inthis grid city, which should make it possible todevelop a dialogue between the policy leadersof different municipalities and social actors. It is


220 not the discussion on types of administrationwhich should have a central place, but the dis-cussion about this common experience in rela-tion to concrete actions and activities. The twolines from our basic diagram in chapter 2 arealso appropriate here: we should not think interms of the traditional bureaucratic lines(which administration? which bureaucracy?),but in terms of the lines of practices and activi-ties (what is already happening? what is possi-ble, what are we going to do and who will weinvolve in this?).

We do not believe in either the usefulness or inthe viability of a new discussion on a singlepermanent and all-encompassing regionalurban form of administration: this sort ofdebate takes up too much administrative ener-gy, takes up a lot of time, and is in danger ofturning into a discussion related to form – onceagain, politics spending a long time on itself.The term leads too much to new fixed bound-aries of the city and does not do enough justiceto all sorts of other common experiences whichrun criss-cross through the administrativescales and parts of the grid city: infrastructurallines, lines connecting residential areas, projectsof some municipalities (forests on the edge ofthe city), target groups which have alreadymarked out their own ‘urban area’ for them-selves for a long time.

The Government of Flanders is already develop-ing as a steering force for aspects of the gridcity in a very hesitant way. Examples include thebordering off of urban areas, identifying forestson the edge of the city, mobility planning focus-ing on specific areas, etc. These and other proj-ects lead to interaction and networkingbetween actors in the urban area. These aredynamic, soft, flexible forms of institutions, andwe opt for this sort of approach. They corre-spond with activities and practices. We believe

that this is an interesting and useful directionfor the creation of frameworks of communica-tion and dialogue on programmes and projects.In our view, the involvement of the social part-ners and of citizens in these types of coopera-tion is important to prevent the administratorsfrom becoming too involved in their own per-sonal agendas. The Government of Flandersshould work on this in a more systematic andprofessional way and develop the necessarycapacity at the Flemish level. At the moment, itis only available to a limited extent. The teamon urban policy should be strengthened withthis capacity.

We are convinced that the Government ofFlanders can and must give legitimacy to initia-tives in the grid city. After all, we do not believethat this should count solely on the localdynamics. Where this dynamic character isgrowing anyway, it corresponds with a tailor-made approach which the Government ofFlanders can then cautiously draw up, stimulat-ing and rewarding these sorts of local initia-tives. In our view, stimulating this sort of imple-mentation of policy and making it possible is akey task of the Government of Flanders.

Town and country planning is probably the mostimportant lever available to the Government ofFlanders. Many important aspects of urban poli-cy come together in town and country planning(housing, economic infrastructure, mobility, eco-logical lines, public infrastructure, etc.). Webelieve that the Government of Flanders shouldgive absolute priority to this, and should provideprofessional frameworks for negotiations. Thisshould not be done on the basis of a single fixedframework, which is laboriously gaining shapeat the moment in the processes for creating theboundaries of urban areas. The many problemsin the grid city cannot be defined by fixedboundaries. Therefore it is necessary for the


222 Government of Flanders to work with an openscale, but with incentives for programmes at thelevel of parts of the grid city.

Co n c l u s i o n

With the ‘city republic’, we opt in this chapterfor a strong local urban democracy as the firstlevel of the political order. The city republicappeals to the responsibility of citizens, admin-istrations, the social partners and private actors.We wish to strengthen the responsibility of allthese groups and cooperation in the city. Thesocial debate on the management of the polis,from the district to the world, has a centralplace: more politics and democratic debate onpolitics characterises the city republic.

We opt to strengthen citizenship as a basicstrategy. In this chapter we indicated severalpaths for this. Strengthening citizenship can besupported by reforms of institutions and admin-istrations, but citizenship should be stimulatedabove all by action: in the form of activities, byintroducing dynamic elements in the city, bygetting inhabitants, the users and the socialpartners to act. We describe how institutionscan focus on this and how the Government ofFlanders can support it.

Citizenship and participatory democracy gotogether. The complexity of the city does notleave any choice: the citizens and users must beinvolved more, differently and more effectivelyin the decision-making process. This applies forthe development of urban visions, for pro-grammes and projects and for large and smallmatters, for the strategic choices and for districtmanagement. Participatory democracy meansthat the decision making is built up on the basisof the involvement of citizens.

Town councils have a special political, adminis-trative and social responsibility. The modernisa-tion of town councils is not only necessary formanagement, but also for the way in whichtown councils play their political role in the city.We roughly outlined this perspective: a moreintegrated approach and an organisation gearedto this with more cooperation between politi-cians and civil servants, instead of separate sec-toral activities, greater attention to the govern-ing role in social networks and a more criticalattitude to the council’s own role and operation.A new administrative capacity is necessary for amore political and better management. Thetown council should play a more central role asa political platform than it does at the moment.

We conclude the chapter with a few indicationsfor Flemish urban policy. The Government ofFlanders can support the principles of the cityrepublic in various ways: with an appropriatetax system, by strengthening the role of thetown councils and by rewriting the regulationstowards greater decentralisation, cooperationand local responsibility. One of the crucial coretasks of the Government of Flanders is to createand stimulate the conditions for programmesand projects at the level of the grid city. In thissense the city republic is also an ‘open’ concept.


2231 A free interpretation of Amin, A. and N. Thrift (2002), Cities.

Reimagining the Urban, Polity Press: Cambridge. We were

particularly inspired by chapter 6: ‘The Democratic City’.

2 For a fascinating journalistic analysis of democracy, in par-

ticular in cities, we refer to Van Westerloo, G. (2003), Niet

spreken met de bestuurder, De Bezige Bij: Amsterdam.

3 Reference is made to the work of John Rawls and Jürgen

Habermas as representatives of a deliberative view of

democracy.

4 Healey, P. (1997), Collaborative Planning. Shaping Places in

Fragmented Societies, MacMillan: London; Edelenbos, J. and

R. Monnikhof (ed.) (1998), Spanning in interactie. Een

analyse van interactief beleid in lokale democratie,

Instituut voor Publiek and Politiek: Amsterdam.

5 Examples of this literature: Flyvbjerg, B. (1998), Rationality

and Power. Democracy in Practice, University of Chicago

Press: Chicago; Forester, J. (1992), Empowerment. The poli-

tics of Alternative Development, Blackwell: Oxford.

6 For an administrative approach to the urban problems in

America: Ross, B. and M. Levine (1996), Urban Politics:

Power in Metropolitan America, Peacock Publishers: Illinois.

7 The work by Amin and Thrift cited in footnote 1 is an

example of this: town councils are not mentioned any-

where in the book.

8 Traditionally three models are distinguished in the litera-

ture on citizenship: a liberal model which places the

emphasis on the individual rights of citizens in the state, a

community model which places the emphasis on the com-

mon values to which citizenship must contribute, and a

republican model which emphasises that politics is a

process that is determined by the way in which people

relate to each other, discuss matters and resolve conflicts.

In this chapter, we side with this republican tradition. In

this book we submit that the content and organisation of

the city are essential for this. For a further description of

the republican approach, see Van der Brink, G. (2002),

Mondiger of moeilijker? Een studie naar de politieke habi-

tus van hedendaagse burgers, WRR, Voorstudies and

achtergronden, 115, Sdu: The Hague and Van Gunsteren, H.

(1992), Eigentijds burgerschap, Sdu: The Hague.

9 Freely adapted on the basis of: Denhardt, R. (2000),

“Democratische criteria ter beoordeling van bestuurlijk ver-

mogen”, in Bestuurswetenschappen, no. 3, pp. 194-207 and

Denhardt, R. and J. Denhardt (2000), “The New Public

Service: Serving Rather than Steering”, in Public

Administration Review, vol. 60, no. 6, pp. 549-559.

10 For an explanation of the effects of these plans and the

criticism on the planning philosophy, see the contribution

by De Rynck, F. and N. Vallet (2002), Stedelijke netwerkstur-

ing in het licht van interbestuurlijke verhoudingen and

strategisch management, working text for the project

Thuis in de Stad, included in the preliminary study to this

book.

11 For an explanation of the problems of this administrative

conglomerate of institutions: see Bouckaert, G., W. Van

Dooren, B. Verschuere, J. Voets and E. Wayenberg (2002), De

stedelijke organisatie in 2020: het intern stedelijk manage-

ment, working text for the project Thuis in de Stad, includ-

ed in the preliminary study to this book.

12 The texts of the draft Flemish Municipal Decree and the

responses to this can be consulted on the website of the

Hoge Raad voor Binnenlands Bestuur (Supreme Court for

Home Affairs).

13 Moesen, W. (2001), Openbare financiering and de nieuwe

steden, basic text for the workshop on the funding of cities

in the context of the project Thuis in de Stad. Also see the

preliminary study to this book.

14 Reference is made to the Government agreement between

the Government of Flanders, the provincial councils and

the municipal councils, 2003 (see website on the debate on

core tasks).

15 We make use of the insights in the text of Bouckaert c.s.

(see footnote 11).

16 This is based on the texts on government communication,

which were prepared in the context of the project Thuis in

de Stad and presented at a workshop in 2002. See the pre-

liminary study to this book.

17 The internal audit is determined in the draft Flemish

Municipal Decree.

18 All the texts on the city monitor can be consulted on the

website of the project Thuis in de Stad (www.thuisin-

destad.be).


22419 Moesen, op. cit.

20 Kenniscentrum Grote Steden (2003), Strategic Knowledge

Themes Agenda 2003-2010? Advisory Committee on

Strategic Urban Knowledge Themes, Draft, The Hague and

Kenniscentrum Grote Steden (2003), New knowledge for

cities, The Urban Innovation Programme, Draft, The Hague.

21 Idea-Consult (2002), Bouwstenen voor een dynamisch and

efficiënt subregionaal beleid in Vlaanderen (Building blocks

for a dynamic and efficient subregional policy in Flanders).

Study commissioned by the Flemish Minister for

Employment and Tourism in the context of the VIONA

research programme, study carried out under the promot-

er, F. De Rynck, Brussels.

22 Decree on establishing the rules on the operation and dis-

tribution of the Flemish Urban Fund.


225We do not have a tradition of strong socialdebate in Flanders. Discussions soon fall underparty political control and respond to therhythm of the attention devoted to them in themedia. There is no clear relationship with theactivities of the social partners, there is rarelytime or money available to encourage a cultureof discussion, and the approach often lacks pro-fessionalism. Debates do not really have a placein a populist, anti-intellectual approach. Actionis considered more important than words.

The debate on cities does not really take place inFlanders at all. We are more inclined to defendthe countryside than to improve the living con-ditions in the cities. The argument soon degen-erates into a distribution of funds and aboutindividual incidents. ‘Safety’ and ‘immigrants’are issues which continue to attract attention.They are not only dealt with in a one-sided way,they also reinforce the already strong prejudicesabout cities.

Therefore the appeal made in this book is notself-evident. We want to start a fundamentaldebate about the city which extends beyondshort term considerations. This must be aboutmore than doing odd things here and there andhoping everything will pass. It is not concernedwith an accumulation of individual projects andit is not about ‘more or less money for thecities’. In our view, this debate is concerned withthe most strategic choices which Flanders hasto make.

We argue for a strong and permanent debateabout the purpose of the urban character, thechanges in urban space, and the outlines ofurban policy in Flanders. We hope that the gov-ernments, every city and many social groups willtake up the challenge and use this book as abasis for discussion.

We ask for attention to be paid to the new atti-tudes and the innovation related to contentwhich we support. Above all, we have tried todevelop a cohesive and strong vision: a visionwhich opts for an urban character and is sup-ported by powerful and cohesive principles:density, diversity and democracy. These meanthat cities can support real sustainable develop-ment, and therefore the future of Flanders.

We have indicated how the vision and theseprinciples can be converted into programmes, ina new organisation of administration and in dif-ferent methods of planning. Of course, all thisaffects the traditional sectors such as the econo-my, housing, the cultural sector, the social sec-tor, etc. Nevertheless, the arguments and cer-tainly the interests of the sectors are not thestarting point; they are not even our primaryconcern. Our approach is not based either onthe traditional thinking in terms of targetgroups: immigrants, women, the elderly, theunemployed, etc. We have tried to transcendthinking in sectors and target groups on thebasis of an integrated, strategic approach whichfocuses on increasing the urban character as theinteraction between a new urban space (thegrid city) and a new democratic form of the city(the city republic). Sectors and target groups areinterconnected and interrelated in this. Aboveall, we hope that this framework will survive,that the vision is successful, and that the bookwill motivate and encourage people to breakdown boundaries. In the first place, these arethe boundaries between people, but there arealso boundaries between levels of governmentand administrative, political and mental bound-aries. Pushing back the boundaries is quite anambition for a book. However, in our view it isnecessary, an essential choice which is inherentin opting for the urban character.

E p i l o q u e

226 To place the city and the urban character in acentral place in this typical context of Flandersand the Flemish city, a substantial change isrequired. Deep-rooted political and social prac-tices will have to be turned upside down. Thismay sound like a utopia. We are not optimisticabout all the developments in our society, butwe guard against cultural pessimism. In ouropinion, there is hope for new forms of politicalactivism, new forms of citizenship. Cities are anextremely suitable biotope for this purpose.Sometimes there is a sense of impotence andcomplacency, but this alternates with the hopeof creativity in society. We appeal to the imagi-nation of the inhabitants and users of the city,to the energy of the administrators and politi-cians and to the efforts of social partners. In thisbook we indicated how the organisation of poli-tics and administration can be directed in such away that it gives the maximum opportunity forthis imagination, energy and effort. It is not theexodus from the city, but the atmosphere in thecity that should lead to freedom.

In our view, the urban character represents thementality of the twenty- first century; this cen-tury is the century of the city. It contains theleading principles and basic elements for politi-cal and social innovation. It is supported by abroad vision of the developing city and urbannetworks in Flanders and Brussels, and has linkswith the district and the world. Focussing onsustainable development, supported by aninteraction between people with different back-grounds, by shared responsibility and coalitions,by solidarity and an intelligent use of space andraw materials.

Density, diversity and democracy require a newway of thinking about planning, a new relation-ship with the public character, and a new visionof government and politics. This book is full of

choices and there are many controversial issues.Therefore it is in the purest sense, a politicalplan for the next decades. A plan for politicswhich focus more on the urban character. Longlive the city republic!


227

We w o u l d l i ke t o t h a n k e ve r yo n e w h o co n t r i b u t e d t o t h e g e n e s i s o f t h e W h i t e Pa p e r

1 Authors of preliminary studiesChristian Kesteloot, Ron Lesthaeghe, WillyMiermans, Ruth Soenen, Filip De Rynck, NathalieVallet, Geert Bouckaert, David Slosse, André Loeckx,Paul Ponsaers, Frans Steffens, Ludo Struyven, MarcVerlot, Myriam Jansen-Verbeke, Guido De Brabander,Wim Moesen, Moïra Heyn, Eisse Kalk en RudyLaermans.

2 Focus groups who provided ideas for and feedback on the textTheoretical frameworkChristian Kesteloot, André Loeckx, Eric Corijn, PeterCabus, Pascal De Decker, Ron Lesthaeghe en PhilippeVan Wesenbeeck.MobilityWilly Miermans, Paul Jansen, Wilfried Goossens,Peter Vansevenant, Jean-Paul Vandewinckele enRoger Kesteloot.Social cohesionRuth Soenen, Gust De Meyer, Phillippe Matthys,Thierry Timmermans, Annemie Degroote, PaulSalmon, Anissa Akhandaf, Marc Trullemans, LutSchrevens en Dirk Beersman.HousingAndré Loeckx, Bruno De Meulder, Pascal De Decker,Bob Van Reeth, Marc Dillen, Mark Martens, PeterHaverals, Frank Heylen, Gunther Gysemans, GerdaVanhove, Maryse Gys en Jimmy Eeckhout.Relationship between the urban characterand crimePaul Ponsaers, Christian Eliaerts, Elke Devroe, MarcelScheyvaerts, Sandra Rottiers, Lieven Pauwels en SofieDe Kimpe.Residential environment and the public domainFrans Steffens, Karel De Baere, Theo De Vos, RudiHaeck, Eddy Beeck, Xaveer De Clercq, Luk Bral, RobCuyvers, Marijke Mahieu, Yves Decuypere en DirkDemeyere.EmploymentLudo Struyven, Jan Denys, Luc Luwel, Jos Geuvens,Fons Leroy, Ilse Loots, Marion Vrijens, Dirk Diels,Gudrun Vandergucht, Tom Meeuws, Francine

Quanten, Rik Desmet, Dirk D’Hulster, TomVandenbrande, Mimi Cober, Otto Atzema en P.H.Laman.EducationMarc Verlot, Dimokritos Kavadias, Paul Mahieu,Johan Lamote, Rik Schreurs, Lydia Raeymaekers,Laurent Thys, Christine Dupont en Johan Boucneau.Leisure time in the cityMyriam Jansen-Verbeke, Georges Allaert, HansMommaas, Annick Bogaert, Dirk Yzewyn, ToonBerckmoes, Gilles Facon en Hilde Plas.Economic basis Guido De Brabander, Frank Witlox, Ann Verhetsel,Hans Kinoo, Paul Teerlinck, Luc Vervoort, FrederikLooten, Anniek Desmet, Koen de Cock en ChristelleDebruycker.Administrative policy, Internal urbanmanagement, Communication policy and FinancesFilip De Rynck, Nathalie Vallet, Francine Quanten,Guido Decoster, Geert Hillaert, Roel Verhaert, JanLeroy, Marc Verheirstraeten, Adelien Decraemer,Geert Bouckaert, Wouter Van Dooren, BramVerschuere, Joris Voets, Ellen Wayenberg, Johan Ide,Daniël Verbeken, Jan van Alsenoy, David Slosse,Eric Goubin, Johan Steyaert, Jan Van Den Bergh,Ineke Pycke en Wim Moesen.

3 Participants in the ‘Thuis in de stad’workshops in autumn 2001 and June 2002 aswell as people who read the texts of theauthors of the preliminary study and/orformulated comments Luc Aerts, Katelijne Aerts, Mia Aerts, Luitje Afschrift,Noran Akgun, Anissa Akhandaf, Karen Alderweireldt,Georges Allaert, Jan Alleman, Bart Ameye, Jo Ampe,Mark Andries, Geert Anthierens, Fonny Anthonissen,Marnix Auman, Prosper Baelen, Herman Baert,Edwin Baert, Johan Baeten, Godfried Baeten, LukBaetens, Jan Bal, Ria Baldewijns, Jo Baret, Ralf Bas,Maurice Baute, Michel Beckers, Eddie Beek, WimBeelaert, Dirk Beersmans, Hugo Beersmans,Kathleen Beirnaert, Ludo Bekker, Toon Berckmoes,

228 Rik Bernage, Renaat Bernard, Louis Beulens, M.Beullens, Herman Beyens, Kristel Beyens, LeenBeyers, André Binon, Guy Bisschops, Rene Blavier,Thomas Block, Sylvie Bloemen, Linda Blomme,Nikolai Boeckx, Paul Boerjan, Vicky Boerjan, AnnickBogaert, Johan Boie, Rita Bollen, Eva – rita Boon, KaatBoon, Hilde Borms, Kristiaan Borret, Dirk Bostoen,Yvan Bostyn, Robrecht Bothuyne, Claude Bouckaert,Johan Boucneau, Jan Boulogne, Maarten Bouwen,Ingrid Bracke, Guy Braeckman, Jan Braeckman, LukBral, Jaak Brepoels, Robert Breulemans, MarcBroeckaert, Boudewijn Brouckaert, Els Brouwers,Karin Brouwers, Robert Bruelemans, Frans Bruneel,Ben Bruyndonckx, Jeroen Bryon, Luc Bungeneers,Philippe Buysschaert, Peter Cabus, MaartenCaestecker, Myriam Callebaut, Lucette Callebaut,Michel Camerotto, Filiep Canfyn, Ivo Cappaert, InezCardinaels, Patrice Caremans, Freddy Carlier, YvesCartuyvels, Jef Cassimons, Gregory Casteels, LucCatteeuw, Dave Cerpentier, Ivo Claes, Carlo Claes, LucClaessens, Urbain Claeys, Erik Claeys, Chris Claeys,Danny Claeys, Rozemie Claeys, Danny Coecke, GuyCoenen, Jean-Marie Coenen, Carine Coigné, HansColtof, Jan Cools, An Coolsaet, Koen Cooreman, LucCoorevits, Lieve Coorevits, Tom Coppens, RogerCorbreun, John Cordier, Eric Corijn, Steef Corijn, JefCornelis, André Cornille, Guy Cox, AnnemieCreemers, Jerry Crombez, Luc Croonen, Marc Cuffez,Rob Cuyvers, Herman Daems, Griet Daneels, FrédericDauw, Guy De Backer, Karel De Baere, Emilie DeBauw, Tim De Beule, Maria De Bie, Dirk De Boever,Guido De Brabander, Christelle De Bruycker, SerafienDe Bruyn, Bart De Buysscher, Lieven De Cauter,Monique De Ceuster, Willy de Clerck, Xaveer DeClercq, Helena De Clercq, Koen de Cock, Stefan DeCorte, Frederik De Coster, Jean de Craen, Ann DeCuyper, Arthur De Decker, Pascal De Deckere, ChrisDe Dobbeleir, Paolo De Francesco, Stijn De Geest,Alfredo De Gregorio, Karel De Gucht, Karl De Groodt,Freddy De Gryse, Anne de Hingh, Patrick De Klerck,Frank De Laere, Walter De Lannoy, Stefan DeLausnay, Herman De Ley, Paul De Ligne, Filip DeMaesschalck, Koen De Mesmaecker, Bruno De

Meulder, Juul De Moitié, Ronny De Mulder, Nancy DeNaeyer, Johan De Neef, Stan De Neve, Doris De Neve,Piet De Pauw, Eva De Pauw, Bart De Peuter, Bram DePooter, Bruno De Raedt, Annelies De Roeck, Filip DeSaeger, Carla De Saer, Eddy De Seranno, Peter DeSmedt, Luc De Smet, Giu De Vaucleroy, Christiaan DeVeth, Ariane De Vleeschouwer, Theo De Vos, Eddy DeWaele, Patricia De Waele, Sabine De Wandel,Annemie De Weerdt, André De Wilde, Katelijne DeWinter, Lodewijk De Witte, Alex De Witte, André DeWolf, Philippe De Wulf, Guido Deblaere, JacquesDebouserie, Tine Debruyne, Jan Deceuninck, StefaanDeckmyn, Hilde Decleer, Bart Declerck, CharlotteDeclerck, Caroline Declerck, Adelien Decramer, FransDecreus, Yves Decuypere, Tinneke Degraeuwe,Isabelle Degraeve, Veronique Degrijse, FilipDeheegher, Peter Dekeyser, Els Delanoeije, DirkDelarue, Caroline Delesie, Tom Delmotte, FrankDelmulle, Filip Delos, Leo Delwaide, Esther Deman,Dirk Demeirleir, Jari Demeulemeester, Joris Demoor,Marleen Demuynck, William Denayer, Jan Denys, LucDenys, Kris Depovere, Bruno Deraedt, FrederikDericks, Dirk Derijck, Kurt Deruyter, DaniellaDescamps, Kris Deschouwer, Piet Desiere, JanDesmedt, André Desmet, Rik Desmet, AnniekDesmet, Frans Destoop, Bernd Deuten, Carl Devlies,Rudy Devos, Jean-Pierre Devos, Wouter Devriendt,Elke Devroe, Jean Pierre Dewael, Carl Dewaele, Jean-Marie Dewandel, Paul Deweer, Annemie Deweerdt,Peter Dewit, Jan Dewitte, Lieven Dhaenens, BartD'haenens, Luc Dhaese, Renilde D'Haese, DonateD'Hauwer, Jan Dhiedt, Paul D'Hoker, Michaël Dhoose,Michaël Dhore, Dirk D'Hulster, Dirk Diels, StephanDierickx, Willy Dierickx, Pieter Dierickx, Jos Digneffe,Roel Dobbelsteyn, Xavier Donck, Vera Dua, LucDullers, Tom Dumez, Christine Dupont, NicoDuquesne, Donald Duthieuw, Marc Duyck, StefaanEeckhout, Saïd El Khadraoui, Christian Eliaerts,Robert Elias, Judith Elseviers, Hugo Engelen, KoenEngels, Caroline Enkels, Pascal Ennaert, NathalieEspeel, Lieve Evens, Rudy F. Verheyen, Gilles Facon,Pedro Facon, Alfons Famaey, Mario Fancello, NathalieFerket, Joost Fillet, Christian Floru, Freija Fonteyn, Jo


229Forceville, Hector Foulon, Gert Fransen, HeidiFrederix, Jef Gabriëls, Griet Geerinck, Jo Geerinckx,Guy Geerts, Luc George, Jan Gerard, Joost Germis, JosGeuvens, Patricia Ghekiere, Gerard Gielen, EdgardGielen, An Gijsen, Rudi Gilen, Geert Gisquière, AnnGlaublomme, Jan Goorden, Michel Goormachtigh,Jos Goossen, Stijn Goossens, Ine Goris, Tessy Gorris,Karin Goyvaerts, Geert Grillet, Luk Groffy, DirkGrootjans, Herman Grossard, Maryse Gys, GuntherGysemans, Annemie Gysen, An Gysen, Grete Gysen,Dirk Habils, Ilse Hacketal, Rudi Haeck, KarelHaegeman, Christiana Haepers, Jeroen Hallaert, PaulHallaert, Gaëtan Hannecart, Pierre Hap, Eric Hardy,Gerard Hautekeur, Lyliane Hebbrecht, Eddy Hector,Rikkie Heeman, Jos Heiremans, Filip Helssen, MarcelHendrickx, Marc Hendrickx, Ann Hendrickx, PaulHennes, Wouter Hennion, Hugo Herman, RonaldHermans, Philip Hermans, Gilbert Hertecant, TieneHertogen, Moïra Heyn, Hildegarde Heynen, CelienHeyvaert, Geert Hillaert, Veerle Hobin, JurgenHoefkens, Hans Hofman, Dirk Holemans, KatleenHollants, Marc Hoogmartens, Jan Hooijmaaijer, WillyHooyberghs, Marc Horrix, Gabriël Hostens, TonyHouthaeve, Kris Houthuys, Wim Hox, Paul Huvenne,Idriss Ibnou-Cheikh, Yamilla Idrissi, Pieter Jacobs,Thérèse Jacobs, Rik Jaeken, An Jamar, Wouter Jaminé,Marc Jans, Paul Jansen, Myriam Jansen – Verbeke,Guido Janssens, Patrick Janssens, Christin Janssens,Annelies Janssens, Piet Jaspaert, Jaak Jespers, HubertJeunen, Karin Jiroflée, Luc Joos, Liesbet Joris, GreetJuchtmans, Bart Julliams, Bart Kaesemans, DanKaminski, Dimokritos Kavadias, Luk Keersmaekers,Katrijn Kelchtermans, Patrick Kenis, Ramon Kenis,Charles Kennes, Wim Kennis, Koen Kennis, UlrichKeppler, Greet Kerckhove, Pieter Kerremans, RogerKesteloot, Christian Kesteloot, Katrien Kesteloot, RafKeustermans, Hans Kinoo, Eddy Klijnen, Jiri Klokocka,Mieke Knollenburg, Tom Kolenberg, Jef Koninckx,Ariane Koninckx, Rita Lagae – Vanhoutte, TomLagast, Tom Lamberts, Kathleen Lambié, PeterLambrecht, Lieve Lambrecht, Luc Lamine, MarcLammar, Mia Lammens, Jowan Lamon, JohanLamote, Griet Lannoo, Paul Lantin, Chris Lardeur, Piet

Lareu, Myriam Lauwerens, Staf Lauwereysen, JanLecocq, Griet Lecompte, Rob Leemans, VincentLefèvre, Stephanie Lemmens, Steven Lenaers,Maarten Lenaerts, Filip Lenders, Erwin Lens, JanLenssens, Jean Pierre Lepère, Fons Leroy, DieterLesage, Ron Lesthaeghe, Frank Leys, NathalieLibbrecht, Pascal Lieven, Wiliam Lievens,Paul Lievevrouw, Els Lievois, Kathy Lindekens, AnLobijn, André Loeckx, Muriel Lomme, Filiep Loosveldt,Robert Loosvelt, Frederik Looten, Ilse Loots, IsabelleLoris, Fred Louckx, Sonja Lucas, An Lukowiak, LucLuwel, Lieven Lybeer, Hubert Lyben, Bruno Machiels,Lut Machiels, Jan Maenhout, Alfons Maes, Trui Maes,Bart Magiels, Paul Mahieu, Marijke Mahieu, AnneMalliet, Sol Mannens, Theo Mardulier, AlbertMartens, Johan Martens, Nico Martens, NicoMartens, Alex Marx, Cindy Matheeussen, DirkMattheeuws, Mark Matthys, Mario Matthys, FilipMeersman, Paul Meersman, Henk Meert, TomMeeuws, Stefan Meijlaers, Martine Meire, PatrickMerlevede, Guy Mesotten, Fanny Mestdagh, KarinMeul, Caroline Meyers, Marc Michiels, Guido Minne,Béatrice Moës, Kaatje Molenberghs, Dola Mols, HansMommaas, Georges Monard, Lieven Monserez,Karlijne Moons, Lies Moons, Ruth Moors, MyriamMorel, Mars Moriau, Yves Moriën, Nathalie Morren,Marc Morris, Mario Mortiers, Paul Mulders, PhilippeMuyters, Dirk Nachtergaele, Ludwig Neefs, BartNevens, Frank Nobels, Frank Noens, Erik Nuyts, MarcOlivier, Luc Onclin, Guy Orens, Hilde Osselaer, GilbertOtten, Nel Ottevanger, Erwin Pairon, Bart Palmaers,Eric Paredis, Frank Parent, Roger Pauly, ChantalPauwels, Gert Pauwels, Lieven Pauwels, BertPauwels, Wendy Pauwels, Tom Pellens, Hugo Penne,Jacques Perquy, Tony Peters, Gert Philippeth, MariekePieters, Philip Pirard, Freya Piryns, Ann Pisman, GrietPitteljon, Rik Platteau, Stefaan Plysier, Jean – MariePotters, Eddy Priem, Ulla Provoost, Martina Put,Francine Quanten, Lydia Raeymaeker, LucRammelaere, Paul Rapsaet, Peter Raymaekers, DafneRaymen, Luc Redig, Hilde Rekkers, Stefaan Renard,Petra Reynaerts, Hilde Reynvoet, Dirk Robbeets, WillyRoets, Anja Rogiers, Fabienne Rogiers, Theo

230 Rombouts, Manu Romero, Melanie Roscam, RikRöttger, Sandra Rottiers, Rik Rousseau, Jos Roux, PaulRuys, Pieter Saey, Lieve Saeys, Ali Salmi, Paul Salmon,Rik Samyn, Jan Sap, Rik Schaerlaecken, JohanSchepers, Edmond Schepers, Eddy Schevernels,Marcel Scheyvaerts, Patricia Schoolmeesters, IngeSchoups, Marcel Schouteden, Rik Schreurs, PatrickSchreurs, Manfred Sellinck, Peter Sels, Chris Serroyen,Ronny Severy, Annick Seys, Eveline Sierens, DavySimons, Katrien Slegers, Janick Smessaert, Jan Smets,Marc Smolenaers, Lieven Soens, Dirk Somers, IngeSomers, André Sonneville, Luc Speeckaert, GeertSpitaels, Pieter Sprangers, Mieke Stappaerts, BramStarckx, Peter Steenhaut, Kris Stegen, Luc Sterckx,Steve Stevaert, David Stevens, Leon Stevens, PatrickStevens, Anny Stevens, Reinhard Stoop, AlainStorme, Maxim Stroobant, Eric Stroobants, ElsStrubbe, Ludo Struyven, Karen Stuyck, Stijn Suijs,Tony Swinnen, Kristien Sysmans, Raoul-ClementSyts, Roland Syvertsen, Luc Tayart de Borms, PaulTeerlinck, Dirk Temmerman, Luc Tesseur, JeanTheunis, Jan Theunissen, Jean-Marie Theunnick,Steven Thielemans, Jos Thijs, Staf Thomas, LaurentThys, Gil Thys, Jos Thys, Sofie Tielen, Nele Tierens,Monique Tilkin, Christine Timmermans, MarcTobback, Louis Tobback, Filip Tondeleir, Bruno Tricot,Patrick T'Seyen, Pierre Tuypens, Sabien Tyberghien,Trui Tydgat, Francine Tyssen, Benny Van Assche, JoVan Assche, Bart Van Bael, Ellen Van Beek, CharlotteVan Belle, Luc Van Beneden, Bertiel Van Betsbrugge,KrisVan Boechoute, Leo Van Broeck, Beatrice VanBuggen, Broos Van Buggenhout, Frank Van Campe,Ludo Van Campenhout, Sabine Van Cauwenberge,Erik Van Daele, Lieve Van Daele, Dirk Van Damme,Wilfried Van Damme, Benediekt Van Damme, JohanVan De Maele, Fabiaan Van de Sande, Yves Van DeVloet, Paul Van De Voorde, Roeland Van De Walle,Walter Van Den Bergh, Frans Van Den Bossche, WimVan Den Bossche, Jan Van den Eynde, Norbert vanden hove d'Ertsenryck, Jan Van der Auwermeulen,Myriam Van Der Beken, Paul Van der Borcht, HermanVan der Haegen, Claudia Van der Stappen, BogdanVan Doninc, Jef Van Doorslaer, Jan Van Doren, Luc

Van Dorpe, Carl Van Dyck, Ellen Van Eyndhoven,Henry Van Gael, Julien Van Geertsom, Louis VanGeyt, Michel Van Geyte, Jan Van Grieken, Ben VanHavere, Etienne Van Hecke, Stan Van Hees, Karel VanHoorebeke, Werner Van Horebeek, Gerda Van Hove,Patrcik Van Ingelom, Geert Van Istendael, Denis VanLaeken, Hilde Van Laere, Nancy Van Landeghem,Kathleen Van Lerberghe, Marja Van Loon, Dirk VanMechelen, Robin Van Meirvenne, Robie VanMieghem, Karin Van Mossevelde, Steven VanMuylder, Dirk Van Noten, Chantalle Van Oeteren,Veerle Van Reusel, Stiene Van Rie, Iris Van Riet, JosVan Rillaer, Gerda Van Roelen, Bart Van Schel, InekeVan Schoor, Frank Van Sevencoten, Björn vanStaeyen, Paul van Steenvoort, Bert Van Thienen, Rafvan Tichelen, Danny Van Vlem, Tuur Van Wallendael,Tinne Van Wesemael, Philippe Van Wesenbeeck, TomVan Wynsberge, Gina Vanattenhoven, ChristianeVanautgaerden, Stefan Vancraeynest, RonnyVandaele, Wiet Vandaele, Marijke Vandebuerie, HenkVandeginste, Ankie Vandekerckhoven, PascalVandelanoitte, Jeroen Vanden Berghe, HermanVanden Driessche, Marc Vanden Eynde, Ann VandenWyngaerd, Geert Vandenabeele, Joke Vandenabeele,Patrick Vandenberghe, Lieven Vandenberghe, KatrinVandenbosch, Mark Vandenbraembussche, TheoVandeplas, Tony Vandeputte, Isabelle Vander Linden,Lucas Vander Taelen, Marc Vanderbiesen, GudrunVandergucht, Barbara Vanderlinden, MarleenVanderpoorten, Bart Vanderstraeten, LucVandewalle, Katleen Vandeweyer, Patrick Vandijck,Hilde Vandormael, Frank Vangeel, Raoul Vanhaeren,André Vanhaeren, Ivo Vanhamme, FilipVanhaverbeke, Marc Vanheirstraeten, Kris Vanherpe,Johan Vanhoutte, Frank Vanhove, Annick Vanhove,Charlotte Vanneste, Dominique Vanneste, EtienneVanoppe, Régine Vantieghem, Robert Vantorre, TijsVastesaeger, Jan Velghe, Ludo Vennekens, MarcVennekens, Dirk Verbeeck, Fons Verbeek, RobVerbeelen, Luc Verbeke, Hendrik Verbist, VivianeVerbruggen, André Verdegem, Ben Verdickt, DriesVerdonck, Evi Verduyckt, Ingrid Verduyn, AlfonsVerdyck, Raymonda Verdyck, Marleen Verfaellie,


231Peter Verheecke, Jan Verheeke, Marc Verheirstraeten,Boudewijn Verhelst, Greet Verhenne, Ann Verhetsel,Annemie Verheyden, Yves Verhoest, Gerda Verkoelen,Arlette Verkruyssen, Joke Verlaet, Bram Verlinden,Mark Verlot, Johan Vermandere, Jan Vermassen,Johan Vermeersch, Kristof Vermeir, Didier Vermeiren,Miranda Vermeiren, Bert Vermeulen, BramVermeulen, Sandra Vermuyten, Bart Verschaffel, PaulVerscheuren, Emmy Verschueren, Ruben Verstraeten,Katie Verstraeten, Levin Versweyver, Stefaan Vervaet,Luc Vervoort, Kris Vlaeminck, Alphonse Vleugels,Ellen Vlogaert, Lucie Voet, André Vollmacher,Annemie Vos, Erwin Vrijens, Maria Vrijens, MelanieVrijens, Bart Vrints, Lode Walgrave, Bart Wallays,Willem Warmenbol, Erik Waterschoot, Jef Wellens,Francis Werbrouck, Noortje Wiesbauer, DannyWildemeersch, Bart Willaert, Peter Willekens, PatriciaWillems, Paul Willemse, Paul Windey, Peggy Winkels,Sien Winters, Vera Withofs, Frank Witlox, Els Witte,Fons Wouters, Liesbeth Wouters, Piet Wulleman,Hilde Wylin, Leen Wyn en Dirk Yzewyn.

4 Task Force Christian Kesteloot, Willy Miermans, Ruth Soenen,Filip De Rynck, André Loeckx, Paul Ponsaers, LudoStruyven, Marc Verlot, Eric Corijn, Peter Cabus, GeertBouckaert, Myriam Jansen-Verbeke, Guido DeBrabander, Luk Bral en Linda Boudry (voorzitter).Paul Van Herpe en Johan Baeten stonden in voor deverslaggeving.Luc Deschamps begeleidde ons startweekend.

5 Editorial boardFilip De Rynck (hoofdredactie), Christian Kesteloot,Peter Cabus, Eric Corijn, André Loeckx en Linda Boudry.Liesje Schets stond in voor de eindredactie.Met dank ook aan Filip Van Haverbeke, Jef Van denBroeck en Bernard Hubeau voor hun kritische lezingvan de ontwerpteksten.


233Bbuilt-up areas 27, 91, 96, 105, 157Ccitizenship 12, 17, 21, 61, 91, 99, 102, 189, 190, 191, 192,

194, 196, 197, 198, 200, 201, 202, 204, 206, 207, 208,209, 210, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 222, 223, 224,226, 237

city and its periphery 53, 74, 77city centre 18, 19, 28, 33, 34, 36, 38, 43, 84, 94, 156, 173,

178city republic 10, 12, 16, 17, 21, 58, 60, 67, 72, 100, 102,

189, 190, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201,202, 204, 206, 208, 209, 210, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218,220, 222, 224, 225, 226

civil society 10, 71, 72, 73, 86, 98, 99, 100, 102, 105, 189,195

combination of functions 41community 15, 23, 26, 41, 42, 43, 53, 55, 56, 57, 61, 62, 65,

66, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 81, 90, 91, 102, 150, 158,164, 174, 176, 182, 186, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 205, 212,223, 236

community management 71compact cities 15compact city 31, 36, 43, 84, 85, 91, 93, 94, 96, 219complete city 163core of the city 33, 34countryside 18, 27, 28, 54, 66, 74, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96,

163, 225Ddemocracy 12, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 57, 60, 67, 68, 70,

72, 73, 74, 78, 80, 82, 86, 97, 98, 99, 102, 104, 105, 151,152, 155, 156, 158, 159, 161, 165, 166, 173, 189, 190, 191,194, 195, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 205, 212, 214,222, 223, 225, 226, 236

density 10, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31, 42, 71, 78,86, 91, 93, 96, 97, 105, 149, 152, 156, 157, 159, 160, 161,163, 166, 167, 171, 174, 180, 184, 225, 226

development coalition 9, 11, 43, 52, 182, 191dialogue on the future of the city 17divided city 9, 56divisions 55, 71, 84, 85, 94, 163, 180, 195, 204, 207, 210,

212, 216

Eeconomic city project 9, 52FFordism 9, 28, 44, 48, 49, 76, 83, 85, 98, 182Gglobal-local paradox 9, 49glocalisation 10, 88, 106, 237grid city 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 31, 33, 34, 36, 40,

41, 53, 54, 60, 78, 80, 81, 93, 94, 96, 97, 100, 104, 105,149, 150, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 162, 163, 164,165, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182,184, 186, 187, 188, 195, 217, 219, 220, 222, 225

growth coalition 52Hhinterland 28, 32historical city 9, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 156, 163, 178, 180, 182,

184Iindividualism 25, 54, 56, 194, 214informal economy 49inhabitants 15, 16, 17, 21, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41,

43, 49, 52, 58, 60, 61, 68, 70, 71, 74, 76, 77, 91, 93, 94,97, 102, 158, 165, 170, 171, 173, 174, 176, 182, 184, 189,192, 194, 195, 197, 200, 201, 222, 226

inner city 32, 56, 60, 163, 166, 173, 178, 180, 181, 184, 185Mmetropolis 173, 174metropolitan 34, 35, 173, 223, 237modernity 66, 91Nnetwork city 9, 44, 78, 93, 94, 96, 182, 216network enterprise 48Pparadox of the urban employment market 48, 50participation in the budget 60, 202participatory democracy 12, 21, 60, 72, 97, 99, 102, 104,

151, 152, 155, 159, 196, 200, 201, 202, 212, 214, 222private space 37privatisation 9, 37, 38, 40, 54, 74, 85, 88, 208, 211, 212public space 9, 31, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 56, 77, 81, 102,

159, 167, 191, 192, 197, 215

I n d ex

234 Rrural character 28, 97, 156Ssocial capital 48, 63, 71, 216Social learning 10, 11, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 82, 192, 198, 205social-cultural capital 43suburbs 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 43, 85, 91, 92, 93, 178sustainability 16, 20, 28, 76, 77, 86, 104, 152, 162, 167,

180Ttraditional city 26, 45, 90Uurban character 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 31, 36, 37,

41, 42, 45, 50, 58, 61, 65, 66, 67, 74, 75, 76, 78, 80, 83,85, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 100, 101, 102, 104,105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 126, 127, 135, 138, 142, 144, 146,149, 151, 152, 155, 156, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167,168, 170, 174, 217, 225, 226, 227

urban culture 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, 36, 86, 90, 93, 130, 159urban debate 11, 12, 17, 19, 20, 21, 60, 72, 101, 102, 104,

105, 107, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158,159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170,171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 184, 186,188, 195, 196, 197, 200, 202, 211, 212, 214, 215, 217

urban design 11, 118, 149, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 178, 181,187, 188

urban pact 60, 160, 172urban policy 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 36,

58, 73, 74, 75, 80, 86, 89, 90, 91, 93, 97, 100, 101, 104,107, 109, 110, 111, 114, 117, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 130, 132,138, 139, 140, 147, 150, 154, 155, 163, 165, 167, 169, 182,189, 191, 192, 209, 215, 216, 217, 219, 220, 222, 225

urban polis 20urban project 11, 12, 35, 149, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156,

158, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168, 170, 171, 172,173, 174, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 184, 186, 188, 201

urban region 21, 53, 85, 92, 94, 96, 107, 124, 138, 163,206, 216, 219

urban vision 11, 89, 149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 155, 160, 161,164, 170, 196

urbanisation 9, 27, 30, 32, 66, 83, 84, 92, 94, 96, 105,118, 136, 163

users of the city 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, 32, 36, 45, 58, 60, 61,75, 77, 97, 102, 108, 110, 111, 112, 115, 116, 117, 126, 130,134, 144, 170, 174, 189, 194, 195, 197, 226

Wwelfare state 54, 55, 83, 88, 98, 170


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C O M P O S I T I O N O F T H E T A S K F O R C E

Geert BouckaertDepartment of Political Sciences Catholic University of Leuven

Linda BoudryPerson in charge of Urban Policy projectMinistry of the Flemish Community

Luk BralUrban Policy advisorFlemish Minister Paul van Grembergen

Peter CabusInstitute for Social and Economic Geography Catholic University of Leuven

Eric CorijnCosmopolis-City, Culture and Society Free University of Brussels

Guido De Brabander Faculty of Applied Economic Science University of Antwerp

Filip De Rynck Department of Commercial Sciences and Administrative ManagementHogeschool Gent

Moira Heyn Department of Land ManagementCatholic University of Leuven

Myriam Jansen-Verbeke Institute for Social and Economic Geography Catholic University of Leuven

Christian KestelootInstitute for Social and Economic Geography Catholic University of Leuven

André Loeckx Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Land ManagementCatholic University of Leuven

Willy MiermansInstitute for Traffic StudiesDiepenbeek

Paul PonsaersDisciplinary Group, Penal Law and CriminologyUniversity of Ghent

Ruth Soenen Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology Catholic University of Leuven

Ludo StruyvenHigher Institute for LabourCatholic University of Leuven

Marc VerlotDisciplinary Group, Comparative Cultural Sciences University of Ghent

Jan VrankenResearch Group into Poverty, Social Exclusion and Towns and Cities University of Antwerp

Ministerie van deVlaamse Gemeenschap

“The urban environment is the future of Flanders.”“The city republic is based onparticipatory democracy and grows through projects.” “The grid city requires a dif-ferent and policy-oriented approach.” These and other propositions can be found inthis White Paper.

“The Century of the City” is the result of a two-year process which has involved thecooperation of a thousand academics, experts and interested parties. The startingpoint was a series of fourteen background reports drawn up form different academicperspectives. A Task Force of fifteen academics discussed these for more than a year.An editorial team of six members were involved in writing it for nine months. Theresult is a very refreshing collection of the knowledge on urban dynamics in Flanders.

The book adopts a certain viewpoint. The urban environment is the condition for thiscentury. Cities are the centres for social and political regeneration. This results in ratherfar-reaching changes in emphasis in political activities, for urban programmes andurban projects, for participatory democracy, for more transversal competences,and for an urban republic.

It is obvious that all these things have become the object of a broad social discussion.This White Paper will encourage that discussion. It is a discussion that will be contin-ued in fourteen cities and a discussion which every reader is invited to join.

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